St. Landry democrat., 1891-01-31
INDIAN WOMEN ARE SLAVES.


Of the Redskins Squaw.
r,. women Of all Indian tribes, doomed
"a a homeless bondage of slavery, the tate
~ their sex in every savage race, have but
tow amusements They accept their con-
d;tion stoically, however, by the unerrlng |
law of heredity through ages of abuse and
sarv;,e 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
souaws are to be pitied. Living on roots
and insects, which the women must fur
nish, their existence as tribe may we'll De
imagined to be very precarious one.
If the camas, a bulb growing deep In the
ground and very sweet, should fail. or inc
acorn and "black cricket" crop be not plen-
tiful in any year, their winter Is liable 10
be one of pinching poverty and starvation.
I have often looked with profound pity
upon troops Of their old and young squa"s
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 long iron, with
which they sometimes dug the hard SOIL
for the roots, which furnish a large portion
of their support. haggard, broken down.
but never complaining of their wearlsome
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 a game or 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
souaws were going to have game or Dali
| of their own. Then when the game began
the bucks would roll over on the ground
| and laugh at the curious antics OF their
suuaws 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 call
Goes. ribbons and 1trings 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-fastened to the
ends of string eighteen or twenty inches
j.. long. Every squaw engaged in the same
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 the goal of the side of which she
Is playing 1t is a remarkably comlcal
| sight to see the women roll over in the
dust and dirt in their frantic efforts to
catch the string on their sticks, while the
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 of 1860 l was
riding with party Of men and officers
south of the Arkansas We had been watch.
ing some of the cavalry unearth three OF
four dead warriors who had been killed by
some scouts in terrible fight some weeks
before and as we rode into a small ravine
in the sand hills we came to rude lodge
inside of which, on a rude platform or bier
fashioned of green poles, reposed dead
warrior in full war dress, his shield of buf
falo hide, pipe ornamented with eagle
feathers and his medicine bag" lying or
the ground beside him.
At his head on her knees, her hand:
clasped in the attitude of prayer, was {
suuaw frozen to death. Which had Grs
Observation-Disclosures the wounded chief
her husband, or the devoted wife-to the
awful cold of that winter prairie will never
be known, but it shows her love for th'
man who had perhaps beaten her n hun
dred times.-Cor Kansas City Star.