SISSETON GIRLS, WITH TEACHER.
The tribes speaking the Dakota language are the most numerous of any Indian people upon the continent. They are now universally open to Christianity and Christian civilization. They now look to Christian people for their future. Within the last ten or twelve years the whole temper of their mind has changed. The noted chief, Sitting Bull, is an illustration. Only a few years ago he hated the very wind that blew from the direction of the white man’s country. When the wind blew from the east he would send out the town crier to say, “Get you all into your teepees. This is bad air from the white man’s country.” But when it blew from the north his crier would proclaim, “Come out and breathe the healthy air.” And once when a woman of the tribe brought home a “rooster” from a distant trading post to enliven the tedium of her labor, Sitting Bull heard it crow and instantly dispatched his chief soldier to “soldier kill” the woman, that is, cut up her tent and kill her horses, for the crime of having that white man’s bird in the sacred precincts of a Dakota camp. But now the same Sitting Bull is petitioning for Christian teachers, and land, and domestic animals, and undoubtedly would also welcome “the-bird-that-crows-in-the-morning.”
INDIAN INDUSTRIES AT HAMPTON.
BY GEN. S. C. ARMSTRONG.
Every Indian boy who comes to Hampton is allowed his choice to learn farming or a trade, and to select the trade he prefers, to which he is expected to stick. They often wish to change after some months, for they are a fickle people. While this is by no means done as a matter of course, it has sometimes been found wise to do so. A boy who could do nothing at blacksmithing made remarkable progress in the wheelwright’s shop; one who is poor on the farm may be good in the shoe-shop, and vice versa; but it does not do to encourage shifting trades. The girls go through the same routine of housework, cooking, cutting and making and mending clothes.
The boys are assigned to work as follows: carpenters, 15; painters, 1; tinsmiths, 6; shoe-makers, 13; harness-makers, 3; farmers, 13; blacksmiths, 3; wheelwrights, 3; tailors, 1. A generous lady in New York City has recently given $5,000 for an Indian workshop, which will be completed and occupied by the first of April next, and be a most satisfactory change from the shed in which they have for four years uncomfortably worked at their trades.
Considering the past of the Indian, the disposition of our boys and girls to work is remarkable. The general rule is to work from seven to twelve o’clock, A.M., or from one to six o’clock, P.M., Saturday being holiday. Those who work mornings study afternoons, and vice versa. All are paid, girls as well as boys, usually at the rate of $2.50 per month, for to expect Indians to take a real interest in their work without some compensation is absurd. It is weak and foolish to reason that the skill they attain is enough compensation. Human nature requires something more. On the other hand they purchase all their underclothing and shoes with their earnings, and are thus taught the use of money and the true value of garments, and become quite skillful in buying. A school uniform is provided for each one, made in our tailoring department.