The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-15
IN SEARCH OF AN EDUCATION.
A Consignment of Sioux Indians Who Want
To BE Civilized.
Philadelphia Times.

Philadelphia Times.
The Educational Home at Forty ninth street
and Greenway avenue, was invaded yesterday
by party of thirtytwo Sioux Indians, fresh
from the Cheyenne agency IL Dakota. The
young braves were collected and brought East
by William NJ. Hugg Most Of them are young
men who have been especially selected by the
Indian agents, as desirable candidates for edu-
cation by reason of their rank or influence in
the branches Of the tribes they represent They
come East not only voluntarily but eagerly
Among them are warriors who carried rifles nm
der Sitting Bull, but they have discarded the
tomahawk and the scalpng knife, and will take
up the slate pencil and the spelling book
The party left Dakota last Monday morning,
and were fed by contract all the way East. Yes
terday morning they bankrupted Baltimore
eating house, and shortly before o'clock they
arrived at the Broad-street depot, where Joseph
L. Springer, the superintendent of the Home,
packed them into an immense omnibus, and
ratified them out the Darby road to their new
reservation.
The officers aud teachers of the institution and
the lady managers, under the leadership of Mrs
Bellangee Cox, had assembled at the basement
door to welcome the Sioux.
Stod and grave they marched up the path
falling into single file in true Indian fashion. At
their head stalkeG yellow Dog, a young brave of
perhaps twentyf five summers. He stood six feet
three inches in his moccasnS, and in manly vigOr
would have served Fennimore Cooper a model
for his Uncas. yellow Dog was the one man
and he had to serve interpreter for the entire
party. Tell them to take off their hats as they
enter the door," said Mrs. Cox, and then she
turned to the pale-face spectators and added
Its none too early to give them their first les
son in politenesS,"
Yellow Dog grunted solemnly waved his hand
toward the dirty red ribbons and glass beads
about the band of his soft SLOUGH hat and said:
ugh! Ugh! lum- Dor kashwan- ii hor -whangaree
UGH" At the word of command every hat was
"a and tba CT IF tbau
brave relaxed in awkward but good-natured ac-
acknowledgement of the smiles and bows of the
ladies. Most of the new pupils had already had
their hair cut but several of them still wore
their flowing names of jet black or their long
thick plaits streaming down their backs Some
wore shoes, while Others had not yet discarded
their fashy yellow moccasins. Their clothing
was by no means picturesque. Dirty blue shirts
and patched trousers, such as Dorcas societies
box up for Shipment to mission stations, were
the most favored articles of apparel Young
Feather Nose, however, who had come prepared
for hard winter, strobe into the corridor per
spring under the shaggy folds of a huge I'M
dressed buffalo hide, which completely oncased
his sturdy frame like great chrysaiis
STAND them up there in a row" said the
matron as the novices gathered in the large as
sembly in the basement. Eight of the
thirty two were over six feet tall The matron
was worried. ''My dear Mrs. Cox" she said
'these fellows are too big for our beds, and they
will have to sleep on the floor until we can have
some bedsteads made as long as they are Three
of the party. Red Moceasin, HoOting Owl and
Believing Coyote, are men nearly forty years
old. Old Coyote, who was one of Sitting Bulls
crack shots, could never be induced to come
East until he heard that his old captain had
yielded to the Establishments of n theatrical
manager last summer Then Believing Coyote
consented to let the Great Father give HIM an
education, though he is already at the prime of
life and must begin at the G book. Nearly
half of the number young bucks between
ten and twenty years of age. and two or three of
them had scarcely passed the paDoose stage of
Indian life. Little Blue Hen, the only maiden
who came East with her copper-skinued
brothers, was torn from them and taken to the
Lincoln Institute
Abraham Lincoln, bright young fellow who
has made astonishing progress since he was
brought from the Mohawk reservation last Sep
TENDER, was detailed to pilot the new matrcu
lates through the school buildings. The greet
ings exchanged as the arrivals met the sixty
pupils who were already busy at their several
tasks were often amusing. The Sioux braves
peeped into the school-room, where Mr.. Lewis
was spelling out the story of "a frog on a log"
for the edifeation of the second-class in spelling
They gaZed on the states, books and black boards
with reverent wonder and the younger BOYS
grinned broadly as they beheld the young
Apaches. Greeks and Araphoes, who were plod-
ding away in their neat blue blouses with brass
buttons.
The older pupils, according to the degree of
civilization attained, either bowed civil wei
come or stared in stolid silence. A few of them
snickered and hid behind their states. The new
arrivals were still more deeply impressed when
they beheld the young Indians who were indus
triousy tinkering at the cobblers bench or sit
ting cross legged sewing pair of trousers in the
most approved tailor fashion. After they had
seen their new home they were ordered first of
all, into the bath-tub After we have changed
their skins" said Superintendent Springer, I'VE
have to go to work and change their names" AS
the names of the various Presidents and Ameri-
can statesmen have already been pretty well ex-
hausted by the sixty pupils already christened,
the new arrivals are to be named for the bright
and shining lights of the City Councils. Mrs,
Cox delivered little inaugural address, which
was interpreted, sentence for sentence. by the
gifted Yellow Dog, and then the Indians filed
out of the corridor to take their turns in the
bath-t tubs.