in their new rôle of “freighters” of their own supplies. They went to Wichita, Kansas—one hundred and sixty-five miles—in six days, with their ponies; loaded sixty-five thousand pounds of supplies into the wagons, and made the return trip in two weeks, all things being delivered in good condition.
This experiment was thoroughly tested; and its results are notable among the many unheeded refutations of the constantly repeated assertion that Indians will not work. The agent of the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes, testifying before a Senate Committee in 1879, says: “We have run a wagon train, driven by Indians, to Wichita, for three years and over, and have never had a drunken Indian yet.”
“Do they waste their money, or bring it home?”
“They almost invariably spend it for saddles or clothing, or something of use to them that is not furnished by the Government, * * * They have never stolen an ounce of sugar, coffee, or anything else: they have been careful not to injure or waste anything, and have delivered everything in good faith.”
The agent reports not a single case of drunkenness during the year. The manual labor and boarding-school has one hundred and thirteen scholars in it, “all it can accommodate.” The children earned four hundred dollars in the year by work of one sort and another, and have “expended the money as judiciously as would white children of their ages.” They bought calico, cotton cloth, shoes, hats, several head of cattle, and one horse, They also “bought many delicacies for their friends in camp who were sick and in need.”
“One Cheyenne woman tanned robes, traded them for twenty-five two-year-old heifers, and gave them to her daughter in the school. * * * The boys have one hundred and twenty acres of corn under cultivation, ten acres of potatoes, broom-corn, sugar-cane, peanuts, melons, and a good variety of vegetables. They are entitled to one-half the crop for cultivating it.”
