The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1890-12-13
] FATHER LACOM6E.
His Warning to the Indians of Canada,
I Whom He Loved.


Whom H Loved.
There is no more pathetic story of
the conquest by the whites Of the Canad-
ian wilderness than that Of now he kind
old priest, Father I.aco1nbe, warned the
Blackfoot Indians against TIE coming Of
the pale faces. He vent 80 TIC resrryar
ton ard assembled the leaders before him
in council. He told them that the white
men We're building Il greaS railroad, and
in a month their wcrknen would be in
that virgin country. He told the won
derinss red men that among these labor
ers would be found many bad men seek
ing to sell whiskey, offering money for
the ruin Of the squaws. Reaching the
greatest eloquence possible for him, be-
cause he loved the Indians and doubted
their strength, he assured them that con-
tact with these white men would result IN
death, in the destruction of the Indians
and by the most horrible processes of dis
ease and misery He thundered and he
pleaded The Indians smoked and re-
ficcted Then they spoke through old
CrowfOot:
eve have listened. Wewill keep upon
our reservation. We will not go to see
the railroad"
But Father I4acombe doubted still, and
yet more profoundly was he convinced OF
the ruin Of the tribe should the "chil-
dren'' as he sagely calls all Indians-dis-
obeycd him. So once again he went to
the reserve, and gathered the chief and
head men, and warned them of the soul
less, tliabolical, selfish instincts of the
white men. Again the grave worriors
promised to obey him.
The railroad laborers came with camps
and money and liquors and numbers, and
the prairie Numbered the echoes Of their
sledge- hammers strokes. And one morn
ing the old priest looked out OF the win
dow OF his bare bedroom and saw curling
wisps of gray smoke ascending from a
score Of tepees on the hill beside Calgary
Angry. amazed, he went to his doorway
and opened it, and there upon the ground
sat some of the head men and the old
men with bowed heads, ashamed. Fancy
the priests wrath and his questions |!
Note how wisely he chose the name of
CIlltliGn lOi tllEDi uCII SpohtSilltlA ttI
last answered with the excuse that the
buffaloes were gone and food was hard to
get, and the white men brought money
which the squaws could get. And what
is the end? There are always tepees On the
hills now beside every settlement near
the Blackfoot Reservation. And one old
missionary lifted his trembling forefinger
toward the sky when I was there and
said, 'FMark me. In fifteen years there
will not be full-blooded Indian alive on
the Canadian prairienot one'
Through all that revolutionary railroad
building and the rush of new settlers,
Father Lacombe and Crowfoot kept the
Indians from war, and even from depre
dations and from murder. When the
half-breeas arose under Reil, and every
Indian looked to his rifle and his knife,
and when the mutterings that preface
the war cry sounded in every lodge,
Father Lacombe made Crowfoot pledge
his word the Indians should not rise.
The priest represented the Government
on these occasions The Canadian states
men recognize the value of his services.
He is the great authority on Indian mat
ters beyond our border; the ambassador
to and spokesman for the Indians,