THE INDIAN TO-DAY

 THE AMERICAN BOOKS

 A LIBRARY OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP

"The American Books" are designed as a series of authoritative manuals, discussing problems of interest in America to-day. 

 THE AMERICAN BOOKS

 THE AMERICAN COLLEGE BY ISAAC SHARPLESS

 THE INDIAN TO-DAY BY CHARLES A. EASTMAN

 COST OF LIVING BY FABIAN FRANKLIN

 THE AMERICAN NAVY BY REAR-ADMIRAL FRENCH E. CHADWICK, U. S. N. 

 MUNICIPAL FREEDOM BY OSWALD RYAN

 AMERICAN LITERATURE BY LEON KELLNER (TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY JULIA FRANKLIN)

 SOCIALISM IN AMERICA BY JOHN MACY

 AMERICAN IDEALS BY CLAYTON S. COOPER

 THE UNIVERSITY MOVEMENT BY IRA REMSEN

 THE AMERICAN SCHOOL BY WALTER S. HINCHMAN

(_For more extended notice of the series, see the last pages of this book. _)

 _The American Books_

 The Indian To-day

 The Past and Future of the First American

 BY

 CHARLES A. EASTMAN (OHIYESA)

 _Author of "Old Indian Days, " "Indian Boyhood, " etc. _

 GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1915

_Copyright, 1915, by_Doubleday, Page & Company

_All rights reserved, including that oftranslation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The author of this book was born in a teepee of buffalo hide nearRedwood Falls, Minn. , during the winter of 1858. His father was afull-blooded Sioux called "Many Lightnings, " (Tawakanhdeota). Hismother, the granddaughter of Chief "Cloud Man" of the Sioux and daughterof a well-known army officer, died shortly after his birth. He was namedOhiyesa (The Winner). 

The baby was reared to boyhood by the care of his grandmother. When hewas four years old, the so-called "Minnesota massacre" of 1862 separatedhim from his father and elder brothers and only sister, and drove himwith a remnant of the eastern Sioux into exile in Manitoba. There forover ten years he lived the original nomadic life of his people in thefamily of an uncle, from whom he received the Spartan training of anIndian youth of that day. The knowledge thus gained of life's realitiesand the secrets of nature, as well as of the idealistic philosophy ofthe Indian, he has always regarded as a most valuable part of hiseducation. 

When Ohiyesa had reached the age of fifteen years, and had beenpresented with a flint-lock musket in token of his arrival at the estateof young manhood, he was astonished by the reappearance of the fatherwhose supposed death at the hands of white men he had been taught thathe must some day avenge. He learned that this father had adopted thereligion and customs of the hated race, and was come to take home hisyoungest son. 

Ohiyesa's new home was a pioneer log cabin on a farm at Flandreau, Dakota Territory, where a small group of progressive Indians had takenup homesteads like white men and were earning an independent livelihood. His long hair was cropped, he was put into a suit of citizen's clothingand sent off to a mission day school. At first reluctant, he soon becameinterested, and two years later voluntarily walked 150 miles to attend alarger and better school at Santee, Neb. , where he made rapid progressunder the veteran missionary educator, Dr. Alfred L. Riggs, and was soonadvanced to the preparatory department of Beloit College, Wisconsin. Hisfather had adopted his wife's English name of Eastman, and the boynamed himself Charles Alexander. 

After two years at Beloit, young Eastman went on to Knox College, Ill. ;then east to Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire, and to DartmouthCollege, where Indians had found a special welcome since colonial days. He was graduated from Dartmouth in 1887, and went immediately to BostonUniversity, where he took the medical course, and was graduated in 1890as orator of his class. The entire time spent in primary, preparatory, college, and professional education, including the mastery of theEnglish language, was seventeen years, or about two years less than isrequired by the average white youth. 

Doctor Eastman went directly to the large Pine Ridge reservation inSouth Dakota as Government physician; and during the "Ghost dance"troubles of 1890-91 he was in charge of the wounded Indian prisoners intheir emergency hospital. In 1891 he married Miss Elaine Goodale ofBerkshire County, Mass. ; and in 1893 went to St. Paul, Minn. , with hiswife and child. While engaged there in the practice of medicine he wasapproached by a representative of the International Committee of theY. M. C. A. , and served for three years as their field secretary in theUnited States and Canada. 

In 1897 Dr. Eastman went to Washington as attorney for his tribe, topush their interests at the national capital, and from 1899 to 1902 heserved again as a Government physician to the Sioux. Beginning in 1903, he spent about seven years giving permanent family names to the Sioux, and thus helping to establish the legal descent of their property, underthe direction of the Indian Bureau. 

His first book, "Indian Boyhood, " was published in 1902. It is the storyof his own early life in the wilds of Canada, and was the outgrowth ofseveral sketches which appeared in _St. Nicholas_ a few years earlier. Since that time he has written "Red Hunters and the Animal People"(1904), "Old Indian Days" (1906), "Wigwam Evenings" (1909), "The Soul ofthe Indian" (1911), and "Indian Scout Talks" (1914). All have beensuccessful, and some have been brought out in school editions, andtranslated into French, German, Danish, and Bohemian. He has alsocontributed numerous articles to magazines, reviews, and encyclopedias. 

In connection with his writings he has been in steady demand as alecturer and public speaker for the past twelve years, and has recentlydevoted his entire time to literary work and lecturing, with the purposeof interpreting his race to the present age. 

When the first Universal Races Congress was held in the city of Londonin 1911, Dr. Eastman was chosen to represent the American Indian at thathistoric gathering. He is generally recognized as the foremost man ofhis race to-day, and as an authority on the history, customs, andtraditions of the native Americans. 

CONTENTS

 CHAPTER PAGE

 I. THE INDIAN AS HE WAS 3

 II. THE HOW AND THE WHY OF INDIAN WARS 19

 III. THE AGENCY SYSTEM: ITS USES AND ABUSES 34

 IV. THE NEW INDIAN POLICY 49

 V. THE INDIAN IN SCHOOL 64

 VI. THE INDIAN AT HOME 81

 VII. THE INDIAN AS A CITIZEN 95

 VIII. THE INDIAN IN COLLEGE AND THE PROFESSIONS 115

 IX. THE INDIAN'S HEALTH PROBLEM 135

 X. NATIVE ARTS AND INDUSTRIES 148

 XI. THE INDIAN'S GIFTS TO THE NATION 164

 BIBLIOGRAPHY 179

 TABLE OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS 183

THE INDIAN TO-DAY

CHAPTER I

THE INDIAN AS HE WAS

It is the aim of this book to set forth the present status and outlookof the North American Indian. In one sense his is a "vanishing race. " Inanother and an equally true sense it is a thoroughly progressive one, increasing in numbers and vitality, and awakening to the demands of anew life. It is time to ask: What is his national asset? What positiondoes he fill in the body politic? What does he contribute, if anything, to the essential resources of the American nation?

In order to answer these questions, we ought, first, to consider fairlyhis native environment, temperament, training, and ability in his ownlines, before he resigned himself to the inevitable and made up his mindto enter fully into membership in this great and composite nation. If wecan see him as he was, we shall be the better able to see him as he is, and by the worth of his native excellence measure his contribution tothe common stock. 

In the first place, he is free born, hence a free thinker. Hisgovernment is a pure democracy, based solidly upon intrinsic right andjustice, which governs, in his conception, the play of life. I use theword "play" rather than a more pretentious term, as better expressingthe trend of his philosophy. He stands naked and upright, both literallyand symbolically, before his "Great Mystery. " When he fails in obedienceeither to natural law (which is supreme law), or to the simple code ofhis brother man, he will not excuse himself upon a technicality or lieto save his miserable body. He comes to trial and punishment, even todeath, if need be, unattended, and as cheerfully as to a council orfeast. 

As a free man himself, he allows others the same freedom. With him thespiritual life is paramount, and all material things are only means tothe end of its ultimate perfection. Daily he meets the "Great Mystery"at morning and evening from the highest hilltop in the region of hishome. His attitude toward Deity is simple and childlike. 

Social life is kept as simple as possible, freedom of action onlycurbed by reverence for Those Above, and respect for the purity andperfection of his own body and those of his fellow-creatures. Only suchlaws are made as have been found necessary to guard personal and tribalpurity and honor. The women do not associate freely with men outside ofthe family, and even within it strict decorum is observed between grownbrothers and sisters. Birth and marriage are guarded with a peculiarsacredness as mysterious events. Strenuous out-of-door life and thediscipline of war subdue the physical appetites of the men, andself-control is regarded as a religious duty. Among the Sioux it wasoriginally held that children should not be born into a family oftenerthan once in three years, and no woman was expected to bear more thanfive children, for whom both masculine and feminine names were providedto indicate the order of their birth. 

The Indian, in his simple philosophy, was careful to avoid a centralizedpopulation, wherein lies civilization's devil. He would not be forced toaccept materialism as the basic principle of his life, but preferred toreduce existence to its simplest terms. His roving out-of-door life wasmore precarious, no doubt, than life reduced to a system, a mechanicalroutine; yet in his view it was and is infinitely happier. To be sure, this philosophy of his had its disadvantages and obvious defects, yet itwas reasonably consistent with itself, which is more than can be saidfor our modern civilization. He knew that virtue is essential to themaintenance of physical excellence, and that strength, in the sense ofendurance and vitality, underlies all genuine beauty. He was as a ruleprepared to volunteer his services at any time in behalf of his fellows, at any cost of inconvenience and real hardship, and thus to grow inpersonality and soul-culture. Generous to the last mouthful of food, fearless of hunger, suffering, and death, he was surely something of ahero. Not "to have, " but "to be, " was his national motto. 

As parents are responsible for the conduct of their children, so was theIndian clan responsible for the behavior of its members, both amongthemselves and in relation to other clans. This simple family governmentextended throughout the bands, tribes, and nations. There was no"politics" and no money in it for any one. The conscience was never atwar with the mind, and no undue advantage was sought by any individual. Justice must be impartial; hence if the accused alone knew the facts, it was a common thing for him to surrender himself. 

INTERTRIBAL WARFARE

As regards the original Indian warfare, it was founded upon theprinciple of manly rivalry in patriotism, bravery, and self-sacrifice. The willingness to risk life for the welfare or honor of the people wasthe highest test of character. In order that the reputations thus gainedmight be preserved as an example to the young, a system of decorationswas evolved, including the symbolic wearing of certain feathers andskins, especially eagle feathers, and the conferring of "honor names"for special exploits. These distinctions could not be gained unjustly orby favoritism, as is often the case with rank and honors among civilizedmen, since the deeds claimed must be proved by witnesses before thegrand council of war chiefs. If one strikes an enemy in battle, whetherhe kills him or not, he must announce the fact in a loud voice, so thatit may be noted and remembered. The danger and difficulty is regardedabove the amount of damage inflicted upon the enemy, and a man may wearthe eagle plumes who has never taken a life. 

It is easily seen that these intertribal contests were not based uponthe same motives nor waged for the same objects as the wars ofcivilization--namely, for spoil and territorial aggrandizement. Therewas no mass play; army was not pitted against army; individual valor washeld in highest regard. It was not usual to take captives, exceptoccasionally of women and children, who were adopted into the tribe andtreated with kindness. There was no traffic in the labor or flesh ofprisoners. Such warfare, in fact, was scarcely more than a series ofduels or irregular skirmishes, engaged in by individuals and smallgroups, and in many cases was but little rougher than a game ofuniversity football. Some were killed because they were caught, orproved weaker and less athletic than their opponents. It was one way ofdisciplining a man and working off the superfluous energy that mightotherwise lead to domestic quarrels. If he met his equal or superior andwas slain, fighting bravely to the end, his friends might weep honorabletears. 

The only atrocity of this early warfare was the taking of a small scalplock by the leader, as a semi-religious trophy of the event; and as longas it was preserved, the Sioux warriors wore mourning for their deadenemy. Not all the tribes took scalps. It was only after the bountiesoffered by the colonial governments, notably in Massachusetts andPennsylvania, for scalps of women and children as well as men, that thepractice became general, and led to further mutilations, oftenstigmatized as "Indian, " though in reality they have been practised byso-called civilized nations down to a recent period. That one should domurder for pay is not an Indian idea but one imposed upon the race bywhite barbarians. 

It was a custom of the Plains Indians to hold peaceful meetings insummer, at which times they would vie with one another in friendlinessand generosity. Each family would single out a family of another tribeas special guests of honor. Valuable horses and richly adorned garmentswere freely given at the feasts and dances. During these intertribalreunions the contests between the tribes were recalled and their eventsrehearsed, the dead heroes on both sides receiving special tributes ofhonor. Parents would entertain the participants in an engagement inwhich their son had fallen, perhaps, the year before, giving lavishhospitality and handsome presents in token that all was done in fairfight, and there remained no ill feeling. 

FIRST EFFECTS OF CIVILIZATION

Whatever may be said for this scheme of life, its weaknesses are veryapparent, and resulted in its early fall when confronted with thecomplicated system of our so-called civilization. With us the individualwas supreme; all combination was voluntary in its nature; there was nocommerce worthy the name, no national wealth, no taxation for thesupport of government, and the chiefs were merely natural leaders withmuch influence but little authority. The system worked well with men whowere all of the same mind, but in the face of a powerful government andan organized army it quickly disintegrated and collapsed. Could the manysmall tribes and bands have formed a stable combination or league, theymight have successfully resisted the invader; but instead they stoodseparately, though too weak to maintain their dignity by force, and inmany cases entered upon a devastating warfare with one another, usingthe new and more deadly weapons, thus destroying one another. Sincethere was no central government, but a series of loose confederationsof linguistic or allied groups, each of which had its titular head, ableto make treaties or to declare war, these bands were met and subdued oneat a time. 

The original North American knew no fermented or spirituous drink. To besure, he used a mild narcotic--tobacco mixed with aromatic leaves orbark, and smoked in strict moderation, generally as a semi-religiousceremony. Though wild grapes were found here in abundance, none had evermade wine from them. The introduction of liquor completed the ruin ofour race. 

During a long period the fur trade was an important factor in theworld's commerce, and accordingly the friendship and favor of thenatives were eagerly sought by the leading nations of Europe. Great usewas made of whiskey and gunpowder as articles of trade. Demoralizationwas rapid. Many tribes were decimated and others wiped out entirely bythe ravages of strong drink and disease, especially smallpox andcholera. The former was terribly fatal. The Indians knew nothing of itsnature or treatment, and during the nineteenth century the tribes alongthe Mississippi and Missouri rivers suffered severely. Even in my ownday I have seen and talked with the few desolate survivors of athriving village. 

In the decade following 1840 cholera ravaged the tribes dwelling alongthe great waterways. Venereal disease followed upon the frequentimmoralities of white soldiers and frontiersmen. As soon as the Indiancame into the reservation and adopted an indoor mode of life, bronchitisand pneumonia worked havoc with him, and that scourge of the present-dayred man, tuberculosis, took its rise then in overcrowded log cabins andinsanitary living, together with insufficient and often unwholesomefood. During this period there was a rapid decline in the Indianpopulation, leading to the now discredited theory that the race wasnecessarily "dying out" from contact with civilization. 

It must always be borne in mind that the _first_ effect of associationwith the more advanced race was not improvement but degeneracy. I haveno wish to discredit the statements of the early explorers, includingthe Jesuit priests; but it is evident that in the zeal of the latter togain honor for their society for saving the souls of the natives it wasalmost necessary to represent them as godless and murderoussavages--otherwise there would be no one to convert! Of course theywere not angels, but I think I have made it clear that they were aGod-fearing, clean, and honorable people before the coming of the whiteman. 

THE TRANSITION PERIOD

The transition from their natural life to the artificial life ofcivilization has been very gradual in most cases, until the last fiftyyears, when the changes have been more rapid. Those who were firstaffected were the so-called "Five Civilized Nations" of the South, andthe "Six Nations" of New York State, together with some of the nowextinct bands in New England, who came in close touch with the earlycolonists. Both politically and commercially, they played an importantpart in the settlement of America. Their services as scouts, guides, andallies were of great value in the early history of this country, anddown to recent years. Many received no salary, and some even furnishedtheir own horses. It is a remarkable fact that there is not one instanceon record of a scout betraying the cause he served, even though usedagainst his own tribe and his own relatives. Once his honor is pledgedto a public trust, he must sustain it at any cost. 

In many cases those tribes which declared allegiance to the French, theEnglish, or the Americans, were in their turn the means of bringing aneighboring tribe into subjection. Thus began a new era in the historyof the Indian, inaugurating a kind of warfare that was cruel, relentless, and demoralizing, since it was based upon the desire toconquer and to despoil the conquered of his possessions--a motiveunknown to the primitive American. 

To be sure the new weapons were more efficient, and therefore moredeadly; the new clothing was gayer, but less perfectly adapted to thepurposes of primitive life. Indeed, the buckskin clothing and moccasinsof the Indian were very generally adopted by the white frontiersman. Onthe other hand, his spiritual and moral loss was great. He who listenedto the preaching of the missionaries came to believe that the white manalone has a real God, and that the things he had hitherto held sacredare inventions of the devil. This undermined the foundations of hisphilosophy, and very often without substituting for it the Christianphilosophy, which the inconsistency of its advocates, rather than anyinnate quality, made it difficult for him to accept or understand. 

A few did, in good faith, accept the white man's God. The black-robedpreacher was like the Indian himself in seeking no soft things, and ashe followed the fortunes of the tribes in the wilderness, the tribesmenlearned to trust and to love him. Then came other missionaries who hadhouses to sleep in, and gardens planted, and who hesitated to sleep inthe Indian's wigwam or eat of his wild meat, but for the most part heldthemselves aloof and urged their own dress and ways upon their converts. These, too, had their following in due time. But in the main it is truethat while the Indian eagerly sought guns and gunpowder, knives andwhiskey, a few articles of dress, and, later, horses, he did not ofhimself desire the white man's food, his houses, his books, hisgovernment, or his religion. 

The two great "civilizers, " after all, were whiskey and gunpowder, andfrom the hour the red man accepted these he had in reality sold hisbirthright, and all unconsciously consented to his own ruin. Immediatelyhis manhood began to crumble. A few chiefs undertook to copy some of theEuropean ways, on the strength of treaty recognition. The medals andparchments received at such times were handed down from father to son, and the sons often disputed as to who should succeed the father, ignoring the rule of seniority and refusing to submit to the election ofthe council. There were instances during the nineteenth century in thevicinity of Chicago, Prairie du Chien, Saint Paul, and Kansas City, where several brothers quarrelled and were in turn murdered in drunkenrows. There was also trouble when the United States undertook to appointa head chief without the consent of the tribe. Chief Hole-in-the-Day ofthe Ojibways and Spotted Tail of the Brule Sioux were both killed bytribesmen for breaking the rule of their respective tribes and acceptingfavors from the Government. 

Intermarriages were not common among the different tribes in the olddays, and still less so between Indians and Caucasians. The earlierintermarriages were with the higher class of Europeans: officers, noblemen, etc. , and many of the offspring of these unions were highlyesteemed, some becoming chiefs. At this period the natives preferredtheir own marriage customs, which was convenient for the white officerswho were thus enabled to desert their wives and children when theychose, and often did so, quite as if there were no binding obligation. Later, when unions between the lower class of both races became common, the Sioux refused to recognize their half-breeds as members of thetribe, and a certain territory was set apart for them. These half-breedsdisposed of their land to the Government, and took instead certificatesentitling them to locate upon the public domain. Some thirty yearsafterward they returned to their mother tribe and were allowed fullrights as members of their respective bands. 

Except among the French Canadians, in no section has there been such ageneral intermingling of the blood of the two races as in the SouthernStates. The Virginia legislature early recognized intermarriages betweenwhites and Indians, and from the time of Pocahontas to this day some ofthe best families have married among Cherokees, Chickasaws, andChoctaws, and are proud of the infusion of aboriginal blood. Among the"Five Civilized Tribes" of Oklahoma the Indian blood is distinguishableonly in a minority of those who call themselves "Indians. "

This transition period has been a time of stress and suffering for mypeople. Once they had departed from the broad democracy and pureidealism of their prime, and undertaken to enter upon the world-game ofcompetition, their rudder was unshipped, their compass lost, and thewhirlwind and tempest of materialism and love of conquest tossed them toand fro like leaves in the wind. 

"You are a child, " said the white man in effect to the simple andcredulous native. "You cannot make or invent anything. We have the onlyGod, and he has given us authority to teach and to govern all thepeoples of the earth. In proof of this we have His Book, a supernaturalguide, every word of which is true and binding. We are a superiorrace--a chosen people. We have a heaven fenced in with golden gates fromall pagans and unbelievers, and a hell where the souls of such aretortured eternally. We are honorable, truthful, refined, religious, peaceful; we hate cruelty and injustice; our business is to educate, Christianize, and protect the rights and property of the weak and theuncivilized. "

This sort of talk had its effect. Let us see what followed. 

CHAPTER II

THE HOW AND THE WHY OF INDIAN WARS

I have tried to set forth the character and motives of the primitiveIndian as they were affected by contact with civilization. In a word, demoralization was gradual but certain, culminating in the final loss ofhis freedom and confinement to the reservation under most depressingconditions. It must be borne in mind that there has been scarcely anygenuine wild life among us for the past thirty-five years. SittingBull's band of Sioux were the last real hostiles of their tribe tosurrender, in 1880, and Geronimo's Apaches followed in 1886. 

