Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1892-05-04

A Method Invented by Indians to Pick Up
Precarious Living,

Method Invented by Indians to Pick Up
Precarious Living,
At various stations along the Cana
dian Pacific road in Assiniboia and AL
berta groups of Indians chiefly women
and children, are eound on the plat
forms. Sometimes they are rather pic
turesque for the many-colored rags
which cover them. But, as rule, they
are dirty, squalid, sickly-looking lot,
and are anything but attractive. few
men are among them. and they are all
engaged in the not very lucrative occu-
patton of selling buffalo horns to the
tourists. On the plains they pick up the
horns of the noble departed bison.
Then they set to work improving" the
horns in such way as to destroy all
their value to any intelligent person;
for what is the use of having buffalo
horns as relics of that departed animal
unless they are something like the
horns the buffaloes used to wear
First the Indians scrape the horns
with a knife until the surface is COM
paratively smooth Then they file them
for long time, until they are smoother
yet. Finally they take stone and be-
gin to polish and keep up the process
until the horns are as smooth as glass
and as black and shiny as a well-pol-
ished boot. Sometimes they make q
sort of hat-rack of several of the horns.
A pair of fine horns brings from seven
ty-five cents to one dollar and a half,
and other specimens containing several
horns are valued at two dollars to four
dol
good deal more than they will take
During the bargaining, usually not
word is said on either side. The In
dams pretend ignorance Of English.
When asked the price they hold up one
or more fingers The tourist is sure, if
the price is only two dollars, to offer
only one dollar. The squaw will
shake her head, and finally, after
the tourist has shaken solitary
finger in her face for few minutes,
he decides to do q little better So he
shakes one finger at her and then
crosses the finger with finger of the
other hand, which means that he will
give one dollar and half After
good deal of gesticulating on both Sides
a bargain is struck
At all the stations where the Indians
gather at train time there is only one
lot which can be called fairly good
specimens of their race. That is rem
nant of Sitting Bulls old band which
lives at Moose Jaw. There are sixty of
these Indians, and when Sitting Bull
returned to the land of his fathers they
declined to cross the border, and are
settled down permanently in Canada
A few other Sioux are also found at
Brandon. They are all engaged in the
buffalo horn industry. One old fellow
at Moose Jaw was a noble spe-
cimen. He had head that would
not have disgraced a philosopher or
a general, and a mien that was elo-
quent in its stateliness and dignity;
and yet this old fellow, who looked as
though he was made to preserve the
best tr additions of his race, was having
a quarrel with a tourist over a differ
ence of a quarter Of dollar In the
price of pair of horns.
Most Of the Indians along the route
are Crees. Some of the tourists the
other day were bewailing the fact that
they hadn't seen a good-looking Indian
girl on the way. ''The reason is" said
dweller in that land, because the
good-looking ones are all down ON the
reservations. There are many good.
looking girls down there, You see these
Indians who hang around the stations
are renegades. They are shiftless lot,
who would rather pick up q precarious
living selling buffalo horns than stay on
the reservations, where they can live
great deal better, and where the gov.
eminent will feed and otherwise pro.
vide for them The government does
not give cent from one years end to an
other to these renegades who leave the
reservations, but they prefer to lead a
squalid life near the whites, where,
though it is strictly against the law,
they can occasionally get drink Of
forty-rod, than to be decent Indians
and live on the reservations
WAL" said an old gentleman from
Vermont i've been travelin' around
good deal lately. I've seen nice-look-
ing Chinese women in San Francisco,
and handsome Japanese girls in Seat
tie, but / haven't seen single Indian
woman on the plains who wasn't hor-
rid old thing. If these are specimens
OF Indian women I don't wonder the
race is dyin' out. IN. Y. Sun.