The Committee on Indian Missions would report:
First. That the work of this Association among the Indians—a work so small that the expenditure for it is only about one-fifth that for the Chinese in America—has been prospered during the last year. The blessing of the Master rests upon it, and our thanksgiving and prayers should be stimulated thereby.
Second. We heartily approve of its plan to combine an industrial with a literary education, that the boys and girls may take the lead in Christian arts as in Christian culture. Yet the experiment of training them in schools far from home should be carefully watched, lest there be formed a gulf of separation between the tribe and its educated youth, a gulf so deep that those returning from Hampton shall, through social longings, lapse into the customs of their fathers, or else shall stand aloof from their people in cultured isolation. We should subordinate individual advancement to tribal advantage; the benefit of the few to that of the many; and for this purpose schools are being established nearer home. Hence we recommend the careful study of the results of the experiment.
Third. We would earnestly press the evangelistic work among the Indians. They are to stay with us. They are soon to be of us, citizens with us of this Republic. So much is written in the providence of God. To educate them is not enough. The federal government is increasingly engaged in this. But its Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Hon. H. Price, in his forthcoming report says: “Civilization is a plant of exceeding slow growth unless supplemented by Christian teaching and influence.” “In no other manner and by no other means, in my judgment, can our Indian population be so speedily and permanently reclaimed from barbarism, idolatry, and savage life as by the educational and missionary operations of the Christian people of our country.” Christianized education is the watchword, the vitalizing of all the truth of God with the love and spirit of God. This means more than schools; it means Christian schools and Christian churches. For this very work this Association has been ordained of God, and it should enlarge its work to the demands of the hour. The proposed exchange with the American Board means, for this society, enlargement. The rapid progress of the Indian towards citizenship demands enlargement. God calls this Association to enlarge its Indian missions that it may prepare both the negro and the Indian for citizenship and God.
Fourth. We believe that the welfare of the Indian demands the abolition of both tribal and reservation relations, the allotment of their lands in severalty, their amenability to State and federal laws and courts. And while we recognize with gratitude the past attempts of our national government in these directions, we need to press upon Congress the duty of renewing its endeavors and enlarging its appropriations for schools, that it may speedily turn these wards into industrious citizens. And for this end we would recommend that a committee of nine be appointed by this Association to memorialize Congress to place the Indian by the side of the negro and other citizens in the right to buy, own, and sell property, real and personal, to work at what he pleases, and live where he pleases, to have the same standing before the law, to vote and hold office, in short to possess all the rights and obligations of citizens of the Republic.
A. H. Ross, Chairman.
WORK AND DUTY IN THE EAST.
BY GEN. S. C. ARMSTRONG.
At Hampton there are ninety, and at Carlisle there are nearly three hundred Indians—boys and girls—who are learning civilization as an object lesson, and are themselves an object lesson to the centres of intelligence and wealth, where is the sentiment that inspires and the means that provide for the combined practical and spiritual teaching of the red man. They suffice, perhaps, for a tangible proof of the Indian’s capacity, of which the need was great; their effect upon public sentiment has been marked. The result with these Indians has, so far, proved satisfactory. Scattering these pupils among the farmers of Massachusetts and of Pennsylvania for a portion of the year, has had such a good effect mutually, that five hundred more might well be so placed in various States, under the care of special agents, with proper rendezvous where the sick or unsatisfactory might be kept with a view to returning home, say ten per cent, of the entire number.