St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-04-17

friend of the Indian. The doling out
of food is always pauperizing. "Well,'
says your practical man, "why not
stop it ?" If a member of the Appro-
priation Committee from a Western
state, he adds, "Starve them little.
and they will go to work" If from Kan
sas, and in the Senate, with a tinge of
the old bitterness, he may say,
with characteristic garnishing OF
speech: "WOrk An Indian work
This is bosh. Feeding is cheaper than
fighting. This is the sole ground for
not starving them all to death as soon
as possible" Acting upon this princi-
pie, the appropriations last year were
reduced until the result this winter has
been ACTUAL STARVATION at four agen-
cies.
A letter, dated January l4th, from a
teacher at Wolf Point. himself an edu-
Gated Christian Indian, says:
"These people [Assinnaboines1 are
i"' "'cAy; Noif manu- Oihic. Icdl
many of them will not see spring
They have killed eight of their horses
for food. 1t gives me pain to report
these facts. | have been on the reser-
vation eight years, and never have
| seen these people so near starvation as
| they are now. The weekly issue OF
-four ('half-rations0 is three ounces and
three-sevenths, each, per day.
81 ask is this Governments doing
There is no game in the country only
a few antelopes on Milk river. There
ought to be immediate action for relief
of these people. have not yet heard
a murmur from them, only the saying
that the great father is going to starve
us May God move the hearts of the
good and noble men at Washington to
help these poor, hungry, starving peO-
pie, and that sOOn.n
lfthe motive of Congress. last spring
was to test the civilizing power O
! hunger gnawing, it has been fully
tried. When all the regulation ration
is cut off except barely the flour anC
| beef, and that is reduced to one-hal
or less, and man, woman, or active
boy or girl is obliged to subsist on {
little over three ounces of flour, ac.
cording to the letter just quoted, or OF
one and one-half pounds of beef an(
2.42 pounds of flour per week, as wa.
the allowance to the Piegans and Black
feet, when | was there in November
last, and when all the inevitable vast,
is considered, your readers will b,
prepared to believe the test has beer
carried to IA degree of refined cruelt,
which ought to satisfy even an ecOnOm.
ical senator.
found a little girl, some six o
seven years old, stretched on the bar,
floor of Il cabin, her only clothing al
sheG 2ld hl?ek !ta dld hlPnkke6til kke6til,afp fill ct holes
whether the little girl was sick. Sin
said "Now Beginning to have a sus
picion of the horrible truth as litte'
the blanket from her shoulders an,
saw the little bones pushing agains
the closely y-drawn skin, | inquire'
what was the matter. "She is starv
ing to death" The girl was an orphan
The old woman, who said she hersel
was sick, and appeared to be very de
crepit. evidently had nothing to eat
We looked carefully through the hous,
as we had done through many house
and teepees with the same result, an
d. found absolutely nothing to eat, thOug
! this was Thursday and issue-day wa
Saturday.
That there might be no mistake tn
physician went, at my request, wit
two ladies', and brought the little 81
= to the Agency. When they reache
the cabin, the little girl was gone. o
inquiry, they found she had been take
= into IL vacant onthouse and left to di
y as the Indians had no hope of her II
covery ard have IA superstition abOl
the death of person in Il house the
> occupy The little girl could 1T
. speak, but after careful feeding al
nursing, began to revive. In day
" two she could run about and had
= most Unsuitable appetite. The phys
clan confirmed the word of the old W
= man at first. that the child was Ii
10 sick, but starving to death.
" Perhaps this is not a fair test case
= the civilizing power of hunger; but
~ pray | may not be called to witne
~ another like it. The men and won
were pale and wien faced. There W
o' much of sickness and death. I
~ Agency Doctor declared that the sic
" ness was greatly increased and ma
'e' far more fatal, from the want of 81
- ficient sustenance and of kind ada
., ted to the sick.
lie, War i'm the SOudan.
he ..
a. BY MISS EVA HOLT.