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Mary C. (Mary Clementine) Collins to Alice Mary Longfellow, 8 January 1892
Manuscript letter
Ft. Yates N.D. Jan 8. ’92
My Dear Miss Longfellow,
I thank you very much for the pretty gift which you sent me on Christmas. I never before saw that Collection of your fathers poems. I like it very much and of course it is doubly dear coming from you. Sometimes when I have been travelling over the prarie [sic] and have made camp in the deep snow when our supper would be bacon and bread and coffee [p. 2] and when the camp fire would smoke as if the Indian god of Jokes went abroad, I have lain down upon my buffalo robe rolled in my blankets to sleep-and through the wakeful hours of the night I have thought and thought- and often in trying to forget present surroundings and conditions I have in memory pictured the delightful homes in the East where I have really enjoyed life with all its richest blessings- and of all the beautiful pictures [p. 3] there is not one that I love to recall more than the one you gave to me the last time I visited you in your home - Do you recall it? We sat in the sitting room. I on the lounge and you on a hassock before the open fire. You were burning some of the wood from an old tree that had blown down into your neighbors yard and laughingly telling the story. It was a sweet, quiet, cheerful, restful time. These beautiful homes opened to me and the dear freinds [sic] [p. 4] to remember me are among "All things,” which the dear Heavenly father has promised to those who “Seek first the Kingdom of God." How sad that Gen. Armstrong should be so ill. I hope his wealthy friends will endow Hampton so that he will have nothing to disturb his mind. He may then live to inspire us for a long time. I am now expecting to go to New England in February. Our work here is in a very flourishing condition. All the people [p. 5] Old men and women are joining our church societies. I feel that if our Government will only keep on as it has done for a few years now that we may hope that the hardest part of the Indian problem is solved. If Congress will not retrench on the appropriations for supplies and for education the Indians will have a growing confidence in our wishes as a Country to help them. It would be a sad mistake to cut down appropriations now. On this [p. 6] agency we have a strong and an efficient Agent, but at Pine Ridge and the Cheyenne River they are unsettled.
Our people are all quiet and I think will do much to quiet down the other Indians. But in issuing the annuities the Government lessened the amount of clothing and it is causing some feeling. The Indians will not endure any further cutting down of supplies, and we all know what a cost it is have Indian outbreak. War is never economical.
[p. 7] I hope the country will let itself be heard on the Indian question at once if Congress attempts a reduction of means for supplies or if to make a wrong [impression] of economy Congress is led into such an extravagance as to cause another outbreak by nonfulfillment of treaty obligations.
Once more let me thank you for the beautiful book and thank for your kind thoughts.
I hope you are entirely recovered,
Yours most sincerely,
Mary Clementine Collins
My Dear Miss Longfellow,
I thank you very much for the pretty gift which you sent me on Christmas. I never before saw that Collection of your fathers poems. I like it very much and of course it is doubly dear coming from you. Sometimes when I have been travelling over the prarie [sic] and have made camp in the deep snow when our supper would be bacon and bread and coffee [p. 2] and when the camp fire would smoke as if the Indian god of Jokes went abroad, I have lain down upon my buffalo robe rolled in my blankets to sleep-and through the wakeful hours of the night I have thought and thought- and often in trying to forget present surroundings and conditions I have in memory pictured the delightful homes in the East where I have really enjoyed life with all its richest blessings- and of all the beautiful pictures [p. 3] there is not one that I love to recall more than the one you gave to me the last time I visited you in your home - Do you recall it? We sat in the sitting room. I on the lounge and you on a hassock before the open fire. You were burning some of the wood from an old tree that had blown down into your neighbors yard and laughingly telling the story. It was a sweet, quiet, cheerful, restful time. These beautiful homes opened to me and the dear freinds [sic] [p. 4] to remember me are among "All things,” which the dear Heavenly father has promised to those who “Seek first the Kingdom of God." How sad that Gen. Armstrong should be so ill. I hope his wealthy friends will endow Hampton so that he will have nothing to disturb his mind. He may then live to inspire us for a long time. I am now expecting to go to New England in February. Our work here is in a very flourishing condition. All the people [p. 5] Old men and women are joining our church societies. I feel that if our Government will only keep on as it has done for a few years now that we may hope that the hardest part of the Indian problem is solved. If Congress will not retrench on the appropriations for supplies and for education the Indians will have a growing confidence in our wishes as a Country to help them. It would be a sad mistake to cut down appropriations now. On this [p. 6] agency we have a strong and an efficient Agent, but at Pine Ridge and the Cheyenne River they are unsettled.
Our people are all quiet and I think will do much to quiet down the other Indians. But in issuing the annuities the Government lessened the amount of clothing and it is causing some feeling. The Indians will not endure any further cutting down of supplies, and we all know what a cost it is have Indian outbreak. War is never economical.
[p. 7] I hope the country will let itself be heard on the Indian question at once if Congress attempts a reduction of means for supplies or if to make a wrong [impression] of economy Congress is led into such an extravagance as to cause another outbreak by nonfulfillment of treaty obligations.
Once more let me thank you for the beautiful book and thank for your kind thoughts.
I hope you are entirely recovered,
Yours most sincerely,
Mary Clementine Collins
Archives Number: 1007.001/002.003-001#021
U. S. National Park Service
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Courtesy of National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site; Archives Number 1007.001/002.003-001#021
Public domain
Manuscripts (1007.001), (LONG-Subcollection)
, Correspondence (1007.001/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Scholarship Student Correspondence (1007.001/002.003), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, Letters to Alice Longfellow (1007.001/002.003-001), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Correspondence (1007.001/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Scholarship Student Correspondence (1007.001/002.003), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, Letters to Alice Longfellow (1007.001/002.003-001), (LONG-FileUnitName)
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Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Code: LONG
Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
NPS Museum Number Catalog : LONG 16173
Title: Finding Aid to the Alice Mary Longfellow (1850-1928) Papers, 1855-1965 (bulk dates: 1873-1928)
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#AML
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#AML
20200811
01/08/1892
Manuscript letter in Alice Mary Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, C. Scholarship Student Correspondence, 1874-1925
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Organization: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Monday, May 23, 2022 9:09:43 PM
Monday, May 23, 2022 9:09:43 PM
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