The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1918-07-11
INDIANS MAKE DANDY
GOOD SOLDIERS

listed in large numbers in the mill
tary services are hardly more in
spring than those of the women and
children left behind. This is a par
tial account of the answer made by
the people on the reservations when
the Great White Father" in Wash
ington called to the tribes and races
inhabiting this land of freedom to
rise in it's defense
Reports received by Cato Sells,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, from
about one-third of the Indian reser-
vations, indicate a total Red Cross
membership of close to 10000, con-
tributions in money amounting to
more than $4,000 and further dona-
tions of thousands of hospital gar
ments and knitted articles. That is
not full measure of the Red Mans
generosity, however, for the reserva-
tions do not house many Indians, in
cluding the more wealthy, whose
charitable activities are listed with
the general population.
Resorting to methods of the white
man to raise money, the Omaha tribe
recently held an auction for the Red
Cross which netted $4,000, including
$500 for prize goat.
The boys of school in the north
west gathered 1000 pounds of Sphag-
mum moss for surgical absorbent
pads. Some 400 Christmas boxes
were reported, which is incomplete,
as nearly all of the 12O boarding
schools have service flags with stars
ranging in number from a few to
two hundred, and the pupils of these
schools are very mindful of their SOL
dier representatives. One of the
larger schools reported a Students
Friendship War Fund, with $3.50 on
hand and twelve war savings socie-
ties. This school in four sweek
bought 1000 thrift stamps and ID
Baby Bonds.
On a small reservation far north,
where the winters are long and Sc
we're and the Indian must struggle
for the necessaries of life, more than
one dollar per capita for every adult
was paid in cash for the Red Cross
and other war relief purposes. In
the Southwest where the parched
desert gives scant returns and sheep
raising is the chief means of support,
many of the Indians have each prom
ised a fleece of wool for the Red
Cross and the Superintendent plans
the experiment of spinning this wool
and knitting it into socks, sweaters,
etc., by the Indian women.
In a Montana district where the
Indians are nearly all full-bloods
they voluntarily held meetings and
each one who has a growing wheat
crop promised to donate one sack of
wheat for war relief work. On an
other reservation where the Indians
are very poor and have little ready
money, they donated an abundance
of handsome bead work and other
curios to be sold for the Red Cross.
One of the smallest schools in
Oklahoma reported Junior Red
Cross membership of 176 members,
being the total enrolment of the
school.
The superintendent of one of the
boarding schools for girls of Five
Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma de-
clared the girls are deeply interested
in all war work and respond readily
to requests for additional garments
The very small girls knit up the
scraps of yarn into refugee caps,
afghan squares, etc. Also they uti-
lize the scraps from the hospital gar
ments making quilt blocks. Larger
scraps are used for small underskirts
for the refugees. Gun wipers have
been cut by the hundred.
From a northern Minnesota reser-
walton, where it is believed the first
Indian Red Cross auxiliary was
started in the spring of 1917, the
president of the auxiliary writes:-
"The auxiliary numbers 48 and this
from a community of less than a
hundred adults. Some of these wo-
men have walked to the weekly meet
ing places across the ice from Old
Agency when the temperature was
twenty degrees below zero. They
have sewed on hospital shirts and
socks and learned to knit the various
garments just as their white sisters
of the cities have done"
zone evening recently an Indian
and his wife, living seventeen miles
away, came to the home of the treas
urer and inquired about the work be-
ing done, the woman bringing her
dollar for membership, saying: Il