INDIANS AT HOME

MRS. MARY McHENRY COX'S VISIT TO THE TWO LARGE SIOUX RESERVATIONS IN SOUTH DAKOTA

Printed in the Public Ledger, September 30th, 1890

Pine Ridge Reservation

As there were fifty-two pupils to return from the Lincoln Institution and the Educational Home to their Reservations, and sixty to be bought back to fill the vacancies in the school , and desiring to see for myself what homes they had and how they were to be employed on their return, besides being told that the Indians would give their girls to a lady sooner than to the Superintendent, I decided to accompany Mr. Lewis and Miss Knotwell, our Superintendent and Teacher, who were taking the pupils back. Prof. Wm. Clark Robinson of Kenyon College, also joined the party. We started on August 26th from Philadelphia and arrived at Pine Ridge Agency on August 30th. The weather was fair and the rail road acommodations comfortable; the meals served on the train and at the stations excellent. There is a small hotel at Pine Ridge in charge of Mrs. J. A. Findley, clean and well kept; nothing was left undone to make us comfortable . We were fortunate in meeting there Mr. A. T. Lea (Special Indian Agent appointed to take the Indian Census for Congress) and his wife, the latter aided me much by her kind sympathy, and by writing my official letters to the Commissioner on her type-writer. I visited all our returned pupils I could and found all dressed in citizens dress, and most of them attending the church services. I invited all to meet me at the hotel in the evening, about thirty came, they were nicely dressed; we had cake and ice cream, and all seemed to enjoy the reunion very much.

THE INDIAN'S HOME

But about their homes. These girls that we found so gentle; so refined, so modest, and so neat in their persons while with us, were living with relations, some in tents, some in log cabins with earth roofs and floors - sometimes only one room, some times two rooms - 10 or more sleeping in a room. The mother in many cases has had four or five different husbands, the father also having had a number of wives; their food consisting of fat bacon, rio coffee, often no butter, heavy and often doughy bread, dried wild cherries, black and unsavory looking in most cases, no table to eat off of, no dishes but tin ones, beef killed while running cut up in thin slices and dried. This is the kind of home that awaits these children that we have taught to be good cooks, good washers and ironers, good sewers, about whose food we have been so careful, watching that their meat was fresh, their bread sweet. Then they are forced in many cases to marry against their will, and very young, from twelve years upwards, and often some man who may have several other wives who can give their parents a pony or two for them. In the East a young man hesitates about marrying on account of the entailed expenses; an Indian has no such drawback as every squaw he has brings him additional rations, and her clothing is also supplied, so there are no bachelors or old maids among these people. One of the returned pupils, a boy of seventeen told me that since his return a year ago, several Indians had tried make him take their daughters and give them a pony for them. Many of our girls wanted to return with us to the school, but their parents would not allow them, and no people that I ever heard of have such influence or rather authority over their children as the Indian. Under similar circumstances a white boy or girl in their teens would defy their parents and run off. These children will simply say, I want to go back, I have coaxed hard but my father or grandmother says I cannot go. And one reason they are so determined that they shall remain is because the family are benefitted by the rations they draw. I often heard it charged about returned students that they went back at once to their idle habits. What else can they do? I obtained positions for several of our best girls at the Agency, but after a few days their relatives insisted upon their returning home, and gave them no peace until they did. Then there are not six places on the whole Agency that require the services of girls; there are no dressmaking or millinery establishments, no work at all for more than a few even at the government building, no private families to employ them. What have they to do then but go to ruin, as we would term it, but it is not so looked upon there. A woman may have a dozen husbands and the man as many wives, and they are treated the same as the others, and strange to say there is little quarreling among them; children of the same mother but all with different fathers will live and love each other even better than many of our families with the same parents. No scolding or jealous ies that we could see, even between the several wives living with the same man. Several of our girls, I was glad to see, had married white men and seemed so far to be kindly treated, but what their future will be it is hard to say.

