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| The Noble Red Man | #
In His Western Home.
How He Gets a Homestead From Uncle Sam, His
- Dignified Mode of Life, His Sports and Pastimes.
When I was allotting lands to In¬
dians in North Dakota I lived iu tents
out on the Fort Barthold reservation
about a hundred miles from a railroad
or a civilized settlement.
With me was a surveying corps in¬
cluding several Indians and an Irish¬
man, a German, a Spaniard and a mem¬
ber of one of the first families of Vir¬
ginia. We joyonsly entertained any¬
body who chanced to come by our way
without regard to his present or pre¬
vious condition.
One day a boastful stranger hauled
up, with hungry look, in front of our
dining tent and without so much as
“good morning” for a preface, sprang
off his horse and remarked:
“A big syndicate is paying me $5 a
day and expenses to sell land—no dif¬
ference what I get for it or whether I
sell it at all or not.”
He seemed about to follow this an¬
nouncement of his importance by ask¬
ing the price of a ‘bite’ when I re¬
plied:
“Picket your bronco and sit down
to a feast. This surveyingerowd con¬
trols all the country. I am working
for a bigger syndicate than you are and
it pays me bigger wages than you get
just to give land away.”
The invitation needed no repetition,
but the statement that I was being
paid to give land away required con¬
siderable explanation to the visitor.
And the explanation may not be with¬
out interest to you.
The Indians, you know, were long
accustomed to have everything in com¬
mon: to graze their ponies on the
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LONG BULL IN HIS BE ORIENTALS.
common plains; to get their wood
from the common forests; to stack
their tents where they pleased; to
hunt or work and appropriate the com¬
mon reserve as freely as the fish use
the sea. This was their old time and
natural way of doing things. It
violates every principle of the rights
of property and was correspondingly
conducive to savagery. It is the
desire of the Government to get them
entirely out of this state and to make
them citizens.
One of the means to this end is to
divide up the reservations that they
have held in common and to allot the
lands in severalty. That is, to give
each Indian a homestead, mark it off
by distinct boundary lines, require him
to build a house on it, teach him to
cultivate it, and in various ways help
him along until he is able to support
himself and his family upon it. Of
course the Indians have to be suffi¬
ciently advanced to be willing to do this
before it can be done with auy degree
of success. A jyirtion of land is allot¬
ted to every man, woman and child.
When the child grows up, instead of
finding the land around belonging to
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THE PRIDE OF THE CAMP.
everybody and nobody, he finds a
distinctive tradt all his own. He is
thereby taught the law of inheritance.
The desire at onoes comes to him to
leave to his children an inheritance at
least as good as that which was left to
him. He sees other Indians all
around him cultivating their farms
and earning for themselves the com¬
forts of life. A healthful rivalry is
thus established aud ambition pre¬
viously unfelt is fostered.
The Dawes bill, under which allot¬
ments are made, provides that tho In¬
dian shall beoome a citizen with all
the rights thereunto appertaining
within six months alter he has taken
his allotment and severed his tribal
relations. It provides also that the
Government shall keep the Indian’s
allotment in trust for him for twenty-
five years. Then he is allowed to do
. . ... .. wil\*he T . ■
that A bv An b AWsinth ahhs to
^Ai wAfnw i n tlnn aintmaA fnf hll «t 11 At after
? * an * a! the averawe A In
t give ™ a hundred 1 1 1 e and A sixty acres „ temnted AAand of la
for a week s rations.
The next step after dividing out the
lands and placing each Indian under
lire own vine and ti g tree is to build a
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THE HOMES OF THE HOHSKIS.
school , , house, equip . it well, „ put . good
conscientious teachers m charge of it,
require every Indian of school age to
attend it, and thus push on the work
of civilizing the Indians right in the
heart of the reservation. Ihe Indian
school question has for some years en-
gaged more than auy other the thought
of those interested m Indian work.
And “the Schools to the Reservations”
was the policy of the last admiiiistra-
tion, and will, I presume, remain the
policy of the present administration.
The Fort Barthold reservation is on
sides of the Missouri River in the
northern part of North Dakota. It
contains about a million and a quarter
acres and is as far from civilization’s
haunts as any similiar-sized piece of
ground outside of Africa. The nearest
railroad train passes by nearly a hun¬
dred miles away. The nearest tele¬
graph instrument ticks at the same dis-
tanae. The agency employs a few
white men who have married squaws,
and a missionary or two are the only
whites on the reservation.
