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THE
CHEM AW A
AM ERICAN
M A K IN G “ G O O D I N D I A N S ”
That healthy Indians are “ good Indians” is the motto of action in the
U. S. Indian Bureau. The protection of the health of the Indian is one
of the chief works of the Indian Service. It is not only a humanitarian
matter; it is “ good business.”
A dozen new Indian hospitals have been built recently. The greatest
stress is laid upon health conditions. Doctors, field matrons and teachers
in all the Indian schools are impressing upon the Indians the importance
of sanitation and hygiene. Decided progress is being made towards
stamping out tuberculosis, trachoma and typhoid upon Indian reserva
tions. These diseases have caused heavy mortality in the past and have
been a factor in preventing the Indian race from holding its own in
competition with whites.—Poughkeepsie (N. Y.) Enterprise.
IN D IA N Y O U TH S SE T RECO RDS IN FACTO RY
Out of the score of nations represented in an automobile factory in
Detroit it remained for an Indian, Joseph Gillman, a Chippewa, whose
home is in Minnesota and who is at present enrolled at the Carlisle In
dian School, to set the world’s record for assembling a car of that make.
He had the machine ready for the road in two hours and fifty minutes
after beginning work. The previous record was three hours.
This is the first of the results of a new system of vocational training
introduced by the officials of the Carlisle Indian School, who plan to
place students in the leading industries of every kind in the country as
an enlargement of the work of the school and a means of training the
original Americans to become better citizens.
Twenty-five boys are now in the Detroit automobile plant, one is
with another motorcar factory in the same city on trial, and four others
are with one of the leading manufactures of electrical appliances in New
York.
While separated from the school life the boys are still under the
training directions of the school here, and remain so until they have
completed a certain number of years study and work, when they re
ceive diplomas.
A year ago six boys, several of them leading athletes at Carlisle,
were sent to the Detroit automobile w’orks. So rapid was their advance
because of their effective training at the school, that others were sent
later. The Indians keep their own with the best of the w’hite boys in
the school of instruction and are said to have had a potent influence on
the entire plant through their willingness to work, readv compliance
with disciplinary measures and general character principles inculcated
at the local school.—Philadelphia (Pa.) Public Ledger.