The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1913-06-05

A1d0hdA VI COOoJ UASD
over the supplemented SiWash In
dams, living in the interior of
Alaska, and it is with regret l make
the assertion, that the ruling is to
the detriment, and not the better
ment, of the Indian.
l want nothing in common with
religion, or any other thing, which
plays upon the superstitiOns of a
supplemented people to gain their
allegiance, and | have less in COM
mon with the Catholic church than
| have with any other religion or be-
lief that exists, either in Alaska or
out of it.
The Roman Catholic religion, as
represented by the Jesuit priests in
the interior of Alaska, has for it's
representation the most profligate
collection of parasites Ca few eX-
cepted) with which it is possible to
burden a community, either relig-
ious or civil, and little wonder it is
that the pious old libertines, who
button their haberdashery in the
back, receive scant consideration at
the hands of the big-hearted, manly
men who have the enforcement of
the laws of Alaska in their keeping.
The Alaskan Indian, similar to
any race of people who have pro-
crossed from the lowest form of saw
agery to the highest or third stage
of barbarism, have their own re-
ligion, their own ideas of law and
order, and until the coming of the
missionary, were a happy and con-
tented people, living their lives as
conscience dictated, and when they
had lived their allotted time were
laid to rest facing the mighty Yukon
river, so they, when the ice went out
in the spring, might hear the gentle
tapping of the waves upon the beach,
and watch for the r1pples on the
water which would tell them that
King Salmon were in the offering.
They were the original opponents
Of Universal Love, and when two
young people became enamOured Of
each other they Immediately built q
habitatiOn for themselves, lived to-
gether for one year, and at the end
of that time, if everything was
agreeable, were joined in wedlock
by a tribal ceremony. But the Holy
Father has taught them they must
first be joined in wedlOck, and as
there is no such thing in the Cath
Ollie church as divorce, if there is in
but may never again be welded, no
matter how they may yearn for an
other.
History can but repeat itself with
the Alaskan Indian, as it has with
other nations of a low form of civil
ization, who on being taken from
their original environment and man
ner of living to which they are &C
CustOmed, and compelled to adopt
the ways of the white race, have de-
creased rapidly in numbers, and
have fallen heirs to diseases which,
before the coming Of the missionary,
were unknown to them, and if the
present percentage of decrease con-
tinues, but few short years will
elapse until the SiWash Indian will
be only memory, and the tourist,
travelling on one of the river palaces,
when he sees a lonely mound upon
the shore, will be moved to specu-
late as to what manner of people
were these, who, after the advent of
the missionary, have fioated silently
out of existence, and are now trap
ping in the Land of Many Furs.
The Indian, in the days gone by,
were, like any other nation that
lives close to nature, a virtuous
people. But with the coming of the
Holy Father who, in the eyes of God
$50 the Catholics tell u.s., can do no
wrong, their morals are an unknown
QuantitV and when an Indian girl