Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1891-11-07
FACTS ABOUT The INDIANS
The Boss Farmer at Rosebud Gives
Them a Bad Record.
According to His Observation and Views
the Indian IL a Lazy, Worthless Nor
tai and Not Entitled to sympathy
--Other South Dakota Matters.

worst abused people in the world are
those who once owned all this country,
in other words, the noble red man,
would do well 10 have the talk with
fsoss Farmer Cation, of the Rosebud
| South Daliota) Indian reservation
that had the other day coming out
on the "Ellthorn" road Said Mr.. Ca.
ton: "Those people who think that
living with the Indians is poem either
have never seen them or else are fitted
for little else. AS far as my experience
goes they are treacherons unreliable
people. 1t is my business TO superin-
tend their farming operations and
! their distributions of rations to them.
We try and induce each family to cul'
tivate from five to six acres and fur
nish them corn, oats and potato seed
for this purpose. We also supply them
with plows and other agricultural i'm
| plements. They are generally suc
| cessful in getting their seed in, the
bucks driving the horses, which they
enjoy, while the squaws hold the plow
! but there Is where it ends. by nc
manner of means can an Indian
be induced to do any manual labor
| He likes to whacl horses around bu
when it comes to hoeing out weeds ht
is never in it. SO, if the crops, after
being once planted, can worry along
without any cultivation they manage
to have something to harvest. Other
wise, not.
"The Indian has been supposed to bt
a natural stock raiser, but such | dc
not find to be the case. They are toe
| lazy to provide any hay or shelter for
them in winter, and in fact give then
little or no attention at all. A buck
takes a notion he is hungry and thinks
nothing of killing calf. The stocli
we have allotted them has never lasted
them a very long time, say nothing OF
increase. A short time ago we gave
out 900 head of cows, which made one
for nearly every head of family.
THE truth is that the Indian is q
mere child in civilization. and it takes
unbounded patience to do anything in
this way with him. For instance, we
allow them to draw their rations as
often as they can, for they never last
until the next time.
They are remarkably generous and
free with anything that they have to
eat and invite in all their friends and
! have big feast and then go hungry,
But when it comes TO making one plow
or tool of any kind do for several
| Indians we have the most trouble.
Their jealousy is ridiculous. Rather
than let another Indian have them
| they will steal the bolts or any piece
they can get off. 1t seems to make nc
| difference that we tell them there arc
enough for all. take it that this il
due TO their old hunting habits. They
divided and shared equally their food
| but kept separate their personal
effects.
Ave issue rations every day. Those
| Indians nearest TO the agency coming
| rs often as once week and some, the
| farthest off, only once in two months.
| Among the rations are coffee, sugar,
flour, beef, beans, bacon, rice, soap,
baking powder, salt, etc. There are
some 5000 Indians on the Rosebud res.
| ervation and each one gets one and o
nalf pounds of meat every day. |,
takes about 5000 beef steers wear tc
supply them. 1t takes $4,000 pounds
of -four a week. This will give
some idea whether the Indians are be.
| ing starved TO death or not. Yet with
all these supplies they waste SO much
that there are very few who do not &c
hungry for some time before their ra.
tions are due"
Mr.. Cation has five sub-farmers under
him who have charge directly of the
five districts into which the reservation
is divided. These men are teacher:
and instructors of the Indian in the art
Of agriculture. lie says the schools
are doing great good work in civiliz
ing the Indians, probably more than
any other agency.
Mr.. Cation was all through the Indiar
war last winter, and previous to it hac
the now celebrated Plenty Horses, the
slayer of Lieutenant Casey, for his in
terpreter. Another graduate of Car
isle, Edgar White Horse, also acted n.
| his interpreter, and was wounded ir
the war, when he shot himself rather
than be captured alive. His dying ex
clamation was, although the white
man has given MS education, it was no
enough to pay for all the lands he ha.
taken from US"
The Indians from the Rosebud, il
will be remembered, broke away anC
joined the hostiles at Pine Ridge
They, too, made all the serious trouble
1t is Mr.. Caton's opinion that if DR.
Roger, the agent at Pine Ridge, haC
not called for troops although he ha'
been much blamed for it, serious re
suits would have occurred. He say,
the Indians were in just that condl
tion. Roger was a new man and al
the old employees conspired agalns
him TO make his position as hard a'
possible. They succeeded in getting
him thoroughly scared, but howeveI
hard it was on Roger it was the saliva
tion of the country.
Mr.. Cation was on his return from ;
visit to his farm near Salem, in Nc
Cook county, where he had chance
to see something of the kind of har
vest they have had there this year
Some of his stories are 'eye openers >
l.. Hillman, one of his neighbors, haC
III 100 acres of crops. The oats went
eighty bushels to the acre, barley
sixty and wheat thirty-fve. He nets
himself off of the 100 acres, after pay
ing all expenses, 81, cash. lvei
| Gapps, another neighbor, had in Ia(
! acres of wheat lie has threshec
sixty acres of it aud has 1000 bushcl.
| TO show for it. He considers the
other sixty acres quite as good
| His father, III. Cation, an old man, hat
been trying TO sell his 100 acre farm
with forty acres only under cultivation
all the season but couldn't. Since
harvest lie has realized 5000 from til.
crops off Of it aud sold the land fol
| $1,000.
Mr.. Cation says the crop in McCool
county is not one quarter threshed yet
Men are scarce at 81 day and s35 {
month. Mr.. Swanson, "a rusthng far
mer, has already paid for one threshe,
out of the profits it has earned thi,
season and bought himself second
| one. a man by the name of Tarne,
from Fillmore county. Minnesota. ha,
just come in with several thresher
and crews and others from eastern
Iowa are on the road. II is not like i
Is reported in North Dakota, for every
thing will be saved. but it takes tims
| to handle so immense is the yield
Mr.. Cation thinks farming in Soutl
Dakota this year was something like q
Foreign Riots.