The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-02-17
I'm Defense of the Indian


. I realize the skill, patience and puri-
[ ty of intent of those who teach in
these schools. Their motives are right
beyond cavil. and their methods good
But the policy of kidnapping children
from their parents in the name of
Christian education is a blunder be-
yond compare. The children cry of
inconsistencies for a month and in this
period of despair many die.
Snug gentlemen in Washington de-
wise a plan of education for the In
dams, and expend millions of the peo-
pies money in carrying out these ar
tificial, arbitrary, hand made schemes
with grab and graft proportionate
Carlisle is an attempt to jump the
savage through the nomadic and agri-
cultural stages into the rough and
tumble of the age of competition. But
! this plan fails to do one thing-it fails
| to stamp out the race instinct AL
!
back to the teepee and blanket. Do
| Carlisle Indian girls who go back to
the reservation exert an influence for
good. Alas! ask any Indian agent
what becomes of them!
! AT Lodge Grass, Wyoming, is a
| reservation school, carried on with the
consent of the Indian service, but
with no financial help from the gov
eminent. An Indian voluntarily gave
up an especially valuable tract of
| land for this school. 1T keeps pap
| poses st home,'' he said to me. The
cry of the Indian on every reserva-
ton in America is for the reservation
scnools-'It keep pappooses at home"
The Indian adult is a child Teach
him to have a garden, to build a
house, to- care for cattle, to milk
COW and raise poultry-and the ques-
ton of education is solved. Books
DO not educate, and whether the In
dian can read and write is little diff
ference. But when we get him to
plant a fruit tree and watch it grow. !
it is an achievement.
The reservation school is a kinder
garten. And every Kindergarten is a !
little educational center for the en-
tire community. the Kindergarten is
plan to educate parents. The child
educates its mother. Is love so plen |
'iiul mat you can afford to stamp |
upon it and berak the hearts of ten
thousand mothers?
Conserve your love-it is too scarce
10 Hout. Work mother-love up into
Life. Transmute it into useful eff |
fort A reservation school breaks no |
mothers heart nor, carries a cloud of
unending gloom into a home.
The non-reservation school creates
enmity, opposition, and sows drag |
ons teeth. The results of the nom
reservation schools are not desired by
the Indians. And the Carlisle Indian
when he goes back finds it easier to
accept the environment of the teepee
than to fight against it.
L may be wrong, but 1 think that
tears and terror do not make for good |
no matter how enthusiastically devised |
and any plan of education which re-
presses mother-love instead of build
will
commonsense of the people get To-
Gus on it.
In 1871 there were two hundred
and thirty-seven thousand Indians in
America. In 1899, there were one
hundred and seventy-six thousand. In
1908 there are not over one hundred
and fifty thousand. We are fast ed
ucating the Indian off the face of the
earth.
Heart-broken women do not bear
children. With many Indians a babv
is looked upon as a tragedy inasu,,ot
as any day it may be stolen away and
only a great sorrow be left in IFS
stead
My boy has been gone for three
years, but every night 1 am awakened
oy hearing him calling and crying for
me- said one Indian woman to me
ana the curious part was that this
woman herself was a Carlisle In
dian"
The Indian ,squaw is not the drudge
that some people imagine-she is the
housekeeper and provider. She cooks
weaves, strings beads, makes moe
casins, and tans skins. She has r.
invent, devise and plan, and this ex-
erclse of her faculties has made her
the mental superior of her mate The
buck is only the drone bee-tbe
woman is the worder.
In the Lewis and Clark expedition
there were thirty-four men and one
woman. This woman Sacajawea was
the guide and chief counselor of Lewis
and Clark. She knew the fords the