DISTRIBUTING RATIONS

The great curse of the Indian system is this ration business; it is a most demoralizing sight to see a string of hundreds of women standing in line with their children around them waiting for their rations, and coming to their wagons with a bag of flour on their back, a piece of fat hard looking bacon in their hands, sugar, tea, rice, etc., in bags, scrambling into high wagons and driving to their homes, some five, some ten, and often times seventy to one hundred and fifty miles distant. These rations are given out by the Agent once a week to those near, and every two weeks or a month to those at a distance. Some Indians spend most of their time coming for and driving back with their rations; then once every two weeks they have a beef issue, and no Spanish bull fight is more brutal than this method of killing the cattle. You see wagons of women and children around the corral where the bullocks are kept. The men, young and old, on horseback, with rifles in their hands, form two lines, at a given signal a bullock is driven out of the corral and through this line and the names of the families to whom it is given, called, one bullock being usually divided among thirty families, immediately the men representing these parties gallop off after the unfortunate brute and run him about half a mile; then shoot him down; the women of these families watch anxiously until the poor beast is down then they whip up their horses and drive furiously after them, to assist the men to butcher the animal, the hide is taken off at once, the meat still warm with life cut up, the liver and all the entrails eaten in their heated state; imagine such a scene in our christian country and think what a demoralizing effect it has upon the rising generation, who to the youngest take part in this most brutalizing affair. It was a sickening sight, and I realized how these people are so sickly, so scrofulous, so consumptive, and my great amazement is, how, trained up among such surroundings, they can be as gentle, as kind, as affectionate as they are.

TAKING THE CENSUS

I spent one day with Mr. Lea when he went to take the census, and camped out with the party. I never saw anything done more thoroughly than he ia doing this work, not one member of the family is allowed to slip, he will not enumerate anyone who is in the least painted, they must wash it off before he will take their names. We tried to get some children from the camps. Such a scene. As we approached the camps we could see lots of children running wild over the plains, like wild deer, and with scarce any clothing on: on our approach they would run and hide behind their tents, and all we could do their parents could not be induced to send them to school. The rations they draw for them is more to their mind than all education; by the census now being taken there are hundreds of these children running in this wild way over the plains.

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE SCHOOLS

The law is that all children of a proper age should be sent to school some place, but how can the Agent enforce this on a reservation covering some three or four million acres with only an allowable police force of fifty Indian men. The Agent does the best he can, but even the reservation boarding and day schools are not full, because the children are so near home they are constantly staying away, the only hold the Agent has on them is to refuse the parents rations if they do not send them to school, and yet, as he says, he has not the heart to enforce this as he knows how they would suffer without them. He is not allowed to send to outside schools any children that has been enrolled into the reservation school for the past year, we had no authority to take these wild ones of the plains so we were hindered very much in collecting pupils, while if allowed to take those who are entered in the schools there and whose parents are really anxious for them to go East, the Agent could fill up his vacancies from the camps and there would not be room enough in all the Agency and contract schools, East and West, for half the children of proper age to be educated.

SOME FORMER PUPILS

Four of our returned male students are employed at the Agency, one at a trader’s store. One girl as a servant in a minister’s family. A good many of the girls are married. We spent one night with one of these, Alice Pourier, married to a ha1f breed, Joe Brown. We drove thirty miles along the prairie hoping to find children, and when we reached her home, nearly dark, where we were not expected, her face fairly beamed with joy at seeing us. She gave us her room, which was a large one with board floor, a melodeon in one corner, sewing machine, bedstead, chairs, etc. She at once proceeded to prepare supper for us, at which she told us she would christen some of her wedding presents. The table was spread with a clean white cloth, clean white linen, napkins, nicely plated spoons, forks and knives. We had tea, bread, tomatoes, meat, bacon, potatoes and plum jelly. There was a very nice hang ing lamp in our room, basin, pitcher, soap, &c. The bed was soft and clean, and we slept very comfortably. In the morning we had a good breakfast, and served as nicely as the supper. We had to leave early for our thirty miles return drive, and I am sure our visit gave all the family much pleasure, as for our selves we were delighted with our hospitable reception and to find Alice so comfortably fixed, her husband seems a good industrious man and capable of supporting her well; he has not the education she has and regrets he did not go to our school some years since. This visit repaid us for a good deal of our labor. Another of our girls, Jennie Palardy, is married to Robert Pugh, a white man, who is freight agent at Pine Ridge. She also lives comfortably, she brought her three months old child in a baby coach (there are only two others in Pine Ridge) to see us, and it was as nicely and cleanly dressed as any child East. She was constantly with us while we staid at the Agency, and expressed her appreciation and love for our school very strongly. Another of our pupils, Julia Sanders, is married to one of our returned students, Charles Clifford. Julia met us on our arrival at the depot in Rushville, the railroad station twenty-five miles from Pine Ridge. She had ridden over with the friends of the children who were returning to meet us. Her husband and she came to see us often, they seem happy in each other, and he is trying to get an appointment as teacher at one of the schools on the Reservation.

