The Minneapolis journal., 1902-07-08
The Indian Problem
TEACHERS CLOSE CONTACT WITH CONDITIONS

| DISCUSSED BY TEACHERS IN CT
! The afternoon session of the depart
ment Of Indian Education yesterday was
| largely attended and proved both inter-
esting and helpful to the workers present.
| The opening address Of President Nc
| Cowan, of Chillocco, Oklahoma, strikingly
pictured the injustice aud hardship under
| which the Indian has suffered and ap-
pealed strongly for a better understand
| ing and fairer treatment of the Indian
| question. He said
| Commissioner Jones CompIimented.
We have seen a great many changes and
| many are yet to come before we shall have
| perfect Indian policy. But have much to
| be thanbful for We should be thankful
| that we have at the head of affairs a man
| WHO knows the Indian as you and I know
| him. The President of the United States has
spent days and nights in the camps and te-
pees OF the Indian. He knows his difficulties
| and the need of uplifting him. He knows
that we should take the Indian from the aw
full surroundings of reservation life; from the
system of feeding him We would swine
from making a mere coffee-cooler of him.
President Roosevelt knows that he must be
set to work and removed from paternalism
which makes him serVile, sneakng and vile
and pleasure OF serving under a secretary who
understands the real Indian and his needs
and who is doing his best to push forward the
| industrial side of his education Commis-
sioner Jones has studied the Indian and,
although he has made mistakes, he has not
been ashamed afraid to acknowledge and
rectify them. He knows that the Indian child
has been pampered as has the old Indian
We have influences at headquarters backing
us up in the efforts we have been making for
years to mDlitt the Indian.
| We should be thankful. for superintendent
l1rho holt 1,,{,r &D ~of froy,
Washington and visit us. to what we
We should be grateful. too, for the honor
are doing and to counsel with us and advise.
| We have reached a crucial period in Indian
policy There those who will still main
| tain that the red man is not hewer Of wood
and a drawer of water; that we owe him
living and perquisites; that Indian education
is the sequel of a long series of perfidies and
dishonor. There are those who say that the
Indian is not like other men and must have
a special method and dispensation. We must
be blamed by some who would inject their
theories into the solving of life problem as
old as life itself. We solving the same
problem which confronted Adam and Eve,
but with our passion for meddling we are de-
termined to solve the problem of life for the
Indian in own way. We would destroy
custom and habits and merge him into an
American like ourselves. Our race prejudice
crushes freedom of thought and action.
Mr.. MCGOWAN then drew vivid picture
Of what Americans would suffer if the
Chinese should conquer the country and
| force upon us their ideas of civilization.
He showed that the red too, resented
being torn from his home. forced to part
with his children, his religion and his
customs. In conclusion he said:
Our polcs7 has been domination or death.
We have been blind to charity. We have
thrown away all weanons but force. We
fought the Indians for generations, then cor
raled them on reservations, fed and educated
them, and defed all natural laws The results
have not met our expectations. We forget
that a two-minute horse is not made In
generation We forget that Christian can
not be made in a minute. The love Of God
cannot be understood in a minute. and if ii
is not understood it cannot be followed The
Indian cannot understand civilization in q
minute. He cannot understand us and oul
plans. We must remember that the simplest
conditions of life after all the best. Dc
not make him struggle for the complexities
of modern life. which are not heaven-born
If we educators do our best. we need no
mind criticism and taunts. We must educate
the Indian in industrial pursuits. There is
danger in idolizing or idealizng him. He il
crude bit of humanity.
The Indian and Agriculture.
,'"The Teaching of Agriculture with
Reference to Future Employment" was
the subject of an interesting and practical
paper by L. M. Compton, superintendent
of the Indian school at Tomah, Wis. Mr.
Compton said that the Indian through his
love Of nature and an outdoor exist.
ence was particularly fitted for an agri-
cultural life and advocated careful an6
intelligent teaching in order that the
pupils might be we'll grounded in the gen
eral principles of husbandry and capable
Of applying the general laws to specific
and widely different conditions which
they might meet in the matter Of soil
and climate He said that one Of the most
important things to impress upon an In
dian pupil was the rights of property.
The reservation and free boarding school
system had made him careless OF prop
erty and property rights. The sooner lie
could be placed where he would have only
such property as he earned and preserved
carefully, the sooner the Indian would be-
come a careful and frugal citizen.
Miss Alice Robertson, supervisor OF
schools for the Creek nation, responded
to Some Difficulties in Indian Educa-
tion' with an excellent impromptu speecf
upon the distressing conditions in Indian
Territory, where the educated Indians are
hampered and dragged down by the hoards
of poor whites who have thrcnged into
, the state from the south. She said thai
there is no provision under the laws o1
the state for the education of these
whites. The Indians have repeatedly
!, asked aid of the government for theil
, white neighbors but have received ne
help and are left to struggle with the
: hard problem of elevating to their owl
level, those who consider themselves o
superior race.
Evils of Segregation.
H. G. Wilson spoke of the evils o