Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-02-26

| mad seen Few men VINO were SO
! labeled-every one a social outcast.
living in sodden sensuality in little
! shack in the woods, with a slouchy,
| greasy woman about whose knees
chung dirty, half-breed children,
clothed in rags and wretchedness. But
this figure, found. did not correspond
with the white husband of red WON
an on the Rosebud and other Sioux
reservations. Here, in the first place,
the marriages are, for the most part,
legal, under the white mans law, not
merely tribal weddings. And l found
that in nearly every case the legally
welded Indian wives are clean, tidy
and decently dressed-about as well
that they are devoted to their white
as they could have been had they mar
ried women of their own race.
Propinquity and the wholly natural
and wholesome desire of the sexes
for mutual companionship have won
their way on the reservations. and the
linking of these formerly hostile races
on the lonely prairies has resulted
benef1cially. In the main, both for
racial peace and for social well-being
Physically, this interminging may
mean a considerable gain for the race
If it is true, as Herbert Spencer de-
clares, that the prime requisite of
every human being, from philosophic
standpoint, is to be a healthy animal.
For the young men OF half-blood found
upon the prairies are splendid, stall
wart creatures. And when one hears
of the eager desire of many of them
for learning, one can. easily postulate
mental as well as a physical ad-
vance for the community
In the Dakotas, when a white man
weds an aboriginal woman, and pub
hcly acknowledges her as his wife,
he provides her with as good home
and clothing as he can afford, and
treats her as he would treat a white
woman. He sees to it that she learns
to cook, to sew and to keep house,
and in other ways tries to educate
and uplift her.
Still more interesting is the fact
that these mixed marriages involve
little or no social disability The
white husbands are rarely. If ever,
barred from associations with the
whites because of their wives. To be
sure, a man known to be living with
an Indian woman who is without bene-
fit of clergy or not under common
law contract Gas happens in rare in
stances) is. as a rule, in the language
of one White river plainsman, purity
nigh ostrichized." But this would be
true if he were known to be maintain
ing similar relations with white
woman. "Sech loose-hitched tieups
used to be kind o. common around
here" said my White river man; land
nobody thought much about 'em. But
there's so many schoolma'ams come
out here from New England and other
places that folks don't stand for that
sort o thing no more"
Legally married Indian wives pay
no more social penalty than do their
white husbands. Because of their ad- |
vantages, and particularly in cases |
where there are white servants in the !
house, the red wives are sometimes !
inclined to look down upon their tribal |
sisters; but they are not themselves, |
as a rule, treated with condecension /
by the white women of their neighbor- |
hood. Generally, the little red hen |
sticks to her home and does not go |
out with her white husband for a So
cial evening as often as would wife |
Of his own race. But this is largely |
a matter of Indian temperament.
AS for the half-blood children, as
they grow up they are asked to the |
country dance or the picnic with the /
white young men and women of the /
Some Of the handsome, |
young half-breeds are in |
as much demand at social functions as |
are those whose parents both belong /
to the superior race" In the schools, .
too, the halfbreed children mingle .
with the children of white families on .
equal terms, and suffer little, if any
thing. from race prejudice or prefer
ment, as do half-breed colored children
upon entering an educational institu-
ton.
To the discovery of these things l |
was largely led by the intelligent Of
fees of Colonel Charles P Jordan. the
man to whom Crazy Horse surren-
1ered, as related in my opening para
graph Jordan, I soon found, was a
great parsonage on the Rosebud res
ervation. being an old Indian fighter.
q man of many acres, many cattle and
many half2blood children. All the
white men of the Rosebud bow to him.
and all the white women. too. AS for
Ills wife. Weah-Wash-Tay the Beau
iful One, she can speak good English
md has been wearing white shirt
waists ever since they were intro
luced into the Dakotas.
But Jordan's wife is pure Sioux,
md, looking at her now, in her SOS,
me might wonder how so welLedd-
,ated and prosperous a man came to
leave unto this woman of the red
ace. Standing side by side on tho
,orch of the ranch house. they looked
world apart in race. Yet there was
really lover-like air about them as
he wife stroked the husbands coat
leeve with her hand and he patted
er brown cheek with his finger tips.