Salt Lake Telegram | 1906-06-21 | Page 10 | How to Treat the American Indian

HOW TO TREAT THE AMERICAN INDIAN. The Indian Industries league is becoming practical. It 'is trying to expand Poor Lo on enlightened linea It wants funds to teach the Navajos to cleanse their wool before weaving it into blankets and to vary the size of their woven' 'rugs, and to teach the Pueblos how to glaze their pottery that they may ship and sell it with more certainty and at better profit They want some arable land for the Campus and other Mission Indians of California. That Is, in the simpler occupations occu-pations like tilling the soli and making rude manufactured articles, to give the brains more depth and the' hands more ' 'deftness, and it seems to us it is altogether sensible. It is -' not hard to teach an untutored savage how to raise Indian corn, and potatoes and watermelons, but when he acquires ( that simple art he can soon be taught to raise fruit trees, grape vines and flowers and how to tend them alL Then his . heart will begin to be interested as it is Improved. We suspect that the quickest way to civilize a band of 'Indians and Indian women would be to fix a garden for ' them where they could raise vegetables, then reserve a half -acre somewhere and teach them how to prepare the soil, and then give them the seeds of all varieties of flow-j flow-j era to plant, telling them at the same time that something would come of that which would please them. All bar-i bar-i barous people love bright colors, and if a wild tribe could ! see how a nose garden advances until it blooms, it would be la. delight to them and would soften their dusky hearts. It I Is the same way in mechanlca When those Pueblos are taught how to glaze their pot-' pot-' tery, they will not be content until everything they make Is glazed, and when they learn that the glazed product Is worth more than the naked clay, that will be a new delight I Their acquisitiveness will be stimulated and their ambition will be to do better and better. - j The ordinary Indian is a clever fellow when he learns 'that there is a better way to get a Hying than by scalping ' people, and the thought should be to occupy his hands, ) gradually expand his brains, at the same time permit him i to sell what he produces and to enjoy all the luxuries that he with his own hands can bring around him.