ENFORCED IDLENESS AND CONSEQUENT POVERTY

We did not see the husbands of the other girls but they are all poor because there is no place for them to work. No tin shops, no tailor shops, no blacksmith (unless the government one, and a small affair which requires no help). The only work for boys is herding and breaking horses which of course can employ only a small number, the others stand around all day, idle. If there were flour mills, saw mills, &c., there would be plenty of work for them, but no one can start any such industries on Reservations without consent of the Indian Department. We had many of our boys taught farming, but the land is a barren dessert, there has scarcely been a good shower of rain for a year; what corn, potatoes, and other things were planted has all dried up .. The government supplies all kinds of farming utensils but they are useless, the whole Reservation that I saw is a desolate plain, incapable of cultivation on account of the soil, and worse this season because of the drought.

MISS DREXEL'S SCHOOL

The only flourishing kitchen garden we saw was at the Roman Catholic school built by Miss Catharine Drexel, and the only way they have succeeded has been by irrigation. They have gone to much expense and have the water now running all through their vegetable garden. There is no investment that has been made of Miss Drexel's fortune that is paying as good solid interest as this; here are gathered one hundred and fifty of these ignorant, neglected but intelligent boys and girls, who are clothed, fed and educated under the care of a good, kind Father and an earnest Christian Mother. The contrast between them and their Arab brothers and sisters is indescribable. Father Jutz and the Mother Superior are doing a great and good work well, their hearts are in it, and it is blessing many with Christianity and civilization.

DIFFICULTY IN COLLECTING CHILDREN

We had the promise of many scholars - Red Shirt, who was so courted in Europe by crowned heads, &c., came to see us at once, he was most anxious for his children to go to our school, which he had visited, but they had in his absence been enrolled into the boarding school at the Agency, and neither he nor the Agent had any control over them. Many others are similarly situated. The orders from the Commissioner prevent any being transferred from a Reservation school to any other. Another cause for the difficulty that all the schools have had this season in collecting children is, this unfortunate fanaticism that has seized upon the Indians that Christ is about to come in person. A party of Mormons have been sending their emissaries among the Indians telling them that Christ is soon to come on earth to destroy the white people and give them back their lands, buffaloes, and all the possessions they formerly had, and they have started all over the Reservation a dance called the Messiah dance. On Friday when we crossed the plains on our return from our thirty mile drive there was scarcely an Indian man, woman or child to be seen, where on the day before hundreds were roving around, they had all gone to the Messiah dance where they were to remain perhaps a week, dancing and cutting themselves and refraining from all food until they fell prostrated, then they thought they saw visions. In connection with this the chiefs held a council lately and decided that no children should be sent East to school for the present, they could not say they should go to no school at all for they knew the rule of the government, but they also know that there is not room for half on the Reservation schools, and this resolve of theirs prevents them attending any school. The Agent is doing his best to break up these dances. When he went out to them to stop it, about a week since, they drew their revolvers, and had he not put on a bold front there might have been serious trouble. Every Indian nearly has a rifle or revolver. Weapons nor ammunition are not allowed to be sold on the Reservation, but they are readily purchased in the neighboring towns. Very many of the bucks have a large revolver and belt filled with cartridges which they wear at all times. No man East is allowed to carry loaded weapons, these Indians, old and young, carry them openly.
For the above reasons we were obliged to leave Pine Ridge with but two girls; there were plenty of boys of 16, 17, 18 and 20 who wished to come, but our experience is that after 15 years of age we can do only temporary good to these pupils, by that time they have been so accustomed and trained in their parents' ways that a five years course at school cannot change their tastes so as to enable them to resist the home influences on their. return. Although we found none of our children had gone back to the Indian dress, because perhaps we never had many of the older ones, still we saw enough to convince us that we could do the greater good by taking both boys and girls under twelve years of age.

