Poge 4
KLAMATH TRIBUNE
MARCH 1959
(Continued from Page 2)
Basic Problem is our Attitude
Hut I think the basic problem,
which if we solve it will solve
most of these others, is the prob
lem of attitude. It's right here
with us now, We go to bed with it,
we wake up with it, we eat with
it, we live with it.
It's our false pride not so
much environment, for things are
rough all over for everybody, not
just us. The corn doesn't grow for
other people, too, you know, and
oilier people don't get the rain,
, either.
Our biggest problem is our at
titude. We're lazy. We're lazy and
we're proud that we're little
babies sitting in a mud puddle sit
ting there and wishing that some
one else would come and pull us
out.
We're saying to ourselves, "I'm
just a pour little Indian. I'm
ignorant. If I go to school, I
won't make it. I just know 1
won't make it !"
You know, your thoughts de
feat you before you even start.
You're quitting before you even
net started. You're sitting there
in that mud puddle watching the
w oi Id go by.
Ami I'm telling you. it's passing
by fast, faster every day. The man
who get anywhere in this world
is the man who gets out and
works. Oh, some people get
things by luck, certainly; that's
always going to be. Hut how
many of us here can count on
luck for ettin ahead? I know
people say, "I've never been lucky
a day in my life."
No, we're sitting in our little
mud puddle, watching the world
go by. We're letting our white
neighbors do everything, and
we're sitting here wishing we
could do the same tiling, but
we're not doing anything about
it. We're lazy.
I don't think we're even nearly
the proud Indian that used to live
long ago. I don't think we even
have a right to be proud that we
are their descendants. Those old
Indians had the right idea. Maybe
they never got far. Maybe they
never got farther than the back
of a horse. Maybe they never
created an tiling more w ith their
hands than a crop of corn. Hut
they did more than you're doing
here today, people.
They had courage. They had
pride and they bad self-discipline.
Those are things we seriously
lack today. We don't have them
anymore. We're cowards. We
can't face the world. We can't
look the world in the face and
say, "Listen, have you got prob
lems to give Well, I don't
mind. I'm gonna look you in the
face and I'm gonna solve those
problems. Other people around
me are doing it. so can I."
Have you ever seen Gallup
when time for the bars to close?
Have you ever been at the jail
at nine o'clock in the morning?
Women and children come out of
there as well as men. Indians.
They're not proud. If they were,
they'd be home, they'd be re
spectable people, wouldn't they?
Respectibility Comes from Inside
Respectability conies from in
side. It's you, people. It's in your
hearts. So, when you think how
clean your mind is, how clean you
live, that's respectability.
No, we're not proud. We're not
proud at all. We don't even care
about ourselves. We don't really
care whether w e get an education
or not.
When I was young, my father
told me stories about my grand
father. I was too small to know
him really know him but I
think back now, and I think,
"What a wonderful man he must
have been !"
He used to get up early in the
morning, when the sun came up,
and he used to go down to the
fields, pick the dirt up in his
hands and look' at it and thank
Ood for it. And it wasn't good
dirt, either. A good fanner today
a fanner with education, wouldn't
even farm it. Hut my grandfather
thanked (lod for the right to walk
the way he was walking, thanked
(lod for the two hands given him
to grow corn with.
He had so much less than we
have and yet he was thanking
0od for what he had. He didn't
feel sorry for himself for one
moment and he wasn't expecting
help from anybody. He knew it
was poor dirt, but he knew that if
he worked at it hard enough it
would produce. He was no cow
ard; he had pride. He was proud
that he was a man and he wasn't
the only one who was like that.
They were just about all like
that".
That's why we live on the re
spect they gained. People all over
the world respect Indians. Why?
Hecause of what those Indians,
those old Indian people stood for
- -those old fogies we sometimes
call thembecause of what they
stood for. Hecause of the work
lhey did, because of the pride
they showed, because of their
greatness.
You may not know it, but we
have a large amount of flunkouts
among Indian students in college.
I'll put it bluntly; we get about
thirty here a year, and at the end
of the year maybe we have two.
