would be the possessor of a herd,
and would then be rich like the white cattlemen.

The severe lesson of starvation some years before had not failed to make an
impression, and it was perhaps owing to this terrible experience that the
Piegans did not eat the cows as soon as they got them, as other Indian
tribes have so often done. Instead of this, each man took the utmost care
of the two or three heifers he received. Little shelters and barns were
built to protect them during the winter. Indians who had never worked
before, now tried to borrow a mowing-machine, so as to put up some hay for
their animals. The tribe seemed at once to have imbibed the idea of
property, and each man was as fearful lest some accident should happen to
his cows as any white man might have been. Another issue of cattle was
made, and the result is that now there is hardly an individual in the tribe
who is not the possessor of one or more cows. Scarcely any of the issued
cattle have been eaten; there has been almost no loss from lack of care;
the original stock has increased and multiplied, and now the Piegans have a
pretty fair start in cattle.

This material advancement is important and encouraging. But richer still
is the promise for the future. A few years ago, the Blackfeet were all
paupers, dependent on the bounty of the government and the caprice of the
agent. Now, they feel themselves men, are learning self-help and
self-reliance, and are looking forward to a time when they shall be
self-supporting. If their improvement should be as rapid for the next five
years as it has been for the five preceding 1892, a considerable portion of
the tribe will be self-supporting at the date of expiration of the treaty.

It is commonly believed that the Indian is hopelessly lazy, and that he
will do no work whatever. This misleading notion has been fostered by the
writings of many ignorant people, extending over a long period of time. The
error had its origin in the fact that the work which the savage Indian does
is quite different from that performed by the white laborer. But it is
certain that no men ever worked harder than Indians on a journey to war,
during which they would march on foot hundreds of miles, carrying heavy
loads on their backs, then have their fight, or take their horses, and
perhaps ride for several days at a stretch, scarcely stopping to eat or
rest. That they did not labor regularly is of course true, but when they
did work, their