Ottawa County news. (Port Clinton, Ohio) 1931-1956, 1953-06-19

ner, the Rev. Jack Drake, noted
lecturer, traveller and missionary,
gave a clear cut picture of the life
and plight of the Indians in our
country when he spoke at the
Gypsum Community church, Fri
day evening, June 5.
The Rev. Drake lectured on
the work being done by Navajo
Missions, Inc, of Pennington,
New Mexico. He supplemented
his talk with colored slides bss.
most appealing and appalling was
the sound film showing the cour
ageous workings to save the lives
of sick. hungry people on the des-
ert lands of a reservation extend
ing into New Mexico, Arizona and
Utah.
There were pictures of little
Indian boy sleeping on the skin OF
dead sheep, other little ones
wrapped in blankets lying on the
ground or improvised boards for
beds. The people were shown to
be living in tents, some mud
packed and then when a rain
came along over the dry cactus
grown desert and washed the mud
off, they would be replaced with
mud packs again. We saw the In
dian mother roll and crush in her
crude way the hard dry corn for
mush, saw a family at dinner
with mush, bread and if they
could afford it a piece of mutton
We saw and heard where the In
liam wife came and asked Rev
Drake to make and place in a
box the body of her dead hus-
band who had been buried the
day before wrapped only in a
blanket, and the poor Indian
woman did not want the wild ami
mails to dig up and ravish the re-
mains of her beloved. We saw the
missionary putting away in like
manner the body of a new born
)abe.
Then there were the parents
who refused aid for their serious
ly i'll daughter calling instead for
the medicine man or witch doctor
who ran his fingers above the
body of the girl clu.ching some
hing that looked like a feather
and making muttering sounds. The
girl died but in another like case
the parents finally consented to
nave medical attention and Mrs
Drake and a nurse administered
serum that brought the tot out
If it in fine shape.
We learned that approximately
sc percent of the Indians on this
reservation and others like it die
before they reach the age of five
years, that tuberculosis is a
scourge among these people. One
can readily see why this would
De when the average yearly in
come per capita is only $4,000.
We asked the missionary Wheth-
ar the American government gave
any help to these people to which
he replied in a modest way and
With few words, "They receive So
cial security and welfare but no
subsidies" While he didn't say SO,
We knew this wasn't much and we
wondered why these people did
lot benefit from the latter par
icularly when they have been
forced to live in the barest re-
5ions of this country.
We wondered too, why in a
country set out to educate the
world, we have been overlooking
the plight of the first and only
rue Americans. We could see a
ong hard struggle ahead for the
missions in their drive for an or
phanage, homes and schools and
churches. We wished that pres
sure could be made to bear on
our officials in Washington to
help these people benefit from
public housing, sanitary and
health measures and that they
might receive wholesome, nutri-
Jional food so that they too could
have the vitality and energy to do
days work. One could see that
this would take planning and pa
tience especially since about three
fourths of the Indians do not
speak English.
The artwork all done by hand
was beautiful and the missionary
brought with him a beautiful rug
and two woven baskets
The brakes came here Friday