sides and in the mountain coves. Nor are they very contented; and if the principle of discontent could be directed from impotent grumbles and factional quarrels to a lively concern for their own self-improvement, it would be of value as the basis of growth. But they are quite as well off as many an humble white farmer; much better than the worthless portion of the population of their own vicinity. A visit to the home of Lewis Owl showed many evidences of mechanical skill, if not many of domestic comfort or luxury. The house was constructed of logs, deftly hewn and neatly fitted together. Near it was a small smithy, with forge and anvil. By the side of the porch stood a large mortar and pestle, very smoothly and accurately shaped out of oak-such as is used for grinding their corn; a handmade loom; a sled for oxen, or more likely for a single ox, according to their custom; homemade hames, good baskets, and in the river, near by, a canoe of the Cherokee pattern, about 20 feet long and 2 feet wide, hewn from a solid log, and turned up at the ends. This, if a type, was perhaps an unusually good type of the homes scattered among the hills. The names of animals, as wolf, owl, bird, etc., still are popular surnames. The principal chief who succeeds Chief Smith is Standing Deer. There is a disposition, probably instigated by the white population, to urge the removal of these Eastern Cherokees to their nation in the Indian Territory. The inclination to favor this is stimulated still further by the depressing condition of factional strife which has sprung up. But it would be far better if they would settle down where they are, cherish a spirit of contentment, foster their little industries and build up new ones, and abandon the communal tenure of land, which has proven a fruitful source of difference among them. Respectfully submitted. Gen. E. WHITTLESEY, Secretary Board of Indian Commissioners. PHILIP C. GARRETT, Commissioner. REPORT OF FRANCIS E. LEUPP. BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS, DEAR SIR: At its meeting in New York City on May 19, 1896, the United States Board of Indian Commissioners voted "that Commissioner Leupp be requested to visit as many Indian agencies and schools as practicable during the coming summer, and to attend the teachers' institutes to be held at St. Paul, Minn., Lawrence, Kans., and San Francisco, Cal., by Dr. Hailmann, superintendent of Indian education." In accordance with this request, having been called to St. Louis in June'by private business, I seized the opportunity of an interval when my work was least pressing to make a tour through some of the Western country where there are Indian schools and reservations. My first objective point was the school at Flandreau, S. Dak., concerning which a number of damaging stories had got abroad. One of these accused certain employees of scandalous conduct; another represented the supervision of the pupils by Leslie D. Davis, the superintendent, as so slack that immorality had become rife among them, and it had been necessary to send home two girls who gave signs of approaching maternity. Inquiry on the spot showed that both these reports, although having a basis of fact, such as it was, on which to rest, were exaggerated and unjust. It is true that the principal teacher, a young man named Jester, had been guilty of indiscreet conduct in connection with Miss Warren, a Chippewa mixed blood from White Earth, who filled a subordinate position as teacher, and Miss Tyler, the white baker for the school. Mr. Jester's attentions to the young women appear to have gone no further than a rather intense flirtation, involving nothing criminal or immoral. He was, perhaps, overfond of their society, and, flattered by the evident pleasure they found in his, their responsiveness seems to have been due to a romantic susceptibility inherent in their natures, and its too candid expression was doubtless largely the result of their inexperience of the world. Both Miss Warren and Miss Tyler gave every appearance of being women of worthy life and honest purpose. The rather severe lesson they have learned from this incident will probably prevent further errors of this sort if they are transferred to other fields, which I understand is to be done. Mr. Jester, however, has been under fire before for like indiscretions, and does not appear to have learned anything by experience. He is a competent man in certain branches of formal educational work, but while a good surface disciplinarian and drillmaster in the class room, seems to lack the sympathetic personal interest in his young charges which is so important a part of the equipment of a worker in the Indian school service. As to the cases of the Indian girls sent home, I ascertained that two girls brought from Pine Ridge Reservation and named, respectively, Rosa Nelson and Leta Livermont, had fallen ill soon after their arrival at Flandreau, their symptoms being such as to convince Dr. Spafford, the school physician, that they were well on the way to become mothers. One of them confessed very promptly in response to the Doctor's questions; the other kept up her denials stoutly for a time, but at last yielded. Both girls named the young men at Pine Ridge who were responsible for their condition. They were accordingly sent home, and their