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Notable group of three typed letters from 1891-1892, on the plight of reservation Indians and their recruitment as Wild West show performers. Each one page, 8 x 10.5, including two TLSs from Herbert Welsh, corresponding secretary of the Philadelphia-based Indian Rights Association, and a carbon copy of a letter to Welsh from noted Catholic Bishop Martin Marty, whose zeal for the Native American missions earned him the title, ‘The Apostle of the Sioux.’
The first TLS from Welsh, on Indian Rights Association letterhead, dated June 3, 1891, sent to Major James McLaughlin at the Standing Rock Agency in North Dakota, regarding an issue with Indians contracted to perform in Buffalo Bill's Wild West. In part: “I herewith enclose for your consideration a copy of a letter which has just reached me from Mr. Salisbury, the vice president of the wild west show, together with a copy of my letter to the New York Evening Post, to which he has taken such violent exception. Will you kindly inform me as to any mis-statements of fact made in my letter, and as to your knowledge of Miss Collins' reliability as a witness? Mr. Salisbury's letter does not affect the main position which we have taken as to the propriety of the Government permitting contracts to be made with reservation Indians for this purpose. Of course if I am in error as to any statement concerning Mr. Cody's wild west show, I will very gladly withdraw them.” McLaughlin was a senior Indian Service Officer best remembered for having issued the arrest warrant for Sitting Bull, which led to his shooting. McLaughlin was known as an advocate of helping Native Americans to adopt Eastern ways and assimilate.
The carbon copy letter, unsigned, dated June 21, 1892, sent to Welsh by Bishop Marty regarding the life of Indians in Dakota, in part: “Travelling with shows is not the best means to educate anyone, but the present condition of the Indians, and especially of the young men & women coming out of the schools, is such that they are better off anywhere else than at home. Without artificial irrigation the lands west of the Missouri are unfit for agriculture and even for stockraising. Not one in a hundred is supplied with farming implements, cattle, or work-horses…their rations are barely sufficient and when their clothes, which they get once a year, are torn they have no means to buy new ones.”
The second TLS from Welsh, also on Indian Rights Association letterhead, June 22, 1892, sent to Major McLaughlin, in part: “I have received a letter from Bishop Marty in response to a query which I sent him regarding his opinion of wild west shows. His letter in reply treats especially of what he considers the very dark outlook for the material welfare of the Sioux. I have written Bishop Marty asking him if he will furnish me with a statement of his views as to what he thinks the best means for obviating the difficulties of which his letter treats. Certainly the question is one of vital importance and I should very much like to hear from you regarding it. Do you believe that the prospects are as dark as they appear to Bishop Marty? If so, what in your opinion should be done to give these Indians a secure basis for self-support?” In overall very good to fine condition, with edge loss to the 1892 Welsh letter.
The Western Americana auction of Jochen Zeitz.
