In less than ten days everything was " on wheels," and the whole
body of these Sioux on the move to the country they had indi-
cated ; and the Secretary of the Interior says, naively, in his
Report for 1868, "The Indians were found to be quite deter-
mined to move westward, and the promise of the Government
in that respect was faithfully kept."

The reports from all the bands of Sioux for the past two
years have been full of indications of their rapid and encour-
aging improvement. " The most decided advance in civiliza-
tion has been made by the Ogallalla and Brule Sioux," says the
Report of the Indian Bureau for 1879. "Their progress dur-
ing the last year and a half has been simply marvellous."

And yet this one band of Ogallalla Sioux has been moved,
since 1863, eight times. Is it not a wonder that they have any
heart to work, any hope of anything in the future ?

" It is no longer a question," says this same report, " whether
Indians will work. They are steadily asking for opportunities
to do so, and the Indians who to-day are willing and anxious
to engage in civilized labor are largely in the majority ; * * *
there is an almost universal call for lands in severalty ; * * *
there is a growing desire to live in houses; the demand for
agricultural implements and appliances, and for wagons and
harness for farming and freighting purposes, is constantly in-
creasing."

That all this should be true of these wild, warlike Sioux,



THE 8I0UX. 185

after so many years of hardships and forced wanderings and
removals, is incontrovertible proof that there is in them a na-
tive strength of character, power of endurance, and indomitable
courage, which will make of them ultimately a noble and supe-
rior race of people, if civilization will only give them time to
become civilized, and Christians will leave them time and peace
to learn Christianity.
