The Press., 1888-05-31

one hundred children, and then the Che. yennes put their children i'll school for the tirst time. The plan had been adopted of investing the money d. rived from the tale of the coru crop in cattle, which We're dl- vided among the boys. Each boys cattle were branded, aud he took care of them. The agent persuaded tue chIidren ta Inves a portion of the sums they received Tor work about the school iu COWS. Soon the girls that worked ill the laundry, sewing room aud kitchen, for example, owned Il COW apiece. The children took so much int crest i'll their title that the agent bt- lieved the herd and farm could III tune support the school. The boys sold hay aud addt d the money to the contingent fund. The agent went on rairing corn and pay ing Indians for work, and induced us many as possible to invest their earnings i'll cattle. $ ,me benevolent people gave money to help the herd, which finally reached 400 head, 250 of them belonging to the children individually, and l50 to the school as an endowment fund. Mean. time the school was making such progress that auother building was put mp for fifty young children, m which most of the work
 and all the teaching in the school room
 were done by older children from the oth.
 CT school.
 But now came the paralyzing touch of
 rhe governments paternal hand. In all evil honr an ludlan inspector made @ vislt
 there, and was so pleased with what was
 being done that he recommended that the
 government should make gift of 400 heif
 CTS to the held. This was done. No gift in fable ever undid the receiver more com
 pletely than this one. Up to this time the
 cattle had beeen as much the individual , property of the Indians as their ponies, but when the government gave the 400
 head the agent had to put them on his f books and became responsible for them.
 The boys had to take care of double the
 number and soon lost interest in the herd. s They knew their own cattle, had seen them
 grow, could point them out with pride. , E 1t now there were many more belonging Y to the government than to the children.
 Mr. Seger admits that he lost interest, too,
 and whi'e man had tD be hired at $75 Il e month to take charge of the herd. This ' was so large now that more horses were P required. These had to be taken mp ul
 the agents acc 'unts. The end of It al , was that the inspector, on n subsequent s visit, recommended that the held should f be divided among the school children, ant
 that the parents should take the cattle tt : emp. Many of them were eaten up th' V following winter, many Were sold at luv e price, and others perish, d for want of care q. only few being kept The majority 0
 the children never knew what became O
 their cattle. Mir. Seger says that if tn
 government had not iu' eriered the school
 would now cost $l0, ,000 year less than n
 prt sent, and the presence of the hert B. would have helped to fix the children a F, they grew mp in homes round abou'.
 e Tins Is il simple, and may seem an iu |. significant, incident, but it is certainly nc d without its moral. All the lessons of eA 9 perieuce go to show that we shall never h U rid of the Indian problem until we put tlI e Indian on the footing of man-glve hir " his rights and at the same time hold him [ l. his responsibilities, protect him agaius
 fraud and outrage, while requiring that h e shall not trespass upon others; and abar n doning the policy of alternately coddln ,s and starving him at will