Well I stayed, and I had no more trouble, except such as was unavoidable. The councils were more and more pleasant. I never had a rude or disagreeable word from them again. They would sometimes disagree with me, but generally took my advice, and were always courteous.
I laid before them first this plan. I told them that rations and aid from government are only temporary. They will come to an end. They are given to aid them to be self-supporting. I told them I had come to help them to become so. They were not much interested in that idea at first, but as continued dropping wears away the rock, my words from day to day had some effect, and here and there I saw some improvement.
I found all the work at the agency done by whites—only two Indians employed out of 2,000 Sioux at the station. I employed the Indians as fast as possible to give them work. I put one boy in the blacksmith shop, another with the carpenter, another in the mill, two or three with the agency farmer, two in the butcher house, and to help issue rations. When I came there I found the cattle were slaughtered in a brutal manner, shot in a filthy yard, where the Indians dressed the meat in a careless, unclean way. I applied for a slaughter-house, cattle-pens and a proper butcher, and got them. I put my Indian boys with him, as I said, and at the end of a month they could take hold and do the work properly themselves, and did it so six years. The beef was issued clean.
The system of employing Indians and encouraging industry was pleasing. They were glad to see their young men employed; they were willing to go to work when there was any encouragement to do so.
I had several thousand bushels of wheat to harvest. I succeeded in getting the ground broken, the crop cultivated, the wheat ground and eaten up, too. While they were threshing one hot day, some of the Indians gave out. They sent me word from the field that two more men were needed. I went out on my horse and looked about, but couldn’t see an Indian anywhere but in the field. I rode to the trader’s store, and there I found a young Indian gentleman, gotten up in fine style, with red blanket, embroidered leggings and moccasins, looking glass and fan; face painted, hair braided and ornamented with feathers—“a fancy buck,” so they say out on the frontier. I went up to him, laid my hand on his shoulder, and said, “Friend, I want you.” He looked up with an independent air, and said, “How!” I told him to get on his horse and follow me, which he did. I took him into the field and up to the threshing machine, and told the interpreter to tell him I wanted him to work and would pay him so much. The Indian boys around laughed. I told them to be quiet. He said “How,” and went at it. The only vacant place at the machine was where the chaff and dust comes pouring out—not an agreeable place for him—pouring out on his paint and oil. He never had a pitchfork in his hands before, but he went to work manfully. Pretty soon off came his red blanket; then off came the paint itself in streaks. Piece by piece came off the rest of his toggery, till the Indian was an Indian but not much besides. But he stuck to that pitchfork. I watched him; if he had given out I would have taken his place; but there was no give out to him; he worked right on for three days; at the end of the time his delicate hands were all bleeding.
That shows the pluck of the Indian. I have had other employés, who had never done a thing before in the way of labor, work till the blood ran down their hands. This one was, of course, a remarkable case. But I have had Indians who labored for me industriously for eight years without ever losing one day.
It was difficult to get them to save their wages. I finally adopted a system of banking for them. They let me lay aside their wages till the end of the quarter. Then we talked over the question what they had better buy, and under my advice they generally spent their money in useful articles, wagons, harness, stoves, furniture, etc.
I received satisfactory evidence that the Indian can be made a laboring man, but in order to do it we must pay him good wages to start with.