A HOSPITAL BADLY NEEDED

There is one thing much needed on the Reservation, that is a hospital, the sick have no chance of recovery, having no care; their medicine man is sent for and he puts charms on them and says some chants, then demands a pony for payment of his services. In all our missionary efforts now the hospital is considered the strongest agency of civilization, there should be no delay in having them established. On every Indian Reservation the government appoints a physician, but what can he do if there is no one capab1e of carrying out his orders? The medicine he leaves is ignorantly administered and the patient receives no proper nursing. We left Pine Ridge on the 7th for Rushville to take the·train for Valentine, thirty miles from Rose Bud Reservation, and arrived there on the 8th.

Rose Bud Reservation

On our arrival at Rose Bud we called at the Agency and was most kindly received by Miss Wright, the sister of Major Wright, the Agent, and were comfortably quartered at their house, which is quite commodious and nicely furnished. Rose Bud Agency is in a valley surrounded by hills, the roads around are steep and very sandy, no trees of any account to be seen and vegetation all dried up. No rain, except a few showers, has fallen here all summer; the streams, few in number, are mostly dry. It took us from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. to drive from Valentine to Rose Bud. The country we rode through was not as barren as about Pine Ridge, but for miles we did not see a habitation or a living thing. We started out the day after we arrived to visit the camps and met three of our returned scholars, all in citizens' dress, but the same old story of no employment met us, and of course, idleness brings in its train all kinds of evil. The Agency proper is surrounded with a stockade, into which no one can pass without an order or for some good :reason; this is to keep the Indians from loitering around and preventing the employees attending to their duties. During our whole journey so far, with the exception of one or two days, the heat has been most oppressive, but it does not cause perspiration as with us, while very warm your clothes are dry and comfortable.

LOOKING FOR PUPILS AMONG THE CAMPS

We started the next morning among the log houses and tents to try and induce the parents to send some of their children home with us. There is no boarding school in this reserve, and as there are but a few .Indians residing near the Agency, only a limited number can attend the day school, which is under the efficient charge of Miss Wright, assisted by Luther Standing Bear, a returned Carlisle student. The various camps are at some distance from the Agency and we bad to ride miles before reaching them. We found here, as at Pine Ridge, the Indians unwilling to part with their children indeed many were so sickly that we did not want them. We met one of our old pupils, Prairie Chicken, he was the first of our scholars whom we have met that wore the Indian dress, he was not painted but his hair was long and his costume Indian; he was with us at school only about six months when we first commenced our work, he was transferred to Hampton where he remained two and a half years. He was driving with his wife, a full Indian squaw, but recognized me at once, stopped his horse and rushed over to shake hands; he has not forgotten his English; he afterwards came to see us at the house to ask us to take his wife's brother to our school.

ST. MARY'S SCHOOL

We visited St. Mary's School, established by Bishop Hare, under the charge of Miss Ives, and found forty-nine bright, intelligent children with kind, efficient teachers. The influence of this school is telling upon the people and too much cannot be said in its favor. Here true civilization is taught, not book knowledge only but the true meaning of home life in its purest and highest sense. Scatter such schools over the reserve if you desire to hasten the solving of the vexed Indian problem, living in such an atmosphere they will soon be strengthened in all that makes a people good and prosperous.

