The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-12-05
INDIAN WOMEN ARE SLAVES.
The Hard and Generally Thankless Lot
of the Redskins Sauaw.

The Hard and Generally Thankless Lot
of the Redskins Squaw.
The women of all Indian tribes, doomed
to a hopeless bondage of slavery, the fate
of thew sex in every savage race, have but
few amusements. They accept their con-
dition stoically, however, by the unerring
law of heredity through ages of abuse and
servile obedience The lower the tribe in
the scale of humanity the more degraded
are the women. Among the Diggers of
Oregon and Washington, with which saw
ages passed three or four years, the poor
squaws are to be pitied. Living on roots
and insects, which the woal Aa must fur
nish, their existence as tribe may well be
imagined to be very precarious one.
1.-THE camas, bulb growing deep in the
ground and very sweet, should fail, or the
acorn and 'black cricket" crop be not plen-
tiful in any year, their winter is liable to
be one of pinching poverty and starvation.
[ have often looked with profound pity
upon troops of their old and young squaws
under the hot summer sun, wandering
day after day over the prairies, the moth
ers, with their little ones strapped to
their backs, armed with Il long iron, with
which they sometimes dug the hard soil
for the roots, which furnish large portion
of their support, haggard, broken down,
but never complaining of their wearisome
task
Among many of the tribes, however, the
women are allowed to have some amuse-
ment. The Dakotas frequently permitted
their women to indulge in game of ball,
which, however, differed entirely from
that played by the men. When the men
had worn themselves out with their own
games, but wanted to have little more
fun, they would notify every one that the
squaws were going to have game of ball
of their own. Then when the game began
the bucks would roll over OF the ground
and laugh at the curious antics of their
squaws in their awkward playing.
Frequently, when the men had been very
lucky in their trapping or had been sue
cessful in making good trades with the
whites, they would open their hearts and
donate piles of guady goods, such as cali
Goes, ribbons and strings of beads, besides
many other bright colored things known
only to the Indian trade and found only
in the stores of the traders. These things,
which were the prizes to be contended for,
would be put on stick, which itself rest
ed on two crotched poles upright in the
ground, and over which an old man kept
guard The old man was also the umpire
of the game.
The women were then divided into two
equal parties, and the ball-or rather two,
for they play with two-fastcned to the
ends of q string eighteen or twenty inches
long. Every squaw engaged in the same
holds in each hand small stick, on which
hn tr-x-f , l,a ;ol,
is attached the two balls, and when she
succeeds in doing this she throws them to
and over the goal of the size Of which she
is playing. 1t is a remarkably comical
sight to see the women roll over in the
dust and dirt in their frantic efforts tc
catch the string on their sticks, while tho
men lie fat on the ground and roar with
laughter at them.
Notwithstanding the women are kept sc
| degraded there is as much affection among
them for their husbands and children as
have ever witnessed among the Caucasian
race. | will relate one instance here which
came under my own observation, though
| could present hundreds.
During the campaign CT 1860 | was
| riding with a party of men and officer!
south of the Arkansas. We had been watch
| ing some of the cavalry uncarth three o.
four dead warriors who had been killed by
some scouts in terrible fight some week!
before, and rs we rode into small ravin,
in the sand hills we came to rude lodge
inside of which, on rude platform or bier
fashioned of green poles, reposed a deat
warrior in full war dress, his shield of buf
falo hide, pipe crnamented with eagl
feathers and his medicine bag" lying OF
the ground beside him.
At his head on her knees, her hand
clasped in the attitude of prayer, was
squaw frozen to death. Which had frs
Observation-Disclosures the wounded chief
her husband, or the devoted wife-to tn
awful cold of that winter prairie will neve
be known, but it shows her love for th
man who had perhaps beaten her hun
dred times.-Cor. Kansas City Star.