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About The Chemawa American (Chemawa, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1927)
THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN PAGE 4 GOOD WORK GOES ON (Continued from page 1) among Indian tribes, some long since extinct, not only in New England, but into the far West. The Society has always been non-sectarian, its membership being made up of representatives from various denomina tions. Since 1911 the work of the Society has very largely been devoted to the support of a field representative in the Government Indian Schools. This was due to a carefully planned visit of Dr. F. Kengott, then of Lowell, Massachusetts, to a number of schools and reservations during 1910. As a result of his report Rev. Arthur P. Wedge, a minister of the Baptist Church, was appointed as the first field secretary of the Society. Mr. Wedge, later joined by his devoted and capable wife who was a matron-at-large under the Indian Bureau, visited practically every Indian School in the United States, not once but several times, and endeared himself to the hearts of the students and teachers wherever he went. By his sudden death last June this phase of the Society’s endeavor in behalf of of the Indians came to an end. It soon became evident that a shift in the main em phasis of the Society’s work might wisely be stressed at this time, partly because Mr. Wedge had done so well the work which he himself planned and carried out, and partly because moral education has now been incorporated into the regular curriculum of these schools. With this end in view Mr. Lindquist was called into the conference by the members of the Select Committee and suggestions were entertained fora con structive program of work. “ My conception of the task to which the Society through its representative should address itself,” writes Mr. Lindquist, “might be expressed in the word promotion. There is a great need today for the promotion of methods for the establishment of a better understanding of the American Indian people. This can be done partly by the dissemination of correct in formation on Indian affairs, partly through special projects, including conferences, for a better under standing between whites and Indians in states having considerable Indian population. The present trend seems to point a closer cooperation between state and federal agencies in promoting the inevitable assimila tion of the red men. Anything which can be done to prepare them for this step is worthy of support. “Schools there are as well as facilities for every Indian boy and girl to receive an education. Neverthe less there is urgent need of promoting plans fora sup plementary educational program. There are the re turned students. These young people do not so much need an employment agency as a moral support, a sort of bolstering up of the aims and ideals acquired dur ing school days. Many of these returned students find themselves in white communities where they need tobe related to church groups and friendly organ- nizations. They need as never before a wise and sympathetic guide who will interpret for them the meaning of these relationships. “Furthermore, in this program of creating a better understanding between Indians and whites, I would stress community work. The American Indian Sur vey revealed the imperative need of promoting a modern rural church program adapted to Indian com munities. Facilities for carrying on social work are greatly in demand. Who would undertake to carry on Americanization work in our great cities among the ‘new Americans’ without facilities for social work? And yet this very need has been too long unmet in our work among the ‘oldest Americans.’ “Another word which should loom large in the vocabulary of the present day Indian endeavor is cooperation. There are a number of excellent agen cies at work among the Indians. The time for narrow partisanship and bigoted sectarianism is past. The new day calls for a cooperative spirit and approach. This Society, in view of its long history, its traditions and achievements, has a uniqne opportunity to further every effort looking toward cooperative work among Indians. “The task is not a light one. Any program, no matter how constructive and enlightened it may be, is bound to meet with opposition. But at this point I will quote from the Minutes prepared by Peter Thacher, secretary of the Society, January, 1798, to emphasize that the original purpose and program as stated in the paragraph that follows must still be the spirit in which we address ourselves to the new and challenging tasks of today: “Notwithstanding the discouragements which have attended almost all the attempts to Christianize the Indians, the Society feel it to be their duty still to continue them. Their funds will not admit of sending missionaries into distant parts of the continent, or to seek out those nations of Indians who are wholly unconnected with the white inhabitants. Their attempts are confined to those tribes interspersed among the white in habitants, or in their neighborhood. The wish of the Society is to propagate and cherish the spirit of Christianity in the minds of these people, and, as their means and opportunity will admit, gradulle to disseminate Christian knowledge among more distant tribes.” A BOY’S PRAYER To a father who wrote to ask him concerning re creational reading material for a son the Rev. Dr. Cadman submitted a list of books that any boy would enjoy reading and added the suggestion that the lad might also memorize Beaching’s little poem. “A Boy’s Prayer:” “God who created me Nimble and light of limb In three elements free, To run, to ride, to swim; Not when the sense is dim, But now from the heart of joy, I would remember Him: Take the thanks of a boy.”
