Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1906-01-31
no MAKE GOOD INDIANS

expressed themselves as overioyed at the
turn affairs have taken in their favor.
Not one out of 500 Indians wants to be
like white people, and the policy which
in the past has been pursued by the In
dian Department, and which gave the In
dian partial education, according to the
views Of the white man, but failed to
provide him with any work or any way
OF putting his education to use, has
proven very unsatisfactory both to the
Indian and the white man.
To begin with. the Indian does not
want 10 work Through dire necessity
some of the Indians have been forced in
the past three OF four years TO work in
order to eat but that move has never
been popular. either with the old timers
or the modern Indian. In fact, the worst
blanket" Indian on the reservation is
always one OF the best educated ones TO
be found. As an example of the short
coming of the Indian, where work is con-
oerned, it is pointed out that there has
never been but one Indian clerk at the
agency Office although a law makes it
imperative upon the Indian agent to give
any position which he may have to an
Indian, provided one can be found who is
competent and willing. And even that
one who worked as a clerk was only a
quarter breed Indian--and came from a
Minnesota tribe, instead of from the
Sioux tribes. There are dozens, in fact,
hundreds, of fairly well educated young
bucks on the reservation, every one of
whom is competent to hold a clerical po-
sition in the agency office, but none of
them will accept a position of that kind
They prefer to remain idle, doing a days
work here and there, raising few cattle
and horses for sale, and living a hand-to-
mouth existence.
Indian Commissioner Leupp does not
believe in making the Indians cut their
hair. II was the most unpopular order
ever given by an Indian Commissioner,
this one to have all the bucks" cut the
hair short, instead Of permitting it 10
grow long and either hang loose or be
braided down their backs. It was part
of an Indians religion and part Of his
bravado to wear long hair. A portion
Of It, the scalp lock, was always there
for any enemy who proved himself the
better man to come and take whenever
he wanted it. That habit even extended
to the old white frontiersmen, and to-
day many of these old-time scouts and
hunters wear, neatly curled on the top
of their heads and tucked away under
their hats, a scalp lock, for any person
who is man enough to come and take it.
Il belongs to the best man.
And in the old days, when an Indian
lost his scalp-lock he was disgraoed.
There was nothing left for him 10 do but
to die. So the order, issued by Commits
sioner Leupp's predecessor in office, was
the greatest insult, from an Indian
standpoint, that could possibly be Of
fered. But because their rations had
been cut off by the government, and such
work as the Indians would do was re-
fused to those who yet wore long hair,
many of the bucks cut off their scalp
locks. This was confined, almost wholly,
to the younger generation, very few of
the older men, among whom the tradi-
tions Of the past were still held dear,
complying with the order to use the scis-
sors on their long black locks.
"Ihe best we can do" said Leupp, sis
to teach the redman how to properly live
his own life before taking on another
You might as wen try to convert tad
| pole into a fish as an Indian into a white
man. First of all, the end to be accom-
plished is to make him a good Indian"
The government made a white" man
out Of Henry White, full-blooded
Sioux. For more than ten years White
was sent to school, and given a thorough
education. First he went to the Indian
day school, then the agency boarding
school, then to Genoa, Neb.; TO Haskell,
and finally to Carlisle. He was a men,
Der of the Carlisle football team and
played all over the east. Eventually he
became we'll educated Indian-in a
white mans way. Then he was sent out
TO work for himself.
Six months later he was back at the
agency, smoking cigarettes and wearing
n blanket. whats the matter, Whitef"
one of the agency school teachers asked
him.
II was a curiosity-an educated In
dian. ! was invited around and made
much of; as a member of the Indian
football team / saw the inside of many
of the exclusive homes Of the east; 1
met many people, and thought an Indian
was something to look up to.
Then 1 left school and began looking
for work. / started in at New York.
called on those people who had enter
tanned me-and they paid no attention
to me whatever. / wanted clerkship
somewhere-but no one would give an
Indian work which would place them on
a level with a white man. Then / low
cred my standard and asked for any
thing manual labor. / couldn't even
get a position as q truckman in a freight
depot. In self-defense ] returned to the
reservation. l had lost caste with the
Indians and the whites wouldn't have
anything TO do with me-not as an
equal"
Since then White has regained his In.
dian caste but he is the worst "blan-
ket' Indian on the reservation: won't
talk English when he can get out Of it;
dances IN the "Omaha houses" in the
altogether style, and altogether is
about as worthless as any Indian under
the sun.
Another instance In a dark. smoky
tepee down on Wounded Knee River.
some time ago, a white man was irving
to get the spelling Of an Indian braves"
name. He was having trouble. when
bent squaw with a blanket over her
head, stopped stirring the dog stew long
enough to reach for the pencil and pad
and to write in "a beautiful hand the
name wanted. Investigation showed
that this squaw had graduated at the
head of her class. but she had returned
20 the Indian life in less than one year.
HEALTH ANO BEAUTY HINTS.