THE WHITE MAN'S BAD FAITH

One of our difficulties in procuring children has been, I think, caused by the Indians feeling sore with the white people on account of the government not carrying out the pledge made to them by the Sioux Commission and on which pledges they signed the late treaty. Gen. Crook, Gov. Foster of Ohio, and Gen. Warner, the acting Commissioners. gave not only verbal promises but written ones, that if they would sell their lands and sign the treaty founded on the Dawes bill their rations should not be reduced and that nothing which they then received should be taken from them; not more than a month after the treaty was signed, at Pine Ridge the beef issue was reduced one million pounds for the year, and at Rose Bud two million pounds; their annuities were also reduced. It is said that Gen. Crook felt so badly about this that it is thought it hastened his death as he had always kept his word in his dealings with the Indians, and it was their confidence in his integrity that made them sell their lands and sign the treaty. All who desire to benefit these people are now looked upon with renewed distrust, and who can blame them for this?

MAJOR WRIGHT VINDICATED

We read in the papers before coming here severe comments on Major Wright, the Agent, on account of the number of rations having been issued for 7500 people, while, when the census was taken this year, there was found to be only 5500 Indians on this Reservation. Major Wright received his appointment on September 14th, 1889, and he acted on the census taken by Mr. Spencer, his predecessor, he could not of course take any other basis for his estimate of rations; he received orders from the department to take a new census immediately after Jone 30th, 1890, the end of the fiscal year. He pressed all his employees into the service, and having stationed his assistants at different points, took the count on the 7th and 8th days of July and had it all completed by the 15th of that month. Acting under orders from the Interior Department his count was made without regard to that of Special Agent Lee, whose returns were not made until August 5th. The two reports do not materially differ. Agent Wright shows on the Reservation about 150 more Indians than Mr. Lee; both reports prove 2000 less than the number reported as receiving rations. The Indians as a class are very much diseased, the result of intermarriages, bad food and exposure to inclement weather, many die of consumption; last year la grippe and measles were fatal among them, with no hospital and their camps miles from the physician. There is scarcely any hope for the sick Indian, man, woman or child, to recover. Unless those who take the census know these people's ways they will likely number the dead in their count, for if you ask au Indian how many children he has he will tell you be has ten, when asked to see them he will show you five the others he will tell you are upon the hill, meaning that they are buried there. The doctor reports that during the last year only nineteen died, that means only those he had attended; the number who died in the far off camps he cannot possibly know about and the parents will not report them fearing to have their rations stopped. Major Wright naturally feels annoyed at the misunderstanding in regard to his position in this matter, but a simple explanation is all that is needed to set him right before the community; even if a man desired to be dishonest in regard to these rations, situated as the Rose Bud Agency is, it would be almost impossible for him to do so. Think - 35 miles from any town or railway station, with no means of transportation to or from the place except in open wagons, up and down sand hills difficult even for a light carriage to go, all goods from the storehouses would be seen and recognized by every Indian and employee on the road.
We remained at Rose Bud until Tuesday, September 16th, securing only six children, whom we sent on to school. The Agent said he was surprised that we got any, as he had, under orders from the Indian Commissioner, tried to get a class for Carlisle, and could not get one scholar.

MRS. COX’S IMPRESSIONS

I would sum up the impression made on me by my visit to these two Sioux Reservations and the opinion I have formed from my experience there in regards to the best method of civilizing these people, in a few words. They are not to be censured for their mode of living as that is incident to all nations and people of the same class. I have seen in Great Britain, on the Continent, in Philadelphia itself, families living in one room and in as squalid a condition. What I do think should be insisted upon in the first place is that they should be made to obey the general law of our land in regard to marriage; that they should be made to contract lawful marriages, and plurality of husbands and wives should be punishable; that education of all children of over five years should be compulsory; that hospitals should be established on all Reservations, with competent nurses who could be procured from among the returned pupils of the Eastern and other schools, and all the sick obliged to be reported there and if possible treated there so as to dispose of the Medicine Man; that the men should be obliged to cut their hair and wear the citizens' clothes which the government provides for all; that no man should go about enveloped in white sheets, covering as they do their heads and faces, which is a common sight among them, 1ooking exactly like a statue. This they consider a proper costume for courting, as they term it. In this disguise they follow the young girls, and throwing the sheet over them force them to go with them; we saw, I suppose, hundreds of young bucks in this dress; then if the children were sent away to school, the younger the better, where they could not see or feel the influences of the older ones there would be a greater chance of their never returning to the old ways.