parents informed of all the facts. Since then they both have been married to the young men involved and borne children in wedlock. Of a third complaint it is not so easy to dispose. A young white man named Walter, employed as the school tailor, was accused some time ago of speaking improperly to some of the Indian girls detailed to his shop. The actual words used constituted less of an offense than the suggestion conveyed. Walter was called to account by Superintendent Davis, confessed his fault, and expressed contrition. He has relatives living in the neighborhood, and had procured a transfer from another school to Flandreau, so as to be near them. The menace of removal or transfer to some remote point was a fearful blow to him, and he pleaded earnestly for another trial. The superintendent required him first to apologize to the pupils who had witnessed his misconduct, and then consented to accept his pledge of better behavior and let him remain. As far as can be ascertained he has borne himself without reproach, at least in the same direction, since receiving this discipline. There is room for doubt, however, of the policy of permitting an employee to continue at a school where he has once been in disgrace. The Indian mind is prone to suspicion, and is not trained to draw nice distinctions, and the man who has once placed himself in Walter's position is apt to have the incident remembered against him a long time, if not forever. The superintendent's idea in retaining him was that his contrition was sincere, and that, with the memory of his humiliation always kept in mind by his surroundings, he would be more proof against temptation at Flandreau than anywhere else, and would be disposed, by establishing a record for industry and usefulness, to live down the past. One reason why everything out of the ordinary which occurs at the Flandreau school is so quickly bruited abroad is that the Flandreau Indians, who have a settlement on the edge of the town, regard the school as under their special supervision. Like all Indians, they are much given to talk among themselves, and any bit of gossip which gets afloat in the neighborhood loses nothing in their passage of it from mouth to mouth. These Indians, by the way, are generally worthy of encouragement. They were among the first to take up the white men's way of independent living and selfsupport, and therein set an excellent example. They are poor, and a succession of short crops compelled them sometime ago to mortgage their farms. They were looking forward with some dread, at the time I was there, to the possibility of foreclosure and the loss of their homes. To avert this calamity the Secretary of the Interior consented to commute their annual issue of farm stock and implements this year and pay them cash instead, so that they could apply the money to the relief of the liens on their property. It has long been the practice of the school physician to attend the Flandreau Indians in illness. An appropriation used to be made by Congress to cover the cost of his attendance. Since this appropriation ceased, the physician has gone on attending those who called upon him for aid, making no charge to those unable to pay. The service is purely an act of sympathy and good will, and if it involved simply the physician's time and the exercise of his professional skill in diagnosis and prescription, it might go on indefinitely, but when to these are added a heavy draft upon his stock of drugs with each prescription, the aggregate annual expense becomes considerable. It seems but right that some provision should be made by Congress for reimbursing this actual cash expense which he now meets out of his private purse; the outlay of time and trouble to which he is put by his kindness of heart are as much of a contribution to the cause of the Indian in distress as ought to be demanded of one man, and the fear that the Indians would be pauperized by this assistance, temporarily extended, is sufficiently offset by the spectacle they now present of self-respecting effort, with very little encouragement from the Government or anybody else. Within 15 miles of Flandreau lies Pipestone, Minn., the seat of another Indian boarding school, which I embraced this opportunity to visit. The proximity of the two institutions illustrates a crying evil of our Indian legislation. There is no reason or excuse for planting these two schools almost within gunshot of each other. The land which Senator Pettigrew sold to the Government for a site for the Flandreau school is abundant to permit of the expansion of that school to five times its present dimensions if need be, or if Pipestone appeared to be a more desirable location, the reservation there would easily accommodate both the neighboring school plants. Nothing but motives of political expediency and the vice of logrolling will account for such a multiplication of institutions where the same money could be expended to so much greater advantage in strengthening one already established and in good working order. Dropping in upon the Pipestone school without warning, I found Prof. De Witt S. Harris, the superintendent, on his knees in the main entrance hall putting down a new floor with his own hands. A majority of the pupils had gone home for vacation, and this seemed to be a convenient