The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-08-27

ind, after hundreds OF years fnd more
Of our governments control OF the In
dams, that good many, except on cere.
monial occasions, wear coats instead OF
blankets, trousers instead OF fringed leg.
gins, and felt hats instead of feathered
head-dress. This has cone about partly
through compulslon. the game having
been killed on which used to furnish the
Indians with clothing as well to food.
| and through all sorts OF rewards and
| punishments used by white agents and
teachers 20 induce the Indian to make
himself commonplace instead Of pictur-
esque. But underneath the whites mans
clothing we find in the pure-blood Indian.
50 times In 100. an Indiap still.
Mr.. Dawes reminds Us that We have a.
600 Indian children in school. That Is an
argument from the record rather than
from the fact. What We should be more
interested to know is the degree Of educa-
ton acquired by the average Indian child.
No one will assert that the schools have
not done good. the trouble is that the ordi-
nary magazine reader in the east pictures
these schools in his mind as something
Il e the schools IN our white communities,
and with somewhat the same force of
local public sentiment behind them. The
reverse is the case. In almost all Indian
reservations and Indian settlements 1t is
hard task to induce the parents to let
their children go TO school at all. or to in
duce the children TO stay there long
enough to learn anything. Inducements
in the way of food and other presents
which would astOnish a friend of educa-
ton in the east have to be used to keep
the schools populated az ALL Teachers are
changed and shifted so constantly that
even the personal relation which goes so
far in white education as a rule hardly has
any play as between the white teacher
and the Indian pupil. That Is what has
made sont of the Indian schools in the
east appear to have accomplished so much
more than their western contemporaries.
And yet, wherein does that difference con-
sist?
I'm the western schools, besides their A
B-Cs, the children learn that white peo-
pie Of the better class try to keep their
clothes nended and their bodies clean. SIT
at table for meals and sleep on beds
raised, off the ground. This is of value
to an Indian child il 1t afterward goes to
live in a white family, but for practical
purposes in it's own home, it amounts to
very little. In the eastern schools, partic-
ularly those which practice the outing sys-
tenn, the children see something of the
interior of white homes while they are
still gettin gtreir education. But the agri-
culture which a boy learns in Massachu-
re yiNron to se 81,
to him when he goes back TO Wyoming
or Arizona than so much Greek. The girls
are taught to cook with ranges and stoves.
to wash and iron and starch linen, and
this would be of great value il they were
to settle in any white community where
cook stoves and starched linen are the
rule. But how many young Indians has
Mr.. Dawes ever seen following the COM
mon industries, after the methods taught
them by their white instructors at schools?
How many Indian girls does he sc work
ing in city laundries, east or west, or
going out to household service? How
many cook stoves has he ever seen In In
dian homes-always. of course, excepting
the towns of the Indian Territory, which
are largely peopled by half-breeds and
whites? How many Indians has he found
their living at shoemakinK or
on their own account II
We are looking at results. and not at the
mere figures Of the official report sent in |
from agencies and schools, how far has |
the edeucatton of the Indian, under gov
eminent supervision, actually advanced? |
''Then we come to the land question. |
Mr.. Dawes tells US that 5. 467 Indians own |
farms, aggregating 6.7OS.62s acres. but adj |
mfts that less than one-sixth Of this area |
has been fenced in. How large a proper |
ton OF the farms are actually under Guilt |
walton by the Indians who own them? In |
the first place. the Indian farm-owner may |
be broken-diwn octogenarian, or a suck |
ling babe, 4 woman. or a boy at school: |
The allotments, when made, are made per |
capita, regardless of age, sex, or physical |
condiaion. But even IL we threw out of our /
the Indians incapable for va
rious reasons Of doing their own farming, |
which would, perhaps. exclude two-thirds |
what do we find to be the fact with the re- |
mainder? How many adult, able-bodied |
capable. II they had |
been civilized whites. of taking care Of |
Dawes found working their own farms? |
OF those who are working their farms. |
how many has he found working every |
arabic acre, or anything approaching that?
The records of the interior department tell |
a story very different from that which
Eould appear from a mere glance at the
tagles of figures. The aver
age Indian has either a good farm or a
poor one. If he has poor one. he would
starve to death If he depended upon it |
for a living, 50 he does not try: II he has
a good one. the first thing he does with It
Is to lease II TO a white man.
This is not a pess:mistic wall. There
are Indians here and there who pass the
ordeal of the transition state successfully.
put they are the rare exceptions who prove
the rule. The schools are doing good. be-
cause they are bringing the younger gen.
4ratiOn of Indians into contact with a few
white people of a better class than habit
lally cluster around the edges of reser-
vation. These children will have children
IN turn. who will start in life with less
terror and distruSt of the whites than
heir parents did. The land-allotment sys-
tenn is doing good. because II breaks Up
he paupertzing reservation. which Is an
anomaly in our social system. But IL
works its good results in very much the
same way as would a law throwing open
our poorhouses and saying to the inmates:
Now. you must make your own way. and
you cannot live you must die The
of the flttest is the one solid
principle underlying this feature Of our
Indian policy There are many