The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1888-11-22
Crimes and Horrors in Alaska.

MRS. NOOrneeS, well known lady OF New
York, has recently returnedfrom an extended
tour through the great Northwest. To a
reporter she related some of the experiences
of her travels:
81 have journeyed over $4,000 miles by
land and water" she said, "but the incidents
of the trip have been, dare say, much like
those of other tourists who followed the same
route. What has impressed me most pro-
foundly and filed me with 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 alude 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 all
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 rage 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 a
knife, 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, miner will come and dicker for child
ror. She becomes the slave of the whole
camp, and is family sent back to her people
to die.
"Do none of the Indians exhibit a desire
to protect their women?" Mrs. VOORHEES, was
asked.
Seldom: and ifthey did what would it avail?
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 is, when they don't drink
themselves to death. There was a case
not long ago of a whole tribe perishing 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 uieet the bitter weather without clothing,
they froxe to death. 1t is common law
among the Indians that they must not dis
pose of a daughter without the consent of
the mother squaw, and as the mother usual
ly has an instinct at least 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 q 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,
shrieking little victims are dragged of to
their fate and there is no power to succor
them. Mrs. McFarlane told of one woman
who brought her Last remaining girl to the
school, and prayed that she might be taken
in. She told q heartrending tale of how her
other daughters had been torn from her by
brutal whites and carried to ruin and death,
and she said she was powerless to protect
this last little one. who was even then
threatened with a like tate. So she besought
them to receive the child. III give you the
very words Of the Indian mother. They
were: 4 want to keep child with ne-I
darsn't. White man will take her away.
had several pretty squaw, When they about
foUrteen, they all stolen by white man. He
only sent them home to die"
AanriattN, Texas, was aroused by q terrific
explosion, hut as it was supposed that the
Republioana we're still celebrating, no investi.
cation was made at the time. An hour later
IL was discovered that portion of the court
house had been blown down. Dynamite had
been placed under wing of the building and
almost totally destroyed it. The buildings
adjoining on the public square were also
damaged. It is believed that o desire to
destroy the records was at the bottom af the
affair.
The sentence Of Ma. Robinson, the Massa.
chVaetta poiianer, has been commuted to
t4bEi0onmout for lie.