Semi-weekly herald., 1913-04-03
FOUNDER OF CARLISLE TELLS
WHAT THE INDIAN NEEDS

| TOONDEh OF CARLISLE TELLS
WHAT THE INDIAN NEEDS
If the Indian is ever to assume a
proper and self-respecting position as
member of his country's civilization
some intelligent and disinterested
course toward him must be speedily
adopted. Unless sympathetic and at
the same time capable and just men
take some action in his behalf the
passage Of few years will find him
going the way Of the buffalo to ex-
tinction and will leave an irrevocable
blemish on the internal history of the
United States."
The foregoing conviction is earnest
ly expressed by Brigadier General R.
II. Pratt, U. S. A., retired, who bat
tied for the west with Sheridan and
Miles against the red man and who
mas devoted most of his life since
that time to conquest of hardheaded,
unqualified white men for the rights
OF the Indians. General Pratt is the
founder of the Carlisle Indian school
and for many years was it's head.
Il favor" he said to New York
Herald reporter, "the appointment of
commission, not of clerks but of
men of philanthropic and industrious
charter, to make study of the In
dians by tribes to discover how many
OF them are susceptible to education
ana to present comprehensive
scheme for their emancipation, for
they need emancipation as much as
did the negro.
I'VE have 100000 Indians in more
than eighty different tribes, speaking
radically different languages. They
have remained Indians largely unde-
veloped in their civilization and dis
ability to become citizens because of
the system of treatment. Our policy
from the beginning has been and is
now to keep them intact as tribes and
separated from the body of our peo-
pie as much as possible.
"Ali of our appliances bearing upon
them, national, church and education,
have ministered to this feature. Ev-
erybody else is invited to come and
live with us and distribute among us.
The negro was forced to do that. So
all other peoples have come into pos
session of the language of the coun-
try through association and have
reached citizenship. The Indian-al-
ways here-is the one exception.
"The Indian has vast wealth in
lands, timber, oil, mines and in trust |
funds coming to him from sales of
land to the government, these trust
funds being held in the treasury of
the United States. From the begin
ming the Indian has suffered great
financial loss because of his ignorance
and inability to take care Of his own
and in the fact that the GUS
tody of the property is in the hands
Of very weak, generally ignorant
and rapidly changing management,
which often seeks its own advantage
and caters to the pressure of local
influences seeking to deprive the In
iian of his heritage.
GAS this supervision of his affairs
las never protected him, it is reason
able to expect that it never will unless
'adical changes more competent and
j iOhfanuc ora ;pe<;tu&nJ
CAS- people we Americans have
been most unkind through all the
'ears to our Indian brother, in the
ienial of these high opportunities, in
he denial Of association and in the
irving of him back and hiding him
way secluded from civilized opportu-
'ities, and in our fighting him, de-
troying him by force, in order to
ompel him to submit to our driving
nd secluding; hut in all of these we
ave not been as unkind to him as
We have been in our treatment of
i'm after we had secluded him and
iade him amenable to our wishes.
We adopted in connection with the t
eservation system system of feed a
lg and caring for him. In this we y
ave been very criminal in many re- t
poets. First, in the quality and guam I
ty of food and supplies we gave to a
i'm, in the way of diseased and unfit b
eef and the lowest grade and quail e.
y OF other foods, and in the meager- a
ess of the food in proportion to his tt
,tual necessities and in the method fl
issues. For this reason he has HI
1t had the physical ability to resist S
sease. In many cases this has
mounted to almost nauyder in the
st degree. l speak frsn personal
lowledge and long experience and
M
The remedy for this condition is at
reversal and enlargement of the of
stem so that it may include the very va
st OF American schooling and train an
g. If knowledge is good for the
lite man and enables him to take ga
re OF his own and himself and to tel
'tect himself again disease, it is tel
aaliy good for the Indian, and the st