Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/254

 would grow into the oak; that by spending it foolishly, the Apaches treated it just as they did the acorn which they trod under foot; but by investing their money in California horses and sheep, they would be gaining more money all the time they slept, and by the time their children had attained maturity the hills would be dotted with herds of horses and flocks of sheep. Then they would be rich like the white men; then they could travel about and see the world; then they would not be dependent upon the Great Father for supplies, but would have for themselves and their families all the food they could eat, and would have much to sell.

The Apaches did send into Southern California and bought horses and sheep as suggested, and they would now be self-supporting had the good management of General Crook not been ruthlessly sacrificed and destroyed. Why it is that the Apache, living as he does on a reservation offering all proper facilities for the purpose, is not raising his own meat, is one of the conundrums which cannot be answered by any one of common sense. The influences against it are too strong: once let the Indian be made self-supporting, and what will become of the gentle contractor?

Some slight advance has been made in this direction during the past twenty years, but it has been ridiculously slight in comparison with what it should have been. In an examination which General Crook made into the matter in 1884 it was found that there were several herds of cattle among the Indians, one herd that I saw numbering 384 head. It was cared for and herded in proper manner; and surely if the Apaches can do that much in one, or two, or a dozen cases, they can do it in all with anything like proper encouragement. The proper encouragement of which I speak is "the ready cash market" promised by General Crook, and by means of which he effected so much.

In every band of aborigines, as in every community of whites, or of blacks, or of Chinese, there are to be found men and women who are desirous of improving the condition of themselves and families; and alongside of them are others who care for nothing but their daily bread, and are not particularly careful how they get that so that they get it. There should be a weeding out of the progressive from the non-progressive element, and by no manner of means can it be done so effectually as by buying from the industrious all that they can sell to the Government for the