RESERVATION AND OTHER SCHOOLS

Of course the Reservation schools do much good, but in every school we visited there was one or two police constantly on hand to hunt up children who had run off to their homes; and also a great drawback to these schools is that the friends of the children come and tent near them and make the pupils restless and dissatisfied and importune the school to provide provisions, &c., for them. The Superintendent of one school near a Reservation told me that they did not want children from the neighborhood, they were so annoyed by the visits of their friends and relatives, in another school every child left to attend a dance and were only brought back by the Agent sending the police after them. It would be a wise thing, in my opinion, if the government instead of giving them rations, clothing, stores, implements, &c., would allow them each so much money per week so that they would learn to take care of themselves. The government of course in giving them what it does is only paying them for the land purchased from them, but let it be in money and they will soon learn the value of dollars and cents which now they know nothing about. It seems hard to say take the young children from their parents, but is it wise to allow generation after generation to be trained as the young Indian is? Is such training ever going to fit them for citizens? Is it not better for one man or woman to suffer than a whole nation to be demoralized? As soon as the parents see that they must act differently or lose their children for a time, they would soon yield to the inevitable and this great problem would solve itself. There is a very general impression that women are of no account among the Indians, I did not find it so. In most cases the fathers were willing that the children should go to school, but deferred it entirely to the mother. The grandmothers are treated with great respect and her will seems to govern the family; we could have gotten as many pupils as we wanted but for the opposition of the mothers and grandmothers. The women split wood and pitch the tent, but an Indian told me that when the men offered to do it they were laughed at by the women. What a common thing it is to see white women working to support their husband and children. In many parts of Europe women do the most laboring work.

AMUSEMENTS FOR THE INDIANS

Another suggestion I would make is to have a large room or hall on every Reservation for the purpose of concerts, tableaux and other civilized and innocent amusements, also grounds for base ball and other healthy sports. Human nature is the same in men and women of every color, young, middle aged, old, all need recreation and entertainment. Nothing of this kind is provided for the Indians and they naturally cling to their wild dances, the only amusement they know of. At their homes they sing their weird songs, and yet they are capable of attaining a high standard of vocal and instrumental music, as anyone can ascertain if they will call at our school and hear the sweet chanting of the Episcopal service by our pupils, Waud’s most difficult of pieces, “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” and other music. Why it never occurs to those undertaking the training of any people in christian and civilized ways to provide proper amusements.has always been a surprise to me, and when I found these people rushing to see the Messiah, the Omaha and other dances, I was reminded of the thousands of our best educated people, even royalty itself, who flock to such entertainments as Buffalo Bill and other similar shows; take from our people their public amusements and in a short time they would institute the same wild entertainments as the Indians have.

ENCOURAGEMENT IN THE INDIAN WORK

In an experience of thirty-two years of work for poor children I can honestly say that in the seven years of that time that has been devoted to the Indian children I have felt more has been accomplished in spiritual, intellectual and industrious education than in any other seven years of that period; thus showing the great capability of these people for civilization. I would also suggest that employment be found on the Reservation for all able to work, it can be done; the wagons, the tins and many other goods now purchased by the Government could be manufactured by the people themselves and would be a great saving of expense. Put a competent white mechanic at the head of each department or manufactory and he would soon have plenty of workers. There is no place where anything can be mended, I saw a pile of damaged goods, consisting of wagons, tubs, wringers and other useful things burnt up because there was no place where they could be repaired. The Indian is not naturally more idle than the white man, give him the same incentive and he will work as well, take away all inducements from the white man and he will be as indolent as the Indian. I was told by an Agent that for every vacancy for workmen there were twenty or more applicants.

