The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-17
CIVILIZATIONS CRUELTY.
INDIANS DYING OF HUNGER AND
WANT IN NORTH DAKOTA.

Bishop Stanley Draws Vivid Pict-
ure of a Terrible situation Tho
Government Charged With Robbing
the Redskins OF Their Land and
Sending Them to an Almost Unin-
habitable Region.
PHILADELPHIA, March 16.-Right Rev.
John Shanley, DID, bishop Of North
Dakota, occupied the pulpit of the cathe-
dral hero to-day, and told q pitiful story of
the privaticns and sufferings of the Chip
pewa Indians occupying the reservation at
theextreme northern part OF his diocese. His
object was TO secure assistance for their re-
lief. 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 400 below zero.
A GOVERNMENT STEAL ALLEGED.
He charged the government with having
stolen IL ,0U0,O coo acres of land this tribe pos
sessed when Dakota Territory was divided
between the Sioux and Chippewa Indians.
Eleven million acres stolen bodily and not
one cent paid in return for it," said his
grace, land the owners sent to the northern
border of the state, the coldest and bleakest
spot in the country, where two townships
were organized with 5000 acres of land.
This is filled with bad timber forests and
lakes, swamps and rocks. On these 5000
acres were put 1880 Indians, who are trying
to make their living; these wards of the
United States living where 100 white men
could scarcely raise enough to keep them
alive"
LOG HUTs IN FREEZE.
His grace then described a personal visit
to the township where, he said, he witnessed
scenes that would have disgraced Siberia.
81 spent over a week with these people
with the thermometer registering 40, and
sometimes 44o degree below zero. The
Indian houses are log huts constructed by
the Indians themselves, without flooring,
and with sheets and quilts covering the
windows and doorways. The crevices be-
tween the logs are filed with mud, which
cracks and falls out by the summer heat,
and is blown out by the northern winter
blast SO that the occupant may as well be
sleeping outside.
SIX FAMILIES TO HUT.
"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 agri-
cultural implements. Last spring the di-
rector of the 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 no rain,
and to-day they are absolutely destitute;
no grain, no food, no clothing, no money; |;
1910 christians, 1880 of Gods children are
| living on this continent to-day on the point
of starvation.
LIVING SKELETON.
"While visiting these people / entered the
house of an old Indian. There was no food
in the house that day, but there we're 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 pound
of flesh on its bones. l am sure that the
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.
sHIvERING BY THE EMBERs.
"In one corner of the room there was a
boy 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, prob
ably vowing vengeance on the white race
At another hovel a poor old man, s. years
of age, was lying on the frozen ground
dying of consumption, no one near him but
his poor old wife, who knet over him with
u TOShIJ III iicI bduuo Api pOd w
take her husband. Night was setting in;
no light, no candle, no one to say kind
word to the poor old couple.
A SAD COMMENTARY.
"And this is a christian country in the
United States OF America, the land of the
free, the land of plenty. In another hovel
found children without clothing gathered
around the fireplace plucKing out the
charred sticks that they might roll in the
warm ashes. The United States appro-
PIRATES 5000 to these Indians, about SO 80
to each one. This amount is spent in -four
and fat pork and distributed among them.
The pork is sickening. / mysef would not
have believed the truth of The story if had
not witnessed it.
HEAVY DEATH RATE.
During the eighteen months previous to
JAN l 1890, out Of l 400 Indians 100 died.
During the month of January 27 died.
These deaths are almost invariably Of star
walton. The women are almost universally
clad in one garment, a calico dress, to pro-
tect them, and let it b. said to their credit
that not one woman was missing from the
little parish church on Sunday"
The reverend speaker closed by appealing
to the congregation to extend to these poor
people, their unfortunate brethren, a por5
tion of their substance for the relief of these
Door Indians.