"The story of the early explorations and of the trading adventures of the French and English on the plains of the great Northwest has ever been one of exceeding interest to the people of Canada; but while filled with romance and important as illustrating how the great domain has gradually been brought under the dominion of the British Crown, it nevertheless is largely lacking as a record of the more silent, yet more potent, influences which for over a century have been at work transforming the Indian aborigines into members of a civilized society and loyal subjects of the King. Restrained through diplomacy, force and the interests of trade by the great fur-trading companies, the widely distributed and wandering bands of Indians would still have been savages, had it not been for the heroic devotion of those missionaries who, attaching themselves to some band, moved with it in its wanderings, or travelled from post to post where the Indians were assembled while bartering their furs. The evolution of schools amongst the Indian population of the Northwest naturally begins with the efforts of the early missionaries to obtain an influence over the Indians through the education and guidance of the children. The Roman Catholic Church as early as 1817 sent its first missionary into this extensive region and its work has been extended to far within the Arctic Circle, reaching even to the Northern Ocean"--p. [7].