Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-06-22
INSIDIOUS MESCAl
FATAL TO INDIANS
Juice Of Mexican Plant Has
Succeeded Bad Whisky
Among Winnebagoes.
TERRIBLE EFFECTS NOTED
Men, Women and Children Recon.
idiotic Under Its Influence-Dripk
Poisonous Drug So They Nav
See Savior.
(From the Sioux City Tribune.1

counting death itself in the practice NJ
a strange and weird religion and in the
hope of seeing lost friends and the M
tron deity of their nation, more than 20O
Winnebago Indians are slaves of the
mescal tea habit, at once the most hor-
rible of Indian orgies and the very
latest vice of the red men.
The slaves of the mescal have organ
ized the "Mescal society,"" which the In
dams claim is a religious organization
and from the effects of the drug only
a few weeks, nearly a dozen children
are dead. a buck has succumbed. and
over eighty quaW and bucks are
physical and mental wrecks.
The sufferings Of the Winnebago In
dams at the hands of the white men
when they were driven across a blizzard
cursed western waste to face famine in
Nebraska; disease in it's every form
which has threatened to carry off the
last member of the once noble race:
poisonous liquors sold by designing
traders, are all as nothing as compared
TO 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
drinking the liquor made from the bud
and bark of the mescal was introduced
on the W~innebago reservation a year
ago by a Mexican Indian trader.
Helpless to Stop Habit.
And while the Indian authorities see
the "Mescal society PROSECUTING among
the members of the Winnebago tribe,
the wealthiest and at one time the most
Industrious and intelligent Indian ma
ton in the world, they are helpless to
check the spread of the habit. Indian
superintendent and teachers must
watch silently while little children he
come slaves of the habit and the Great
White Father in Washington is without
authority to forbid the sale of the mes
cal or to put a stop to the orgies, which
are of weekly, almost daily occurrence.
Congress has failed TO take any ac-
ton. The legislature of Nebraska lid
not meet this year, and the leaders of
the Mescal society and designing
traders who make handsome profits
selling the wealthy Indians, are free to
entice men. women and children into
using the liquor, which means certain
destruction to. everyone who uses ii,
and before a law can be passed to IRE
vent the use of the drug more than
half the tribe of LOO Indians will suffer
the effects of mescal using.
Children Given the Poison.
Superintendent McFattridge, Of the
Winnebago reservation, says he has
exhausted his resources to discourage
the habit; he has pleaded and threat
ened the adults and placed the chill
dren In the boarding schools, but so
persistent is the religious frenzy Of the
Mescal society that the children are
tolen from the schools, carried to the
meetings of the strange society, where
they are given the mesCal liquor untll
they fall to the earth, some or 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 rph nad
been injected in the veins; their lips
are parched, and they resemble men
and women dying of consumption.
Chatter Like Monkeys.
The mental effects are apparent TO
Superintendent McFattridge, who mas
watched closely the working OF the
drug. Men and women VINO were
among the brightest and most lntelil-
zen Indians on the Wneh
Mr.. McFattridge took charge OF the
reservation a year ago are now dull OF
comprehension, driveling idiots VINO
chatter like monkeys, speaking nelther
English nor their native tongue intel
ilgently.
Disastrous indeed, are the influences
of the habit and the superstition upon
which II Is founded, and there Is NOV
more crime. more RIGHTEOUSNESS ana
more deyil-may-care wildness among
the Indians than there has been among
the peaceful members or the Wlnne-
bago nation since they were Driven
from their former home in Wisconsin
Trader introduced Meseal.
John Rave, a half-breed trader. was
the first 10 introduce the mescal, It's
delights and it's death-dealing horrors
TO the Winnebago Indians lts auVehl
into the wigwam and hut OF the IN
dams in Nebraska followed a
by Commissioner Francis M. Leupp, OF
the Indian department, against selilng
LIQUOR to the red men. Scarcely mao
the last flask Of whisky been de-
stroyed by the government authorities
until the mescal came from New neAo
leo. and with it the story or the strange
relation. -u
The Indians. crazed by a burning
thirst for liquor and strong intoxi-
cants, were eager TO OBTAIN ans'"fN
in the way of a substitute. ~
The mescal, which is used to MAKE
the tea. though sometimes called d
bean. is really the bud OF a plant wnich
grows in Mexico and New Mexico. Inc
bud unfolds within a ourr'
resembling that of a chestnut or an
acorn. 1t is this bud, In It's rougn
burr, which is picked by the bushei ahu
sent to the Winnebago Indians.
said a few Mexicans make a yea -
boiling the burrs and ~
liquor to ferment in the sun.
Helrs Brew Quickly Done.
But the Winnebago Indian mas no
patience to allow the liquor TO ferineh..
The Indians make 1t over q nre az q
meeting of the Mescal society
their huts. pour 1t into bottles anu
Jugs and drink it IN great QUANTITIES
even before IL is cold.
The effect is more like that OF ilor
phine than whisky. There is that PEI
Tod when the body is free from pas r
and the fancy is free. A L
glow comes TO the face, the eyes sparRle
and dance, and, stimulated by tne uiue
the Indians hear strange sinsins 80
old native songs. They Dreah Yrs,
song when the spirit moves mem. IT'S
one, then another, will recali lhe AZ
OF an old song. and the others jon"
h singing.
Effect of the Potion.
Then the drug tingles in every seq
arate nerve like the i.nsst OF WIZ .,,a
nun.bra 50 vets In, beginning a. :"