The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-03

The Council at Crow Creek Agency Re-
garding the Reservation Trouble.
GlimpssS of Indian Life at Its Best-Some
Representative Chiefs and Their Talk-A
Sunday with the Yanctonnais.
Special Correspondence ~Indianarolis Journal.

Special Correspondence Indianapolis Journal.
Fort CUSTER, NJ. T., July 26.-The Indian
council, or pow WOW, at the Crow Creek agency
was held on Saturday. The drive over the res
e~rvation on Friday, about seventy or seventy
I'VE miles in length. proved very agreeable, but
the sight OF the agency buildings, lying embos-
omed in a growth Of stunted cottonwood, on the
banks Of the Missouri, seemed like the shadow
OF a great rock in a weary land. Major g. A
GasInann is the agent in charge. He has had an
experience of twelve or fourteen years with In
dians, and has been eight years an agent OF the
government-six years at the Yankton agency
and two years at this. He is himself an Episco-
pal rector in regular orders, and his wife is
a sister of the late Reverend Bishop Clarkson, of
Nebraska. Nearly all the employees of the
agency are Christian men and women. The
buildings are neat, commodious, ample in num-
Der and convenient in appointments. There is
an air of great comfort and homelikeness
about the agency that is very marked,
and made the two days we spent there not only
agreeable but full of solid enjoyment. The
influence of such a family as Major and Mrs.
Gasmann is very perceptible upon the agency
and upon the>1ndians, whose confidence and
regard they have won and kept, with the
the exception of two or three restless and dis
satisfied chiefs who long for the old life of the
chase, and refuse to be domesticated. Two new
and really elegant school buildings have just
been completed-buildings that would do credit
to any town IN the States of 2, 900 inhabitants.
Mr.. and Mrs. Wells, who have charge of the
schools, are not only devoted to their special
duty, but are devout Christians as well, and are
doing an unselfsh and self sacrificing work with
the hundred or more scholars who are enrolled
under their care. / saw many little folks Of
both sexes, who can read, write, draw and
''eypher" as we'll as children of the same age in
our own city schools. There is a very pretty,
well-equipped Episcopal church herewith
stained chancel windows, and one fine
memorial window which the mission
airy, Rev. Mr.. Burt, holds regular weekly
services in the Dacota dialect there
being from twenty-five to thirty Indian
communicates, in addition to nearly all the
attaches of the agency. 1t was our good
fortune to meet with Bishop Hare who was on
his semi-annual visitation. There is also an
other church lower down upon the reservation,
about seven miles distant, where there is a full
blood Indian deacon in charge, who lives nicely
with his wife and one child in a parsonage
surrounded with appliances of civilized life.
Probably. outside the Indian Territory. there are
no more interesting Indians, nor none so fully
under the better influences of white civilization
as these in the Crow Creek reservation, although
there are some turbulent spirits who would cry
havoc and let slip the dogs of war il they dared.
One characteristic of these Indians is their
honesty. They have an instinct for meum and
tuum. 1t was rather startling to find that locks
and keys were practically unknown, and it was
impossible to resist a slight feeling of insecurity
upon going to bed in one of the school houses
which had been prepared for our entertainment
fully three to five hundred yards distant from
any other building, with neither doors nor win
lows fastened. The police force of the agency
is entirely Indian-composed of one captain, a
lieutenant and ten men. They are full blooded;
the captain feels the dignity of his Office,
and, rugged up in the full uniform
of a cavalry captain, shoulder straps and helmet,
with that serious imperturbability characteristic
of the Indian, he was a spectacle, indeed. The
lieutenant is really the chief. He is a splendid
specimen of Indian manhood, quick in move
ment, alert to his duties, fearless in their execu-
tion-indeed, a born policeman. 1t was a pleas
ure to watch him, and | could but wish that he
were in indianapolis. If he was told to enforce
the liquor law, it would be to the full letter and
spirit, and without the vexatiouS red tape and
alb stTuse technicalities with which a metropoli-
tan board of white commissioners, with white
chiefs as lieutenants, manage to surround it.
At about 9 O'Clock in the morning, the Indians
began assembling in the school-house, which was
the council chamber. Tf.ey came singly and in
pairs. in groups and bands, until more than one
hundred were present, dressed in all manner of
costumes-some in full white mans dress, with
a stove pipe hat, some with more or less native
toggery about them, some with painted faces, and
one old fellow nakei as he was born, excepting
the breech-cloth. and with head surmounted with
a wreath of painted eagle feathers-a typical In
dian of school-boy imagination, literally be-
variegated pigments. All of them had some
Indian popularity of dress-a feather. a blanket,
q shirt worn outside the trousers, rings in nose
and ears, and with beaded moccasins. Around
the outside, peering into the windows, were a
dozen or more squaws, some with pappooses
slung upon their backs, while children of from
ten to fifteen played about the grounds in happy
abandon. All Indian women are not positively
repulsiye; now and then there is one with light
eyes and native coquetry of manner sufficient to
DE looked at twice with increasing interest. One
OF our grave and reverend senators found the
air OF the council room so close and forbidding
that he edged very close to the window, through
which was to be seen the decidedly attractive
"a - yNuhS Ouidu VIC quite OSCeDCaIlCuSIy
enjoyed her mash" When arraigned by his
fellows the honorable gentleman averred he was
studying the gambols of the little people on the
turf about the house; but the explanation was
received with the same incredulity with which
Tupman, and Snodsrass, and Wrinkle regarded
the profuse apologies of Mr.. Pickwick when
discovered in company with the fair Mrs.
Bardell. The council was opened with a short
address from Agent Gasmann, who
explained the objects of the committees
visit, and told the Indians to select those
chiefs to do the talking who could talk sense and
not fooiishness. The half dozen pipes were
smoked in silence, and passed around the souat-
ting circle, when, after a lengthy pause, one of
the Indians arose and said they did not want to
the talk until two absent chiefs-Buu
Ghost and Drifting Goose-had come in. These
soon appeared, ana then the pow wow opened
in earnest. Senator Harrison told the Indians
that the committee wished to learn of their
l.-:-o.ALA.A 4Aosn lanln- aAl 49,