THE FILE HILLS FARM COLONY.
         
         
  And this brings us naturally to the File Hills Indian Farm Colony.
Mr. Graham (and with him in his great work Mrs. Graham should al-
ways be associated) not only perceives a weak point or an evil; he sets
to work if possible to remedy it. We have already spoken of the school- 
trained children going back to the blanket.  The idea was to form a
colony on the reserve, mainly for the educated Indians who intermarried
among themselves.  Mr. Graham prevailed on the Department to set
side 16,000 acres of the reserve.  On that 16,000 acres today are two
churches and schools and farms which would do credit to white men;
and on which Indians are living on a scale which compares favorably
with that of the ordinary homesteader. Here is the solution of the Indian
problem, which, as it is gradually applied to the whole of the reservation,
will do more to raise the Indian perhaps than any one thing that has yet
been attempted.  No Indian Commissioner more thoroughly deserved
his promotion than Mr. W. M. Graham. In the War days, when food was
a desideratum, he brought the Indian and the Indian lands of Western
Canada to the rescue in a way which will always be a red-letter record
in his administration, and in this he was backed up by the agents, the
instructors, the Indian Chiefs and the rank and file, with an energy and
patriotism which cannot be too highly extolled. Reverting to the Farm
Colony, some of them have big barns, bank accounts and automobiles.
The first to own a motor car was our good friend Joe Ironquil, who set
an example in one respect that might well be followed.  In order that
he might know how to run his car right he went to Winnipeg and took
a course of instruction.