The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-01-08

. educated; schools are maintained anC
well patronized; laws are provided anc
enforced, and progress and development
: are everywhere visible among them
) one OF these days when they
shall have proven their ability to
perform part in the political affairs Of
the nation, and full citizenship shall oe
conferred on them, with its liberties, its
duties and responsibilities and its am
billions, we may expect these tribes to
contribute their proportion OF the
clever and distinguished men OF the re-
public.
Aside from what are termed the
civilized tribes their civilization being
largely due to themselves and their own
efforts-what Improvement is there in
the general condition of the Indians
over what it was twenty-five or fifty
years ago? What of civilization has
been gained by them, unless it be an
evidence of civilization that they have
lost their proud bearing and ideas of
nobleness and independence to such
degree that they can prowl around kit
chen doors and beg for crusts and
bonesP As matter of fact they have
refrigerated physically, mentally and
morally, only now and then one among
them showing anything but degeneration
by reason of his contact with the whites
and for the humane consideration" OF
the government.
The policy that should be adopted
with reference to the Indians is one
which will regard them as hu-
man beings, capable of being i'm
proved and developed of being trained |
and civilized; and not policy which |
looks upon them as SO many wild. fer
ocious beasts, who must be held in
check by force until they die off, or
become so deprayed as to be beyond the
hope of rescue. The nation acts as if
The only obligation it owes to the say
ages was an obligation not to strike
hem down because they happen to
lave the forms of humans. One of the
most humane and sensible propositions {
hat'we have seen is that contained in
he bill which Senator Teller introduced /
n Tuesday. The proposition is to in
ugurate the compulsory education of {
indian children, the Secretary of the
Interior to have authority to take any
indian children between the ages of s
nd IS years, and place them in govern
ent schools for the education of
adams, and keep them for five years.
ut these schools should not be estab- =
he'd at points remote from the homes
the Indians. They must be on the
servations and at places where the s
Irents can see their children. and
atch their advance toward a better
istence. Parental affection and attach
ent for children is a marked charac- A
ristic of the Indian, and if that is to be
and set az naught by the
the proposed scheme will
It only prove hard and brutal but fail, w
the savage will die with his offspring
the war path, before he will submit w
the distress of a separation the rea-
n for which he cannot fully under
md. With education and their
oughts turned il another direction |
m that now followed, the Indian
i soon assimilate with the white, and
e the characteristics which have -
de it impossible for him to direct his
Lbition toward a life that is better
IN the wild, lazy almost useless ex- 7
ence in which he has grown. Only me
making Indians responsible beings, 't'
Incorporating them into our social :
item, can the problem of their life or
;inction be solved in favor of their
ltinuance, and only through educa-
n can such incorporating be accom-
she'd -