2
THE CHE MAW A AMERICAN.
his hands to carve out, as his white
brother has done, a home for himself
and family.
"Practical education is what he
most, requires the knowledge of how
to make a living, even under adverse
circumstances. The first step is the
acquirement of the English language.
Without it he is powerless to transact
intelligently the ordinary affairs of
life, to dispose of the produce of his
farm or the increase of his herds.
Indian schools are. therefore limited
in text-book instruction to the ordin
ary common school branches. Higher
mathematics, geometry and astronomy
have no place in the curriculum of
schools supported by the government
for Indian children.
"Common sense dictates that it is
unwise to turn the whilom children of
the forest out upon a farm with only
those rudiments of an education
which, while sufficient for the average
white citizen with inherited tenden
cies to struggle for a living, are in
adequate to enable a red child to wring
an existence out of the frequently
ungenerous soil and under adverse
conditions. The government must
therefore advance a step further to
ward paternalism, if you will and
teach its Indian wards how intelli
gently to plant and cultivate crops
and reap the harvest. While doing
this it must also instill a love for
work, not for work's own sake, but for
the reward which it will bring.
"By the issuing of rations and the
payment of annuities, lease money
'and grass funds, the incentive to work
has been removed, the Government
freely giving to the red man that for
which the white, the black and the
yellow must toil early and late.
These latter do not work unless com
pelled by necessity to do so; neither
will the Indian. Rations were a
, necessity in the past, but that day
has gone, except for the old, infirm
and physically incapacitated. The
absurdity of the Government spend
ing hundreds of dollars to educate the
Indian to work, then, after teaching
the necessity, sending him home to
his reservation to be supported in
idleness, is all too manifest. It were
far better not to educate at all if
education is . to he nullified by un
wise gratuities.
"Indian education is hampered on .
the one side by the misguided, senti
mental friendship of those who place
the Indian upon too lofty a pinnacle,
who contend that the white man's
treatment of him, in the present and
in the past, is cruel and inhuman,
and, on the other side, by those who
in their greed for his lands and 1i
money, act upon the old theory, "No
good Indian but a dead one." The
Indian Office is the target of both
these classes, who are prompt on all
occasions to rush forward with tne
advice as to the best method of civil
izing these people. Were the depart
ment to follow these heterogeneous
councils, its policy would illustrate
forcibly the fate of the man who
shapes his conduct in accordance with
the last advice received, and inevit
able winds up in disaster and ruin.
There is probably no department of
the- Government to which free coun
sel, abuse and criticism are so lavish
ly given as to that which is charged
with the management of Indian af
fairs. The advice of those who arc
sincerely interested in the welfare of
these people, who have 'no ax to
grind,' and who have had opportun
ity' to study the difficulties of the sit
uation from a practical standpoint is
always of value and carefully consid
ered. All wisdom relative to tin
management of the red man is not by
any means assumed by the Indian
Office. '
"A great nation or a strong char
acter is not developed in a day;
neither is an Indian made a useful
citizen. Slowly must old habits and
customs be eradicated and new ones
formed. A conservative course is the