246 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



The second great need of all our 

 Indians is protection from the liquor 

 traffic. The Indians are realizing the 

 evil of this traffic more than ever, and 

 they are trying hard to stop, but dis- 

 reputable white men conduct low- 

 class saloons and smuggle whisky to 

 the Indians; half-breeds and worth- 

 less whites carry it to the rancherias, 

 where unnamable crimes have been 

 committed in drunken debauches. The 

 fact is, our laws are defective and pub- 

 lic sentiment is not yet fully aroused. 

 Indians when they get drunk are espe- 

 cially dangerous to themselves and 

 others. They lie in the villages or by 

 the trails or in the rocks, some times 

 all night without shelter. 



This forest is full of strange and 

 sad stories of Indians and whisky. I 

 remember how old Jose came to my 

 cabin once. 



"Huh! You know that Cap Wah- 

 Wah? He get big drunk. He go 

 home, an' take he wife an' drag her all 

 roun' by her hair ; he kick her ; he run ; 

 he yell ; he tumble down. He ver' bad 

 Injun. What for white man no put 

 Cap Wah-Wahin jail?" 



Whisky killed Cap a few years 

 later — one of the best workers in this 

 region, too, when he could be kept 

 straight. 



There has been much complaint 

 about the laws in regard to Indians 

 and whisky. The old California 

 statute made it a felony to sell or give 

 intoxicants to any Indian. But it 

 proved very hard to get a jury to send 

 a man to State's Prison for this 

 cfifence. The law was amended so as 

 to read "misdemeanor." 



One District Attorney in California 

 has secured forty convictions under 

 this amended act. But of course, offi- 

 cers must have the honest and steady 

 backing of public sentiment. 



The friends of the Indians are try- 

 ing hard to bring the whole matter 

 under United States law. It is be- 

 lieved that the law should forbid sale 

 or gift of intoxicants to Indians and 

 to men of mixed blood, and that cases 

 should be tried in the Federal courts. 



When a growing public sentiment sup- 

 presses the so-called "road houses" 

 and the village saloons, the evil will 

 be handled easily. It is surprising 

 how many people are in favor of pro- 

 hibition through local option every- 

 where in these mountains. 



Thirdly, nearly all the Indians up 

 here are anxious to educate their 

 children. There are about 17,000 In- 

 dians in California, you know, about a 

 tenth of them in the forests. About 

 12,000 of these (including all the for- 

 est 1,700) are not on reservations, and 

 the Government has done nothing at 

 all for them as yet. As Helen Hunt 

 Jackson said long ago, we seem to 

 have kept our help entirely for the 

 tribes that did the most dare-devil 

 fighting. In this forest the children 

 are so widely scattered that few of 

 them can reach the public schools, 

 which take them in, though sometimes 

 a little under protest. These Indians 

 need boarding schools for their chil- 

 dren. In other words, the Government 

 should feed and clothe their children 

 for a few years. 



But I think I know what real 

 education should mean for these moun- 

 tain children of a despised and forgot- 

 ten people. It should be in the main 

 that sensible industrial training of 

 which Hampton and Tuskegee struck 

 the key notes. They ought to be 

 shown, by example and by daily prac- 

 tice, the bread and , butter trades of 

 life. That means that some very ca- 

 pable and practical men and women 

 must come and live among them for 

 years, to gain their complete confi- 

 dence ; and lead them, millimeter by 

 millimeter, up the trail to good citi- 

 zenship. The time will come when edu- 

 cated Indian doctors, nurses, lawyers, 

 and missionaries will be fitted to work 

 among them ; but not yet, nor for years 

 to come. Just now the children want 

 to be taught how to plant and care for 

 orchards and grain fields, how to build 

 houses and raise live stock, how to 

 shoe horses, keep poultry, and make 

 butter and cheese. 



If all this appears to anybody a little 



