The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-08-18
AMONG THE CHEYENNEs.
A wandering Artist Suggests Some Ways
for Making the Indians Useful.

Frederick Remington, in August Century.
II know that corn cannot be raised on
this reservation with sufficient regularity
to warrant the attempt. The rainfall is
not enough; and where white men despair.
i, for one, do not expect wild Indians to
continue. They have tried il and lave
failed, and are now very, properly discour-
aged. Stock-raising is the natural indus
try of the country, and that Is the proper
pursuit of these people. They are only now
recovering by natural increase from the re-
verses WHICH they suffered in their last tout
break. 1t is hard for them TO start cattle
herds. as their ration is ~insufici ent. aud
one scarcely can expects hungry man TO
herd cattle when be needs the beef TO ap-
pease his hunger, Nevertheless. some men
have respectable herds ana can afford to
kill an animal occasionally without taking
they the ''s display s1''ls Sonde en- TINS foE RSsss1sH'ss
and were they properly ratiSn nsd
cattle, there is not a doubt but in time they
would become ~self-supporting. The pres
ent scheme of taking a few boys and girls
away from the camps to put them IN ecSo0l
where they are taught English, s~snorals.
and trades has nothing reprehensible about
1T. except that it is absolutely of no conse-
quenee 80 far as solving the Indian problem
is concerned. The few boys return to the
camps with their. English, their school
trade. also, but have no opportunity to be
employed in it. They loaf about the forts
for q time, with nothing to do. and the
white men talk pigeon English to them,
u the wild Indians sheer at them. Their
virtues are unappreciated, and, rs a natural
consequence. the thousands of years of bar
barism which is bred in their natures over
comes the three little seasons of school
training. They 60 to the camps, go back to
the blanket. let their hair grow, and forget
their English. In q year one ann tell a
schOol-boy from any other little savage.
and in the whole proceeding l see nothing
THE camp will not rise to the school
boy, and so Mahomet goes to the mountain.
If it comes to pass that the white race de-
sires to aid these Indians to become a part
crushing them out of it, there is only one
way to do il. The so-called Indian prob
lem is no problem at all in reality. only
that it has been made one by a long success
imbecility and were fostered by political
avarice. The sentiment of this Nation is
in favor of no longer regarding the aborig-
ines OF this country as Q conquered race;
and except that the great body of our citi-
these wards OF the government. the people
who have the administration Of their des-
TIMES would be called to account. No one
not directly interested ever questioned that
been attached to the War Depart
ment; but that is too patent a
fact to discuss. Now the Indian affairs
are in so hopeless a state of dry-rot that
practical men, in political or in military
formers. The views which j haye on the
subject are not original. but are very old
and very well understood by all men who
| live in the Indian countries. They are
currentam0ng army officers who have spent
their whole lives on the Indian frontier of
the far West. but are not often spoken. be-
cause all men realize the impotency of any
| attempt to overcome the active work OF
4 cprfqin uOlIffnaI rlrplQc haakad nv nnhllN
apathy and a lot Of Theoretical Indian regen-
orators. If anything is done to relieve the
condition of the Indian tribes it must be a
scheme which begins at the bottom and
would say, in its scope. If these measures
of relief are at all tardy. before we realize
it the wild Indian tribes will be. as some
writer has said, 'loafers and out
s siseSen s%0s ssraps in WE westerns ers uIfIs a lS'
They have all raised stock successfully
when not interfered with or not forced by
insufficient rati0ns to eat up their stock
cattle to appease their hunger. and / have
never heard that Indians were not made of
soldier stuff: A great many. Western garri-
sons have their corps OF Indian scouts. In
every case they prove efficient. They are
naturally the finest irregular cavalry on
the face of this globe. and with an organi-
zation similar to the Russian Cossacks they
/ would do the United States great good and
become themselves gradually civilized. An
irregular cavalry is every year a more and
more important branch of the service. Any
good cavalry officer, / believe. could take a
command of Indians and ride around the
world without having a piece of bacon or a
cartridge. or a horse issued by his govern
ment. SO far as effective police work IN
the West is concerned. the corps of Indian
scouts do nearly. all of that service now.
They all like to be enlisted into the serv-
ice, universally obey orders, and are never
disloyal."