Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1899-12-29


with a primitive wildness. Civilization
makes man want to dress well and
take fastidious care Of his person and
leads him to taste for well trimmed
head, as it does a clean shaver cheek.
1t is matter Of fashion entirely, else
women also would discard their pretty
tresses. The lieutenant simply took snap
judgment on his Apache braves, with the
delightful conclusion that short haired
men become civilized rather than that
civilized men become short haired. He
ordered general barbering, and. when
came off with it.
Many an owner of the locks was shorn
while he wriggled on the ground under
as many of the Indian police as could
sit upon him-shorn as sheep are shorn,
struggling and gurgling the whole while
in futile protest. One dissenting buck
was chased all over the territory before
he was finally caught, thrown down, sat
upon by the entire posse and dehaired
with large, choppy pair Of shears. 81. r
Lieutenant Stottler was given charge
of these Indians in December, 1894. Va
rious methods for keeping them in order
had been tried in vain. They were the
LcIIOIS u cuc anu idppaF-
emily >incorrigible. They wouldn't work,
they wouldn't be educated, they wouldn't
obey the law, they wouldn't do anything
that they thought by any chance the
government would like them to do. The
one conspicuous thing which they did do,
and which, above all, the government
wished they wouldn't do, was to drink
copiously and painstakingly of liquor
I.r
selves TO- create the unholiest, beastliest,
vilest jag that ever cheered an inebriated
soul. The lieutenant found the whole
tribe drank when he arrived on. the
scene. He fguratively kicked some 20
or 30 of them sober and made policemen
Of them. Then he told them to kick the
others into the same novel condition.
They We're living in tepees then, wearing
only breechclouts and blankets and sub
sisting on food sent them by the govern
ment. For years the government had
been feeding them and permitting them
to lie around in drunken idleness year in
and year out. They stole for pastime
and murdered for pleasure. Even among
themselves, they sought recreation in
Fighting, and dozen brawls daily we're
INDUCED in way Of regular exercise, in
lieu u pIO"luS VI Saving WOOQ.
) The 20 bucks which Lieutenant Stot.
tier projected into sobriety with the toe
Of his boot had been educated at the ex-
pense Of the government and were pre-
sumed to know better than to run about
like mowglis of the jungle, without re-
striction and without responsibility. He
began on them and soon had them in
American clothes, thoroughly cleaned
barbered to finish and installed into
regular duties He jolted into their
stolid pates straight from the shoulder
proposition. that If they did not work
they should not eat. When an Indian
attempted to test this law by laying of
for a day and waiting for food to come
u to- him, the food failed to come. The ex
pprimenter got hungry and went to the
food-and the way Of his going lay
through weary toll. made doubly arduous
as punishment for his previous idleness. !
Along with idleness and. drunkenness
the Mestaicros had cultivated the kin
dred fault Of imposing on their women
kind, and, besides having to perform the