There are three tribes on this reser-
vation, the Gros Yentres, the Mandans
and the Arickarees., j There is a sub¬
tribe of Gros Yentres known as the
band of Crow Flies High. They long
ago out loose from all other Indians.
They had to be brought with troops
from their mountain fastnessess down
to the reservation. They call them¬
selves “Hosbkis” (huskies), which
means “bad lands.” They still refuse
to affiliate with any other tribe.
It was to this unreconstructed band
that I had to make allotments. Crow
Flies High had been deposed as chief
and Long Bull put in his place. Old
Grow now calls himself Chief Medicine
man. He still has great influence and
is said to use all of it for the bad.
The Indian chiefs are great sticklers
for dignity. Crow Flies High has a
superabundance. The first time his
band came down to have a council
with me he assumed marslialship of
them although Lo^g Bull, dressed in
full regimentals, was spokesman. They
halted their horses and wagons within
a few hundred yards of my camp and
sent me word that they were ready for
the conference. I replied that I was
at my ‘ ‘tepee” and would be verypleased
to receive them. Crow insisted that I
should come to him and it was only
after an hour or two’s parleying that
he consented for his band to come to
me. I was not afflicted with Crow’s
spirit of dignity,|bat I knew that if
the game was opened by my going to
him, I would never get one of his
band to. take au allotment without go¬
ing for him with a horse and buggy
and giving him his dinner to come.
Most of these “Hoshkis” are hun¬
ters, fishers, warriors, sports. They
are gffeat jumpers; runners, boxers,
wrestlers. „ They have a supreme and
loftly contempt for an Indian who will
spond his time working “just like a
white man.” They believe in the sov¬
ereignity of leisure. Wherever a crowd
of them meet, they test their strength
in manly exercise. Whenever their
horses come together their mettle is
tested in a race. They are brave,
bright, strong. They have their ten¬
der qualities, however, and the two
little girls that they brought out from
their tepee homes to show me as the
‘pride of the camp’—the only two chil-
dren in the band that had been sent
off to school—were as-gentle and pretty
as Indian girls should be. .
I induced them to decide to be “good
Indians,” and there is hope in their
future.
They had heretofore refused to take
allotments. They signified their will-
ingness to me, but they were very slow
to put it into execution. When one
came for his allotment, frequently, he
talked about this way; “What can I
get?” He was given a great variety of
laud to select from. “I want none of
that >” 8aid he - “ lB tbere an y special
pieoe that I can’t have ?” He was told
of the P° rtion8 a l r0ad y allotted or re-
aeryed - “Then,” he would cry trium-
plmntly, “I want that or nothing!"
and the allottiu 8 a S ent had a real nice
time ohan » in K this notion.
The average Indian’s god is his dm-
ner. In influence with him the “Great
Spirit ” doe9 not play even a poor sec-
ond Yon may fail to get him to agree
t 0 anything else, but if you will invite
him to a meal he will foresake all
things and come with you. Then you
have at least a fair opportunity to rea¬
son with him and drill your persuasive
powers.
When an Indian who means busi-
ness—and there are many such—is to
select au allottment, he gets his pony,
rides over the laud, decides upon the
neighborhood in which he desires to
live and then picks out the special
tract that he wants with a view to its
■water supply, its nearness to wood or
coal mines, its meadows, its plow
ground and all of its conveniences.
His decision once made stands, and it
usually good. Too frequently, how-
everj be selects a piece of land that
isn * t good fol . a tlling iu the wide,
wide wor ld. After the allotting agent
tried in vain to induce him to select a
j, e tter, he always comes to Mark
Swain’s conclusion that “if he wants
that kind of a thing, that’s just the
kind of a thing he wants.”—Claude N.
Bennett, in Atlanta Journal.
A HORSESHOE RACK.
Making: the Best of Thing’s In the Moun¬
tains of West Vii*glnia,
In the mountains of West Virginia,
where there is little money to spare
for the small things of life, are to be
seen, says the New York Tribune,
many evidences of making the best of
things. Tin cans, traditional diqt of
goats about Hew York, are here made
into hanging baskets. They ai^ cut
into strips lengthwise, fastened in po¬
sition by wire and the whole is lined
with a moss to prevent the escape of
the earth.
