The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-10
In the lndian's Debt. E1-..A1nA

American civilization owes debt to the, Indian which has been little considered and therefore scantily ac- knowledged. The present troubles in Oklahoma furnishes fitting occasion for recalling that the development of American life and national character has been influenced by the Indian in both a negative and positive way.
 The negative effect is found in our escape from the monge1 race that curses the Central South American with us. The half-breed call him what you wfil--creoie. mulatto, niesti- zo---is the upsolved and insoluble pro- blem of the contact of a higher with A lower race, inferior to- either par ents in physical and mental vigor, with e propensity to combine the vices of deeadent civilization with the uncurbed rasions of primitive man, in
 4ayti and Santo Domingo, in many portions of the South, in the Philip pines and Madagascar. and along the African East Coast. the most perplex- ing social and racial problems are created by the presence of the half- breed. (After all. your real problems are your human ones. A tarin scns- wrong in his birth and ancestry. Is an memorable <hing)
 fs,,t our nation has no such problem arising out of our contact With the original inhabitants of the land. The Indian has not sought our sons Tor his daughters; he has held himselr aloof from us in cordial hate few VIrrinia families-the Dupuys are among the number-hold to the pleas- ing legend of descent from Pocahontas. and A few families of Kansas and Ok- lahoma trace connection with Wyan- dotts and Cherokees. Two members of Coneress---one in the Senate and one in the House-are of Indian blood. But we have no Indian race problem nor can we ever have.
 Second, the Indian has served the national character directly by mak- ing pioneer life in America a post graduate training in courage for tho brave of the world. Other new coun- tries have been the chosen refuge of gay young adventurers and characters less and indolent vaRabonds. but not | America. Here. in the early years of colonies and Republic, the shade of the | hostile Indian fell athwart every time of merry making, and his lurking from darkened all trails through vir- gin forests and plain. Naturally, the l indolent and the merely adventurous | stayed out of America, and only, those came who had deep reason for com ing-the Puritan. the cavalier, with the culture and courage of twenty genera
 tions. the so-calfAd Scotch-Irishman. first of trans-Ailegheny pioneers; the serious, patient German of the Penn sylvania immigration. It was the In. dian who unconsciously brought 1t about that America was settled by he- roes.
 Some future historian will doubtless l trace the influence of this fact upon | the Federal life of the colonies Early attempts at common action were not
 prompted by a desire for commercial expansion or the sense of sadical soli- darity; they were the direct result Of Indian outrages. which m54le necessary
 mutual understanding and protection.
 When the time came that the English in America were compelled to stand against French and Spanish aggres-
 sion. the necessities of common action | against the savages had already
 taught the scattered colonies some \ measure of cooperation. And when it
 became needful to present an armed front to the mother country, they owed
 to the Indian not only this, but also an actual training in war which had made their fighting men the supericrs, man | for man in hardness and resourcefuI-
 ness, of any regular troops in thad world.
 The I,s.ian was a hard schoolmaster
 but some of the most precious of Ann | erica's lesons he set for As, and we could have learned of no one else.
 These lessons he taught us because he I was master of the virtues of courage
 and self-reprezsion. Honor to whom | houor fs fl,sat