It is quite incomprehensible that so many of our educated Indians are timid. All of them realize the dreadful situation of many of their brothers in the West. A few have referred, in a more or less guarded fashion, to the wrongs of Indians. Dr. Eastman is especially frank upon this subject—as is Dr. Montezuma. Admitting so much, it remains to be said that not one has come before the American public as a stern, able, uncompromising fighter for the rights of his race.
The Indians need a national character. The moment that an Indian of exceptional ability, presence and strength appears on the platform, and through the press, becomes the champion of his race, the American people will rally to his support. But if such an Indian is chiefly concerned in furthering the interests of some society, or missionary organization, or of a single tribe of Indians; and if he presents mere denunciations and does not suggest proper remedies, he will achieve no great success.
The Society of American Indians is doing a good work, but in my humble opinion, it might accomplish far greater results if in addition to its advocacy of new laws, the division of Indian money, etc., its powerful organization began a fight through the medium of some selected champion, for the full protection of Indian rights and an effective, and not a paper citizenship.
LARGE INDIAN HOUSE, FORT BERTHOLD RESERVATION. FAMILY OF SIX
Indian Morality
On page [380], Mrs. Elsie E. Newton stated that morality was a relative term, or depended on one’s point of view. This is entirely true. The oldtime Indians were not immoral, although some of them were unmoral. Immorality came with the white man. There was an abundance of cruelty among Indians, and I have alluded to it elsewhere. Many Indians would not do things which we consider proper, or at least do not forbid in our moral code. As against this, some Indian customs are considered by us to be immoral. Drinking, while practiced in Mexico and among Apaches, and in some Southwest tribes, was practically unknown throughout the rest of the United States prior to the landing of our respected ancestors on the shores of Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts. The black drink of the Creeks was ceremonial, and not indulged in as an intoxicant. I have referred elsewhere to plural marriages. These do not seem to have been considered by the Indians any more immoral than they were by the patriarchs of the Old Testament. Indians usually supported their wives, even after separation. The modern method of easy divorce, followed by the usual suit for alimony, is reserved to polite white society. I once heard a worthy gentleman lamenting plural marriages among the Navaho. An educated Indian happened to be present, and he mentioned the names of two prominent white persons (to be found in Who’s Who in America). Both occupy high positions, and one has had six wives and the other five husbands. The educated Indian ventured to remark to the worthy “uplifter” that a careful search of the Navaho reservation would fail to produce (even among the so-called pagans) two polygamists equal to these representatives of the white man’s civilization!
I have never seen a really immoral dance among Indians. I have heard many addresses at various public gatherings in which the immorality of the Indians during these dances was denounced. Although witnessing thirty or forty dances on different reservations, all the performers I observed were properly dressed. Even in the Sioux Omaha dance, the men wore quite as much as do college students during a track meet. In the squaw dance, in which both sexes take part, the partners do not even hold each other. Yet, a minister once denounced me for taking part in so innocent a pastime. The very next evening the white employees on that reservation gave a dance, all of us attended, and I had the pleasure of dancing with the reverend gentleman’s daughter. He saw nothing wrong in the waltz or two-step in which partners hold each other—and there is no harm in such dances. Yet he objected to the squaw dance in which the participants scarcely look at their partners. I mention this merely to indicate how inconsistent many people are with reference to Indian dances. I am informed that some of the educated Indians now take part in the maxixe and the fox-trot. If the reverend gentleman, to whom I have referred, was scandalized in observing a squaw-dance, what must be his feelings when he observes educated young men and women lapsing into the paganism of Paris and New York!
The Government’s taboo of the begging dance, and the curtailment of the ordinary Indian dances, leave no amusements in which the older Indians may participate. Consequently, they are quite likely to gamble and engage in far more harmful pastimes. Ordinary dances should be permitted, and the gift dance regulated.
