On the Border With Crook - ERBzine

228 ON THE BORDER WITH CROOK.and guardians of public stores all the policemen on the reservesbe natives ;let all hauling of supplies be done by the Indiansthemselves, and let them be paid the full contract rate if theyare able to haul no more than a portion of the supplies intendedfor their use.Some of these ideas have already been adopted, in part, by theIndian Bureau, and with such success that there is more thana reasonable expectancy that the full series might be consideredand adopted with the best results. Instruct the young womenin the rudiments of housekeeping, as already outlined.Providethe reservations with saw-mills and grist-mills, and let the Indians saw their own planks and grind their own meal and flour.This plan has been urged by the Apaches so persistently duringrecent years that it would seem not unreasonable to make theexperiment on some of the reservations. Encourage them toraise chickens and to sell eggs ; it is an industry for which theyare well fitted, and the profits though small would still be profits,and one drop more in the rivulet of gain to wean them fromidleness, ignorance, and the war-path. Let any man who desiresto leave his reservation and hunt for work, do so ; give him apass if he abuses the; privilege by getting drunk or begging, donot give him another. I have known many Indians who haveworked away from their own people and "always with the mostdecided benefit. They did not always return, but when theydid they did not believe in the prophecies of the (( MedicineMen," or listen to the boasts of those who still long for the warpath.The notion that the American Indian will not work is a fallacious one ;he will work just as the white man will when it isto his advantage to do so. The adobes in the military post ofFort Wingate, New Mexico, were all made by Navajo Indians,the brothers of the Apaches. The same tribe did no smallamount of work on the grading of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad where it passes across their country. The American Indianis a slave to drink where he can get it, and he is rarely without asupply from white sources he is a slave to the; passion of gaming ;and he is a slave to his superstitions, which make the "Medicine Men " the power they are in tribal affairs as well as in thoserelating more strictly to the clan and family. These are the threestumbling-blocks in the pathway of the Indian's advancement;