It is important to understand the underlying causes of Indian wars. There are people to-day who believe that the Indian likes nothing betterthan going on the warpath, killing and scalping from sheer nativecruelty and lust for blood. His character as a man of peace has notbeen appreciated. Yet it is matter of history that the newcomers werewelcomed in almost every case with unsuspecting kindness, and in hisdealings with the white man the original owner of the soil has beenuniformly patient and reasonable, offering resistance only underirresistible provocation. 

There have been but few noteworthy Indian wars in the history ofAmerica. In 1629 Powhatan's brother revolted against the colonists inVirginia, and King Philip took up arms in Massachusetts in 1675. TheCherokee war of 1758 in North and South Carolina came next; then theconspiracy of Pontiac in 1763, the Creek war from 1812 to 1830, and theSeminole war from 1820 to 1833. These wars in the South were incited bythe insolence and aggressiveness of the Americans. The struggles of theAlgonquins and the Iroquois, however, were not conducted wholly on theirown initiative. These tribes were used as allies in the long-drawn-outconflicts between the French and the English, and thus initiated intothe motives and the methods of the white man's warfare. 

I doubt very much if Pontiac would have carried his policies so far hadit not been for the encouragement he received from French traders andsettlers, who assured him that King Louis would come to his assistancein due time, with men and ammunition. Strong in this belief, as well asin his innate sense of right and justice, he planned to unite thescattered tribes against the invader and overthrow all the border fortsin a day. His boldness and aggressiveness were unique in the history ofIndian warfare. 

At this juncture a remarkable man was chosen to guide the Indian policyin America. Sir William Johnson had long been engaged in trade among theSix Nations, and more especially the Mohawks. His influence among themwas very great; and it was partly through his conciliatory methods, andpartly by reason of the betrayal of his plans and the failure of theFrench to keep their promises of assistance, that Pontiac, perhaps ourgreatest military genius, was forced to surrender. 

A sad feature of the early wars was the sufferings of those Indians whohad listened to the preaching of Jesus Christ. In Massachusetts, duringKing Philip's war, the Christian Indians were treated no better than the"heathen savages. " Some were hanged, some imprisoned, and some sold asslaves to the West Indies. At best, they lost their homes andimprovements, and nearly perished of cold and hunger. In Pennsylvania, at Conestoga and Wyoming Valley, they were horribly murdered, and thepeaceful Moravian Indians were butchered at prayer in their church, while no one dared say a word of protest except the Quakers. 

To return to the wars in the South, many of these were mere feudsbetween one or two families. The Cherokees secured concessions andpromises of better treatment from the white men, after which theycontinued friendly, and helped in overcoming the Creeks and Seminoles. 

Practically all Indian wars have been caused by a few self-seeking men. For instance, a man may secure through political influence a license totrade among the Indians. By his unprincipled practices, often indefiance of treaty agreements, such as gross overcharging and the use ofliquor to debauch the natives, he accumulates much tainted wealth. Thishe invests in lands on the border or even within the Indian territory ifill-defined. Having established himself, he buys much stock, or perhapssets up a mill on Indian water-power. He gathers his family andhirelings about him, and presently becomes a man of influence in hishome state. From the vantage point of a rough border town, peopledlargely with gamblers, saloonkeepers, and horse-thieves, this man andhis kind plot the removal of the Indian from his fertile acres. Theyharass him in every way, and having at last forced resistance upon him, they loudly cry: "Indian outbreak! Send us troops! Annihilate thesavages!"

OSCEOLA AND THE SEMINOLES

The principal causes of Indian troubles in the South were, first, theencroachments of this class of settlers; second, the hospitablewillingness of the Indians to shelter fugitive slaves. Many of thesepeople had found an Elysium among the Creeks and Seminoles, and had evenintermarried among them, their offspring becoming members of the tribe. Osceola's wife was of this class--a beautiful Indian woman with somenegro and some white blood. She was dragged away from him by unholytraffickers in human flesh, and he was arrested for remonstrating. Whocould tolerate such an outrage? The great chief was then a young man andcomparatively unknown; but within one year he became the recognizedleader of his tribe and the champion of their cause. The country wasperfectly suited to the guerilla warfare which is characteristic ofIndians--a country in which even an Indian of another tribe would belost! White frontiersmen were imported to guide the army, but accordingto the testimony of Beckworth, the Rocky Mountain hunter and trapper, all gave up in disgust. The Government was forced to resort to pacificmeasures in order to get the Seminoles in its power, and eventually mostof them were removed to the Indian Territory. There was one small bandwhich persistently refused the offered terms, and still remains in thefastnesses of the Florida Everglades, perhaps the only unconquered bandin the United States to-day. 

While the Southern tribes were deported almost in a body to what wasthen the far West, the wars of the Algonquins, along the Great Lakes andthe Ohio River, scattered them far and wide in fragments. Such of theIroquois as had strong treaties with the Dutch colony secured permanentreservations in the State of New York which they still occupy, havingbeen continuously under state control instead of that of the generalgovernment. 

CHIEF JOSEPH'S REASONING

The Black Hawk war in 1836 was the end of the Algonquin resistance. Surely if there was ever just cause for resistance, Black Hawk had sucha cause. His case was exactly similar to that of the famous Nez Perce, Chief Joseph, who illustrates his grievance very lucidly in the _NorthAmerican Review_ for April, 1879, in an interview with Bishop Hare ofSouth Dakota. 

"If I ever sold any land to the Government, " says he, "it was done inthis way: Suppose a man comes to me and says: 'Joseph, I want to buyyour horse. ' I say to him: 'I am satisfied with my horse. I do not wishto sell him at any price. ' Then the man goes to my neighbor and says tohim: 'I want to buy Joseph's horse, but he would not sell it to me. ' Myneighbor says: 'If you will buy my horse, I will throw in his horse!'The man buys my neighbor's horse, and then he comes and claims my horseand takes it away. I am under no obligation to my neighbor. He hadnothing to do with my horse. "

It was just such dealing as this which forced Black Hawk to fight with ahandful of warriors for his inheritance. The Government simply made atreaty with the Sacs under Keokuk, and took the land of the Foxes at thesame time. There were some chiefs who, after they had feasted well anddrunk deep and signed away their country for nothing, talked of war, and urged Black Hawk to lead them. Then they sneaked away to play "goodIndian, " and left him to bear the brunt alone. 

There were no more Indian wars for thirty years. The Southwest frontierswere now occupied by eastern tribes or their remnants, which had beentransported beyond the Mississippi during the early thirties. Onlyfragments were left here and there, in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and the South. The great Siouan race occupied nearly all theupper valley of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and theirtributaries. North of them dwelt the Ojibways, an Algonquin tribe withan entirely different language. The Sioux nation proper originallyoccupied a vast territory, and in the middle of the nineteenth centurythey still held the southern half of Minnesota, a portion of Wisconsinand Iowa, all of the Dakotas, part of Montana, nearly half of Nebraska, and small portions of Colorado and Wyoming. Some of the bands wereforest Indians, hunters and trappers and fishermen, while others roamedover the Great Plains and hunted the buffalo, elk, and antelope. Somedivided the year between the forest and prairie life. These people hadbeen at peace with the whites ever since the early French explorers andthe Jesuit priests had entered their country. They had traded for manyyears with the Hudson Bay and American Fur companies, and no seriousdifficulty had arisen, nor was any obstruction offered to the progressof civilization. 

In 1824 the United States required of the tribes in this region todefine their territory, a demand which intensified and gave a new turnto their intertribal warfare. The use of gun, horse, and whiskeycompleted the demoralization, and thus the truly "savage" warfare hadits origin, ever increasing in bitterness until it culminated inresistance to the Government, in 1862, one hundred years after thestruggle and defeat of the great Pontiac. 

THE SIOUX AND THEIR GRIEVANCES

A treaty was made in 1851 with the Minnesota Sioux to which one band wasnot a party. This was the one commonly known as Inkpaduta's band, whoseusual winter resort was in northwestern Iowa. White settlers went uponthe ceded lands, and when this band returned to Spirit Lake after theirsummer's roving they found it occupied. Owing to a very severe winterand the presence of the settlements, the surrounding country becamedepleted of game, and the Sioux, who were starving, sought aid among thesettlers. No doubt they became a nuisance, and were so treated, whichtreatment they very naturally resented, and thus arose the "Spirit Lakemassacre. " The rest of the tribe condemned the act, and Sioux from theRedwood reservation pursued the guilty band until they overtook andkilled two of Inkpaduta's sons. The others were driven back among thewild Sioux. This was their first offence, after more than a century ofcontact with the whites. 

Little Crow's band formed the east wing of the Sioux nation, and werethe first to enter reservation life. The causes of their outbreak, a fewyears later, were practically the same as in many other instances, forin its broad features the history of one Indian tribe is the history ofall. Their hunting-grounds were taken from them, and the promisedsupport was not forthcoming. Some of the chiefs began to "play politics"like white men, and through their signatures, secretly given, a paymentof $98, 000 due the tribe was made to the Indian traders. Little Crowhimself was involved in this steal, and was made head chief by thewhites, who wished to have some one in this position whom they coulddeal with. But soon the non-payment of annuities brought the Indians tothe verge of starvation, and in despair they forced Little Crow to leadthem in revolt. In August, 1862, they massacred the agency employees andextended their attack to the white settlers, killing many and destroyinga large amount of property, before a part of the tribe fled into Canadaand the rest surrendered to General Sibley. 

Next came the struggle of the Western Sioux and Northern Cheyennes indefence of their homes. The building of the Northern Pacific and theUnion Pacific transcontinental railroads had necessitated the making ofnew treaties with these people. Scarcely was the agreement completed bywhich they ceded a right of way in return for assurances of permanentand absolute possession of other territory, including the Black Hillsand Bighorn Mountains, when gold was discovered in these regions. Thisfact created great excitement and a general determination to dispossessthe Sioux of the country just guaranteed to them, which no white man wasto enter without the consent of three fourths of the adult men of thetribe. 

Public excitement was intense, and the Government found itself unableto clear the country of intruders and to protect the rights of theSioux. It was reported that there were no less than fifteen thousand menin the Black Hills district placer-mining and prospecting for the yellowmetal. The authority of the United States was defied almost openly bythe frontier press and people. Then the Indians took matters into theirown hands, carried on a guerilla warfare against immigrants, andharassed the forts until the army was forced to enter upon a campaignagainst them. In 1868 another treaty was made, but the great chief, RedCloud, would not sign it until he saw forts C. F. Smith and Phil Kearneyabandoned. Here is probably the only instance in American history inwhich a single Indian chief was able to enforce his demands and make agreat government back down. At that time it would have cost immense sumsof money and many lives to conquer him, and would have retarded thedevelopment of the West by many years. 

It is a fact that Sitting Bull was thoroughly opposed to yielding anymore territory. No doubt he foresaw the inevitable result. He had takenup the cause of the Eastern Sioux in Minnesota and fought Sibley andSully in 1862. He had supported Red Cloud in his protests against theestablishment of the Bozeman trail, and against the new forts, althoughthus far these aggressions had not affected him directly. But whensurveyors began work on the Northern Pacific, they entered hisparticular domain, and it was time for him to fight in its defence. Unfortunately for him, the other bands of Sioux whom he had helped intheir time of need were now all settled upon reservations, so that hehad not much support except from Crazy Horse's band, and the so-calledhostiles or renegades of the Western bands. Hostilities began in 1872, culminating in 1876 with the famous "Custer fight, " which practicallyended the struggle, for after annihilating Custer's command the Indiansfled into British America. Four years later Sitting Bull was induced tocome in and settle down upon the Sioux reservation. 

The Modoc war in Oregon and Idaho, in which the Shoshones and Bannockswere involved, was really a part of this same movement--namely, the lastdefence of their hunting-grounds by the Plains Indians, as was also theresistance of the Cheyennes and Comanches farther south, and of the Utesin 1877, simultaneously with the last stand of the Sioux. It had beenfound impossible to conquer the Plains Indians without destroying thebuffalo, their main subsistence. Therefore vast herds were ruthlesslydestroyed by the United States army, and by 1880 they were practicallyextinct. Since it was found cheaper to feed than to fight them, theone-time warriors were corralled upon their reservations and kept aliveupon Government rations. 

THE "GHOST-DANCE WAR"

All Indian warfare worthy the name had now come to an end. There wereleft Geronimo's small bands of Apaches, who were hunted down in an allbut inaccessible country and finally captured and confined in Southernforts. More recent "Indian outbreaks, " so-called, are usually a mereruse of the politicians, or are riots caused by the disaffection of afew Indians unjustly treated by their Government agents. The only reallyserious disturbance within a generation was the "Ghost-dance war" of1890-91. And yet this cannot fairly be called an Indian war. It arose ina religious craze which need not have been a serious matter if wiselyhandled. The people were hungry and disheartened, their future lookedhopeless, and all their appeals were disregarded. At this juncture thesuggestion of a Messiah, offering hope of miraculous intervention inbehalf of the red man, appealed to many, and the "new religion" spreadfar and fast. In some tribes it soon died a natural death, but in theSioux country it was unwisely forbidden by the authorities, and led tograve results. 

At Pine Ridge, in December of 1890, the ghost-dancers had come in to theagency and the situation was apparently under control when the attemptedarrest of Sitting Bull in his cabin by Indian police led to his deathand the stampeding of his people. Several of the stampeded bands camedown to Pine Ridge, where they were met by United States troops, disarmed, and shot down after one man had resisted disarmament by firingoff his weapon. This was the massacre of Wounded Knee, where about 300Indians, two thirds of them women and children, were mown down withmachine-guns within a few minutes. For some days there was danger of areprisal, but the crisis passed, and those Indians who had fled to the"Bad Lands" were induced to come in and surrender. From that time on theIndian tribes of the United States have been on a peace footing. 

CHAPTER III

THE AGENCY SYSTEM: ITS USES AND ABUSES

The early colonists, accustomed to European usages, undertook to dealwith a native chief as if he were a king, with the power to enforce hisrule over his people. As a matter of fact, he was merely theirspokesman, without authority except as it was given him by the councilof his clan, which was called together in any important event. Each clanor band was responsible only for its own members, and had nothing to dowith the conduct of any other band. This difference of viewpoint has ledto serious trouble. 

TREATIES AND TRUST FUNDS

Most of the early agreements were merely declarations of peace andfriendship, allowing freedom of trade, but having nothing to do with anycession of land. In New England small tracts of land were purchased bythe settlers of individual Indians who happened to sojourn there for thetime being, and purchased for a nominal price, according to their ownhistory and records. The natives had no conception of ownership in thesoil, and would barter away a princely estate for a few strings of beadsor a gallon of rum, not realizing that they conveyed the absolute andexclusive title that they themselves, as individuals, had not pretendedto possess. 

The status of the Indians within the United States has been repeatedlychanged since colonial times. When this Government was founded, whileclaiming the right of eminent domain over the whole country, it neverdenied the "right of occupancy" of the aborigines. In the articles ofconfederation Congress was given sole power to deal with them, but bythe constitution this power was transferred in part to the executivebranch. Formal treaties were made which had to be ratified by theSenate, until in 1871 Congress declared that the Indian tribes might nolonger be recognized as independent nations, and reduced the treaties tosimple "agreements, " which, however, must in ethics be considered fullyas binding. Their natural resources had now in many cases been takenfrom them, rendering them helpless and dependent, and for this reasonsome of the later treaties provided that they should be supported untilthey became self-supporting. 

In less than a century 370 distinct treaties were made with the varioustribes, some of them merely friendship agreements, but in the mainproviding for right of way and the cession of lands, as fast as suchlands were demanded by the westward growth of the country and thepressure of population. In the first instance, the consideration wasgenerally not over five or ten cents an acre. While the Indians werestill nomadic in their habits, goods in payment were usually taken bysteamboat to the nearest point and there turned over to the head chiefs, who distributed them among the people. Later the price increased andpayments were made either in goods or cash; fifty cents to a dollar anda quarter, and more recently as much as $2. 50 per acre for cessions ofsurplus lands on reservations after the owners have all been allotted. Gradually large trust funds have been created for some of the tribes, the capital being held in the United States Treasury and the interestpaid to the Indians in annual per capita instalments, or expended "fortheir benefit. " Farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, and other industrialteachers; cattle, farming tools, houses, and schools are variouslypromised in the later treaties for the "support and civilization" of apeople whose own method of making a living has been rendered foreverimpossible. The theory was humane and just, but the working of thesystem has proved in a large degree a failure. 

WHAT ARE RESERVATIONS?

A natural result of frequent land cessions was the reserving or settingaside of tracts of land for Indian occupancy, known as "reservations. "Such lands have been set aside not only by treaty but in many cases byact of Congress, and in others by executive order. The Indians livingupon them may not sell standing timber, or mining rights, or right ofway to railroads, without the consent of the Government. 

The policy of removal and concentration of Indians originated early inthe nineteenth century, and was carried partially into effect. IndianTerritory was set apart as a permanent home for the tribes, and theCreeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles were removedthither from the Southeastern States. After a terrible journey, in whichmany died of disease and exhaustion, and one boatload sank in theMississippi River, those who were left established themselves in the"Promised Land, " a country rich in natural resources. They soon saw thenecessity of a stable government and of domestic and agriculturalpursuits. They copied the form of their government after that of theStates, and the trust funds arising from the sale of their eastern landsformed the basis of their finances. They founded churches, schools, andorphan asylums, and upon the whole succeeded remarkably well in theirundertaking, although their policy of admitting intermarried whites andnegroes to citizenship in the tribe led to much political corruption. Gradually some forty tribes, or tribal remnants, were colonized in theTerritory; but this scheme failed in many instances, as some tribes(such as the Sioux) refused absolutely to go there, and others who wentsuffered severely from the change of climate. In 1890 the western partwas made into a separate territory under the name of Oklahoma andcolonized by whites; and in 1907 the entire territory was admitted tostatehood under that name, the "Five Civilized Nations, " so-called, having been induced to give up their tribal governments. 

The Indians of the Southwest came in, in 1848, under the treaty ofGuadalupe Hidalgo, although with some of them other treaties have beenmade and their lands added to by executive order. The Navajoes, abouttwenty-two thousand in number, now own more than twelve million acres inArizona and New Mexico. They are sheep-herders and blanket-weavers, andare entirely self-supporting. Owing to the character of the land theyoccupy, and the absence of sufficient water for irrigation, there is notenough grass on the reservation to support all the Indian stock. Therefore 5, 000 or more Navajoes are living outside the reservation, onthe public domain; and of these, according to Indian Office statements, about 1, 000 are unallotted, and under the present law can only beallotted as are white homesteaders, by paying the costs of survey andfees to the land office. 

The Pueblos hold their lands (about 1, 000, 000 acres) under Spanishgrants, and are in absolute control of them, so that the Governmentcannot build schoolhouses among them unless sites are deeded for thatpurpose, which they are sometimes unwilling to do. These people arestill self-governing, but their titles are now in danger, owing to arecent ruling of the local courts that declares them citizens, and assuch liable to taxation. Being for the most part very poor and fearingto have their land sold for taxes, they have petitioned the UnitedStates to act as trustee to manage their estates. 

The natives of California were a peaceable people and made scarcely anyresistance to the invaders, a fact which has resulted in their rapiddecline and extreme poverty. Under the Spanish friars they were gatheredinto missions and given a general industrial training, but after thesecularization of the missions the Americans took possession of theircultivated lands, and many of the Indians were landless and homeless. The remnants are now living as squatters upon the property of whitesettlers, or on small pieces of land allotted them by the Government. 

In striking contrast to the poverty-stricken condition of these PacificCoast Indians is the wealth of the Osages, a small Siouan tribeoccupying a fertile country in Oklahoma, who are said to be the richestpeople, per capita, in the world. Besides an abundance of land, rich inoil and timber, they have a trust fund of eight million dollars in theUnited States Treasury, bringing in a large annual income. They owncomfortable houses, dwell in substantial towns, and are moderatelyprogressive. 

THE TRUTH ABOUT INDIAN AGENCIES

The Indian of the Northwest came into reservation life reluctantly, verymuch like a man who has dissipated his large inheritance and is drivenout by foreclosure. One morning he awoke to the fact that he must giveup his freedom and resign his vast possessions to live in a squalidcabin in the backyard of civilization. For the first time his rovingswere checked by well-defined boundaries, and he could not hunt or visitneighboring tribes without a passport. He was practically a prisoner, tobe fed and treated as such; and what resources were left him must becontrolled by the Indian Bureau through its resident agent. 

Who is this Indian agent, or superintendent, as he is now called? He isthe supreme ruler on the reservation, responsible directly to theCommissioner of Indian Affairs; and all requests or complaints must passthrough his office. The agency doctor, clerks, farmers, superintendentsof agency schools, and all other local employees report to him and aresubject to his orders. Too often he has been nothing more than a wardpolitician of the commonest stamp, whose main purpose is to get all thatis coming to him. His salary is small, but there are endlessopportunities for graft. 

If any appeal from the agent's decisions, they are "kickers" and"insubordinate. " If they are Indians, he can easily deprive them ofprivileges, or even imprison them on trumped-up charges; if employees, he will force them to resign or apply for transfers; and even themissionaries may be compelled, directly or indirectly, to leave thereservation for protesting too openly against official wrongdoing. Theinspector sent from Washington to investigate finds it easy to "get inwith" the agent and very difficult to see or hear anything that theagent does not wish him to hear or see. Many Indians now believesincerely in Christ's teachings as explained to them by theirmissionaries, but they find it impossible to believe that thisGovernment is Christian, or the average official an honest man. 