RELIGION

The word savage as applied to the Indian is, I think, a misnomer. Early history portrays their character as I have found it. Dignified, kind, respectful, polite, not given to quarreling. In all their numerous languages, and each tribe has its own, there is not to be found one wicked or swearing word. I never heard an Indian utter an oath, those who do swear speak English not Indian. When we attribute cruelty and vindictiveness as especially belonging to them we are unjust. Compare their most dreadful massacres with the scenes witnessed in India when the British troops bound twenty-four Sepoys to the cannons' mouth and fired them off, the bloody days of the French Revolution, the rancor of religious wars, our own civil strife, and the trifling causes that invited these dreadful deeds, with the wrongs of the Indian, robbed of his home, his lands, his game, his family, driven from one place to another, is he to be called more savage than others because he tried to defend himself and resents such treatment? As a race the Indian is naturally religious, those in North America were never Idolators, they always recognized the Great Spirit; I never heard of one being an Atheist. I have seen on the Reservation a church filled with young and old and nowhere could you see a more devout congregation, no talking or laughing, but all who could joined in the responses and made the building ring with their hearty singing. And in this connection let me say, that I do not think any Agent ought to be allowed to use his influence in favor of one christian denominational school more than another. The Agent is the representative of the President of this country, his power is even more potent, and when, as in many cases, he uses that power for the benefit of one sect more than another, he wrongs the country and does much mischief among those over whom he has been placed, he bewilders the lndians, they cannot comprehend that if we have but one God why there should be so much bitter opposition between those who worship Him in different ways; and the one to whom they are obliged to look for protection and guidance in all their temporal matters should not be permitted to use any influence or authority for or against those who go out.to instruct these people in spiritual matters. There is no more reason for this than for our authorities to interfere with our religious bodies in their efforts to build up churches and instruct people in accordance to their several views ..

IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION

In regard to educating these people; many object to it be cause they seem to have made little progress and are unable to make practical use of either book or technical knowledge on their return home. If they were not educated, when the time comes (and it must be soon) when they will have work and means given them to be self-sustaining, it would make it very much more difficult for them to do the work or to understand the importance of industry and independence. The good result of the education they have and are receiving is conspicuously seen. In almost every family and camp there is some member who speaks English, who can read and write, and who knows and feels how many more advantages the white people have in their better laws and customs, and many expressed their shame that we should see how their people live, and especially how ignorant they are in regard to the sacred ness of marriage. Education is enlightening them and giving them strength to resist their old and demoralizing ways; add to education employment at home for young and old, and the Indian citizen will soon be a credit to our country. My surprise is that having so little to occupy them, nothing to strive for, no object in life but to eat, drink and sleep, they do not become stupid and imbecile; place ourselves in the same position and we would soon, beyond a doubt, have to multiply our insane asylums. We accuse the Indian of laziness, we might as well find fault with a man for being hungry when he has nothing to eat.

FARMING

Just one word about farming - The Reservation lands that I have seen are unfit for agriculture. The drought of South Dakota would not allow of successful farming even if the land was good; 2000 bushels of potatoes were distributed by one Agent last year, all planted, and not any result, all dried up; think of the waste. A fair chace is all the Indian wants, good land, work shops, good laws enforced, money, not supplies, and in a short time the now uncivilized will . become honest, industrious, well behaved citizens; we have found it so with our pupils here, they would carry it out at. home if we cou1d give them surroundings that would encourage and strengthen them.
I returned home intensified in my interest in these people and my firm belief of their capabilities for the highest civilization under proper, judioious treatment.

MARY McHENRY COX

FIRST DIRECTRESS LINCOLN INSTITUTION

Document History

• Transcribed by HS 2025-08-15; edited by MB 2025-08-18