The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-02-07
Photos BY
Lee Moorehouse

thought great blessing by the brave.
When it IS III the blood il is hard TO
get out. Most OF the young fellows who
leave the Indian colleges. when they
get back 10 their western homes, take
To their old habits again. There is
something comfortable about the blan-
kst, and there IS q freedom in the
tepee. COntentment is in the life OF
The Indian. One o'clock with him is >
o'clock. He viii never do anything to-
day. but is aiways ready for tomorrow.
The Indian humps over no desk and
breathes 10 foul air His figure is
straight; bis lungs large. Some tribes,
il IS true, are dying off, but this is be-
cause their lives have become cramped
and because they nave caught diseases
from the whites Few Indians carry
surplus stOmachs around with them
know loco Indians who live on one
reservation. Among them all only one
is really fat His name IS Black Thun-
der. but because he has been such a
glutton his tribesmen have nick-named
him Lazy Dog.
The eye OF the Indian is not early
dimmed- Even the oldest ones wear
no speCtacIes. They are trained to see
far. Necessity has forced them to look
sharp, either to take nets of a far away
enemy or to find an enimai lurking in
the woods. His teeth are large and
even. They DO not decay, and it takes
derrick almost to pull one out. Long
black hair is the pride OF the buck,
quite as much as of the squaw. This
he usually reaches back and plaits into
two queues. Around these, when he
dresses up. he wraps strips from the
skin of some rare animal. An Indian
agent out west once thought that the
meanness of the Indian, like the
strength of Samson, lay in his hair He
cut off the pig-tails Of several war
ri0rs. They sued the government and
got large damages.
The Indian. like US ALL is vain. he
has a good way of showing It. Over
his face he smsars dry paint, mostly
red and yellow: and into his hair he
sticks long feathers. His clothes are
the gayest colored he can get. His
trousers, which are just two legs, he
usually makes Of green. His shirt IS
often red. over these he casts spot
ted blanket or one of brilliant stripes.
An Indian viii go broke at ribbon
case, buying bright silk bands for MS
hat and for the name of his pony.
What a child the Red-man is-even
the grown up ones. In tepee one day
Mud Turtle Strikes-Fe et-Toget fell
asleep and Yellow Grizzly Bear, man
of thirty found it lot of fun 10 tickle
his ear with straw / asked another
old Indian over 20 years Of age what
should send him for a Christmas pres
ent. and he told me that he would Ike
to have a big drum. Even old No
Shirt. the chief of 1000 people, was ar
rested not long ago because he started
TO dancing and wouldn't quit.
Drunkenness has become the beset-
ting sin of many Indians. One of them,
when he wants firewater, viii swap
his birthright for q bottle. Not all of
the Indians drink, though. Those who
do not are hard on the ones who do
The first punishment to the young
buck Fhe has drunk too much IS 10
tie MIN TO post and let MIN stay
there until he sobers up. If an In
dian takes a notion to cult. though,
he is firm; he doesn't have 70 take
the gold cure.
Open-hearted to a fault is the n
dian. Once in a while q rich one VIII
hold what they call a pot-latch. At
this time he viii bring together all of
his friends and give away everything
that he has-to the last rag he wears.
When a man dies il is the custom
among many tribes for his family 10
hold a pot-latch. They viii give away
all of the dead mans property, keep
ing nothing for themselves The only
thing not given away would be one
pony. the hide of which they throw
over the grave of the dead
An Indian can raise ponies and rent
his land, but he does not know how
- TO invest An old Nez Perces chief
had heard that the white man made
money grow" He sold several hun
dred ponies, getting q SO gold piece
for each one. The money he planted
in the ground. but iC would not even
sprout for him. He told one of his
write friends about this. This friend
got q wholesale grocer of Portland,
Ore, to take the old chiefs money and
put it out at interest. Each year the
Nez Perces would go down to Port
land and have his money, interest and