The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-08-07
ARIZONA LETTERS.

"What shall we do with our Indi-
aus ?n is the question that is asked,
since all efforts to civilize them ends
in failure. The effort to advance them
is a laudable one. To change them from
savages, living in rude homes, savage
dress and costumes, to an educated
people with all its advantages, is GER
tainly cornmendabIe and worthy of
great effort. Did the Indian meet the
effort half way, nothing would be east
er. He not only does not meet it half
way, but he repels it with all his deter
mined power. What shall we do with
them and not what shall we do for
them, is the proper way to solve this
most difficult question. The difficult
ties in the way of civilizing these peo-
pie are much greater upon investiga-
ton than we are wont to believe. We
think the advantages of civilization are
enough of themselves to commend
them to the adoption of the Indian.
They do not adopt them, and we nat
urally feel grieved at their stubborn
ness, and lay the entire blame upon
them. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard his spots? AS well
might we expect these radical chang es
as for the Indians to forget their savage
costumes and become a civilized peo-
pie.
1t is long, long way from the saw
age life to that of civilized life. 1t
can not he bridged over in one genera
ton, but it must be a slow, toilsome
process. Step by step, generations
must come and pass away e'er We can
with reason expect to see the fruits of
an effort to advance these most savage
people. We must surrender our desire
to make them an agricultural people !;
to advance them i'm science, art and
literature; to dress them in the fashions
of the whites. and to change their cos
TUNES and their homes. He who
makes an effort to do the most for these
people will make the most signal fail
ure; and this is we'll illustrated on
every reservation within the United
States. We give them land and teach
them to farm, and their farms are but
mere patches of pumpkins, weeds and
corn, that would be disgrace i'm any
land or cline. We ask them to doff
their dress, which becomes them, and
put on the dress of the civilized man.
They readily see that the change is
against them. Instead of their COM
Portable and becoming costumes they
are a caricature upon the human FORM
We insist that they shall cut off their
hair and instead of the long, beautiful
raven locks that ornamented their
heads, they have black bristle that
would shame the back of hog. We
build them houses and ask them to live
in them, and they find them most IN
comfortable, because they do not have
or know the use of the furniture that
make our homes SO comfortable. We
desire to attach them to a spot, when
they know of no attachment but to
country. Their lack of cleanliness, or
lack of means of keeping clean, soon
makes one of their homes or camps too
filthy for habitation, and they then de-
sire to change to better camp grounds
and more healthy homes. We send
their children To school and teach them
the knowledge of civilized men. They
care nothing for the great world, its
history, its arts, its glories. These are
nothing to them and i'm no way do
they interest them or their people.
These children return to their people,
and for short time they may be heard
praising the ways of the whites and
wearing the dress of the "pale faces"
It is but a short time, and little by lit
tie they again return to the ways of
their fathers, and can only be distin-
gnished 10y their extra manners or the
stupidity of their countenance, caused
by the molding process of the schools
aud the continual presence of superb
or power.
Can the Indian be blamed for not
adopting these changes when they
bring him nothing but ridicule or dis.
comforts? Certainly not. He who
would build a house must build accord
ing to his material; and he who would
build a government must consider the
people for whom he would build that
government. In glancing throughout
the world We see people living in every
grade of society, from the savage to the
civilized, and all seem to be happy and
contented in the conditions by which |
they are surrounded. Happiness is
not found in only one condition of life, /
the civilized-but it is found in every
condition. If this be true let us then
whose hearts are bursting with the de-
sire to Christianize and civilize these
savages, content ourselves with the
knowledge that these people can be
happy under other conditions than
those We propose 10 force upon them.