Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

amount Of sport possible out of this seance
OF torture, they proceed to skin, quarter and
take it home. You should see them ride
through the agency with great pieces of the
iresh beef tied to their saddles and dripping
with blood, and with their faces and hands
all smeared with blood. Such is one of the
recreatlons INDUCED in by the bucks.
The Other advertisement.
Their other is to strip to the skin, paint
up, stick war bonnets upon their heads, get
out their tomahawks, take up a position on
the agency square and hold wild and
weird dance, tell stories of battle and massa-
cre-and then go home and feast on roast
dog. As for the squaws, their one divertise-
ment is the squaw dance. They form a
circle, jump up and down till they can't
Jump any longer, and 60 home and eat
puppy soup.
L speak of these advertisements in this
connectionNbecause I discovered to nv COM
plete satisfaction that the two INDUCED in
by the bucks play a certain distinct part in
keeping alive the love for the barbarous and
the war associations. If tine Government
really means to do something to civilize and
better these Indians, and thus to lessen the
probabilities of Custer massacres and
Wounded Knee battles, why, in the name
OF the commonest of common sense. does it
disgrace, and have the beef issued in
civilized manner; and why doesn't it pass
little rule requiring the bucks to dance
clothed instead OF naked? There will be
time enough for them to dance naked after
they become civilized and attend few swell
receptions.
Teaching Them Trades
If the Government is really in earnest
yro 10 haS+a t.
ton, why don't it erect an extensive indus
trial or trade school at every agency? In
oians will work if they are shown how, if
they are shown that they can make money
by working. My close observation at Pine
Ride thoroughly convinced me that there is
no more disposition to laziness among In
dians than among white people, the chances
for employment being equal. Indians
crowded the Office of their agent every day 1
was there, their errand being literally to beg
that they be given some one of the few little
odd jobs of manual labor that the agent is
compelled to hire done.
Teach these Indians to make boots, shoes,
clothing, furniture, etc., and to run ma
chinery. They will be found as bright and
industrious set of apprentices as there is
in the land. The Government wheelwright,
harness and blacksmith shops. the sawmill,
etc., which do simply the very limited
amount of work necessary to run the agency,
all contain Indian Journevmen and ap-
prentices, whose work and habits fully cor
roborate what say. Yes, put on every In
dian reservation a big concern like q peni-
tentiary, in point of trade-learning oppor-
tunities, and you will find it packed to its
utmost capacity with Indian apprentices,
both young and old.
Scatter Among the Whites.
As soon as one learns his trade, find him
place among the whites-the Indian good
doing society, or whatever it is, could help
at this-and SO keep pushing or drawing
them away from the reservation and their
barbarous Indian life associations and scat
trring them among the whites. When the time
comes that they have completed their trade
in such trades school, let the Government
arrange perhaps to give each one his share
in cash OF the Indian reservation land, as a
starter in the world.
Such plan would not only help them to
forget barbarism, break up dangerous tribal
relationships and factions; would not only
give them q practical, everyday useful
knowledge and equipment for getting along
In the world as civilized people do-give
them something to live for-but American
citizenship will have received fresh strain
OF valuable and tireless yigor wkich-and
mark it well-will not prove half so treach-
erous. half so deyilish as much of that
which now enters the arteries of our national
life, and which has not q thousandth paft
the claim upon American sufferance and
citizenship that the Indian has.
Idleness and Ghost Dancing.
Yes, it was idleness, idleness, idleness;
the long accumulated effect of idleness. made
possible-and will saw enforced-by the
government under which they live, that
formed certain part of the cause of the
present outbreak.
As to the part played by the ghost dance
in producing this great show of hostilites,
my thorough investigation convinces me
that it was important. The ghost dance in
the midst Of Indians was productive of more
mischief than the wild, shouting camp
meeting amid whites simply because of the
doctrine promulgated by a portion Of the
participants, namely, that after a time the
Indian Messiah would come, cause the earth
to open and swallow up all the whites, and
bring back the buffalo, deer and ether game
that the Indians love so well. After getting
hold of this doctrine a few of the more
fanaticai began advocating the idea ofhelp-
ing along an early fulfillment BY seeking to
assist in the eKterminati of the whites,
and particularly the soldiers. Not, however,
until the worst element on the reservation
began preaching this idea of assisting
prophecy, was the ghost dance q particle
more dangerous among the Indians than is
the dance now permit tied on the agency.
Unfortunately the feeling among the
Indians generally. that they had been
deeply wronged by the Government, m ads
it possible for this idea to become very
popular. To my personal knowledge much
plotting was done at the ghost dance-that
it finally became veritable war dance.
The Agents Didn't Cause 1t.
As to the relation of the Indian agent to
the uprising, 1 believe it to be as nil. .
Viewed in the broadest sense am con-
yinced that the fact as to whether he was a
superior or an inferior man for the place
had no particular weight. The Indian
agent of to-day does not possess the possi-
bility of efecting peace or war-nor of steal
ing-that did the agent of yesterday. The
Indian-call him dull, ignorant, supersti-
tious and all that sort of thing, if you will
has, discovered by personal contact, very
little down right respect. disgust, or even
care whatsoever for these under servants
whom the Government sends to dole out his
-four and shoddy. The agent is constantly
on the defensive, and in just as unobtrusive
a manner as possible.
1t is true that in name he is the sole arbi-
ter of affairs, both personal and general, on
the agency. Notwithstanding this, he
soon sees that his personal safety will
be enhanced if he patronizes rather than
commands. Men who to-day become Indian |
agents without first understanding that they
tn -