“They should be supplied with seed in time; plenty but not many kinds, with the distinct understanding that they must pay for it before the next issue of money, or else it will be taken out of that. If they learn how to grow potatoes, corn and pumpkins or turnips, they have enough to start with. They ought to learn how to grind this corn and make cornbread. If they raise corn, they could easily keep chickens, pigs, milk cows, and have butter and eggs and cheese, just what the consumptive needs. Of course it may be necessary before the crops are matured to issue rations until the harvest time comes, i. e., for a year or two. After that they ought to have enough provisions to last them the year around. Indians ought to have facilities for buying pigs and chickens at ordinary market prices. In fact, they ought to be able to buy all their groceries at market prices.
“Another hindrance is the habit of visiting. Some go away for months at a time on a visit. Horses, cattle, and all are left to themselves or the wolves. When some one is sick, even if only a baby, work is quit, relatives have to come from miles and miles, etc. Sometimes they will go off to the Crows, Arapahoes, etc., and get a present of horses. Chances are that the Crows will be back here next year getting another present.
“A third hindrance is—to my mind—the method of work adopted here. (My intention is not to criticise but to offer a suggestion.) The Indians have to leave their homes and work on the roads for $1.25 per day. Consequently, they cannot look after their places nor take care of anything else. In the long run it is a loss. One head of stock lost at home, means one month’s wages gone. Why could the Indians not make their money at home? Let them do the work that has been suggested, to cultivate their fields, to plant, etc.; have the District farmers control them and make payment for work done. Many of the thoughts above are the sentiments of the better class of Indians, so you may be sure there will be little opposition on their part to putting these, or similar plans, into operation.
“A fourth hindrance is the fact that so many go away to Buffalo Bill shows, etc., leaving wife, children and everything behind. When such an Indian gets back, some one else is liable to have his wife and cattle—not mentioning bad habits and shameful diseases he sometimes brings back.
“But it is the old people that ought to arouse the sympathy of us all. They lie around in the utmost filth and neglect, eating old scraps, or swill; starving and freezing in spite of the fact that they draw rations. If they get help from anyone, it is devoured by the neighbors, and the poor old people have little benefit from it.
“The children’s lot is a hard one, too. If they live at home, they have to go through the rain, mud, cold, etc., to get to the day school. In many cases, the family must camp near the day-school. Then they have to neglect their own home entirely.
“At present, the prevailing idea seems to be that the best way to do with the Indian now is to throw him upon his own resources. If the plan outlined above or something similar were carried out for a few years, one could do so. To do so at present would mean, I think, a slaughter, a massacre. Let a death come in his family and he may give away his last hoof. He may barter away every thing for a jug of whiskey. * * * * He is no match for the white man, especially when the latter is accompanied by what the Sioux call “Holy Water,” and therefore it would be nothing but murder to mix up the Indians with Whites too rapidly on this reservation.
“The civilizing of the Indians is a slow process. When some change is going to be made it ought to be announced long ahead, and then the red man can prepare for it. Otherwise he is simply carried off his feet, dazed, doesn’t know where to go, or what to do. It is all right to say, let those who do not want to work starve, but what about the innocent family, what about his ‘sponging’ on the others as they call it? One Indian cannot refuse another anything (especially as they are all relations) without being ostracized.