Wichita eagle., 1888-01-12
THE NATIVE AMERICAN.
THE CROW RESERVATION AND THE
INHABITANTS THEREOF.

INHABITANTS THEREOF.
Civilization OF the Noble Red Man of
the west-"Blanket" Indians-Pony
and Dog-Pluckine Out the Beard.
Children and Song.
Nothing so molds savage into civilized
state as the necessity of making living in
civilized ways. There are no other ways for
him now. The buffalo are gone from the
plains the elk from the mountains. There is
no wild grass for his pony save the grass
upon the reservation. Before the advance of
railroads and civilization he has yielded year
by year, till there is now no more for aim TO
yield to civilization but himself He yields
stubbornly; he does not like the white mans
ways. Among $500 Absaracas who have
fought and associated with the whites for a
generation not 100 speak English, and when
they are taught it in the schools they disdain
to speak il once they are in the camp again.
The blanket is inse2arable from the idea of
the wild Indian. Il is the emblem Of saw
agery. Induce him to lay aside the blanket
and replace it with coat and pantaloons and
be is civilized. This is so true that they are
classed as civilized Indians and blanket
Indians. The blanket is wrapped about the
body brought up over the head and all the
face enveloped except the eyes. If he is in
duced to work, be holds the folds OF the
blanket in the left hand and uses the az or
hoe with the right With the squaw the
blanket serves double purpose; it is dress
for herself and cradle for the papoose. A
dexterous folding of it forms pouch upon
4 81,
ing beside its mothers head as she trots along.
"The earth is our mother; to pillow the
ground is to scratch her skin, to dig bitches
is to wound her bosom, to open mines is to
crack her bones, and she will receive no
indians when they die if they so abuse her."
This is the explanation the Indian gives Of
his Discrimination to work. That is the poetry
of it; the fact is that the Indian, like his
white brother, is lazy and only works when he
cannot help it. But the Indian is learning
to labor His native food, the wild
game of the forest and plain, is gone;
the government issue Of beef and ba-
con is scanty, and, like the improv-
ident negro. he often eats the rations
for the week in two or three days. The slim
ulus of hunger has driven him to work.
Every family of the Absaracas or Crows,
among whom the writer sojourns, during the
past year has lived at its own home and cul-
waited its own crop. The lands are now being
allotted, but the system Of separation and
family ownership is already in operation under
the efficient management of the agent. d dis
tiuguished MissiSsippian Each family pos
sesses cabin, roothouse for winter pro-
visions, corral for horses, and wire
inclosure for cultivation, and in this they
have raised corn, potatoes, grain, melons and
vegetables, the government furnishing all
seed and tools.
1t was unkind to call them Crows. There
is little enough poetry Ill the real Indian,
how noble soever his red brother of romance
may be, and surely it is unkind to take from
him that little he has. The Absaraca, their
own name for themselves, is quite different
from the i'll famed bird we call crow. 1t is
a small blue hawk, of graceful poise and swift
flight, common upon the prairie
The Crow reservation is perhaps the largest
and most valuable possessed by any tribe.
Lying 200 miles along the Northern Pacific
railroad i'll Montana, and extending south
ward to the Wyoming line, it is traversed by
many clear mountain streams with fertile
bottoms and bordered on the south and west
by mountains rich in minerals The Grows
have ever been friends OF the whites, abetting
them in their long wars with the Sioux, the
Nez Perces ard other northwestern tribes.
They are rich in land, ponies and cattle
The pony and dog are part of the Indian
family. The pony is the property of the
buck; he never walks. The dog is the seoul
tur of the squaw I have seen as many as
eleven at the heels of one Indian woman.
They are mongrels Of every breed, domestic
and wild, are poor and worthless but ear at
the same table and sleep in the same bed with
their erect kinsmen. Both men and women
are expert riders. have seen children 3 and
4 years old furiously racing the half broken
ponies.
Though there are many aged people in the
Absaraca tribe, have never seen one whose
hair was perfectly white. 1t is often streaked
with gray and sometimes quite grizzly in the
very old. When it becomes gray it is often
a fancy with them to paint it red. The hair
grows long upon the heads of the men as
well as the women, and is never cut save as
an evidence of mourning They wear no
beard, piuckng out each hair as it comes
upon the face. They carry suspended from
Che neck by a string pair of broad tweezers
Of their own construction for this purpose,
and the young buck in arranging his toilet
examines MS chin carefully III the mirror TO
he sure no offending capila is there. Prob
ably from generations OF such rough usage
he beard grows sparsely when undlsturbed
There is an inbecile in the tribe who has
la cked either vanity or brains to pluck his.
and after a growth of forty years it is but a
sparse stuhbe Of stiff black hair.
But here is a marvel to me and troubles |
our theory of heredity. The children of this
tribe, among whose ancestors no song was
ever sung, easily taught to sing. The little !
girls III the agency or mission schools sing the |
Gospel hymns as sweetly and correctly as the |
Sunday school children OF the south As their !
clear. sweet voices ring out on the twilight |
air in the familiar melodies Of ''Sweet By |
and By" or "What Must 1t be There." the |
writer easily imagines himself 1900 miles |
away, listening to children among whom are |
blue eyed and golden haired fairies, instead |
Of these little Absaraca maidens, with coal |
black eyes and hair of jet.-Crow Agency |
lMon.) Cor. New Orleans Times -Democrat
cUup~,n q ruoEc Restaurant.
One day some years ago l tried TO tip q ,
waiter. l failed He declined TO accent the {