St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-07-17
The Starving Tribes.

news from the Indian tribes north of
the Missouri in Montana that the cal
penter ut the agency cannot make
collins fast enough to bury them, be
cause they are dying of starvation.
The Indians, with taste unschooled
by civilization, would prefer something
to eat to cotfins at all, but congress,
fully warned of their condition, has
not made sufficient appropriation to
feed them.
These Indians are the last remnants
of the wild tribes of the north who
have not yet made any substantial
progress in civilization. They are 1000
miles further back than the Sioux. who
are now making rapid progress in
earning their own living, and who are
the most capable of the northern tribes;
and they are also more distant than
the Crows, who are south of the North
ern Pacific railroad, and in the way of
progress, when their land questions
are settled. The select committee,
headed by Senator Dawes, who was
sent to visit all these tribes last fall
showed that the condition of these wild
northern Indians was very precarious.
The tribes are the Piegans, Blackfeet.
Gros Ventres, BloOds and River Crows,
numbering about 1900. The reserva-
tion lies between the Missouri river
and British possessions in Montana
and is as large as Massachusetts. But
in consequence of the separation from
the south by the belt of civilization
created by the Northern Pacific rail
road (Which runs east and west one or
l, Il 1, \
migration of the buffalo, which for
meTly swung back and forth, north and
south, has entirely ceased, and these
tribes have little to live on. On the
other hand the government has done
almost nothing to train them to labor
in the arts of civilization and with the
stOicism of the savage they die. When
the resources of barbarism are exhaust
ed, all is exhausted. The sub-cOm-
mittee who went up therein September,
consisting of Senator Vest and Delegate
Maginnis, said: "They are in a
wretched condition and their future
almost hopeless. The game is fast
disappearing, especially the buffalo,
and the Indians dependent on rations
furnished by the government. We
were there on ration day, and it was
pitiable to see the eagerness in the
hungry eyes of the waiting crowd as
the beef was being distributed" The
supply was so inadequate that ratiOns
for week were eaten up in two days,
and then they starved till the next
distribution. The Indians were eager
to exchange their vast tracts of useless
land for agricultural tools, work horses,
stock and farmers to teach them to
work. At that time the agents name
was Young and he had given Offense
by sending off the reservation Il Jesuit
teacher and missionary. The commit
tee report that the agents position was
trying one, because "the Indians are
starving" The day school there, as
everywhere, was total failure and a
boarding school was Indispensable.
Upon the strength of the report of this
committee the agent seems to have
been changed, for Maj. Allen is the
man who sends the dispatch in regard
to the present mortality in the tribe.
The committee recommended that the
Indians be no longer forbidden to trade
with post traders and compelled to
trade solely at the agents stores, and
deemed that ga bare statement of the
terrible destitution among these un-
fortunate savages" would induce con.
gress to relieve them. Whether any
thing was done for their relief last
winter or not, their stores seem now tC
be exhausted. All that was required
was an annual appropriation of $50, ,00C
and a special of 100000 to provide
more facilities of civilization. If Mr.
Randall should take it into his head tC
"cut down" such an item One-half, he
would not hesitate to assume that q
few hundred Indians, stranded 'twixt
barbarism and civilization, could live
on nothing.-[Springfeld Republican