What the White Race May Learn from the Indian

GROUP OF HOPI MAIDENS AND AN OLD MAN AT MASHONGANAVI.
What the White Race May Learn from the Indian BY GEORGE WHARTON JAMES Author of “In and Around the Grand Canyon,” “Indian Basketry,” “How to Make Indian and Other Baskets,” “Practical Basket Making,” “The Indians of the Painted Desert Region,” “Travelers’ Handbook to Southern California,” “In and Out of the Old Missions of California,” “The Story of Scraggles,” “The Wonders of the Colorado Desert,” “Through Ramona’s Country,” “Living the Radiant Life,” “The Beacon Light,” etc.
CHICAGO FORBES & COMPANY 1908
Copyright, 1908 BY EDITH E. FARNSWORTH The Lakeside Press R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO
WHAT THE WHITE RACE MAY LEARN FROM THE INDIAN
I would not have it thought that I commend indiscriminately everything that the Indian does and is. There are scores of things about the Indian that are reprehensible and to be avoided. Most Indians smoke, and to me the habit is a vile and nauseating one. Indians often wear filthy clothes. They are often coarse in their acts, words, and their humor. Some of their habits are repulsive. I have seen Indian boys and men maltreat helpless animals until my blood has boiled with an indignation I could not suppress, and I have taken the animals away from them. They are generally vindictive and relentless in pursuit of their enemies. They often content themselves with impure and filthy water when a little careful labor would give them a supply of fairly good water.
Indeed, in numerous things and ways I have personally seen the Indian is not to be commended, but condemned, and his methods of life avoided. But because of this, I do not close my eyes to the many good things of his life. My reason is useless to me unless it teaches me what to accept and what to reject, and he is kin to fool who refuses to accept good from a man or a race unless in everything that man or race is perfect. There is no perfection, in man at least, on earth, and all the good I have ever received from human beings has been from imperfect men and women. So I fully recognize the imperfections of the Indian while taking lessons from him in those things that go to make life fuller, richer, better.