JOHN T. BEAR
There have been a number of references in this book to Canada. Mr. Duncan C. Scott, who holds that office in Canada corresponding to our Commissioner of Indian Affairs, attended the Lake Mohonk Conference this year. He showed us a few thin pamphlets—all the regulations, laws, statements, methods of procedure, etc., necessary in the management of Canadian Indian affairs. With us we employ skilled lawyers to fathom the intent of our legislators. They must needs delve into thousands of pages of conflicting laws, rules and statutes. And after one set of attorneys have presented their views, the mass of legal rulings is so enormous and complicated that other attorneys assigned the same task usually arrive at exactly opposite conclusions from those presented by the first corps!
Mr. Scott also informed us that when a white man marries an Indian woman in Canada, he has no part in tribal or individual property. The Government issues no deeds to the Indians, but they live on their farms as do ours. All incentive to graft is removed. The simple, effective Canadian management of Indian affairs, compared with our ponderous, complicated and ignorant handling of the same class of people in this country, points a very strong moral.
MEDAL PRESENTED BY PRESIDENT GRANT TO CHIEF RED CLOUD IN 1871
Secured from Mrs. Red Cloud and Jack Red Cloud for the Trustees of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., in 1909, by W. K. Moorehead. Solid silver. Full size.
Of those who have done much on behalf of the Indian, I neglected to emphasize the work of Honorable James M. Graham, Congressman from Illinois, and Honorable Henry George, Jr., of New York.
These two gentlemen served on the Congressional Committee referred to in Chapters IV-VIII. There were other members on this same Committee, who did good work, but I believe Messrs. Graham and George were the only two who attended all of the sessions. Omitting the members of Congress already mentioned in the book, those who have been especially active in protecting Indians are Honorable Senators LaFollette, Townsend, Ashurst, Lane, Page and Gronna; and Honorable Congressmen Konop, Church, Campbell, McGuire, Miller, Lenroot, Murdock and Stevens (Nebraska).
I have tried to indicate in a number of places in this book why so many of our Indian tribes are practically at a standstill, so far as progress along lines of civilization is concerned. Put into one concrete statement, the reason for the unsatisfactory condition of many of our Indians is due to the following:—First, we have hurried them into citizenship before they were qualified to assume full responsibility. Second, many of the farms and tracts improved by Indians, after much labor, have been taken away.
Certain of the missions were very successful, and numbers of them are so at the present day. The famous Riggs family of missionaries among the Sioux, succeeded in building up communities of Christian Indians and promoting thrift and industry. Rev. Gilfillan’s missions in Minnesota, and the Catholic mission near Pine Ridge are illustrations of what can be done with Indians when one has secured their confidence. So long as there is no change in management, and the Indians are not hurried, much progress on their part is sure to result. But, unfortunately, as has been indicated, we have no more than persuaded a band of Indians to become progressive than we destroy all incentive to further progress. This was done in the case of the Pima and Papago, in addition to other tribes frequently mentioned. Indians develop farms and become self-supporting only to see the result of their labor swept away. Beyond question, we have hurried the Indian, and forced allotments and citizenship upon him far too rapidly. We should have moved slowly, as they do in Canada, and avoid the dreadful scandals and the increase of disease and pauperism. The Indians are more or less confused by our numerous rulings, changes of officials, etc. An Indian said to me in Minnesota: “We used to live in the open air and were healthy. You told us to live in houses. We became sick. Now you tell us to again live in the open air. The white man has many minds.”
The old method of gradual extension of civilizing influences was generally successful. And, in all sections of the country where such a plan is followed, the Indians are doing quite well. Indians can be led, or persuaded, far more satisfactorily than driven. The Navaho have never been driven, but were permitted to slowly, yet satisfactorily, progress along certain lines. An educated Indian once summed up to me our general policy with reference to the average Indian in Oklahoma:—“You put a few words of English in his mouth, a coat on his back, thrust a deed to valuable property in his hands, and send him out among shrewder white men, expecting him to hold his own.”