St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-15

Piece by piece the Splendld DOMAIN over
which the Dacotahs held control has been
taken from them, until there ere only eleven
millions of acres left, and this is the poorest
of their territory. But as the game has been
long since destroyed, and these people dono
take kindly to farming or stock raising, pre-
ferring to live on the rations supplied by the
government they have far more land than
they have use for. There can be no doubt,
but this territory will be gradually reduced,
it is certain it will be as soon as the whites
find that it has any value.
find that though the famous Sitting Bull
has been dead over four years that his name
is reverenced by the Indians at this point.
Even those who did not like him while living,
mourn him dead, and secretly believe that the
whites paid for his assassination. He was I'M
doubleday the shrewdest chief the Sioux have
had for generations. He was personally brave,
but he understood his people and realizing
that there were others as we'll as himself, he
set about controlling them through their
superstitions. He became medicine man.
He studied the savage rites and made himself
leader in all their religious orgies. In time
he claimed supernatural powers, and as soon
as his credulous and ignorant followers came
to believe this, he had them at his mercy.
Sitting Bulls successor, Gall, is not medi-
cine man, but in downright patriotism and
ability he is vastly the superior of the man
who preceded him. While natural born
fighter, Gall has the prudence to preach peace
and the sense to realize that henceforth, war
is game at which the Sioux must be beaten,
and therefore it would be prudent for him to
forget. :,
But the power of the chiefs, as might be ex-
pected, is decaying. They were necessity
in the war days, and when the leaders, word
was all-powerful with the tribe, but they soon
lose their reverence for man who Is not only
not superior to the whites, but who is treated
with no particular Difference by the agents,
from whom he is forced to take his orders.
Another class of men whose power is going
or gone, are the "Squaw men, that is, white
men, who, by virtue of their having married
Indian wives, are adopted into the tribe.
These fellows exercised great deal Of con-
troll, but the Indians seeing that the men are
despised by the outside whites soon come to
regard them In the same way.
Farmers have been sent to this and other
agencies to teach the Indians how to cult
vate the soil. These, as rule, are good men
and thoroughly understand their business,
but the Indian is not foresighted. he does not
take kindly to work, nor is this to be won
dered at. The warriors have ever regarded
labor as degrading and fit only for women,
and to the women he is apt to leave the work.
1t Anglers white man who sees for the first
time squaw staggering under great load
OF wood or hay, while her husband strides
beside her and scolds her If she stumbles or
does not keep up. But we should not expect
these people to change the customs Of long
centuries in one short generation. It is only
by continuing the instruction of these Indians
persistently for generations, that we can bring
them to regard work as1honorable and make
them self-sustaining. Two thousand years ago
our ancestors were quite as low as the Indian
is to-day, and it needed all these centuries to
make them. what they are, as it will take many
more to make them what they should be,
The great promise of the Indian is in the
schools, and those at this agency, as at others,
are under the management of very competent
people. The Indian children are initiative
and bright, and up to certain age they do
about as well as white children of the same
years, but it is noticed that after the age Of
puberty they do not make rapid progress.
The truth is, we are too eager for immediate
results. When the Indian child leaves school,
and while it is at school, it is subject to the
influence Ct ignorant parents and imbibes
their preiudices and superstitions. 1t is only
when the parents have been educated and
become industrious that we can expect to see
fha oh oI, oil
with white children of the same age. The
condition of the Cherokees to-day leads us to
hope that in two or three generations the
Sioux will be as good farmers and be support
ing quite as good schools of their own.
1t is worth crossing the continent to see
the distribution of meat rations to the Sioux
of this agency. This meat is given them in
the shape of Texas steers on the hoof. All
the Indians have ponies, and it is safe to say
that they are the most graceful if not the best
riders in the world. Such distribution takes
place every ten days, and on such an occasion
the Indians dress in full hunting attire as
in the days when they chased buffalo, and
their eyes glow with the spirit of the sport,
The cattle are brought into a great CORA Y
and are separated, fifteen or more being cut
out in every batch. These are let loose on
the prairie. The poor creatures are will
with terror, and with tails up they make
break for life and liberty. Whooping as only
the Sioux can, they start after them. Their
Winchesters crack and here and there an ami
NAL falls till all are killed, and another batch
is subjected to the same kind of butchery.
The dead steers are quickly and skillfulIy
skinned and cut up. Every thirty Indians,
the smallest child being counted as one, are
allowed steer.
I have been surprised and panied to meet
here a number of young Indian men and
women who had spent some years at the In
dian school at Carlisle, Pa. Without excep-
ton they have relapsed into the old british
ways and exchanged the trousers for bare
legs and a blanket. But, as said, we expect
too much. If it requires at least three gen.
eraions to make white man gentleman,
we should allow at least six to lift the Indian
up to our average of to-day.
NELSON ASHLEY.
No feasible bill has yet been presented to
the body polite of New York for the preven-
ton of trolley car accidents. Why has not
some Nestor suggested the repeal of the law
of gravity? What the effect would be is OBJ
vious; people would fall above instead of
under the cars. The legislature is all-potent.
Repeal the obnoxious law.
Lord Dunraven's yacht, the Valkyrie, which
was beaten last fall in the race for the Aneri-