Weekly Chemawa American., October 15, 1909, Page 2, Image 2

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THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
rical engineering. They make excellent
carpenters, harness-makers, wagon-mak-.
ers, shoemakers and tailors, and there is
a printing establishment on the grounds
from which several competent journey
men have been turned out. The girls
are taught everything that relates to
housekeeping, dress-making and nursing.
Mr. Chalcraft says that Indians do not
make .good household servants, and that
the are incapacitated for such work be-1
cause of racial traits and dispositions.
But he differs radically from others I
have talked with regarding the opportu
nity for educated ' Indians and their '
treatment by the whites."' ' :
Employment-can be found-.readily
for every Indian who is competent to do
good work," said. Superintendent Chal
craft, "and he will be paid the same
wages' as white men for the same labor. '
The demand for skilled &nd unskilled
labor cannot be satisfied and Indians in
this par'of ihe. country are just' as com
petent, just as popular and just as trust
worthy as the whites. It is very rare
that complaints are made of the con
duct or, jth'e efficiency, of, our Indian boys.
Wekeep track of all of them. We know
where the are and 'what they are doing,
and with remarkably ' few exceptions
they have proven faithful and competent.
Between; three and four hundred Indian
artisans- from this institution are em
ployed in-this immediate section. r Al
though we do- our best to encourage
them to go back to their allotments and
cultivate the soil; they do not take to
farming. Those who own land prefer to'
rent it and work at the trades. We
have more engineers among our gradu
ates than in any other profession; next
in number are carpenters, and then
tailors. At Yakima on of . our Indian
tailors employs seven white journeymen.
We have several bakers, printers and
harnessmakers, making good livings in
white towns, and two or three lawyers,
but we do not brag about the latter. One
of our graduates is a teller in a bank at
Yakima,"
"It has been said that Carlisle fur
nishes the teachers, Haskell the clerks
and Chemawa the mechanics of the In
dian race, and we are proud of that
record." ' '
'v..
"A good many of our Indian girls are
teaching school, bat most of them marry
and settle down as housewives. Only
about half of-them go back' to the reser
vation, where ?they too often return to
the habits of the abor4gine, and live in
idleness upon the proceeds of the sale or
rentals of their land. We do not en
courage our students to go back to the
reservations. The influence there is too
strong for them and, although pome of
them have the'eourage and determina
tion to apply the knowledge they have
acquired at the school, it is uphill work
against, the conservative tendencies of
older members of the tribe. ,
"I advie every educated Indian to
keep away from the reservations and to
seek employment in nome town or city
where they can mingle with the whites,
so as to obliterate the race distinction.
We try 'to teach them to stand upon
their individuality rather than upon
their race; not to be Indians but to be
Americans, and to do and live like the
whites on equal terms. sThose who do
th:i t invaribly succeed,-but those.who go
back to the reservations arc seldom
heard of again, except when they get in
to mischief."
I have been told that there is no place
for an educated Indian in a white com
munity. I suggested that he is ostracized
by decent people and forced into dissipa
tion and idleness by their neglect and in
difference.
(Continued on page 8.)