The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1886-08-31

aDlc men, OF Wnom INC lal'oUS ElSn-
op Whipple is one aie daily expect
ed to put il an ~. e"r'nte. 1t IS
thought they will inter- edc in hay
ing a large part Of this and the res
ervation at Ft. i;clknap thrown open
to settlement; that they will obtain
the PERMISSION of the Indians to
have il sold and, as heretofore. have
the proceeds placed TO their credit
in Washington: also that the.y will
make some arrangements with refer
erencc to building the railroad
through this reservation. The white
people of this section were chagrin-
cd at the Presidents veto of the bill
with reference to putting a railroad
through this reservation. Yet we
suppose the President was not mere
ly consulting the interests of the
few. A railroad up the Missouri
River would certainly be a great
benefit, not~only to the people Of this
section of the country, but to thou
sands farther west. AS there is but
such 4 short period of time that
boats can navigate the river it ne
cessitatcs 4 very large amount of
freighting ovcrland.thereby in some
cases. almost doubling the usual
freight charges, which. is simply
enormous. For instance, salt costs
delivered in Indian commissary &c
and eornmeal 4c per pound, making
the meal 81 l6 per cwt- more than
-four. If Grover had had to live
here or even been compelled to come
overland from GlendivE, he never
would have vetoed the railroad bill.
The school here is in a flourishing
condition. The school now is in the
midst of its vacation. The pro-
gramme was to allow the one half
of the children to go home and re-
main from two to four weeks and
have thom return, and then let the
rest go. Many of them have no
home except the school, and others
would remain away but very short
time. Nothing to eat in the camp"
they say; besides, they have a nice
clean bed on which to sleep at the
school, plenty Of well cooked food
clean clothes to wear, but very little
work and no school.
We understand that the Agent
proposes to fill the school to $50 pu-
pills. As the school is the only hope
for the Indian race, it is necessary
thct as many as possible should be
kept in it all times. Several of the
boys have, upon order of the Agent,
have left school to try what the
world can do for them. Some again
have, during their vacation, been
working in the hay-felds, etc, ma
king quite i nice little sum. They
are allowed SOC per day and board,
and the farmer says they excel any
of the Indians he has. The major
ity of the boys ere very good work
crs, and were they taken from the
school and placed among the white
people in the States, we certainly
think they would make good citi-
zcns. If the Department WIS rs lib
eral with teachers and pay for the
same IS they are with a great many
things of less importance, they might
hope for better results. No teacher
of ability will, if he understands
what will be required of him, for !
sake home, society. friends and eve |,
rything else. and locate among these
savages for $500 year, where cheap
boarding is So per week. The wide !
awake young man can almost double
it in hundreds of different places in |
the west. The consequences most
likely to follow are that he will stay
barely long enough to make expen-
scs and return to his nativity,all the
wiser if not wealthier. and time,
too, when he, in consequence of his
knowledge of Indianchildren, is just
beginning to make his mark ms a
teacher. If any of your readers i'm
agine that to be a successful Indian
teacher requires nothing more than
a mere knowledge of the sciences, we
would advise all such to.never ac-
ccpt a position in an lnGiln Indus
trial School. The system of text
books is also another important fac
tor which has long been neglected,
and that, too, to the detriment of
quite number of Indian schools.
In text books there is no system
whatever in the whole Indian educa-
tional plan, hence there are as many
different systems us schools and
agents. This school contains quite
a number of pupils that can read
newspaper reading very rapidly, that
are compelled to be kept year after
year reading away in the same third
reader, and then some one discovers
that there is no interest in the school.
Shame ON all such school systems.
Walking Skeleton.