University of California Berkeley
THE ACTION OF CONGRESS
IN REGARD TO
THE PIEGAN INDIANS OF MONTANA.
THE Executive Committee of THE INDIAN RIGHTS ASSOCIA-
TION calls public attention to the following facts in rela
tion to the insufficient appropriations for the Piegan Indians,
and the suffering and loss of life consequent thereon.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT.
(The following is taken from the report of the Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs
for 1884, pages iv. v.)
" The newspapers of the country have been full of complaints
for months past, because certain Indians at the extreme north
ern agencies were suffering for food, and by inference the
cause of this suffering was attributable to neglect on the part
of this office ; while, on the contrary, the suffering of these
Indians for lack of food was attributable directly and entirely,
first, to the fact that the appropriations for them were not
made until three months after they should have been made ;
and second, that when made, the amount allowed was less
than was asked for by this office, and consequently insufficient
for the absolute wants of these Indians. The Blackfeet,
Blood, and Piegan Indians, and those at Fort Peck and Fort
Belknap Agencies, were driven to great straits to sustain life
during the winter and spring of 1883 and 1884, being com
pelled to kill many of their horses and young stock cattle for
food, and to resort to every possible expedient, such as eating
bark, wild roots, &c., and there is little doubt that many deaths
among them were the direct result of lack of food. Through-
out their severest trials, however, I am glad to be able to say
that they have been guilty of very few acts of lawlessness or
depredation."
(The Commissioner here states that the entire disappearance
of game has in their condition compelled them to depend for
the present on Government support.)
"Much has been done by them during the past year in
digging irrigating ditches, fencing and breaking fields, build
ing dwelling-houses, &c., and they are, with few exceptions,
diligently, and patiently struggling for independence; and
there is good reason to hope that, with proper assistance, in a
few years each household will own a team and have enough
land under cultivation, which, with a few stock cattle, w r ill be
sufficient to make a great majority of them nearly independ
ent. In view of all these circumstances, I believe that there
has never been a time in the history of these tribes when
judicious assistance and encouragement from the Government
would have been so beneficent to them as at present.
" I have called attention to these things before, and now do
so again, with the hope that Congress may see the necessity
of making appropriations for the Indian service, as to time and
quantity,, so as to prevent in the future all just complaints of
this character."
LETTER FROM MONTANA.
Professor Charles C. Painter, the representative of the Indian
Rights Association at Washington, visited the Piegan Indians
in the early fall of 1884 at the instance of the Association,
and personally investigated their condition. The following
letter to Dr. James E. Rhoads, vice-president, is his report to
the Association.
"FT. SHAW, MONT., October 28th, 1884.
" DEAR DR. RHOADS : I got in here last night on my way
back from the Piegan Agency, and could not get out on the
FT UBRAR
Xfl
stage as it was full, and so am taking a needed but enforced
rest before taking an all night and day stage ride to Helena.
"I have just written Commissioner Price as follows: 'I
have just returned from the Piegan Agency, and take the liberty
of saying that if the food now on hand, and yet on its way
thither under the Keyes contract and Powers special contract,
is to be exhausted as per your instructions on the 3ist of
March, there is great danger of starvation after that date, be
fore more food can be sent in.
" ' The roads are now in prime condition, dry and hard, yet
my light wagon cut in to the hubs in several places. As I
came down I met freight wagons, loaded with flour, which
were stuck in alkaline flats between Dupuyer and Muddy
creeks. I saw twenty-six mules on a single wagon unable to
haul it out, and the men busy with shovels trying to dig out.
Unless the season should be unusual, it will be all but impos
sible to get wagons through after the 1st of January until the
first or middle of June. Either more food must be started at
once, after Congress meets, or the supplies must be issued
with great caution, or the experiences of last winter, spring,
and summer must be repeated, an experience terrible to those
who endured it ; heartrending to those who witnessed or even
hear it, and disgraceful to those responsible for it, the details
and proportions of which can scarcely be exaggerated.