New uses are also found for the old
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A HOKSESHOE BACK.
horseshoes. Instead of having holes
in. posts to hold the ends of the mova-
bars of the fences, or the more
awkward double posts, with cross¬
pieces of wood joining them and hold-
the bars, One thrifty man has
nailed horseshoes to the posts and
rests the bars on them. An idea of
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THE BIG KLONDIKE NUGGET—ACTUAL
this and a further suggestion is given
in the illustration. The old shoes are
nailed upon the side of the oottage and
hold the “alpenstocks” of chestnut
and pine used in mountain climbs.
Beneath the sticks is a “sand table,”
which nffordj endless amusomeut to
the little children on rainy days,
‘THE IrtlSH JOAN OF ARC.”
Interesting’ Young: Woman With a Mis¬
sion Now In This Countrj".
Miss Maud Gonne, who has come
to America in tho interest of the Irish
cause, is one of the most interesting
young women that ever came to these
shores, ner life has been one of love
0 f oountry, the poor people of her
country and romance. She now liveB
in France, where she edits « newspaper
devoted to war for justice to Erin and
where the imaginative Frouohmen
h ave given her the title of tho “Joan
0 f Arc of Ireland.” She is a convert to
Irish nationalism from the camp of the
Unionists, and she declared upon
reaching America that there was but
0 ue object iu life for her—the rights of
the commoners of her native country,
Miss Gonne is the daughter of Colonel
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MISS MAUD GONXE.
Gonne, who was an attache of tho
English embassy in St. Petersburg.
Sbe was reared in the society which
would accompany such a position, but
as a young girl the stories of the life
of O’Connell, the Liberator, came un¬
der her attention, and at the age of
nineteen years she had resolved to de¬
vote her energy and years to the cause
which had been his. She has been in
active battle for eleven years, has
worked among the lowly fin London
and tho dungeons and organized many
societies for the improvement of tho
Irish peasantry.
Sugar From Potatoes.
An extensive economical revolution
is in sight, if the claims of Dr. Prinzen
Geerlings turn ont to be what the doc¬
tor asserts they are. Dr. Geerlings, a
Government official of Java and form¬
erly Professor of chemistry at the Uni¬
versity of Amsterdam announces tho
discovery of a simple method of con¬
verting potato starch into sugar. He
has lodged his description of the
method with the French Academy of
Science, so as to secure priority for
his invention, although he is not quite
ready to make the details public.
GOLD NUG GET WO RTH $583.
It Weighs Thirty-Four Ounces and Was
Found in the Klondike Gold Fields*
Michael Knutsen is one of the few
miners who have come out of 'the
Klondike region with a sack, His
chief distinction among the miners
rests in his being the possessor of the
largest nugget yet found in that dis¬
trict—a solid chunk of gold that
weighs, according to Dawson City
quotations, nearly $600.
Knutsen’s nngget weighs a fraction
over thirty-four ounces Troy, -and
came into his possession two days be¬
fore he got out of the land where
famine stalks.
This nngget is somewhat irregular
in shape, but very solid. It is light
yellow in color, and nearly four inches
in length in its largest part and about
three inches in width. It . was
weighed aud found to he worth ex¬
actly $583.2§,. . .
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Ice For Dairy Purpose#,
It is not alone for crea uieries that ice
is important and necessary, The
farmer’s wife who sets her milk in
pans the old-fashioned w.»y cannot do
her butter justice unless she has an
ice house to go to for ice tto keep her
butter firm in hot weather. Hhe is
usually obliged to adopt such make¬
shifts in as hanging her butter suspended
a pail in the well or putting it in
the cellar, which, though cool enough,
is often too filled with odors to be a
proper receptacle of butter,—Boston
Cultivator.
Cleaning the rouUry-IIousev
There is much less consideration
given the roosts and uests than any
other portion of the poultry-house.
With the desire to save labor the roosts
are nailed to the walls and the nests
are fastened in jilace so as to become a
part of the building itself, the conse¬
quence being that it is impossible to
thoroughly clean the poultry-house
and rid it of vermin; for as long as
there is a crack in which a louse can
hide there will be liability of rapid in¬
crease of the pests, a single female
laying enough eggs in a day to furnish
the foundation for a million in a week.
