The basketry is threatened with extinction. The manufacture of beadwork, moccasins and Indian garments continues in various sections of the country, but has become modernized in design and manufacture. With the scarcity of deer, elk and buffalo, substitutes are now employed. This is observed in so common an article as moccasins—which are far inferior to those in use fifty years ago.
When Honorable R. G. Valentine was Commissioner, I made a somewhat lengthy report on the possibilities of aboriginal art, or manufacture, as a commercial asset to the Indians. I recommended that the old basket and blanket weavers, and the few remaining Indians who are skilled in making bead designs, moccasins, and other articles, be encouraged in their native arts. I recommended to the Commissioner that he establish a Bureau of Arts and Industries somewhat different from that one maintained at the present time. That the older men and women should be encouraged to make their baskets and blankets as in olden days, and that these should be marketed through certain agencies and the profits accrue to the Indians. I took the position that it was useless to attempt to instruct young Indians in the arts of their parents. That these persons were properly instructed in the great Indian schools, but that the true expression of aboriginal art was found among the few, old, self-taught persons. Art cannot be superintended, and if we continue such a course we will destroy what remains and have in its place that which is the opposite of true art. Our attempt to “teach” the Indians music ended in failure.
The Indian Office should encourage the old art-workers to make their products in their own way with absolutely no supervision upon our part.
A Prophecy Verified
Events have moved rapidly of late, and as the Introduction proofs come back from my publishers, the press dispatches from Washington announce the appointment of Honorable Gabe E. Parker as Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma. Mr. Parker is one of the brightest of our educated Indians. Miss Barnard has just informed me that her successor in the Department of Charities and Corrections has been named. With these changes, Mr. Mott’s remarkable prophecy of last February (See p. [163]) is with one exception, completely verified.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are many persons, and a number of governmental Departments, to whom I am especially indebted. When I began the preparation of this manuscript nearly a year ago, I explained to officials in the United States Indian Office, Department of Justice, Smithsonian Institution, Indian Rights Association, and other organizations that I intended to prepare a history of the Indian of the transition period. It was made clear that a history must contain both the good and the bad; that a mere description of school activities and progress in arts and industries, would result in confirming the public in the present erroneous, but widespread opinion, that all our Indians are properly cared for, protected, and really becoming self-supporting.
Great credit must be given to various officials and private citizens for their earnest cooperation. The subject was a delicate one for them to handle. Taking everything into consideration, I have clearly indicated that the present unsatisfactory condition of our Indians grew up through a gradual process of evolution. We must not select the administration of Mr. Morgan, or that of Messrs. Leupp and Valentine, or the present one, under Mr. Sells, and state—“It was under this regime that the Indian began to lose his property.” Beginning fifty years ago, the evolution proceeded regularly, but irresistibly, until it terminated in the bureaucracy of present times. No particular administration, and no group of men are to blame.
Honorable Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Honorable E. B. Meritt, Assistant Commissioner, both instructed under-officials to afford me every possible courtesy in the preparation of this book, and I am greatly indebted to both of them.
To Mr. Rodman Wanamaker and Dr. Joseph K. Dixon, I express thanks for the permission to reproduce photogravure plates illustrating the Indian of fifty years ago. Messrs. Doubleday Page & Co., publishers of Dr. Dixon’s book, “The Vanishing Race”, were good enough to make the impressions.