" ' I wish to say also that so far as you base calculations on
the twenty thousand pounds of corn recently delivered by
Powers, under special contract, you must deduct at least fifty
per cent, from the estimate if made on the supposition that it
is good. If I know nothing else, I do know something about
corn, and do not consider its food value to be more than twenty-
five per cent, grade corn. I do not believe it would germinate if.
planted ; it is chaffy, light, and musty. I met Captain Mole
on his way up to inspect it, and of course do not know what
he will say of it, but I know its purchase, even if good, is a
mistake, there being no mill to grind it, and it is not needed
for the stock. Cooked in the grain, but little of it would be
assimilated.
" * Allow me to suggest that, if the agent could have had a
j 1 iQKOti/VB HKT
few large caldrons or soup kettles, he could have greatly in
creased the value of his meagre supplies last year. Issued
daily as such, its nourishing quality would have been greatly
increased, and there would have been no waste.
"The suffering at Belknap would have been as great, from
all I can learn, as at Badger Creek if there had not been a
large number of soldiers at Fort Assiniboine. I have taken
the sworn testimony of two citizens, one of whom was in
the employ of the Diamond B., and the other of the Post,
as driver, a man who took me to Piegan, and has been with
me for the past six days, whom I believe to be a truthful man.
" ' These men independently declare and swear that the
Indians brought their squaws and daughters, even very
young girls, and hired them to white men for base purposes
for money with which they bought food from the Post trader ;
that they have seen themselves cases, more than fifty in num
ber, of fathers taking money from men who took their female
children, and they could hear their screams from the teepees
and bushes under the brutal usage they were receiving.
" ' I wish, Mr. Commissioner, you could go over the ground
and know fully the situation. Perhaps it only tortures you,
knowing, as I do, how your hands are tied, but you could
speak of these things more intelligently and with greater em
phasis.
" ' Of course I write this to you privately. I hope to see
you soon after Congress meets, and speak more fully.
" ' Yours Truly, &c.,
"C. C. PAINTER."
PUBLIC LETTER FROM CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF INDIAN
RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.
"PHILADELPHIA, December 23d, 1884.
" DEAR SIR : Your immediate attention is respectfully
called to the enclosed communications, which, taken in rela
tion to each other, will be readily understood. The Chairman
r
of the Sub-Committee of the House on Indian Appropriations,
Hon. John Ellis, has failed to comply with a distinct promise
made by him to a delegation of the Indian Rights Associa
tion. The result of this action has placed in extreme jeopardy
the lives of many of the Montana Indians. So far as we can
now gather from Professor Painter's personal investigations, up
wards of four hundred of these people died, during the past
season, of starvation, owing to the failure of Congress to appro
priate supplies in time. Unless prompt action be taken there
is grave danger of a recurrence of this sad state of affairs.
These facts should be known to the public. Personal letters,
addressed to Hon. Samuel J. Randall, Chairman of the Com
mittee of the House on Appropriations, and to Hon. John
Ellis, Chairman of Sub-Committee on Indian Appropriations,
asking an explanation of this matter, will be very valuable.
Action, to be effective, must be prompt.
" Respectfully,
" HERBERT WELSH,
" Corresponding Secretary I. R. A."
" INDIAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION,
" OFFICE, No. 1316 FILBERT STREET,
" PHILADELPHIA, PA., December ijth, 1884.
" DEAR SIR : I write to you concerning a matter of great
importance, and one deserving instant attention. A Commit
tee of the Indian Rights Association, composed of Clement
M. Biddle, General S. C. Armstrong, Robert Frazer, Professor
Painter, and Herbert Welsh, on Friday, December I2th, 1884,
waited on the Indian Appropriation Committee of the House.
