INDIANS AMONG THE VICTIMS
TWENTY-THREE CHIPPEWAS PERISHED IN FOREST FIRES
Their Charred Bodies Found Near Pokegama, Minn.—Loss of Life Now Estimated at Seven Hundred—Burned Lumber District Will Probably Become an Agricultural One—Homeless and Helpless Sufferers Will Be Given Farms.
POKEGAMA, Minn., Sept. 7.—A courier brings a report that the bodies of twenty-three Chippewa Indians, braves, squaws, and papooses, lie upon the baked sands between here and Opstead, a small settlement on the eastern shores of Lac Mille Lacs. They are scattered over ten miles of country, and will in all probability become food for buzzards and wolves, as the country where they are is too far from civilization for burial ceremonies.
The Indians left their reservation two months ago, and built a hunting lodge along one of the forks of Shadbridge Creek. Chief Wascouta was the “Big Chief: of the party, and he perished with his followers.
The first body found by the courier was that of an infant scarcely a year old. Then came those of two squaws and five children. They had evidently turned west when the fires swept through the forest.
A ride of a mile brought the courier to a pile of ashes, which marked the site of the hunting camp. There was one teepee, the shriveled rawhide thongs marking the place where it stood. Around it were the ruins of a half dozen birchwood-bark shanties and protruding from the ashes were the fused barrels of rifles and shotguns. Then for five miles the pathway was lined with charred bodies.
BARNUM, Minn., Sept. 7.—Dr. Cowan, Coroner of Pine County, believes that the death list in this county will reach 700. Reports come slowly from the searching parties. It is impossible to give a correct statement even of the bodies already found. Dr. Cowan went to Sandstone yesterday, and will have eighty or more bodies that have been temporarily covered with earth there dug up, closely examined, and properly buried in the little cemetery near the town.
A serious problem for the survivors in this neighborhood is the disposal of the dead animals. The region about Hinckley is littered with the carcasses of horses, cows, hogs, deer, and even a few moose. The terrible stench is likely to breed pestilence among the few people left.
DULUTH, Minn., Sept. 7.—Gov. Nelson, G. A. Pillsbury, Kenneth Clark, N. H. Hart, Mr. Norton of Winona, and C. H. Graves of this city, members of the State Relief Committee, are discussing the future of the burned district, as it is impossible that lumbering, which has been the chief industry, will ever amount to much again.
The commission will ascertain if there is any chance of the sawmills being rebuilt. If not, it is planned to rebuild Hinckley as a farming town and junction of two roads. All the territory burned over is ready for the plow, and it was the opinion of the commission that all heads of families can be given farms of generous proportions. The St. Paul and Duluth Road representatives offered to give farms to all who do not now own them.
It was further decided that the women and children refugees who are here will be provided for in this city until the fathers can put up temporary buildings in the burned district. Lumber and materials for these buildings will be sent on at once. The state or individuals must provide funds for necessities of life over Winter, and to ascertain the amount needed, a full and complete census will be at one taken.
Single men will be urged and aided to seek work elsewhere, and an effort will be made to have the orphans adopted into worthy families. These not so cared for will be maintained in State institutions. The commission will look over the situation at Hinckley and other points.
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