The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-09-18
.REMISS STATE AS
CURSE TO INDIANS
DR.. Egan Declares Minnesota Gov
eminent to Blame for Chip
pewas Condition.
FAILURE TO SUPPRESS
LIQUOR EVIL CHARGED
Noted Catholic Educator Sees
Failure, Too, in Education
Of Red Man.
BY w. w. Jermane.

Washington, Sept. 18.-Dr. Maurice
Francis Egan, professor Of English lit
erature in the Catholic University Of
America in Washington and one Of the
best known Catholic educators in the
United States, has been spending the
hay fever period in Bemidii, MINI. He
has a column and half article in this
mornings New York Sun, under Be-
midi dateline, in which he discusses
the condition of the Chippewa Indians
OF Minnesota, and the apparent lack Of
public sentiment among resident whites
at Bemidjis and other places favorable
to supervising the liquor traffic among
the Indians.
He tells of several instances of bru-
tality among Indians, due to drunken
ness, in which squaws and children
were sufferers, and declares the state
authorities responsible for this con-
dition.
Crimes Traced to Whisky.
Nearly all the crimes committed by
the Chippewas, - he says, fare the re-
suit Of the lawless selling Of whisky.
against which the government is at
present taking serious measures. The
state seems to be painfully remiss. True,
the circumstances [, have related are
looked upon by the homesteaders who
were witnesses to them as something
so usual as to call for no particular at
tent1on. The remedy for this condition
OF things lies entirely with the state au-
thorltl9es, and not at present with the
federal government. -
Education Failure.
DR.. Egan s observation leads him TO
! observe that efforts to educate the In
dams apparently have failed. fsNo
amount of education,' he saws. Gin
| duces the Indians to become good citi-
zens after the manner of the whites.
The squaw often, after brief glimpse
OF the school reverts to her primal po-
sIt1on in the tepee as beast of burden.
Ihe buck, in spite of a veneer Of book
learning, feels it necessary to apply his
/ hst to her as often as he thinks proper
and, in spite of the tears Of the phiian.
thropist, the average squaw needs to be
disciplined at times.''
Power of the Church.
DR.. Egan also says that the only
power that has kept the Indian moral
IN ms relations to his family is that
o. Tenglon and that in this line the
| Catholics and Anglicans are both do
/ observers, however, that the main IN
tuence for good is the control ex
ercised by the confessional. He saw
that "once out of sight Of the priest
however, the Chippewa has no deepl,
rooted prejudice, against polygamy; bu
unehastlty, as it is understood in tn,
realms OF civilization, is. not his be
setting vice. The crime for which tn
southern negro is frequently lynched i
unknown among Chippewas. A white
woman on the reservation is very
safe. ~ In closing, DR.. Egan says:
I Some New Svste,n
eff there could be reserved con
stantly and forever certain parts O,
this country in which the Indians them
selves would have no fee simple, which
could not be sold, even by the gov
eminent, under any pressure, and i
these lands and rivers and lakes coul
be kept well stocked with game an<
fish, the Indians might be Christian
lied and follow the rule Of life allotte,
to their temperament and tradition. A
it is, our attempts to put them in th
same position as the white, to teac
them to read from the same books, O
to live a similar life, must fail.
Psychologists should examine tn
minds and bodies of the Chippewa.
with a view to formulating a syste1
which will help them to be sober i
: mind, clean in body, and to live thei
lives, not by "a standard which the
cannot reach, but according to trad
tions which thousands of years hav
imposed on them. Progress, after all
!: must follow nature rather than thwar
it,