The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1923-11-15
BOUND BY RED TAPE INDIANS WHOSE
SONS FOUGHT FOR j. s. STARVE.
Women In Thin Calico Dresses Hunt For Food.
Staff Correspondent Views First Hand Horror at Our
Back Door.

Senator Henrik Shipstead last week
on his return from northern Mime
sofa. reported the White Earth res
ervation Indians starving. The Star
Immediately sent Mr. Moody, staff
member, to White Earth to get the
facts. learn the cause and obtain the
opinion of the Indians and people of
the locality on what ought to be done.
The first article Of Mr.. Noodles re-
port follows:
By Thomas H. Noodle, in Min
nesota Daily Star, Monday, Nov
ember 5th.
White Earth, Mimi, November
5.-Minnesota has a white mans
burden. Ten hours ride by auto
mobile from the state capitol in St.
Paul there is a destitute nation. 1t
is 5000 miles nearer home than
the destitute nations or the orient.
Its people are the first Americans
of US all. They are the Chippewa
Indians of Minnesota.
Ninety.seven years ago, accord
ing to the records of the treaty of
Prairie du Chen, made in 1925,
they owned practically all the land
in the present states Of Minnesota
and Wisconsin, a part CT Michigan
and the country in the rich Red
River valley of North Dakota to
the Cheyenne river valley. Then
= they are estimated to have num-
berea more than 100, 1000. Today
there are about $4,000 people on
their tribal rolls. Of these little
more than 5000 are full bloods.
Dsbauchsd and Robbed.
Debauched, robbed, reduced to
pitiful extremes of poverty by a
process described in terms of the
federal government as relief and
civilization" hundreds of them
will die this winter unless immedi.
ate steps are not taken to aid them.
On the Leech Lake, Cass Lake,
Grand Portage, Fond du Lac, Bois
Fort. White Earth and other res.
ervatiops conditions are the same,
according to those who speak for
the Indians. Disease is pitifully
prevalent. Tuberculosis. and ira
choma scourge the people. Indians,
old and bed ridden, stoical, taci-
turn, suffering the pangs of hunger,
living in conditions of Undesirable
filth and squalor, who have aban'
doned hope of aid from the Great
White Father in Washington, lie
in log huts and shacks waiting for
the call of the Great Spirit.
Eyes Turned Toward Grave.
Their eyes are turned to the
graves of their ancestors. They
wait eagerly for the return of boys
and squaws from the hunting
trails where the only game is an
occasional rabbit or partridge.
Squaws whose flimsy calico
dresses are scant protection from
bitter winds fish desperately long
hours in lakes where winter is
beginning to set its seal, to keep
the wolf from the door. Game
has fled far from most of the res.
ervations.
These are the conditions in which
final scenes in one of the tragedies
of civilization, dictated by the
inexorable law of the survival OF
the fittest, are being enacted The
end is near, for white men who
have lived a half century and more
among the Indians say that in
another quarter of a century the
last of the full blood Indians in
Minnesota will have passed.
Soions Seek Relief.
Plight of the Indians has been
revealed through investigation
started by Congressman Knute
Wefald of Hawley and United
States Senator Henrik Shipstead