What follows is a letter written by North West Mounted Police Superintendent Charles Constantine to the Deputy Minister of the Interior. It was one of several written in response to letters received by the Minister of the Interior in Ottawa from Bishop William Carpenter Bompas, complaining that the influx of whites was destroying the Native peoples of the Yukon River. The presence of Constantine's small force was, in large part, a result of Bompas' lobbying for assistance.

      To say that Constantine and Bompas saw the world from different perspectives would be putting it mildly. Constantine stated that:

Bishop Bompas is a disturbing element. He has no use for any person unless he is an Indian. He has the utmost contempt for the whites generally and myself in particular...

      From the distance of a century, it's difficult to say whether or not Constantine fully believed what he says in this letter, although his attitude of cultural superiority was both genuine and typical. Certainly his opinion that the Natives were in no danger from the whites would be proved very wrong a few months later when the townsite of Dawson City exploded into life...

Copied exactly, in type, format and spelling, from a copy at the Yukon Archives, Ref. COR 262, file 6, Anglican Church Records

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         Fort Constantine, November 19, 1896

Sir: -
	
	       In connection with the letter addressed to
you by the Bishop of Selkirk, re Indian village at Klondak
and fisheries and Ukon River, I beg to report, for the in-
formation of the Department that the houses, about 8 or 10
in number, were the winter quarters of this Band.  Had the 
Indians desired to communicate with myself, Mr. Ogilvie,
or their Missionary they could easily have found time, as 
it is less than an 8 miles run from Klondike to 40 mile.
Not only this but Mr. Ogilvie and myself have both visited
Klondike, Mr. Ogilvie on or about the 15th of October,
1896, and myself on the 6th of September.   During my visit
the first houses were sold.   The Indians received a good 
price for their cabins.
	       The miners bought them chiefly because of 
their proximity to the mines and convenience to the trail
which starts up the hill immediately behind the cabins, and
not for the purpose of reselling them to the Dawson Company.
	       In one only of these cabins was whiskey
sold, and no regular saloon has yet been started.   The
Indians have expressed themselves as greatly pleased at the
arrival of the miners, as it means plenty of food, plenty
of money, better times generally for them.   In winter they 
will always have a ready market for their game, and in
summer can make good money as boatmen and packers.   The
lowest wage at which these Indians will work is $4.00 per
day.   The land on which the Indians have squatted is a
forty acre reserve applied for by the Police for their own
and other Government purposes.   Notices were posted up
plainly stating the boundaries.   This amount of land is
required because of the timber and wood upon it, which will
be a great saving of expenditure for building and maintain-
ing a post for the Klonwide vicinity.
	       The idea that the Indians would be driven
from the neighbourhood by the encroachment of the whites
is absurd.   There is plenty of room for their winter cab-
ins, either on the many well-wooded islands on the Klonwide
or on its banks a little above its mouth, or on a large is-
land in the Yukon directly opposite their old winter quar-
ters.
	       With regard to the fisheries the Indians
could be relied upon to catch fish in sufficient quantities
no white man would spend his time at this work.   Last sum-
mer the Yukon was not fully lined with white men's nets,
only four all belonging to dog teamsters were set over
between the Boundary and the Klondike.   One owned by a
teamster named Fritz Kloke was placed about nine miles from
here down the river. He was unsuccessful and had to leave
this Fall with his 23 dogs for Circle city to procure food
for them, another net was placed opposite Forty Miles by
one David Swanson, he also failed to catch sufficient for
his dogs.   Winfield Ohler placed his net just above Forty
Mile and caught nothing at all.   At the mouth of the
Klondike one Henry Peterson had a net but did not catch
enough to feed his dogs during the Summer.   Between Forty
Mile and Cool Creek which is about 5 miles above the Yukon
the Indians had more than ten nets set, but the Salmon run
being very poor very few fish were caught.

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		=  2  =

	       The Whites do not make a business of selling
fish but simply want them for their own use.   Next Summer
there will probably be less fishing by the Whites than last,
not only because of their failure heretofore, but because
of the new Rock Mining Camp which requires every available
man and also the probability that the increased steamboat
accommodation will provide sufficient fish from the lower
River for dog food.   The Indians living at Mining Camps
are not dependent on the fishery for their livelihood.
They imitate the whites as much as possible and live very
extravagantly so long as they have money to buy things at
the stores.   It is only when the stores refuse them that
they are forced to go hunting.   This year notwithstanding
of failure of the Salmon catch it was very late before they
could be persuaded to go out and in consequence fresh meat
has been very scarce at this post.   It certainly would be
a gross injustice to debar the Whites from fishing and
make them entirely dependent upon a band of Indians who
will neither fish or hunt so long as they can buy food.
The Whites are the providers and workers in this country
and should enjoy all privileges.
	       The Indians are well able to maintain them-
selves without any Government assistance whatever.   They
have enjoyed the same privilege in mining as the whitemen
and some of them took advantage to locate claims some of
which they sold for high prices.   I consider that both the
Klondike and the Forty Mile Indians have no real grievances
and I know that they are better of now than they have been
heretofore.

		  I have the honour to be,
                	     Sir,
		        Your obedient servant,
				C. Constantine, Supt.,
			       N. W. M. Police,

			       and Dom. Govt. Agent.




The Deputy Minister of the Interior,

				Ottawa, Ont.




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For more information on the "Dawson Company," see Joe Ladue - Founder of Dawson City