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Letter from William James Anderson of Pictou to G.R. Young regarding Joe Wilmot, a Mi'kmaq from Pictou who desires to send his sons to Pictou [?] Academy. Anderson recommends that the boys be removed entirely from their families and sent to board with a white woman, Miss Wilson, a teacher at the Infant School, and only allowed to visit their families occasionally.
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57
Pictou 4th May 1850
The Honble G.R. Young

Dear Sirs
In reply to your note of the 1st [?inst.] , I can only say in addition to what I wrote in the letter which you [?read] to the House, that we are still of opinion that there never occurred more favourable opportunity of testing the problem in reference to the Indians of this Province.

[?Joe] Wilmot appears as anxious as ever to send his boys to the Academy, and we are no less desirous that he should be enabled to do so, and are willing to devote our time to the superintendence of all the arrangements and also to raise a portion of the sum requisite.

Our plan at present is, to take the boys entirely from their parents wigwam, that is to say, merely to permit them occasionally to go to see them ; if we shall be placed in possession of the necessary funds, we would at once place them in a respectable family, and have them clothed and treated in every other respect, as the other boys of the Town, Children of respectable tradesmen.

I have not yet spoken to [?Miss] Wilson, the Superintendent of the Infant School, but we have thought she would be an excellent person with whom to board the boys - she has lately taken up house and supports her father and mother; The father is aged and infirm, but the mother is an active, respectable and intelligent woman and would aid her daughter in attending to the boys - The Board we suppose would be [Twenty Pounds - underlined] a piece, per annum- it might be got cheaper but not in such families as we would think it safe to place the boys. We do not think that it is too much to ask the Government to advance this sum, we will, we will undertake if this be done to provide
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Retrieval no.: Commissioner of Public Records — Mi'kmaq and Government Relations series Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 431 number 57

Nova Scotia Archives — https://archives.novascotia.ca/mikmaq/archives/?ID=290

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