The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1905-06-08
BETTER ERAFOR INDIANS
Plan to Safeguard Their Inter
eSts and the Governments
POLICY ADOPTED BY F. E. LEUPP

How Commissioners of Indian Affairs
Will Award Contracts For Supplies.
Success Of So Called Ration Order,
Which Has Compelled AbIebodied
Red Men to Earn Their own Living.
Fast Learning Value of Money.
Francis e. Leupp, commissioner of
indian affairs, has planned for him
self busy summer, says a special
Washington correspondent Of the New
York Post He recently superintendent
he opening Of bids for supplies for
Fthe Indian service at Chicago, st. Louis
and New York, and soon he is to go to
San Francisco to perform the same
duty. He will then start on a tour Of
indian agencies in the west.
In connection with the award Of con-
tracts for Indian supplies Mr.. Leupp
has adopted policy which he believes
will safeguard the interests OF the gov
ernment and the Indians as we'll. In
the purchase Of medicines, for exam
pie, the commissioner had all the sam
pies analysed by a professor Of chem
!stry at the Chicago university to test
the purity of the drugs. Then he had
q well known druggist examine the
goods and the price list to say wheth-
e. the supplies were offered to the gov
eminent at fair price Quality was
always placed before cheapness. Then
| ln order to learn whether the drugs
and hospital supplies were suitable
for distribution among the Indians
| the commissioner had one of his agen-
cy physicians, man who has been
among the Indians for fifteen years,
pick out the kinds that the Indians
could be most easily induced to take.
indians are more particular about the
sort Of bandage used to bind their
limbs and about the appearance Of the
medicine they take than they are about
the food they eat, and Indian physi-
clans have to respect many little preju-
dices along this line The same plan
was pursued with clothing and other
supplies, and Mr.. Leupp believes that
he will get better materials, with less
loss, by reason Of waste than hereto
fore.
The recent appeal Of Indian Agent
John H. Brennan at Pine Ridge agen
cy, South Dakota, for work for the
ablebodied male Indians under his
sare calls attention to one Of the most
important steps taken under President
Roosevelt's direction for the advance
ment of these wards of the nation.
This was the so called ration order
Issued about two years ago. 1t pro-
vided that where rations were issued
none should thereafter be given to
male Indians who were able to work,
but that instead the Indians should be
Employed wherever possible in con-
ytruction work on the reservations, for
which they were to be paid regular
wages.
The new policy was successful from
the beginning. When the order was
first put in force there was some grum-
bling on the part Of the older Indians
because the young men were forced to
work for a living; but, generally
speaking the younger men took hold
and aided the agents willingly. One
Of the reports submitted relates that
some of the Indians were SO taken
with the idea Of getting out and earn
ing money for themselves that they
neglected their farms and had to be
forced to attend to their own needs.
The application Of this order fell gen
orally upon the Sioux and mostly in
the state Of South Dakota Major
Brennan, at Pine Ridge, has expended
about $4,000 during the current fiscal
year for Indian labor. At Rosebud, in
the same state DR.. McChesney. the
agent, has paid the Indians nearly
100000 for work since July /, 1904,
The beginning Of the current fiscal year.
What the new policy has resulted in
g shown by the reports of agents.
ira A. Hatch, at the Cheyenne River
agency, in his last annual report said:
THE contraction Of the ration policy
and the expansion Of the labor policy
are doing more in q practical way for
the civilization Of these people than
any plan ever before inaugurated. 1t
has brought them to realization Of
The worth Of their labor, and they are
showing this most markedly in the in
.elligent purchase Of materials they