Any untutored people, however, are apt imitators, and so thesemuch-exploited natives become politicians in spite of themselves. Themost worthless of the tribe are used as the agent's spies and henchmen;a state of affairs demoralizing on the face of it. As long as the IndianBureau is run in the interests of the politicians, and Indiancivilization is merely an incident, the excellent and humanitarianpolicies approved by the American people will not be fully carried intoeffect. 

It is true that good men and especially good women have gone into theIndian service with a genuine desire to deal justly and kindly by theIndian and to serve the Government honorably and efficiently. Suchpeople often become disgusted with the system and find it impossible tostay, or else are forced out by methods familiar to the experienced. When you clear your American cities of grafters, and purify yourpolitics, then perhaps you will be in a position to redeem the Indianservice, and only then. Alas! the skirts of the Goddess of Liberty havenever yet been quite clean!

The Indian is no fool; on the other hand, he is a keen observer and anapt student. Although an idealist by nature, many of the race haveproved themselves good business men. But under the reservation systemthey have developed traits that are absolutely opposed to the racialtype. They become time-serving, beggarly, and apathetic. Some of theirfinest characters, such as Chief Joseph, have really died of a brokenheart. These are men who could not submit to be degraded; thepoliticians call them "incorrigible savages. "

The distribution of rations to the Plains Indians was, as I haveexplained, originally a peace measure, and apparently a necessity inplace of their buffalo which the white man had exterminated. For manyyears Texas beef was issued monthly "on the hoof"; that is, the cattlewere driven out one by one upon the plain, and there surrounded and shotdown by representatives of the groups to which they belonged. Bacon, flour, sugar, and coffee were doled out to the women, usually as oftenas once in two weeks, thus requiring those who lived at a considerabledistance from the agency to spend several days of each month on theroad, neglecting their homes and gardens, if they had any. Once a yearthere was a distribution of cheap blankets and shoddy clothing. Theself-respect of the people was almost fatally injured by these methods. This demoralizing ration-giving has been gradually done away with as theIndians progressed toward self-support, but is still found necessary inmany cases. 

Not all features of reservation life are bad; for while many good thingsare shut out and some evils flourish, others are excluded. Liquortraffic among Indians has been forbidden by law since the colonialperiod; and the law is fairly well enforced by a number of specialofficers; yet in a few tribes there has been in recent years muchdemoralization through liquor. It is generally admitted that there isless crime and rowdyism on the reservations than in civilizedcommunities of equal size. In 1878 a force of native police wasauthorized to keep order, eject intruders, act as truant officers, andperform other duties under the direction of the agent. Though paid onlyten or twelve dollars a month, these men have been faithful andefficient in the performance of duties involving considerable hardshipand sometimes danger. Their loyalty and patriotism are deserving ofspecial praise. In making arrests and bringing in desperate prisoners, as in the case of Pretty Elk the Brule Sioux murderer, and of the chief, Sitting Bull, the faithful police have sometimes lost their lives. 

INDIAN CLAIMS

It is commonly admitted that the Indian treaties have been frequentlybroken by the United States, both in the letter and the spirit, while, on the other hand, the Indians have acted in good faith and with a highregard for their national honor. It is also a fact not very creditableto the Government that treaties have been materially amended in theSenate and not again submitted to the tribe, who were not even madeaware at once of their altered provisions. I believe this would beconsidered a piece of sharp practice in the case of any people able todefend itself. 

The breach of treaty obligations on the part of this Government has ledto a large number of Indian claims, involving millions of dollars, whichrepresent the efforts of tribes or bands which feel themselves wrongedor defrauded to obtain justice under the white man's law. The history ofone or two such may be of interest. 

Most of the Oneida and Stockbridge tribes exchanged their New Yorkreservations for a large tract of land in Kansas, and started for theirnew home in 1830, but never got any farther than Green Bay, Wisconsin. There the Menominees invited them to remain and share their reservation, as they had plenty of good land. The Stockbridges had originallyoccupied the beautiful Housatonic valley, where Jonathan Edwardspreached to them and made them good Presbyterians; nevertheless, the"Christian" colonists robbed them of their homes and drove themwestward. They did not resist the aggression. If anything is proved inhistory, it is that those who follow in the footsteps of the meek andgentle Jesus will be treated unmercifully, as he was, by a hard andmaterial world. 

These Stockbridges went still further with their kind hosts, andultimately both tribes accepted the hospitality of the Ojibways. Theymade their unfortunate brothers welcome, and made them a free gift ofland. But now observe the white man's sense of honor and justice inglaring contrast! For _seventy-five years_ the United States Governmentfailed to recompense these people for their Kansas land, which theynever reached, and which in the meantime was taken up by settlers, andgradually covered with thriving homes and fertile farms. 

The whole case was scrutinized again and again by the Congress of theUnited States from 1830 to about 1905, when at last a payment was made!The fact that the two tribes remained in Wisconsin and settled theredoes not invalidate their claim, as those wild Ojibways had no treatywith the Government at that time and had a perfect right to give awaysome of their land. It was a barefaced, open steal from the Indians. Yetthe tribes were obliged to employ white attorneys at a liberal per cent. Of the amount they hoped to recover. They had to pay high for simplejustice. Meanwhile they lived on their own labor for two or threegenerations, and contributed to the upbuilding of Wisconsin. To-day someof them are doing better than their white neighbors. 

This is only one illustration of a not uncommon happening; for, whilesome of these claims are doubtless unreasonable, I personally know ofmany in which the ethics of the case are as clear as in this which Ihave cited. It is often the fact that differences among attorneys andparty politics in Congress delay justice for many years or deprive theIndians of their rights altogether. A bill has recently been introduced, at the instance of the Society of American Indians, which is framed topermit Indian tribes to sue in the Court of Claims, without firstobtaining the consent of Congress in each case. This bill ought to be atonce made law, as it would do away within a few years with manylong-drawn-out disputes and much waste and worse than waste of time andmoney. 

CHAPTER IV

THE NEW INDIAN POLICY

I have tried to state plainly some of the difficulties found soharassing in adjusting the relations of the native and white races inAmerica. While there have been terrible and most un-Christian mistakesin dealing with the Indian (who has always been fully able to appreciatefair play and to resent the lack of it), it is equally true that therehas been of late years a serious effort to bring him within the boundsof modern progress, so that he may eventually adapt himself to thegeneral life of the nation. Until recently he himself preferred toremain just outside the borders of civilization, and was commonlyassumed to be incapable of advance or change. 

The birth of the new era really dates from Abraham Lincoln's refusal toorder the execution of three hundred Sioux braves, whom a military courthad, in less than two days, convicted of murder and condemned to behung, in order to satisfy the clamor of the citizens of Minnesota. Theydemanded to be avenged for the loss of friends, relatives, and propertyin the outbreak of 1862, and they forgot that these Sioux had beendefrauded of the finest country in the world, their home, their living, and even cheated out of the ten cents per acre agreed to be paid formillions of acres of the choicest land. They had shown their teeth atlast, after more than a century of patience and self-control. 

The great President personally reviewed the records of the court, andwrote with his own hand the names of the forty Indians who wereexecuted, instead of three hundred originally condemned to die. He wasabused and insulted for his humanity. Governor Ramsey of Minnesotaappealed to him in vain in the name of the frontier people: that gentle, brave, just President had his way, and many of those whom he pardonedafterward became leaders of the Sioux in walking the white man's road. 

INDIAN REFORMS UNDER GRANT

During General Grant's administration the famous "Peace Policy" made aremarkable start in the face of the determined resistance of the PlainsIndians. The Indian, when making his last stand against injustice, is adesperate and a dangerous enemy. It was estimated at this time thatevery warrior killed in battle had cost the Government twenty-threelives and a round million of dollars. At this rate, the race would notbe "wiped out" for generations. Kindness would be infinitely cheaper, aswell as more pleasing, doubtless, to the white man's God!

In a word, Christian men and women came tardily to the conclusion thatsomething more consistent with the claims of their religion must beshown these brave people who had lost everything in the face of theherculean advance of the dominant race. Reflection upon the sordidhistory of their country's dealings with the red man had taught them tothink clearly, above the clamor of the self-seeking mob. Some of themhad lived side by side with their dusky neighbors, and studied them atclose range, in the light of broad human feeling. Such men were GeneralGrant, Bishops Whipple and Hare, William Welsh and his nephew, HerbertWelsh of Philadelphia, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Smith, GeneralArmstrong, and General Pratt. No class or sect has more fully endorsedthis policy than have the Quakers, of whom the late Albert K. Smiley ofMohonk Conference fame was a distinguished representative. 

In 1870 President Grant placed all Indian agencies under the control ofthe various churches and missionary organizations, which had hithertobeen practically the sole channels of educational or uplift work amongthe tribes. Undoubtedly Grant sincerely wished to put an end to officialcorruption in this branch of the service, and to make the best possibleuse of all moneys that might be appropriated for Indian civilization, when he took the radical step of inviting each of the denominationsinterested to name the agent at one or more agencies, their candidate tohold office as long as he enjoyed their confidence, and to choose hisown subordinates. It was confidently hoped that by this means the civiland religious work might be in full harmony, and that the Indians, instead of being hopelessly confused by conflicting views and practicesamong their would-be teachers, might learn equally by precept andexample. 

Grant's policy remained in force for about ten years, and there is noquestion that in this short space of time the churches accomplishedwonders among the raw Sioux but lately confined to their reservations. The following agencies of which I had personal knowledge were thenindustrious Christian communities: namely, Sisseton under thePresbyterians, Devil's Lake under the Catholics, Yankton under theEpiscopalians, Santee under the Quakers. Winnebagoes, Pawnees, Omahas, all the wild Plains Indians did well under consistent and conscientiousmanagement. Large fields of wheat were cultivated by them, with butlittle assistance, which have since gone back to wild land under the"spoils system, " and over which, ten years ago, I hunted prairiechickens. 

There were developed during this period many strong Christians of agenuinely apostolic stamp, who became teachers and preachers to theirwilder brethren. Both children and adults were taught to read in theirown language, and at least two papers were published monthly in theSioux tongue, which had been reduced to writing by the Riggses andWilliamsons, the earliest Protestant missionaries. It was then and therethat I myself received my impetus toward an education. My father, whowas one of the two hundred and sixty Sioux pardoned by Lincoln, hadvoluntarily abandoned the reservation with its pauperizing influences, and was a self-supporting citizen in 1870. 

Another interesting feature of Grant's administration was the number ofIndians holding responsible positions in the service. At a time whenthere were no great Indian schools, there were found and trained mencompetent to act as agency blacksmiths, carpenters, millers, etc. Therewas even a full-blood Iroquois at the head of the Indian Bureau--Grant'schief of staff, General Ely Parker. 

THE WARS OF THE SECTS

It was a genuine calamity for our people when this system wasoverthrown, as it was in a few years, by the clamor of the politiciansfor patronage, together with the sectarian disputes that have been ascandal to the heathen throughout the history of Christian missions. Onmany reservations proselyting work had been begun by two or moredenominations, and these bodies now became rivals, even bitter andhostile rivals, for the souls and bodies of their reputed converts. Tothe Catholics, in particular, who claimed thirty-eight of theseventy-two agencies, on the ground of prior religious influence, therehad been assigned but eight. Strong pressure was brought to bearthrough their Bureau of Missions to reverse this ruling; and equallystrong, or stronger, was the political pressure for the rich spoils ofthe Indian agencies. By 1883 Grant's too idealistic system broke downentirely, the fat offices were returned to the politicians, and alldenominations were permitted to engage at will in missionary propaganda, but without secular authority. 

A certain chief in the Red River region well expressed a view commonamong our people when he said to the priest: "You tell us that we can besaved only if we accept your faith and are baptized by you. TheProtestant minister tells us the same. Yet both claim to worship thesame God! Who shall judge between you? We have considered the matter, and decided that when your two roads join we will follow you; but untilthen we prefer our own religion!"

Nevertheless it was largely through the influence of the missionariesand their converts that in most of the treaties made during this periodthere were inserted clauses providing for the practical education of theIndian children. There has been much fraud connected with the purchaseof materials and supplies, and in every way that shrewd andunprincipled men can devise, but even the politicians could not entirelyprevent the building of those schools. One fact stands out boldly: itwas the Christian missionary, in spite of serious mistakes, who playedthe most important part in the transformation of the Indian and thedevelopment of the West. 

MODERN "FRIENDS OF THE INDIAN"

From this time on the old view of the Indian as a hopeless savage hasbeen gradually abandoned, and replaced by the juster modern view whichregards him as essentially a man, and as good material for the futurecitizen. The volunteer organizations arising under Grant and continuingactive to the present day have been effective molders of public opinionalong these lines. 

The Boston Indian Citizenship Committee was organized in 1879, on theoccasion of the forcible removal of the Poncas to Indian Territory. Chief Standing Bear and the Indian maiden Bright Eyes (Susette LaFlesche) visited many leading cities and told eloquently the story oftheir wrongs. They were ultimately restored to their old home, largelythrough the efforts of this group of influential men. The committeethen undertook to secure citizenship for Indians on the basis oftaxation, a principle that was denied by the Supreme Court; but a fewyears later the same end was attained by the passage of the "Dawesbill. " Since then they have endeavored to secure honest allotments toIndians, to prevent the sale of the best lands to whites at nominalprices, and to obtain the dismissal of corrupt Indian agents andinspectors. 

The National Indian Association, composed chiefly of women, began workwith a memorial to Congress in 1879, and has continued it until now, under the efficient leadership of Mrs. A. S. Quinton, Mrs. Sara T. Kinney, and others. The missionary department has established fiftypioneer missions in as many neglected tribes or tribal remnants, turningthem over ultimately, with their buildings and plant, to the missionboards of the various Protestant denominations. The society has alsofostered native industries, being the mother of the Indian IndustriesLeague; has loaned money to Indians for home-building; assisted in theeducation of especially promising individuals; built and supportedhospitals, and done other valuable work. Its headquarters are in NewYork City. 

The Indian Rights Association was organized in Philadelphia, in 1882, atthe home of Mr. John Welsh. Mr. Herbert Welsh has been for many yearsits leading spirit, and others who have done yeoman's service in thecause are the late Professor Painter, Mr. Brosius, and Mr. Matthew K. Sniffen. Its slogan was the same as that of the others: Education; Landin Severalty; Citizenship! To all three of these bodies, as well as tothe Board of Indian Commissioners, belongs much credit for urging thereforms which triumphed, in 1887, in the "Dawes bill, " the EmancipationAct of the Indian. 

The Indian Rights Association maintains a representative in Washingtonto coöperate with the Indian Bureau and to keep an eye upon legislationaffecting the tribes, as well as a permanent office in Philadelphia. Itsofficers and agents have kept in close touch with developments in thefield, and have conducted many investigations on Indian agencies, resulting often in the exposure of grave abuses. They have beencourageous and aggressive in their work, and have not hesitated toappeal to the courts when necessary to protect the rights of Indians. They have also done much to mold public sentiment through meetings, letters to the press, and the circulation of their own literature to thenumber of more than half a million copies. 

One of President Grant's first acts was the creation, in 1869, of theUnited States Board of Indian Commissioners, a body of ten men supposedto be "eminent for their intelligence and philanthropy, " to servewithout pay in an advisory capacity, and to coöperate with the InteriorDepartment in securing a sound and progressive administration of Indianaffairs. The only appropriation is for travelling expenses and for asalaried secretary with an office in Washington. It has been one of theimportant duties of this Board to inspect the Indian supplies whenpurchased, if possible securing goods up to the standard of the samplessubmitted and preventing open fraud. Its members have travelledextensively in the Indian country in order to observe conditions, andtheir patriotic services have been appreciated by both races. 

In the autumn of 1883 Mr. Albert K. Smiley, the large-hearted owner of ahostelry overlooking beautiful Lake Mohonk, in the Shawangum range, invited a number of prominent Indian workers to meet as his guests fordiscussion of actual conditions and necessary reforms. With thishistoric meeting began an uninterrupted series of "Mohonk IndianConferences, " at which missionaries of all denominations, Governmentofficials, members of Congress, representatives of philanthropicsocieties, teachers in Indian schools, editors, ministers, and otherinfluential men and women, with a sprinkling of educated Indians, meetannually at the call of Mr. Smiley, and since his death in 1912 at thatof his brother, Mr. Daniel Smiley, to discuss all matters bearing uponthe welfare of the race in a sympathetic atmosphere and amid thepleasantest surroundings. Mr. Smiley was a member of the Board of IndianCommissioners, and for many years these conferences were closelyconnected with the affairs of the Board, and the proceedings werepublished as a part of its annual report. 

The platform adopted each year at Lake Mohonk is widely circulated, andhas had much influence; although, as it represents only the unanimousvote of a body among whom there actually exist wide differences ofopinion, it is not always as satisfactory as it might be. It has seemedto some who attended the early conferences that those of late years havebeen less fruitful, owing partly to less novelty in the subject-matterand to the sharing of the time with problems of Hawaii and thePhilippines, and partly to a desire for unanimity and good feeling thathas kept unpleasant facts from the light. It is certain that the debatesare more carefully pre-arranged and therefore less spontaneous. 

The Mohonk Conferences have consistently recommended largerappropriations for Indian education; the extension of the laws of theland over Indian reservations; the gradual withdrawal of rations; theallotment of communal land to individuals, and more recently thebreaking up of the tribal trust funds into individual holdings. Emphasishas been laid upon the need of greater care in selecting men ofcharacter as Indian agents and superintendents. The thirty-firstconference urges a vigorous campaign against tuberculosis, trachoma, andother diseases among Indians, also against the liquor traffic, andmescal habit, and declares that the proposition to control Indianaffairs through a non-partisan commission to serve during long terms is"worthy of serious consideration. " It also makes special recommendationsin behalf of the Pueblo, the Navajo, the Five Civilized Tribes ofOklahoma, and the New York Indians, looking toward their presentprotection and future citizenship. 

These "Eastern sentimentalists, " as they have often been called bypersons interested in depriving the red man of his heritage, havepursued their ends steadily, though not without severe setbacks. Theopposition to Indian schools in Congress was for many years very strong, but it has now almost ceased, except in sporadic instances. One seldomhears it said nowadays that "the only good Indian is the dead Indian, "and the Western Senator who declared that "you could no more civilize anApache than you could civilize a rattlesnake" would rather shock thanconvince his hearers in the light of present-day progress. The greatestenemy to Indian civilization has been the return of the "spoils system"in the eighties, and the formation of a corrupt "Indian ring" whoseramifications extended so deep and so high that even the most sincereand disinterested despaired of obtaining justice. Yet the averageAmerican citizen honestly wants to give the Indian a fair chance!

To sum up, he had been an indomitable foe, and occupied a vast regionwhich by 1870 was already beat upon by the tides of settlement. Twothings were determined upon: First, he must be induced, bribed, orforced to enter the reservation. Second, he must be trained andpersuaded to adopt civilized life, and so saved to the future if heproved to be worth saving, which many doubted. In order to carry outthese projects his wild food supply had to be ruthlessly cut off, andthe buffalo were of necessity sacrificed. 

Here is a system which has gradually taken its present complicated formduring two thousand years. A primitive race has put it on ready made, toa large extent, within two generations. In order to accomplish such afeat, they had to fight physical demoralization, psychologicalconfusion, and spiritual apathy. In other words, the old building had tobe pulled down, foundations and all, and replaced by the new. But youhave had to use the same timber!

CHAPTER V

THE INDIAN IN SCHOOL

The thought of educating the natives of America was first conceived bythe earliest explorer-priests, prompted by ecclesiastical ambition andreligious zeal. Churches and missionary societies among the earlycolonists undertook both to preach and teach among the children of theforest, who, said they, "must either be moralized or exterminated. "Schools and missions were established and maintained among them by themother churches in England and Scotland, and in a few cases by thecolonists themselves. It was provided in the charters of our oldestcolleges that a certain number of Indian pupils should be educatedtherein, and others, as Dartmouth and Hamilton, were founded primarilyfor Indian youth. The results, though meagre, were on the wholedeserving of consideration. In the middle of the eighteenth centurythere were said to be some Indian boys in Stockbridge, Mass. , who "readEnglish well, " and at Harvard several excelled in the classics. JosephBrant, though a terror to the colonists during the Revolution, was a manof rare abilities and considerable education; and Samson Occum, the mostfamous educated Indian of his day, was not only an eloquent preacher andsuccessful teacher but an accomplished hymn-writer. The visit of "thegreat Mohegan" to England in 1765, when he preached more than threehundred times and raised some ten thousand pounds for Dartmouth College, was perhaps the most striking incident of his career. 

From this early chapter of Indian education we find it clearly proventhat individual red men were able to assimilate the classical culture ofthe period, and capable, moreover, of loyalty toward the new ideals noless than the old. The utter disregard of hygiene then prevalent, andthe further facts that industrial training was neglected and little orno attention paid to the girls, would account to the modern mind formany disappointments. However, most of the so-called "failure" of thiswork is directly traceable to unjust laws, social segregation, frequentwars, strong drink, and the greed of the whites for Indian lands, one orall of which causes destroyed many promising beginnings andexterminated whole tribes or drove them from well-established homes intopoverty and exile. 

EARLY MISSION AND CONTRACT SCHOOLS

Beginning with the first years of the nineteenth century, practicallyevery religious denomination in America carried on more or lesseducational work among the natives. In some cases the Indians themselvescontributed toward the expense of these schools, and in others theUnited States Government gave meagre aid. As early as 1775 theContinental Congress had appropriated five hundred dollars for thesupport and education of youths at Dartmouth College. This was, however, less an act of benevolence than of self-interest, since its avowedobject was to conciliate the friendship of those Indians who might beinclined to ally themselves with the British during the struggle forindependence. 

