this type who arose at a
critical juncture to lead his fellows.

In the early part of the nineteenth century there was Little Turtle, a
celebrated Miami chief, who, to be sure, defended his country bravely,
but when he made a treaty he stood by it faithfully, and advocated peace
and civilization for his people. The Pottawatomie chief Pokagon was
another, whose son Simon Pokagon was prominent at the World's Fair in
Chicago. A leading contemporary of these men was Keokuk of the Sacs and
Foxes. Wabashaw the third, of the Mississippi Sioux, was known as a
strong friend to civilization; and so was my own great-grandfather,
Chief Cloud Man, whose village occupied the present site of the city of
Minneapolis. His son, Appearing Sacred Stone, whose English name was
David Weston, was a fine character--a hereditary chief who took a
homestead at Flandreau and became a native preacher under Bishop Hare.

Chief Strike-the-Ree, by whose influence and diplomacy the Yankton Sioux
were kept neutral throughout the Sioux wars; Lone Wolf of the Kiowas,
Quanah Parker of the Comanches, whose mother was a white captive, and
Governor James Big Heart of the Osages were all men of this type,
natural leaders and statesmen. Iron Eyes, or Joseph La Flesche, a head
chief of the Omahas, was a notable leader in progressive ways; and so is
John Grass of the Blackfoot Sioux, also a distinguished orator.

Men like this, of native force and fire, but without advantages other
than those shared by the mass of their people, are possibly more
deserving of honor than are the few who have made the most of
exceptional opportunities. If anything, they illustrate more clearly the
innate capacity and moral strength of the race.

When it is considered that of the three hundred and odd thousand
Indians in the United States, only about two thirds are still living on
reservations under the control of the Indian Bureau, the official
figures concerning that two thirds are surprising to most of us. We are
told that 50,000 able-bodied adults are entirely self-supporting, and
that only 17,000 Indians of all classes are receiving rations.
Twenty-two thousand are employed on wages and salaries, earning more
than two million dollars yearly. Three fourths of the families live in
permanent houses; 100,000 persons speak English, and 161,000 wear
citizen's clothing. Such is the average present-day Indian at home--a
man who earns his own living, speaks the language of the countr