Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/164

130 employed by the cattle-raisers of the West, as mounted herdsmen or “cow-boys.” If paid reasonable wages, they would probably be found very faithful and efficient in that capacity.

Other useful occupations for which the Indians show great aptitude have been introduced with promising success. They are now doing a very large part of the freighting of government goods, such as their own supplies and annuities. “Indian freighting,” on a large scale, was introduced only a few years ago, at almost all the agencies, especially on this side of the Rocky Mountains, which are not immediately accessible by railroad or

river. The Indians use their own ponies as draught animals, while the Government furnishes the wagons and harness. The Indians have, by this industry, already earned large sums of money, and proved the most honest and efficient freighters the Government ever had. There is no reason why, in the course of time, they should not be largely engaged by the Government, as well as private parties, in the transportation of other than Indian goods.

That Indians can be successfully employed at various kinds of mechanical work, has already been sufficiently tested. A respectable number of their young men serve as apprentices in the saddler, blacksmith, shoemaker, tinsmith and carpenter shops at the agencies in the West, as well as at the Indian schools, and their proficiency is much commended. The school at Carlisle has been able to furnish considerable quantities of tin-ware, harness and shoes, all made by Indian labor, and, in some of the saw-mills and grist-mills on the reservations, Indians are employed as machinists with perfect safety. Many Indians who, but a few years ago, did nothing but hunt and fight, are now engaged in building houses for their families, and, with some instruction and aid on the part of the Government, they are doing reasonably well. Here