The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-09-13
VICTIMS OF BIGoTRY.
Indian Children Deprived of Rations
Because They Attend Catholic

sius Bosch, S. j., head of the Catholic
mission of the Rosary, at Pine Ridge
reservation, spoke on the subject OF
Indian missions and the necessity for
Individual support of those missions.
He said in part:
Before entering upon discussion
of the subject l will give brief his
tory of the Rosary mission. 1t was
established in 1888 at the Pine Ridge
reservation as a contract school.
The government at that time author
lied the building of the schools by
the church and appropriated money
for their support This mission was
built by member of the DreXel fam
lily of Philadelphia, then Miss Cath
crime Drexel, now Mother Catherine.
head of the order which has for its
object the spread of the faith among
the negroes and Indians. The sup
port promised by the government
continued for about eight years,
when, beginning in 1895, that support
was gradually withdrawn. The last
step in taking support from the for
mer contract schools was when an at
torney of the United States made
ruling that no rations should be sup
Catholic schools. This law and this
rule is unjust. The Catholic people
of the United States pay the taxes
as well as other citizens.
I'VE find that the word 'non-sec-
tartan has been coined to conceal an
attack upon the Catholic schools on
the Indian reservation. In the gov
eminent schools the teachers give
religious training to the children,
hold prayer meetings, and in some
cases Protestant preachers visit the
schools and give instruction.
This instruction is said to be I'M
UNCONVENTIONAL, but it's effect can be
seen from the fact that of forty
eminent school and draw rations, but
one boy and two girls are found who
go to confession.
Taking the rations from the Catho-
lie children was q blow to us from
which we have not recovered. 1t
makes it necessary for the school to
provide food for the pupils. We now
have 10S pupils enrolled, sixteen Sis
tiers and two Fathers at the Rosary
mission. We have to kill annually
about 125 steers to provide food for
them, with vegetables and groceries in
proportion. Since the government aid
has been withdrawn the support of
these schools and these pupils falls en-
tirely upon the Catholic population of
the country To support these schools
the archbishops of the country organ
lied a society which has for it's object
the preservation of the faith among
the Indians The annual dues to this
society from the members is rs cents
per year. 1t costs approximately $685.
900 to maintain the twenty-five Indian
schools at the different reservations in
the United States. In order to draw
this amount from the society there
would have to be 400, 900 members. We
have, in fact, about $4,000 members,
which shows without further words
the necessities of the case. Our only
revenue comes from comparatively
small amount set aside by Mother
Catherine and the donations received.
The general secretary of the society
writes me that there are practically
no funds in the treasury. The Rosary
mission, in addition to debt of $500,
which is not troublesome, must pay
$500 by Oct 1, and I must have some
money on hand when the school opens
This is the reason for my visit here
today.
For all the injustice of withdrawing
the rations from the Catholic Indian
children we can look for no change in
this condition, for the president of the
United States, usually so just in all OF
his views and actions, can see no in
justice in this, and his advisors are
all opposed to any change. The with
drawal of rations is really breach OF
the treaty with the Indians. for they
were assured that they should have ra-
tons when their lands were taken.
THE law says that no support shall
be given not in schools authorized by
the government, and this has been held
to include the Catholic schools, but an
investigation will show that these
schools were authorized by the govern
ment at the time of their construction
or subsequent thereto.
"The claim is made that the Indian
is not worthy of civilization. He is
said to be lazy, to be thief, drunk
ard, and to have lax view of the
marriage bonds. The policy of the
United States has made the Indians all
of these things. 1t would do the same
with white man. Take any man and
tell him that you will feed him and
clothe him in the way he is accuS-
toned to, regardless of any productive
labor on his part, and see if he will
not become idle. After giving him all
things he requires tell him to work,
and see how much work he will do.
If the Indian is thief, he can point
to treaties broken by the white men
and land taken from him by fraud and
violence. The example would be
enough to make any man a thief. If
he is a drunkard, some one supplied
the liquor. AS to his laxity in regard
to marriage, take the statistics of the
divorce courts of the United States-to
cay nothing of the Mormons-and let
the comparison be made
TT is not pleasant work upon the
reservation. The days spent in the
camps of Indians, where dog soup is
the chief article of food, of sick calls
over hundreds of miles of territory,
made when the thermometer is SO de-
grees below zero, of trouble with swol-
len streams in the spring and icebound
land in the winter; suffering not only
personal inconvenience and peril, but
the indifference of squawmen and In
dian alike. But we are there cheerful
ly, because we have been sent You
know how Fathr Jutz of the Society
of Jesus, my predecessor at the mis-
sion, went into the hostile camp and
brought into the lines of the United
States the rebel chiefs during the last
Sioux uprising. You remember that
Father Craft. priest. was almost ia
tally injured by a knife thrust at the
battle of Wounded Knee, and how.
when authorized by Mgr. Stephan to
leave our mission and take refuge with
in the American lines, our mission
aries stayed within the school, sur
rounded by warning soldiers and within
view of the burning government build
ings. Even so close as Omaha the work
of the missionary priests among the
Indians is little known. You know and
appreciate your missionaries, but do
not understand their work
The Catholics are behind in the
matter of raising funds. Other socie-