Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1895-03-21
INDIAN SCHOLARS.
Graduates from Educational Insti-
tutions in the East.
Records Kept of the Careers of the St. =
dents-Some OF Them Return 20
Their Former Wild and
Wicked Ways.

With the new policy of excluding IN
iians from the United States army
!icrc is one less avenue of employment
zen to the Indians train>:d in tilr In.
Ian schools of the cast. 'InuS.. S.I,lu..i.
ave long contributed to the nur!,l?yv
0f scouts and soldiers employed in tic
;:r west, and a young Indian n;t1iacd
!&ton, graduate of Hampton !1sii-
L&;c, was the scout who 'succu.;s:t tuiiy
led the pursuit of the last Apache rCn>
gadcs. Hampton institute keeps a cor
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 n curious ingeniousness.
OF AGO former pupils reported on, the
record of 90 was set down as excellent,
$40 good, OF 91 fair, Of 35 poor and of II
bad. :
The Indians, says the Chicago Times,
after returning home, teach school, It
as missionaries or catechists, 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 "blanlket
Indian" Some return to superstition
and barbarism, and several of those re-
garded as iofrgood conduct are reported
as famous dancers at the religious rites
OF their people. Many of the former
pupils arc recorded as dying early, or
being delicate, and the untamed In
dians commonly believe that the cast
ern schools are likely to be fatal to
their people. The school authorities
insist that the agency Indians are SUBJ
ject to many diseases, and cite the re-
port of a school-teachcr among the
Sioux, who says that their habit of
Sorging themselves ON ration day and
starving for the rest of the week is
partly responsible for n vast deal of ILL
health: that the bad sanitary conditions
OF cabin rather than wigwam life helps
to account for many deaths, and that
Inherited disease and tho reckless use
of tobacco from infancy ure also causes
of high mortality among agency In
dams. 1t is perhaps significant that a
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
Portable wooden houses and some are
Ahdl ACSA SllIlSGlhn IO
fellow students. Intemperance seems
to be the besetting sin of the educated
Indian, as of his savage brother, and
the institute reports speak of this in in
dividual cases with entire frankness.
The story of a promising Apache boy
Shows curious struggle between
school training and the savage instinct.
His record was bad and after several
| outbreaks and arrests he wrote cheer
fully from prison to assure the man
n" ''' ''s '''sti'''+o that hn would be
out lii J.Ircc months and that he was
once more good boy. An inclosed
| photograph showed this wild animal
with the e'same enjoying boyish face that
had made him favoritc at the school
Not only docs the educated red mai
! occasionally revert to his former condi
tion as blanket Indian" but the in
stitute records show other curious
lapses into barbarism, with occasional
| recoverics. The report notes now ant
then that this or that former student
has taken n wife Indian fashion, ant
sometimes the legal wife is deserted fol
a woman bought for so many ponies
One highly eulogized half-blood girl o
the Gros Vcntrcs was reported two
years ago as having, some time afteI
leaving the school, married a man wh'
turned out q drunlsard, cruel in hi
cups. The excellent wife brought NJ
her children to speak English and liv'
after the manner of the whites, bu
the report innocently adds: "In an ef
fort to defend herself ON one occasion
she did it more cffcctually than she lrat
,r"lch. ;>~l has since ff""1. i"21re