The Irish standard., 1893-06-03


furnished to famished Indians at the
Sisters own expense. I wished to take
the figures for the balance OF the last
year, and to date, but I did net have
time to do so. Sister Christian, however,
assured me that the figures for the four
months taken were not above the aver
age. The price of provisions so far out
in the wilderness is very high. and when
we neider that a famished Indian will
eat nearly as much as horse, we can
| understand that maintaining this charity
| is burden that we should not permit
our dear Sisters to bear alone. The Sis
te~s have also erected fine chapel aa-
joining the school at an expense to them
selves of $4,000. The heating apparatus
| for this also cost them $500 and the
government will not even pay for the
fuel used which has cost the Sisters
for the past two years S2l4. They are
obliged to employ a man at the school
the year round. This man receives q
salary of $500 cash and gets his board
and washing free. Tue government WILL
bear no part of the expense OF this man,
though his services are absolutely lndls-
pensable, and he does nothing but gov
ernmept work The Sisters were OBJ
liged to erect a house for him on the
grounds, and have to maintain it as un-
der the rules of the institution no man
is allowed to sleep in the school. There
are several Thousand Indians on the
reservation and there is so much sick
ness and distress among them that Sis
ter Christian is obliged to keep two Sis
ters out all the time administering to
their wants. Only the other day an old
Indian woman came to Sister Christian
and complained that her husband was
lying dead in their home, far out on the
| reservation, and she could not induce
any of the Indians to come near him, as
he had died of some terrible disease
Two Sisters were dispatched at once,
with coffin, supplied by themselves,and
found the corpse and family in terrible
condition. There was no medical record
of the mans ailment, as he had not been
treated by any competent physician, but
Judge from general report that the
poor fellow died of scarlet fever.
The children in the non-sectarian
school, as already stated, are nearly all
Catholics, and they come over to Sister
Christians every Sunday morning at Z
o'clock to attend early mass. They can
not get back to their own school in time
for breakfast and Sister Christian feeds
them every Sabbath morning. OF Course
the government bears the expense Of
these breakfasts, as the child rem get
nothing at their own school, but the care
OF the many little ones every Sunday
morning is great task imposed upon
The over worked Sisters for which they
receive no financial compensation what
ever. This long enumeration Of hard
ships borne by our faithful Sisters at
Fort Totten will be revelation, even to
many, I dare say, who have visited the
school; for Sister Christian never men
tions her trials to visitors, as [ am con-
WINGED from visit of two hours duration
with her. only learned the facts stated
in this communication by asking ques-
tions and by imposing upon her good
nature to the extent Of requesting her
to give me the figures have taken the
liberty to make use of in this communi-
cation. l babe Sister Christian god
bye and reached the store-the general
loafing place-some time before the boat
left upon which I wac to return, and was
introduced to Wannata, chief OF the
Gut Heads, a nation of Indians includ-
ing all the tribes now on the reservation.
He is fine specimen of physical man
hood, truly, with long hair, as black as
crow. His face, too, is more black than
copper colored. He could not speak q
word of English, but through an inter-
| prefer he could max. himself understood
very we'll. He is apparently good ma
tured and is. very intelligent. He lives
| with his three wives in frame house
not far from Fort Totem. He comes to
town every day and sits around the
store all day long, smoking mammoth
pipe of peace He wears a fine Prince
| Albert coat and vest and trousers to
match. He wears two black silk hand
kerchiefs about his neck and white moe
casins on his feet, of the very finest In
dian make. He farms it quite ex!en-
s1vely and never does tap of work him
s+f. He has but to speak the word and
any or all the Indians on the reservation
will come and do his bidding. One Of
his daughters is the wife of H6h. E. 81.
Sohnes, farmer near Devils Lake, who
represents the Twen,y-first Representa-
tive district in the North Dakota legis-
lature. =. w. K.