The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-26
INDIANS WORKING FOR A LIVING.
The Case of Mrs. sitting Bull--She is Busy Making Gorgeous Beaded
 MOccassins.

The Soux Indian has gone to work. He has done 1t. reluctantly and under protest. He has done it contrary to the advice of his father and his grand father. says Yankton. s. D.. despatch to the Chicago InterOeeah. But back of his father and his grandfather is the great father at Washington, who says that if a man will not work neith- CT shall he eat. The ratfons have been cut off rom those who are able to work. So the Indian has cast asidt his blank ct and with 1t the leisure of more cen- turies than the white man can count. He has accepted the new order of things as he accepts everything else. with a philosophy which looks like in- difference 'The white man offers you work now" said old Chief Red Cloud. when the young men come to him for counsel. and they take away the rations that were promised ur- der the Black Hills treaty. They will give you work for little while. then you must find it for yourselves. They will give you nothing. They will do nothing for you"
 But the time has gone by when the word of the chief was final law. The young men went to work. On the Pine Ridge reservation about one-fourth of the Indians are self-supporting. They work on the roads. grading and driving teams. for which they get S1.50 a day. Several of them have ben employed building dams and reservoirs over the reservation. A few do a 1it1e farming and raise cattle. It is difficult to make farmers of them while they own land from which a white man could not make a living. The have not worked long enough to demonstrate positively what they can do, but the possibilities seem limited. Most of them are ir- responsible and immature. They lack the cleverness of the old Indians. and seemed to have gained nothing fin its place. You have seen one generation of Indians grow up and take its place in the world some one said to an old clergyman who had devoted his life to the Sioux. What do you think education has done for them?" The clergyman shook his head. T don't young men are muvn worse than their fathers. They have learned many vices of which the old Indian knew nothing. Perhaps in some ways they are better. but I don't know"
 The prosecuting attorney of Wyom- ing, while at Pike Ridge last fall in- vestigated the causes of the incipient war between the Indians and the sher- iff made a speech to pupils of the ORaIlala DOdTulnR sCnOUl III WHICH ne made a suggestion as to how the Sioux nation might become wealthy. He suggested that the old tendency toward tribal relations be used to form a huge exploration for raising cattle on the Pine Ridge reservation. Most of the reservation land Is good for grazing. and with the amount they have could organize company, hire an expe- rienced cattleman as manager. and in ten years be independently rich. In the mean time. however, there is suf- fering among the Sioux. The rations are inadequate and most of the In- dians incompetent The Indian women are being encouraged to take up their beadwork again. which for a long time was discouraged. Indian women teach 1t to their daughters. and girls in the boarding schools offer 1t for salfl No one but an Indian woman can do the genuine beadwork. which is on buck skin. but the woven work. which has become a fad among white women. Is. the traders say. ruining the sale of the genuine article. Girls on the Pike RidEo reservation are also being taught an art which the Sioux new CT knew. and the state agricultural college has been asked to furnish sweet grass seed, to be sown along the creeks and used for making baskets.
 Among the Indians who. under the new reieme are trying hard to make Q living. is old Mrs. Sitting Bull. widow of the last of the hostile Sioux. She is A peaceful old squaw. and sits in her little cabin out on the reservation making gorgeous beaded moccasins. for which there is limited sale. When the announcement was made last spring that the Indian must go to work, the Northwestern Railroad Company came forward with an offer to help solve the problem. During the summer the company employed about 100 Sioux from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud res ervations They were employed as section hands and coal shovelers and made sl.50 a day. Coal shoveling was the most popular with them. They were not in the sun and the work was not continuous. They could shovel a while and then sit around in the nhada apd anonLa ctRareftaa