The San Francisco call., 1899-07-22
RELIGION
TO UPLIFT
THE INDIAN
Father Verwyst Declares It
Is More Necessary Than
Education.
PROTEST OF A PRIEST
Objects to the Governments Policy
in Shutting Out Denomina-
tiOnal Schools.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

LOS ANGELES, July 2l.-Not alone has
the Indian Teachers Institute that has
been in session during this week in Los
Angeles touched upon every phase of life
Of the red man, his future. his schooling
and his training, but teacher, physician,
superintendent and man of God have had
an opportunity to voice sentiments that
pertain to each branch of the Indian serv-
ice. The line of thought that has per
vaded the daily sessions and the papers
discussed is the release of the Indian from
his tribal relations. Its full scope is out
lined in the following resolution that was
this morning presented by Commissioner
Merrill J. Gates;
Resolved, That the true object of the
Indian schools and of the Indian man
agement is to accomplish the release
Of the individual Indian from the
slavery of tribal life and to establish
him in the self-supporting freedom Of
citizenship and a home in the life of
the nation, and whatever in our pres
ent system hlnders the attainment of
this object should be changed.
1t remained for Father ChrysostOm Yer
wySt, during his address to Superintend-
ents, to cut into the question and pierce
the core when he declared that the three
great enemies of the Indian We're whisky,
money and the white man. Father Yer
Wyst chose for his topic The Indian and
the church He proclaimed that the OBJ
Ject in Indian schools was to civiliZe
the Indian.
"A white man may have houses and
money and still be vicious and immoral" {"
declared the speaker. Our fOrgers.
sWindlers, bank-wreckers are civilized
men; but their civilization is material
ism. Money and pleasure are the two ar
tlcles of creed of this materialistic civillz-
alton Such was the civilization of Rome
ana greece IT was nothing but refined
barbarism. They legalized infanticide in
sparta. They deitied impurity in Venus,
and drunkenness in Bacchus. They prac-
rev ms
had their bloody gladitOriaI shows for the
qualification Of the thousands; yet they
We're highly civilized.
God save the Indian from such mate
rlailSuc civilization. 1t is a curse, not a
blessing. 1t does not elevate man, but /
dTagS him down and makes him the slave
of base passions. What civilization do we
want? Give the Indian a civilization that
will make him better. that will make him
revere the great God that made him;
make him conscious of his accountability
70 his conscience. To make this true civ
lizatiOn worthy the name, we want relg-
ion. Any system of education that ig-
training is not always a blessing; it is
often curse to the one that holds this
power and wields it for his own eternal
ruin.
L protest, in the name OF true civiIiza-
ton and ChaTitE toward the Indians
against the Governments policy, which
schools among our Indians, and has de-
voted them TO total extinction in the near
1uIuIe- III oTbeT 10 give place 10 a system
of education that VIII make the Indian
wittier, sharper and more cunning AS
to the older Indians. the way to civilize
them is first by religion. They were civ
Ilized by the church-and do not forget
by the Catholic church. IT. instead Of
letting a lot Of whites-pine land grab
bers and sharperS-get away with the In
dians pine for a small sum, out of which
he is cheated by eXtOrtionate prices which
are charged at reservation stores in lieu
of his pine-if the Government had kept
that pine and other timber for the benefit
of the Indian and had erected sawmills
planning mills, tub and stave factories, su-
perintended by some Government officials
the Indian would have made a good living
many years ago.