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THE INDIAN ADVOCATE.
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it saddened mo and a feeling of revul
sion and disgust succeeded. And those
feelings I have always oxporionced
whenovor I have witnessed some Indian
ceremony, whothcr marriage, funeral,
dance or council. Hero are men and
women who differ indeed very little
from their children; rational beings
whose intellect has been kept in a stag
nant condition. Who is to blame for
this? The Government? Well I should
answer yes and no at least not the
Government alone, but the Nation at
largo; for the Nation in this glorious
republic makes the Government and
shapes the course of its administration,
more so perhaps in Indian affairs than
in any other branch of its business.
It has always been the constant poli
cy of this Nation to keep the Indians
on the move, always pushing them on
the outskirts of our civilized communi
ties, always disturbing them whenever
they have made some kind of a start in
agriculture always clamoring, agita
ting and scheming for legislation and
administrative acts that will rob the
last Indian of the last foot of landed
property; and he, lidc par Dicu" the
first lord and rightful owner of this
glorious land of America!
It does not look as though we wanted
the Indian civilized, but rather as if
the Nation wanted him to be got out of
the way, and that by any means; by
the bullet of the frontiersman or of the
soldiers, the malversations of the Agent,
the whisky and poisoned wares of the
trader.
That the Indian is a spoiled child is
but too evident. But here let me ask
again, who is to be blamed for it? A
child may be spoiled in two ways;
either by dealing with him in a harsh
and cruel manner, or by unjudiciously
humoring him the worst results will
be attained by using alternately these
two kinds of treatment and this is
precisely what has been done with the
Indians all along. The Aborigines are
part and parcel of the Commonwealth,
the wards of the Nation, like overgrown
children and minors. How heartless
to take advantage of the simplicity,
credulity and vices of children, to de
prive them of their inheritance! How
improvident and wicked to discourage
the sincere efforts of Christian teachers
on the plea that they are sectarian, and
prefer to leave the Indian in his filth
and ignorance. This is what is being
done. I shall always remember
the consternation shown by all the
traders of Pawhuska seven years ago,
at the advent of Catholic priests among
the Osages. They, one and all, and suc
cessive agents with them, opposed the
foundation of our Mission, and one of
these, a trader, ("in whisky Veritas")
came over half tipsy to my house and
gave me a precious bit of information.
"You see, Father," he said, "we don't
want you to educate these Indians we
must keep 'em doion. Plenty of money
in the business so long as Indians don't
know how to read, or write, or count."
After all, that the full blood Indian
still wears the blanket or clings to his
tribal customs and prefers to remain a
stranger to our usages, would be little
to be deplored if it did not subject him
to such crying injustice on our part.
It is said by thoughtless and I should
say heartless people that "civilization
is fatal to the North American Indian."
Well, if that is the case, what are wo
to think of such civilization which can
not oven reclaim the unsophisticated
child of the prairie or of the forest to
make him letter? Modern civilization
could not receive a more severe con
demnation then that nay more, it
stands convicted, its material progress
and wonderful discoveries notwith
standing, of being another form of bar
barism little better than what brought
the curse of- a just God upon pagan
Rome.
Compare, if you like, the savage
Indian with the savago White, the un-
