The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 14, 1902, Page 14

A. JONES, 25 a result of w. five years’ experience as United States Commis- sioner of Indian affairs, has begun to disagree with the ol saying that the “only good Indian is a dead Indian.” Mr. Jones and J. H. Dortch, who is 2t the head of the Indilzéordul':!fl_una.\ Department, wunder mmissioner Jones, zre touring the West and the Northwest visiting the wvarious schools and reservations that they may the better appreciate the pres- ent needs of the Indians. Commissioner Jones has acquired remerkable power with the Indians. At the time of the Ninnesota out- break some years 2go he went among them and succeeded in persuading them to give up their fighting. And now every year when the delegations from the various tribes go to Wash- ington Mr. Jones receives them and makes their visit the greatest event of their lives. He therefore is best qualified to write on the subject pre- sented below. HE aim of the Government now Is to individvalize the rising genera- tion of Indians and make them de- pend more on themseives. The ed- ucation that they are most in need of is an industrial one, something that they can use and-apply to their own ronment when they return from the Indian schools to their homes. An experiment is now being tried with e younger Indians which may result ia £00d to them Instead of Issuing to them rations and clothing, the money appro- priated for this purpose will be paid to the Indians return for work dome on the Teservations, ete. This will be in the form of fair wages, and the money will be theirs unreservedly. Directions have been sent to the vark ous sgents In the fifty-two agencies of the United States asking them to forward THE SUNDAY CALL. wW. A JOTMES STANFORD STOUD30 v ssoTo to the Indian Department the names of the younger Indians thought to be amenable to such a course. The policy of the Government toward the Indians in the past has been weak and vacillating, a new move for each admin- istration, and it has cost the Government hundreds of millions. The present sys- tem of reservations should never have been started in the first place. Many of tke tribes should have been permitted to remain east of the Mississippi and al- lowed to take up good and fertile lands, instead of being ousted by the greed of the white man and put on lands from which even the white man could scarcely make a living.. Had this been granted them they would in all probability by this time been absorbed in the body politic. Twenty years 2go the Chippewas of Wisconsin were allotted pine lands and given the privilége Lo cut and sell to lum- bermen, the preference being given to In- dians as workmen; Now there are lum- ber mills there, and these Indians, once wearing feathers and blankets, are living iz houses and one hundred and thirty- seven of them are working in the miils. This treatment and the association of the whites has done what the Jesuits worked two hundred years for and failed to ac- complish, though the Catholic church has done much good among the Indians. One way to individualize' the Indians, though a problematical one from the dif- ficulty and perhaps wrongdoing whica Is entailed with it, is to get the red men to ceme into closer association with the wkites. Take as an example the Indians sent to the Indian Territory, who by the incoming of Americans have been made more like the white man. The class of poor settlers that are found ofien on the edge of or near an Indian reservation are often as rough and bad as can be found, ¥et the mixing with them is to the Indian a step upward A squaw man is generally Tegardad as 2 pretty poor stick, yet even U S.COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AXFAIRS AFRAID oF EAGLE S10vX CI‘SIEF such an association is a help to the In- dian in the aggregate. . Of course the land of the Indian Ter- ritory being among the richest in the country, has made things easier for the transformation of the Indian. The Chip- pewas of Wisconsin and Minnesota and the Omahas of Ncbraska are probably the tribes farthest advanced in the ways of civilization. The Osage Indians are the richest red men on earth, per capita. There are now only about sixteen hun- dred of them, and they own a million and a half acres of land, ranging in value from:$250 to §25 per acre. Besldes that they draw interest from a large fund in bank. ¥ The older Indians still have a bitter feeling against the whites and they have some right to, for it is doubtful if there has.ever been a treaty made with the Indians by the United States which the United States has not in some way violated, though the Indians have fulfilled their part of it. The confidence of the Indian in those whom he looks up to or makes an agreeé- ment with is something pathetic. But once lost his confidence is gone forever. It is not well to promise an Indian a thing that cannot be done, for he does not con- sider why it cannot be accomplished, but simply the fact that the thing is not done as promised. And he will never forget it. At all the councils of the Indians the chief subject is stiil their grievances at the hands of the Government. But one whom they know and respect can do much with them. The office of Indian Affairs is a part of the Interior Department, and under its control are four divisions—educational, lands of adult Indians, agents, and fin- ance. The United States has 250 Indian schools, with 26,000 pupils. In these schools the training goes no further than the seventh or eighth grades, for the In- dian bhas pot the mental aptitude of the white child with years of training. To epeak English well and to read and write - CHIET SPIES OrXf THE ENEMS CROW TRIBE 3 - Uncle Sams 2w Schemes 1o Civi_liae The | Indians is really all he needs. Instead of buying mangles and ironers for the girls, washtubs and scrub brushes should be given them, for the Indian girl needs training in home work. There is a tendency among the Indian boys and gitls to return to their homes and think that the Government owes them a living and should. after educating them, put them in Government positions for which they are not fitted as a class, save, per- haps, as helpers. No Indian was ever known to take the lead in anything. Tn the record of the Government every person having even an eighth of Indian blood is classed