season for making some necessary repairs. The allowance of money at Professor Harris's disposal was insufficient to pay for both flooring material and the labor of laying it, so, having a natural mechanical faculty and considerable acquired skill, he was turning these to account so as to squeeze as much as possible out of his meager fund. I went through the school and found everything in perfect order, in spite of there being no expectation of a visit. One thing which impressed me most pleasantly was the evidence on all sides of the personal affection of the smaller children for the superintendent. His appearance in a doorway anywhere was the signal for the little tots to drop their play and rush toward him, grasping his hands and clinging about him with caresses. Even though a stranger to them, the fact that I was in his convoy seemed enough to carry me also into their good graces, and I shared their endearments. All this was in so sharp contrast with the proverbial shyness of the little Indian child, that one could not escape the impression that these young folk had been treated in such a way as to win their absolute confidence-a great point gained in the way not only of influencing the children themselves for good, but of reaching the hearts of the parents, and through them giving to the tribes of which they are members a kinder feeling for the white man's civilization. Professor Harris is much hampered in his work for lack of facilities. He has a school plant adequate, in its own way, to the needs of 75 pupils; but he has already 86 pupils, and will be required next season to find room for 100. He reasons, and very properly, that small schools are a wasteful investment, the same per capita outlay making vastly better provision for 200 than for 100 pupils. He has accordingly recommended a number of improvements, including a twenty-thousand dollar stone building, with a wash room, bathroom, and play rooms in the basement; small boys' dormitory rooms, matron's room and sitting room on the first floor, and larger boys' dormitory rooms and rooms for the industrial teacher and farmer on the second. Another recommendation is for a ten-thousand dollar stone building for school purposes, with a furnace in the basement, four schoolrooms on the first floor, and an assembly room on the second. Whether or not he succeeds in getting these expensive additions to his general plant, he will certainly have to have an enlarged water plant and a new sewer system, each estimated to cost about $300. The water supply is barely sufficient to meet present needs; it will have to be materially increased to keep pace with the growth of the school attendance. But the present sewer system is worse than inadequate. It would be a charity to forbear asking who planned anything so contrary to the plain dictates of common sense. To extend it on its present lines would surely result in polluting the water supply, and to repair it with a view to its use much longer would be a sheer waste of money. The only thing to do with it is to rip it up and remodel it. A temporary school building, which, it is estimated, could be put up for about $1,100, is another immediate need, merely to provide seating room for the children who will be sent to this school for the coming winter. On my way to Flandreau and Pipestone, having been detained by an accident at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I ran out to Tama and visited the Sac and Fox Reservation. Government school work has been so crippled there of late by a conjunction of adverse conditions not necessary to rehearse here that the children have for the most part become utterly idle and indifferent. They find more pleasure and profit in sitting on the banks of Cedar River and playing with a fishing rod, or in opening the reservation gates for teams to pass in and out and picking up the small coin tossed to them by the drivers, than in poring over their books. The whole reservation is a sorry object lesson in the folly of trying to improve a tribe of Indians by setting them down in one spot, drawing a sacred circle about them, and obstructing in every practicable way their free intercourse with their white neighbors. Here have these people been settled for the better part of a half century, in the midst of a busy and wholesome white civilization, yet they are substantially no further advanced in the useful arts than when their reserve was first set apart for them. Here and there may be seen a thrifty garden patch, with corn and beans and a few other vegetables. But for these suggestions of creature comfort, a fertile soil and a few energetic squaws deserve a large share of the credit. By this is not meant that all the men are lazy and incompetent. Some of them work, and very faithfully. Local report also has it that two or three of the shrewdest Indians have saved their annuity and other income, gone out into the surrounding country and pur chased good-sized farms, where land commanded from $40 to $70 an acre, which they are now renting to white farmers at a profitable figure. These stories I was unable to trace down to their source in the brief period of my visit, so that I can not vouch for their truth. The fact that they are current in Tama, however, and readily believed by white citizens there, is itself significant, as