It was once my lot to see an Indian tribe forcibly removed from some place in the North to the Indian Territory. A more sorrowful sight can scarcely be imagined. My recollection is that they were the Nez Percés. They were large men with fine heads and faces. The women were worthy to be the mothers of warriors. As they camped for the night, the men gathered in small circular groups, sat Turkish fashion on the ground, and smoked their pipes in absolute silence. Sorrow, dejection, and despair were written all over them. The women pitched the tents and cooked the suppers, with the bent bodies and cast-down countenances of broken hearts.
A company of regular army men was their escort. I spoke to the officers. The captain said: "I hope my government will never again detail my company to do such work. It simply uses me up to see these broken-hearted people. Many have escaped, but I can not shoot them."
That they have been deeply wronged, no one doubts; that they are still in many cases victims of the white man's cupidity, is self-evident; but the government is trying to do the best now possible for them. It is not possible in a short time to correct the errors of a century, but when kind hearts and wise brains are acting in their behalf the future may be considered more hopeful.
It is gratifying to see that the present Commissioner urges that local schools shall do the work with the Indians, for even tho the Indian should learn less, his home ties will be maintained, and his knowledge, as it is acquired, will be applied in the home. Then the reconcentrado methods can be abolished.
Young Indians should be placed with farmers to learn farming, and paid as much as their work is worth. In the same way girls should learn housekeeping. Of all people the Indian is a social being. If placed on farms all the homes would center in one place. Our young white people can not stand the loneliness of the farm; how can we expect people who have had tribal relations to endure it?
The white man's trades and occupations only to the degree positively needed should be forced upon them; but their own bead-work, fancy baskets, queer pottery, and Navajo blankets should be greatly improved, and their artistic tastes in their own line cultivated. Let us make them see that we white people like their own characteristic work, and we will not need to turn their industry into new lines.
Miss Estelle Reel, Superintendent of Indian Schools, visits all the Indian schools, whether in civilization at Carlisle and Hampton or at the farthest reservation. She receives a salary of $3,000, with an allowance of $1,500 for traveling expenses. Stage-coach, buckboard, railroad, boat, and canoe are familiar servants in her work.
Photo by Clinedinst
THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
