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Show 448 BEPORT OP SUPERINTENDENT OF II?DIAX SOHOOL8. g the m e la nguage, and rewlta at once in increased friendlinw. $ z E o = , Chamberlainj and other towns near the reservatio118, who are certain1 not likely to be prejudleed in favor of their I n d h neighbors, spoke to me of the c&s for the better among the Indians in the last few years, especially of their civihzed appearance and of their ahuightforwasd basin- dealings. The vlces of civilization, as represented by whisky and gambling, atand always between the Iqdian and progress, but in spite of this the contact at Crow Creek, Lower BrulB, and elsewhere with white settlers has been invaluable. Theuniversal testimon is "the more of it the better." There has been marked improvement in the quagty of white frontiersmen. The "scum" of twenty years ago is 'ving place to a class of good citizens. The Indian can learn much from them, anrthey will, I believe, do him substantial good as they gradually surround him. Rough and careless at first they certainly are, hut the better element EOOn takes hold, courts are established, and there is a fair show all round. These changing conditions, however, have their dan em Agenta and thoughtful men 8re anxious. Reservation life is dead or dying. fi m;st o The time is ripe, not for destruction, however, but for development, and the 018 kfe, the old system, muat be used only as a foundation for the new, and to this end ought to be carefully studied. Among the 15,000 Sioux the encampments are for the most part broken up and the eople settled chiefly on the river bottoms, where they can get wood and water. !n certain arta of Dakota the Indians have wvered the land as far as the eye can reach with Erma of from 1 to 30 acres, all protected by wire fences, each with its log hut, and beside it one or two summer tepeee aa graceful as the other is ugly and crude. Many of the farmers are shareholders in reaping machines, and I was much impressed by seeing a returned Hampton student driving a self-binder around his awn wheat fields. Generally the men are in the fields, the women either with them or at work about the house. The old relationof hraveand squaw is pass-ing awa before the influences of homestead life, jrut as the tepee must vanish before the muJroofed log hut, which rep-nts the first forward, if well-nigh fatal, ate in civilization. Untidy and illy ventilated as it is it fixes its owner, putting an en$ to his nomadic life, making possible the use of chzh, tables, and dishes and the devel-opment of a homeattsohment. The fact that these houses have but one room is not so dangerous to morality as one would suppose, but only because the Indian is not grpsaly senauoua. Christian teaehin is of wum on the side of soap and water, and ~t 1s curioua to notice how lsrgely tie use of these articles is affected by the prox-imity of church or schoolhouse. A missionary visitor demands, and is acknowl-to have a right to a chiir, aped, clean dlahy, and soap and towela. *%at are the thing8 that r e m n to be mom l~ahedl in the first place, it is important to remember that in dealing with thesegndians we are dealing with o le of very various degrees of develo ment, and methods of work which are app%{le to one tribe are not at all a plicaile to others. This has been especially true of the land-in-severaltyb ill. ~ h t neo o ne can doubt the value of this bill, it is very doubt-ful whether all tribes are equally read to take their own part in life's struggle. Instead of making them independent it gas in some eases really made them paupers. Not only ought regard to be had to the rogress of the Ind~anb, ut to the condi-tion of the country in which he lives. ~ s % rG. rinnell aays in h ~rsec ent book, The Indians of To-da "To force allotments on a tribe living in a region where the aver-age yearly rsinfal;)is only afoot or Bteen inches may be a real hardship, even though on the pretense that the acres given them are zing lands. Each receives twice as much aa if it were farmin land In a very f$e number of cases these so-called ~8 lands produce uo&ing, hot even enough vegetation to keep a single cow. ometlmes they are without water, even without access to water." To insist that the Indians bewme self-supportin on auch land is to ask what is impoasihle. Mr. Grinnell instances the Onevia. 1nfians as showing how the allotment act, when ap lied to a race that hae had contact with whitee for three hundred years, is most hefpful, while in the case of the Apaches, who speak only their own tongue and inhabit a desert, it is disastrous. How harmful the allotment bill has been in certain caaes aa regards the introduc-tion of liquor, the failure of parents to send their children to school, and in the matter of idleness, resultin from the leasing of land, we all know. We are obliged to remember that the Infians are for the most part children, that they have the weaknesses of children and that while we are to help them toward manhood as rapidly as possible they bill not attain to it in a day, nor in a single generation. Whlle wlsdom must be shown in the passage from barbarism to civilization it is important that both agents and Indians undemtand that the reservation is a tem-rary expedient; that while it ma be necessary for those who sre unable to care g r themselves the Government anKall who.have to do with ita echoola are strivipg to fit the young Indians for the fuller, freer hfe of citizenabip. In order to do th14. |