Of this Committee Mr. Ellis of Louisiana is Chairman. Our
object was to present some practical suggestions as to Indian
appropriations for the coming year, so as to influence in the
right direction the work of this Committee, and thereby in
crease the efficiency of the whole Indian service. It is not
necessary for me to dilate upon the vital importance of this
move on our part. Before waiting on the Committee the
members of our delegation met at the Ebbitt House, and
arranged our work in two parts: First, a brief set of sugges
tions, classified under four heads. Second, an amplification of
the foregoing, backed by reason for which the suggestions had
been made. The points contained in our first paper were as
follows : I. Request for an appropriation of $50,000, to be
made immediately available to meet the wants of the starving
Indians of Montana. II. Increased appropriations for schools;
$175 per pupil necessary (exclusive of transportation) for first-
class industrial training. Every Indian child should imme
diately be placed in school. III. Such an increase of agents'
salaries as will enable the Department to obtain and retain
high-grade men. IV. Increased pay for Indian police, and
sufficient pay for judges of courts of Indian offenses.
" At first our efforts to gain a hearing from Mr. Ellis seemed
likely to be unsuccessful, but at last we gained an audience
from him and Mr. Ryan. I was chosen to speak for our
Committee. All of us were surprised at the result of this in
terview. Mr. .Ellis and Mr. Ryan, who at first seemed hardly
disposed to give us a hearing, manifested such interest in
what we had to say that our conference, instead of lasting
but a few moments, was prolonged for more than an hour.
As to the question of the starving Indians of Montana, both
Mr. Ellis and Mr. Ryan said that so soon as the recommen
dation of Mr. Price for appropriation of $50,000 reached their
Committee from the Treasury Department, through which the
law required it first to pass, they would act upon it instantly.
In two days after that the matter should be finished. Mr.
Ellis said the starvation of the Montana Indians last year was
an ' infamy.' We felt that the position of the Committee on
this point was altogether a strong one, and that it was neces
sary for us to press Mr. Price's recommendation through the
Treasury Department.
"Regarding the question of agents' salaries, both Mr. Ryan
and Mr. Ellis admitted that there should be an increase in
order to secure efficient men; but they thought there would be
opposition to such an effort in the House. Regarding the
second point, these gentlemen favored $175 per pupil appro-
priated annually for the high-grade industrial schools. On
the final points, touching an increase of salaries for Indian
police force, I think there was a disposition on the part of
the Committee to allow things to remain as they were. I
told them how valuable the police had proved under Agent
McGillycuddy, at Pine Ridge, and that their efficiency prob
ably saved an outbreak. I think this statement produced its
effect.
"The attitude assumed by Mr. Ellis and Mr. Ryan towards
us was all that we could desire. It was one of intelligent in
terest. I think they recognized that our statements were
those of men who spoke from personal experience, and who
were thoroughly able to substantiate their assertions. Dur
ing our conversation Mr. Ellis asked me whether I was an
Indian Inspector, or whether I had any official position ? I
replied that I was only a citizen of the United States, and had
no personal ends to serve. I think he was satisfied that the
aim of our Committee was disinterested.
" Mr. Ellis thanked us for for our statement, and said that
he was always glad to receive information on such matters.
" The members of the Indian Committee likewise expressed
a willingness to do all in their power to suppress traffic in
liquor with the Indians.
" We placed our full statement in writing in the hands of
the Committee.
" Let me add a word of suggestion at the conclusion of this
letter. The real value of this journey to Washington will de
pend largely on the amount and kind of publicity given to it.
The amount of attention paid to our suggestions by the mem
bers of this Committee (suggestions which are in themselves
of the highest moment) will depend on what the papers and
the public say regarding them. I believe Mr. Ellis and Mr.
Ryan are sincerely desirous of carrying the suggestions into
effect, but they should be supported by public opinion. Will
you not kindly try to get these facts in those papers which
are accessible to you ? Editors of our daily papers have been
most valuable allies in recording and commenting upon each
step of progress in our work. They will render us an inesti-
8
mable service by drawing public attention to this great question
of Indian Appropriations, which is one of immediate and vital
importance.
"Very Respectfully Yours,
"HERBERT WELSH,
" Corresponding Secretary I. R. A.
"N. B. Personal letters addressed to Mr. Ellis, as Chairman,
or to other members of the Sub-Committee of the House on
Indian Affairs, urging the adoption of enclosed suggestions,
will be especially valuable. Action should be taken with the
utmost promptitude."
