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Show 12 REPORT OF THE CO~I88fONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. Department that he didn't think it of any use, and the hoea and rakes and plows a i~dp icks and shovels would he likely to rust away. To be asked voluntan'ly for work by the Indians, therefore, made the official speechleas with astonishment. Recovering, he offered to show them how. The three Indians trotted along behind him. He was puzzled how to initiate them, hut he set up a grading plow and showed the redskins how it was used. The dirt soon began to fl.v.. and the new road that had hrrn eurveyed so long that it Itad becolne P. joke waa king wade. Otllcr Jndians came lo look on. T1a.s wid notltinr. but when at niehr Bir \loon. Red Feather, and White Crow told them they had es'eh made $1.25 that dai, they; too, went to the agency and wanted work. The squaws were in a state of bewilderment. When they saw the young Indians approaching with picks and shovels, they imagined that their hard lot as tillers of the field, hewers of woad, and drawers of water was to he made harder by these cumbersome tools. When the Indians went on out into the fields and began work-ing the squaws came out and looked on in astonishment. They glanced at one another and tapped their heads significantly. It soonbeemeevident that thesioux. had been changed. He had entered s new em. Hereafter he will no longer he a ward; to all intents and purposes he will become a citizen. But not all the young Indians are so progreaaive. There are many who want to ! empe work. They found that those in ill health would he excused, and they flocked to the agency physician, inventing and vividly acting the most astonishing ailments. But the physician has not been fooled, and few have ohhined certificata of ill health. The Indians are chiefly engaged in building mads and fenees, bridges and. reser-voirs, while some are improving their allotted lands. While, in Indian minds, work is associated with the semislavery of the squaw, the redskin has also come to realize the value of the dollar. The =me avarice that appealed to the Sioux attracted the Pine Ridge Indians. They heard of the Sioux and the big dollam and swooped down on the agency clamoring far work. They were told it was only for the Sioux, and they went away gmmbling. The paradox of an Indian discontented because he ean not work may yet make trouble for the Pine Ridge agent. Congress appropriated $22,WO for an effort to make the Rosebud Reservation self-supporting. Succeesin the venture is now foreseen, and the additional $lO,OW promised will he expected. The Sioux will wake up some morning and find him-self self-supporting. With tbis change will disappear the last vestige of harbarie raiment, and the Indian will have become as civilized as he m y he. Some of this may be imaginary; there are some inaccuracies; and doubtless the characters are fictitious, but as a whole it presents a true picture of the situation and is suggestive of the change that is going. on. The ration system and the.reservation system are doomed. Let them go. Take away the incentive to idleness and obliterate the boundary between ancient prejudice and modern progresh. Break down the barriers, open the way for civilization, build the roads that it may march in and settle around the Indian homes. When that is done the dream of the celebrated Peace Commission of 1868 will come true. Mechanics and artisans will enter, trade will spring up, and the nucleus of a civilized community will be formed. While the prospectis hopeful, it will not do to he too sanguine and relax effort. A beginning only has been made. iinch is yet to be done. It will only he by patient, laborious work that the end in view ' can he accomplished. No one realizes this better than those engaged |