The Irish standard., 1893-06-03
FORT TOTEM, N. D.
What a Correspondent Saw on the Rese1
walton Near Devils Lake.

What a Correspondent saw on Ine nese1-
walton Near Devils Lake.
Special to the Irish Standard.
arrived in Devils Lake on May - at
- o'clock. The afternoon OF that day
was spent in Devils Lake attending q
session of the district court, looking
about the fair young city in q general
way, and resting after tiresome night
ride mp from Minneapolis. The fore
noon of the Oath was spent much in the
same way But after eating hearty
dinner at the Cairns hotel turned my
face toward Fort Totten. A three miles
drive to this steamboat landi & over the
prairie and through the picturesque
woods that rim the lake, was enjoyed to
the full. I took the little mail steamer,
as the beautiful Rock Island had gone
before, and after somewhat adventur-
Gus voyage of fifteen miles on bee ine
through the center of the lake I arrived
at Fort Totten. The four government
buildings nearest to the landing, and
upon the immediate brow OF the hill, are
the residences of the agent, the docs r,
the farm foreman and the carpenter.
They are substantial frame buildings,
above the average city habitation in cost
and architectural design. / climbed the
steep hill and got good view, not only
of the post itself, but the entire country
for many miles about. I looked for the
soldiers, but Looked in vain. They had
marched away long ago to return no
more. Thousands of red men still re-.
main, but the Christian missionaries
have been among them and there is no
more need for military surveillance. A
Catholic priest was walking down from
the training school. He greeted us cor
daily 1.-TWO young pen were with me)
and showed my companions which trail
to take across the reservation to place
called Rockford twenty-five miles away.
It was already p. m. and the boys in.
quired if it would be safe to cross the
reservation at night, and the good man
replied that it would be more safe than
travelling in the day time where they
came from, though he knew not where
that was. The boys went on their way,
and the priest talked with me for some
time, giving me much valuable informa-
ton about the Indians, with whom be
had lived for nearly quarter of GEN.
fury, and an invitation to visit the train
ing school next day.
There are two government training
schools at Fort Totten, one in charge of
the Sisters of Charity, and the other a
non-secrarjan institution presided over
by Mr.. Garfield, cousin of the DR.. Can
field who cnce was president of our Ma
tional Teachers Association and is now
at the head of the Kansas State Univer-
sity. Mr. Garfield met me in the store
the evening I arrived and invited me to
visit his school the following morning,
which did with very great pleasure and
profit. I will not attempt to tell about
Mr.. Canfeld's school in this letter, but
will write about it at length in the near
future.
If remember correctly there are three
hundred Indian children in the two
schools. Sister Christian tells me that
these children are all Catholics, with the
possible exception of about twenty five,
though only about $50 are enrolled IN
her own school. The 40, or thereabouts,
are children who have been picked up
by Mr.. Garfield all over the country,
some OF them coming from the Red Lake
region and the vicinity of Duluth, MINI.
Sister Christian has had charge of the
Catholic school for the past two years.
She is an accomplished lady whose whole
heart is in her work. Sne took me into
every department. in the school and let
me hear, for few minutes at least, every
class that recited in the afternoon. I
don't suppose there was nook or cor
ner in the great building that she did
not show me. The life of every one
there is an open book, and wish our
Protestant friends would look in upon
their (the Sister's) work more often than
they do. These good women have great
burdens to bear, and if travellers would
go and see what I saw to-day, and know
how worthy they are of assistance, there
would be more general disposition on
the part of people of all denominations
to lend them helping hand.
The government pays the teachers
salaries and furnishes rations and clothes
for the children enrolled, but that is
about all.
had the colossal cheek to ask Sister
Christian for her accounts, expecting to
$50 everything supplied in abundance by
Uncle Sam himself. A sneaking sus
picion had crept in upon my mind that
this was the occasion for the general
happiness and contentment of MAD that
seemed to extend to both pupils and
tnoohore without ovoontion r tho,,rh+