The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-14
EDUCATING The INDIAN.
The Present Administration and lts
Plan 10 Establish Non-Sec-
tartan Schools.
Rev. 1. B. Palladino, g. j, Says
Without Christianity the Task
10 Hopeless.

ten Advocated by Hon. Commits
Hon Morgan.
The Hon. George g. Vest was in 1883 n
OF the members Of a special committees APP
pointed by congress to visit the Indian
reservations Of the west. He visited St.
Ignatins Mission and the Bitter Root
valley in his official capacity in the month
of September of the same year. His appre-
citation OF the methods and details OF the
system followed BY the Fathers and Sisters
in educating and civilizing the Indians will
best appear by quoting what he said on the
floor of the United States senate, May IL.
1884: ''ln my wandsrings in Montana last
summer" said, the senator, II saw but one
ray Of light on the subjsct Of Indian cduca-
tion. / am q Protestant. born one, educated
ono, and expect TO die one, bnt ] say now
that the system adopted by the Jesuits Is
the only practical system for the education
of tina Indian and the only one that has
resulted in anything at ALL" Then max
ing his own the words Of another. Senator
Dawes Of Massachusetts, said that the rea-
son of the snccess of tho Jesuits with the
Indians was that they devoted their whole
lives to tho work; he confirms the state
nent BY referring to Father A. Ravalli,
whom he visited at hls .'littls room at
st. Mary's, and whom, though bsd-ridden
for some years, was still administering to
tho wants of the Indians.
..Thia mans whole life" continues Sena-
tor Vest, was given az to the work. and
what il the result? To-day the Flatheads
are 100 per cent. in advance Of any other
Indians in point of civilization, at least in
Montana. Fifty years ago the Jesuits went
among them and to-day Vol see the result
the only ray Of light ! saw was on the Flat
head reservation at tho Jesnit mission
schools, and there were boys and girls, nifty
boys and fifty girls" The senator enters
here into the details of the industrial and
schoolroom training given to the boys and
girls by the fathers and sisters in charge OF
their respective departments. 1--WE had Z
school examination there" continues the
senator, BLASTING through " days. UNDER
taketto saw that never in the states was there
II better examination than l heard Mt that
mission of children of the same age with
those / saw there" After referring TO the
Olu0E0uL luuuhUl1Co ~ IAN OAV
are trained, II asked the father in charge"
adds the senator. ito give me his experience
az an Indian teacher and to state what had
given the school its remarkable SUCCESS. He
said il had resulted from the fact that
they trained both the boys and the girls.
I call the attention of the senator's, who
are interested in tho question, to this sim
pular point y when a class graduates
in the male school . GLASS also graduates in
the female school Y y from the fact that
the boys and girls are both educated, by
their similarity OF tastes and by their adj
vance in civilization they become husband
and wife and a. soon a. that took. place
the Jesuits and the agent would build them
a little house. break up a piece OF ground
and the single couple became a nucleus Of
civilization and OF christiany. You
must educate both sexes in order that the
one shall support the other. in order that
they may go out to battle against barbarism
hand in hand, and until you do it it is
absolutely money thrown away to take
either sex and undertake to educate them
separately. The Jesuits have the key to
the whole problem. They nave learned ii
by actual experience and the result 10
shown to-day. Let any senator taks the
Northern Pacific railroad and get off at
Arlee and 70 to these missions and he Will
sse farms with cattle upon them, he will
SEQ Indians cutting logs, carrying. them
W. n0W- , kWVsAAAA wv E"sANS eA~ -
ting them up into houses with their own
hands. He will sec them attend mass reg
ularlv."
Toutcing upon the subject of day schools
for Indians. Senator Vest says: II saw not
one day school in the eleven tribes that We
visited in Montana whore the Indians had
learned 4 single thing. As the senator
from Kansas said here to-day, and that
part of his speech l heartily approve, the
only attendance at these day schools is on
ration day.
senator continues, ito educate an Indian
if you let him go back to his family each
day. Indians arc utterly averss to the idea
that = boy should work.. It is right
enough for women to work, they are made
10 work, according to their philosophy, but
. Il dsg5ad eS; = man ~ 70 th sor F;atS Ula A'ls abn saa
the school to mo and denounced it,
it was that he sent his boy
over there and the fathers put him to work
in the field. In other words, as he said to
me, 4 did not send my boy there to be a
squaw.' He did not intend him to be de-
graded by any manual exercise at all. It is
perfectly evident" continues the senator,
"that with all such prsjudices, such feeling
in regard to sustaining ones self BY actual
labor it ia simply impossible to do anything
for these people Or to advance them one
LIZ No&iSO uApAA yON q az
away" But what il tho senator's opinion
about taking the children. thousands Of
miles away from their country II would
not take them off to the ~statss,'' says Sen
ator Vest, whore they could acquire ideas
which are alien to Indian life. The Jeguits,
] repeat, have found the secret of the whole
system, and that 10 the boarding schools
and industrial schools upon the reserva-
tions, where the children are taken and
where the parents are permitted to sse
them.
Subsequently in the same debate Hon
orable Vest said in regard to educating both
sexes and in boarding schools: Let me
say a word to the senator from Massachu-
sets. l do not speak with any sort Of de-
nominational prejudice in favor of the Jes-
uits. l was taught to abhor the whole sect.
] was raised in that good old-fchool Pres
byterian church that looked upon the Jesu-
its as very much akin to the devil. But l
say now that if the senator from Massnchu-
setts, the chairman of tho coma on In
dian affairs, will find me any tribe Of bian-
ket Indians on the continent of North
America that approximate in civilization to
the Flatheads, who have been under the
control of the Jesuits for fifty years, l will
abandon my entire theory on the subject. l
say that out of eleven tribes that ] saw they
had not a single, solitary advance toward
civilization. not one, aud yet among the
Flatheads where there were two Indian mis-
Bions you find the relation Of husband and
Suifo and ~ fathar ovN ChiId aNrupnlOulIv