The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-15
THE INDIAN As AN ARTISAN.
He Takes Kindly to Civilization.
Their Interest In Music.

From the Helena (Mont) Independent.
w. c. Kohlensberg, one of the teachers
at the Fort Shaw Indian school, is in the
city on his way home from Ogden, where
he attended the meeting of the Indian
school teachers of the United States. He
talked entertainingy of the work of the
Fort Shaw school last evening at the
Cosmopolitan.
There are POS pupils of many tribes, q"
he said,' among them being Piegans,
Blackfeet, eros Ventres, Assinniboines,
Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Yankton Sioux and
Crows from Idaho, Wyoming, Montana
and South Dakota, as you will see. There
is not very much difference between them
as l can see, except in individual instanc-
es. ! presume the Piegans would be
said to take the most readily to civliz-
ing influences, and that the Cheyennes
might be called the intellectual superiors
of some of the others, but all are WON
derfully quick, it seems to me, when we
consider that it is only a generation since
they were begun to be educated, and that
most Of their parents before them have
not had the advantages of early educa-
ton according to our ideas. Out of the
many who have left Fort Shaw as grad
yates, only a few-an exceedingly small
number it would be in proportion-have
gone back to their old modes of living
on their reservations"
There are six teachers in the school,
but they are only a small part of the
force that is constantly at work attending
to the details of the pupils education
There are twenty-five employees in the
school, and most of them have something
to do with the educational system for
manual training is intended to be one Of
the strong points of the course, and among
the trades taught are carpenter work,
gardening and farming for the boys, and
for the girls such useful occupations as
laundry work. cooking, housekeeping and
sewing. There is one thing about the
class we have-the boys are Industrious
and the girls are neat and careful. The
ages of our pupils range from to 20
years, but the larger proportion of them
are above 10.
THE system of teaching the Indians to
rely upon themselves is adopted in teach
ing the trades In farming, for instance,
instead of sending sixty boys into a COM
mon field and making them work. they are
given an acre or an acre and quarter
apiece, and the seed to sow it with, and
then they are held responsible for its care
and keeping. They raise vegetables and
fruits and melons, among other things,
and vie with each other in doing success
full work We cut 400 or 800 tons Of hay in
a season, and occasionally have some to
spare.
"The course of study includes about
what would be taken in through the eighth
grade of a city school. Stress is laid upon
the practical side but the finer nature is
not wholly neglected. one OF the Piegan
boys has written a production on Col.
Shaw, for whom the fort was named, that
has been published in a leading magazine,
and there is a music teacher at the school,
who finds that the Indians take more kind
ly to the music lessons than the average
lot of children of a public school ROOM"
There were forty teachers at the insi-
tute meeting at Ogden. Among them were
three Indians. one OF whom. Chauncey Y.
Robe was from the Fort Shaw school. An
other was the discipllnarian az Carson,
New, and the third a teacher at Fort Hall,
Idaho. There were teachers from all over
the west, and one from the Carlisle lnsti-
tute school, in Pennsylvania. Mr. and
Mrs Kohlenberg viii return home to-day.