as an Indian and en- titled to some benefits as such. The ap- propriation for the care and education of the Indians amounts each year to from nine to twelve million dollars, part of it interest on a trust fund and part of it gretuities. The old viciousness of the In- dian is largely gone, and the best ele- ments are now being brought out in the rising generation. The mixed bloods are the ones giving the most trouble, espe- cially in the non-reservation schools. The Indian schools are of three classes— the non-reservation schools, of which there are twenty-five, with from 200 to W0 puplls eacn; the boarding schools on reservations, and the day schools. Tho Don-reservation achools are centers such a3 Riverside, Carson and Salem, Or. In these an attempt is made to bring scholars from a number of tribes to- gether to help with the study of the Eng- lish language. In the school at Carlisle, Pa., are 90 scholars, and at Hampton, Va., 125 Indlan boys and girls are learn- ing the ways of the whites. At Chilocco, O. T., 8000 acres of fine prairle land has been set apart to establish & school ‘where the Indians of that section may be trained to learn things they need and can practice on their own farms in practical- ly the same environment. From the reservation boarding schools the puplls g0 to their homes for a vaca- tlon of two months. There are some very bright pupils in the day schools near the camps of the reservations. The con- gent of the parents on these reservations to- allow their children to attend these schools is secured largely by moral sua- sion. The proportion of these pupils who o back to their blanket and half civil- ized life is no larger than that of the school children in citles who elect to go back to the slums from which they came. Most of these educated Indians become CSEFIIEF AINTOorTIE SALEM OR. TRIBE. farmers, the best !ife for them. Five thousand dollars more has just been appropriated to increase the em- clency of the plant at Riverside. Thers Wwill open there in September a non-res- ervation boarding schoool to teach indus- tries applicable top Southern California. The tuition s free and transportation is paid by the Government. The school age for Indiana is from six to eighteen years, but sometimes scholars are admitted who are over twenty years of age. The apti- tude is discovered to be greater in some of those who have had educated parents. The great object is to train the Indian to go back to his allotment and live the life of the white man, or to go out and live among the whites. Results of this are bound to come out In future generations. The Sioux Indians are very bright and have made good progress educationally, perhaps because of 5o much contact with the whites. The Oneidas are very intel- ligent also. There are many cases of un- usual talent among the students. A case in point is that of a Ute Indian girl, a student in one of the Indian schools of Utah. Bhe is the daughter of a prosper- ous Indian and has great histrionic talent. Her ambition Is to be an actress. She is oceautirul and only eighteen years old. But for her reddish olive complexion and high cheek bones she would readily be taken for a white. One’of the shrewdest bankers in the Indlan Territory is an Indian, which shows what some are capable of with the help of education. Employed in the In- dian office at Washington s Frank La Flesche, a nearly full-blooded Omaha, who has written a good story of Indian schoolboy life, called “The Middle Five.” It has had a good sale. There are still about 185,000 Indians in the United States, 50,000 of these being outside of the Indian Territory, and the New York Indlans numbering 5000. Among them are flve entirely civilized tribes. Thére has been no material increase or decrease In the Indian population during the past twenty years, save among. the full-bloods, who are decreasing in num- ber. Of course there are Indians and In- dians, from the warlike Sioux, ready to fight at the drop of the hat, to the Moqui, the most peaceable thing imaginable, The Navajos are regarded by those who have dealings with them as pretty good In- dians, as are the Crows, the Cheyennes and others. Mr. Dortch in his traveling around among the varlous tribes has seen many Pbases of the Indian character. He tells of an odd Indlan love letter that came into his hands in which the lover ex- presses his love in this contradictory way: “I love you so well that I hats you from the bottom of my heart.” Talking one day with old Quannah Parker, a Klowa chief, the Indian made the following declaration: “White man smarter than Indian; white man smarter than God.” His hearer remonstrated with him at this, but he stuck to his orig- CIHITEYF 3 S —— N WOLF ROBE ... CTHEYENNE inal decrarmuion. When asked why he considered the white man smarter.than God he gave this reply; *“Me down Dal- las, Texas, not long ago. Very hot day. Man making ice with machine. God can’t make ice on hot day.” Which wasn't so bad for an Indian chlef. Quite as smart in a commercial way was the Navajo who was dealing with a white man and exchanged some of his ponfes for sheep. After the deal was completed another white man came along end insisted that the Indian got much the worst of the bargain. But the Navajo grunted, “Injun satisfled,” two or three times. When asked why he was satis- fled he replied grimly: ‘“White man buy sheep; Injun stole ponfes.” But as it has taken us a long time to reach our present civilization, so it will take years to coms to bring out the best that is in the noble red man. —_—— [ Uses for 01d Shoes. O1d shoes are not wasts from the stand- point of modern industry. After they have done their service and are discarded by the first wearers, a second-hand dealer restores their former appearance, and they are sold again to be worn by the Ppoorer classes. ~ When the shoes are finally discarded by them they are still good for various purposes. In France such shoes are bought up in quantities by rag dealers and sold to fac- tories, where the shoes are first take apart and submitted to long processes, Wwhich turn them into paste, from which the material is transformed into an imi- tation leather, appearine very much like the finest morocco. Upon this material stylish designs are stamped, and wall paper, trunk coverings and similar articles a: ey re manufactured