Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1903 — HERE'S A PROSPEROUS INDIAN. [ARTICLE]

HERE'S A PROSPEROUS INDIAN.

HeOwned a Caynae, xßuckbosrd, and Chewed Tobacco. An Indian driving a forlorn-looking bay cayuse attached to a. rickety buckboard was the attraction on the street yesterday afternoon. Ths wheels were bound all round with baling wire and hemp rope to keep tho tires and spokes In place, and the old buck sat upon a fresh cowhide folded into a wad. He wore citizen’s clothes and bls ears were protected with a black handkerchief. He also wore a white cowboy bat with nickel plates on the band, woolen mitts, and chewed tobacco. In a flour sack tied to the body of the buckboard was a lot of stuff supposed to be sugar, tobacco and coni. A wave of civilization seems to have hit the renegade Indians In this vicinity, and some of them have actually doffed the red blanket and paint and taken up the garb of the white man and gone to work. Some are hauling wood to town, others are trying to be good. But the great majority of the band are no good at all for anything and they never will be, It is feared. However, there is a radical departure In some quarters, and those who have drifted away from the old .and lazy habits are being encouraged by the whites to keep the good work going. A Cree in these parts was never known to work before this fall and winter, and those who are working seem to be trying to do the right thing. Perhaps by their laudable efforts they are maintaining a number of Cree households in the hills, and thus relieving In a * measure a deal of distress what might otherwise have been keenly felt among the renegades. The Indian in the buckboard yesterday was not at all communicative, and when asked where he lived he answered with a grunt that shook the jlckety old contraption on which he was riding.—Anaconda Standard.