Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1904-09-22
SIOUX ARE WORKING.
HAVE CAST ASIDE LEISURE OF
CENTURIES AND HUSTLE.
Not at All in Keeping with Racial
Traditions, But as a Matter
Of Necessity They Get
on the Move.

The Sioux Indian has gone to work.
He has done it reluctantly and under
protest He has done 1t contrary to
the advice of his father and grandfath-
er. But back of his father and his
grandfather is the Great Father at
Washington, who says that If man
will not work neither shall he eat, says
a Yankton Is. D. report to the Chica-
go Inter Ocean.
The rations have been cut off from
! those who are able to work. so the
Indian has cast aside his blanket, and
with 1t the leisure of more centuries
than the white man can count. He has
accepted the new order of things as
be accepts everything else, with phil
osophy which looks like Indifference.
THE white man offers you work
now" said old Chief Red Cloud, when
the young men came to him for coun
sci, "and they take away the rations
that were promised under the Black
Hills treaty. They will give you work
for a little while, then you must find
1t 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 the final law.
The young men went to work. On the
Pine Ridge reservation about one
fourth of the Indians are self-support-
ing. They work on the roads, grading
and driving teams, for which they get
$3.50 a day. Several of them have been
employed building dams and reservoirs
over the reservation. A few do lit
tie farming and raise cattle.
1t is difficult to make farmers Of
them while they own land from which
a white man could not make living.
They have not worked long enough
yet to demonstrate positively what
they can do, but their possibilities
seem limited Most of them are ire
sponsible and immature. They lack
the cleverness of the old Indians, and
seemed to have gained nothing in its
place.
"You have seen one generation OF
Indians grow up and take its place In
the world" some one said to an cd
clergyman who has devoted his life to
the Sioux. what do you think edu
cation has done for them?"
The clergyman shook his head Il
don't know" he said. "In some re-
Spects the young men are much worse
than their fathers. They have learned
many of the vices of which the old In
dams knew nothing. Perhaps In some
ways they are better, but 1 don't
know"
The prosecuting attorney Of Wyo-
ming while at Pine Ridge last fall in
vestigating the causes of the incipient
war between the Indians and the sher-
liz, made a speech to pupils Of the
0gallala boarding school, in which he
made a suggestion as to how the Sioux
nation might become wealthy. He sug-
gested that the old tendency toward
tribal relations be used to form huge
corporation for raising cattle on the
flQe mage RESERVATION. mOSL OI the |
is good for grazing, and,
with the amount they have and what |
cattle they have to begin with, they |
could organize company, hire an eX-
perienced cattle man as manager, and I
in ten years be independently rich.
In the meantime, however, there is
suffering among the Sioux. The ra-
tons are inadequate, and most Of the
indians are incompetent
When the announcement was made
last spring that the Indian must go to
work the Northwestern Railroad COM
pany came forward with an offer to
help solve the problem
During the summer the company en-
ployed about 100 Sioux from the Pine
Ridge and Rosebud reservations. They
were employed as section hands and
coal shovelers and made $3.50 day.
Coal shoyeling was most popular with
them. They were not in the sun, and
the work was not continuous They
would shovel awhile and then sit
around in the shade and smoke cigar