Imperial Valley press., 1912-01-23
STARTLING CHARGES
ARE MADE AGAINST
YUMA INDIAN AGENT

A sensation has been sprung at
Yuma by Rev. J. A. Crouch, Methodist
missionary to the Yuma Indians, who
charges that Miss Egin, Indian agent
at the reservation in Imperial county,
is responsible for having an Indian
lad SO severely beaten that his back
shows more than fifty decorations from
which the blood ooZed freely, and that
since the lad was SO beaten he has
been confined as a prisoner and his
parents and others have been refused
admission to him.
Mr.. Crouch says:
A 13-year-old Fort Yuma Indian
school boy violated some rule of the
school on or about January II. The
school children say he was tardy.
Anyway, Miss Egin ordered him
flogged, and detailed two policemen
and disoiplinarian to do the Job
Miss Egin, in whom our government
intrusts the formative years of the
lives of these children, stood by and
saw her orders carried out to the let
ter. When this quartet got through
the boys back displayed more than
fifty lacerations from which the blood
oozed freely, and there were numer-
Gus welts on his body as large as a
mans finger.
Ye gods! Wasn't that punishment
enough? No. Miss Egin now thrust
him into prison.; not in the regular
school prison, that would be too close
to his boy companions, who would
learn through prison bars the story
OF his fogging, which did not take
place in the school room, but in Miss
Egin's residence, behind bolted doors.
room in the girls dormitory was
appropriated and is now used for a
prison cell. But walls have ears and
murder will out" so the topic of con-
versation on the Fort Yuma school
playground and on the reservation is
Glen Carr's flogging and Imprisonment
and wondering who will be the next
to receive like treatment, for be it
known, We American people, and es-
pecially We citizens of Yuma, that this
is not the first time that fifteenth CEN
tury methods have been employed by
Miss Egin in Furnishing these child
ren. The father of the boy, has
been denied. the privilege of seeing
him, though he has asked several
times to DO SO; members OF the Indi-
an council have been repeatedly de-
MED permission to see the boy. The
boy IS member of the Methodist Mis-
sion Sunday school, and when he was
absent last Sunday | asked the dis
ciplinarian why he was absent, and
he reported that the boy was i'll. AS
the boys pastor, | requested to be al
lowed to see him, but Miss Egin re.
fused to let me see him and her ex,
cuse for not letting me was that he
was being disciplined and was not i'll
as reported to me by the disciplinar-
ian on Sunday. | believe the reason
the father, the members CT the Indian
council and myself are not allowed
to see this child is that Miss Egin
does not want him seen for the req
son that the wounds on his body would
be evidence of inhuman and barbarOus
treatment.
How came | in possession of the
above facts? Any of you who are ia
miliar with Indian ways know that
they have ways of communicating with
each other past the white mans ken.
On my regular pastoral work | went
to the home of Glen Carr's mother.
She was crying like her heart would
break. | asked her what was the
trouble and in her defective English
she made me understand that her boy
had been severely punished at school
and that she thought he would die.
She had cried all day and night.
Later an educated Indian came tC the
Carr home and told me in plain Eng
liSh the above facts.
The people of Yuma have known
me for more than twenty years. |
count my friends by scores and hun
dreds. Not because Glen Carr is a
Methodist, but because he is human.
have | undertaken to defend him.
have as many friends among the Cath
olics as among the Protestants in
Yuma. Had Glen Carr been a Cath
olic and the same story been told me
| would have made the same plea of
Justice. | appeal to the people of
Yuma not to take my word for the
above alleged facts, but to demand
an investigation by the Indian depart.
ment Immediately.
j. A. CROUCH,
Methodist Missionary to Yuma Indians.
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CMlrlI uMnnonINO