The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-03-09
LABRADOR TRIBE
K|LLSITS INF IRM
w. B. Cabot Tells of Strange
Custom Followed by
Indians
BODIES
SOON DISAPPEAR
Wild Animals Probably Know Where
They Go Former BrattlebOrO Boy
Himself Had Narrow Escape on Trip
of Exploration i'm North Country.

! "sAu +AhAhA-sAS IODdDlS AAEioN
They Go - Former BrattlebOrO Boy
! Himself Had Narrow Escape ON Trip
of Exploration in North Country.
Is it right to kill your grandmother
when all her teeth have fallen out and she
J is unable to chew roast bear and when
her limbs are so feeble that she cannot
| keep up with the tribe on the march?
| Up in the wilds of Labrador the Mon
tagnais Indians, wandering tribe which
| inhabits the interior of that great. lone
land, have settled it in the affirmative, to
their own satisfaction.
| 1t has long been their practice to dis
| pose of the aged and infirm among them,
or those who have become insane or in
| other ways unprOductive members of So
ciety in this way.
| 1t was a Boston man, William Brooks
| Cabot, author, explorer and Indian ex-
pert, who in the course of a trip TO the
| interior of Labrador last summer, first
learned of this interesting blend of social
economics and practical religion, says an
| illustrated article in the Boston Sunday
| Herald. (NIr- Cabot is a brother of Miss
Mary X. Cabot and Mrs. Grace (CabOt)
Holbrook of BrattIeboro. a son of the late
| y. +. Cabot. He lived here in his boy
hoOd.)
Mr.. Cabot, who is Familiarity known to
| his friends as Doctor" although well
I
! that he would like to visit Labrador
again. He had been to the country twice
| already and his books on the subject, in
which he dealt in detail with the charac-
| teristlcs and customs of the Labrador In
dams have made him an authority on the
| subject.
In July, at the little settlement of St
| Augustine. on the shores of the Gulf of
| st. Lawrence, he Joined party of Mon
| tagnais Indians who were bound on q
h1,Yo tfs,ar Ewiye IN he
party made its way through the trackless
wilderness, navigating the rivers in canoes
where they could and portaginG their
outfit between the streams. At intervals
they camped and devoted their time to
hunting and fishing.
Where Hubbard Was Lost.
1t was a sterile and forbidden country,
seldom visited by white men. It was in
this region that Leonidas Hubbard, jr.
was lost and starved TO death some ID
years ago, and his two companions barely
escaped with their lives. Mrs. Hubbard,
with the greatest herOism, completed her
husbands work and wrote a book about
it which surpaSses any romance in graphic
interest.
On this journey Mr. Cabot first learned
of the interesting custom of the tribe of
putting its aged and weak members out
OF the way with bullets east from prop
NAiS blFSSSu CEuGii&tS. WHICH. III Ileit 1
opinion, gave the victims a clear passport |
to the happy hunting grounds and abb |
solved the men who did the shooting Of |
all further responsibility.
Joe. he go bug-house" (the narrator !
had picked the strong and idiomatic Eng |
lish OF the COAST and go for to shoot up |
the whole damn bunch" was the way one |
Indian candidly described an event of
this kind.
He no good. He eat all grub. Me
shoot him MAKO hr1fl & "a
All right now
What did you do with the body? Did
you bury itF' asked the American who |
heard the story.
=, No bury him. Leave him in trail. !
Soon 60"
Evidently the wolves and other beasts
of prey that roam the Labrador wilderness I
acted as undertakers.
The yOung Indian exhibited not the !
least consciousness of anv wrongdoing
II was the habitual tribal method OF set |
Ting the difficulty which had arisen His |
conscience was entirely clear and he |
deed.
The custom was hallowed by tradition
and 1t never occurred TO anyone that there
was anything wrong or Objectionable about
it,
Not until the Oblate fathers who came
and established missions along the coast
and undertook the work of converting the !
"
J he good fathers We're panied and scan
dallZed when they heard about it and ex-
planned to the duSky members of their
hockS that ii was very wrong indeed and |
that they must Immediately cease to use
up perfectly good bullets on grandmother. |
when she could no longer carry bundles on
the trail or on Cousin SOn-of-a-Iynx
when he went crazy in the wilderness and |
threatened to chop the rest of the outfit to
mince meat.
Tribe Is Dying Out.
Possibly the fathers have. by this time.
heard OF the manner in which their pro-
hlbitlOn was circumvented and have taken
steps TO stop the practice for good and
for all.
The chances are that it might have
settled itself before long. for the Indians
IN that region are rapidly dying out The +
white mans whiskey and the white mans
diseases are fully as potent as the white
mans crucifixes and the MOntagnais are
said to be doomed to extinction.
The Indians understood the WINS and
whereforeS rather imperfectly but they
were not an argumentative race They
listened respectfully to the injunctions of
the fathers and promised to save their
cartridges for non-human targets
Nevertheless, they remained firm in