The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-04-03
I, VIRGINIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1890.
Are We Civilized I?


The question naturally arises whether
or not we are civilized people, in the
light of the barbarous cruelties and in
| humanities narrated in the story related
by Bishop Stanley, in Philadelphia last
Sunday, of the Chippewa Indians, and
terrible, savage punishment inflicted
upon prisoners in the Missouri peniten-
tiary- The Philadelphia Press says:
Right Rev. John Stanley, d. D.,
Bishop of North Dakota, occupied the
! pulpit of the Cathedral on Sunday last,
and told a pitiful story of the privations
and sufferings of the Chippewa Indians
! Occupying the reservation at the extreme
northern part of his diocese. His object
was to secure assistance for their relief.
/ With that end in view he described most
vividly the condition of these Indians as
witnessed by himself during the recent
cold weather, when the thermometer
marked forty degrees below zero. He
charged the government with having
stolen the eleven million acres of land
this tribe possessed when Dakota Terri
!, tory was divided between the Sioux and
/ Chippewa Indians. eleven million
acres stolen boldly and not one cent
paid in return for it, said the Bishop,
land the owners sent to the northern
border of the State, the coolest and
bleakest spot in the country, where two
! townships were organized, with 5000
acres OF land. This is filed with bad
timber forest and lakes, swamps and
rocks. On these 5000 acres were put
/ 1880 Indians, who are trying to make
4 hni IN liV-in hos apf1c of 10
/ States living where 100 white men could
scarcely raise enough to keep them
! aliye.n
| The Bishop then described personal
| visit to these townships, where, he said
he witnessed scenes that would have
disgraced Siberia II spent over week
with these people, with the thermome-
! ter registering 40 and sometimes A de-
grees below zero. The Indian houses
are log huts constructed by the Indians
themselves, without flooring and with
sheets and quilts covering the window
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 outside. In these 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
implements. Last spring the director of
the Catholic Indian bureau sent "a
plows to these Indians, and with these
they managed to break 800 acres of this
virgin soil. But there was no rain and
today they are absolutely destitute; no
grain; no food; no clothing; no money;
1880 Christians, 1880 of Gods children
are living on this continent today at
the point of starvation.
"While visiting 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 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 a pound of flesh on its
bones. am sure that child is dead. l
am not easily moved. used as [ am to
scenes of misery in large cities, but |
could not but cry on that occasion. In
one corner of the room there was a boy
six years of age. Another was crying by
the chimney place trying to warm his
shivering form, while an old Indian was
kneeling by the fireplace muttering,
probably vowing vengeance on the
white race.
Observation-Disclosures poor old man of
IS years of age was lying on the frozen
ground, dying of consumption; no one
near him but his poor old wife, who
kneIt over him with a rosary in her
hands praying for God to take her hus-
band. Night was setting in; no light,
no candle, no one to say kind word to
the poor old couple. And this is Chris
tian country, in the United States of
America, the land of the free, the land
of plenty.
''In another hovel 1 found the chill
dren without clothing, gathered around
the fireplace plucking out the charred
sticks that they might roll in the warm
ashes.
'sThe United States appropriates $4,000
to these Indians-about $3.50 to each
one. This amount is spent in flour and
fat pork and distributed among them.
The pork is sickening.
II myself would not have believed the
truth of the story if ! had not witnessed
it. During the eighteen months pre-
vious to the first of January, 1890, out of
1 400 Indians, 100 died. During the
month Of January, ~ 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 ap-
pealing to the congregation to extend to
these poor people their unfortunate
hrethren=-sa portion Of their substance
for the relief Of these poor Indians.
A dispatch from St. Louis, dated the
10th. refers to the treatment of prison
ers in the penitentiary al Jefferson City,
as follows:
For some time there have been vague
rumors of bad state of affairs in the
Missouri penitentiary. The chief charge
was brutality An ex-convict, who re-
fuses to have his name printed, has
made a sensational staJament, detailing
cruelty of the most horrible character.
He says:
1.-THE use of the lash in the prison is
common, too common to be OF any pos
sible benefit in keeping order. A man
goes to the whipping post not with the
feeling that he is being punished for
some infraction of the rules, but to graf
ify the ill feeling of some guard whose
enmity he has incurred.
deputy Warden Bradbury is the one
whose duty it is to WELD the raw hide
In the middle Of the rooms stands the
whipping post and stocks. The men
stand facing the instrument of torture
and the guards report the conduct of
their men to the warden. A guard com
plains that one of his men neglected his
work or was talking to fellow prisoner;
perhaps prisoner was caught carrying
bread to his cell from the kitchen, Dep
uty Warden Bradbury stans UP to the
whipping post, pulls OFF his coat, rolls
up his shirt sleeves, and picks up a raw
hide. The culprit is brought up to the
post, his hands are tied to The post near
the ground, leaving HIM in STOPPING
stocks, which are then fastened so that
he cannot Jerk his head away.
The deputy warden steps up and seiz-
ing the mans shirt pulls it up around
his neck, leaving the bare back exposed.
The prisoner receives from one to TWEEN
ty-five lashes, according to the offence,
and the number of times he had been to