The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-07-10
Indians as Farmers.

AS u larmer the lnQ1an is making
headway--the Crows in particular
since they have the stimulus of ar
annual fair. says correspondent oi
the New Orleans Times-D Democrat. II
was hard work to prod them into
taking care of their farms each sea.
son, until the agent, S. G. Reynolds
thought of getting up a show on the
plan of the old-fashioned country
fair. The fair has been held three
years now, and great rivalry has de.
veloped among the Indians of each
district to carry away the prizes for
the best crops. A few more years
and the raising of good crops will be
a habit. That is the secret of dealing
with the Indian-you must interest
him as you would a child, and then
the rest is easy. In which the Indian
is not so different from the white
man, who works much better when
his work becomes a game.
There are boss farmers" appoint
ed by the Government to supply the
Indian farmer with seed, to teach
him the rudiments of blowing, seed
ing, narrowing and threshing, and to
instruct him in the science of irriga-
tion of and dry farming"
These boss farmers" are persua-
sive chaps. 1t takes a rare gi.t of
eloquence to convince an Indian buck
he should work on a lazy day in
summer, when the meadow larks are
making liquid music, and when the
trout streams are babbling and the
game in the hills is fairly begging to
be shot. But the "boss farmer"
pleads and threatens and cajoles and
bullies, and eventually he gets the
LATEST Indian started at the work of
raising crop, and the results at the
end of the season would astonish the
man who thinks all poor Lo is good
for is to eat Government rations and
emulate the American tramp in dodg-
ing anything that looks like work.
Then, too, the Indian is doing Won
ders as a stock raiser. The Crows
have always had more horses than
any other nation of Indians. Their
reservation consists of many square
miles of ideal grazing ground. But
the scrub mustangs are being sold
off at IS and Sc a head, and their
places are being taken by a bigger
and finer kind of stock. There are
cattle on thousand hills-and
prime cattle at that-every steer and
COW and calf bearing the big brand
81. D." which means Interior De-
partment
There is hard work each spring
and fall rounding up the colts and
mavericks and calves. There are
several Indian roundup outfits on
the reservation, and the red-skinned
cowboys work hard and faithfully.
In fact, the Crow Indian takes as
naturally to saddle work as a duck
takes to water, as every member OF
the tribe is born horseman. Even
the squaws are good riders, though
to see them bobbing along on their
padded "squaw saddles" one
would never imagine they could stay
on anything less mild than a saw
horse.
Like all the rest of his red-skinned
brethren, the Crow Indian dearly
loves the dance. An Indian will drop
his haying in the face of a thunder
storm to go to a dance, and squaw
will forget all her highfalutin college
education at the prospect of keeping
step to the magic beating of those
tom-toms. The music of the dance
represents the summons Of the ages
it is the call of the wild which the
Indian cannot resist. The best and
most industrious succumb to its
wiles. Old Plenty C'yuse, the big
chief of the Crows, whose pride is
his farm, "all same white man," can
not understand why the Government
will not allow the Indians to dance
more. He has gone to Washington
several times to voice the call of his
for more dances. But his
requests, with similar requests from
many other tribes. have been turned
down. The Government is trying to
stop Indian dancing on all the res
ervations, for the reason that an In
dian will do nothing but dance when
he is given free rein. Crops and
blooded stock and all the higher
ideals of civilization would soon go
to smash on the reservation if the
Indians were allowed to dance when
and where they pleased. So, beyond
a few dances, given at stated inter-
walls, and big dance fest" at the
time of the annual fair, the, Crows
have very little of their favorite en-
joyment, unless one counts the
dances that are held "on the sly"
After his harvest is in, there is
little for the Indian to do. He may
work a little on house, or build a
few fences, or ride out on the range
to look after some stock, but in the
main the loLs, golden days of autumn
and the bright, crisp days of winter
are spent in an idylic, fomadic fash
ion. A little group of Indians will
ride along the road that skirts the
solemn hill that is capped by the Gus
ter monument, and soon there will
be a magic CITY of tenees in hand