The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-02-17
(From the Philistine.)

uO hIlOW WIS SOlten from dCludi DIS
ISOLATION. The Indian is not quarrel
some, nervous, rreacherous nor vim
dlctive. l never heard of an Indian
beating his wife nor maltreating his
children, and / have never seen older
lndlan boys bullying younger ones.
Indian children very rarely quarrel
among themselves. There is great
attachment among the whole family
and when the Indian man travels he
takes his wife and children and
parents or grandparents with nim In
this he is like the German, who takes
his family with him when he goes to
the beer garden, which is quite a
different thing from the English habit
of going off and getting drunk alone,
and then coming home and taking it
out on the family.
The man who takes his wife and
children with him wherever he goes.
is not wholly bad.
AT Lodge Grass, Wyoming. the In
dams gave a small and select abo-
rlglnal function in my honor. We sat
in a circle, in big tepee. around a
campfire, whose fitful glare lighted
up the dusky faces and made me
think l was in the land of Peter Pan.
Speeches were made; there was much
Misunderstanding; 1 was adopted into the
tribe and given new name; the pipe
of peace was passed; and the suuaws
served the feast. And as We sat
there in the strange weird light
three waite men, a negro, and fifty
Indians squaw came in. She an
preached me in an excited way and
poured out a kind of ejaculatorv an
peal. Then she hastily withdrew. In
a few moments she came back and
went through the strange perform
ance again. Nobody seemed to nav
the slightest attention to her She
came back the third time. and tnere
was note of woe in her voice like
L
this squaW's performance was not
part of the program. She was an in
terloper After speaking an instant
she would run out as if she expected
TO be forcibly repulsed
What does she want?" I asked a
half-breed, seated near.
ha
little girl was the impassive reply. !
But l haven't her little girl
where is the child she is talking off ."
The out-agent came last week and
took her baby away to school. Her
heart is broken-it is no matter!"
And the half-breed looked stolidly
into the fire, as if that closed the i
subject.
Her heart is broken-it is no mat
teri"
A mothers heart-Rachel weeping
for her children and will not be COM |
because they are not.
Our scheme of education for the
Indians includes taking their children
away from the parents by force. and
sending them away to a boarding
school.
The English boarding school with
out a patentable improvement, The
English boarding school that afro
cious relic of a barbaric past. Upon
the lintels of the doorpost of every
Indian home are the marks of blood i
AT first we took young men and
women; then we said we must get
them younger, before adolescence. and
now We say, Catch them voune-I
the younger the better-babies just
Weaned are best-they have little to
forget"
The Indians love their children to
degree that we whites do not love
ours. We haven't the time-the vital
thing to civilized white is his bust
ness-to his WIFE, society. We dele
gate the building and keeping of our
homes to specialists and allow aliens
TO instruct our children
The Indian woman carries her babv
on her back and when the toddIer
can walk bit he tags lovingly on
ner skirts. If she goes horseback he
perches behind on the crupper or in
front on the withers. The father
looks on in silent, satisfied approval.
And now comes the out-agent and
seizes the child. Soldiers with loaded
guns are within easy call, and often
right at hand! ~. 5gtsnl
The Indian man puts his hands to
his ears and runs away to escape the
tragedy he cannot endure. The
squaw mother fights or else falls in
fit and strikes her face on the
ground in abject Woe
To the parents the child is dead
they mourn it as gone forever Educa-
ton? what is that-a prison, The /
stolen child never returns. Years
after another person may come back.
but it isn't the baby they lost.
Very often ba Tn