The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-07-29

thus happily solved. How to obtain
nourishing o was another problem to
be answered. Montana air Is bracing, a
tonic, an appetizer. They were very hun
CRY at meals when they sat down to
the scantily furnished table their ra-
tions were short rations Of corn meal and
a half dozen oranges which a dealer
brought because They are rotten. I cam
not sell them"
One day Father Lindesmith stopped a
little girl he met running down the
street, to inquire the aus Of her haste.
ten cents worth of liver for the nuns
she replied. With this as his next Sum
days text, Father Lindesmith raised
enough money to tide the sisters over
this condition.
Undeterred by scanty meals and lack
of almost all the comforts Of civilized
life, the UrsulineS opened their school,
Mother st. Ignatius having charge Of the
girls.
The next spring on the last Of March,
Mother Amadeus and three nuns set out
for the Tongue River reservation eighty
miles north of Miles City. They made
the journey in a government ambulance
drawn by mules, and for protection a n
escort of six soldiers was provided. IN
used to travel in a country where set
tiers were widely separated, they did not
take a lunch with them. At place
they had given them or bought a basket
of eggs. Bishop Brondel, who was with
them taught the nuns to break the shells
on the ambulance wheel, and swallow
the raw contents.
When they reached the reservation
after fording Tongue river MIN times
which stream the Indians say sis a crook
ed as a white mans tongue" they cam
to three small cabins set in a row, thS
largest measuring but 10 by % feet. Thu
fiat roofs were Of mud and the floors o
earth.
One of the cabins was occupied by TIT
priest, another was utilized as a church
and curtained of furnished the nun
with a day living room. The largest be
came the schoolroom by day, and Will
benches removed and the floor sprea'
with buffalo robes became the dormttory
Under such conditions was opened 81
Labre's Mission, the first of the five to b
established by Mother Amadeus within
our borders.
The pr%ivations endured by the nun
were no greater than many pioneer WON
en- had undergone voluntarily. This, how
ever, does not detract from the prais
due these sisters for their worthy efforts
Their services cannot be overestimateC
, They took int their schools Indian an
mixed blood girls and boys, and Strov
: to teach them cleanliness as well as thei
conception Of goodness. Being ladies c
5 culture and refinement, they instructe
? these wild ones" in manners, and /
z many instances made h girls excellen
7 houSekeepers and homemakers. This i
addition to the three RS" and more
a literary way, was a tremendous under
D taking.
Z Some of the difficulties they were Gale
E upon to overcome may be learned frol
the following account Of the opening
school:
I 'The children came in crowds and toe
: their seats on the benches that mornir
Z and, little by little, they were induced
put on the white mans clothes an
learn to read in the white mans prime
. But, let a word or a look offend then
n these wild ones Of nature would dart OF
o of the loo or window, run to the rive
pull of their clothing, and throw it baC
at the dignihed n astonished Moth
Ignatius, saying: There, we don't wal
x your old white mans Clothes And VIII
could she do but turn back to the cabt
y laugh to herself, and begin all over again