Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-09-03

toned but he has little means at hand.
/ find the Indians ready to accept re.
ligious instruction. They are Datur-
ally religious aud given To veneration.
Father Prando, who labored among
the Crows and Cheyennes, was loved
by them as father.
Concerning the future of the race he
said:
The Indian can he civilized, and
civilization will settle the Indian
question. OF coarse, Christianity,
preceding civilization, will make the
work easier. You can depend upon
the Indians when they have good treat
ment. They are only ugly when push.
ed and goaded by wrong. The Indian
agents method Of making good in
dians is very different from ours. In
dian character all over the territories
is much the same. The reason that
the Indians of the northwest, those
with whom / have been, are better
than those of Arizona, New
Mexico, and other places i'm the south,
is because they have had better treat
ment. The Indians east of the Rock
les, especially those have indicated,
have had no fair words, no honest
treatment, nothing but pursui. and
outrage. Many OF the Indian tribes
among whom Ibave been have high
standard of morals. Among the C9ur
d. Alenes drunkenness Is severely
punished. If man steals a woman
he is put In prison for month, with
other penalties added. The Crow In
dians are naturally unchaste, but
their habits In this particular are inn
proving. The Cheyennes, on the
other hand, are chaste people.
Father Prando, whois spoken of by
Father Grasse as possessing the conf
dence and affection of the Crows and
Cheyennes, is now in the city attend
ant on the Jubilee exercises. Being
interviewed yesterday on the condi-
ton of :he Cheyennes, he fully con-
firms the report that they are even
now in destitute condition and that
unless immediate and ample measures
are taken for their relief there will be
trouble with them. Through the in
judicious and false reports whose in
terest it has been to represent them as
nearly self-supporting from their till
age of the soil, their rations have been
reduced ana reduced again and again,
until the issue now made is totally in
adequate to the support of the In.
dians-while to make matters worse,
theirs are a lot of vagrant Indians,
probably one hundred or more, from
the Missouri river agencies, hanging
around the Cheyenne camp and of
course sharing the meagre pittance of
grub that Is doled out to the Chey-
ennes. Father Prando is frank In his
assertion that owing to this state Of
affairs the cattle men must suffer.
His influence with the Indians is not
superior to the pangs Of hunger, and
he cannot make them believe they
should lie down and die from starv-
alton when beef can be had for the
killing. Nor Is this the worst phase
of the situation. The Cheyennes
are a notably wsrlike tribe and
naturally prone to avenge their real or
fancied wrongs by going on the war.
path. Holding the whites acoounta-
BILE for their starving conditions 1t
would not be surprising If they enact
ed some bloody reprisals on the settlers
In that neighborhood for their suffer.
ings. A hungry Indian is an ugly
customer, and the spectacle of hun
dreds of white neighbors living in the
lap of luxury, according to his gross
ideas, is not calculated to improve his
temper. The present criticalaspect of
the case Is presented to those friends(?)
of the Cheyennes both at Fort Keogh
and the agency, who have persistent
ly claimed for them, anytime these last
four years, that they were on the high
road to civilization and almost self.
supporting. To them, and them alone,
is chargeable the present suffering
aid destitution of their proteges, the
losses that stock men must suffer, and
the feeling Of insecurity, II nothing
worse, that exists among the settlers
near the heagency. Governed by vanity
or self-interest they have SO magnified
the .neagre, isolated and totally un-
productive agricultural experiments
Of the Cheyenne Indians that the
tribe stands to-day In the estimation
of the Indian department as thrifty
and self-supporting, needing only
such supplies as impossible of prodnc-
ton in this country. Will the men
who have brought this about acknowl-
edge their handiwork?