it shows that long contact with these Indians has not filled the minds of the whites with that contempt for their natural capacity which one finds so prevalent in white communities on the frontier. These Indians live in rough board shanties, one story in height, roofed with a thatch of rushes, and commonly containing only one room. There are no windows of the conventional pattern. In their stead a single long clapboard is left loose from the frame and swung on strap hinges, so that in fair weather, or when light and ventilation are needed, it can be let down, but on the approach of a storm, or when the outside air is too cold, it can be put up in place and buttoned fast. Each house is supplied with a rude porch or shed under which is a permanent table. On the table the housewife prepares the family food for cooking, and when it is not employed for that purpose the head of the household uses it for a couch, stretching himself out on it while he smokes his pipe. There is usually attached to the house a fragile wickiup, its frame made of bent saplings, and its outside covering of leafy boughs and plaited rushes. This is a cool loafing place in summer, and in the case of the more uncleanly, a welcome refuge from the vermin which infest the dingy, sunless, and ill-aired interiors of the board shanties. The shanties, by the way, show other signs of an imperfect civilization than the movable clapboard. They are built with gables like ordinary farm buildings, but as a rule the horizontal plank sheathing stops where the square ceases and the angle begins. Diagonal sawing appears to have presented too much of a mechanical problem, or to have involved too much labor for the Indian builders, who accordingly proceeded to fill the angles made by the gables with strips of rough bark from well-matured trees, patched here and there with rush thatching. It is such primitive workmanship as might have been turned out by an untaught mechanic with an ax, a jackknife, hammer, and nails. In costume a majority of the older males follow the general fashion of the whites, though with a blanket added in some cases. A few of the young Indians, 18 to 25 years of age, who have had enough schooling and come sufficiently into contact with the whites to have their pride stimulated, pay considerable attention to their attire, and appear at Tama in smart suits and neat linen. The squaws dress in the style common to their race and sex farther West, twisting and pinning their gaycolored shawls into picturesque but wholly barbaric shapes. The younger children run about wholly naked or adorned with a G string, the only effect of which is to accentuate their nudity. One thing must be said in favor of the situation of the Sac and Fox Indians at Tama-they get very little liquor. Public sentiment is so strong against such traffic in the neighborhood that conviction and punishment follow, usually with much celerity, an offense against the law, and the lower class of dramsellers have learned to fear organized justice, even where humane scruples have no weight. On leaving Flandreau I went to the Sisseton Agency in South Dakota. I found the agent, A. M. Keller, in the midst of the task of paying the Indians the sum of their annuity and the interest on their general fund, amounting to somewhat more than $34 per capita. The annuity payment of nine dollars and some cents had been due and expected during the winter, or at least early in the spring, but the $25 interest was withheld a good while to await the approval of the President. The Indians, who had suffered more or less from deficient crops, had run rather heavily into debt to the licensed traders at the agency and to merchants in the neighboring towns of Wilmot and Brown's Valley; the creditors had become clamorous for their pay, and at their instigation the Indians had refused to accept the annuity money separately, as it would go such a little distance in relieving the burden of debt. The President has made no official explanation of his long delay in withholding his approval of the interest payment; but it is generally assumed that, understanding that the Indians' money would be promptly seized by their creditors, and that the latter had not been actuated by unselfish regard for the Indians' welfare in allowing the debts to reach such proportions, he was disposed to teach the importunates a sharp lesson, in order to discourage as far as possible their habit of selling goods on trust, and lending money to their improvident red patrons. To no small extent, undoubtedly, this judgment of the conduct of the merchants in Browns Valley and Wilmot was entirely just. The debts contracted by the Indians there were partly for the necessaries of life and partly for arrant follies. Nine merchants out of ten made no distinction between selling a penniless Indian a sack of flour or a side of bacon and selling him candy or a bead necklace. For either class of goods they knew that they must wait for their pay, but they also knew that one represented the legitimate satisfaction of a need, while the other 14009 I C- -2 represented the gratification of an extravagant whim. I asked two or three of these merchants how they justified their action in extending credit for nonsensical purchases when the Indians had no excuse for running into debt except to save