The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-08-29
SIOUX INDIAN rs FAST
BECOMING "A NORWEGIAN
Has Built Roads, Bridges and Dams the Reservation Until There
Nothing More for Him to Do ThereNow Looking
Employment the Farms and in the TownsPart Taken by
the Church Missions in the New Era.

made a reservoir 1000 feet long and ten
feet deep.
The government has carried out all the
work that be found to do and the
Sioux have gone eff the reservations for
employment. This year for the first time
a few Sioux helped shock wheat and barley
in northern counties Of Nebraska and
Charles Mix county, South Dakota, at 81.
a day. Last fall about 200 went from the
Rosebud agency and fifty from the Pine
Ridge and did practically all the construc-
ton work on the extension of the Elkhorn
railroad to Bonesteel, s. D. Several have
obtained permanent employment as sec
, ton hands for the Elkhorn and 3. & M.
railroads, and the companies say they are
good worknen. The younger bucks have
offered themselves as cowboys for the
ranchmen, but not many are employed on
the ranges and few found work in this
way. Last week a band Of Santee Indians
went to Sioux Falls and obtained work.
with the ditching gang on the municipal
waterworks system. Red Elk. of the Pine
Ridge agency, is conducting ferry on the
White river at westover A son of Sit
ting Bull Is a locomotive fireman on
South Dakota railroad.
Other Tribes ProsperIng.
That the Indians can prosper if given the
opportunity has been shown by tribes In
more fertile districts. The Flandreau In
dams are self-supporting and have been
for years. The Sissetons, Santees and
Yanktons have allotments in severaty
which they lease to white men for enough
rent to live on. The Omahas in northeast
ern Nebraska, credited by Commissioner
Jones with being the most civilized tribe,
are worth about So, 600 for about
$500 members of the band. Many of the
Omahas are farmers and succeed about as
well as their white neighbors. s.i +,
But the great ajority of the Sioux are
confined on reservations in the semi-arid
district, where the land can be utilized for
nothing but cattle grazing without 1rr1-
cation. A small proportion of the Indians
on each reservation own herds, those on
the Pine Ridge agency aggregating $4,000
head. But the Indian cannot grasp the
intricacies Of cattle raising readily and he
finds 1t easier, If not so profitable, to lease
his land to ranchmen. With no irrigation
in prospect for western South Dakota,
there seems no possibility of the Sioux
supporting themselves from the soil
their reservations.
How the Way Was Paved.
The transformation of the Indian into
a working man, however, could never have
been brought about so easily had it not
not been for the reformation in other lines
that has been going on for years. This
was first educational and religious and
then commercial. 1t is doubtful if even
a few people removed from the Indian
districts understand the civilization which
| the red has already attained.
In the Pine Ridge agency, for example,
there are thirty three schools with an ag-
gregate attendance Of 1880. There is the
reservation boarding school, at which
there are $50 pupils this year and thirty
two district school houses, each under the
control Of a man and his wife. The Holy
Rosary mission, Catholic, has school at
tended by 1870 pupils.
1t has been largely thru the work of
the church missions that the Indians have
been induced to take up so generally with
| education. An idea of what has been
accomplished may be obtained from the
fact that Bishop Stariha of the Catholic
/ church claims 1000 Catholic adherents
| among the Sioux, Rev. Thomas Riggs Of
oahe, s. D., 5000 for the Congregational
and Presbyterian churches together and
the Episcopalians count 5000.
| The Sioux gave up his Incidence last,
! his greatest sacrifice, but he could never
have been induced to do so had it not been
! for the preparatory influences of the
! school and the church.