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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1916)
14 THE CHEMAW A AMERICAN T A R D Y JU STIC E TO T H E IN D IA N S A valuable contribution is made to the early history of the North west and tardy justice is done to the Indians by an article which O. B. Sperlin, of Tacoma, contributes to The Quarterly of the Oregon His torical Society. From the journals of those white men who first came into contact with the Indians he describes the aborigines as these men found them in their natural state before they had been changed by association with the whites. He thus reaches certain conclusions as to what the Indian was before commerce degraded him and before white men began indiscriminate slaughter. He makes “ a record of observa tions by explorers, traders, scientists, surveyors, friars, adventurers, captives, lieutenants, clerks and sergeants” and thus sums up the case: T hey show th a t th e In d ia n s received th e stra n g e rs h o sp itab ly ; th a t th ey p rac ticed a sim ple, u n o sten tatio u s re lig io n ; th a t th ey w ere m en of h o n o r, of sim ple in d u stry an d physical sk ill; th a t th e ir g o v e rn m e n t was sim ple, but efficient; and tlia t th e hom e em bodied stro n g a tta c h m e n ts, th o u g h it e x h ib ited a t tim es im p ro p erly ap p o rtio n ed b u rd e n s. In d ia n vices, not necessarily crim es, w ere such as im providence, g a m b lin g an d occasionally cruel tre a tm e n t of enem ies; bu t we can n o t ju s tly ch arg e th e race w ith th e alleg ed crim es of tre a c h e ry , d ru n k e n n e ss n or w ith a th eism n o r idolatry. If the white race could honestly claim all of these virtues and could honestly acquit itself of more or worse vices than are here attributed to the Indians as the first white men found them, it would have more cause for pride. After the first explorers came the traders with sharp practices, hunters of fur-bearing animals, who were wild, drunken and reckless, and miners who were of the same general character. They taught the Indian their vices, familiarized him first with the shady side of civilization, and then denounced him for being what they had made him. By the time the great flood of peaceful, law-abiding settlers cam*», the Indian had been condemned as the natural enemy of the whites and had accepted that role. Nothing but mutual hatred and slaughter was then possible. It would be well for the whites if they could say of themselves, as Mr. Sperlin says of the Indians, that their religon was simple and un ostentatious. As for our Government, it yearly strays further from simplicity and efficiency. The vices of the primitive Indian are such as we might expect among children of nature and are so common among us that we dare not cast the first stone, while he has learned worse vices from us. In the interest of justice we should do well to revise our opinion of the Indians in the light of Mr. Sperlin’s records as to what they were when contact with the white race began.—Editorial in The Oregonian.