Every roost should be level, that is,
all the i-oosts should be the same height,
and should be so constructed as to
permit of being carried outside to be
cleansed. The nests should not be
joined, but separate,. soap-boxes being
excellent, open at the ends, so as to
compel the hens to walk in rather
than fly upon the nests from the top.
If the roosts and nests are taken out¬
side they should be lightly brushed
with kerosene and a lighted match ap¬
plied. The fire will run over the sur¬
face without doing any harm. The
roosts should be treated in the same
manner. If properly constructed the
roosts and nests can be 'taken out and
replaced iu a few moments, leaving
an empty poultry-house, which can be
easily cleaned. —Farm and Fireside.
Ttaisins: Seeillinji Apple Trees.
The best seed is usually that from
au ungrafted tree, though if it stands
near or the branches cross with some
good grafted variety, a part of the
seed may result in new varieties, some
of which may prove worthy of cultiva¬
tion when allowed to bear fruit.
But most people only grow seedlings
as nursery stock to graft with known
varieties. To do this, take the seed
as soon as it comes from the apple,
as a very little drying prevents it from
germinating quickly and results in a
feeble growth, while a little more dry¬
ing kills the germ entirely. If the
ground is not open or ready for sow¬
ing the seed, bury them in dry sand
and place where they will not dry up, |
Vet avoid the other extreme of allow-
ing the sand to gather moisture
enough to sprout the seeds.
Select a piece of light, sandy soil
and sow the seed in drills.. Keep the
land mulched and water if necessary,
as the hot summer sun may kill many
plants if this is not done. When the
trees are as large around as lead pen-
cils transplant to about two feet apart
or more, and allow them to grow until
large enough to, graft,. This may be
done when a half inch in diameter,
but most orchard,* s would prefer a
larger size than that. In transplau -
ing it is desirable to remove to a bet-
ter soil, but when they are moved
after grafting the soil should not be
too rich at first, or the growth of the
graft ifiay be more rapid than that of
the stock, and a weakness result at the
point of union.
The same rules are- applicable to
growing all seedling trees, but the
seeds of stone fruits,, like the peach
av.d plum, do- not lose their germinat-
ing power quite as quickly by drying
up as do those of the apple and pear,
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The ■Woman’s, Horse.
If there is anything that gives me a
severe attack of “that tired feeling”
and drains my cup of sympathy to the
dregs, it is the farmer’s wife who is al¬
ways telling that she can’t go anywhere
because she has no horse to drive.
From the frequency of the remark I’ve
almost concluded that these women
comprise three-fourths of the popula¬
tion of Michigan. >
Two- of my greatest objections to
farm life are the abominably early
hours at which the average farmer
gets up- in the morning, and the
wretched horses that he often owns. I
really don’t know which is the more
entitled to commiseration—the wo¬
man who *has no driving horse
at all or the one who is com¬
pelled to drive an old plug of an
equine that cannot set a pace
higher thau three miles an hour.
One drove by just a few minutes ago,
and she is the direct cause of this arti¬
cle. Shewasvpretty and stylish, but
I’m willing to make affidavit before
any judge in the State that the horse
over which she held the ribbons has a
ringbone, a spavin, a severe case of
heaves and is blind in one eye. Her
look and the way she used the whip,
plainly said she was in a hurry. The
look and action ofltlie horse said also
that he was not in a hurry, In a eou-
test between the two I’ll stake my
wager on thehorse,
I watched them over the hill and
ovt of sight and fell to counting up
ho% many of her type I knew. The
list is appalling. To be sure there are
many women too timid to drive a horse
with any “life,” but there are also
many perfectly competent to manage
a spirited animal if only they .had a
chance to try.
There was much excuse for the
“man in the case,” when horses were
valued in the hundreds, but at present
prioes it seems as if every family
might own one just for the “wimrnen
folks;” one that ean be always availa-
bl a for shopping or visiting, and one
that the children may' safely handle.
