Weekly Chemawa American., April 17, 1903, 2, Page 9, Image 9

THE CIIKMAWA AMERICAN
9
Era Indian Here
It was hot. "W,j were thirsty and tired;
even t he ears of our donkeys hu ng flapping
about their faces as we slowly scuffled
a'oiiR through the dust of an Aiizona
desert toward a Zuni Indian pueblo. We
could see it in the f . r istance, a black
square hill outlined agaiust the horizon.
Soon we carr.e to little patches cf p ta
1)0! watermelor s beans, oniot s, canta
1 lupts ia fact, 1 11 sorts of garden truck,
After havii g ii red several n.cnMis ( ff
'.surveyor'; stores," tinned stuffs and
smoked meats, we were glad to see the
pirdens,
A queer village it was just ore great
house, looking for all the world 1 ke a
lump of mud on the . end of a thirgle.
It was four stories high, with not a window
pane iu any one of its three hundred rooms.
The Zuni Indians made us welcome and
brought jais of water to us for washing,
drinkingand cooking purposes. And water
is tl e v oat precious tl ing in tl at region
for hundreds of miles.
As soon as we had rested a little while
v.e started to knk about, and almost the
first person we met was a young Indian
dressed in unifcra: not quite a soldier's
uniform, but very much like it. We
approached each olher ard, after slaking
' andse addressed us in faultless Eng
lish, making us welcome to Zuni, hoped
e would find it convenient to stay a long
time, and asked us to make his home our
headquarters while we were in that vicin
ity. In traveling this wide w7orld over, I
have never coir e across a braver man
than that Indian. Amid poverty, squalor,
a id lick, he was living the life f a Chris
t.an gentleman among his people; un
ashamed of his life or theirs; doing all he
cmld with ski'l and tact to bring them
t) better things, both in their methocs
of work and in their spiritual life. Ee
was a graduate of the Indian school at
Cirlisle, Pennsylvania. He loved his peo
ple with a surpassing love. They were
poor, ignorant, superstitious. He. had a
Navajo rug on the floor, brass bedstead,
books, pictures, bric-a-brac, a guitar, a
sewing machine, chairs and table. Hi
days were spent in the fields, i eaching his
people how to cultivate their soil in the
best way, how to breed sheep, how to work
in the wood and wool and iron, and, as he
had opportunity, he real to them from
the Bible and other gocd books all the
while himself living the higher life. It
was slow, discouraging work; the customs
of centuries cannot easily be a'tered.
It takes abarver man to live a life of
that kind than it does to face a cannon,
and when the victory is won for the right,
as it surely will be, it is victory of peace,
which always counts for more than the
bloody victories of war. Wellspring.
Indian Orphan Jfsyluim
It will surprise many people outside of
the state of New York, and possibly some
residents, to learn of the existence of the
Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute
Indian Children vh'ch is supported by
the state. We gather the fai t concerning
it from the reports of the. State Charities
Aid Association, kindly f amished us by
the Secretary, Miss Mary Viea Clark, and
also from personal notes of Miss Clark' j
written after official visits to the institv
tion. The Thomas As ylum ie situated on the
Cattaraugus Reservation near Versailles.
It was established in 1845 by the Society
of Friends as a day school, and received
state aid from 1855 to 1875. In the latter
year it was re-organized and became
a state institution. The school plant
consists of 100 acres of land and quite a
group of buildings, most of them having
been built in the last few years, brick
structures replacing old wooden ones.
For instance, there is an administration
building costing $25,000, a dining hall and
amusement building costing $23,000, be
sides the dormitories which cost $10,000
apiece, the school building, costing $11,000,
etc.
The children come from all seven reser
vations in the state and range in age from