From the year 1819 to 1848 ten thousand dollars annually was distributedby the Government among mission schools of various denominations, and inthe latter year there were one hundred and three such schools, with overthree thousand pupils. In 1870 the appropriation was increased to onehundred thousand; and about 1873, during Grant's administration, alreadydescribed as marking a new era for the red man, the Government began todevelop a school system of its own, but did not therefore discontinueits aid to the mission boards. On the contrary, such aid was largelyincreased in the form of "contracts. "

The usual rule was to pay a fixed sum (commonly $167 per capita perannum) for each pupil actually in attendance, the religious society orindividual to whom the contract was given providing buildings, teachers, and equipment. It does not appear that there was any unjustdiscrimination between religious bodies in the application of thesefunds, and the fact that in the course of a few years a large andincreasing proportion passed under the control of the Bureau of CatholicIndian Missions must be attributed entirely to their superior enterpriseand activity. This was a period of awakening and rapid growth. By 1886the total appropriations for Indian education had risen to more than$1, 000, 000, and the contracts aggregated $31, 000. In ten years more theCatholics alone drew $314, 000. But, during this decade, the policy ofassisting sectarian schools with the public money, claimed to be aviolation of the American principle of separation of Church and State, had been continuously under fire; and in 1895 it was finally decided byCongress to reduce the contracts 20 per cent. Each year until abolished. 

Meantime, the Methodists first in 1892, followed by all the otherProtestant bodies, voluntarily relinquished their contracts, but theCatholics kept up the fight to the end; nevertheless, in 1900, allCongressional appropriations for sectarian schools were finallywithdrawn. 

Naturally this reversal of a policy of such long standing, even thoughdue notice had been given, worked serious hardship to schoolsestablished in the expectation of its continuance. Bishop Hare'svaluable work in South Dakota was crippled, particularly as theprinciple at issue was so interpreted by the Indian office as to forbidthe issue of treaty rations to children enrolled in mission schools, although they would have received such rations had they not been inschool at all. 

It was held by the Bureau of Catholic Indian missions that Indian treatyand trust funds are in a different class from moneys derived from thetaxpayers, and that it is perfectly legitimate for a tribe to assign aportion of its own revenues to the support of a mission school. TheSupreme Court has since declared this view to be correct, andaccordingly this church still utilizes tribal funds to a considerableamount each year. Rations were also restored to certain schools by actof Congress in 1906. 

As in the case of the sectarian protests against President Grant'spolicy in regard to manning the Indian agencies, I believe thatreligious prejudice has been a real misfortune to our people. GeneralArmstrong, in an address given at Lake Mohonk in 1890, expressed thewell-founded opinion that the industrial work of the Catholic schools isas good as any, often superior; the academic work generally inferior, while on the moral and religious side he found them at their best. 

CARLISLE AND HAMPTON

The Carlisle School in Pennsylvania was the first non-reservationboarding school to be established, a pioneer and a leader in thisimportant class of schools, of which there are now thirty-five, scattered throughout the Middle and Western States. General R. H. Pratt(then Lieutenant Pratt), while in charge of Indian prisoners of war atSaint Augustine, Florida, made important reforms in their treatment, which led in 1878, when their release was ordered by the War Department, to a request on the part of twenty-two of the younger men for furthereducation. Seventeen of these were received at Hampton Institute, Virginia, General Armstrong's celebrated school for freedmen, and thenext year an Indian department was organized at Hampton, while GeneralPratt was authorized, at his own suggestion, to establish an Indianschool in the abandoned army barracks at Carlisle. 

The school opened with 147 pupils. There were many difficulties and muchunintelligent opposition in the beginning, but wonderful successattended General Pratt's administration. For many years Carlisle hasenrolled about 1, 200 pupils each year, keeping almost half of them onfarms and in good homes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where they workfor board and wages in summer, while a smaller number attend the publicschool during the colder months. They earn and save about thirtythousand dollars annually. This "outing system" was devised by GeneralPratt, and has been adopted elsewhere, though not always with equalsuccess. 

Periodical attacks have been made upon the Carlisle school, usually frompolitical or purely selfish motives; but it has survived them all. General Pratt's policy was to take the young Indian wholly out of hisenvironment and the motives as well as the habits of his former life, and in support of it he has opposed some of the methods of themissionaries. His advice to his graduates is to remain east and competein civilization. He has worked with tremendous energy and greatsingle-mindedness, and has often been undiplomatic in his criticisms, thus incurring some enmity. But, upon the whole, his theory is the verybackbone of Indian education, and in fact we are following it to-day. 

It is the impression of the most advanced members of the race that hehas rendered to them and to the country a particular service, and thatthe wonderful progress demonstrated by the Indian in recent years is duein large measure to his work, and to its results as seen at Hampton andCarlisle. These schools are visited by hundreds of people every year, and have furnished a convincing object-lesson to the many who opposedIndian education on theory alone. The other thirty-four non-reservationschools were secured with comparative ease after he had proved his case. 

The Indian department at Hampton Institute, which opened in 1878 withGeneral Pratt's seventeen prisoners of war, flourished for more thanthirty years, and provided for the education of more than one hundredIndian pupils each year in "the hand, the heart, and the head. " GeneralArmstrong, one of America's heroes of peace, was an enthusiasticchampion of the red man's cause, and as an object-lesson to the public, as well as in training native teachers and leaders, his great school hascontributed much to the new era. It was decided by Congress a year ortwo ago to withdraw the Government appropriation of $20, 000 annuallyfrom the Hampton school, but notwithstanding this, more than thirtyIndian pupils remain to work their way through, with some assistancefrom free scholarships. 

Hampton claims to have been the first school to begin keeping systematicrecords of its returned Indian students, and by means of these recordsthe school is able to show satisfactory and encouraging results of itswork for Indians. 

In reply to the oft-asked question: "Do educated Indians go back to theblanket?" it should be said, first, that return to Indian dress inisolated communities where this is still the common dress of the peopleis not necessarily retrogression. It may be only a wise conformity tocustom. Investigation has shown, however, that very few _graduates_ ofany school ever do reassume Indian dress or ways. Of those who haveattended school but two or three years in all, a larger proportion maydo so. A northwestern school reports that out of a total of 234graduates only three are known to be failures. The most recent Carlislereport shows that of 565 living graduates, all but 69 are known to beprofitably employed in a wide variety of occupations; 110 are in theGovernment service. There are also 3, 800 ex-students, not graduates, ofwhom a large majority are successful. Hampton has 878 living returnedIndian students, of whom 87 per cent. Are recorded as doing well. 

In 1897 the Indian Bureau required all Indian agents and superintendentsto report upon the conduct and usefulness of every student returned froma non-reservation school. Such an investigation was sure not to beunduly favorable, and the report showed 76 per cent. Of successes. In1901 a more careful inquiry raised it to 86 per cent. 

MISSION SCHOOLS OF TO-DAY

It must not be supposed that the downfall of the contract system and thedevelopment of Government work has meant the end of distinctivelymission schools for Indians. Although a few have been closed, there arestill many in successful operation under the various church boards, theIndians themselves willingly contributing to their support. Indeed, thisfeature of partial self-support is much in their favor, as it is certainthat an education that costs the recipient something is of more worth. 

Except for a few plants taken over by the Government, the Catholicscontinue to conduct their fine agricultural boarding-schools, notablythose among the Sioux. Bishop Hare of the Episcopal Church began hislabors among the same people in 1873; and in nothing was hisstatesmanlike breadth of mind more clearly shown than in the foundationof a system of excellent boarding-schools, of which at one time therewere five under his watchful care, where from thirty to seventy childreneach were sheltered and taught in the atmosphere of a sunny Christianhome. It was impossible to carry them all after the discontinuance ofall Government aid, either in money or rations, but, although the Bishopdied in 1909, Saint Mary's at Rosebud and Saint Elizabeth's at StandingRock remain a monument to his memory. 

The Presbyterian Church conducts two successful boarding and a number ofday schools; and the Congregationalists have concentrated their effortsupon a large training-school at Santee, Nebraska, under the veteranmissionary teacher, Rev. Alfred L. Riggs. At Santee the Indian boys andgirls are given a practical education developed to fit their peculiarneeds--its goal the training of teachers, preachers, and leaders inevery walk of life. Here I received my first impulse toward a career in1875-6. In all these schools, even those where the material equipment isinsufficient, there is more emphasis upon character-building, more ofpermanence and in general higher qualifications in the teaching forcethan under Government. 

VIRTUES AND DEFECTS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM

There has been nearly $90, 000, 000 appropriated by Congress since 1876for Indian education. The appropriation for 1915 was over $4, 500, 000. Yet even more is needed. The Indian Bureau estimates 77, 000 Indianchildren of school age; of these about 27, 000 are provided for inGovernment schools, 4, 000 in mission and 25, 000 in public schools, leaving about 20, 000 entirely neglected, besides an estimated 7, 000 sickand defective children, who need hospital schools or some form ofspecial care. 

The present system includes day and boarding schools on thereservations, as well as the large industrial schools off thereservations. In 1913 there were reported two hundred and twenty-threeday schools and seventy-six reservation boarding-schools. The trainingin the former is elementary; and the most advanced goes little beyondthe eighth grammar grade in the public school, though at Carlisle and afew others there are short normal and business courses. In 1882 asuperintendent was appointed to inspect and correlate these widelyscattered institutions, and a few years later a corps of supervisors wasput in the field. Since 1891 there have been institutes and summerschools conducted for the benefit of the teachers. 

It is the rule in all boarding-schools that one half the time of eachpupil be given to industrial work, which includes most of the laborinvolved in running the kitchen, dining-room, laundry, sewing-room, andschool farm or garden, as well as systematic training in housekeeping, agriculture, and the mechanical trades. The age of graduation is usuallyfrom seventeen to twenty-five or even more. This retardation is to beattributed partly to the half-day system; partly to frequent transfersfrom one school to another, and consequent loss of grade; and in thepoorer schools to inefficiency of teachers and lack of ambition on thepart of pupils. It must be remembered, moreover, that the subjects andmethods of study, in language, mathematics, and abstract ideas of allkinds, were entirely foreign to the untutored Indian mind. It isdifficult to study in a foreign language even when the subject of studyis familiar; the Indian student is expected to master subjectsabsolutely unknown to him in his own life. Yet I have heard teachersexperienced in public school work declare that these children of natureare as responsive as white children; in writing and drawing they excel;and discipline is easier, at least among the wilder tribes. The resultin thirty or forty years has opened the eyes of many who heretoforeheld the theory that the Indian will always remain Indian. 

Admitting that these schools compare well with state institutions whichare on a similar basis, and are controlled by political appointments, there are some abuses, as might be expected. While there are fine men incharge of certain schools, there are others who are neither efficientnor sympathetic with the cause of Indian uplift. Most regrettable is thefact that the moral influence of such schools has been at differenttimes very low. The pupils themselves have come to look upon them aspolitical institutions and to discard all genuine effort. It is a caseof serve the master and he will not bother you; all else is merely show. I believe that there has been some improvement in recent years, chieflyon account of the protection given by the rules of the civil service. Let the teacher set an example of honest living and the scholar will besure to follow; but if the one is a hypocrite, the other will becomeone. Remember, you have induced or forced the Indian mother to give upher five and six year old children on your promise to civilize, educate, Christianize--but not subsidize or commercialize them!

Some of the reservations are oversupplied with schools, while others, notably the Navajo, have almost none. In the former case, the Indianparents are kept in an anxious state and often very unhappy. Since theIndian Bureau has required the superintendent to keep up his quota ofpupils, or the number of teachers and the total appropriation will bereduced in proportion, he may be compelled, as some one has said, to"rob the cradle and the grave"--in other words, he is not careful toomit those under age and the sickly ones. Much harm has been done byplacing children in an advanced stage of tuberculosis in the samedormitory with healthy youngsters. Irregular attendance is too oftentolerated; and a serious evil is the admission of children of well-to-doparents, who dress their young folks extravagantly, supply them withunlimited spending money, and who, in all reason, should be required topay for their support and education. 

Another drawback lies in the fact that each new Commissioner of IndianAffairs, usually a man without special knowledge or experience in thecomplex work over which he is called to preside, comes out with a schemefor reforming the whole system. Perhaps he advocates doing away withCarlisle and the schools of its class, and places all the emphasis uponthe little day schools in the Indian camps; or it may be vice versa. Allthe advance we have made is through _all_ of these schools; we cannotspare any of them. We should be a thousand times better off if thereformers could rid us of the professional politicians, but I fear thisis impossible. I have abandoned all hope of it, after long experienceboth in the field and in Washington. I would give up anything ratherthan the schools, unmoral as many of them are. The pupils become everyyear better fitted to choose and to combat the evil in theirenvironment. They will soon be able to prepare themselves for the newlife without taking notice of what does not concern them. I rejoice inevery real gain; and I predict that the Indian will soon adjust himselffully to the requirements of the age, be able to appreciate itsmagnificent achievements, and contribute his mite to the moderndevelopment of the land of his ancestors. 

CHAPTER VI

THE INDIAN AT HOME

Although among the graduates and ex-students of the Indian schools thereare now some in almost every modern occupation, including commerce, thetrades and professions, the great majority of these young people, as oftheir fellow tribesmen who lack an English education, are farmers, ranchers, and stockmen. Nearly all Indians own some land, eitherindividually or in common; and while it may generally be leased by thosewho are either unable or for good reasons do not desire to work itthemselves, this is done under such troublesome restrictions andconditions that it is, as a general rule, better for the owner to liveon and utilize his allotment. Of course this is a rule that admits ofmany exceptions. 

THE PROBLEM OF SELF-SUPPORT

Since most Indian reservations are in the arid belt and the greaterportion of the land is therefore unsuited to agriculture, at leastwithout extensive irrigation, perhaps the larger number of the men arestock-raisers, an occupation well suited to the Plains Indians, who aregreat riders and very fond of their horses. They raise both horses andcattle, and many have become well-to-do from this source. From time totime their herds are improved by well-bred stallions and mares andblooded cattle, furnished by the Government under treaty stipulations. The total valuation of stock belonging to Indians, both individual andtribal, is now twenty-two million dollars in round numbers, according tothe tables furnished by the Indian Bureau. This estimate includes sheep, goats, and poultry. The Navajoes, who number about 22, 000 and are in afairly primitive state, having few schools or missionaries among them, are thrifty and successful sheep-herders and entirely self-supporting. The value of crops raised by Indians during the last fiscal year isestimated at more than four millions. 

In a word, the typical red man of to-day is a rancher on a large orsmall scale. He has displayed quite as much intelligence and aptitudefor the work as could be expected. There have been serious handicaps, other than the tradition among us that the cultivation of the soil is afeminine rather than a manly occupation. I may mention the occupation ofthe best lands by white settlers, with or without our consent; theration system; and the "spoils system" as applied to the appointment ofour superintendents and instructors in farming. 

Take the Sioux, for example--a strong and self-respecting people who hadshown a willingness to fight for their rights when it became necessary. They were presently corralled upon reservations in a land of littlerain, and given enough food to sustain life, under a solemn engagementto continue feeding "until they became self-supporting. " There was scantopportunity and still less inducement to become so; accordingly only afew of the more ambitious or energetic worked at teaming or whateverthey could get to do, improved their homes, acquired stock, andgradually fought their way upward. For many years this clause in thetreaty was not applied to individuals; that is, it was interpreted tomean that all should receive rations until all became self-supporting. Twenty years ago, when I lived among them as agency doctor, Governmentand mission workers of Indian blood, well-to-do mixed bloods, andintermarried white men all drew their rations regularly, with very fewexceptions. 

About a dozen years ago tardy steps were taken to carry out the evidentintention of the treaty, which had hitherto been defeated by keeping itto the letter. Rations were withdrawn from all who had other sufficientmeans of support. This seemed like imposing a penalty upon industry; butit was soon followed by requiring all able-bodied men to perform acertain amount of labor for the common benefit, such as road-making, bridge building, etc. , in return for money or rations. This was a greatadvance even though accompanied by some evils, notably the neglect ofallotments while their families camped with the gangs of laborers ondifferent parts of the reservation. Later, the same credit was allowedfor days' labor performed in improving their own homesteads and puttingup hay for their cattle. More cows and better farming implements havebeen issued in recent years, and there is a wholesome effort to make thework of the so-called agency or "district farmers" less of a farce thanit has often been in the past. 

These farmers number about 250 and are employees of the Indian service. They are supposed to instruct and assist the Indians of theirrespective districts in modern methods of agriculture; but there hasbeen a time, probably not altogether past, when they were occupiedchiefly in drawing water, filling ice-houses, and a variety of similar"chores" for the agent and his subordinates. In many cases theythemselves knew little of practical farming, or their experience lay ina soil and climate utterly unlike that of the Indian country to whichthey came. 

Hon. Cato Sells, the present Commissioner of Indian Affairs, states inhis first annual report that he is placing more emphasis uponagriculture than upon any other activity of the Indian Bureau. Herequires the farmers to make their homes in the districts to which theyare assigned, and to keep in close touch with the people. They arefurnished with modern agricultural text-books, and demonstration farmsor experiment stations are maintained at convenient points. Thirty-sevenpractical stockmen have also been employed to give special attention tothis part of the work, and the Indians are said to be coöperatingintelligently in the effort to improve their breeding stock. 

At certain agencies farming implements and seed are loaned to Indianswho have no other means of securing them, and hundreds who have been sohelped are meeting their payments when due with commendable promptness. Agricultural fairs have been held in recent years at twenty or moreIndian agencies, arousing much local interest, and an increasing numberof Indian farmers are taking part in county and state fairs. 

In several of the Northwestern States the value of the timber on Indianlands is enormous; the latest official estimate is eighty-four milliondollars. If the Indian had been allowed to cut his own pine and run hisown sawmills, we should now have native lumber kings as well as white. This is not permitted, however; and a paternal Government sells thestumpage for the benefit of its wards, who are fortunate if the moneyreceived for it has not seeped out of the official envelope or witheredaway of the prevailing disease called "political consumption. "

The irrigation force of the Bureau consists of an inspector and sevensubordinates, who supervise irrigation projects on the variousreservations, upon which more than half a million dollars was expendedduring the last fiscal year. The protection of water rights, notablythose of the Pimas in Arizona, a peaceful and industrious tribe whohave suffered severely from the loss of their water at the hands ofunprincipled white men, is of primary importance. 

Oil and gas, especially in Oklahoma, are proving enormously valuable, and are being mined under leases executed by the Bureau. Many Indiansare becoming well-to-do from the payment of royalties, but it cannot bedoubted that the biggest prizes go, as usual, to our white brothers. 

The Indian office maintains an employment bureau to assist in findingprofitable work for Indians, particularly returned students, and I aminformed from trustworthy sources that it has met with fair success. Itis headed by a Carlisle graduate, Charles E. Dagenett, who was trainedfor a business career. Considerable numbers of Indians, particularly inthe Southwest, are provided with employment in the sugar-beet fields, in harvesting canteloupes and other fruits, in railroad construction, irrigation projects, and other fields of activity, and it appears thattheir work gives general satisfaction. 

INDIAN WOMEN AS HOME-MAKERS

Probably the average white man still believes that the Indian woman ofthe old days was little more than a beast of burden to her husband. Butthe missionary who has lived among his people, the sympathetic observerof their every-day life, holds a very different opinion. You maygenerally see the mother and her babe folded close in one shawl, indicating the real and most important business of her existence. Without the child, life is but a hollow play, and all Indians pity thecouple who are unable to obey the primary command, the first law of realhappiness. 

She has always been the silent but telling power behind life'sactivities, and at the same time shared equally with her mate thearduous duties of primitive society. Possessed of true feminine dignityand modesty, she was expected to be his equal in physical endurance andskill, but his superior in spiritual insight. She was looked to for theendowment of her child with nature's gifts and powers, and no woman ofany race has ever come closer to universal mother-hood. 

She was the spiritual teacher of the child, as well as its tender nurse, and she brought its developing soul before the "Great Mystery" as soonas she was aware of its coming. When she had finished her work, at theage of five to eight years, she turned her boy over to his father formanly training, and to the grandparents for traditional instruction, butthe girl child remained under her close and thoughtful supervision. Shepreserved man from soul-killing materialism by herself owning what fewpossessions they had, and thus branding possession as feminine. Themovable home was hers, with all its belongings, and she ruled thereunquestioned. She was, in fact, the moral salvation of the race; allvirtue was entrusted to her, and her position was recognized by all. Itwas held in all gentleness and discretion, under the rule that no womancould talk much or loudly until she became a grandmother. 

The Indian woman suffered greatly during the transition period ofcivilization, when men were demoralized by whiskey, and possessionbecame masculine. The division of labor did not readily adjust itself tothe change, so that her burdens were multiplied while her influencedecreased. Tribe after tribe underwent the catastrophe of a disorganizedand disunited family life. 

To-day, I am glad to say, we have still reason to thank our Indianmothers for the best part of our manhood. A great many of them areearnest Christian women, who have carried their native uprightness anddevoted industry over into the new life. The annual reports of themissionaries show large sums, running into the thousands of dollars, raised by the self-denying labor of the native women for the support oftheir churches and other Christian work. 

As the men have gradually assumed the responsibility of the outdoortoil, cultivating the fields and building the houses, the women haveundertaken the complicated housekeeping tasks of their white sisters. Itis true that until they understood the civilized way of cooking and thesanitation of stationary homes, the race declined in health and vigor. For the great improvement noticeable in these directions, much credit isdue to the field matrons of the Indian Service. 

