The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-04
EDUCATING THE INDIANS.
A Reply From Rev. L B Palladino.
S. j., to the Constitution.
Article.
Senators Teller and Gall Quoted
on the Contract School
System.
rh. R...on for tho Destruction OF the In
dian Misslons in California end
Mexico.

The Reason for the Destruction of the In
dian Misslons in California end
Mexico.
r To The INDEPENDENT: Education for ths
Indians, Important ideas and historical
facts bearing on the question" Thu above
ID the beading and thu subject Of an article
signed Consultation" In the Helena jour
nal Of tho n inst. We read The article with
much interest. For from weakening
our plea for Christian education
for the Indian. Mr.. Constitution
strengthens it, and his article il but { fair
confirmation Of our views on the subject.
We think it, however somewhat "unoonssl-
t~utional' to give our article (sse lndspsn-
dent Dec. II, 1917 any, still less, "muon
political Significance" We sndsavorsd to
express, on avsry important subject. some
plain, simple truths, as We understand
them, being prompted by no other motive
than to give to the people an opportunity 10
do what Mr.. Constitution himself says II IL
veil for the people to do, that ID. "eonstdsr
the real merits Of the case" We are too lit
tie and too utterly insiRnihcantto give any
hin We may say, do or write any political
signiicance: and are. besides, toleraoly
we'll known for the last twenty-five years 30
the people of Montana for them to ever
dream of the contrary. And, candidly, we
never knew that there was any politics in
MS until Mr.. Constitution WAS kind enough TO
tell us. But, perhaps, the political slRnln-
canoe of our article is all on the side OF Mr..
Constitution himself; We canno say it is
not; but it ia certainly not on our side.
EhMr, Constitution seems not disposed to
belittle the heroism and devotion OF those
fathers, like DsSmet and his contempora-
ries. who sacrificed their lives in the wilder
ness at the behest of their religion and to
benefit mankind. But asks he, what
monument ia left of their work other Than
their fame and valuable church propertyf
Where are the Indians they have lifted
from barbarism?" How a Father DeSmet
and others like him can be said by Mr..
Constitution to have benefited mankind
and left nothing of their work other than
their fame, or how they could have attained
their fame without any work to be famed
by, is more than we can understand. But
Constitution. who can see an absurd incon-
sistency in a plain truism, may also be able
to SEQ a truism in an Irish bull, as his quo
tation above, ''What monument is lett OF
their work" Is it disingenuity or ignor-
ance that asks the question:: we snall
merely allude to but one monument; time
and space allow US no more. In the endless
history of Indian wars, that have cost the
United States treasury millions upon mil
lions Of dollars ana thousands OF lives to
the nation. can Mr.. Constitution point out
a single one that was brought about by
Catholic Indians. This one monumen of
peace erected by Christianity and its minis-
ters. by the DeSmets and others like him,
ia equivalent to many, and in the eyes OF all
Sinking people it alone should suffice to
stamp out non-ssctarianism as q very poor
substitute for Christianity and Catholicism
in the cause of Indian education.
But where Mr.. Constitution seems to
have lost his wits is in running down the
mission system of Indian civilization, as
exemplihed in the rise and fall of the
Catholic Indian missions of Paraguay,
Mexico and particularly California. Gath
Ole missionaries brought the tribes or
Mexico and California under the most per-
feet control and kept them SO" says Bart
lett, an unsuspected authority. And how
was this done? The Indian was taught
Christianity, with many of the arts Of civ
ilized life and how to sustain himself by
his labor. BY this means, Catholic mis-
sionaries accomplished moro towards
amelioriating the condition of the Indians
than the United States has done since the
settlement Of the country.'-Bartlett, Per
sonal Narrative. 9, 81, 432. No n who
has read the history Of these missions can
hesitate a moment to admit that the inter
ference of the government alone crushed
and destroyed them. 1t was the non-see-
tarianism of the Mexican government that
brought about this work of ruin and desc
lation in California. The Catholic mis-
sionaries were driven away, the admins
tration was seoularized and the poor, IN
fortunate Indians who were Christians, in
dustrious and happy under the mission
system, were driven back by the non-sec-
tartan policy of the Mexican government
to Il state of poverty, wretchedness and
barbarism worse than the one from which
they had been rescued by Christianity.
''Moral suasion,' says Mr.. Constitution,
".was futile to retain the thousands of In
dian converts who would no longer be per
suaded to make soap, mould bricks. weave
wool, sing Latin hymns, and repeat media-
val prayers" But, dear Mr.. Constitution,
how would you have those poor, unforlu-
nate Indians to continue to be persuaded,
when the one. efficient cause of persuasion
was no longer among them? When those,
the ministers of christianity, who had per-
trious, christian life, and who alone could
persuade them in remaining in it, were
driven away? How innocently sound Mr..
Constitutions statement that ''some of the
priests went back to Me1ico!" You need
not tell us, after this, that the Indians IRE.
turned to their hillsides. to their grass
hoppers," etc. etc. 1t could not be other.
wise, and it would be for Mr.. Consti-
tuition to bear in mind that like causef
must needs produce like effects.
If those missions "have como to naught,'
Kip, Jesuit Missions, 3; "if we must seek in
vain for the results Of their toll and sacfi
foes" Parkmsn, Conspiracy of Pontiac, as
the failure is not be ascribed to the mel
who created them, nor to their system, am
more than we can ascribe want of skill &c
an Apelles or a Leusis, because their mastsl
pieces of art have been destroyed. Scarcely
a score OF years ago q maddened commun
in Paris pulled down, burned and destroyed
some of the finest monuments ever erected
by the genius of man. real treasures Of
every thing noble, beautiful and grand
But because to-day the wayfarer's foo
trends on the vacant lots where the nobl.
piles were reared and stood, and were in
spected and admired every day of the yea
by thousands of visitors from every corner
of the earth, will Mr.. Constitution arqu,
that those magnificent monuments of arch
i~tecture and art did not exist, or that tho,
were not what they were, simply beoaus,
they are no more and were made to disap
pear in smoke by the incendiary torch ant
petroleum OF the non-religion and non-sec
tartan rabble of PARISH
Those missions, says en- eminent hiato
1ian, were "annong the nublest works O
men: and in the degree that We admire tn
Jealous men who filled Florida, Texas an,
California witt Christion villages must W
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