p. 8 | Sioux Indians Demand Prohibition

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 7, 1916

Sioux Indians Demand Prohibition

A conference of 700 Indians, mostly Sioux, at Mitchell, S. Dak., passed resolutions that whisky is as bad for the red man as for the white man, and demanded absolute prohibition of the traffic. A committee of three officers was named by the conference to act as “field agents” in behalf of the State-wide prohibitory amendment now pending. Three hundred tepees were pitched, some of the braves coming five days’ journey overland, from all over both Dakotas and Nebraska, to attend. The little Indian Presbyterian church was not large enough to hold the “delegates,” so they erected a large pavilion of brush and poles, moved the organ outside the church, and joined an Indian choir in singing many hymns in Sioux. The meeting was “secret,” not being advertised in advance, as is the custom of the paleface, and not a half dozen whites in Mitchell knew of the meeting beforehand. Celebrated Sioux orators addressed the gathering.