“At present, a number of Ojibbeway Indians are employed on the line. They bring their families with them and put up their wigwams in the vicinity of the work, and I have much satisfaction in saying they are among the best and steadiest laborers we have had. There are many Indians at the Lake of the Woods – the population at or in the vicinity of that place amounting to some twelve or fifteen hundred souls – and last winter was a season of unusual scarcity among them. Impelled by hunger, they came forward in numbers to offer their services, and as many as the circumstances would permit were employed. At their own desire, they were paid for their work in provisions, and in this shape, as a general rule, all their earnings were sent to their families.

"The distress arising from a failure in their usual resources was thus, to some extent, mitigated, and savages who had never before come in contact with white men, other than a few fur traders, had the first practical experience of the benefits which might arise to them from the opening up of their country.”

Hector-Louis Langevin, Canadian Minister of Public Works
during the construction of the Dawson Road (1869-73)
from a report submitted July 17, 1871

[He held previous other high ranking offices, such as Solicitor General, Postmaster General, Secretary of State for Canada and Superintendent General of Indian Affairs in 1868-69. His political career ended for his role in the Pacific Scandal and any posthumous recognition he received has since been renamed for his role in the Canadian Indian Residential schools system. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector-Louis_Langevin]

Sources:

Canada: Department of Public Works. (1872, Jan1). Annual Report, Appendix 19, Red River Route (P.109) “Ojibbeway Indians are employed on the line”). Hector-Louis Langevin, Minister of Public Works. Harvard University. Retrieved June 19, 2020 from https://books.google.ca/books?id=Vh0UAAAAYAAJ...

Wikipedia contributors. (2020, March 17). Hector-Louis Langevin. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:31, June 20, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hector-Louis_Langevin&oldid=945927593

Canada: Parliament House of Commons. (1880). Journals, Volume 14 (P.444). University of Chicago. Retrieved July 8, 2020 from https://books.google.ca/books?id=8XY_AQAAMAAJ...

Report on the Line of Route Between Lake Superior and the Red River Settlement by Simon J. Dawson, civil engineer (P.27). House of Commons: Ottawa. Printed by I.B. Taylor at the “Ottawa Citizen” office1869. Peel Library, University of Alberta. Retrieved from http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/481/reader.html#25

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