Transcription of “Last Chance for Indian Citizen”
LAST CHANCE FOR
INDIAN CITIZEN
Founder of Carlisle Declares That Abolishment of Indian Schools Will Loosen
the Last Hold the Government Has on Its Wards Who Were First to
Occupy the Land.
If non-agency Indian Schools are to be abolished, as stated on Tuesday by United States Senator Henry M. Teller, member of the senate committee on Indian affairs, it is the opinion of Gen. R.H. Pratt, founder of the Carlisle Indian School, that the last faint hope which the Indian ever had of becoming an American citizen will be removed.
“To retire of any pretext whatever from the principles on which Carlisle school was founded, is, to my mind, not in accord with the spirit and purposes of our government,” said Gen. Pratt last night. “And the government ought not only continue Carlisle and all other schools remote from the agencies, but should increase them and give the Indian a fair and square chance to know, to do and to be of us. To retain the bureau method of keeping the tribes intact and segregating the Indians on reservations is in my judgment to vacate the cardinal principle of Indian civilization. The other way has been held everything that would tend to make him useful. My experience of more than 25 years with the Indians has shown me that the bureau has at all times been far more [illeg.]. His future as an individual has not been looked after. There has always been a sort of sarcasm with regard to the Indian. His old habits have [illeg.] the ancient traits of the tribes have and kept in the foreground instead of an effort being made to overcome them and make the Indian a good citizen.
“At the world’s fair in Chicago in 1893, I urged strongly that the progress of the Indian and his possibilities for the future be shown in the government’s Indians exhibits, leaving Buffalo Bill to carefully portray the Wild Indian of the past. I was over-ruled and instead of showing a real civilizing process for the Indian, the bureau of ethnology conceived a sort of [illeg.] ever had of becoming an American citizen will be removed.
“To retire on any pretext whatever from the principles on which Carlisle School was founded, is to my mind, not in accord with the spirit of and purposes of our government,” said Gen. Pratt last night. “And the government ought not only to continue Carlisle and all other schools remote from the agencies, but should increase them and give the Indian a fair and square chance to know, to do and to be us. To retain the bureau method of keeping the tribes intact and segregating the Indians on reservations is in my judgment, to vacate the cardinal principle of Indian civilization. The doors of the nation are open to all other foreigners and they are encouraged to mingle with us and learn our ways at first hand. The Indian is treated in exactly the opposite way and he is given no opportunity of learning civilization first hand as other aliens are.
“It is plain to me that good statesmanship demands of us that we inaugurate some system that will give the Indian a chance and no better method have been offered, in my judgment, those those enforced at Carlisle.
Bureau System of Conducting Indian Affairs a Failure
Gen. Pratt has devoted the best years of a long and vigorous life to the study of the Indian question and he is sincere without bitterness when he says that the bureau system of regulating Indian affairs has been a total failure. During all the time the he was in charge at Carlisle school, which means from its organization until three years ago, he had to fight the ideas of the bureau and the announcement from the commissioner of Indian affairs, corroborated by the statements of Senator Teller, that all non-agency schools are to be discontinued as soon as possible, comes as no surprise to him, but is regarded as the natural result of bureauism.
“I think it is a great mistake,” he said gravely, when asked for his opinion of the governments actions on the matter, “and when it comes to a full, fair discussion, as it must or ought, and people understand it, there will be a strong sentiment against discontinuing these institutions.
“I have this to say about what Mr. Teller proposes: The Indians are an inheritance from the past. We occupy the whole of the land which they once had, and which in a number we have acknowledged was theirs. Never in history have we given them a faint chance of becoming civilized and useful among us. The government management in that direction has been a failure. Long ago the Indians would have been off our hands if the law of necessity could have been made to prevail; if the Indian when he found he could no longer exist by hunting and fishing, had been compelled to support himself by seeking employment among the American people, instead of being supported by the government in segregated communities where he had no chance of learning our ways and becoming a useful citizen.
Bureau System Would Fail With People of Other Nations
“The bureau system does not prevail with reference to any other nation. It wouldn’t work with the Italians, for example, if a bureau was established to look after all Italians who come to this country. Inspectors would be appointed, but they could do nothing unless the Italians were made to live in groups in communities by themselves, and then they would remain Italians for generations without change, just as the Indians have done. The colored race was brought here as property and we have now forced the colored man to scatter among us and take upon himself the duties of a citizen. But the Indian has been treated just the [illeg.] future as an individual has been looked after. There has always been a sort of sarcasm with regard to the Indian. His old habits have been [illeg.] and the ancient traits of the tribes have been kept in the foreground instead of an effort being made to overcome them and make the Indian a good citizen.
Success of Display at Chicago Caused Coolness Ever After
“I had 500 Carlisle students in parade on the opening day, each student carrying instruments or products of industry. We were given a place of honor right behind the governors and other officials who rode in the parade, and I was given a special diploma for the excellence of the display. I got high praise from the authorities for my display and from that time on there was a steady influence against me to the last part on the part of the bureau. At all subsequent expositions I was not allowed to give a special exhibit, but had to content myself with being part of the general exhibit, until the St. Louis fair, when I was ruled out entirely.
“At Chicago and every other exposition, the money of the government of the United States was used to hire educated Carlisle Indians to come and paint themselves up and perform in the style of their ancestors. When they knew that the government wanted it, they would come, and they were very useful, because they could talk English and were obedient and quiet. At St. Louis the ethnologists, in charge of W.J. McGee, went back into history and dug out houses that had not been used for so many generations that the Indians themselves did not know how to make them and the commissioners had to hire white carpenters to make the houses in which the Indians lived during the fair. I couldn’t even get into the exposition as part of the Pennsylvania exhibit even though all the Pennsylvania commissioners were most kindly disposed toward me. That shows clearly the attitude of the bureau with regard to civilizing the Indian and getting him away from the influences of hereditary.
“At Carlisle we had between 600 and 700 Indian boys living around in the families of American citizens, working in the fields, taking care of horses, and otherwise living just as one of the boys of the family would. This system proved wonderfully effective. The new system not only offers nothing better, but offers nothing at all. I am not specially in favor in retaining the school at Grand Junction because I have always thought that it was not well located. It is in a country where the people are not in sympathy with the Indian and where it is too easy to let him go back to the reservation during vacations.
As Long as on Reservation Indian Will Not Progress
“Senator Teller takes the position that the schools are no longer necessary because the Indian has officially declared to be an American citizen. What difference does it make if he is an American citizen if he continues to live in segregated communities where he is brought in contact with the best sort of people but is always in touch with people who want what he’s got? As long as he is retained on a reservation in his own tribe, he will not progress, and the more non-agency schools, far removed from the reservations are established, the better it will be for the Indian.
“If the government is to relinquish control over the Indian and let him be called an American citizen, the states will at once take up the same sort of control over him as the federal government did as long as the tribal reservations are maintained.”
Gen. Pratt was forced out of his position as head of Carlisle on July 1, 1904, his place now being filled by captain, now major, W.A. Mercer of the Seventh cavalry. A speech which he made, advising the abolition of the bureau of Indian affairs, was made the pretext for his removal, even though the Indian commissioner had advocated the same thing some time before. He had been placed on the retired list more than a year before he was relieved at Carlisle, and says that he has no complaint to make on the score of his removal. He is satisfied with the effect of the work he did while at the head of the school and only regrets that the politics of the bureau have been made paramount to the interests of the Indian who welfare is supposed to be looked after by that department.
