The Coconino sun., 1924-12-05
TNDIAN CANNOT REMAIN
IN PICTURESQUE IDLENESS
City, Superintendent Western
Navajo Reservation, a Flagstaff Rotary Club

slow, but by educating the children
the parents are gradually reached,
their wants are being increased and
consequently more effort is being
made by them to have more that
money alone can buy. When the beau
tiful San Francisco mountains to the
north of you become covered with
snow each fall the Indians from as far
away as 120 miles beyond them see
that signal and they come in to the
agency to make inquiry about the po-
tato picking in your parks near here.
They usually work we'll and add to
considerable degree toward the eco
nomic welfare of this community.
During the past several months the
matter of educating the older Indians
has had attention and the results have
been more successful than was be-
lieved possible. Some 20 years ago
| the Apaches came from their reserva-
tions in the southern part of the state
to help build that splendid and pic
turesque Apache trail and later the
| Roosevelt dam and they have never
gone home to remain. A week ago |
returned from visit to the Salt
River valley and away down in the
marvellous canyon along which the
new road to the Horse Mesa dam is
being blasted, where at midday the
sun was hidden on account of the
sheerness of the canyon wall, there
saw more Indians than white men at
work, handling power drills, high ex-
plosives and at work on the steam
shovel. In that group | found two
young Navajos from the western Ma
vajo reservation, gaining experience,
earning money and learning to be
worth while. Fifty of our younger men
are at work in the Salt River valley
and those / saw do not want to come
back home.
| am one of those who would like
to see the Indian remain picturesque
Indian amid his romantic surround
ings, if that were possible, but the
white mems progress has already IN
vaded the reservations and the In
dians must meet those conditions by
! learning to share responsibility and
| the labor of the state with white men.
To you as business men it will appeal
| that so men from the reservation are
actually at work in construction camps
in the south part of the state. Some
of the lessons they will learn will not
be for their best, but as a prominent
| Indian expressed himself recently,
white young men learn what is not
good for them and Indians are no bet
ter than white men,"
Here | want to relate an incident
that was brought to my attention re-
Gently A Hopi Indian came to the
| Salt River valley a year ago with his
wife and prospered so that he has re-
NAMED. No doubt homesickness of
/ the wife weakened the marital ties.
| When a visiting Hopi came along and
she left her husband to travel on with
| the new man. In sorrow the abandon
! ed spouse came to the office of the
Indian supervisor of employment at
| his Phoenix office and after smoking
some succession of cigarettes he fru-
gally allowed the supervisor to fur
Inish the report that his woman had
run away A cigarette or two more
| put him into the mood to add that his
coffee pot, knife, fork, spoon and plate
| had disappeared too. In such case
man can but listen and look sympathy
! and finally the Hopi departed without
more complaint. In week or so ne
was back again with bright idea. 1t
was this: maybe so you get me cof-
| fee pot, knife, fork, spoon and plate
woman damn" Surely that denotes
progress of some kind.
Have you business men ever stop
ped to think what outside cash is
brought into your community and
state by the governments effort IN
behalf of the Indians? At Tuba City
| during the last fiscal quarter we dis
bursed $4,000 in cash and the quarter
current now almost an equal sum will
! be disbursed. Many towns in this
state have an outlying Indian agency
or school which contributes to the eco
nomic welfare of that community and
as more and more of our Indians be-
come producers of wealth by their la
Dor at white mems jobs the thousands
of them will be a mighty force toward
a diversification of effort that will
mean stable prosperity. Here is a
supply of labor right at your door we
are now educating to be active and
productive, and the younger men and
women get more fundamental training
in our schools.
Now as a tribute to the work Of the
/ Indian bureau | want to read in con-
clusion from report of the board of
Indian commissioners, an Investigating
and corrective body of men appointed
by the president to serve without sal
ary. 1t is this:
''But the 64,943 Indian children en-
rolled in schools, the 100000 Indian
members of churches, the 44,200 In
dian families who have forsaken the
wigwam and tepee for the permanent
home, the 41,000 Indian farmers who
are cultivating more than 100000
acres of land and grazing their own
stock valued at more than $35,000,000
and the $4,000 Indian boys who served