lakatlans are not technically citizens, though discharging many
civic duties. In 1887 they were compelled to leave their island on
account of difficulties with the local church authorities, who were not
broad enough to admit the simple sufficiency of Mr. Duncan's lay
ministrations. He removed with his people to another island, where they
are now living under the protection of the United States flag. In view
of the lessons of history, they are likely to undergo a severe trial and
considerable demoralization as soon as they mingle freely with the
surrounding whites. They have so far developed and enjoyed much of what
is best in civilization without its evils and temptations; and whenever
one of them does infringe upon their simple but exacting code he is
summarily dealt with.

Here is another illustration: In 1869 those Sioux who had been for three
years confined in a military prison, on account of the outbreak of
1862, were placed upon a small reservation at Santee, Nebraska. My
father was among them. He had thought much, and concluded that
reservation life meant practically life imprisonment and death to
manhood. He also saw that our wild life was almost at an end; therefore
he resolved to grasp the only chance remaining to the red man--namely,
to plunge boldly into the white man's life, and swim or die.

With twenty-five or thirty fellow-tribesmen who were of like mind with
himself, he set out for the Big Sioux River to take up a homestead like
a white man. Far from urging it, Government officials disapproved and
discouraged this brave undertaking. The Indians selected a choice
location, forty miles above what is now the beautiful little city of
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and here they established the first Sioux
citizen community. The post-office was named Flandreau, and formed the
nucleus of a large and flourishing town. Remember, this was six years
before Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse made their last stand on the Little
Big Horn, where they wiped out General Custer's command, the Seventh
Cavalry.

This remarkable Indian colony became known far and wide. The Sioux were
_bona fide_ homesteaders and met all the requirements of the law. They
occupied thirty miles of the finest bottom lands with their timber;
except for these wooded river bottoms, the country is all treeless
prairie. They were all Presbyterians and devout church-goers. Rev. John
P. Williamson was their much-loved missionary; and their church was
served