The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1914-01-19
INDIAN TRIBE y.
SLOWLY DYING.
STATES REPORT
White Earth Men. Their Lands
Gone. Fall Easy Victims To
All Kinds of Disease
GOVERNMENT PROBERS
FIND AWFUL CONDITIONS
Land Sharps Primarily to Blame
for Degeneracy of Once
Strong Race, They Say

WASHINGTON. Jan. IL Reports
from the White Earth Indian reser-
walton indicate that the mos. incred-
ible conditions found by the sub com.
mittee OF congress a few months ago
still exist and that the rlgors of win.
ter have found the Indian unfortu.
mates in the same pitiable condition.
The following description OF a por.
ton OF the White Earth reservation
Is taken from one OF the most re.
cent reports
Scenes more pitiful than these
witnessed by your subcommittee dur.
! ing the trip over the reservation could
hardly be Imagined In the district
around Pine Point in the southeast
| part or the reservation, where about
500 Indians live. nearly every man,
woman and child Is affected with
| trachoma, and many are totally blind
from its raYages. Twenty-Five per
cent OF these people suffer from tu-
berculosis and 40 per cent from other
! dread Diseases. Each hut visited was
a chamber Of horrors.
Sometimes 10 or more Indians
were huddled together at night in a
single ROOM trying in vain Go keep
out the intense cold, but succeeding
only in keeping out the fresh air.
with scanty bedclothes that reeked
with filth. In unbearable stencil and
awful squalor little children almost
naked, aged women blind and help.
less and men once strong but now
hrIIsael L. ,.,tt d
out hope
Oar party consisted OF 10 or II
persons. Our entrance into their
wretched huts late at night after they
had retired, and without even the
form OF knocking. seemed to provoke
not the slightest sense OF resentment.
Their spirit seemed entirely gone.
Their demeanor eloquently voiced the
belief that they had no rights left
except TO suffer in silence
AS specific examples OF the scenes
witnessed, the report contains the
following:
L. "A young woman, "a years old,
dying OF tuberculosis in a one-room
shack; an aged mother, partially
blind, lying across the foot OF the bed
and cropping for her daughters hand
the father growing blind from trach-
oma, lying on a bed 10 feet away.
2. A woman 45 years Old whose
husband had died OF tuberculosis. liv-
ing In a one-room hovel with four
children under iive years old, and all
the children suffering from trachoma:
not stick OF wood in the building
3. A one-room howell, in which IL
= ~ thayn 0hflhran fusn
babies-were living. the children all
suffering from tlachoma; an lS-year-
old girl, who does the cooking. Grip
pied with tuberculosis and SCARED
with scrofula
4. Billy Fineday and his wife very
old very wrinkled blind and abso-
lutely helpless, were on the floor of
a cabin. where friends almost as help
less as themselves were giving them
at least roof OF shelter They sold
their allotments and have lost all
trace OF them. They never knew de
scriptions OF the tracts the govern
ment gave them, and all efforts Of the
government agents TO learn who are
the present holders of the land have
failed. Their heritage has dropped
into a void"
This case says the government
report. lis almost typical Amid
these conditions, the committee found.
the land sharks piled their trade. lp
one house were found three women.
who although blind. were about to be
elected on a mortgage deal
The remarkable fact in connection
with the conditions at White Earth
is that these indians have upward OF
$4,000 600 In the United States treas.
ury. and that millions OF dollars OF
their own money have already been
spent ostensibly for their relief and
civilization.
The land sharks are drawn 10 these
Indians through the valuable timber
lands within the reservation. Full
blooded Indians cannot ALLEVIATE their
lands under the law, but mixed.
bloods can. Under the shadow Of the
mixed blood law deeds and mortgages
have been taken indiscriminately
from full and mixed hoods, adults
and minors, liquor and debauchery
aiding the plotters against the Ia
dians
The committee OF investigation ap-
pears to have merely drawn passing
attention TO the abuses, leaving them
TO go on unchecked The White Earth
situation is typical OF the task Com.
missioner Sells has ahead OF him
Despite alleged efforts to correct
abuses against the Indians, the slow
processes OF red tape-haxe- SO far
done little 20 remedy many OF the
terrible conditions revealed by the
Investigations last wear
Although Commissioners of Indian
Affairs Sells il in Oklahoma perfect.
ing plans TO check the liquor traffic
among Indians and the S1ting of the
estates OF minors OF the Five Tribes
no Improvement appears TO have been
made i'm the situation of the White
Earth Indians.