Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1905-08-08

ana the remainder are from the pu'
eblos. All three OF the schools teach
book learning up To the eighth grade
OF the ordinary public school, SO the
children may have a knowledge Of
reading. writing and arithmetic, and
know something OF the geography and
history OF their country; but more
attention Is paid 10 industrial training
farming, gardening, stock and fruit
raising, and the ordinary mechanical
trades, for the boys--while the girls
are instructed In housekeeping, dress.
making. cooking. laundry work, blan.
ket weaving and the ordinary domes.
tic sciences, so they may be able To
improve the homes OF their families
and earn their own living II necessary.
Education Is not compulsory among
the Indians, but II should be. II Is
difficult TO get the children into the
schools. Many parents will not be
persuaded; others seem quite anxi.
Gus to have their boys and girls edu.
Gated, especially the boys, but most Of
them are indifferent. There are day
schools in all Of the nineteen pueblos,
for the benefit OF the children who re.
main at home. but 1t Is difficult to
secure pupils there also. The Pueblo
Indians, generally speaking, are not
favorable to education. They are very
conservative and prefer their ancient
customs to modern innovations.
G. j. Crandall. superintendent Of
the Indian school at Santa Fe, says
that "the Navajos are much brighter
and more ambitious than any other In
dams and that the Apaches are next
to them"
"The Navajos are the brightest In.
dians ! have ever met" said he the
other day, land | have been In the
service, North and South, for fourteen
years and have known most of the
tribes personally. The Indians of the
northern attitudes are more intellect
ual and are ADLER than those Of the
south, but the yield to vices more
readily and are more subject to dis
ease. The Pueblos are dull, slow, re-
ticent, mystical and stoical. 1t takes
them a long time to get on to az idea;
they are very slow in reasoning; they
have very little sense of humor. They
are more serious than any Indians l
have ever known and the most diff
cult to teach. They are extremely
conservative-the slOwest to change Of
all our native races, and they have
fought the hardest and most persist
emily against the advances Of civiliza-
ton. Notwithstanding persecution
and inducements, they have preserved
their religion and customs ever since
the advent of the Spaniards $50 years
ago, although they are slowly dying
out. There are now nineteen pueblos
with a population of about 5000 souls,
while the early Spanish records men
ton forty-three pueblos with hun
dreds of thousands of people, who have
disappeared in pestilences and wars.
Pecos, their sacred place, has entirely
gone. Nothing Is left but the ruins
of an old church. The population of
Taos, the most important of the pu-
eblOs, has been reduced to 500, but
the people still cultivate the same
area of land.
Il am inclined to think, however"
said Mr.. Crandall, that the next CEN
sus will show an increase in the popu-
lation of the Pueblos, which will be
due to the suppression of contagious
diseases, to vaccination and sanitary
regulations, all of which have been en-
forced upon them, against the most
stubborn resistance. In some cases
military assistance has been necessary.
The Pueblos r beginning TO inter-
marry somewhat with the Mexicans
also"
What is the effect of education
upon them?"
when the boys and girls go home
from this school, from Carlisle,
Hampton, Haskell and other institu-
lions, few of them keep up the stand
ard of living which they have been
taught; but example and precept are
not entirely forgotten. Some Of them
drift back to the lowest level Of their
tribe, but most of them do better and
entirely lost. Sometimes we get very
much discouraged. The older men,
bers of the tribes are so conservative,
SO sullen, so reluctant to abandon the
habits of their ancestors that their
uplifting Is a very slow process. They
do not want their children educated;
they shelter themselves under the
past, they preserve their secret reli-
gious rites and are willing to live a
miserable existence from u stand
point as long as they are allowed to
practice those mystic ceremonies.
Nevertheless, a few are prospecting.
and you may say that, as a general
rule, those who have been educated
at the government schools. when they
return to their homes, demand better
things than they would have been con-
tented with before they came away.
They insist upon sleeping upon beds,
and eating off a table from dishes
| with knives and forks instead Of dip
| ping their fingers into the common
kettle as they formerly did. The
girls will insist upon cook stoves In
stead of using the ancient outdoor
ovens, and they will want sewing ma
| chimes also. The boys will want new
wagons and agricultural machinery
like they have used at the school. The
| educated boys take better care OF
their horses and cattle, for they have
learned how. and they are less subject
to superstitious influences"
"How are their morals?" | asked.
THE morals of the Pueblo Indians
have always been high, but they were
| higher before the whites came. And