Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-05-29
he rider was white man or an In

the rider was a white man or an In
dian.
But after the last Indian war had
been settled-after the braves had
buried the Ratchet and the peace pa
pers" had been signed by all the great
Indian chiefs-the government built
school-houses in many portions Of the
reservations, and white teachers were
sent to teach the Indians how to read
and to write and to become good citi-
zens.
And t',e pupils are not all boys and
girls, either, but there are some men
and women in every school. In this
particular school in the Wounded
Knee Valley there is one boy about fif-
teen years old; the boys father, who
Is forty-five years old; and the boys
grandfather, an old man seventy 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 rapidly than
his father or grandfather does.
When the little Indian boys and
girls first come to school, they wear
IAS pASCuA O04uO SlOIlOo WAlSh Wv -
dams wear in their half-savage state.
But as soon as they are enrolled the
government supplies them with cloth
ing like the white people wear.
Over at a school in Montana, little
Indian girl Sone day came to school
wearing purple velvet dress covered
with two thousand elk teeth. The
dress was made just like meal sack.
with arm-holes and hole for the
head; but the elk teeth we're worth
about two and half dodlars EACH SO
that the little girls dress could have
been sold for about five thousand dol
lars.
The little Indians, when they first
come to school, do not know how to
do anything at ALL They cannot even
talk English, and first they have to
learn new language before they can
learn to read. Yet they do this very
quickly, and in few weeks they can
talk English quite well; but 1t takes a
long time for them to learn to read.
ing to read and write, they are also
learning to do the things which any
little American boy or girl does ma
turally. The girls are. taught to sew
and to cook and to sweep; while the
boys learn to cut wood, to farm, and
to take care of horses, pigs, and COWS.
The larger girls cook lunch for the
little girls and the boys, and all the
schools are provided with kitchens and
dining-rooms There is also a little
farm attached to each school and in it
the boys grow all the vegetables eat
en- in the school.
When recess time comes, the little
Indians get out and play just as 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 American school
make. ;s
White people used to think the In
dams never smiled and never laughed;
but that was because the Indians were
Ishy and backward when white people
were around. When the Indians get
out by themselves, they laugh and
joke and have great fun.
Every year three or four Of the
brightest pupils at each school are tax
en- down to the Agency, where the IL
| dian agent lives, and are there placed
in the boarding-school, which is equip
ped by the government. At this big
school there are always several hun
dred Indian boys and girls, and the
government pays all their expenses.
Here they learn many things not
taught by the day-schools. They have
sewing societies for the girls, and a
printing Office and a brass band for
the boys. The girls make the, clothes
that both the girls and boys wear, and
the boys, in turn, make shoes for them
all. The boys work the farm, and
tend the stock, and work in the har.
ness-shop and the carpenter-shop,
and learn all sorts Of useful things of
that kind; while the girls learn to sew
and to cook and to take care Of a
house.
But after the little Indian is through
school he is still far, far behind the
average white boy or girl; for he has
never had an opportunity of seeing
railroad trains and street cars, and
electric lights and gas stoves, and sew.
! ing machines, and thousands of things
with which white children are sur,
rounded.-T. r. Porter in st. Nicholas
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