" SUGGESTIONS FROM COMMITTEE ON BEHALF OF INDIAN RIGHTS
ASSOCIATION, RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED TO HON. MR. ELLIS,
CHAIRMAN OF SUB-COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE ON INDIAN AP
PROPRIATIONS.
" I. An appropriation of $50,000, to be used by the Commit
tee of Indian Affairs for relief of Montana Indians. Immedi
ate action to be urged to prevent starvation.
" II. Adequate support for Indian schools. At the rate of
$175 and transportation per pupil in all first-class industrial
training schools.
" Prompt action should be taken by Congress for the educa
tion of all Indian children.
" III. Agents' salaries should be increased so as to secure
competent men as agents.
" IV. Increased pay for Indian police and judges of Indian
courts.
" More stringent measures for the suppression of whisky
traffic to the Indians.
"(Signed) C M. BIDDLE,,
" ROBERT FRAZER,
" C. C. PAINTER,
" S. C. ARMSTRONG,
" H. WELSH,
" Corresponding Secretary I. R. A.
"DECEMBER I2TH, 1884."
"WASHINGTON, D. C, December i8th, 1884.
" MY DEAR WELSH : You remember that both Mr. Ellis
and Mr. Ryan, who heard us by listening to our suggestions
the other day, promised us that as soon as the deficiency
estimate for the Montana Indians could be dislodged from
the Department and brought to them they would introduce
a joint resolution immediately and see that it was passed
within two days.
" It would weary you to go over the vexatious delays and
protracted efforts by which this dislodgment was effected;
suffice to say that I got it to the Speaker of the House yes
terday, late in the P. M. It was reported by him to the
House, deferred to Mr. Ellis' Committee, and ordered to be
printed.
" I saw both Mr. Ellis and Mr. Ryan after it came over, and
they both explicitly promised again that they would act upon
it this morning and put it through without delay.
" I also saw Mr. Dawes this morning, who said that he
would take it at once, when it had passed the House, and put
it through the Senate.
" I saw a fair ending to all my hard labors for these poor
people. But hear the conclusion.
" I saw Mr. Ellis after the meeting of the Committee, and
asked if he brought the matter before them. He said bluntly
that he had not and would not. He had given them $100,000
deficiency last winter, and he wanted to know what was done
with it. He had given money for irrigating ditches, and
seemed to think they might eat the ditches, I suppose, for
certainly there was little chance that an appropriation for that
purpose made last July could have yielded a crop for this
winter's supply.
" He wanted to know whom I represented, and thought the
Indians had rather too many friends about here.
" Well, the matter seems settled. The agent has instruc
tions to exhaust his supplies on the 3ist of March. It will be
too late to secure legislation now in time to avert the danger
10
that stares this poor people in the face. May God pity them f
An appeal must now be made to the country.
" Yours Truly,
"C. C. PAINTER,
"Representative of the Indian Rights Association
at Washington, D. C"
RESPONSIBILITY FOR STARVATION AMONG THE PIEGANS.
(An open letter to Mr. Ellis from Prof. Painter.)
" GREAT BARRINGTON, MASS., December 24th, 1884.
" To the Hon. E. John Ellis, Chairman of Sub- Committee Indian
Appropriations, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.
" SIR : My surprise and astonishment were so great the
other morning because of your sudden change of purpose re
garding the " deficiency estimate " for the relief of certain
Montana Indians, that I could not, in the brief time allowed
me, answer your questions. You had only the evening be
fore repeated to me the explicit promise made by you and
Mr. Ryan to the Committee of the Indian Rights Association,
on the 1 2th inst, that you would, just as soon as the estimate
reached your Committee, introduce and secure the passage of
a joint resolution appropriating the sum asked for.
" You were informed in the letter from the acting Secretary
of the Interior, which accompanied this estimate, and which
was referred with it to your Committee, that the agent at the
Blackfeet Agency had been instructed by the Department to
exhaust his supplies by the 3ist of March, and that unless
supplies to meet the deficiency were sent in by the I5th of
January, that it would be all but impossible to get them in
through that country in time to prevent starvation.
