Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-03-17
STARVING INDIANS.
Three Thousand Chippewa IN
dams Perishing.
ACCUSATION AGAINST UNCLE SAM.

A Roman Catholic Bishop Charges the
Old Gentleman with Stealing 1f,ooo.-
900 Acres of Land--How the Suffering
Red Man Exists-Some Scenes When
the Thermometer Was at ~ Below
Zero-An Appeal for Help.
PHILADELPHIA, March lL-Rt. Rev. John
Stanley, d. d., bishop of North Dakota, oc-
cupied the pulpit of the cathedral yesterday
and made an appeal for aid for the suffering
Chippewa Indians in his diocese. He said
the government had stolen 1900, 600 acres
of land from these Indians without giving
cent of compensation therefor. Three
thousand Indians were starving and freezing
on 5000 acres of barren, swampy and rocky
ground, which would not keep 100 white
men alive. The bishop gave terrible details
Of suffering which he had personally wit
messed while visiting these Indians.
The Red Mans abitation.
The bishop related his experience during
visit to the Indian when the thermometer
was A degrees below zero "rhe Indian
houses are log huts constructed by the In
dams themselves, without flooring and with
sheets and quilts covering the windows and
ioorways; the crevicos between the logs are
allied with mud that cracks and falls out by
che summer heat and is blow out by the
northern winter blasts, SO that the occupants
may as well be sleeping outside In those
huts it is not infrequent To find six families
living These 1880 Indians cannot make
their own living there. They have never
been supplied with proper agricultural inn
nj, lt..a Of h.
Catholic Indian bureau sent twenty four
plows to these Indians and with these they
managed TO break 800 acres of this virgin
soil But there was nc rain and to-day they
are absolutely destitute; no grain, no food,
no clothing, no money; l. $50 Christians
1880 of Gods children are living on this
continent to-day on the point of starvation.
Scene I'm One of the Hovels.
"While visiting these people, / entered the
house of an Indian. There was no food in
the house that day, but there were tears and
desperation. A poor old Indian woman had
a puny, sick child in her arms. She cried
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 l am sure that child is dead
am not easily moved, used as l am TO scenes
OF misery in large cities, but l could not but
cry ON that occasion. In one corner of the
room there was boy years of age An
other was crying by the chimney place try
ing to warn his shivering form, while an old
Indian was kneeling by the fire place mutter-
ing, probably vowing vengeance on the
white race AT another hovel a poor man
of IS years of age was lying on the frozen
ground dying on consumption, no one near
him but his poor old wife, who knelt over
him with "A rosary in her hands Ora inc Gnd
to take her husband. Night was setting in
no light, no candle no one to say kind
word to the old couple And this in a Chris
tan country, in the United States of Ameri-
ca, the land of the free the land of plenty.
Liberal Appropriation.
in another hovel | found the children
without clothing gathered around the fire
place pluckiug out the charred sticks that
they might roll in the warm ashes. The
United States appropriates 50, 900 to these
Indians, about So 80 to each The amount
is spent in -four and fat pork and distributed
among them. The pork is sickening. ] nv
self would not have believed the truth of the
story if | had not witness d it. During the
eighteen months previous to Jan /, $50,
out of l,4Oo Indians 100 died During
the month of January twenty seven died.
These deaths are almost invariably of star
walton. The women are almost universally 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 par
ish church on Sunday
The reverend speaker closed by appealing
to the congregation to extend TO these poor
people-their unfortunate brethren-a por-
ton Of their substance for the relief of these
poor Indians