The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1891-02-19
sQuAw SLAVES.



Of Toll and Drudgery.
The women e Ill Indian tribes,
doomed to q hopeless bondage Of slavery,
the fate OF their sex in every savage
race. have but few amusements They
accept their condition stoically. how
ever. by the unerring law OF heredity.
through ages OF abuse and servile obe-
dience. The lower the tribe in the scale
Of humanity the more degraded are the
women. eAmeng the Diegerss of Oregon
and Washington, with which savages
passed three or four years the poor
squaws are to be piticd. Living on roots
and insects, which tho women must
furnish, their existence as tribe may
we'll be imag ned to be very precarious
one. If the camas, bulb growing deep
in the ground and very sweet should
fail or the acorn and black cricket
crop be not plentiful 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 mothers
with their little ones strapped to their
backs, armed with long iron. with
which they dug the sometimes hard sell
for the roots, which furnish large por-
ton 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
ar hrrk 4 fu 11xr.~ t1,<
their lords are half drunk. The Dako-
tabs frequently permitted their women
to indulge in a game of ball, which,
however, differed entirely from that
played by the men. When the men had
worn themselves out with their own
games, and were in maudlin state from
too much whisky, but wanted to have
little more fun, they would notify every
one that the squaws were going to have
game OF ball OF their owIL Then when
the game began the bucks would roll
over on 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
successful in making good trades with
the whites, they would open their hearts
and donate piles OF gaudy goods, such
as calicoes ribbons, and strings Of
beads, besides many other bright
colored things known only to the In
dian trade and found only in the stores
of the traders. These things, which
were to be the prizes contended for.
would be put on stick, which itself
rested on two crotched poles upright in
the ground, and over which, an old man
kept guard Tho 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 fastened to the ends OF a
string eighteen or twenty inches long.
Every squaw engaged in the game holds
in each hand q small stick, on which
she must try to catch the string to
which is attached the two balls, and
when she succeeds in doing this she
throws them to and over thesgoal of the
side Of which is playing It is re-
markably comical sight to see the wom-
en- roll over in tho dust and dirt in their
frantic efforts to catch the string on
their sticks, while the men lie fiat on
the ground and roar with laughter at
them.
Notwithstanding the women are kept
so degraded there is as much affection
among them for their husbands and
children. as have ever witnessed among
the Caucasian race. will relate an in
stance here which came under my own
observation, though could present