" Certainly nothing contained in this letter was calculated
to lessen the urgency of the action which was sought from
you, and which you had so explicitly promised.
II
" I fear that no importunity can now secure action in this
matter which will save these poor people from. extreme suffer
ing, and it is not with the hope of averting this, but with the
purpose rather of locating responsibility for it, that I proceed
to answer your questions : (i.) How did it happen that there
was such suffering among them ; and (2.) what has become
of the money ($100,000) appropriated last winter for their
relief?
" I. It appears that the Department asked for the support
of these Indians (food and clothing), for the year ending June
3Oth, 1884, the sum of $260,000, and that Congress, at the
suggestion of your Committee, gave $176,000, being $84,000
less than the Department deemed necessary. It may be well
to say in this connection that the sum asked for was based
upon the expectation that game would be as abundant as
in years past, which proved a mistake, as none was to be
found.
" The deficiency created by the action of your Committee
was $84,000 ; the utter failure of all crops by reason of frost,
drought, &c., and the entire absence of game, threatened this
people with absolute starvation. Senator Vest and Delegate
Maginnis reported this condition of things at the very open
ing of the last session of Congress. The President called
the attention of Congress to the facts as communicated to him
by the Secretary of the Interior, who asked for $138,000 to
meet the emergency. Special Inspector Howard appeared
before your Committee and informed you of what he had just
seen among these people, and you introduced a joint resolu
tion the next day, appropriating $50,000 to this purpose. The
Senate amended this and appropriated $100,000. If you are
doubtful as to your responsibility for the non-concurrence of
the House in this amendment, I will respectfully refer you to
the Congressional Record for February ist, 1884, pages 183
and 184. Mr. Maginnis related what he had seen and heard
in a personal visit to these people a few months previous, and
was sure that at least $100,000 was both needed and asked
for. Mr. Chase was confident that the Department had asked
for $138,000.
12
" Your assertion, made with great positiveness, and reiter
ated, that your Committee had given every dollar that had
been asked for by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, caused
the House to reject the Senate amendment, and a delay en
sued before you were forced to correct a mistake which was
fatal to many poor starving Indians, and so, after a delay of
two months after it was informed of the facts, Congress ap
propriated about three-fourths of the sum asked for.
" That this was not sufficient appears from a mild statement
in the last report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who
says : ' There is little doubt that many deaths amongst them
(these Montana Indians) were the direct result of lack of food/
" During a recent visit to the Blackfeet Agency the agent
informed me that he issued during the spring and early sum
mer from four to six burial boxes per day for some time, and
that no money would induce him to witness again the scenes
through which he had passed during those fearful months.
It was estimated that four hundred of the Indians of that
Agency, which numbered not more than twenty-four hundred
or twenty-six hundred, died from want of food.
"At Fort Belknap the suffering would have been just as
great but for the fact that it is near a large military post, and
that the men brought their wives and daughters even little
girls and prostituted them to the whites for money with
which to purchase food.
" This, I agree with you, is ' an infamy/ one for which, as
Chairman of the Sub-Committee of Appropriations for Indian
Affairs, who cut down estimates, who delayed action, and who
has now deliberately refused to report a resolution appropri
ating for the deficiency for this year, the country will hold
you responsible.
" The answer to your second question is not hard to find.
Divide the sum of money appropriated to feed and clothe
these people, fourteen thousand of them in round numbers,
and you will have for this purpose about three and one-third
cents per diem, per cap. ; a sum which might be used hon
estly for such a purpose without raising such strong sus
picions that it had been wasted that you are forced, as a
13
prudent public officer intrusted with grave responsibilities,
to thrust aside with contempt the estimate of the Interior
Department, and the urgent cry that there will be another
/infamy' unless you act at once, and say you must know
how this has been expended before you will ask for any
more.
