The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-02-13
INDIANS AT SCHOOL
Graduates from Educational Insti.
.tutions in the East.
records Kept OF the Careers of tho stu.
dents-SOne OF Them Return 20
Their Former Wild and
Wicked Ways.

dians from the United States army
there is one less avenue of employment
open to the Indians trained in the In
dian schools of the east. These schools
have long contributed to the number
of scouts and soldiers employed in the
far west, and a young Indian named
Eaton, a graduate of Hampton insti-
tute, was the scout who successfully
led the pursuit of the last Apache rome
gades. Hampton institute keep. con-
tinuous record of the Indians who have
lived at the school, and the story of the
graduates is told in the reports of the
institute with curious ingsniousness.
OF 400 former pupils reported On. the
record of 9S was set down as excellent,
219 good. of 81 fair, OF IS poor and OF IL
bad.
The Indians, says the Chicago Times,
after returning home, teach school. act
as missionaries or catcchists, practice
various trades or professions or loaf
about the agencies, leading the idle life
of their people. OF some the report is
now "busy and useful" now blanket
Indian" Some return to superstition
and barbarisnn, and several of those re-
garded as of good conduct are reported
as famous dancers at the religious rites
of their people. Many of the former
pupils are recorded as dying early. or
being delicate, and the untamed In
dams commonly believe that the east
ern schools are likely to be fatal to
their people. The school authorities
insist that the agency Indians are sub
ject to many diseases, and cite the re-
port Of a school-teacher among the
Sioux, who says that their habit OF
gorging themselves on ration day and
starving for the rest eff the week is
partly responsible for q vast deal of i'll
health: that the bad sanitary conditions
of cabin rather than wigwam life helps
to account for many deaths, and that
inherited disease and the reckless use
Of tobacco from infancy are also causes
Of high mortality aInong agency In
dams. 1t is perhaps significant that
considerable percentage of the Indians
reported as excellent were included in
those who died young.
Many Of the Indian students are re-
ported as having lands, cattle and COM
forta BILE wooden houses and some are
married Christian fashion 70 former
fellow students ntemperance seems
to BIO the besetting sin of the educated
Indian, rs of his savage brother, and
the institute reports speak of this in in
dividual cases with entire frankness.
The story Of promising Apache boy
Q a I'll 1Nnfx
school training and thesavage instinct.
His record was bad and after several
outbreaks and arrests he wrote cheers,
fully from prison to assure the man
ayers of the institute that he would bs
out in three months and that he was
once more a good boy. An inclosed
photograph showed this wild animal
with the same enjoying boyish face that
had made him favorite at the school.
Not only does the educated red man
occasionally revert to his former condi-
ton as blanket Indian" but the in
stitute records show other curious
lapses into barbarism, with occasional
recoveries. The report notes now and
then that this or that former student
has taken wife Indian fashion, and
sometimes the legal wife is deserted for
q woman bought for 30 many ponies.
One highly eulogized half-blood girl of
the GFos Ventres was reported two
years ago as having, some time after
leaving the school, married man who
turned out a drunkard, cruel in his
cups. The excellent wife brought up
her children to speak English and live
inter the manner Of the whites, but
the report innocently adds: "In an eff
fort to defend herself on one occasion
she did it more effectually than she had
intended, and has since -four years
been q widow"