The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-06-22
|NsID|0US MEsCAl
FATAL TO INDIANS
of Mexican Plant Has
Succeeded Bad Whisky
Among Winnebagoes.
FERRlBLE EFFECTS NOTED
Men, Women and Children Beeom.
ldiotic Under It's lnfluence-Drink
Poisonous Drug So They May
Sec Savior.
tFrom the Sioux City Trlbune.)

pouring deaIn ltSel1 IN the praCt1ce VI
sh strange n weird religion and in tine
Mbope of seeing lost friends and the pa
NAron deity of their nation, more than 200
8Winnebago Indians are slaves OF the
SEDnescal tea habit, at once the most hor-
A@ible of Indian orgies and the very
latest vice OF the red men.
The slaves of the mescal have organ
/ zed the "Mescal society,"" which the In
dians claim is a religious organization,
bnd from the effects of the drug only
few weeks, nearly a dozen children
pre- dead. a buck has succumbed, and
bver eighty squaWs II bucks are
physical and mental wrecks.
The sufferings of the Winnebago In
6ians at the hands of the white men
Ehen they We're driven across a blizzard
eursed western waste to face famine in
E. Nebraska; disease in its every form
which has threatened to carry off the
E, asst member of the once noble race;
poisonous liquors sold by designing
3 raiders, are all as nothing as compared
% the ravages of realizing religious &C.
STACY by means of the mescal tea, The
popularity of which has increased with
Startling rapidity since the habit of
shrinking the liquor made from the bud
1and bark of the mescal was introduced
3 the Winnebago reservation a year
ago by a Mexican Indian trader.
g Helpless to Stop Habit.
@ And while the Indian authorities see
the "Mescal society PROSECUTING among
member of the W~innebago tribe,
wealthiest and at one time the most
and intelligent indian ma
ation in the world, they are helpless to
CHECK the spread of the habit. Indian
Superintendent and teachers must
watch silently while little children he
gGome slaves of the habit and the Great
white Father in Washington is without
to forbid the sale of the mes
or to put a stop to the orgies, which
nre of weekly, almost daily occurrence.
n Congress has failed to take any ac-
zion. The legislature of Nebraska did
Mot meet this year, and the leaders of
s3he Mescal society and designing
4raders who make handsome profits
selling the wealthy Indians, are free to
SJentice men, women and children into
the liquor, which means certain
obstruction to everyone who uses 1t,
and before a law can be passed to nre-
half the tribe of LOO Indians will suffer
sshe effects Of meScal using.
Children Given the Poison.
III Superintendent McFattridge, of the
sMinnebago reservation, says he has
exhausted his ~eSource to discourage
the habit; he has pleaded and threat
sened the adults and placed the chill
sdren in the boarding schools, but so
persistent is the religious frenzy of the
5Mescal society that the children are
stolen from the schools, carried to the
meetings of the strange society, where
they are given the mescal liquor until
they fall to the earth, some Of them
never to rise again.
The effects of using the liquor are at
once apparent on those who become
addicted to the habit. Already there
are more than $50 who show plainly
the physical havoc which the drug has
wrought. Their faces are drawn and
ashen white: the pupils of their eyes
are contracted as though morphine had
been injected in the veins; their lips
are parched, and they resemble men
an2 women dying of consumption.
Chatter Like Monkeys.
The mental effects are apparent to
Superintendent McFattridge, who has
watched closely the working Of the
drug. Men and women who We're
among the brightest and most intelli-
MI. McFattridge look charge of the
reservation a yea ago are now dull of
comprehension, driveling idiots who
chatter like monkeys, speaking neither
English nor their native tongue intel
ligently.
of the habit and the superstition upon
which it is founded, n there is now
more crime, more RIGHTEOUSNESS and
more devil-may-care wildness among
the Indians than there has been among
the peaceful members of the Winnie
from their former home in Wisconsin.
Trader Introduced MescaI.
John Rave, a half-breed trader, was
the first to introduce the mescal, it's
delights and it's death-dealing horrors
to the Winnebago Indians. Its advent
into the wigwam and hut of the In
dams in Nebraska followed a campaign
by Commissioners Francis M. Leupp, of
the Indian department. against selling
liquor to the red men. Scarcely had
the last fask of whisky been de-
stroyed by the government authorities
until the mescal came from New Mex
leo. and with it the story Of the strange
relation.
The Indians, crazed by a burning
cants, were eager to obtain anything
n. the way of a substitute.
IfS~mescal, which is used to make
the tea, though sometimes called a
bean, is really the III of a plant which
grows in Mexico n New Mexico. The
resembling that of a chestnut or an
acorn. 1t is this bud. in its rough
burr, which is picked by the bushel and
sent to the W~innebago Indians. |. is
said a few Mexicans make a tea by
boiling the burrs and allowing the
liquor to ferment in the sun.
HelI's Brew Quickly Done.
Blu the W%innebago Indian has no
patience to allow the liquor to ferment.
The Indians make it over a fire at a
meeting of the Mescal society or in
their huts; pour it into bottles and
jugs and drink it IN great quantities
even before it is cold.
The effect is more like that of NOR
phine han whisky. There is that per-
Tod when the body is free from pain
and the fancy is free. A luxurious
glow comes to the face, the eyes sparkle
and dance, and, stimulated by the drug,
the Indians hear strange singing of
Old native songs. They break into
song when the spirit move them. First
one, then another, will recall the lines
OF an old song, and the others join in
the singing.
Eject Of the Potion.
Then the drug t:ngles in every sep
aFate ntrve ike the l.nSst of wine. y
a~.ai.5hess SIS ii, beginning ~ Tie