The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-06
INDIAN LIFE. RED MAN OF TO-DAY. Occupations to Which Tribes Cling Shrewdness in
 Dealing for Land.


 as a vanishing race. In one sense this Is correct description. By slow but sure stages the Indians whom Cooper 1dealized and Catlin painted are passing from view, and the great nations whom the early explorers of our coun- try discovered occupying their original hunting grounds are breaking up.
 But the vanishing race and the dis membered nations are still numerous enough to make a pretty fair showing q themselves. The several groups Of Dakotas or Sioux, for example, writes Francis F. Leupp in the Youths Com panlon, number in round terms 30O00 and the Chfppewas 10000. They are settled in what used to be known as the northwest-thati is, the region tributary to the Great Lakes and the upper Mis- slssippi In the southwest the Navajos outnumber oli other groups of a single name, More than 20,500 live on a res ervation nearly twice as large as the the size of New York
 The conservatism of the Indian, his disposition to hold fast to the habits of ms ancestors, and his mistrust of the new civilization thrust upon him by the White man are what have kept him os long separate entity in the great body of our population in spite of his being native here. while the immigrants pouring in from score of foreign coun-
 
 course of generation become indis- tlnguishable from their neighbors. Even Tn the occupations from which they draw livelihood the Indians cling clannlshly to those in which their re- spective tribes have grown up Thus the Sioux are largely cattle ralsers, the e Chippewas woodsmen, the Navajos shepherds. This division of industry has come about through the circum- stance that In assigning to them their dwelling places the government gave to the Sioux a grassy prairie to the Chippewas a great area of forest, and nals less voracious than sheep find it hard to subsist.
 The Sioux and Chippewas at one time occupied large areas of virgin land which, as the white people pushed into the northwest, were split into several tracts with greatly diminished total acreage. Thus the Sioux now have half dozen reservations, varying in size from more than three million acres down to less than 300,000, The popula- tion of these reservations differ propor- tionately, the largest being nearly 1000 Indians on the Pine Ridge reservation The Chippewas hold smaller reserva- tions than the Sioux, with populations ranging from 5000 down. Most of the Sioux and Chippewas, owing to the more rapid white settlement of their part of the country, have adopted Cau- casian way in costume and dwellings,.
 There is usually a strong suggestion, however, even in their citizens dress. of the ancestral taste for the pictur- with beaded bands, neck chains, ear " rings, brilliant kerchiefs, braided hair or decorated moccasins remind the ob- server that here are Indians still.
 Their homes bear similar testimony. These may be log cabins, or even clap board cottages, but the chances are that somewhere about the premises will be found a canvas tepee or a brush WY hn bp1 yn sort when they wish really to enjoy themselves as white persons who love the open air seek piazza.
 The Sioux and Chippewas are among the northern tribes who have shown most shrewdness in driving their bar gains with the government. For every foot of land they have surrendered they have received price which, if not ac- tually very generous as measured by land values In more highly developed centers of population, has not been so niggardly as many suppose.
 In most cases the agreements with the Sioux for the sale of their lands have provided either for depositng the purchase price in the United States treasury and paying the Indians the an- nual interest on it, or for the appropri- ation by congress every year of sum to be distributed among the members of the tribe, which should be the equiv alent of the annual interest on an in- vested fund of such an amount The
 
 them small regular income, whether they worked for their living or not.
 To these great northern tribes the Navajos present a characteristic con trast. They were allowed no range of choice as to where they should settle; they had to take what the government gave them and make the best of 1t. Their remoteness from any of the denser white settlements, and the slow and uneven development of the coun- try around them have kept them from much, if any, contact with civilization, so that they are to-day about as primi- tive as any tribe in the United States.
 They are Indian through and through, clinging as far as practicable to their old style of dress and their old man ner of living Lithe of figure, hand bright, responsive, cheerful fellows, they win their way to the hearts of all who know them.
 They object, for the most part, to ex- perimenting with our methods in their crude agriculture and l am by no means sure that they cannot teach us a thing or two about wrestling a scanty living out of their alkaline clay and sand.
 They are also clever silversmths. With two or three simple instruments for beating and graving metal into or namental forms, they produce results of rare beauty.
 Here their racial conservatism shows itself in their choice of material and their mode of measuring values. Some years ago l ordered a number of trim kets from them. and I found that the only silver they would use for making these was United States standard dol- lars. Mexican dollars. which actually contained more silver than ours, but passed for fifty cents, they could not be induced to touch Every dollar must have on one side the head of Liberty, and on the other the American eagle, D or they would have nothing to do with it.
 Their manner of fixing prices for their work was equally characteristic. Having consumed certain number of silver dollars as raw material in mak- ing an article they added an equal number for the labor they put into it. Thus, if they used two silver dollars in making a belt buckle they would charge four dollars for the buckle
 To no purpose 1 reasoned with them that this was not a proper measure of their time and skill-that upon one ob- ject of large size but simple design they might expend the silver of three dollars, but only one dollars worth of time, where as in the next instance they might precisely reverse these pro- portions; they were content with their way, and that settled it.
 Tn comparing the bovernment's ex- perience with the three tribes I have here mentioned, I am impressed with it's confirmation of the good old proverb that Heaven helps him who helps him. selfP
 These three tribes represent three kinds of treatment dealt out to the red men in our country. The Sioux have had a great area of territory divided among them, and have received every year certain amount of money or subsistence supplies from the government Yet the greater part of the ancient claims ! laid before congress year after year come from the Sioux country whence