"For the year ending June 3Oth, 1885, the Department
asked for these same Indians, for food and clothing, $275,000;
acting under your advice, Congress has appropriated $243,000 ;
that is $32,000 less than the needed sum.
" You have before you the facts that $50,000 is needed to
prevent the infamy of starvation again ; that the supplies at
one agency will be exhausted on the 1st of April next, and
that the supplies must be sent in by the middle of January.
Your promise to the Committee, composed of Gen. Armstrong,
Messrs. Biddle, Welsh, and Frazer, of Philadelphia, was ex
plicit that you would act upon these facts as soon as they
reached your Committee. But this, the next morning after
they did reach you, you flatly refused to do until you had
satisfactory answers to your questions.
" These I have attempted to answer, whether satisfactory or
not I cannot say, but with facts from the Official Record.
" Your argument that you had given money for irrigating
ditches, and that these people ought to do something to sup
port themselves, is fully met by the fact that this bill was not
approved until the 4.th of July last, and consequently practical
relief for those whom it was designed to. aid could not be
derived in so short a time. Your remark that ' the Indian
seems to have too many friends about here ' betrays, I fear,
the animus by which you are controlled. As all known
methods for securing relief for these Indians from your Com
mittee have been exhausted, I am forced to appeal to our cit
izens at large, who, I am confident, do not desire either that
these people shall starve or be forced to prostitution to save
themselves from such a fate, and so I send these answers to
your questions to the country at large.
Yours, &c.,
(Copy) C. C. PAINTER."
PETITION.
No. 1316 FILBERT STREET,
PHILADELPHIA, PA., December 27th, 1884.
" Hon. Samuel J. Randall,
" SIR : We, the undersigned, members of the Executive
Committee of the Indian Rights Association, desire with all
respect to call your attention to the following facts, and beg
that you will give them immediate consideration.
"On Friday, December I2th, 1884, Clement M. Biddle,
General S. C. Armstrong, Robert Frazer, Charles C. Painter,
and Herbert Welsh, on behalf of the Indian Rights Associa
tion, waited on the Sub-Committee of the House on Indian
Appropriations. The Chairman of this Committee, Hon. John
Ellis, and the Hon. Thomas Ryan were present and listened
to the statements presented by the above-named members of
the Indian Rights Association. The principal request made on
behalf of that Association, and the first presented along with
three others, was that an appropriation of $50,000 should be
passed by Congress and immediately made available to relieve
the threatened starvation among the Indians of Montana. We
will here state for your information, that during the past spring
and early summer, great destitution and loss of life was occa
sioned among the Piegans and other tribes of Indians resi
dent in Montana, owing to the failure of Congress to appro
priate money in sufficient amount and requisite promptness to
meet their necessities. In his annual report for the year
1884, the Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs states
that the destitution of these Indians, during the past winter
and spring, was extreme, and admits that ' there is little doubt
that many deaths were the direct result of lack of food.'
" Professor C. C. Painter, who, as a representative of the
Indian Rights Association, visited Montana during the past
month of October, states that upwards of four hundred deaths
15
resulted from starvation among the Indians. At Fort Belknap
the Indians only saved themselves from a similar fate by the
prostitution of their wives, daughters, and even young female
children, to the whites. It is unnecessary for us to give you a
description of these horrors, as we are led to believe that you
have already in your possession a copy ,of Professor Painter's
original statement regarding them. It was the earnest belief of
the delegation of gentlemen from the Indian Rights Associa
tion that Commissioner Price's request for an appropriation of
$50,000 should be immediately granted, as supplies at the
Piegan Agency will be exhausted by March 3ist, 1885. After
that date there will be great danger of starvation among the
Indians, as the condition of the roads will prevent the hauling
of freight to the Agency until June or July. We present these
facts to you, in order that you may fully understand the
gravity of the situation.
