The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-11-22
Crimes and Horrors in Alaska.

Mrs. VOORHEES,, a well known lady of New
York, has recently returned from an extended
tour through the great Northwest. To q
reporter she related some of the experiences
OF her travels:
81 have journeyed over liz, 900 miles by
land and water she said, "but the incidents
OF the trip have been, l dare say, much like
those of other tourists who followed the same
route. What has impressed me most pro-
foundly and filled me with O horror which
grows with the recollection of it is the awful
condition of the Indian woman in Alaska.
Travellers hint vaguely at this evil, official
reports allude briefly and apologetically to
it, but the great world is ignorant of it's ex.
istence. If people realized that in the wilds
OF its Alaskan territory this civilized, refined,
advanced nineteenth century United States
holds a perfect inferno of crime and torture
where helpless women and mere children are
being sacrificed and gradually exterminated.
surely some remedy might be found. In ali
that country there is no law-there can be
no restraint-and the lowest animal passions
OF the rough miners, trappers, hunters, SOL
diers and sailors age unchecked. The In
! dian woman is considered the lawful spoil of
these men, They steal them if they can, if
not, they buy them from their parents for q
knife, a jug OF rum or a string Of beads. If
these considerations do not weigh, then they
make the old people drunk and carry off the
girl. A miner will come and dicker for a child
fourteen and bear her of shrieking with ter
/ FOR. She becomes the slave of the whole
camp, and Is fanlly sent back to her people
to die.
"Do none of the Indians exhibit a desire
asked.
seldom; and fthey did what wo~ulditayail?
Soldiers are kept there at the expense of the
government to prevent their rising. What
do they do? They work in the mines, hunt
and fish, that ia, when they don't drink
themselves to death. There was q cnse
not long ago of o whole tribe perishine in one
winter from rum. They had sold all the furs
and skins they had in their possession
for liquor, and when those who had survived
the immediate effects of their potations had
to meet the bitter weather without clothing.
they froze to death. Is Is a common law
among the Indians that they must not dis
pose OF g daughter without the consent of;
the mother squaw, q as the neither usual
" has nm instinct at leaat which prompts her
to protect her offspring from the white man.
the only way to deal with her is by drink.
The squaws. are as given to liquor as the
males, SO the white man seeking a little
maiden brings enough drink for father and
mother. When both have succumbed to It's
influence, there is nothing more to stay the
destroyer Of the child. The poor, shrinking,
ahrieking little victims are dragged oil Is
their late and tnereis no power to- succor
them. Mrs. McFarlane Old of one womans
who brought her last remaining girl to the
school, and prayed that she might bas taken
~, She told q lieartrending tale Of how her
other daughters had been torn from her nv
brutal whites and carried to ruin and death.
and she said she Was powerless ia protect
this last little one, who was even then
threatened with a Gkesfata. So she besoupht
them to receive the child. TIL give YOU the
very words OF the Indian mother They
we're: 4 Want to keep child with mel
EsdaTsn,t. White man will takn hors 4 Il