“In my opinion Indian Agents should have full control of their Agencies and Indians in order to push their people to the front. Indians like men who can do things, but in so many cases the Agent must go to higher authority and this delay has a bad effect in most cases. The Agent should be strictly responsible to the Commissioner for his action—there should be frequent and searching inspections of his work and if it is found wanting, he should be removed.”
Correspondent, Anadarko, Oklahoma
IMPROVED INDIAN HOME IN THE SOUTHWEST
One correspondent living in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, writes at length concerning the immorality in Indian schools ten years ago. Happily, such things are not possible at the present time. A number of correspondents have referred to most distressing moral conditions (in past years) in certain schools. It is incomprehensible that such conditions should have been permitted to obtain. The effect on the children was exceedingly bad, as it is impossible to keep such things a secret, especially in communities where two or three hundred persons are assembled together. There are statistics available on this unpleasant subject, although I shall not refer to them. Suffice it to say that because immorality was not prevented in past years, we cannot expect a high moral tone among all Indians. Too many of them have profited to their own detriment, by the bad example set them.
While these are varied and present a diversity of opinion as to detail, they strike at the greater evil. Far too many of our Indians on returning from such schools as Carlisle are inclined to look for clerkships or occupations in towns, and are not willing to perform tasks requiring hard labor. They moved along the paths of least resistance. This does not apply to all, but quite a number of them, which gives rise to the popular conception that educated Indians will not work. There is also another problem to be considered. The Indian comes home and he finds that he does not regard the community and people as he did previous to his education. His case may be compared with the son of a small farmer in one of the eastern states, who, given advantages of a higher education, comes home without determining in his own mind what he shall do and is dissatisfied with his surroundings. Formerly, the farm, the home life and the neighborhood did not appear to him to bespeak a small and narrow world. He feels himself out of his environment. He becomes dissatisfied. Such young white men become failures in life. It is similar with the Indians. He has seen all that is best in the East, and his eyes are opened to the poverty and the dull monotony of reservation, or Indian community life. Unless he is willing to put his hand to the plow and work for his living, he is pretty apt to fall into ways of idleness, to draw inheritance money, or annuity, or sell a piece of land. One of the problems in Indian education is to overcome this. It is, to a great extent, due to the Indian himself, as one of the most competent workers in the United States Indian Service has pointed out. Mrs. Elsie E. Newton in answering my circular at length says:—
“For success in their home environment, the Indian educated at or near home is better qualified, if the training has been good in itself. If highly trained away from home, it is more difficult, just as in the case of Whites, to adapt themselves to home environment, the conservatism of the old and a difficult economic state, or to struggle against such conditions where he should.”
In addition to all that has been said on the preceding pages, it must be remembered that there is yet another reason why some of the educated Indians do not progress as satisfactorily as we would desire. And this latter is, perhaps, the most significant of all. With such, it is, it seems to me, after due deliberation, due to the impression that after all, our civilization holds little for the Indian. He has lost faith in us and in our institutions. This statement, let me repeat, applies only to the educated Indians who have been trained, or have been told year upon year what to do and how to do it, but still persist in the old ways. This also has a direct bearing on the greater question, the lack of progress in the entire Indian body; for education, property, health, citizenship and all the rest are but a part of this great problem. I shall further discuss it in a subsequent chapter.
In addition to the long bibliography on Indian education presented in the Handbook of American Indians, there are quite a number of articles, speeches and reports mentioned in the following brief bibliography which students of educational problems among Indians will do well to consult. These cover, in a general way, all phases of education, although in the general references, in the chapters on agriculture, irrigation and industries, there are many references which might apply to general education. These cover, in a general way, all phases of education.
The Carlisle Graduate and the Returned Students.—Siceni J. Nori. Twenty-ninth Annual Report of the Lake Mohonk Conference, 1911. P. 17.