Before presenting quotations from his manuscript I shall sum up briefly his general observations. Looking back upon a career of upwards of sixty years throughout the West (chiefly in Kansas and Nebraska,) Mr. Wright concludes that the Plains Indian was vastly better off when able to roam, unhampered by anyone, throughout the country, than at the present time. He speaks of the great and interesting Kiowa village located some distance from Dodge City about 1868. Living in central and southern Kansas, he came in contact, not so much with the Sioux, but with the Pawnees, who occupied the flat country, and the Horse Indians, which included the Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Prairie Apache. As to the wars among themselves, he thinks that the number of killed, or damage inflicted upon villages has been exaggerated. Usually, there were few casualties in these actions. Some writers might not agree with him, but this is his opinion. Occasionally, one band would surprise a village and take many captives and scalps. He was impressed in the early days with the good health of these Indians, their hardiness, and that they were seldom visited by epidemics. Smallpox broke out along the Missouri River, and to the east and north, but seldom in southern Kansas and northern Texas. He declares that there was no tuberculosis or trachoma when he first went among these people. The general standard of character and virtue was much higher. “As has been said, the Indian was by nature a warrior and hunter, and was trained as such from earliest childhood. It is taken for granted, by the great mass of civilized peoples, that the uncivilized redskin had no idea of education. This is an error. For years, I was among the wild Indians of half a century ago, and I know from personal observation that they had as thorough a system of education for their children, in their line, as that boasted by the civilized white race. From the time the Indian child was able to walk, his or her education began. The first lesson usually consisted in being strapped upon the back of a docile pony and taking a little practice in riding. In the second step in education he was made to become familiar with the bow and arrow, which were the Indians’ favorite weapons, half a century ago. At the age of five, perhaps, the father took the boy out upon the hills adjoining the camp and admonished him to be observant of what he saw. Every ravine and hill, a buffalo skeleton, a rock or tree, a footprint in the sand or grass, the displacement of a stick or stone—all these things and many more a child must study and learn to notice. He must learn to readily detect the different marks on bows, arrows, and moccasins, distinguishing as to which tribe they belonged, as every tribe had a peculiar mark of its own for its manufactured articles. When the father and child came back to the tipi, after a day of observation, the child was required to give a description of what he had seen during the long