The field matron is sometimes called the "Going-around woman, " or the"Clean-up woman, " and her house-to-house teaching and inspection isundoubtedly of much practical value. She is often the physician's righthand in follow-up work among his patients, especially the women andchildren. Some of the most efficient women in the service are themselvesof Indian blood, such as Mrs. Annie Dawson Wilde of Fort Berthold, agraduate of Hampton and of a state normal school, who has given manyyears to this work. Similar instruction is sometimes given by day-schoolteachers and woman missionaries. 

MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

The social morality of the various tribes differs very much at thepresent time. Under our original customs, the purity of woman and thehome was safeguarded by strict rules, with severe penalties for theirtransgression. When, however, native customs were broken down withoutthe efficient substitution of civilized laws, there was much socialirregularity. 

Plural marriages were permissible under our system, but were not verygeneral, and plural wives were usually sisters. The missionaries, and insome instances the Federal authorities, have required elderly men toabandon all but one wife, leading to difficult problems. Many of theyounger generation are now legally married, and an effort is made tooblige them to secure legal divorces when a separation is sought, but assome state courts hold that they have no jurisdiction to hearapplications of non-citizen Indians living on reservations, this isoften impracticable, and naturally the dissatisfied simply abandon wifeor husband, and perhaps take another by Indian custom only. It isadvisable that family records be more strictly kept than is now thecase. 

UNEDUCATED LEADERS AMONG INDIANS

I wish to refute the common misconception that it is only the educatedand Christian Indian who has contributed to the progress of his peopleand to the common good of both races. There are many men whollyunlettered, and some of whom have not proclaimed themselves followers ofChrist, who have yet exerted great influence on the side ofcivilization. Almost every tribe has a hero of this type who arose at acritical juncture to lead his fellows. 

In the early part of the nineteenth century there was Little Turtle, acelebrated Miami chief, who, to be sure, defended his country bravely, but when he made a treaty he stood by it faithfully, and advocated peaceand civilization for his people. The Pottawatomie chief Pokagon wasanother, whose son Simon Pokagon was prominent at the World's Fair inChicago. A leading contemporary of these men was Keokuk of the Sacs andFoxes. Wabashaw the third, of the Mississippi Sioux, was known as astrong friend to civilization; and so was my own great-grandfather, Chief Cloud Man, whose village occupied the present site of the city ofMinneapolis. His son, Appearing Sacred Stone, whose English name wasDavid Weston, was a fine character--a hereditary chief who took ahomestead at Flandreau and became a native preacher under Bishop Hare. 

Chief Strike-the-Ree, by whose influence and diplomacy the Yankton Siouxwere kept neutral throughout the Sioux wars; Lone Wolf of the Kiowas, Quanah Parker of the Comanches, whose mother was a white captive, andGovernor James Big Heart of the Osages were all men of this type, natural leaders and statesmen. Iron Eyes, or Joseph La Flesche, a headchief of the Omahas, was a notable leader in progressive ways; and so isJohn Grass of the Blackfoot Sioux, also a distinguished orator. 

Men like this, of native force and fire, but without advantages otherthan those shared by the mass of their people, are possibly moredeserving of honor than are the few who have made the most ofexceptional opportunities. If anything, they illustrate more clearly theinnate capacity and moral strength of the race. 

When it is considered that of the three hundred and odd thousandIndians in the United States, only about two thirds are still living onreservations under the control of the Indian Bureau, the officialfigures concerning that two thirds are surprising to most of us. We aretold that 50, 000 able-bodied adults are entirely self-supporting, andthat only 17, 000 Indians of all classes are receiving rations. Twenty-two thousand are employed on wages and salaries, earning morethan two million dollars yearly. Three fourths of the families live inpermanent houses; 100, 000 persons speak English, and 161, 000 wearcitizen's clothing. Such is the average present-day Indian at home--aman who earns his own living, speaks the language of the country, wearsits dress, and obeys its laws. Surely it is but one step further toAmerican citizenship!

CHAPTER VII

THE INDIAN AS A CITIZEN

We have taken note of the reluctance of the American Indian to developan organized community life, though few appreciate his reasons forpreferring a simpler social ideal. As a matter of fact as well assentiment, he was well content with his own customs and philosophy. Nevertheless, after due protest and resistance, he has accepted thesituation; and, having accepted it, he is found to be easily governed bycivilized law and usages. It has been demonstrated more than once thathe is capable of sustaining a high moral and social standard when placedunder wise guidance and at the same time protected from the barbariansof civilization. 

MODEL INDIAN COMMUNITIES

William Duncan, an Englishman, came among a band of Alaskan nativesabout the middle of the last century, and they formed a strong mutualattachment. The friendship of these simple people was not misplaced, andMr. Duncan did not misuse it for his own advantage, as is too apt to bethe case with a white man. He adapted himself to their temperament andsense of natural justice, but gradually led them to prefer civilizedhabits and industries, and finally to accept the character of Christ astheir standard. He used the forms of the Church of England, but modifiedthem as good sense dictated. 

They worked together in good faith for a generation; and as a resultthere was founded the Christian community of Metlakatla, Alaska, almostan ideal little republic, so long as no self-seeking Anglo-Saxoninterfered with its workings. The Indians became carpenters, blacksmiths, farmers, gardeners, as well as better fishermen. Theyestablished a sawmill and a salmon cannery. They built houses and boats, and finally a steamboat, which was run by one of their number. Mr. Duncan never allowed strong drink to enter the colony; he was the onlywhite man among a thousand Indians, and so strong was their faith in himthat he was accepted as their leader both practically and spiritually. He devoted his whole life to them, and never married. Some of the youngpeople he sent away to the States to school: among them Edward Marsden, a many-sided man, who is not only a graduate of a small college in Ohioand of a theological seminary, but has some knowledge of law andmedicine, is an able seaman, and an efficient machinist. 

The Metlakatlans are not technically citizens, though discharging manycivic duties. In 1887 they were compelled to leave their island onaccount of difficulties with the local church authorities, who were notbroad enough to admit the simple sufficiency of Mr. Duncan's layministrations. He removed with his people to another island, where theyare now living under the protection of the United States flag. In viewof the lessons of history, they are likely to undergo a severe trial andconsiderable demoralization as soon as they mingle freely with thesurrounding whites. They have so far developed and enjoyed much of whatis best in civilization without its evils and temptations; and wheneverone of them does infringe upon their simple but exacting code he issummarily dealt with. 

Here is another illustration: In 1869 those Sioux who had been for threeyears confined in a military prison, on account of the outbreak of1862, were placed upon a small reservation at Santee, Nebraska. Myfather was among them. He had thought much, and concluded thatreservation life meant practically life imprisonment and death tomanhood. He also saw that our wild life was almost at an end; thereforehe resolved to grasp the only chance remaining to the red man--namely, to plunge boldly into the white man's life, and swim or die. 

With twenty-five or thirty fellow-tribesmen who were of like mind withhimself, he set out for the Big Sioux River to take up a homestead likea white man. Far from urging it, Government officials disapproved anddiscouraged this brave undertaking. The Indians selected a choicelocation, forty miles above what is now the beautiful little city ofSioux Falls, South Dakota, and here they established the first Siouxcitizen community. The post-office was named Flandreau, and formed thenucleus of a large and flourishing town. Remember, this was six yearsbefore Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse made their last stand on the LittleBig Horn, where they wiped out General Custer's command, the SeventhCavalry. 

This remarkable Indian colony became known far and wide. The Sioux were_bona fide_ homesteaders and met all the requirements of the law. Theyoccupied thirty miles of the finest bottom lands with their timber;except for these wooded river bottoms, the country is all treelessprairie. They were all Presbyterians and devout church-goers. Rev. JohnP. Williamson was their much-loved missionary; and their church wasserved for many years by a native pastor--my brother, Rev. John Eastman. Nearly all built good homes. Mr. Williamson says, and Moody Countyrecords corroborate the statement, that for twenty years there was not asingle crime or misdemeanor recorded against one of these Indians. 

As the Big Sioux valley is noted for its fertility, it was not longbefore the rest of the land was taken up by white farmers. These Indiansproved good neighbors. It is told of them that, during the hard years1873 to 1875, when drought and grasshoppers afflicted the land, theyorganized a relief society for the benefit of their poorer whiteneighbors, and in many instances furnished them with cordwood as well asseed-corn and potatoes. 

For years the Flandreau Sioux controlled the politics of Moody County, and although after the district had become more thickly settled theylost their numerical preponderance, they still wielded much influence inyears when the parties were pretty equally divided. As late as 1898 theyheld the balance of power, and were accordingly treated with respectfulconsideration. 

From this little Indian community more than one earnest youth has goneforth to work for race and country in a wider field. My father broughtme there from wild life in Canada in 1872, and after two years in thelittle day school he sent me away to master the secret of the whiteman's power. Only a few years earlier he himself was a wild Siouxwarrior, whose ambitions ran wholly along the traditional lines of hispeople. Who can say that civilization is beyond the reach of theuntutored primitive man in a single generation? It did not take myfather two thousand years, or ten years, to grasp its essentialfeatures; and although he never went to school a day in his life, helived a broad-minded and self-respecting citizen. It took me aboutfifteen years to prepare to enter it on the plane of a professional man, and I have stayed with it ever since. 

It is noticeable that when the Flandreaus consented to reënter theirnames on the tribal rolls in order to regain their inheritance, theyfell into the claws of the professional politicians, and a degree ofdemoralization set in. Yet during the early period of free initiativeand self-development, some of their best youth had gone out and are nowlost in the world at large, in the sense that they are wholly separatedfrom their former life, and are contributing their mite to the commongood. Those who remain, as well as other bands of citizen Sioux withwhom I am acquainted, are becoming more and more completely identifiedwith the general farming population of Nebraska and the Dakotas. 

LEGAL STATUS OF INDIANS

The door to American citizenship has been open to the Indian in generalonly since the passage of the Dawes severalty act, in 1887. Before thatdate his status was variously defined as that of a member of anindependent foreign nation, of a "domestic dependent nation, " as a wardof the Government, or, as some one has wittily said, a "perpetualinhabitant with diminutive rights. " The Dawes act conferred upon thosewho accepted allotments of land in severalty the protection of thecourts and all the rights of citizenship, including the suffrage. Italso provided that the land thus patented to the individual Indian couldnot be alienated nor was it taxable for a period of twenty-five yearsfrom the date of allotment. 

Of the 330, 000 Indians in the United States, considerably more than halfare now allotted, and 70, 000 hold patents in fee. The latest report ofthe Indian Bureau gives the total number of Indian citizens at about75, 000. Those still living on communal land are being allotted at therate of about 5, 000 a year. The question of taxation of allotments hasbeen a vexed one. Some Indians have hesitated to accept full citizenshipbecause of fear of taxation; while white men living in the vicinity oflarge Indian holdings have naturally objected to shouldering the entireburden. Yet as the last census shows 73 per cent. Of all Indians astaxed and counted toward the population of their Congressionaldistricts, it appears that taxed or taxable Indians are not necessarilycitizens; though they must be considered, in the words of Prof. F. A. McKenzie, who compiled the Indian census, as at least "potentialcitizens. "

The so-called "Burke bill" (1906) provides that Indians allotted afterthat date shall not be declared citizens until after the expiration ofthe twenty-five-year trust period. This act has served no particularpurpose except to further confuse the status of the Indian. The "Cartercode bill, " now pending in Congress, provides for a commission ofexperts to codify existing statutes and define this status clearly, andhas been strongly endorsed by the Society of American Indians and theIndian Rights Association. It ought to be made law. 

There is a special law under which an Indian may apply to be freed fromguardianship by proving his ability to manage his own affairs. If hisapplication is approved by the Interior Department, he may then rent orsell his property at will. About five hundred such applications wereapproved during the fiscal year 1912-13. 

The Pueblos and a few other Indians are or may become citizens underspecial treaty stipulations. The 5, 000 New York Indians, although amongthose longest in contact with civilization, yet because of statetreaties and the claims of the Ogden Land Company, still hold theirlands in common, and are backward morally and socially. It is likelythat the United States will eventually pay the company's claim of$200, 000 to free these people. A few of them are well educated and haveattained citizenship as individuals by separating themselves from theirtribe. Professor McKenzie, who has deeply studied the situation foryears, proposes a scheme of progressive advance toward full citizenship, each step to be accompanied by decreasing paternal control: as, forinstance: (1) Tribal ward; (2) Allotted ward; (3) Citizen ward; (4) Fullcitizen. 

INDIANS AS POLITICIANS

In almost every state there are some Indian voters, and in South Dakotaand Oklahoma there are counties officered and controlled by Indiancitizens. It is interesting to note that the citizen Indian is noignorant or indifferent voter. If he learns and masters anything at all, it is the politics of his county and state. It is a matter of longexperience with him, as he has been handled by politicians ever since heentered the reservation, and there is not a political trick that hecannot understand. He is a ready student of human nature, and usually acorrect observer. I am sorry to say that the tendency of the newgeneration is to be diplomats of a lower type, quick and smart, but notalways sound. At present, like any crude or partially developed people, politics is their hobby. 

Yet there remains a sprinkling of the old Indian type, which is stronglyaverse to all unfair or underhanded methods; and there are a few of theyounger men who combine the best in both standards, and refuse to lookupon the new civilization as a great, big grab-bag. It is not strangethat a majority are influenced by the prevailing currents of Americanlife. Before they understood the deeper underlying principles oforganized society, they had seen what they naturally held to be highofficial duties and responsibilities ruthlessly bartered and traffickedwith before their eyes. They did not realize that this was a period ofindividual graft and misuse of office for which true civilization wasnot responsible. 

Among the thinking and advanced class of Indians there is, after all, noreal bitterness or pessimistic feeling. It has long been apparent to usthat absolute distinctions cannot be maintained under the American flag. Yet we think each race should be allowed to retain its own religion andracial codes as far as is compatible with the public good, and shouldenter the body politic of its own free will, and not under compulsion. This has not been the case with the native American. Everything he stoodfor was labelled "heathen, " "savage, " and the devil's own; and he wasforced to accept modern civilization _in toto_ against his originalviews and wishes. The material in him and the method of hisreconstruction have made him what he is. He has defied all the theoriesof the ethnologists. If any one can show me a fair percentage of usefulmen and women coming out of the jail or poor-house, I will undertake toshow him a larger percentage of useful citizens graduating from thepauperizing and demoralizing agency system. 

There was no real chance for the average man of my race until the lastthirty-five years; and even during that time he has been under theunholy rule of the political boss and "little czar" of the Indianagency, from whose control he is not even yet entirely free. You aresuffering from a civic disease, and we are affected by it. When you arecured, and not until then, we may hope to be thoroughly well men. 

INHERITANCE AND OTHER FRAUDS

Here is another point of attack for the men who continually hover aboutthe Indian like vultures above a sick or helpless man--the law providingthat the allotments of deceased Indians may be sold for the benefit oftheir legal heirs, even though the time limit of twenty-five yearsprotected title may not have expired. I consider the law a just one, butthe work of determining the heirs is complicated and difficult. It isonly last year that Congress has appropriated $50, 000 for this purpose, although forty thousand inheritance cases are now pending, and muchfraud has already been accomplished. 

Representative Burke has shown that the bulk of the minors andincompetent Indians in Oklahoma have been swindled out of their propertyby dishonest administrators and guardians. Hon. Warren K. Moorehead, ofthe United States Board of Indian Commissioners, who investigated thesituation in that state, intimates that as many as 21, 000 such casesexist there. He says the handling of estates in Oklahoma costs oftenfrom 30 to 90 per cent. , whereas the average rate in thirty states is 3per cent. "Why do not our laws prevent the robbing of Indians? Becausethey are not enforced, " declares Mr. Moorehead, who also investigatedWhite Earth, Minnesota, a few years ago, and uncovered a scandal oflarge proportions, relating to the theft of over two hundred thousandacres of valuable land, as a result of suddenly removing allrestrictions on the mixed bloods at that agency, many of whom wereincompetent to manage their own affairs. 

Much of this graft might readily be stopped, and the ignorant Indianprotected, were it not for the fact that the relationship between theshysters and certain officials is very much like that between the policeof New York City and the keepers of illegal resorts. When complaint ismade, big envelopes with "U. S. " printed in the corner pass back andforth--and that is too often the end of it! The Sioux call the U. S. Indian inspectors, who are supposed to discover and report abuses, "BigCats"; but an old chief once said to me: "They ought rather to be calledprairie owls, who are blind in the daytime and have rattlesnakes fortheir bedfellows!"

At the suggestion, I believe, of Dr. George Bird Grinnell and HamlinGarland, an attempt was made under President Roosevelt to systematizethe Indian nomenclature. The Indian in his native state bears nosurname; and wife and children figuring under entirely different namesfrom that of the head of the family, the law has been unnecessarilyembarrassed. I received a special appointment to revise the allotmentrolls of the Sioux nation. It was my duty to group the various membersof one family under a permanent name, selected for its euphony andappropriateness from among the various cognomens in use among them, ofcourse suppressing mistranslations and grotesque or coarse nicknamescalculated to embarrass the educated Indian. My instructions were thatthe original native name was to be given the preference, if it wereshort enough and easily pronounced by Americans. If not, a translationor abbreviation might be used, while retaining as much as possible ofthe distinctive racial flavor. No English surname might be arbitrarilygiven, but such as were already well established might be retained ifthe owner so desired. Many such had been unwisely given to children byteachers and missionaries, and in one family I found a GeorgeWashington, a Daniel Webster, and a Patrick Henry! The task was quitecomplicated and there were many doubts and suspicions to overcome, assome feared lest it should be another trick to change the Indian's nameafter he had been allotted, and so defraud him safely. During the sevenyears spent in this work, I came upon many cases of inheritance frauds. In the face of what appear to be iron-clad rules and endless red tape, it is a problem how these things can happen without the knowledge ofresponsible officials!

THE INDIAN AS HIS OWN ATTORNEY

Some years since an interesting case came up at Standing Rock Agency, N. D. , which illustrates the ability of the modern Indian to manage hisown affairs when he is permitted to do so. It was proposed to leasenearly the whole reservation, the occupied as well as the unoccupiedportion, to two cattle companies, but in order to be legal, the consentof the Indians was necessary. An effort was made to secure theirsignatures, and interested parties had nearly the requisite two thirdsof them fooled, when a mixed blood by the name of Louis Primeau learnedof the game, and brought it to the attention of the people. 

They made a strong and intelligent resistance, asked for a hearing inWashington and sent on a delegation to present their case. Immediatelythe agent got up a rival delegation of "good Indians, " fed and clothedfor the occasion, to contradict the first and declare that the peoplewere willing to sign, all save the "kickers and trouble-makers. "

My brother, the Rev. John Eastman, and I were in Washington at the time. The Indian delegation who protested against the leases was given no showat all before the Department, because it appeared that influentialWestern Senators were upholding the interests of the cattle companies. Primeau came to my brother for help; and we finally secured a hearingbefore the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. 

It happened to be a Democratic Senate, although a Republican Presidentwas in office; and the head of that committee was Senator Stewart ofNevada. Before him the braves fought their unequal battle to a finish. They had their credentials and the minutes of the meeting at which theyhad been elected, and they stated clearly their people's reasons foropposing the leases--reasons which were sound on the face of them. Theyalso declared that the Indian Commissioner had sent a telegram to theiragent saying that if they would not sign they would be ignored by theDepartment, and the leases approved without their consent, although suchconsent was required both by treaty and statute. 

It was immediately denied by the other side that any such telegram hadbeen sent, upon which the wily Sioux played their trump card: theyproduced a certified copy of the dispatch which they had obtained fromthe operator, and publicly handed this piece of evidence to SenatorStewart. 

The Indians also consulted Judge Springer of Illinois, who, afterreviewing their case, said that they could serve an injunction on boththe Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner, in the District ofColumbia. This they did. The officials asked for thirty days; and theCommissioner of Indian Affairs personally hastened to Standing Rock, where he gave the red men a good scolding for their audacity, at thesame time telling them that no lease had been made, or would be made. 

President Roosevelt then sent Dr. Grinnell, a well-known friend of theIndian, to make an independent investigation. Dr. Grinnell reportedthat the Walker lease was entirely opposed to the Indians' interests, and that it would not only be unwise, but wrong, to approve it. TheLemmon lease of the unoccupied portion of the reservation was afterwardexecuted with the Indians' consent. 

There are innumerable such instances, but this one is worthy of mentionbecause of the spirit and success with which the Indians conducted theirown case. Very often their property is dissipated in spite of the factthat there are men among them who fully grasp the situation. These menprotest, but it is of no use. They are denounced as "insubordinate, ""disturbers of the peace, " and worthless prevaricators. Here is wherenational honor and the rights of a dependent people are sacrificed tothe politicians. When we consider that the Indian still owns more than70, 000, 000 acres of land, and trust funds stated at $48, 000, 000, theproceeds of ceded territory, it may be seen that this immense estatelargely in the hands of "wards" and illiterate persons presents a veryserious problem. 

It has come to be more and more the case that the Indian, so long and sooppressively paternalized, is allowed to take a hand in his owndevelopment. This is as it should be. Many theories have been advancedconcerning him; but I think we all agree that he has outgrown thepresent method, which now seems to retard his progress. Yet the oldmachinery continues to exist in cumbersome and more or less inefficientform. It is a question whether it really does much more good than harm;but it seems clear that some of the tribes still need intelligent andhonest guardianship. To my mind, this machinery might be adjusted morenearly to the requirements of the present-day Indian. 