" When the request for this appropriation of $50,000 (in
order to meet the deficiency) was presented to Mr. Ellis and
to Mr. Ryan, these gentlemen replied that so soon as the es
timates from the Interior Department had passed through the
Treasury Department, they would immediately act upon them,
recommending a joint resolution by which the money might
be made immediately available. Mr. Ellis stated that the
starvation of the Montana Indians last winter was an infamy,
and that he would do all in his power to prevent the threat
ened disaster during the coming season ; that in two days after
the estimates were through the Treasury Department all
necessary action would have been taken. The members of
the delegation from the Indian Rights' Association were en
tirely satisfied with the position taken by Mr. Ellis and Mr.
Ryan, and by the promise of immediate favorable action when
the estimates were before their Committee. In view of this
promise, so explicitly made, and which was given with such
apparent sincerity, we, who now address you, must express
astonishment, and, in the absence of any adequate explanation,
a sense of deep indignation at the course which Mr. Ellis has
since thought fit to adopt. The members of our delegation,
believing that Mr. Ellis spoke in good faith, immediately ex-
i6
erted themselves to fulfill their part of the contract. In this
aim, thanks to the earnest and patient efforts of Professor
Painter, they were successful. Professor Painter's own words,
contained in a letter addressed to Herbert Welsh, under date
of December i8th, 1884, will best depict the progress of events
and the extraordinary position therein assumed by Mr. Ellis.
The following is Professor Painter's letter :
" ' WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. iSth, 1884.
" ' MY DEAR WELSH : You remember that both Mr. Ellis
and Mr. Ryan, who heard us by listening to our suggestions
the other day, promised us that as soon as the deficiency esti
mate for the Montana Indians could be dislodged from the
Department and brought to them, they would introduce a
joint resolution immediately and see that it was passed within
two days.
r * It would weary you to go over the vexatious delays
and protracted efforts by which this dislodgment was effect
ed; suffice to say that I got it to the Speaker of the House
yesterday, late in the P. M. It was reported by him to the
House, referred to Mr. Ellis' Committee, and ordered to be
printed.
" ' I saw both Mr. Ellis and Mr. Ryan after it came over,
and they both explicitly promised again that they would act
upon it this morning, and put it through without delay. I also
saw Mr. Dawes this morning, who said that he would take it
at once, when it had passed the House, and put it through
the Senate.
" ' I saw a fair ending to all my hard labors for these peo
ple. But hear the conclusion.
" ' I saw Mr. Ellis after the meeting of the Committee, and
asked if he brought the matter before them. He said bluntly
that he had not and would not. He had given them $100,000
deficiency last winter, and he wanted to know what was done
with it. He had given money for irrigating ditches, and
seemed to think they might eat the ditches, I suppose, for
certainly there was little chance that an appropriation for that
purpose made last July could have yielded a crop for this
winter's supply.
" ' He wanted to know whom I represented, and thought
the Indian had rather too many friends about here.
" ' Well, the matter seems settled. The agent has instruc-
tions to exhaust his supplies on the 3ist of March. To
secure legislation now in time to avert the danger that stares
this poor people in the face, an appeal must now be made to
the country.
" 'Yours Truly,
"'C. C. PAINTER.'
" In conclusion, sir, we desire to make an explicit state
ment regarding our position in this matter of Government
support for Indians. We heartily approve, as a general policy,
of a gradual diminution in the amount of rations given to In
dians, and an increase in the means furnished them for becom
ing self-supporting, whereby they may in the shortest possible
time be rendered independent of the Government. But in
the case in question no adequate opportunity has been
afforded these Indians to attain this end. The game on which
they formerly subsisted has suddenly disappeared, and they
have not had such instruction in civilized pursuits as will en
able them to depend upon their own efforts for livelihood.
We are of the opinion that it is alike an active justice to the
Indians, and to the best interests of the country, to provide
food for these people until a fair opportunity has been given
them to provide for themselves.
