The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-01-30
evitable readjustment which comes
when they exchange school life for In
dian home surroundings,


To Find Employment for Women.
Furthermore. on the recommendation
of the agent. an attempt is being made
whereby Indian women OF the Rosebud
Reservation can be employed under
proper management to manufacture
garments nf various kinds, to- be sold
to traders ard others. He has been
allowed $4,000 with whie::s to make the
venture. and he believes THAT the enter.
prise will eventually bee,me self sup.
porting. This work Was so recent,
begun, however, that the Commissioner
cannot yet consider results.
Commissioner Leupp is ''forninst' the
present system of education for In.
dams. He considers 1t wasteful, illogi-
cal. and not at all fitted for the object
which it is hoped to attain.
Briefly stated" he says, at pivots
on the question whether we are to car
~ civilization to the Iniian or carry
the Indian to civilization, and the form
er seems to me infinitely the wiser plan
To plant our schools among the Indians
means to bring the olde;- members OF
the race within the sphere of influence
of which every school is center. This
certainly must be the basis of any prac-
teal effort to uplift whole people
For its demonstration we do not have
to look beyond the border line of our
experience with Caucasian commune
ties, where it is obvious that the effect
upon the character as well as the in
telligence of any neighborhood of hav-
ing abundant school facilities close at
hand is by no means confined to the
generation actually under the teachers
daily care
Though the day-schCo1 system is
the ideal mechanism for the uplifting
of the Indians, we can not yet wholly
dispense with boarding schools, be-
cause so many tribes still continue the
nomadic or seminomadic habits which
would require the continual moving of
the day schools from place to place in
order to keep near a sufficient number
of families for their support"
Commissioner Leuep is particularly
hard on the boarding school, on the
basis on which the Government con-
ducts those established for the benefit
of the Indians. They furnish graf
not only tuition-the prime
object of their existence-but food,
clothing, and permanent shelter during
the whole period of a pupils attend
ance. In plain English" declares the
Commissioner, they are simply educa-
tionai almshouses, with the unfortunate
feature, from the point OF view of our
spirit of independence in the Indians,
that the charitable phase is obtrusively
pushed forward as an attraction in
stead of wearing the stamp which
makes the almshouse wholesomely re-
pugnant to Caucasian sentiment This
tends steadily to foster in the Indian
an ignoble willingness to accept I'M
earned privileges; nay. more, from
learning to accept them he presently
comes. by perfectly natural evolution
airy process, to demand them as rights
and to heap demand upon demand
The result is that in certain parts of
the West the only conception his white
neigbors entertain of an Indian is that
of a beggar as aggressive as he is
shameless"
Phases Not Liked.
The Commissioner wakes pretty
warm over this particular phase of the
Indian problem.
WAS ever worse wrong perpetrated
upon a weaker by stronger race? If
so, history has failed to record it.
Scores of books have been written with
in the last generation Hssailing our
white civilization for it's disregard of
the rights of the Indian, seeking their
in the unjustifable wars
1peucu upOH the lTduuS pFdC-
iced upon him by INSCRIPTIONS Traders,
and Government function
aries; in the absorption of his, lands, a
few thousand acres at a time. at prices
which look small indeed beside the
at which the same lands
have been held since white enterprise
mas developed them; and yet the au-
.hors of these works have been so hyp-
noticed by their adherence of such
merely physical iniquities that they
nave overlooked entirely the vastly
greater moral damage wrought upon
The same victim under the guise of a
benevolent desire to civilize him-at
ong range. AS If self-relance were
1ot at the very foundation of our own
The evils of war, of graft,
big and little, of business frauds and
Ill other forms of bad faith are capable
Of remedy in the same monetary terms
n which We measure and remedy evils
among our own race; but what COM
oensation can we offer him for under
mining his character, and doing it by
l method SO insidiOus and unfair?
"Unhappily, our generation cannot go
Jack and make over from the start the
which have come down to us
)y inheritance. We can, however, do
he next best thing, and avoid extend
ng or perpetuating the errors for which
We are not responsible, and we can i'm
prove every available opportunity for
their burden. Just as we have
to free the Indian from the
'hackles which the reservation system
las imposed upon his manhood, so we
should recognize it as a duty to free
lim from the un-Amvrican and pauper-
zing influences which still invest his
oath to civilization thru the schools
rhe rudimentS of an education, such as
an be given his children in the little
lay school, should remain within their
each, just as they are within the reach
If the white children who must be
leighbors and competitors of the In
liam children in their joint struggle for
| livelihood. Indeed, this being a re-
;iprocal obligation-the right Of the
hid. red or white, to enough instruc-
ion to enable him to hold his own as a
'itiZen, and the right of the Government
o demand thai every person who ham
lies a ballot shall have his intelligence
rained to the point that reading, writ
ng and simple ciphering will train it
believe in compelling the Indian par
mt, whether he wishes to or not, to give
lis offspring this advantage. My inter-
)retation of the duty laid upon me by
he statute in this regard has carried
ne even to the use of physical force
md arms in the few instances where
and persuasion failed and the
indians have defied the Government. A
mango should be made, and I am
pleased to have been able, in my short
ERIN of office, to give this movement
is start. For the continuance of our
70 nonreservatiOn schools there is no
onger any excuse. We spend on these
low nearly 100000 a year, which is
AIKEN bodily ont of tho Unified StateS