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Image provided by: South Dakota State Historical Society – State Archives
Newspaper Page Text
iffcillilll!!!"1!!:!!^!^iillfe^. lii'iii1!: classes, and many of the middle classes, of oar eastern cities, in physique, in intellect, in morality, in capacity for spirtual tmth. And If "we are to judge a race at its best, and judge the Indians bv the Indian clergy, as we judge the white man by Philips Brooks, then the Indian is already a force in the Christian world. A few weeks ago I was at the trien nial convocation of the Indian congre gations at Yankton. I heard some Indian read the Epistle at a Comma n:on Service. I watched them sing the Chnrch hymns and the Venite in Dakota six—redskins whose music would shame that of many an east ern church. I heard William Holme a Dakota priest play the organ and I heard him preach, in his own tongae, a sermon, which, when interpreted, possessed a simplicity, a charm, a grace and a sweetness of sincerity and strength of whicb the Church needs more. May it seem orrer-enthnsiastic to ask if it is generally know that there are ninety-three congregations of In dian churchmen in South Dakoio' That they number more than 3 000 communicants and 10.000 baptized persons'- That they bought to their own convocation the last week in August more taan S3.000. and that their yearly offerings aggregate more than $9,500? And they give not me rely to those cause in which they have a special and personal, imme diate interest but to every cause far which the Church asks help. These are "fierce Sioux" of the great plains. 22 whoes fathers and grandfathers, but one generation ago. fonght through the great Sioux war, and entrapped and defeated the wily Custer Per haps there is food for thought here as to the worth of Christianity and the quality ol our own. THE CASE OF THE PUEBLO. CHARLES Francis Saunders, in his interesting book. "Indians of Terraced Houses," makes stout plea tor a "hands ofi" policy in regard tc the Pueblo Indians. By that means that it would be better for the future of these Indians if the Government were to exclude them from the gene ral policy of education, allotment, and training in the white man s way of living which is being so vigorously pursued with the other Indian tribes. He insists that their health, their prosperity, and their happiness are undoubtedly assured under their native code and manner of life and that they would inevitably suffer and succumb under the enforced change with our general Irdian ploicy im poses upon them. His argument is so strong that one cannot but ask if there is not some basis of truth in his premises and confusions Mr. Saunders f:rst points out that the case of the Pueblos is something more than just an Indian." he says. He represents a uniquue develop ment among the aborigines of the United States-a native born civilizat ion. or semi-civilization, it you will which, before tne white man stumbl-