The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-02-11


Indian is changing his blanket Tor
a silk shirt. The younger indians
particularly are turning with AVID
ity to this garment and the accom-
panying haberdashery. Lots and
lots of these original Americans,
once termed poor, scorn wearing a
shirt that costs less than SIS. The
shirt must be sufficiently coiorful
to please the Indian eye, and the
makers cannot go too far in this
direction.
Recently members of the house
committee on Indian affairs visited
various Indian reservations in the
west, and found men and women OF
the tribes developing a strong taste
for personal adornment, affected by
the white race, but going beyond
the preference for subdued tones
generally observed among Caucas-
iang.
Officials of the Indian bureau
here look with favor upon substi-
tuting the habiliments of the white
man for the blanket and monde
script Indian costume of old. They
do not discourage these wards Of
selves in up-to-date garments, even
if in doing SO they spend much Of
their money on personal adornment
instead of on more substantial
things which would tend to show
greater progress. The bureau OFF,
Gals look upon the change as
showing tendency, particularly
upon the part of the younger
generation, to abandon once
and for all the old Indian re
gala, which has been the tribal
costume for centuries. The blanket
Indian has been a different prob
lem for the Indian bureau for some
time.
Indian Oil MiIIi0naires.
II. E. Devendorf. for more than
20 years clerk of the Indian affairs
committee of the house of repre-
sentatives, is authority for the
statement that it is chiefly among
the rich rich Usage tribes in Okla
homa that the cOlorful silk shirt is
seen in most profusion. The Usage
Indians are well able to indulge
this or any other extraTagant taste
they may cultivate There are
from l 200 to 1900 of them with in
comes varying from $4,000 to
$4,000 a month, derived from roy
atty payments on oil lands to
which they hold title. Like Indians
throughout the country, the Osages
are not exempt from the general
Indian conviction that money is
meant to spend. They spend it for
ANYTHING that will bring them
pleasure. Indian bureau officials
say that the mere act of spending
money is a source of joy to many
Indians.
Automobiles are in great demand
among the newly rich Indians, and
they like speed. The Indian is a
good driver, too. IN the level
prairie country of Oklahoma there
are many long stretches of good
roads, where the Indian driver can
step on 'er" and indulge his craV-
ing for speed to his hearts content.
There are notably few accidents in
which Indian motorists figure.
However, where whisky enters into
the equation, the Indian, like his
white brother, seems to court
trouble on the high road, and has
no trouble in finding plenty of it.
Hundred Mile Taxi Ride.
An instance of Indian disregard
of money is shown in the story of
a trip to Colorado Springs taken
last summer by a party of rich
Osages They chartered six Pail
man cars, spent most of the sum-
mer in good hotels, and returned in
private Pullmans. But about one
hundred miles from Home one of
the Indians, who enjoys an income
from oil lands amounting to sew
era1 thousands of dollars a month,
got tired of riding on the train. He
alighted, hired a taxicab, and drove
the rest of the way in it. His taxi
bill amounted to 5000, which he
paid without murmur.
Legislation is before congress
designed to give full citizenship to
the Indian. DIR. Joseph Kossuth
Dixon of Philadelphia has been ac-
tive before the Indian committees