Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1895-05-04
LIKE OTHER WOMEN.
INDIAN MOTHERS THE SAME AS
THEIR WHITE SISTERS.
They Dearly Love to sew-Miss HOW
ard Bears Testimony to Their
Growing Thrift md the HONOR Oh
the Agents.
Nev York Herald.)

the Agents.
New York Herald)
The love OF labor which calls women
from the East 10 the far West to es-
tsblish Indian missions. and bring up
the notwithstanding papoose In the
way In which 1t should go. Is no light
one. II is, indeed. life of great self
sacrifice. which many delicately-bred
girls are living on the western frontiers.
while they teach their brown-sMnned
sisters the "art Of being mother.
one of these workers Miss Grace How
ard. daughter Of Joseph Howard, Jr.,
has left Grace Mission, Crow Creek.
South Dakota, as she does each year,
and is spending her period of rest ana
regeneration in this city with her rela-
tives.
The picture Miss Howard draws OF
her northwestern home Is remarkably
clear and interesting. There Is no mis-
taking the mission. with its small side
partner, the school-house. set along with
the church, six miles west of the Mis-
souri, river, seventeen miles south or
Chamberlain, and twelve miles north OF
Crow Creek Agency. The surrounding
prairie may be arid, the dust may be
choking, the sunlight may be dazzling.
the winters cold may be intense. and
the summers heat may be parching, but
around Grace Mission IL Is easy TO De-
lieve there Is the contentment which
thrift and education are bringing to the
Sioux host.
HER FORTY CHILDREN"
Miss Howard makes no concealment OF
her love for her forty "children,' and
she has been especially happy In her
work since the government made educa-
ton compulsory at years or age Tor
every child having as much as one-six-
teenth Indian blood.
1T was very different went first went
West" Miss Howard said. Then they
came to us at any age. and when that
law was passed they arrived at IA and
even l6 years old to learn their a b c's.
Yet the experience was n lesson to me.
IL is no trivial matter TO an Indian lad
who has been all his life on horseback.
and who has had no restriction OF civiliza-
ton placed upon him to come TO our
school and adapt himself to our rules.
Even the most temperate Indians are
dying OF like rabbits. Five OF our young
men have killed themselves because they
knew they were dying OF consumption
the chest disease as they call it-and
would not allow themselves TO undergo
what they had seen their friends suffer
Consumption is the Indians most cruel
enemy. In this generation 1t is evidently
impossible TO avoid II. and there Is no
doubt civilization is the cause.
Consider the change In living from
the snug, wel-ventilated tents or his
fathers To the horrible. stove-heated, air
tight houses of the present; consider
the change OF clothing. OF food. OF man
ner OF life, and what can be expected!
The next generation will probably be all
right, especially the children OF such In
dams as are being thoughtfully trained.
but now IL is a race OF the survival OF
the fittest.
Government agents OF the old grab
hing sort are responsible for much. You
should see the miserable canvas once
given the Indian for his tipi, the shoddy
blankets, and half-cotton clothes given
him to wear, and. worst OF all, the as
eased cattle, their swollen necks mass
of tubercles and infections, given him for
food, and you would not wonder.
HARM DONE LONG AGO.
II believe IN the noneSty VI
on the part OF the Department OF the IN
terror and believe that honesty went
hack into the last administration, but the
haryr VAS done long ago. Occasionally
there are dishonest agents, who featner
their nests. but they are few, none any
where near us at least, and would De
nromptly reported and surely discharged
| IL they were. - 49,
IL have every reason to know THIS 10;
myself. started seven years age
with the house about half its present
size with the idea Of having nome anu
some Industrial work Tor the Hampton
students, as II was In ana LOT 'heni
first became interested In the inumhs
The second year | contracted WIN the
government TO care for six children
fhs third wear added a school-room and
ten children, and 50 year by year the
work has grown to its present size, my
| only recompense from the government
being the amount paid for the care oil
thirty children, the others and the I'M
provements being my own anairs.
"Now and then | have a Hampton CIR
sew for me, or a Hampton boy helping IN
the outdoor work; but. as RUE they
have enough to do at home. Neat plea
SAINT homes the girls keep. too, Tor theii
fathers or husbands and the young mel
are usually at work on their own places
or for the agents. Not models by any
! means. but generally doing as well
sometimes better than would be expected
with now and then case to be proud
of, I assure you. it Is no uncommon
thing to see farms and wheat-1elds oil
thirty TO sixty acres belonging TO tbs
very Indians who. but for the agents and
missions, would be wearing blanket
hunting for food, and living In tent,
| crowded in with scores Of other tents
In an uncultivated settlement.
ARE LIKE OTHER WOMEN.
"Of our women and girls there can be
nothing truer said than that they are
like other women and girls. good
Indian mother protects her daughter with
an exquisite care a bad one sends her
out alone on the prairie roads An In;
dian man will marry a woman VINO mas
had three or four husbands, and will not
be particular as to the ceremony wnicn
bound her TO them, or as TO their uit'-
mate fate. but he does require that sne
shall have been regarded as the wife
OF each In turn and that she shall never
have received clandestine attentions.
civilization has robbed Indian women
Of the splendid health and physical endu-
rance Of which We have heard so mucn,
bu, II Is making more judicious mothers
Of them. An Indian father. especially
one not civilized. will refuse his child
nothing. and the mother Is not much
different.
TN that Hes the strongest factor OF
Indian Improvement. Men who never
have worked. who could never be coaxed
or coerced Into working. have learned to
| do 50 In order to give their children the
!. same as others are having. The girls 20
home with the ideas we have given them.
accustomed - they are 70 certain clean.