themselves and their families from suffering. The answer was always the same: "If I refuse to sell an Indian candy, he will go somewhere else to buy his flour. I can't afford to offend my Indian customers any more than my white ones." Indirect inquiry satisfied me also that the prices charged by these outside merchants, who are not under the same supervision and restraints as the agency traders, were pretty high. They justify the extra figures by the risk they run in giving credit to a class of customers who can not be held to the same rigid account for their debts as white patrons. A creditor can sue out a writ and seize a white debtor's land, presumptively his most valuable possession, but the land of an Indian allottee is sacred under the Government's trusteeship. Nevertheless, a considerable share-probably the largest-of the Indians' debts have been contracted for subsistence during a severe season, when, partly through natural conditions which were beyond their control and partly through their own lack of foresight and thrift, they found themselves in real straits. The long delay in making the combined payment, moreover, did not accomplish its purpose. It merely increased the importunity of the creditors without changing their disposition as to future extensions of credit, and it kept the Indians' thoughts away from their work and wholly centered upon the coming distribution. Not a few who, if they had had their money early in the spring, would have spent at least a part of it upon seed and started crops, let the planting season pass, and wasted their time hanging about the agency waiting for news from Washington. The result is that a considerably smaller acreage appears to have been planted this year than usual. This sort of demoralization showed itself in other ways also. At the Good Will Indian School, which is maintained by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, within a stone's throw of the Government school and about 2 miles from the agency, the superintendent, the Rev. G. Sumner Baskervill, spends a generous sum every year on cord wood for fuel, which he aims to buy of the Indians. Heretofore he has found the more industrious Indians rather eager to bring in wood and carry away cash for it. This year he kept his fuel fund on hand four or five months without having the chance to pay out an amount of any consequence. A thrifty Indian here and there would bring in a load, but the great mass of those who usually had wood for sale preferred to sit down and wait for the long-promised remittance from the Federal Treasury. When I visited him he was in some doubt when and where he should obtain his season's supply. The superabundance of "red tape" connected with all the pecuniary transactions of the Government is notably in evidence in such a per-capita payment as that made at the Sisseton Agency this year. It seems as if some better system might be devised than one which drags a week's legitimate work through the better part of two months. During all this long period the agency served as a convenient lounging place for those Indians who wanted an excuse to be idle, for they had only to plead that they were waiting for their turn. Would it not be practicable in such cases to have the agent make out a pay roll and forward a certified copy to Washington; let the check for each Indian payee be made out there and forwarded in bulk to the agent; have each Indian allottee notified personally at his home by the police to be at the agency or some other suitable place on a certain day; pay out the checks on identification by the agent and cash them as fast as presented and indorsed at a neighboring desk? By permitting the checks, receipt rolls, and money to be handled only by bonded officers of the Goverument, it seems as if every possible safeguard would be thrown about the rights of the Indians, especially if pains were taken to insure the attendance of intelligent, disinterested, and independent witnesses of approved integrity-such as the local missionaries, who, presumptively among them, know most of the Indians by sight and name. * * * on the permanent fund * * * * The creditors who considered themselves aggrieved by the long delay in this summer's payment avenged themselves in characteristic fashion, by procuring the insertion in the general Indian appropriation act for the fiscal year 1897 of a clause providing "that all the interest due the Sisseton and Wahpeton Indians hereafter after deducting the amount expended for education, shall be paid in cash per capita on the 1st day of November of each year." In other words, it is the purpose of these men to get all their credits and loans paid up as far as possible before the season of stress sets in and open a new set of books thereafter. Their hope is that, for the sake of procuring fresh credit, the Indians will, generally, use their November money to square their outstanding accounts. The best friends of the Indians, however, regard the choice of an autumn month for this payment as unfortunate. It might as well be recognized first as last that the present generation of Indians learn their lessons in industry and prudence through the impulse of sore physical need rather than through the attraction of moral suasion or the conclusions of abstract logic. Give the Sissetons their cash in |