There are 2500 Catholic Indians in the State of Michigan. Two Regular
priests, who attend seven churches, look after their spiritual needs.
The Catholic Indian Schools, three in number, have 243 pupils enrolled.
“We need $2000,” writes Bishop Richter “to pay teachers’ salaries at
Elbridge, Cross Village and Eagletown, to contribute towards the support
of the missionaries, and also to assist in the building of a church at
Harbor Springs.” The Indians of this diocese dwell in nine villages the
most prominent of which is Harbor Springs. This latter place needs a new
church. The church erected by the late Father Piery in 1842 is in a bad
condition and is fast going to ruin. It is, moreover, too small, being
hardly large enough to hold the children of the parish. The Indians as
well as the white Catholics of the vicinity are poor, and help from
outside sources is urgently demanded. There is a large Indian Boarding
School in this village attended by 130 boarding pupils and 30 day
scholars. These pupils, come from all the villages save Elbridge. This
school, in the opinion of its director, the Rev. S. Altmicks, needs to
be enlarged, to accommodate children who at present are unable to attend
it through want of sufficient room. A tribe of Ottawa Indians are within
the limits of the diocese and have passed through various vicissitudes
of fortune. The Official Government Report on Indian Affairs, for 1891,
has this to say of them. “A great mistake was made by the Government,
when the allotment was made, in giving to the (above) Indians titles for
their land without any restriction as to their right to sell. As soon as
the allotments were made, land sharks went among the Indians and bought
their lands for trivial sums, or loaned them small sums of money at high
rates of interest secured by mortgage, on short time, and then foreclosed
as soon as the law would permit them to do so.” In 1888, through the
zealous labors of Father Altmicks the condition of affairs was brought
before the Government, and a contract was given for the support of the
schools at Harbor Springs. “There is very little hope for the prosperity
of the Indians of the United States, in this world,” writes Father
Altmicks, “notwithstanding the good will of some noble, honest and well
meaning statesmen. But one thing I know, in the next world there will be
a number of our poor Indians— while of our “civilized” people, hundreds
of thousands will be cast out.”