CHAPTER XXIX.

STARVATION AMONG THE PIEGANS. SCHOOL FOR INDIAN GIRLS.

The year, 1883-84, from fall to early summer, was a sad, melancholy one for the Piegans, more than one-third of the while tribe perishing from starvation. That we do not exaggerate, is evident from the official report of David Urguhart, Jr., whom his Excellency, Governor Crosby, sent to investigate the facts in the matter, and by whom the following figures were copied from the Agency rolls:

"In August, 1883," says the report, "the heads of families that drew rations from the Agency represented 3,144 souls; while on the corresponding day of 1884, the number of whom rations were issued was 2,281. In reality," adds the report, "the number of Indians does not probably exceed 2,000 at the present date." Whence the difference of more than one-third? "The mortality among them," declares Mr. Urquhart, " has been ten times as great as it should be in the absence of contagious disease." Out of Little Crane's family of fourteen, six died. Little Bull counted six dead in his family of nine, and so on of the rest, there being few, if any family at all, that did not lament the loss of one or more members carried off b y starvation.

Father Prando was among them most of this time, and his heart bled at the harrowing scenes before him. What a sad, sad spectacle, to see a whole people tottering to their graves for want of something to eat!

Two pounds of meat and some two pounds of flour made up a week's allowance for each adult and was all the sustenance they had. Occasionally, some did not get even that little in two weeks. The scant pittance was soon devoured, lasting barely two days, and for the rest of the week they had to live on air and sunshine. Those who had strength enough to do so, scoured the neighboring ranges, and supported themselves for awhile on cattle that had died from exposure, want of feed, and even disease.

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As will be seen directly, the writer had occasion to go among those most wretched Indians hardly a month after Mr. Urquhart's visit. We had thus every opportunity, not only of verifying the correctness of his report to Governor Crosby, but also of seeing for ourselves some of the distressing effects of the famine. Nor was there need of a medical eye or any professional training to discover them, as they were but too strikingly visual in the gaunt, thin forms, that made skeletons of old and young alike.

But whence such a desperate state of affairs in this land of plenty, among the most generous of all peoples, and under the most liberal Government on earth? The greediness of the frontier man, the dishonesty of officials, as well as the cabals of scheming politicians will have to answer for it. Through the conspiracy of these three elements, the Piegans were confined within the limits of a barren country, utterly unfit to support human life, not even the life of an Indian. Further, the real condition of these poor wretches had been misrepresented time and again to the Government at Washington. The worthy in charge, at this very time, had stated in his annual report to the Department, that these Indians "were cultivating 800 acres of land and were in a fair way to become self-supporting;" whereas, as a matter of fact, not as many as ten acres had been put under cultivation, and "there is no evidence," declares Mr. Urquhart, "that there were ever more," Further, "there being no game of any kind in this section, the Piegans were thus wholly dependent for every mouthful of food on the Government rations." How could the general Government at Washington come to the relief of the poor wretches and make timely provision for them under the circumstances, when their wants were denied or palliated by its own officials on the spot?

We were stationed at this date at St. Ignatius, and from correspondence with Father P. Prando, felt prompted to submit to the Indian Department, through the Catholic Indian Mission Bureau, what a benefit it would prove for the Blackfeet if some of their children could be educated in the flourishing Indian Schools at St. Ignatius. Our proposal met with the approval of the Washington authorities, and we were directed to carry it out. This is what brought us among the Piegans at the time

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indicated. And it is but history to add here, that through Father P. Prando, who was highly esteemed and beloved by the whole tribe, our mission proved successful. Quite a number of Blackfeet or Piegan youths were brought over to St. Ignatius, where they had all the advantages of a home and school education for several years.

The Fathers of St. Peter's Mission had been contemplating for a good while to supplement the school for Indian boys with a school for Indian and half-breed girls. This important measure was carried out at this time, when a band of Ursuline Nuns arrived at the Mission to conduct the new department.

In 1885 there were in the Mission School, all told, thirty contract pupils, that is Indian pupils partly paid for by the Government. The number was added to at different times, until the children counted as even two hundred, 190 of them being provided for by the Indian Department at the monthly rate of $9.00 per pupil. The institution has today accommodations for 400 children. The buildings are substantial, being stone; while the school facilities leave nothing to be desired, completes as they are, and up to date in every particular.

The Ursuline Nuns have made St. Peter's Mission the headquarters of the Order in Montana. Their new home, a large stone structure, now nearing completion, would be a credit to any place in the Northwest. Here they have also a Novitiate for the training of young ladies who feel called to join the Sisterhood, where in they may devote their whole lives to God's service in the work of education and the other pursuits proper to the Order.

After spending several years among the Blackfeet, Father P. Prando in 1884 came to St. Ignatius. His place among the Indians, in the meanwhile, was assigned to Father Gaspar Genna and other members of the Society.

And now, having given the history of the patent stock, there remains to speak of its offspring, that is, of the two Missions, of the Holy Family, and of St. Paul, both recently established. But before proceeding, we cannot forgo the pleasure of mentioned here once more the name of Thomas Moran, a faithful steward, who worked for the Fathers of St. Peter's a number

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of years. No one was ever more friendly to them or more devoted to the welfare and success of the Mission. This hard-working old-timer is still living in that vicinity, where he has permanently settled, and he is today the happy father of several children, to whose lot could never fall a nobler and richer inheritance than to copy and reproduce in themselves the industry and solid Christian virtues of their father of their mother.

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