It needs a reliable, good-tempered
steed for such an all-around use, but
such animals can be found, and they
are not necessarily old, broken-down
plow horses. It costs just as muchj'o
keep a homely,, disreputable sag as
one in which the owner can true some
pride. Brown Bess, my osrn driving
horse, est of is a family friend end the grcall auf|
pets. We are all proud
fond of Jher, and should' any accideim
befall her I fancy thsy’d be as much
grieving as thoughone of the family
was injured.
The average nan likes to own a
horse that he knows no woman can
control. Not i very high ambition,
still one that Do sensible woman will
object to if ony she be allowed a prej
sentable stee<, of her own. That sen;
of ownership i How much it mei
Bicycles and horseless carriages
rival horseflesh, but they can lie*
ing supplant the ribbom it. There is a joy mettlesoi^B in ho^B
over a
steed that no mere uacliinery can comlH evfl
inspire. There is a thrill that witl|M
when your pet measures speed
the keeu “other pleasures fellow's” of life. that is one of tlJ| 48
So, my sisters, persuadej“3 Once^B
keep a horse for your use. und^J
realize the pleasure of pride
ership ing you’ll in a horse l>e that ooutcut is worth^^B witqj^^H
never
one. Learn to harness and care fov^H
yourself. It’s a very easy thing to
a few lessons will make you proficient,
and by so doing you will learu the lit¬
tle peculiarities of disposition that are
as common to horseflesh as to men and
women. Horses are quick to know
and love their master, and by this
personal contact you will win an affec¬
tion that is worth having.—Detroit
Free Press.
Farm and Garden Note».
When the fowls are restless and con¬
stantly picking their feathers they are
infested with vermin.
When the manure is hard and a por¬
tion is white it indicates a healthy con¬
dition of the digestive organs.
When the edge of the comb and wat¬
tles are of a purplish red and the move¬
ments sluggish there is something
wrong.
In working two horses harnessed to¬
gether, care could be taken to have
them as nearly matched,as to strength,
as possible.
As a remedy for roup in its first
stages try burning tar and turpentine
in the poultry house after the fowls
have gone to roost,
A white calceolaria is one of the.new
floral acquisitions. It is a native of
Chili and makes a beautiful plant fon*
the window garden,
Some white varieties of corn arebet-
ter than the yellow and some yellow
varieties better than the white. Color
has little to do with quality,
Timber tkat is p i ace d iu or upon | the
^ a ahould flrgt be thoroug lly sea .
ag y, win tben laat murfl longei
than if t ia ' wben
us e
A . farmer „ #_ does ot . have to skl11
n a
8 , ^ ee P io get , , *“ , e average
m° lle y lender in dealing with farmers
does not treat them thus humanely,
Sunflower seed is an excellent food
for fowls and can be raised cheaper
than corn. It is fattening and
the fowls a bright, lustrous plumage.
When young poultry, especially
ducklings, appear to have a sore throat
and swallowing is difficult, it is the,
symptom of the large gray lice on the,
neck
If in need of some cheap power-for
pumping, churning, shelling corn-,,
making cider, etc., get a good wind¬
mill and utilize a few of the thousands
horsepower going to waste all around
you.
Fowls which are fed and cared'for
regularly will thrive much better on
the same food than another flock w^iieh
is fed irregularly as to both time- and
quantity. They will lay much better
and will be more free from disease.
Speaking of cows, a contemporary
tells of one that in “ten months”
gave ’ up “8075 pounds of milk,”
yielding “432 pounds of butter,” a
fact which speaks volumes in, favor of
thoroughbreds as j [compared, with
scrubs.
According to experiments; made, it
has been found that as between cot¬
tonseed meal and linseed; meal the
former is superior for feeding farm an¬
imals, bust the difference, between
these cattle foods is not of special im¬
portance..
As a rule, says Gardening, all her¬
baceous plants should be cut down to
within a few inches of the ground be-, af-j
fore taking them up late id the fall
ter frost has destroyed their foliage.
planted This is as in true the of those ground that are of traus-j those
open as
that are housed during the winter.
An old-fashioned is flower, commonly very seldonj kncijyj
seen now, one onoe
as Blackberry Lily, It has flow] ra
small, bright orange, lily-like
that are “spotted like a pard,” not!
the seeds when ripe resemble
so much as a big ripe blackberry,
is this which gives the plant its c
son name.
