THE INDIANS.

S’KOKOMISH AGENCY, W. T.

Sunday-School Progress—An Indian Festival—Temperance and Order.

REV. MYRON EELLS.

Our Sabbath-school is accustomed to make a specialty of inducing the children to learn the lesson in the Bible, believing that the Bible is the best Sabbath instruction with which we can store their minds. Learning six verses places a child on the roll of honor, and reciting them perfectly gives him two credit marks. For four Sabbaths during the past year there was no Sabbath-school, hence the highest number which a child could receive was ninety-six. That number was received by one Indian girl, and it is the best that has ever been done in the school. Last year the highest number was eighty-six, and that was better than the year before. Ten others, out of about thirty who can read English, received over fifty credit marks.

In January and February, I was absent some three weeks at an Indian festival, ninety miles from here. They are wholly heathenish, but thus far it has been about as impossible to prevent them as it is to prevent a river running down stream; hence, the next best thing is to guide them. Drunkenness at such places is one of their worst dangers, and the principal Indians are beginning to realize it. About 550 Indians were present, seventy-five of whom went from this reservation. I have made the trip by canoe several times in the summer, and in the winter by steamer, but the prospect was not pleasant of traveling 180 miles in an open canoe; camping out when it might rain, snow or freeze all the time. But the chiefs there and here urged me to go, and assist in guarding against worthless white men and Indians. There was no one else to go, and it did seem that if they should get on a “big drunk,” and I should be asked why I did not go and try to prevent it, and should reply, because I was afraid it would be stormy, it would be a poor excuse. It was a hard place to attempt to elevate the Indians, though I held several services with them, but there was a prospect that I might prevent their falling as deep into the pit as they would otherwise. The result justified the work. One drunken Indian was arrested, one drunken white man and wife were sent home; and it was plain that, had I not been there, no one could have told where it would have ended. Out of the seventy-five who went with me, I do not know of more than half a dozen who have been drunk within four years, although nearly all drank more or less previous to the adoption of the present policy; and it is considerable to say that 550 Indians were together for a week, and that there was only one case of drunkenness, and only one of quarreling.

GREEN BAY AGENCY.

Education Among the Menomonee Indians.

JOS. C. BRIDGMAN, KESHENA, WIS.

Education among the Menomonee Indians is making very perceptible headway. At the suggestion of Colonel E. C. Watkins, United States Indian Inspector, the three day-schools upon the reserve were merged into a boarding-school, in September, 1876. This has proved a success beyond our most hopeful expectations. No like school among white children, so far as my observation goes, shows more enthusiasm on the part of the scholars, more zeal on the part of the teachers, or better progress, when the obstacles to success are taken into consideration.

It is almost impossible to induce the children to talk English. Only when forced to do so, will they speak in other than their vernacular tongue. Naturally very timid, a proper and pleasant familiarity with them is a sure inroad to their confidence, and the knowledge of them thus gained convinces us that they are capable of comprehending and grasping ideas of knowledge. We have no difficulty in filling our limited accommodations; and, could they be increased sufficiently, we should expect an average attendance of one hundred children. This tribe very enthusiastically voted $6,000 of their own funds, to be expended in the erection of a school boarding-house; but the possibility of part of the tribe becoming citizens within a few years, leads the Indian Bureau to delay the building, so much needed and desired.

The Indian problem will never be satisfactorily solved until education and citizenship are brought to the foreground, and take the prominence they deserve.

This is strictly a government school. The two teachers are Protestants, the assistant matron a Catholic. When first established, the Romish priest attempted to break it up; but understanding the agent’s aim, that it should be free from sectarianism on the part of both teachers and matron, he has kindly and wisely withdrawn all opposition, and is in pleasant harmony with both agent and school.