The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1917-01-25
Indian Citizenship.
(By Col. Roosevelt, in American In
dian Magazine

Wy wi. 'hOOScfClL, LII AIlcllCdA LII
dian Magazine.
The Indian should be thrown
loose to shift for himself, as a citi
: zen amongst other citizens, as
soon as he can be prepared for the
ordeal. 1t must not be done too
quickly, for he will then be help
less and perish, nor must it be de
layed too long, for he will then be
come accustomed to bang petted
and cared for and will be too weak
to stand when finally left alone.
When it is done, we mus be pre-
pared to see a great maly of the
Indians sink under the strain. 1t
will be lucky if half'of any given
tribe survives the shock, and after
the inevitable period of decay and
dis,nteyration begins to grow
again, not as tribe, but as an
aggregation of Individual Ameri-
can citizens mixed up with other
American citizens.
We must beware of becoming
discouraged even by the reports
of some excellent missionaries and
agents. Not u few very good men,
who have grown accustomed to
regarding the Indians solely us
wards, and who are very kind to
them, feel utterly disheartened
when these wards are taken away
from them and turned loose, at the
general sliding down the scale,
which at times becomes visible.
These men will often say that the
children of tie half-breeds, or Of
the educated Indians, are worse
than the others; but all that this
means is that IN each case the ln-
dian isspreparing to stand for bins
self, and that of necessity q GER
tain number of those thus prepar-
ing slip and fall, and a certain
number of the Others, being less
docile and tractable than when
they were more helpless, are less
agreeable to get on with. Exactly
in the same way, a lot of school
boys, carefully protected and iso-
lated uuder the guardianship of
a clergyman, would at once, IN his
eyes, seem to slip back if liberated
from his control, and yet would
really merely be taking the inevi-
table plunge to learn whether
they could sink or swim IN the
troublous sea of life. So it. is win
the Indians. We must protect
and guard them up to a certain
point; but all the while we must
be fitting them as best we can for
rough contact with the world; and J..
finally, when al, humanity speak
ing, is done that can be done, we
must turn them lQqse, hardening
|oug hearts TO- the fact that many
will sink exactly as many will
swim.
It is Impossible to- expect to get
the Indians up to the white level
in one generation. It will take
two or three to get them into a
position where they will have q
fair chance Of surviving, some
sinking and some swimming.
However, Indians have to. be put
on their feet some time, to put
them on their feet too late is as
bad as to do so too early.
think that even a good agent
who takes a fatherly interest in his
charges is unable to see that they
must in the end shift for them
selves, and that when first turned
loose a period of decay is sure to
set in as the precursor ola period
of healthy growth. 1t is just what
would happen in any Eastern
school where boys we're kept UT
der the paternal guidance of a
good clergyman and then turned
loose to shift for themselves
Many would fall, and there would
be a period of change during
which the results would appear