Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1899-08-31
INDIAN EDUCATION.
Abnormal Methods of the
Government.

= I
an article in the August number ot
the Atlantic Monthly in which be
answers his own interrogatory,
Have we failed with the indiana
He answers the question decidedly
in the negative. 1t was hardly to
be expected that, under the cir
cumstances he would be properly
qualified to answer it in any other
way. Every bird is naturally in
clined to think its own young one
the very handsomest chick in all
the forest. If the existence of the
present arbitrary Indian policy is
due to the persevering efforts of
any one person more than all 9TH
ers, that one is unquestionably
Mr.. Dawes himself; that he should
now sit in judgment upon it and
pronounce it to be any thing but a
fiattering success, would be some
what more than could be reason
ably expected of doting parent
hood.
But "have We failed with the
Indian?" Certainly not. What is
failure? When an undertaking
turns out differently from what
was expected of it, and contrary TO
the design, it is generally under
stood to be failure. and the mis-
carriage usually results from a
want of sufficient sense, or power,
or both, on part of the undertaken
to carry the project through to
successful issue. But, by Jove, it
would never do to charge the gov
eminent of the United States with
anything like want of sense to
plan, or lack of power to exc
cute; the pride of American patri-
otism would undoubtedly resent
so unjust and discreditable an i'm
putation. How could we have
failed? The fact is, these Indians
have always been just as helpless
and passive, under the mighty
hand of the government as the
children of household are under
the dominion of father, and-it
may be added with a good show of
truth-just as susceptible.
no, no; "we" have not,,"failed
with the Indian" The process of
humanization to which he has been
subjected, whether according to
the old policy or the new, has, in
all cases, proved completely sue
cessful. Whatever the Indian is
today, ne is that simply because
1--WE" have made him so. He was
once rich. If he is now poor, it is
not because he has been guilty of
prodigality; but simply because the
strong hand of the government has
stripped him of his hereditary pos
sessions. II he is now unable to
acquire decent living for himself,
his wife and his children, It is not
because he is addicted to tb vice
of Incidence; but simply because
his guardian government has, by
force, torn him away from those
innocent and very efficient modes
of industry with which he was ia.
miliar, and without warning, pre-
cipitated him into the midst of
new and strange set OF environ
ments, to the peculiar exigencies |
and demands, of which he has nev-
er been trained. And if be mani
tests in his behavior an aversion to |
the white mans way of doing, liv-
ing, and thinking, it is not, by any |
means, because he is too degraded |
to appreciate the comforts of civil
lization; but simply because of the
domineering injustice and wrong
with which, in his own experience,
it has always been so Extensively
trained.
Mr.. Dawes himself will admit
that 1--WE" have never observed
good faith in dealing with the In
lians. This fact is overwhelm-
.ngly evidenced by the wholesale
manner in which "we" lately re-
ieved ourselves OF our Indian OBJ
legations by means of those repudi-
.ting provisions of the so-called
Curtis Law.
No, no; Mr.. Dawes Indian pol
cy has not been failure, by any
means; it has succeeded, for one
hing at least, in educating the
mind of the American Indian into
IN abiding state OF skepticism as
% the honor and bona fides of the
white mans civilization.
Mr.. Dawes Indian policy has
oeen equally successful from an
educational point of view.
The fatal error which vitiates
he whole scheme of Indian edu-
linn, 10 nnrrinI IN rnInr A.