The Irish standard., 1889-02-02
JESulTS AS EDUCATORS
And Missionaries in Montana-Their
Work Pictured in the United
States Senate By
SENATOR VEST OF MISSOURI.

SENATOR VEST OF MISSOURI
How They Have Succeeded Over Protestant
Missionaries in Civlllzing the Un~
tutored Red Man.
In the Senate of the United States.
May 18th, 1884, the Indian Appropria-
ton Bill being under consideration
Hon. Geo. G.. Vest, Senator in Congress
from the State of Missouri, Protestant,
Said:
CHOW, as to education, in all my
waaderings in Montana last summer |
saw but one ray of light On the subject
Of Indian education. am Protest
ant, born Ole, but say now that the
system adopted by the Jesuits is the
only practical system for the education
of the Indians and the only one that
has resulted in anything at all.
When the Senator from Massachusetts,
the Chairman of the Comm ittee on In
dian Affairs, said the other day that
the reason of the success Of the Jesuits
more than any other sect with the In
dians was that they devoted their whole
lives to the work, he struck the key
nete of the entire situation. Take a
Protestant clergyman and send him to
the West, do not care how active and
Jealous he may be, he goes there with
his family ties; he goes there looking
back to civilization, he goes there half
devoting himself from a sense Of duty
to this ungenial life.
Take Jesuit and what does he do !?
He is a mi.millitary preacher. He
belongs to the Company Of Jesus. He
owns nothing but the robe upon his
back. If he receives an order from the
commander of the company at the dead
hour of night to rise and &C to Asia.
he goes without a question. He is q
number, he is not man. He is segre-
gated from the world.
( talked with Father Cavalier at ST..
Mary's Mission, who had been fifty two
years among the Indians in Montana,
had devoted his whole life to them, had
been sent there from Italy, an accom-
plished physician and when visited
him at his little room in the mission he
was lying there, having been bedridden
for FIVE years. and still administering
medicines and performing surgical op-
erations on each recurring day. This
mans whole life was given up to the
work, and what was the result ? To
day the Flathead Indians are hundred
per cent. advanced over any other III
dians in point of civilization, at least in
Montana.
Fifty years ago the Jesuits went
among them, and to-day you sec the re-
suit. Among all those tribes commenc-
ing with the Shoshones, the Arapahees,
the Gros .Yentres, the Blackfeet, the
Piegans, the River Grows. the Bloods
and Assinaboins, the only ray OF light
saw was>on the Flathead reservation
at the Jesuit mission schools, and there
were boys and girls-fifty BOYS and
fifty girls.
They raise cattle; the Indian boys
herd them. They have mills; the In
dian boys attend them. They have
blacksmith's shops; the Indian boys
work in them. When I was there they
were building two school houses, all
the work done by the scholars at
the mission. They cannot raise corn
to any extent IN that climate, but they
raise vegetables and enough oats to
supply the whole school: and I never
saw in my life finer herd of cattle or
horses than they had upon that mission.
Five nuns, Sisters, and five Fathers
constitute the teachers in the respec-
tive schools.
We had school examination there,
lasting through two days. undertake
to say that never in the States was
there better examination than I heard
at that mission of children of the same
age with those that i saw there. The
girls were taught needlework, they
were taught to sew and teach, they
were taught music, they were taught to
keep house. The young men were
taught to work upon the farm, to herd
cattle, to be blacksmiths, carpen-
ters and millwrights.
Here IS the whole Of it in one single
sentence: I asked Father Van Court,
the Father in charge of the mission to-
give me his experience as Indian
teacher, and to state what had given
the school its remarkable success. He
said it resulted from the fact that they
had taught both bows and girls. He
said that for twenty years the Jesuits
had had only male school. I call the
attention Of uhe senators who are inter-
ested in this question to this single
point.
He said that when they educated the
boys and graduated them at toe schoo.