The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-02-24
COVEY. REPLIES
TO WEHRLE ON
RESOLUTIONS
y, No Attack Made on Any Church
Nor Upon Any Nationality,
Declares Indian Worker
OUR PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS
Federal Agent Discusses Their
Status in Our National Plan
Of Americanization =
Rosebud, South Dakota,
February -, 1910.

Rosebud, South Dakota,
February -. 1910.
Bismarck Tribune,
Bismarck, n. II. r st.e.& =
Gentlemen: Ir,s
IA recent issue Of Your paper con-
tains . vitrolic attack by :, Bishop
Wehrle on number Of Indians OF
the Standing Rock reservation tor dar-
Ing to address memorial" to the
state legislature demanding the enact
ment Of laws requiring the teaching
Of the English language III schools.
The worthy bishop pays his respects
and almost swears ut the cheap white
trash" whom be thinks inspired this
memorial. am very proud to ac.
knowledge authorship Of this memo 11
rial" and III fAss, by the bishops snesrs
tat my dev0ttoh to my duty and the
taiestion ofssearning my Fat satisfy
III that i ;aM displaying cheap patriot,
ism to- hold m$ position with theeh
servatiOn thai ! an perfectly twtlliitg
% have :c0n 0nii1l lfisoh 14de between 5A1y
devotion to dafy dlsing the 19$ yesfs
in the Indian service, and that OF any
missionary, he he bishop, priest Or
parson, and as to my patriotism Will
not defile myself by even drawing COM
parison with an aI,OlOgist for German
ism under whatever guise he may
come.
nIS want to call the attention Of Your
readers to one thing particularly and
that is that this memorial presented to
the legislature makes no attack ON the
Catholic church, or the Russians OF
EmniOns county, My only reason for
Alternating to answer this unfair and
misleading letter of the Bishops Is to
try to prevent a wrong idea after read.
jnx it< 80 attack ist made by the In.
dians of the Standing Rock Reserya-
tiou, on. Russians Of EnrnOns county,
no attack is made oli The Catholic
church Ior the Bietbal ehurel and
no.xttack is made G. hgrllf
The only thinQ III 7
parOchial SCH < sNv laWt0
tesrhpall! sub nm,
elage (andt Il oil Xltixens Of Germa u
descent, object to. the word English,
we,will call 1t the An,ericqn language
THE PAROEHIAL SCHOOL.
Lots oG people believe, and am free
to. saG th6t / em one Of them, that pa r
ocktal schools 6f any denoninat ti0n are
n-Amerlcan ami that fths great bnl.
wark. Of AinetitAn life and spirits and
freedom ~ the free public scho0I &nd
that had we not been pFQteGtea a,by the
free public school system. OUR Republic
would have probably persisted ere this.
We: beiiev this and we believ lots Of
other things but the memorial raises
no Issue OF this sort. 1t simply sets
forth certain conditions that exist in
our country (not Emmons county
alone), and asks the legislature TO
make all schools teach American his
tory, American ideals and teach them
In the American language. Does the
bishop object to this? Does he dare
say we will be putting our noses in. 9TH
er. peoples business If we say to him,
Bishop 20 ahead with your private
school ii you wish, but you must fol-
low the state course OF study, you
must teach American history, and you
must teach these things in the Ameri-
can language only." Hasn't the state
a right to say what and how our fu-
I will states positively and uneQui:-
ocally that when wrote the original
of this memOrial I did not have En-,
mons cosnty Russians or any other par
ticular North Dakota foreigners in
mind. had in mind general picture
Z