Professor Moorehead has suggested the plan of putting the Indian Bureauunder a commission of several men, to be appointed for long terms or forlife, free of political considerations. I can scarcely conceive ofwholly non-partisan appointments in this age, but length of servicewould be a great advantage, and it does seem to me this experiment wouldbe worth trying. Such a commission should have full authority to dealwith all Indian matters without reference to any other department. Iwould add that one half of its members might well be of Indian blood. 

CHAPTER VIII

THE INDIAN IN COLLEGE AND THE PROFESSIONS

It is the impression of many people who are not well informed on theIndian situation that book education is of little value to the race, particularly what is known as the higher education. The contrary istrue. What we need is not less education, but more; more trained leadersto uphold the standards of civilization before both races. Among Indiancollege and university graduates a failure is very rare; I am sure Ihave not met one, and really do not know of one. 

The press is responsible for many popular errors. Whenever an Indianindulges in any notorious misbehavior, he is widely heralded as a"Carlisle graduate, " although as a matter of fact he may never haveattended that famous school, or have been there for a short time only. Obviously the statement is intended to discredit the educated Indian. But Carlisle is not a college or university, although, because of thewonderful athletic prowess of its students, they have met and defeatedthe athletes of many a white university on the football field. Itscurriculum is considerably below that of the ordinary high school; it isa practical or vocational school, giving a fair knowledge of some tradetogether with the essentials of an English education, but no Latin orother foreign language. Consequently its graduates must attend a higherpreparatory school for several years before they can enter college. 

It will be seen, then, that the college-educated men and women of myrace have accomplished quite a feat, considering their antecedents andwholly foreign point of view. They have had to adjust themselves to anew way of thinking, as well as a new language, before they could mastersuch abstract ideas and problems as are presented by mathematics and thesciences. Their own schools graduate them at a mature age and do notprepare them for college. Furthermore, they are almost always hamperedby lack of means. Nevertheless, an increasing number have succeeded inthe undertaking. 

TRIALS OF THE EDUCATED INDIAN

I wish to contradict the popular misconception that an educated Indianwill necessarily meet with strong prejudice among his own people, orwill be educated out of sympathy with them. From their point of view, aparticularly able or well-equipped man of their race is a publicblessing, and all but public property. That was the old rule among us. Up to a very recent period an educated Indian could not succeedmaterially; he could not better himself, because the people required himto give unlimited free service, according to the old régime. I have evenknown one to be killed by the continual demands upon him. 

There was a time (not so long ago, either) when the educated Indianstood in a very uncomfortable position between his people and theGovernment officials and shady politicians. Every complaint was broughtto him, as a matter of course; and he was expected to expose and redressevery wrong. As I have said elsewhere, such efforts are generallyuseless, and resulted only in damage to his financial position and hisreputation. No doubt he often invited attacks upon himself by a rashnessborn of his ardent sympathy for his fellow-tribesmen. In this matter Ispeak from personal experience as well as long observation. 

Even in the old, wild days, an education was appreciated by the Indians;but it was a hard life for the educated man. They made him carry tooheavy a burden, without much recompense save honor and respect. But wehave pretty well passed through that period, and the native graduates ofour higher institutions have begun to show their strength and enlargetheir views. They have not only done well for themselves and their race, but they stand before the world as living illustrations of its capacity, disproving many theories concerning untutored races. 

NO "INFERIOR RACE"

It was declared without qualification by the Universal Races Congress atLondon in 1911 that there is no inherently superior race, therefore noinferior race. From every race some individuals have mastered the samecurriculum and passed the same tests, and in some instances members ofso-called "uncivilized" races have stood higher than the average"civilized" student; therefore they have the same inherent ability. Certain peoples have remained undeveloped because of their religion, philosophy, and form of government; in other words, because of theracial environment. Change the environment, and the race is transformed. Certainly the American Indian has clearly demonstrated the truth of thisassertion. 

The very mention of the name "Indian" in earlier days would make theaverage white man's blood creep with thoughts of the war-whoop and thescalping-knife. A little later it suggested chiefly feathers and paintand "Buffalo Bill's Wild West. " To-day the association is rather withthe Carlisle school and its famous athletes; but to the thinking mindthe name suggests deeper thoughts and higher possibilities. 

It was no less a man than Theodore Roosevelt who said to me once in theWhite House that he would give anything to have a drop of Sioux orCheyenne blood in his veins. It is a fact that the intelligent andeducated Indian has no social prejudice to contend with. His color isnot counted against him. He is received cordially and upon equal termsin school, college, and society. 

Dr. Booker Washington is in the habit of saying jocosely that the negroblood is the strongest in the world, for one drop of it makes a "nigger"of a white man. I would argue that the Indian blood is even stronger, for a half-blood negro and Indian may pass for an Indian, and so beadmitted to first-class hotels and even to high society. All that anIndian needs in order to be popular, and indeed to be lionized if he sodesires, is to get an education and hold up his head as a member of theoldest American aristocracy. Many of our leading men have married intoexcellent families and are prominent in cultivated white communities. Wewant the best in two races and civilizations in exchange for what wehave lost. 

Some of us have entered upon every known professional career, such asmedicine, law, the ministry, education and the sciences, politics andhigher business management, art and literature. It may be well tomention some of our best-known professional men and women. The doctorsseem to have been the first to enter the general field in competitionwith their white colleagues: at first, to be sure, as "Indian herbdoctors, " or quacks of one sort or another, but later as competentgraduated physicians. The Government has utilized several in the Indianservice, and others have established themselves in private practice. 

SOME NOTED INDIANS OF TO-DAY

Perhaps the foremost of these is Dr. Carlos Montezuma of Chicago, afull-blooded Apache, who was purchased for a few steers while incaptivity to the Pimas, who were enemies of his people. He was broughtto Chicago by the man who ransomed him, a reporter and photographer, andwhen his benefactor died, the boy became the protégé of the ChicagoPress Club. A large portrait of him adorns the parlor of the club, showing him as the naked Indian captive of about four years old. 

He went to the public school, then to Champaign University, Illinois, and from there to the Northwestern University, where he was graduatedfrom the medical department. All this time, although receiving some aidfrom various sources, he largely supported himself. After graduation Dr. Montezuma was sent by the Government as physician to an Indian agency inMontana, and later transferred to the Carlisle school. In a few years hereturned to Chicago and opened an office. He has been a prominentphysician there for a number of years, and was recently married to alady of German descent. He stands uncompromisingly for the totalabolition of the reservation system and of the Indian Bureau, holdingthat the red man must be allowed to work out his own salvation. 

One of the earliest practitioners of our race was Dr. Susan La FleschePicotte of the Omaha tribe. Having prepared at Hampton Institute andelsewhere, she entered the Philadelphia Medical College for Women. Whenshe had finished, she returned to her tribe, and was for some time inthe Government service. She has since taken up private practice and alsohad charge of a mission hospital. Dr. Picotte is a sister of Bright Eyes(Susette La Flesche) and also of Francis La Flesche of Washington, D. C. There is another Indian doctor, not of full blood, who is president ofthe City Club of Chicago and active in civic reform. In several MiddleWestern cities there are successful doctors and dentists of my race. 

In the profession of law we have none of full blood whose fame isnational. Judge Hiram Chase of the Omahas and others have won localdistinction. The Hon. Charles Curtis, Senator from Kansas, was asuccessful lawyer in Topeka when he was elected to the House ofRepresentatives, and later to the United States Senate. His mother is aKaw Indian. Mr. Curtis was and is a leader of the Republican party inhis state. Senator Owen of Oklahoma is part Cherokee. The whole countryhas come to realize his ability and influence. Representative Carter ofOklahoma is also an Indian. 

During my student days in New Hampshire I was often told that DanielWebster was part Indian on his mother's side. Certainly his physiognomyas well as his unequalled logic corroborated the story. We all know thatgovernors and other men of mark have proclaimed themselves descendantsof Pocahontas; I have met several in the West and South. I know that thelate Senators Quay of Pennsylvania and Morgan of Alabama had some Indianblood, for they themselves told me so; and I have been told the same ofSenators Clapp and La Follette, but have never verified it. Theirwonderful aggressiveness and dauntless public service in my mind pointto native descent, and if they can truthfully claim it I feel sure thatthey will be proud to do so. They must know that many distinguished armyofficers as well as traders and explorers left sons and daughters amongthe American tribes, especially during the first half of the nineteenthcentury. As late as 1876 Dr. Washington Mathews, a surgeon in the UnitedStates Army, brought down on a Missouri River steamboat a Gros Ventreson, and left him with the missionary teacher, Dr. Alfred L. Riggs, torear and educate. This military surgeon and scientist not only attainedthe rank of major-general, but he became one of our foremostarchæologists. The boy was called Berthold, from the place of his birth. He was afterward sent to Yankton College, but I do not know what becameof him. As for those brilliant men, so many in number, who have theblood of both races in their veins, I will not pretend to claim for theIndian all the credit of their talents and energy. 

In the ministry we have many able and devoted men--more than in anyother profession. The Presbyterian Church alone has thirty-eight and theEpiscopal Church about twenty, with a less number in several otherdenominations, and two Roman Catholic priests. Most of these labor amongtheir own people, though the Rev. Frank Wright, a Choctaw, is well knownas an evangelistic preacher and singer. 

One of our best-known clergymen is Rev. Sherman Coolidge, a full-bloodArapahoe. He has had an unusual career, having been taken prisoner as aboy by an officer of the army. He was sent to school and eventuallygraduated from Bishop Whipple's Seabury Divinity School at Faribault, Minn. Since that time Doctor Coolidge has devoted himself to theChristianization of his race. He is the president of our recentlyorganized Society of American Indians. 

Bishop Whipple developed many able preachers, of whom perhaps the mostaccomplished was the Rev. Charles Smith Cook, of the Yankton Sioux. Hewas the son of a Sioux woman and a military officer. Mr. Cook wasgraduated from Trinity College, Hartford, and later from SeaburyDivinity School. He had unusual eloquence and personal charm, and becameat once one of Bishop Hare's ablest helpers in his great work among theSioux. Stationed at Pine Ridge at the time of the Wounded Knee massacre, he opened his church to the wounded Indian prisoners as an emergencyhospital. His much regretted death occurred a few months later. He was atireless worker and much loved by his people. 

One of our promising young ministers is the Rev. Henry Roe Cloud, aWinnebago, graduated from Yale and Oberlin. Stephen Jones, a Sioux, whowas graduated from the Y. M. C. A. Training-school at Springfield, Mass. , has done good work as field secretary among the Indians for anumber of years. I should add that there are many ministers of my racewho have no college degree nor much education in the English language, yet who are among our most able and influential leaders. My own brother, Rev. John Eastman, who passed but a short time in school, has not onlybeen a successful preacher among the Sioux but for many years theirtrusted adviser and representative to look after their interests at thenational capital. 

A few men and many women have succeeded in the teaching profession, mostof them in the United States Indian Service. It is the express policy ofthe Government to use the educated Indians, whenever possible, inpromoting the advancement of their race; indeed some of the treatiesinclude this stipulation. Therefore preference is given them by theIndian Bureau, and although they must pass a civil-service examinationto prove their fitness, such examination, in their case, isnon-competitive. They have been prepared in the larger Governmentschools, in many instances with the addition of normal and collegecourses. At least two are superintendents of schools. A number of youngwomen, Carlisle graduates, have taken up trained nursing as aprofession, and are practising successfully both among whites andIndians. 

In the sciences, especially in ethnology and archæology, we have severalwho have rendered material service. William Jones, a Sac and Fox quarterblood, was a graduate of Hampton and of Harvard University. He tookpost-graduate work at Columbia, and was a pupil of those distinguishedscientists, Dr. Putnam and Dr. Boas. The latter has called him one ofour ablest archæologists. Dr. Jones travelled among the various tribes, even to the coast of Labrador, and labored assiduously in the cause ofscience for Harvard and the Marshall Field Museum of Chicago, as well asother institutions. It was the Chicago Museum which sent him to thePhilippine Islands, where he was murdered by the natives a few yearsago. 

We have also such men as Professor Hewitt of the SmithsonianInstitution, Francis La Flesche of the same, and Arthur C. Parker ofAlbany, N. Y. , who is state archæologist. 

In literature several writers of Indian blood have appeared during thepast few years, and have won a measure of recognition. Francis LaFlesche, an Omaha, has collaborated with Miss Alice C. Fetcher inethnological work, and is also the author of a pleasing story of life inan Indian school called "The Middle Five. " Zitkalasa, a Sioux (now Mrs. Bonney), attended a Western college, where she distinguished herself inan intercollegiate oratorical contest. Soon afterward she appeared inthe _Atlantic Monthly_ as the writer of several papers of anautobiographical nature, which attracted favorable attention, and werefollowed by a little volume of Indian legends and several short stories. Mrs. Bonney has more recently written the book of an Indian opera called"The Sun Dance, " which has been produced in Salt Lake City by universitystudents. John Oskinson, a Cherokee, was first heard of as the winner inan intercollegiate literary contest, and he is now on the staff of_Collier's Weekly_. The Five Civilized Nations of Oklahoma can show manyother writers and journalists. 

In higher business lines a number have shown special ability. GeneralPleasant Porter, who died recently, was president of a short railroadline in Oklahoma; Mr. Hill, of Texas, is reputed to be a millionaire;Howard Gansworth, a graduate of Carlisle and Princeton, is a successfulbusiness man in Syracuse, N. Y. ; and many of more or less Indian bloodhave gone forth into the world to do business on a large scale. 

In the athletic world this little race has no peer, as is sufficientlyproven by their remarkable record in football, baseball, and trackathletics. A few years ago I asked that good friend of the Indian, Gen. R. H. Pratt, why he did not introduce football in his school. "Why, "said he, "if I did that, half the press of the country would attack mefor developing the original war instincts and savagery of the Indian!The public would be afraid to come to our games!"

"Major, " I said, "that is exactly why I want you to do it. We will provethat the Indian is a gentleman and a sportsman; he will not complain; hewill do nothing unfair or underhand; he will play the game according tothe rules, and will not swear--at least not in public!"

Not long afterward the game was introduced at Carlisle, and I was askedby the General to visit Montana and the Dakotas to secure pupils for theschool, and, incidentally, recruits for his football warriors. TheIndians' victory was complete. These boys always fight the battle onits own merits; they play a clean game, and lose very few games duringthe season, although they meet all our leading universities, each on itsown home grounds. 

From the fleet Deerfoot to this day we boast the noted names ofLongboat, Sockalexis, Bemus Pierce, Frank Hudson, Tewanima, Metoxen, Myers, Bender, and Jim Thorpe. Thorpe is a graduate of the Carlisleschool, and at the Olympic Games in Sweden in 1912 he won the title ofthe greatest all-round athlete in the world. 

PROBLEMS OF RACE LEADERSHIP

I have been asked why my race has not produced a Booker Washington. There are many difficulties in the way of efficient race leadership; oneof them is the large number of different Indian tribes with theirdistinct languages, habits, and traditions, and with old tribaljealousies and antagonisms yet to be overcome. Another, and a moreserious obstacle, is the dependent position of the Indian, and thealmost arbitrary power in the hands of the Indian Bureau. 

About fifteen years ago the idea of a national organization ofprogressive Indians was discussed at some length by Rev. ShermanCoolidge, my brother, John Eastman, and myself. At that time weconcluded that the movement would not be understood either by our ownrace or the American people in general, and that there was grave dangerof arousing the antagonism of the Bureau. If such a society were formed, it would necessarily take many problems of the race under consideration, and the officials at Washington and in the field are sensitive tocriticism, nor are they accustomed to allowing the Indian a voice in hisown affairs. Furthermore, many of the most progressive red men areenlisted in the Government service, which would make their position avery difficult one in case of any friction with the authorities. Veryfew Indians are sufficiently independent of the Bureau to speak and actwith absolute freedom. 

Some ten years later I was called to Columbus, Ohio, to lecture for theOhio State University on the same course with Dr. Coolidge and Dr. Montezuma. Prof. F. A. McKenzie of the university arranged the course, and soon afterward he wrote me that he believed the time was now ripe toorganize our society. We corresponded with leading Indians and arrangeda meeting at Columbus for the following April. At this meeting five werepresent besides myself: Dr. Montezuma, Thomas Sloan, Charles E. Dagenett, Henry Standingbear, and Miss Laura Cornelius. We organized asa committee, and issued a general call for a conference in October atthe university, upon the cordial invitation of Dr. McKenzie andPresident Thompson. 

Four annual conferences have now been held, and the fifth is announcedfor next October at Oklahoma City. The society has 500 active and aboutthe same number of associate members; the latter are white friends ofthe race who are in sympathy with our objects. Our first president isRev. Sherman Coolidge, and Arthur C. Parker is secretary and treasurer. The Society of American Indians issues a quarterly journal devoted tothe proceedings of the conferences and the interests of the Indian race. At these meetings and in this journal various phases of our situationhave been intelligently and courageously discussed, and certain remedieshave been suggested for the evils brought to light. These debates shouldat least open the public ear. 

Of course the obstacles to complete success that I have referred tostill exist, and there are others as well. Our people have not beentrained to work together harmoniously. It is a serious question whatprinciples we should stand for and what line of work we ought toundertake. Should we devote ourselves largely to exposing the numerousfrauds committed upon Indians? Or should we keep clear of these matters, avoid discussion of official methods and action, and simply aim atarousing racial pride and ambition along new lines, holding up a modernideal for the support and encouragement of our youth? Should we petitionCongress and in general continue along the lines of the older Indianassociations? Or should we rather do intensive work among our people, looking especially toward their moral and social welfare?

I stand for the latter plan. Others think differently; and, as a matterof fact, a Washington office has been opened and much attention paid togovernmental affairs. It is a large task. The declared objects of thesociety, in almost the words originally chosen by its six founders, areas follows:

OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN INDIANS

_First. _ To promote and coöperate with all efforts looking to theadvancement of the Indian in enlightenment which leave him free, as aman, to develop according to the natural laws of social evolution. 

_Second. _ To provide through our open conferences the means for a freediscussion on all subjects bearing on the welfare of the race. 

_Third. _ To present in a just light the true history of the race, topreserve its records and emulate its distinguishing virtues. 

_Fourth. _ To promote citizenship and to obtain the rights thereof. 

_Fifth. _ To establish a legal department to investigate Indian problemsand to suggest and to obtain remedies. 

_Sixth. _ To exercise the right to oppose any movement that may bedetrimental to the race. 

_Seventh. _ To direct its energies exclusively to general principles anduniversal interests, and not allow itself to be used for any personal orprivate interest. _The honor of the race and the good of the countryshall be paramount. _

CHAPTER IX

THE INDIAN'S HEALTH PROBLEM

The physical decline and alarming death-rate of the American Indian ofto-day is perhaps the most serious and urgent of the many problems thatconfront him at the present time. The death-rate is stated by Governmentofficials at about thirty per thousand of the population--double theaverage rate among white Americans. From the same source we learn thatabout 70, 000 Indians in the United States are suffering from trachoma, aserious and contagious eye disease, and probably 30, 000 havetuberculosis in some form. The death-rate from tuberculosis is almostthree times that among the whites. 

These are grave facts, and cause deep anxiety to the intelligent Indianand to the friends of the race. Some hold pessimistic views looking toits early extinction; but these are not warranted by the outlook, for inspite of the conditions named, the last three census show a slight butcontinuous increase in the total number of Indians. Nor is this increaseamong mixed-bloods alone; the full-blooded Indians are also increasingin numbers. This indicates that the race has reached and passed thelowest point of its decline, and is beginning slowly but surely torecuperate. 

THE CHANGE TO RESERVATION LIFE

The health situation on the reservations was undoubtedly even worsetwenty years ago than it is to-day, but at that period little was heardand still less done about it. It is well known that the wild Indian hadto undergo tremendous and abrupt changes in his mode of living. Hesuffered severely from an indoor and sedentary life, too much artificialheat, too much clothing, impure air, limited space, indigestiblefood--indigestible because he did not know how to prepare it, and initself poor food for him. He was compelled often to eat diseased cattle, mouldy flour, rancid bacon, with which he drank large quantities ofstrong coffee. In a word, he lived a squalid life, unclean and apatheticphysically, mentally, and spiritually. 

This does not mean all Indians--a few, like the Navajoes, have retainedtheir native vigor and independence--I refer to the typical "agencyIndian" of the Northwest. He drove ten to sixty miles to the agency forfood; every week-end at some agencies, at others every two weeks, and atstill others once a month. This was all the real business he had tooccupy him--travelling between cabin and agency warehouses fortwenty-five years! All this time he was brooding over the loss of hisfreedom, his country rich in game, and all the pleasures andsatisfactions of wild life. Even the arid plains and wretched livingleft him he was not sure of, judging from past experience with agovernment that makes a solemn treaty guaranteeing him a certainterritory "forever, " and taking it away from him the next year if itappears that some of their own people want it, after all. 

Like the Israelites in bondage, our own aborigines have felt the sweetlife-giving air of freedom change to the burning heat of a desert asdreary as that of Egypt under Pharaoh. It was during this period ofhopeless resignation, gloomily awaiting--what, no Indian could evenguess--that his hardy, yet sensitive, organization gave way. Who canwonder at it? His home was a little, one-roomed log cabin, about twelveby twenty feet, mud-chinked, containing a box stove and a few sticks offurniture. The average cabin has a dirt floor and a dirt roof. They areapt to be overheated in winter, and the air is vitiated at all times, but especially at night, when there is no ventilation whatever. Familiesof four to ten persons lived, and many still live, in these huts. Fortunately the air of the plains is dry, or we should have lost themall!

