The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1914-01-20
INDIAN TRIBE
SLOWLY DYING,
STATES REPORT
White Earth Men. Their Lands
Gone, FAN Easy Victims To
All Kinds of Disease
GOVERNMENT PROBERS
FIND AWFUL CONDITIONS
Land Sharps Primarily to Blame
for Degeneraey of Once
Strong Race, They Say

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.-Reports
from the White Earth Indian reser.
walton indicate that the most incred-
ible conditions found by the sub com.
mittee OF congress few mQSfhs ago
still exist and that the rigors OF Win.
ter have found the Indian unfortn.
mates In the same pitiable condition.
The Following description OF por-
ton OF the White Earth reservation
Is taken from one. OF the most re.
cent reports
Scenes more pirlful 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 OF 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
single room, trying in vain 10 keep
out the intense cold. but succeeding
only In keeping out the fresh air.
with scanty bedclothos that reeked
with filth. In unbearable stencil ana
awful squalor little children almost
naked, aged women blind and help
less and men. once strong but now
broken by disease, lived life with
out hope
Our party consisted OF 10 or IL
persons. Our entrance into their
wretched huts late at night after they
had retired, and without even the
form of knocking, seemed 10 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 OH a bed 10 feet away.
2. A woman IS years old, whose
husband had died OF tuberculosis, liv-
ing in one-room howell with four
children under five years Old and all
the children suffering from tnchoma:
not stick of wood in the building
3. A one-room howell In which 10
persons-siX OF them children. two
babies-were living, the children all
suffering from trachoma. an lSyear
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 ahso-
lutely helpless were on the floor or
a cabin, where friends almost as help
less AS themselves were giving them
AT least roof OF shelter. They sold
their allotments and hcve 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 20 learn who are
the present holders OF the land have
failed. Their heritage has dropped
INTO Il Nolu.
This case" says the government
report. is almost typical Amid
these conditions, the committee found
the land sharks piled their trade. lp
one house We're found three women,
who although blind We're about to be
elected on a mortgage deal.
The remarkable fact in connection
with the conditions mt 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
bloodcd Indians cannot ALLEVIATE their
lands under the law, but mixed
boods 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 Observation-Disclosures In,
dams
The committee of Investigation ap-
UfulN W nave llltifiR Una IL ItaTNlh~
attention 10 the abuses. leaving them
TO 90 on unchecked. The White Earth
situation is typical OF the task Com
missioner Sells has ahead OF him.
Despite alleged erfOrts 10 correct
abuses against the Indians, the slow
processes OF red tape have so far
done little 20 remedy many of the
terrible conditions revealed by the
congressional Investigations last year,
Although Commissioner OF Indian
Affairs Sells is in Oklahoma perfect
ing plans 10 check the liquor traffic
among Indians and the S)ting OF the
estates Of minors OF the Five Tribes.
no Improvement appears TO have been
made in the situation OF the White
Earth Indians.
Miss Booth Better.