The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1901-02-16
Civilizinu the Red Man,

CiviIizing the Red Man.
Major r. H. Pratt, superintendent
of the Carlisle Indian Industrial
school, in reply to question in regard
to the prospects of his school and
the Indians in general for the new
century, has written the following in
teresting letter to the Philadelphia
Americana:
outlining the prospect for the Carlisle
school and the Indian at the beginning
of the new century.
II am sorry to say ! do not feel es
pecally confident of the Indians flu
ture. The indurated Indian policy
is always doing things to the Indian
and for the Indian that strengthen
him in his tribal relation and relieve
him of labor, sending everything to
him in his tribe and reservation-food
clothing, money, religion, education
and thus hindeiing. him from the in
valuable experience of going away
from the tribe after anything. Hold
ing him to his tribe keeps him from
any general association with the citi-
zens of the republic His knowledge
and experience therefore are so limit
ed that no ambition to become Of
the people and an Independent citi
zen can possibly grow within him
The pcrnicious system of giving him
rations for a long series of years and
issuing clothing. distributing money
land to lease, etc, has borne the nat
ural fruit of idleness; hence worth
lessness. disease and death. These, al
though intended as benevolence have
against the Indian. The present com
missioner of Indian affairs declared
recently in a public address that the
Indian and our country would now
be better off had the Indian tribe
never been recognized, had there been
no treaties made with them, and ha
there never been an Indian bureau
The tribe, treaty conditions and the
bureau of control are the hindrances
and until they can be done away witt
there will continue to be little chanc
for the individual Indian.
Through n multitude of experience
| believe now more than ever, and
have believed for 25 years, that it is
perfectly practicable to quickly and
economically equip the average Indian
with all there is necessary to make
him useful citizen. This includes
the language of the country, capacity
and industry to compete, and the cour
age to enable him to strike out fol
himself. Being separated from al
pressure of necessity for them, thes.
Things are not usefully acquired on In
dian reservations, nor in purely III
dian schools. though Indian school.
properly situated and managed with
the intention to accomplish them may
be most important help towards pass
ing him on to competing influences
Indian school on Indian reservation
are only invitations and helps to the
Indian to remain in his tribal capacity,
and unlimited experience shows that
no courage to enter the civilized life
and compete for it's good things is &C
quired in such schools. Indian schools
located in our industrial centers and
required to send their students out
into the public schools and into our
industrial life. if generally adopted
would be a good beginning. The
young of the Indian race. like the
young of all other races that make up
our heterogeneous population. will
successfully acquire the primary quail
tiles to make them individual citizens
in public schools through associating
and measuring their brain and Drawn
with our own children. and these will
start them right, on the highway to
competent. competing citizenship. No
purely Indian school can possibly do
this for them. Associating with the
language of the country will best give
the language and save the expense of
special schools for that purpose and
associating with our industrial and
moral forces will give best moral and
industrial forces and save the expense
of theoretical special schools for these
purposec. These qualities thus ac-
quired bring true Indian emancipa.
ton.
my formula for solving the prob.
lem has been for many years. ITO