The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-01-11
THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE
INDIAN.
BY ANNA LAURENs DAWES.
Second Article.
BY ANNA LAURENs DAWES.
Second Article.

wigwam and the tepee, and great
horror is expressed at the degrade
ton which must necessarily ensue.
This is indeed true, but the blame is
not to be laid at the door of race
alone. Have these critics ever seen
the tent of "mover" in the West?
And no "mover" is ever a red man.
Wherein is the life of the tepee or the
log hut worse than the life of the one
room cabin in the South, whether
white or black? Where does it differ
from that of many and many a set
tier either en- the plains or in the
wilderness beyond the Mississippi,
north or south? 1t is true that this
statement will be holly disputed by
local pride, but its truth may be
| Justly affirmed. Customs which are
native to the surrounding country,
which seem to be common to GER
tain stage of education or non educa-
ton all over our own land / say
nothing of others,) are by no means
radical, and by no means hopeless.
They are simply stage, and to be
grown out of in the same fashion
everywhere, and very largely by the
same processes, viz: the multiplied
ton of wants.
We have, then, certain principles
enunciated, but only half established
which, first of all, need new emphasis
and full agreement. And we need to
understand little better what we
mean by absorption and assimilation.
One reason why no greater progress
is made today is because, in the first
place, we do not realize that the first
stage of the journey has been passed.
Partly of purpose, and partly through
circumstances, we have already &C.
complished part of the problem, but
we do not realize that fact. 1t is true
that we have not yet assimilated the
Indians, but it is also true that we
have already absorbed the Indian. 1t
is time we began to realize that. We
are looking at the question aslant,
because of not realizing it. In our
desire to do the best for these people,
we have run ahead too far and too
hastily, like children who would atone
for past injustice. Absorption into
our body polite is by no means
equivalent to development into citi-
zens of the best quality, or to any
sort of assimilation. We have ap-
parently COMPOUNDED the two. A prom
inent philanthropist working among
the Indians, recently, in public
speech, instanced the gambling and
horse racing propensities of the
young men as an evidence of their
lack of civilization. 1t is this con-
founding of civilization with morals
and refinement that makes half the
difficulty. 1t is not uncivilized to
bet, nor to race. The State can only
bring the Indian into the environment
| of civilization, and he is absorbed"
wherever and whenever that occurs
The rest is the work of time and con-
tact, of individual effort and social
force, of education and religion. Thus
the Bohemians in Chicago, the Polish
Jew in New York, are absorbed into
our civilization, though they speak
no English, or live in squalor. Assim-
ilation is another and better thing,
but it is the step that follows ABSORB
ton. 1t cannot precede it.
There are those who assert that
absorption is only possible by losing
the individual Indian in the mass of
civilized life. There are others that
declare better way-one producing
larger results and of more mascu-
line breadth-is the effort to leaven
the Indian mass and raise the race to
higher level. Both are good and
both must be employed to the last
and largest degree.
There is room enough for both and
for all, or any other plan of advance
ment, but neither is necessary to alb
sorption. So soon as the reservation
is opened, so soon as the ordinary
condition of life around him may be
permitted the Indian, he is then and
there absorbed and his personal
or social, or even his racial condition,
has nothing to do with the question.
But that this may come with the
least friction, everything must be
done to educate and uplift the Indian.
He is today civilized in the elemental
sense of that term. He is surround
ed everywhere by white civilization
all his race wear civilized clothes;
more than two thirds of them cult
vate the ground, live in houses, ride
in Studebaker wagons, send their
children to school, drink whisky, may
if they like own their own land.
What he needs is individual help.
| And here another great miscOncep-