Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-01

60
sanity men the plains have ever known The girl
had been educated and cared for by the church. and
the civil powers would not be justified in interfering
To Abbot MART, then, she went; but the good
man could do nothing. He pointed out to Nellie
and to the agent, who added his pleas hers that
the polity of the church was to educate especially
well-born and intelligent Indians, with view to the
betterment of the mason the principle of the
little leaven and the lump. Nellie he said had been
brought up Catholic, and was devout one Who
better than she could do missionary work among
her kind? She not asked to give UP more to
suffer more than the good who reared and
taught her, many of whom had left homes of luxury
and social careers OF promise to become dedicated
and consecrated to the service of the aboriginal
people.
Nellie urged her spiritual pastor and master to
let her live with the agency people at night and her
fathers folk in the days; but the Abbot said that
would not do as she could not possibly travel the
necessary distances daily, nor could her influence
for good be valuable if broken and half-exerted.
One more passionate appeal did the Princess
make to the priest, and her heart voiced by
her lips one praying for lifes very self
With his own eyes dimmed but his purpose I'm
faltering, the Abbot laid his hands her head in
benediction and dismissal his final decision being:
Go to your home my daughter. Strength and wis
dom will be given you if you pray therefor"
1t was if the Abbot had struck her The whole
bearing of the girl suddenly changed She drew
herself into rigid erectness and her eyes flashed
she answered:
PTayl VINO can pray TO a white god
Indian tepee? l can save neither myself nor others
You have doomed me by asking the impossible.
Until l adopt Indian ways of speech, dress and
thought, | shall be despised by those of nv own
age, and chidden by my elders Ny people do not
want your religion, your dress, your manners your
medicine, your morals. They love their own
lives best, and one girl cannot change them any
more than one beaver could dam the Missouri yon-
der. | do not thank you for my education. 1t will
prove my curse. Good-byi"
Impressed beyond the ordinary by Nellie's plight
her professions and her prophecies, the agent made
frequent inquiries during the next six weeks as to
her veal or woe. Beyond learning however, that
Two-Bears had recovered and with his tribe
migrated to Grand River, forty-five miles away
nothing gathered to Nellie's whereabouts or
fortunes. She with her people; but seemed to
have been absorbed to the disappearing point.
One day it the agents duty to Superintend
the distribution of beeves slaughtered on the hoof
to the thrty-Sx hundred Indians of Standing Rock
reservation The corral in which the dead steers
were lying was, always, the scene of blood filth,
suffering greed and general license that would never
have been tolerated had any other method of issue
been possible at that time and with the means pro-
durable. After the cattle all down and dead
supposedly dead squaws and Youngsters would
rush over and among the carcasses each seeking to
cut out tongue steal some unapportioned morsel
Now and again huge two thousand FOUNDER from
the Brazos or the Arkansas, that had been stunned
not killed, would rise in a rush and run amucl
among the despoilers sometimes wounding-on
than occasion killing sGuaw or a too
venturesome young buck.
On this occasion, after order had been somewhat
restored by means of threats and promises, the
agent was attracted by the figure of a squaw who
knife in hand stood ready to defend a tongue she
had cut from steer claimed as prospective prop
by the fierce demeanor and shrilly voiced threats