New-York tribune., 1910-01-23
"LO" is NO LONGER "POOR.'
Drilling Indians zcith Ideas Instead
of Lead ProUes Successful.

Renorts from Washington seem to deprive -
ali IFS force the hvwOrd rePard'"e t, WV
condition of an Indian which would nntt'e him
70 the elective "good." They also ind'cate '"'''
oil tho ieremiads over Poor Lo'' and the tears
oyer tho "vanishino race Of the true .Amer1-
.an, have been wa cd The Indians are be
coming so "good" that they are inrre"s'"" III
numbers TODAY there are more than 'f'F"p'
red n,n, in tho United states, number f'"N"'"
bv 10000 than that Of twenty years ago I'S
increase is attributed to the governments ef-
forts to raise the Indian to the level OF con-
temporaneous civilization. Annually the Indian
Bureau spends more than 81 .OOnnnH on the edu-
cation of the young Indian. In the course OF
the last twenty-three wears since IN" eH""9-
tional policy was adorted more than S65,000N9
has been appropriated for Indian schools In
the various reservation and non-reserVatlon
schools are upward of thirty thousand students
with an average attendance of twenty-six thou
sand. AS fast as an individual Indian indicates
his competency in managing his own affairs he
is given an opportunity to do so free from gov
ernment control. Thousands have reached this
state Last year more than thousand Ind
ians had the privilege of handling their own
alotments.
This evidence rather contradicts the not in
frequently expressed belief ooh, the Indian
goes back to his tepee and puts on his blanket
again after he leaves school,"
Recently Moses Friedman, the superintendent
of the Carlisle Indian School, undertook to learn
what had become of the 1850 former students
of the school He found that large numbers
had died from the ravages of the white mans
plague. He was able to obtain definite data
about 1675 of them Onequarter Of this num-
Der were dead. OF the remainder 10 We're en-
ployed in the United States Indian service
teachers, matrons, instructors in the industries.
clerks, etc; II were in the professions, 10
were employed at trades, 364 were farmers and
ranchmen and 5S1 were merchants, clerks, SOL
ders, sailors, band musicians, professional ball
players, housewives (32D, students, laborers,
lumberers, cowboys and hotelkeepers. Thirty
four at home with their parents, and one
was circus performer.
OF the 564 students who have received dip
Tomas from the school for completing its
nearly every one is engaged in some responsible
occupation, either in the service of the govern
ment or of some business house. Not few are
professional men, and some of the girls are
successful nurses teachers Most of them
have money in bank and city real es-
tate or farms. The majority own their homes
not tepees, but well built brick frame houses
with such modern conVeniences as their
roundings afford. They have horses and cattle
and take an interest in religion and politics
The letters written in reply to Mr.. Friedman's
inquiry in nearly every case told definitely of
something done for the benefit and uplifting of
the older and younger Indians of the tribe of
the writer.
typical letter from young Pueblo who was
drawing good salary in Gallup, N NJ was
married and well fixed" impresses one as
showing that the education dispensed at Car
Isle is far from being futile The writer wac
one of the older students of the school On
his arrival in New Mexico in 1889 he found tho
Pueblos ploughing their land with home made
ploughs, drawn by oxen with yokes strapped to
their horns. No wagons were to be seen on the
streets of the little Indian villages and p fa,v
hand made carts with great, clumsy wheels
We're the only vehicles possessed by the Indians
"Everything was primitive among my people
when | returned to them" he wrote from the
blankets they wore to the tools which they used
In tilling the soil. At Carlisle of the things
that we were continually taught was that we
were to make return to the government for Civ
Ing US an education by doing our best to help