And w e arc lucky if we graduate
two or three a year. Why?
Why, because you don't really
want to go to school, that's why.
Hecause you just come here
thinking, "Well, it's going to be
easy to go to school," and then
impress people with, "I'm a col
lege man."
No, people, you've got to want
to give everything you've got. If
you want to be an engineer,
you've got to burn it into you
now. "I want to be an engineer.
I've got be an engineer." and
you've got to burn with that, be
cause when you come here you'll
find some who will say, "You'll
never make it." That's what they
told me. "Oh, Heryl, you'll never
make it ; you don't have a
chance." You know, if you listen
ed to everything everybody else
said, you'd be in a heck of a mess.
Other People Have Troubles
If you want to go to school,
you've really got to want to go.
And when you get here, don't
think you've got problems that
others don't have. If you're bash
ful and shy. you're not the only
one. If you're scared to ask ques
tions in class, you're not the only
one. If your're broke and haven't
any money, you're not the only
one. And if you're working hard
and staying up studying all night,
and you think you've got it rough
well, just look around you and
you'll see somebody else who's
got it rough, and he may not even
be an Indian.
We complain about the troubles
we have, but other people have
just as many. And yet, we expect
them to come and pull us out of
our rut. We just sit, waiting and
waiting.
People, when you've gone
through college and you reach
up and grab that degree, you're
going to have callouses, I don't
care what kind of a person you
are. Your spirit's going to get
hurt, you're going to think people
don't care, you're going to think
a lot of things.
That's why I say you've got to
want to go; down deep inside
you've got to want to go like
you've never wanted to do any
thing. Then you'll get through,
even if you're not smart, even if
your a little backward, even
though it looks like the world's
against you. And every time you
think you're down in the dumps,
just look around you. just look
at other people. Thev"rc just as
bad off as you, and sometimes
worse.
You Can Make A Dent
You're the ones we're depend
ing on. whom these old people in
their old age are depending on
now. They don't want to die
thinking the world is as bad as
it is now for the Indian. They
want to think that maybe some
body has put a dent in it. They
want to think that maybe some
thing can get done. They want to
think that if they have to go to a
hospital, there will be Indians
there who will smile at them no
matter what they look like, and
say, "Come on in and let me help
you.
We've got to come back to our
people and work among them.
We're .not getting an education
for ourselves alone. The white
man's race doesn't need us now,
but ours does. It needs everone of
us. And if you're going to , sit
there in your little mud puddle
and wait for someone to pull you
out, you're just working against
the race you were born in, and it's '
a crime!
People, there's nothing to thisV
talk that you're bound to be back
ward because you're an Indian
or that you're anything because
you are an Indian. You're just as
good as anyone else in this world.
You can make a dent as deep as
anyone else, if you want to. All
you have to do is get out of your
i-nt.
It's easy to say? I know it's
easy to say. Hut we've got to do
justice to our parents, because,
regardless of what you say, they
raised us ; and much of the reason
you want to be an engineer, say,
is- tied indirectly to what they
said. Maybe they didn't get much
of an education ; but if you've got
ambition, that ambition was in
them someplace. They gave a lit
tle bit of it to you. You owe them
something for that.
You've got to get out and do
justice to your parents. You've
got to get out and do justice to
yourselves. You've got to get out
and do justice to the God you be
lieve in, because He made you,
and He gave you just as much as
He gave anyone else!
Seniors Invited To
Contact Ed. Program
All enrolled members of the
Klamath Tribe who arc now in
their senior year of high school
and who are interested in con
tinuing their education afterl
graduation are invited to contacf
the Klamath Education Program
This program has been set up
under terms of Public Law 587
to provide training opportunities,
to tribal members and this year's'
High school graduates, among
others, arc eligible to participate
in it. Training under the program
can be taken in any accredited vo
cational school or college in the
State of Oregon. Those who are
interested in enrolling for the
next fall term should make the
necessary arrangements at as
early a date as possible.
High school seniors who are
interested in the program should
contact the Klamath Education
Office, Phone 661, Chiloquin,
Oregon.