The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-02-26
BY EDWARD 8. CLARK.

NoluuDuS ldnueu, a TACT not gener
ally known. 1t is recognized by everybody that
the Indian has certain rights of fostering care and
of direction along the road to civilization, pros.
per1ty and health, and it is for this high and hui
name reason that the office of Indian affairs, of
which Cato Sells is the directing chief. must be
administered sanely and h~elpfully.
Even today American people, notably the East.
erners, think of the American Indians in the mass
as still being in a more or less savage state, or
at any rate, a state of barbarism. The old-time
problem had to do largely with the men who
constantly went on the warpath and who were a
menace to the advancing civilization of the whites.
The Indian problem for a long time was in consid.
cradle part a war department problem.
Today things have changed. The problem
largely is with the young Indians, the boys and
the girls who must be trained along lines running
Numerically opposite to those followed by their
ancestors. 1t is largely a problem of education.
and the United States government today is trying
to teach the young Indians in order that when
they become old Indians they will present no
such task of regulation and of government as
that which confronted the authorities in the cases
Of their forefathers.
Today there is only one rowing band of Indians
in the continental United States, and even this
band is now at rest within certain limits where
it probably will remain contented.
OF course on occasion the restless elders among
the Indians wander about a little, but the aborigi
mes no longer are roamers and wanderers in the
sense that they were as late as a quarter of a
century ago. The one rowing band is that Of
Chief Rocky Boy, and this little group of about
three hundred Indians has reused pity and made
occasional trouble for a good many years. 1t is
a Montana band, and while many years ago con-
gress tried to do something definite for Rocky
Boy and his followers, the attempt came to little
or nothing, and they kept on rowing, a charge if
not a menace to the people of Montana.
The present commissioner of Indian affairs, Mr..
Sells of Texas, a lawyer, a banker and a farmer.
transplanted temporarily at least into a field OF
endeavor concerning which he knew a good deal
before the transplanting. has succeeded in Undue.
ing Rocky Boy and the men, women and children
in his following to locate upon government land
in Montana, where they have an area equal to four
townships on which to dwell, there to till the soil
to earn their living. Congress will be asked this
winter to set aside this land as a reservation for
Rocky Boy, the rover.
AS has been said, the chief problem today is
with the young Indians. If they can be educated
properly the Indian problem in a few years will
vanish. Recently there was held in Washington
a meeting of the supervisors and superintendent
and instructors of the greater schools for the In
dams throughout the United States. They were
called together by Commissioner Sells to consider
a reconstruction of the system of study for the
Indian children of school age. A course of study
has been prepared and has been adopted. 1t is
hoped that 1t will give to the children Of the
Indians the pest vocational training offered by
any school system in the United States.
Concerning this course of study which has Just
been adopted the commissioner says:
1T emphasizes the study of home economics
and agricultural subjects. because any attempt to
change the Indian population of this country from
a dependent to an Independent people within a
reasonable length of time must give special con-
sideration to the Improvement of the Indians
homes and to the Development of their lands. The
usual subjects of school instruction are not neg.
lected, but they are subordinated to subjects
which, If learned practically, lead directly to pro-
ductive efficiency and self-support."
The Indian children of the United States receive
primary, prevocational and vocational instruction.
In an introduction to the report on the new
course of study prepared under the direction of
the commissioner this explanation is made:
1.-THE primary division includes the first three