Wichita eagle., 1889-10-25
WITH THE COMMISSION.
The Negotiations Conducted With the
Iowas and Sac and Foxes,

Special Correspondence to the Daily Eagle
SAC AND Fox AGENCY, l. T.. Oct. 90
The Indian commission and party ar
rived at the Iowa village. Par-ho-sha-na
late Friday evening, after long and tire
some drive over the wild stretches OF
prairie that lie between Guthrie and this
their first stopping place. The land east
erly to the Iowa line was evidently all
taken up by settlers, and the people we
met seemed pleased with their claims and
said none were untaken. Most were bust
ly engaged hauling lumber to their claims,
stripping and hauling sorghum cane and
other products and preparing for win
ter. The country was billy, with much
post oak and black jack to the Iowa line,
but from there was apparently more fer
tile, with large timber and valleys bearing
heavy grasses. The Iowa village is Il col
lection of rude bark houses. on low, fiat
prairie disgracefully squatted aud repul-
sive, such rs no government should per-
nit TO exist. The people are rheumatic
and have the ague and malarial fever each
summer and fall. And no wonder. For
in each particular instance where these
Indians had built houses they chose flats
in preference to high ground, even though
in the former marshes and fostering pools
adorned the door yards. A building for a
church and school house and small house
for the school teacher, built by Quakers,
are the only civilized houses in the local
ity.
THE IOWA INDIANS.
The Iowas number eighty-four people,
and occupy a reservation of 226, 900 acres.
Some of them have been educated in mis-
sion and government schools, and a few of
the rest have either native or acquired
desire for the decencies of life But this
handful of people are allowed to retain
their tribal relations, and all therefore,
are controlled by the voice of the majority
or more properly speaking-public
clamor. The result is that the educated
and others desiring a better life are domi-
mated and ruled by the savage and igno-
rant element. Any attempt at decency is
met by angry denunoiation, invective and
rldicule. and the public opprobrium sup
presses the attempt.
AN ERROR IN GOVERNMENT.
AS this is an instance of what occurs in
many tribes. it may be well TO suggest that
the government should adopt some meas
lire to remedy this evil; for years it has
been turning out annually from public and
private institutions hundreds of fairly ed
ucated young Indians, who are returned to
their tribes. They should be by their edu
cation ard observation the fittest of all
the Indians for leadership in their
tribes; and they could, as leaders,
be most effective in the work of Indian
civilization. When returned to their
tribes, however, the government, as a rule,
pays no more attention to them. The
leaders of the tribe, when they return, are
fa1 hnn oil
and insist that the blanket and breech
clout shall be worn, and the dances and
the feastS, many of which are but british
debaucheries. and none of them fit for in
telligent beings and their other savage
customs shall be continued.
When an Indian attempts to make crops
raise stock. have good home and live
comfortably, social war is made upon him
ut once, so that he is compelled TO leave
his native village. He then moves from
one mile to ten miles away upon some
creek, and then with his family, without
encouragement of example from others,
attempts to pursue a civilized life and
CRAFTY the hunger of his nature for life
better than the savagery from which he
had moved.
HE WAS A SOLDIER
In the Iowa tribe are men like Curwiu
Murey. who was a soldier for four years,
and has an honorable discharge While a
soldier he learned TO read, write and saw
and adopted decent ways of life. He is a
man OF absolute integrity, sensitive as In
dian Is, and refined in his feelings. After
the war he returned to his tribe and at
tempted TO farm. The dominant Iowas
made war up on him. His wife is an In
dian who cannot speak English: she could
not live away from her people. He re-
moved mile away from the village and is
now farming. He has cattle and other
stock, abundant corn and other crops and
lives Wei. He eats his breakfast at day.
Light and has no stated time for his dinner
or supper. He works ambi5iously and
with d determination TO prosper The
blanket Indians, the dominant lazzaroni,
who drove him from the village and still
reprobate his conduct, come daily TO his
home and insist on being fed. They be-
heye IN community of goods and good.
and keep him poor by dividing his with
them. There are among the Iowas ten or
s<elve men who are leading lives like
l.urwin Murey, under similar disadvan-
cages.
N POLITICAL BONDAGE.
81 political matters they do not dare to
call their souls their own, and have no in
fluence in determining the course of affairs
When the conference was held with the
commissioners, ana allotment and a better
life proposed to them, the light of hope
was perceptible in the eyes OF these men.
aud a number or women, who sat other
wise apparently eblivious Of the import of
the speeches. Some of the men even had
to make speeches opposing the allotment.
and privately sent word to the commission
that their words in council were only for
the sake of peace with their tribe. Those
who opposed the commission Were the men
who sponged their living from the indus
trious men. and wished so 20 continue
A PREMIUM on IGNORANCE.
By such course the government prac-
ticaiy puts premium on ignorance and