Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-06-09
For the Children.
A LITTLE INDIAN SCHOOL.

Out on the black prairie of South Da-
kota, in the valley of little stream
known as Wounded Knee creek. there
Is frame school house where all tie
pupils are Indians La the old days, he
fore they We're confined on great bodies
Of Land called reservations. the Indians
used to hunt all over the great western
country; and while none of them could
read and write, yet even the small boys
could follow trail across the prairie
many days after it was made, aud they
could tell, from looking nj the pony
racks, whether the rider was white
man or Indian
But after the last Indian war had
been sett!ed-attcr the braves had buried
the Ratchet and the peace papers had
been signed 10y all the great Indian
chiefs-the government built school
houses IN many portions of the reSyrVa-
tons. and white teachers were sent 10
teach the Indians how to read and write
and to become good citizens.
And the pupils are not all boys and
girls. either, hut there are some men
and women in every school. In this par
ticular school in the Wounded Knee val
ley there is one boy about II years old;
the boys father. who is II years old,
and the boys grandfather, an old man
20 years old. all going to school in the
same room and all studying the same
books and the same lessons; and the boy
learns more easily and rap,uIy than his
father or grandfather.
When the little Indian boys and girls
first come to school they wear the pie
tlIfesque clothes which the Indians wear
in the half-savage state. But as soon
as they are enrolled the government sup
plies them with clothing like that the
white people wear. Lucy's father was
a great warrior when he was young
man. and he was great chief when he
grew older; hut he wants his little girl
to learn to read and write, TO sew and to
cook, and to keep house, as white girls
do.
Over at a school in Montana a little
Indian girl one day came to school wear
ing a purple velvet dress covered with
1000 elk teeth. The dress was made
just like meal sack. with armhoes and
a hole for the head: but the elk teeth
are worth about $3.50 each, So that
this little girls dress could have been
sold for 5000.
The little Indians, when they first
come to school do not know how to do
anything ut all. They cannot even talk
English and first they have to learn
a new language before they can learn to
Etdu. let ll'N 10 lllN very tII}thiN, ana
in a few weeks they can talk English
quite well; but it takes a long time for
them to learn 10 read. And all the
time that they are learning to read and
write. they are also learning to do the
things which any little American boy or
girl does naturally. The girls are
taught to sew and to cook aud TO sweep;
while the boys learn To cut wood, to
farm. and to take care of horses pigs
4 ,r.lr l.
for the little girls and the boys, and all
the schools are provided with kitchens
and dining rooms. There is also little
farm attached to each school and in it
the boys grow all the vegetables eaten
in the school.
When recess time comes. the little In
dams get out and play just ~ the white
children do. They have bows and arrows,
and balls and bats. and everything of
that kind. and they make just as much
noise as the girls and boys at any Amcri-
can school make.
White people used 10 think the Indians
never smiled and never laughed; but that
was because the Indians were shy and
backward when white people were
around. When the Indians got out by
themselves, they laugh and joke and
have great fun.
Every year three or four of the bright
est pupils at each school are taken down
to the agency. where the Indian agent
lives. and are there placed ia the board
ing school, which is equipped by The gov
ernmcnt. At this biz school there are nj
ways several hundred Indian boys and
girls. and the government pays aIi their
expenses. y re they learn many things
not taught at the day schools. They
have sewing Socictic, for tn" girls, md
Il printing office and brass band for the
BOYS The Girls make the clothes that