" We feel constrained to say that the people of the United
States, in our estimation, do not approve of any action upon
the part of Congress by which these people, whom the nation
is abundantly able to care for, shall be condemned to starva
tion or forced to save themselves from such a fate by the sac
rifice of their innocent women and children to gratify the lust
of degraded whites. Such a course the best men and women
in this land will regard under present circumstances as inde
fensible, ignoble, and unworthy the honor of the nation. We,
as citizens, utter our respectful and solemn protest against the
action of Mr. Ellis. We not only -hope but believe that you
will aid us in making this protest effective ; that you will so
use your legitimate influence with Mr. Ellis, as Chairman of
your Sub-Committee, that he may be induced to reconsider his
action, and thus secure the fulfillment of his promise, and, if
i8
it be not now too late, the appropriation of the needed funds
in time to avert the recurrence of starvation among the In
dians of Montana.
" We remain, sir, with very great respect,
" Your obedient servants,
" DR. JAMES E. RHOADS, Vice Pres., W. HEYWARD DRAYTON,
" JOHN WELSH, W. W. FRAZIER, JR.,
" CHAS.. E. PANCOAST, CLEMENT M. BIDDLE,
" ROBERT FRAZER, EFFINGHAM B. MORRIS,
" HENRY S. PANCOAST, THOS. STEWARDSON,
" J. T. JOHNSON, J. RODMAN PAUL,
" C. STUART PATTERSON, HERBERT WELSH."
This appeal is now made in the public statement of the
above facts.
DECEMBER 2/th, 1884. *
JANUARY 6th, 1885.
The following telegram was received this date by the Execu
tive Committee:
"WASHINGTON, D. C., January 6th, 1885.
" To Robert Frazer, 209 South Third Street,
" Fifty thousand dollars just appropriated by House for
immediate use for support of Indians at Crow, Fort Belknap,
Fort Peck, and Blackfoot agencies.
(Signed) "CHAS. O'NEILL."
(From NEW YORK TRIBUNE, January yth, 1885.)
" FOOD FOR THE STARVING PIEGANS.
" By Telegraph to The Tribune,
" WASHINGTON, January 6th, 1885.
" The Piegan Indians in Montana who have survived the
starvation process to which they have been subjected by the
refusal of Congress, at its last session, to appropriate money
enough to provide for their subsistence, are to be fed. The
House Committee on Appropriations this morning suddenly
and unanimously awoke to the necessity of prompt action,
and instructed Mr. Ellis to report and ask the House to
pass a joint resolution appropriating $50,000 to be immedi
ately available for the purchase of subsistence stores for the
destitute Indians in Montana. In presenting the resolution
to the House Mr. Ellis said that the appropriation was
urgently recommended by the Secretary of the Interior, the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Indian agents in Montana,
and the officers of the army stationed in the vicinity of the
Indians. Mr. Ellis said that there were fifteen thousand
of the destitute Indians, and that " hundreds of them have
starved absolutely to death " on account of the failure of
Congress to appropriate an adequate sum of money for
their subsistence. He did not mention, however, what every
careful reader of The Tribune knows to be the fact, that a suffi
cient sum was asked by the Indian Bureau a year ago, and
that the House reduced the amount. That the Appropriations
Committee had only to ask in order to have the appropriation
granted was shown by the fact that the House unanimously
adopted the joint resolution without debate."
20
(TRIBUNE Editorial.)
" Friends of the Piegans will doubtless be able to take steps
now to prevent these poor Indians from starving. Congress
has suddenly realized their . needs, and has appropriated
$50,000 to buy them food. Credit can certainly be obtained
on the strength of the vote, and the purchase of the supplies
must be hastened by all possible means. There is no use,
perhaps, to inquire at this time w T hy this matter did not re
ceive attention before. The unanimous consent of the House
to the resolution from the Committee on Appropriations indi
cates that the Representatives generally have no wish to starve
the Indians to death. Somebody has evidently been suddenly
stirred up, and the process was undoubtedly hastened by the
praiseworthy activity of the Indian Rights Association.''
THE SENATE.
(Telegram from Senator Bayard.)
"WASHINGTON, D. C, January 7th, 1885.
Hon. John Welsh, 304. Walnut street,
" Joint resolution to relieve Piegans has just passed.
"T. F. BAYARD."
JANUARY Qth, 1885.