Remember, these people were accustomed to the purest of air and water. The teepee was little more than a canopy to shelter them from theelements; it was pitched every few days upon new, clean ground. Clothingwas loose and simple, and frequent air and sun baths, as well as bathsin water and steam, together with the use of emollient oils, kept theskin in perfect condition. Their food was fresh and wholesome, largelywild meat and fish, with a variety of wild fruits, roots, and grain, andsome cultivated ones. At first they could not eat the issue bacon, andon ration days one might see these strips of unwholesome-looking fatlying about on the ground where they had been thrown on the return trip. Flour, too, was often thrown away before the women had learned to makebread raised with cheap baking-powder and fried in grease. But thefresh meat they received was not enough to last until the next rationday. There was no end of bowel trouble when they were forced bystarvation to swallow the bacon and ill-prepared bread. Water, too, wasgenerally hauled from a distance with much labor, and stood about inopen buckets or barrels for several days. 

As their strength waned, they made more fire in the stove and sat overit, drinking rank coffee and tea that had boiled all day on the samestove. After perspiring thus for hours, many would go out into thebitter cold of a Dakota winter with little or no additional clothing, and bronchitis and pneumonia were the inevitable result. The uncuredcases became chronic and led straight to tuberculosis in its variousforms. 

Furthermore, the Indian had not become in any sense immune to disease, and his ignorance placed no check upon contagion and infection. Even thesimpler children's diseases, such as measles, were generally fatal. Thedeath-rate of children under five was terrific. I have known women tobear families of six or eight or ten children, and outlive them all, most dying in infancy. In their state of deep depression disease hadits golden opportunity, and there seemed to be no escape. What was thereto save the race from annihilation within a few years? Nothing, save itsheritage of a superb physique and a wonderful patience. 

THE INDIAN SERVICE PHYSICIAN

The doctors who were in the service in those days had an easy time ofit. They scarcely ever went outside of the agency enclosure, and issuedtheir pills and compounds after the most casual inquiry. As late as1890, when the Government sent me out as physician to ten thousandOgallalla Sioux and Northern Cheyennes at Pine Ridge Agency, I found mypredecessor still practising his profession through a small hole in thewall between his office and the general assembly room of the Indians. One of the first things I did was to close that hole; and I allowed noman to diagnose his own trouble or choose his pills. I told him Ipreferred to do that myself; and I insisted upon thoroughly examining mypatients. It was a revelation to them, but they soon appreciated thepoint, and the demand for my services doubled and trebled. 

As no team was provided for my use to visit my patients on areservation nearly a hundred miles square (or for any other agencydoctor at the time), I bought a riding horse, saddle and saddle-bags, and was soon on the road almost day and night. A night ride of fifty toseventy-five miles was an ordinary occurrence; and even a Dakotablizzard made no difference, for I never refused to answer a call. Before many months I was supplied by the Government with a covered buggyand two good horses. 

I found it necessary to buy, partly with my own funds and partly withmoney contributed by generous friends, a supply of suitable remedies aswell as a full set of surgical instruments. The drugs supplied bycontractors to the Indian service were at that period often obsolete inkind, and either stale or of the poorest quality. Much of my labor waswasted, moreover, because of the impossibility of seeing that mydirections were followed, and of securing proper nursing and attention. Major operations were generally out of the question on account of thelack of hospital facilities, as well as the prejudice of the people, though I did operate on several of the severely injured after themassacre at Wounded Knee. In many cases it was my task to supply mypatients with suitable food and other necessaries, and my wife wasalways prepared for a raid on her kitchen and storeroom for bread, soup, sheets, and bandages. 

The old-time "medicine-man" was really better than the average whitedoctor in those days, for although his treatment was largely suggestive, his herbs were harmless and he did allay some distress which the otheraggravated, because he used powerful drugs almost at random and did notattend to his cases intelligently. The native practitioners were atfirst suspicious of me as a dangerous rival, but we soon became goodfriends, and they sometimes came frankly to me for advice and evenproposed to borrow some of my remedies. 

Of course, even in that early period when the average Government doctorfeared to risk his life by going freely among the people (though therewas no real danger unless he invited it), there were a few who weresincere and partially successful, especially some military surgeons. 

Now that stage of the medical work among the Indians is past, and theagency doctor has no valid excuse for failing to perform hisprofessional duty. It is true that he is poorly paid and too oftenoverworked; but the equipment is better and there is intelligentsupervision. At Pine Ridge, where I labored single-handed, there arenow three physicians, with a hospital to aid them in their work. To-daythere are two hundred physicians, with a head supervisor and a number ofspecialists, seventy nurses, and eighty field matrons in the Indianservice. 

SOME MISTAKES AND THE REMEDIES

Another serious mistake has been made in the poor sanitary equipment ofIndian schools. Close confinement and long hours of work were for thesechildren of the forest and plains unnatural and trying at best. Dormitories especially have been shamefully overcrowded, and undesirablepupils, both by reason of disease and bad morals, allowed to minglefreely with the healthy and innocent. Serious mishaps have occurredwhich have given some of these schools a bad name; but I really believethat greater care is being taken at the present time. It was chiefly atan early period of the Indian's advance toward civilization that bothmismanagement and adverse circumstance, combined with his owninexperience and ignorance of the new ways, weakened his naturallysplendid powers and paved the way for his present physical decline. Hismental lethargy and want of ambition under the deadening reservationsystem have had much to do with the outcome. 

He was in a sense muzzled. He was told: "You are yet a child. You cannotteach your own children, nor judge of their education. They must noteven use their mother tongue. I will do it all myself. I have got tomake you over; meanwhile, I will feed and clothe you. I will be yournurse and guardian. "

This is what happened to this proud and self-respecting race! But sincethen they have silently studied the world's history and manners; theyhave wandered far and wide and observed life for themselves. They havethought much. The great change has come about; the work has been done, whether poorly or otherwise, and, upon the whole, the good will prevail. The pessimist may complain that nothing has come of all the effort madein behalf of the Indian. I say that it is not too late for the originalAmerican to regain and reëstablish his former physical excellency. Whyshould he not? Much depends upon his own mental attitude, and this isbecoming more normal as the race approaches and some part of it attainsto self-support and full citizenship. As I have said, conditions areimproving; yet much remains to be done; and it should be done quickly. An exhaustive inquiry into health conditions among the tribes was madein accordance with an act of Congress in 1912, and the report presentedin January, 1913, was in brief as follows:

 1. Trachoma is exceedingly prevalent among Indians. 

 2. Tuberculosis among Indians is greatly in excess of that estimated for the white population. 

 3. The sanitary conditions upon reservations are, on the whole, bad. 

 4. The primitive Indian requires instruction in personal hygiene and habits of living in stationary dwellings. 

 5. The sanitary conditions in most Indian schools are unsatisfactory. 

 6. There is danger of the spread of tuberculosis and trachoma from the Indian to other races. 

 7. Due care is not taken in the collection and preservation of vital statistics. 

 8. The medical department of the Indian Bureau is hampered by insufficient authority and inadequate compensation. 

As a result of this and other investigations, increased appropriationshave been asked for, and to a limited extent provided, for the purposeof preventing and treating disease, and especially of checking thespread of serious contagious ailments. More stress is being laid uponsanitary precautions and hygienic instruction in Indian schools, and aneffort is made to carry this instruction into the Indian home throughfield matrons and others. Four sanatoria or sanitarium schools have beensuccessfully established in suitable climates, and it is recommended byan Indian Service specialist that certain boarding-school plants be setapart for trachoma pupils, where they can have thorough and consistenttreatment and remain until the cure is complete. Much largerappropriations are needed in order to carry out in full these beneficentmeasures, and I earnestly hope that they may be forthcoming. 

It is interesting to note that whereas a few years ago the Indians werereproved for placing their sick in canvas tents and arbors, and in everyway discouraged from any attempt to get out of their stifling housesinto the life-giving air, sleeping-porches are now being added to theirhospitals, and open-air schools and sanatoria established for theirchildren. The world really does move, and to some extent it seems to bemoving round to his original point of view. It is not too late to savehis physique as well as his unique philosophy, especially at this momentwhen the spirit of the age has recognized the better part of his schemeof life. 

It is too late, however, to save his color; for the Indian young menthemselves have entirely abandoned their old purpose to keep aloof fromthe racial melting-pot. They now intermarry extensively with Americansand are rearing a healthy and promising class of children. The tendencyof the mixed-bloods is toward increased fertility and beauty as well asgood mentality. This cultivation and infusion of new blood has relievedand revived the depressed spirit of the first American to a noticeabledegree, and his health problem will be successfully met if those who areentrusted with it will do their duty. 

My people have a heritage that can be depended upon, and the two racesat last in some degree understand one another. I have no serious concernabout the new Indian, for he has now reached a point where he is boundto be recognized. This is his native country, and its affairs arevitally his affairs, while his well-being is equally vital to his whiteneighbors and fellow-Americans. 

CHAPTER X

NATIVE ARTS AND INDUSTRIES

In his sense of the æsthetic, which is closely akin to religiousfeeling, the American Indian stands alone. In accord with his nature andbeliefs, he does not pretend to imitate the inimitable, or to reproduceexactly the work of the Great Artist. That which is beautiful must notbe trafficked with, but must only be reverenced and adored. It mustappear in speech and action. The symmetrical and graceful body mustexpress something of it. Beauty, in our eyes, is always fresh andliving, even as God Himself dresses the world anew at each season of theyear. 

It may be artistic to imitate nature and even try to improve upon her, but we Indians think it very tiresome, especially as one considers thematerial side of the work--the pigment, the brush, the canvas! There isno mystery there; you know all about them! Worst of all is thecommercialization of art. The rudely carved totem pole may appeargrotesque to the white man, but it is the sincere expression of thefaith and personality of the Indian craftsman, and has never been soldor bartered until it reached civilization. 

THE INDIAN'S VIEWPOINT

Now we see at once the root of the red man's failure to approach evendistantly the artistic standard of the civilized world. It lies not inthe lack of creative imagination--for in this quality he is a bornartist--it lies rather in his point of view. I once showed a party ofSioux chiefs the sights of Washington, and endeavored to impress themwith the wonderful achievements of civilization. After visiting theCapitol and other famous buildings, we passed through the Corcoran ArtGallery, where I tried to explain how the white man valued this or thatpainting as a work of genius and a masterpiece of art. 

"Ah!" exclaimed an old man, "such is the strange philosophy of the whiteman! He hews down the forest that has stood for centuries in its prideand grandeur, tears up the bosom of mother earth, and causes the silverywatercourses to waste and vanish away. He ruthlessly disfigures God'sown pictures and monuments, and then daubs a flat surface with manycolors, and praises his work as a masterpiece!"

This is the spirit of the original American. He holds nature to be themeasure of consummate beauty, and its destruction as sacrilege. I haveseen in our midsummer celebrations cool arbors built of fresh-cutbranches for council and dance halls, while those who attended deckedthemselves with leafy boughs, carrying shields and fans of the same, andeven making wreaths for their horses' necks. But, strange to say, theyseldom made a free use of flowers. I once asked the reason of this. 

"Why, " said one, "the flowers are for our souls to enjoy; not for ourbodies to wear. Leave them alone and they will live out their lives andreproduce themselves as the Great Gardener intended. He planted them: wemust not pluck them, for it would be selfish to do so. "

Indian beadwork in leaf and flower designs is generally modern. Theold-time patterns are for the most part simple geometrical figures, which are decorative and emblematic rather than imitative. Shafts oflight and shadow alternating or dovetailed represent life, its joys andsorrows. The world is conceived of as rectangular and flat, and isrepresented by a square. The sky is concave--a hollow sphere. A drawingof the horizon line colored pale yellow stands for dawn; colored red, for sunset. Day is blue, and night black spangled with stars. Lightning, rain, wind, water, mountains, and many other natural features orelements are symbolized rather than copied literally upon many sorts ofIndian handiwork. Animal figures are drawn in such a manner as to giveexpression to the type or spirit of the animal rather than its body, emphasizing the head with the horns, or any distinguishing feature. These designs have a religious significance and furnish the individualwith his personal and clan emblem, or coat of arms. 

Symbolic decorations are used on blankets, baskets, pottery, andgarments of ceremony to be worn at rituals and public functions. Sometimes a man's teepee is decorated in accordance with the standing ofthe owner. Weapons of war are adorned with emblems, and also pipes, orcalumets, but not the every-day weapons used in hunting. The war steedis decorated equally with his rider, and sometimes wears the feathersthat signify degrees of honor. 

THE WOMAN AND HER CRAFTSMANSHIP

In his weaving, painting, and embroidery of beads and quills the red manhas shown a marked color sense, and his blending of brilliant hues issubtle and Oriental in effect. The women did most of this work anddisplayed vast ingenuity in the selection of native materials and dyes. A variety of beautiful grasses, roots, and barks are used for baskets bythe different tribes, and some even used gorgeous feathers for extraornamentation. Each was perfectly adapted in style, size, and form toits intended use. 

Pottery was made by the women of the Southwest for household furnitureand utensils, and their vessels, burned in crude furnaces, were oftengracefully shaped and exquisitely decorated. The designs were bothimprinted on the soft clay and modeled in relief. The nomadic tribes ofthe plains could not well carry these fragile wares with them on theirwanderings, and accordingly their dishes were mainly of bark and wood, the latter sometimes carved. Spoons were prettily made of translucenthorn. They were fond of painting their rawhide cases in brilliantcolors. The most famous blankets are made by the Navajoes upon rude handlooms and are wonderfully fine in weave, color, and design. 

This native skill combined with love of the work and perfectsincerity--the qualities which still make the Indian woman's blanket orbasket or bowl or moccasins of the old type so highly prized--are amongthe precious things lost or sacrificed to the advance of an aliencivilization. Cheap machine-made garments and utensils, without beautyor durability, have crowded out the old; and where the women still plytheir ancient trade, they do it now for money, not for love, and in mostcases use modern materials and patterns, even imported yarns and"Diamond dyes!" Genuine curios or antiques are already becoming veryrare, except in museums, and sometimes command fabulous prices. As theolder generation passes, there is danger of losing altogether the secretof Indian art and craftsmanship. 

MODERN INDIAN ART

Struck by this danger, and realizing the innate charm of the work andits adaptability to modern demands, a few enthusiasts have made of lateyears an effort to preserve and extend it, both in order that adistinctive and vitally American art-form may not disappear, and as ameans of self-support for Indian women. Depots or stores have beenestablished at various points for the purpose of encouraging suchmanufactures and of finding a market for them, not so much fromcommercial as from artistic and philanthropic motives. The best known, perhaps, is the Mohonk Lodge, Colony, Oklahoma, founded under theauspices of the Mohonk Indian Conference, where all work is guaranteedof genuine Indian make, and, as far as possible, of native material anddesign. Such articles as bags, belts, and moccasins are, however, madein modern form so as to be appropriate for wear by the modern woman. Miss Josephine Foard assisted the women of the Laguna pueblo to glazetheir wares, thereby rendering them more salable; and the IndianIndustries League, with headquarters in Boston, works along similarlines. 

The Indian Bureau reports that over $600, 000 worth of Navajo blanketswere made during the last year, and that prizes will be awarded thisfall for the best blankets made of native wool. At Pima $15, 000 worth ofbaskets and $5, 000 worth of pottery was made and sold, and a less amountwas produced at several other agencies. 

Another modern development, significant of the growing appreciation ofwhat is real and valuable in primitive culture, is the instruction ofthe younger generation in the Government schools in the traditional artsand crafts of their people. As schooling is compulsory between the agesof six and sixteen years, and from the more distant boarding-schools thepupils are not even allowed to go home for the summer vacation, most ofthem would otherwise grow up in ignorance of their natural heritage, inlegend, music, and art forms as well as practical handicrafts. Thegreatest difficulty in the way is the finding of competent andsympathetic teachers. 

At Carlisle there are and have been for some years two strikingexemplars of the native talent and modern culture of their race, injoint charge of the department of Indian art. Angel DeCora was aWinnebago girl, who was graduated from the Hampton school and from theart department of Smith College. She was afterward a pupil of the famousAmerican illustrator, Howard Pyle, and herself made a distinctivesuccess in this field, having illustrated several books and articles onIndian subjects. Some of her work has appeared in _Harper's Magazine_and other high-class periodicals. She had a studio in New York City forseveral years, until invited to teach art at the Carlisle school, whereshe has been ever since. 

A few years ago she married William Dietz (Lone Star), who is halfSioux. He is a fine, manly fellow, who was for years a great footballplayer, as well as an accomplished artist. The couple have not only theartistic and poetic temperament in full measure, but they have thepioneer spirit and aspire to do much for their race. The effective coverdesigns and other art work of the Carlisle school magazine, _The RedMan_, are the work of Mr. And Mrs. Dietz, who are successfullydeveloping native talent in the production of attractive and salablerugs, blankets, and silver jewelry. Besides this, they are seeking todiscover latent artistic gifts among the students in order that they maybe fully trained and utilized in the direction of pure or applied art. It is admitted that the average Indian child far surpasses the averagewhite child in this direction. The Indian did not paint nature, notbecause he did not feel it, but because it was sacred to him. He soloved the reality that he could not venture upon the imitation. It isnow time to unfold the resources of his genius, locked up for untoldages by the usages and philosophy of his people. They held it sacrilegeto reproduce the exact likeness of the human form or face. This is thereason that early attempts to paint the natives were attended withdifficulty, and there are still Indians who refuse to be photographed. 

MUSIC, DANCING, DRAMATIC ART

A form of self-expression which has always been characteristic of myrace is found in their music. In music is the very soul of the Indian;yet the civilized nations have but recently discovered that such a thingexists! His chants are simple, expressive, and haunting in quality, andvoice his inmost feelings, grave or gay, in every emotion and situationin life. They vary much with tribes and even with individuals. A manoften composes his own song, which belongs to him and is deeply imbuedwith his personality. These songs are frequently without words, themeaning being too profound for words; they are direct emanations of thehuman spirit. If words are used, they are few and symbolic in character. There is no definite harmony in the songs--only rhythm and melody, andthere are striking variations of time and intonation which render themdifficult to the "civilized" ear. 

Nevertheless, within the last few years there has been a serious effortto collect these wild folksongs of the woods and plains by means ofnotation and the phonograph, and in some cases this has been connectedwith the attempt to harmonize and popularize them. Miss Alice C. Fletcher, the distinguished ethnologist and student of early Americanculture, was a pioneer in this field, in which she was assisted by Prof. J. C. Filmore, who is no longer living. Frederick Burton died severalyears ago, immediately after the publication of his interesting work onthe music of the Ojibways, which is fully illustrated with songscollected and in some instances harmonized by himself. Miss NatalieCurtis devoted much patient study to the songs of the tribes, especiallyof the Pueblos, and later comers in this field are Farwell, Troyer, Lieurance, and Cadman, the last of whom uses the native airs as a motivefor more elaborated songs. His "Land of the Sky Blue Water" is charming, and already very popular. Harold A. Loring of North Dakota has recentlyharmonized some of the songs of the Sioux. 

Several singers of Indian blood are giving public recitals of thisappealing and mysterious music of their race. There has even been anattempt to teach it to our schoolchildren, and Geoffrey O'Hara, a youngcomposer of New York City, made a beginning in this direction under theauspices of the Indian Bureau. Native melodies have also been adaptedand popularized for band and orchestra by native musicians, of whom thebest known are Dennison Wheelock and his brother James Wheelock, Oneidasand graduates of Carlisle. When we recall that as recent as twenty yearsago all native art was severely discountenanced and discouraged, if notactually forbidden, in Government schools, and often by missionaries aswell, the present awakening is matter for mutual congratulations. 

Many Americans have derived their only personal knowledge of Indiansfrom the circus tent and the sawdust arena. The red man is a born actor, a dancer and rider of surpassing agility, but he needs the great out ofdoors for his stage. In pageantry, and especially equestrian pageantry, he is most effective. His extraordinarily picturesque costume, and therealistic manner in which he illustrates and reproduces the life of theearly frontier, has made of him a great, romantic, and popularattraction not only here but in Europe. Several white men have takenadvantage of this fact to make their fortunes, of whom the mostenterprising and successful was Col. William Cody, better known as"Buffalo Bill. "

The Indians engaged to appear in his and other shows have been paidmoderate salaries and usually well treated, though cases have arisen inwhich they have been stranded at long distances from home. As theycannot be taken from the reservation without the consent of theauthorities, repeated efforts have been made by missionaries and othersto have such permission refused on the ground of moral harm to theparticipants in these sham battles and dances. Undoubtedly they see agood deal of the seamy side of civilization; but, on the other hand, their travels have proved of educational value, and in some instancesopened their eyes to good effect to the superior power of the white man. Sitting Bull and other noted chiefs have, at one time or another, beenconnected with Indian shows. 

A pageant-play based on Longfellow's poem of "Hiawatha" has been givensuccessfully for several years by native Ojibway actors; and individualsof Indian blood have appeared on the stage in minor parts, and moreprominently in motion pictures, where they are often engaged torepresent tribal customs and historical events. 

USEFUL ARTS AND INVENTIONS

Among native inventions which have been of conspicuous use and value tothe dispossessors of the Indian we recollect at once the bark canoe, thesnowshoe, the moccasin (called the most perfect footwear ever invented), the game of lacrosse and probably other games, also the conical teepeewhich served as a model for the Sibley army tent. Pemmican, a condensedfood made of pounded dried meat combined with melted fat and driedfruits, has been largely utilized by recent polar explorers. 

