Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-03-20
SUFFERING CHIPPEWAS.
BISHOP STANLEY RELATES HIS ex-
PERlENCE AMONG THESE INDIANS.

Two Thousand Indians Starving and Freez-
ing on Rocky Ground Which Would
Not Keep One Hundred Whites Alive.
Huts Without FIooring-No Grain,
Food, Clothing or MOney-A Child
without a Pound of Flesh on Its Bones.
Women Clad in One Garment
PHILADELPHIA, March 17.-Rt. Rev.
John Stanley, D. D., Bishop of North
Dakota, occupied the pulpit of the cathe-
dral here yesterday and made an appeal
for aid for the suffering Chippewa In
dians in his diocese. He said the gov
ernment had stolen II, 900. 900 acres of
land from these Indians without giving
a cent of compensation therefor. The
1000 Indians were starving and freezing
on 5000 acres of barren, swampy and
rocky ground, which would not keep
100 whites alive The Bishop gave terri
bic details of suffering which he had per-
sonally witnessed while visiting these In
dians. He rated his experience during
a visit to the Indians when the there
mometer was
Forty-Four Degrees Below Zero.
The Indian houses are log huts con-
structed by the Indians themselves with
out flooring and with sheets and quilts
covering the windows and doorways.
The crevices between the logs are filled
with mud that cracks and falls out by
the summer heat and is blown out by
the northern winter blasts, so that the
occupants may as well be sleeping out
side. In these huts it is not infrequent
to find six families living. These l $50
Indians cannot make their own living
there. They have never been supplied
with proper agricultural implements.
Last spring the director of the Catholic
Indian bureau sent twenty-four plows to
these Indians and with these they
managed to break 500 acres of this virgin
soil, but there was no rain and to-day
they are absolutely destitute; no grain,
no food, no clothing, no money, | $3.50
Christians, 1880 of Gods children are
living on this continent to day on the
point of starvation.
While Wishing These People
| entered the house of an old Indian.
There was no food in the house that day,
but there were tears and desperation. A
poor old Indian woman had a puny
sickly child in her arms. She wept for
Joy when she saw me, thinking God had
sent relief to her children. She showed
me her child. There was not pound of
flesh on its bones. | am sure that child
is dead. am not easily moved, used as
l am to scenes of misery in large cities,
but | could not but cry on that occasion.
L., Of l.a fharo
boy six years of age. Another was cry
ing by the chimney place trying to
Warm His Shivering Form,
while an old Indian was kneeling by the
fire place muttering, probably vowing
vengeance on the white race. At another
hovel poor old man of So years of age
was lying on the frozen ground dying of
consumption, no one near him but his
poor old wife. who knelt over him with
a rosary in her hands praying for God to
take her husband. Night was setting in;
no light; no candle; no one to say kind
word to the poor old couple. And this is
a Christian country, in the United States
of America, the land of the free, the
land of plenty. In another hovel l
found the children without clothing
gathered around the fireplace plucking
out the charred sticks that they might
roll in the warm ashes.
The United States Appropriates
81, coo to these Indians, about 81. 80 to
each one. This amount is spent in flour
and fat pork and distributed among
them. The pork is sickening. l myself
would not have believed the truth of the
story if had not witnessed it. During
the eighteen months previous to the first
of January, 1890, out of 400 Indians
100 died. During the month of January
twenty-seven died. These deaths are
almost invariably of starvation. The
women are almost universally clad in
one garment-a calico dress-to protect
them, and let it be said to their credit
that not one woman. was missing from
the little parish church on Sunday.
The reverend speaker closed by appeal
ing to the congregation to extend to
these poor people-their unfortunate
brethren-a portion of their substance
for the relief of these poor Indians.