THE OHEMAWA AMERICAN
7
COMMISSIONER SELLS’ ADDRESS
CREATES PR O FO U N D IM PR ESSIO N ON A U D IE N C E
IE following is a condensed summary of the extem
poraneous address made by Commissioner Cato Sells
on the last day (returned students’ day) of the con
ference recently held at San Francisco:
I am greatly pleased to participate in this great
conference of employees, returned students and others
whom I may properly assume are deeply interested
For a long time I have desired to visit the Indians
that I might closely study their problems. I have
spent the last several weeks among the Apaches, Pimas, Papagoes, and
the Indians along the Colorado River. About a week of this time was
given to the Papago country. For many reasons I am convinced that
the Papago Indians are among the most deserving of any people I have
ever know. Their home for more than two hundred years has been in
the dryest desert of the United States. No branch of the Caucasian
race could exist under such conditions, and I doubt if there is another
Indian tribe that would do so. Under these circumstances they have
demonstrated that the genius of necessity works out wonderful things.
The Papagoes have made their struggle unassisted, and their accom
plishments in view of their tremendous obstacles are marvelous Al
together they are entitled to more kindly consideration than they have
received, and it is my firm purpose to show the Papagoes that we are
willing to help those who have so valiantly helped themselves. In this
connection, I should say that their neighbors, the Pimas, are an in
dustrious and deserving people. During my visit among them, I found
the warm side of the Apaches. I am persuaded that they, too, respond
to the bond of friendship, and that their rapid advancement is assured
with sympathetic cooperation. There are important and pressing pro
blems demanding administrative action for the several tribes and bands
of Indians along the Colorado River. All of the tribes recently visited
by me will have the earnest and best attention of which I am capable.
In our labors with these primitive people, we are too prone to become
impatient. There is a disposition to expect a revolution rather than an
evolution, such as has come about in two thousand years of the white
man s civilization. It is unfair, it is unjust, to expect more rapid prog
ress from the Indian than is shown from the development of the
white race. If I were called upon to indicate the one important word
in our relations with the Red Man, it would be “ patience.”
In this splendid audience of Service employees and friends of the
Indian, there are a large number of returned students. Let me briefly