The art of sugar making from the sap of the hard or sugar maple wasfirst taught by the aborigines to the white settlers. In my day theSioux used also the box elder for sugar making, and from the birch andash is made a dark-colored sugar that was used by them as a carrier inmedicine. However, none of these yield as freely as the maple. TheOjibways of Minnesota still make and sell delicious maple sugar, put upin "mococks, " or birch-bark packages. Their wild rice, a native grain ofremarkably fine flavor and nutritious qualities, is also in a small wayan article of commerce. It really ought to be grown on a large scale andpopularized as a package cereal. A large fortune doubtless awaits thelucky exploiter of this distinctive "breakfast food. "

In agriculture the achievements of the Indian have probably beenunderestimated, although it is well known that the Indian corn was themother of all the choice varieties which to-day form an important sourceof food supply for the civilized world. The women cultivated the maizewith primitive implements, and prepared it for food in many attractiveforms, including hominy and succotash, of which the names, as well asthe dishes themselves, are borrowed from the red man. He has not alwaysbeen rewarded in kind for his goodly gifts. In 1830 the American FurCompany established a distillery at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, and made alcohol from the corn raised by the Gros Ventre women, withwhich they demoralized the men of the Dakotas, Montana, and BritishColumbia. Besides maize and tobacco, some tribes, especially in theSouth, grew native cotton and a variety of fruits and vegetables. 

The buckskin clothing of my race was exceedingly practical as well ashandsome, and has been adapted to the use of hunters, explorers, andfrontiersmen, down to the present day. His feathers and otherdecorations are imitated by women of fashion, and his moccasin was neverso much in vogue as now. The old wooden Indian in front of the tobaccostore looks less lonely as he gazes upon a procession of bright-eyedyoung people, with now and then one older, Indian-clad, joyous, and fullof health, returning, if only for a few short weeks, to the life he knewof old. 

CHAPTER XI

THE INDIAN'S GIFTS TO THE NATION

What does the original American contribute, in the final summing up, tothe country of his birth and his adoption? Not much, perhaps, incomparison with the brilliant achievements of civilization; yet, afterall, is there not something worthy of perpetuation in the spirit of hisdemocracy--the very essence of patriotism and justice between man andman? Silently, by example only, in wordless patience, he holds stoutlyto his native vision. We must admit that the tacit influence of hisphilosophy has been felt at last, and a self-seeking world has paused inits mad rush to pay him a tribute. 

Yes, the world has recognized his type, seized his point of view. Wehave lived to see monuments erected to his memory. The painter, sculptor, author, scientist, preacher, all have found in him a modelworthy of study and serious presentation. Lorado Taft's colossal "BlackHawk" stands wrapped in his stony blanket upon the banks of the RockRiver; while the Indian is to keep company with the Goddess of Libertyin New York Harbor, besides many other statues of him whichpre-eminently adorn the public parks and halls of our cities. 

No longer does the red man live alone in the blood-curdling pages of thesensational story-writer. He is the subject of profound study as a man, a philosopher, a noble type both physically and spiritually. Symmetricaland finely poised in body, the same is true of his character. He standsnaked before you, scorning the garb of deception and pretence, for he isa true child of nature. 

How has he contributed to the world's progress? By his personalfaithfulness to duty and devotion to a trust. He has not advertised hisfaithfulness nor made capital of his honor. Again and again he hasproved his worth as a citizen of his country and of the world by hisconstancy in the face of hardship and death. Racial antagonism was tohim no excuse for breaking his word. This simplicity and fairness hascost him dear; it cost his country and his freedom, even the extinctionof his race as a separate and peculiar people; but as a type, an ideal, he lives and will live!

The red man's genius for military tactics and strategy has been admittedagain and again by those who have fought against him, often unwillingly, because they saw that he was in the right. His long, unequal struggleagainst the dominant race has produced a brilliant array of notable menwithout education in letters. Such were King Philip of the Wampanoags;Pontiac, the great Ottawa; Cornplanter of the Senecas, in the eighteenthcentury; while in the first half of the nineteenth we have Weatherfordof the Creeks, Tecumseh of the Shawnees, Little Turtle of the Miamis, Wabashaw and Wanatan of the Sioux, Black Hawk of the Foxes, Osceola ofthe Seminoles. During the last half of the century there arose anotherset of Indian leaders, the last of their type--such men as Ouray of theUtes, Geronimo of the Apaches, Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and Sitting Bullof the Sioux, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces, and Dull Knife of theNorthern Cheyennes. Men like these are an ornament to any country. 

It has been said that their generalship was equal to that of Cæsar orNapoleon; even greater considering that here was no organization, notreasury, or hope of spoils, or even a stable government behind them. They displayed their leadership under conditions in which Napoleon wouldhave failed. As regards personal bravery, no man could outdo them. AfterJackson had defeated the Creeks, he demanded of them the war chiefWeatherford, dead or alive. The following night Weatherford presentedhimself alone at the general's tent, saying: "I am Weatherford; do asyou please with me. I would be still fighting you had I the warriors tofight with; but they no longer answer my call, for they are dead. "

Chief Joseph, who conducted that masterly retreat of eleven hundredmiles, burdened with his women and children, the old men and thewounded, surrendered at last, as he told me in Washington, because hecould "bear no longer the sufferings of the innocent. " These men werenot bloodthirsty or wanton murderers; they were as gentle at home asthey were terrific in battle. Chief Joseph would never harm a whitewoman or child, and more than once helped non-combatants to a place ofsafety. 

In oratory and unstudied eloquence the American Indian has at timesequalled even the lofty flights of the Greeks and Romans. The noted Redjacket, perhaps the greatest orator and philosopher of primitiveAmerica, was declared by the late Governor Clinton of New York to be theequal of Demosthenes. President Jefferson called the best-known speechof Logan, the Mingo chief, the "height of human utterance. "

Now let us consider some of his definite contributions to the birth andnurture of the United States. We have borrowed his emblem, the Americaneagle, which matches well his bold and aspiring spirit. It is impossibleto forget that his country and its freely offered hospitality are thevery foundation of our national existence, but his services as a scoutand soldier have scarcely been valued at their true worth. 

THE INDIAN SOLDIER AND SCOUT

The name of Washington is immortal; but who remembers that he was safelyguided by a nameless red man through the pathless wilderness to FortDuquesne? Washington made a successful advance upon the British army atTrenton, on Christmas Eve; but Delaware Indians had reported to himtheir situation, and made it possible for the great general to hit hisenemy hard at an opportune moment. It is a fact that Washington'sability was shown by his confidence in the word of the Indians and intheir safe guidance. 

In the French and Indian wars there is abundant evidence that botharmies depended largely upon the natives, and that when they failed totake the advice of their savage allies they generally met with disaster. This advice was valuable, not only because the Indians knew the country, but because their strategy was of a high order. The reader may have seenat Fort George the statue of Sir William Johnson and King Hendrix, theMohawk chief. The latter holds in his hand a bundle of sticks. Traditionsays that the chief was arguing against the division of their forces tomeet the approaching French army, saying: "If we are to fight, we aretoo few: if we are to die, we are too many!"

As an Indian, and having often heard my people discuss strategicdetails, I am almost sure that the chief anticipated the tactics of theenemy; and the pathetic sequel is that he was selected to lead a portionof the English forces to Fort Edward that morning, and when only a mileor so out was ambushed by the enemy. He stood his ground, urging his mento face the foe; and when he was shot dead, they were so enraged thatwith extraordinary valor they routed the French, and thus Hendrix indying was really the means of saving Forts George and Edward for thecolonists. 

History says that Braddock was defeated and lost his life at FortDuquesne because he had neglected and disregarded his Indian scouts, whoaccordingly left him, and he had no warning of the approach of the foe. Again, the Seminole war in Florida was a failure so long as no Indianswere found who were willing to guide the army, and the Government wascompelled to make terms, while the swift and overwhelming defeat of theCreeks, a much stronger nation, was due more to the Cherokee andChickasaw scouts than to the skill of General Jackson. Of course, oncethe army is guided to an Indian village, and the warriors are surprisedin the midst of their women and children, the civilized folk, withsuperior weapons and generally superior numbers, has every advantage. 

The Indian system of scouting has long been recognized as one of themost useful adjuncts of war. His peculiar and efficient methods ofcommunication in the field by means of blanket signals, smoke signals, the arrangement of rock-piles, and by heliograph (small mirrors orreflectors), the last, of course, in more modern days, have all beenmade use of at one time or another by the United States Army. It isinteresting evidence of the world-wide respect for our strategy andmethods, that when the Boer commission came to Washington a few yearsago, Mr. Vessel called upon me to advise him how he might secure onethousand Sioux and Cheyenne scouts in their war against Great Britain. Of course I told him that it could not be done: that I would not involvemy country in an international difficulty. I was similarly approachedduring the Russo-Japanese war. 

The aid of friendly Indians in the case of massacres and surprises ofthe whites must not be overlooked. It may be recalled that some Cherokeewarriors, returning from Washington's later successful expeditionagainst Fort Duquesne, were murdered in their sleep by whitefrontiersmen after giving them friendly lodging. Here again is broughtout the genuine greatness of the Indian character. The Cherokees feltkeenly this treacherous outrage by the very people to whom they had justsacrificed the best blood of their young men in their war against theFrench. Some declared their intention of killing every white man theycould find in retaliation for such unprovoked murder; but the chiefOttakullakulla calmly arose and addressed the excited assembly:

"Let us have consideration, " said he, "for our white neighbors who arenot guilty of this deed. We must not violate our faith or the laws ofhospitality by imbruing our hands in the blood of those who are now inour power. They came to us in the confidence of a pledged friendship;let us conduct them safely back within their own confines before we takeup the hatchet!"

He carried his point to some extent, and himself saved Captain Stewart, his friend, by giving up all of his property to ransom him. Indifficulties between the races since colonial times there has been anunbroken record of heroic work in the rescue of missionaries and otherwhite persons resident among the Indians by their native converts andfriends. In the Minnesota Sioux outbreak of 1862 there were many notableinstances. A man named Arrow stood beside Mr. Spencer and dared theinfuriated warriors to touch him. There were over two hundred whitecaptives saved by friendly Indians and delivered to General Sibley atCamp Release. During the following December some young YanktonnaisSioux voluntarily ransomed and delivered up two white women and fourchildren. I knew some of these men well; among them Fast Walking, whocarried one of the children on his back to safety, after giving his ownhorse to redeem him. Seldom have such deeds been rewarded or evenappreciated. When these men became old and feeble an attempt was made tohave them recompensed by Congressional appropriation, but so far as I aminformed it has been unsuccessful. 

I do not wish to disparage any one, but I do say that the virtuesclaimed by "Christian civilization" are not peculiar to any culture orreligion. My people were very simple and unpractical--the modernobstacle to the fulfilment of the Christ ideal. Their strength lay inself-denial. Not only men, but women of the race have served the nationat most opportune moments in the history of this country. 

HISTORIC INDIAN WOMEN

It is remembered that Pocahontas saved the first Virginia colony fromutter destruction because of her love for Captain John Smith, who wasthe heart and brain of the colony. It was the women of the Oneida andStockbridge Indians who advised their men not to join King Philipagainst the New England colonies, and, later, pointed out the wisdom ofmaintaining neutrality during the war of the Revolution. 

Perhaps no greater service has been rendered by any Indian girl to thewhite race than by Catherine, the Ojibway maid, at the height ofPontiac's great conspiracy. Had it not been for her timely warning ofher lover, Captain Gladwyn, Fort Detroit would have met the same fate asthe other forts, and the large number of Indians who held the siege forthree months would have scattered to wipe out the border settlements ofOhio and Pennsylvania. The success of Pontiac would certainly havedelayed the settlement of the Ohio valley for many years. It is not tobe supposed that Catherine was moved to give her warning by anythingsave her true womanly instincts. She stood between two races, and in herlove and bravery cut short a struggle that might have proved too full ofcaprice and cruelty on both sides. She was civilization's angel, andshould have a niche in history beside Pocahontas. 

Sacajawea, the young Indian mother who guided Lewis and Clark in theirglorious expedition to the Pacific, was another brave woman. It is truethat she was living in captivity, but according to Indian usage thatwould not affect her social position. It does not appear that she joinedthe expedition in order to regain her tribe, but rather from a sense ofduty and purpose of high usefulness. Not only as guide, but asinterpreter, and in rescuing the records of the expedition when theircanoe was overturned in the Missouri River, the "Bird Woman" was ofinvaluable aid, and is a true heroine of the annals of exploration. 

THE CHILDREN'S HERO

Nearly all the early explorers owed much to the natives. Who told thewhite men of the wonders of the Yellowstone Park and the canyon of theColorado? Who guided them and served them without expectation of creditor honor? It is a principle among us to serve friend or guest to theutmost, and in the old days it was considered ill-bred to ask for anyremuneration. To-day we have a new race, the motive of whose actions isthe same as that of a civilized man. Nothing is given unless anequivalent is returned, or even a little more if he can secure it. Yetthe inherent racial traits are there: latent, no doubt, but stillthere. The red man still retains his love of service; his love for hiscountry. Once he has pledged his word to defend the American flag, hestands by it manfully. 

In the Civil War many Indians fought on both sides, some of them asofficers. General Grant had a full-blood Indian on his staff: Col. ElyParker, afterward Commissioner of Indian Affairs. At one time in recentyears a company of Indians was recruited in the regular army, andindividual red men are still rendering good service in both army andnavy (thirty-five ex-students of Carlisle alone), as well as in otherbranches of the Federal service. We have lived to see men of our bloodin the councils of the nation, and an Indian Register of the Treasury, who must sign all our currency before it is valid. An Indian head is onthe five-dollar bill and the new nickel. 

George Guess, or Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, is theonly red man admitted to the nation's Hall of Fame in the Capitol atWashington. The Indian languages, more than fifty in number, are betterappreciated and more studied to-day than ever before. Half our stateshave Indian names, and more than that proportion of our principal lakesand rivers. These names are as richly sonorous as they are packed withsignificance, and our grandchildren will regret it if we suffer thetongues that gave them birth to die out and be forgotten. 

Best of all, perhaps, we are beginning to recognize the Indian's goodsense and sanity in the way of simple living and the mastery of thegreat out of doors. Like him, the wisest Americans are living, playing, and sleeping in the open for at least a part of the year, receiving thevital benefits of the pure air and sunlight. His deeds are carved uponthe very rocks; the names he loved to speak are fastened upon thelandscape; and he still lives in spirit, silently leading the multitude, for the new generation have taken him for their hero and model. 

I call upon the parents of America to give their fullest support tothose great organizations, the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls. Theyoung people of to-day are learning through this movement much of thewisdom of the first American. In the mad rush for wealth we have toolong overlooked the foundations of our national welfare. Thecontribution of the American Indian, though considerable from any pointof view, is not to be measured by material acquirement. Its greatestworth is spiritual and philosophical. He will live, not only in thesplendor of his past, the poetry of his legends and his art, not only inthe interfusion of his blood with yours, and his faithful adherence tothe new ideals of American citizenship, but in, the living thought ofthe nation. 

THE END

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The documents chiefly used in the preparation of this book, aside fromthe author's own observations and personal knowledge, were the annualreports of the United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs, of theUnited States Board of Indian Commissioners, and of the Bureau ofAmerican Ethnology, the proceedings of the Mohonk Indian Conferences, and of religious and philanthropic societies engaged in Indian work;also the reports and magazines published by the larger Indian schools, especially Carlisle and Hampton. The following list of books about theNorth American Indian is not presented as complete in any sense, butmerely as a suggestive guide to the reader who wishes to pursue thesubject further:

 EARLY STUDENTS AND EXPLORERS

 NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _Geo. Catlin_

 BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF THE INDIANS OF N. A. _Drake_

 WORKS OF _John G. Heckewelder_

 INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA _Henry R. Schoolcraft_

 THE OREGON TRAIL _Parkman_

 THE JESUITS IN NORTH AMERICA _Parkman_

 JESUIT RELATIONS _Edited by Shea_

 INDIAN MISSIONS

 MARY AND I; OR FORTY YEARS AMONG THE SIOUX _John Williamson_

 LIFE OF BISHOP HARE _De Wolf Howe_

 A QUAKER AMONG THE INDIANS _T. C. Battey_

 FATHER JUNIPERO AND THE MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA _H. H. _

 LEGENDS AND FOLKLORE

 BLACKFOOT LODGE TALES _G. B. Grinnell_

 PAWNEE HERO STORIES _G. B. Grinnell_

 ALGONQUIN LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND _Chas. G. Leland_

 THE LENAPE AND THEIR LEGENDS _Daniel Brinton_

 THE MAN WHO MARRIED THE MOON AND OTHER PUEBLO FOLK TALES _Chas. F. Lummis_

 MUSIC AND ART

 THE INDIANS' BOOK _Natalie Curtis_

 INDIAN BASKETRY _George W. James_

 INDIAN STORY AND SONG _Alice C. Fletcher_

 PRIMITIVE INDIAN MUSIC _Frederick Burton_

 MODERN WRITERS

 THE VANISHING RACE _Joseph K. Dixon_

 THE STORY OF THE INDIAN _G. B. Grinnell_

 THE INDIANS OF TO-DAY _G. B. Grinnell_

 NORTH AMERICANS OF YESTERDAY _Dellenbaugh_

 MY FRIEND THE INDIAN _James McLaughlin_

 WHAT THE WHITE MAN MAY LEARN FROM THE INDIAN _G. W. James_

 INDIAN CHIEFS I HAVE KNOWN _O. O. Howard_

 LIVES OF FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS _N. B. Wood_

 A CENTURY OF DISHONOR _Helen Hunt Jackson (H. H. )_

 THE INDIAN DISPOSSESSED _Setti K. Humphrey_

 INDIAN SKETCHES _Cornelia S. Hulst_

 EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN (Pamphlet) _Hailmann_

 THE AMERICAN INDIAN _Warren K. Moorehead_

 THE INDIAN IN RELATION TO THE WHITE POPULATION OF THE U. S. (Pamphlet) _F. A. McKenzie_

 FICTION

 RAMONA _Helen Hunt Jackson_

 TWO WILDERNESS VOYAGERS _F. W. Calkins_

 THE WOOING OF TOKALA _F. W. Calkins_

 AN INDIAN WINTER _J. W. Schultz_

 CHILDHOOD OF JISHIB THE OJIBWAY _A. E. Jenks_

 THE MIDDLE FIVE _Francis La Flesche_

 THE OJIBWAY _James Gilfillan_

TABLE OF INDIAN RESERVATIONSIN THE UNITED STATES

(_Compiled by the Office of Indian Affairs. _)

 ARIZONA

 Camp McDowell Colorado River Fort Apache Gila Bend Gila River Havasupai Hopi Navajo Papago Salt River San Carlos Walapai

 CALIFORNIA

 Digger Hupa Valley Mission (28 reserves) Round Valley Tule River Yuma

 COLORADO

 Ute

 IDAHO

 Coeur d'Alene Fort Hall Lapwai Lemhi

 IOWA

 Sauk and Fox

 KANSAS

 Chippewa and Munsee Iowa Kickapoo Potawatomie Sauk and Fox

 MICHIGAN

 Isabella L'Anse Ontonagon

 MINNESOTA

 Bois Fort Deer Creek Fond du Lac Grand Portage Leech Lake Mdewakanton Mille Lac Red Lake Vermillion Lake White Earth White Oak Point and Chippewa

 MONTANA

 Blackfeet Crow Fort Belknap Fort Peck Jocko Northern Cheyenne

 NEBRASKA

 Niobrara Omaha Ponca Sioux (additional) Winnebago

 NEVADA

 Duck Valley Moapa River Pyramid Lake Walker River

 NEW MEXICO

 Jicarilla Apache Mescalero Apache Pueblos (20 reserves)

 NEW YORK

 Allegany Cattaraugus Oil Spring Oneida Onondaga St. Regis Tonawanda Tuscarora

 NORTH CAROLINA

 Qualla Boundary (Cherokee)

 NORTH DAKOTA

 Devil's Lake Fort Berthold Standing Rock Turtle Mountain

 OKLAHOMA

 Cherokee Cheyenne and Arapahoe Chickasaw Chocktaw Creek Iowa Kansa or Kaw Kickapoo Kiowa and Comanche Modoc Oakland Osage Otoe Ottawa Pawnee Peoria Ponca Potawatomie Quapaw Sauk and Fox Seminole Seneca Shawnee Wichita Wyandot

 OREGON

 Grande Ronde Klamath Siletz Umatilla Warm Springs

 SOUTH DAKOTA

 Crow Creek and Old Winnebago Lake Traverse Cheyenne River Lower Brule Pine Ridge Rosebud Yankton

 UTAH

 Uintah Valley Uncompahgre

 WASHINGTON

 Chehalis Columbia Colville Hoh River Lummi Makah Muckleshoot Nisqually Ozette Fort Madison Puyallup Quileute Quinaiette Shoalwater Skokomish Snohomish or Tulalip Spokan Squaxon Island Swinomish Yakima

 WISCONSIN

 Lac Court Oreille Lac du Flambeau La Pointe Red Cliff Menominee Oneida Stockbridge

 WYOMING

 Wind River

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS

GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 

 [Transcriber's Note:

 The following typographical errors have been corrected:

 Page 85: "cooperating" changed to "coöperating. " (coöperating intelligently in the effort)

 Page 130: A period was added to the sentence ending in "the greatest all-round athlete in the world. "

 Page 152: "southwest" changed to "Southwest. " (the women of the Southwest)]