Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 269, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1916 — TO SAVE LIVES OF INDIAN BABIES [ARTICLE]

TO SAVE LIVES OF INDIAN BABIES

APPEAL MADE TO PRACTICALLY EVERY INDIAN AGENCY IN THE U. 8. WONDER PRIMITIVE PAPOOSE LIVES Carlisle School Gets Interesting Reports and Contrasts From the . Reservations Carlisle, Pa—ln response to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Sells’ appeal to superintendents of Indian schools, urging them to do their utmost to save the lives of Indian babies Superintendent Oscar H. Lipps of the Carlisle Indian school has received interesting information relating to aboriginal babies from practically every Indian agency. z Commissioner Sells believes that this campaign for better babies, the rescue of a race, calls for redoubled energy and zeal throughout the Indian service, for it means personal work and tireless patience. Some of the photographs of Indian babies cared for in primitive fashion present rare contrasts to those of the more fortunate little reds who have advantages of civilization, such, for example, as the children of Carlisle graduates. All are fascinating sped mens of babyhood, though, and the only wonder is that the primitive papoose ever lives to grow up. Dr. W. K. Callahan states that the papooses commonly come into the world well endowed physically, but old Indian customs of carelessness and neglect are responsible for many subsequent ills. The new born child-is usually wrapped up in an old blanket fol* the first ttfo or three weeks of his life and is not bathed until the mother is able to bathe it herself* Dr. Charles L. Zimmerman of the •Ponca agency, Oklahoma, believes that the first step in the instruction of the Indian mother as regards the health of her infant should be that of "proper feeding". An almost universal disease of Indian children is tuberculosis, and when one- considers that 99 per cent of all children of 10 years of age in the white race are said to have tubercular implantation,Tie can appreciate its danger and importance in the tepee. Forced feeding and a daily batli for these cases will do much to overcome an inherited weakened body. Bridget C. Keough, field matron, SL Xavier, Mont., reports that in the Big Horn Valley, on the Crow reservation, Indian mothers are learning to take better care of their bafiles. While some still listen to the medicine women, or old grandmother, when the baby is sick the majority go to a doctor for advice and try to follow suggestions as to cleanliness and diet. The Crow mother will not prepare a layette for her baby, as it is a superstition among them that the-baby will die—if its clothes are made in advance. Dr. Martin 11. Reiber of Arizona, writing concerning Hopi Indian babies remarks that the living quarters and conditions of this Indian are not such as would be conductive to the health of the infant, and consequently the death rate is extremely high, lake the entire family the infant reposes only on blankets or sheep pelts on a bare, hard floor of clay. The one room house necessitates its occupancy by the entire family day and night; a door or window, if they have one, is seldom kept open even in the mildest weather; remnants of foodstuffs often litter the floor, and facilities for the disposal of garbage are deplorably inadequate; and moreover, the Hopi frequently does not take kindly to any suggestion that might remedy the situation. The water supply is inadequate, as it usually has to be carried a mile or more on the backs of the women or borros, and is often used for culinary and other purposes when alive with various larvae and absolutely unfit for human consumption. Concerning the Apaches of Arizona, Tassie Mary Scott of the San Carlos Indian Agency, writes that the mothers bundle the babies into the carriers, tie them, allowing no room for the movement of the babies lower extremities (which is necessary for muscular development and exercise), or for the proper expansion of the abdominal muscles, or necessary respiration. They leave them so for hours, generally with a heavy blanket, thru which no air can penetrate, covering the whole carrier.