Warren K. Moorehead,
Spec. U. S. Indian Agent.
It should be clear to all persons that those in authority should have informed these Indians that a trust patent lost did not mean the loss of property. By sending a small fee to Washington a duplicate trust patent would be issued to any Indian who could prove that he had lost his. Indians were allowed to remain in ignorance of this, and were led to believe that the trust patent was everything. Therefore, when they lost a trust patent they supposed they had lost their allotment.
The entire space assigned to this chapter could be devoted to a discussion of health conditions but it is too heart-rending to take up in detail. The Chippewa Indians are suffering from tuberculosis, scrofula, trachoma and other diseases. Thirty-two per cent of the children in the Government schools on examination by Government physician, Dr. Edwards, were found to have trachoma; fifty per cent of the Indians living at Pine Point have tuberculosis. Unless drastic remedies are adopted the Ojibwa will soon be a thing of the past. The Indian Office has built a hospital, and has rented of the Episcopal church a small one, yet these care for but a fraction of the sick.
The Catholic priest, Father Roman Homar, in charge of the Mission at Rice River, reported to me under date of April 29, 1910, that there was more suffering than ever before in his territory; that Indians died that winter, that many of the Indians were compelled to hunt rabbits, not for pleasure, but from necessity, and that practically all the rabbits on the reservation were killed. He exhausted his little fund and much of his own salary in caring for the unfortunate. Early in April he had utilized all the lumber at his disposal for the making of coffins, and for the last Indian that he buried, just previous to writing the letter, he made the coffin out of the church wood-box.
Rev. Father Felix, Catholic Missionary at Pine Point, and Rev. Wilkins Smith, Episcopal missionary at Twin Lakes, both wrote to me of the great suffering and poverty, sickness and death, and how their resources were taxed beyond their ability to meet the same, in order to relieve even such Indians as were connected with their various missions. The large orphan school near White Earth village is crowded.
Ojibwa Squaw Dance
Sung during the dance at Rice River, August, 1909. Recorded by W. K. Moorehead.
This is the favorite song of the squaw dance. During five evenings, when I listened to the music, and observed the ceremony of the dance, this song was rendered more frequently than any of those reproduced in Miss Densmore’s book. There are no words. The musicians, five to eight in number, sat around a large drum, beating time thereon and singing at the top of their voices. The repetition of the song continues for nearly an hour. After a short intermission the singers change to another air, but soon return to the favorite.
Gifts or favors are bestowed by dancers on their partners, and according to Indian etiquette the full value must be returned when one asks a person who has “favored him” to dance. The Indians never slight each other or return trinkets for valuables. That “right” is reserved to the white participants who once in a while take part.