Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1894 — The Indian and His Hair. [ARTICLE]

The Indian and His Hair.

“I have had considerable experience in the somewhat unsatisfactory task of trying to educate Indians,” said Bernard Denton, of St. PauL “There is a great deal of the humorous as well as the discouraging in the work, but the most singular point I remember is the absolute gauge of an Indian's stage of civilization which the condition of the hair of his head provides. The first thing that is dore to an Indian child when received at the school is to wash him, and the next is to cut his hair. While he remains in the school he receives ordinary attention from a barber, but, as a rule, the moment he gets back to his tribe he is laughed at for cleanliness and neatness, and allows his hair to grow uncombed and uncared for. It is said that if an Indian child keeps his hair short until he becomes a man there is little danger of his resuming the blanket or other evidences of a lack of civilization. This is a characteristic of the Indian race and has been spoken of as an evidence that the tradition concerning strength in the hair which prevailed In t le days of Samson has been handed down by some mysterious process to the red man of this continent.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat.