Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1888 — INDIAN CANNIBALISM. [ARTICLE]

INDIAN CANNIBALISM.

THE BED MEN OF THE NORTHWEST IN A STATE OF DESTITUTION. The Utah Commission’s Report on Polygamy Mormon Exporters and Theii Young Victims—A Dissertation of Interesting and Valuable News. [Winnipeg (Man.) special.] A terrible tale of starvation and destituI tion among the Indians come from the Peace River country. It comes in the form j of a petition to the Minister of the Interim ' for Canada and is signed by the Anglican i Bishop for that diocese, six clergymen and mission aries, and several Justices of the Peace. It is an official document passed by the synod of Athabasca Diocese. It sets out that owing to the great mortality of beavers and other small game the In<'ianp both last winter and summer have been in a perpetual state of starvation. Both the food supply of the Indians and their power of procuring clothing have been affected. They are now in a complete state of destitution and unable to provide themselves with clothing, ammunition, etc., for the winter. The petition says, among other things: The scarcity has greatly decreased the number of their dogs (so necessary to the Indian for traveling and hunting), thus seriously increasing the difficulty of obtaining a livelihood. In the Mackenzie River district there were several eases of death by starvation, and one or more of cannibalism. During last winter, among the Fort Chippewa Indians, between twenty and thirty starved to death, and the death of others was accelerated by want of food. A party of about twenty Beaver Indians had to be conveyed from Grand Prairie, near Dunvegan, Peace liiver, to Lesser Slave Lake, to prevent their starving to death. Some of them died after arriving there. “Within the personal krihwledge of tho undersigned,’’ says the petition, "many other Indians, Crees, Beavers, and Chippewas, at almost all points were there are missions or trading posts, would certainly have been starved to death but for the help furnished by the traders and missionaries at those places—furnished often at great personal inconvenience. Owing to all these facts, scores of families, having lost their heads by starvation, are now perfectly helpless, and must starve to death or eat one another unless help comes. People are terribly agitated over the anticipated fate of these poor people.” Heartrending stories of sufferings and cannibalism continue to come in.