The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-03-10
INDIAN SCHOOL.

and transmitted Herewith to Congress, we have
been particularly struck with letter addressed
by Mr. T. Hartley Crawford to Captain w.
Crawford, Superintendent of the Western Ter
ritory in reference to the establishment of an
Indian manual labor school at Fort Coffee.
Whilst the present wretched condition of the
Indian race must be source of the deepest re-
greet to every philanthropist, the adoption Of the
best mode for the amelloration of their melan-
choly destiny and their elevation in the scale of
humanity, becomes matter of primary inter-
est. 1t appears that the buildingsEat the point
named have been abandoned for all military pur-
poses, and that the farm heretofore used for the
purposes Of the garrison is still open, and well
situated as to health, whilst, being on the Ar
kansas river it is accessible to number of In
dian tribes. Mr. Crawford proposes that the
buildings be converted into school house, in
which the elementary branches of an English
education shall be taught, and that the farm
shall constitute school for manual labor and
instruction in the processes of agriculture for
| the males, whilst the females shall be instruct
ed in spinning, weaving &c. The author
thinks, and thinks correctly too, that however
insignificant such an establishment may at the
onset, appear, it may be made the source of
incalculable blessings to the Indian race and
we add indirectly to the white population in
that quarter The means by which the institu-
ton is to be supported are to be taken from the
Indian fund. In the selection of teacher, Mr.
&c. recommends the choice of person of ire
proachable moral character and attainments at
least equal to those of principals of academies
in the populous States, in order to carry out his
plan to the fullest extent In addition to the
teacher, in the literary department., it is propos-
ed TO employ regular farmer to impart know
ledge to the youths on the farm, whilst matron
will be placed over the females and teach them
the arts belonging to housewifery. There is
something in this philanthropic project which
appears to us particularly admirable. Its frstre-
commentator is, that it begins at the begin
ming and takes hold on the Indian character
precisely at the point when proper and per-
manent direction may be given to its energies.
Much has been said and written about the i'm
provement and civilization of the Indians, but,
as it appears US, all the projects proposed fall
short of their object because they have in view
the procuration of change of habits when they
are, in fact, so rooted and inveterate that no.
thing on earth can produce radical alteration.
Sometimes. it is true, young Indians have boon
taken from their homes and placed at school
among the pale faces, and have been subsequent
ly sent to college, but so soon as they have at
tanned manhood they have relapsed into all the
wildness of the Aboriginal character. This is
not, however, the right plan. To transplant an
Indian, and place him among those whom he
regards the prosecutors of his race, is to keep
alive his antipathies to the white man and make
him draw comparisons between the freedom of
his own sylvan home and the pent up abodes of
civilized man. He looks around him and be-
holds nothing but restraints and then his memo
nv presents to him the wigwam of his fathers
beside the gushing rill and the dark magnifcence
of the unbounded forest with the glories of the
chase, and he signs for the scenes identified
with his infancy. Nor is it strange that such
should be his feelings as despised and helpless
stranger in a distant land. "God made the
country, and man made the town." and never vet
did the child of the forest, whether white man
or Indian, exchange the proud, soul ennobng
liberty of the wilderness for the dwellings, and
scenes inhabited by polished man, without feel
lngs amounting almost to agony. The civiliza-
ton of the Indian must be the work of time
He must be taken in infancy, and receive the
first lessons of knowledge among his own peo-
pie, and amid the scenes with which their glo-
ries are identified He must be surrounded by
associations with which he is familiar, and be
taught the white mans language, where the
deep-toned gutturals of his own still gladden.
his ear To learn must be to HIM, to a certain
extent matter of choice, and his self-esteem
must not be offended by the .proud mans con-
tumely, or the rich mans PRIDE" Brought gra-
dually to compare the comforts Of civilization
with the restitution of savage life, the certainty
OF plenty, with the precarious sustenance afford
ed by the chase, he must, of his own accord,
seek for the pleasures Of intellectual improve
ment to the exclusion of the crude and unsatis-
factory imaginations of barbarism. Led on by
the hand of judicious, pains-taking instruction,
he will step by step, be made conscious of the
charms thrown around existence by the boun-
teous hand of science and of art, and be taught
to compare the condition of man, as a social be-
ing, with the helpnessness of the same creature
IN the condition of nature BY this means, as
years advance, and manhood approaches, he
will acquire habits and ways Of thinking, of
the silent inroads Of which he has not been
aware until they have acquired mastery over
him which he no longer wishes to resist
Whilst civilization opens to him an unbounded
field for enjoyment here, the truths of religion
will win him to reflections that point beyond the
grave, and thus, unconsciously, will he become
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