| OCR Text |
Show 4 REPQRT OF THE. COMMISSIONEE OF INDIAN AFFAIBS. difficulties. Whether this policy is the best, time alone will deter-mine. Resuilts attained at present indicate that it is correct; that pur-sued through a few gencixtions acquired habits will become fixed and be transmitted by heredity, thus establishing characteristics which distinguish the sturdy white citizen. Indian education is hampered on the one side by the misguided, sen-timental friendship of those who place the Indian upon too lofty a pin-nacle, who contend that the white man's treatment of him, in the present and in the past, is cruel and inhuman, and, on the other side, by those who, in their greed for his lands and money, act upon the old theory, "No good Indian but a dead one." The Indian Office is the target of both these classes, who are prompt on all occasions to rush forward with advice as to the best methods of civilizing these people. Were the Department to follow these heterogeneous counsels, its pol-icy would illustrate forcibly the fate of the man who shapes his con-duct in accordance with the last advice received, and inevitably winds up in disaster and in. There is probably no department of the Government to which free counsel, ahwe, and criticism are so lav-ishlygiven as to that which is charged with the management of Indian affairs. The advice of those who are sincerely interested in the wel-fare of theso people, who have "no ax to grind," and who haye had opportunity to study the di5culties of the situatio? from a practical standpoint, is always of value and carefully considered. All wisdom relative to the management of the red man is not by any means assumed by the Indian O5ce. A great nation or a strong character is not developed in a day; neither is an Indian made a useful citizen. Slowly must old habits and customs be eradicated and new ones formed. A conservative course is the only safe one.. The Indian, under firm but kindly counsels, has developed and is developing those characteristics of mind and body which fit him to assume theguardianshipof his own interests and become self-supporting. That some, even many, Indians who have been from childhood under tbe care of Government schools relapse into old habits is too true; nothing else could be expected. The young of the wild bird, though born in captivity, naturally retains the instincts of freedom so strong in the parent and heats the bars to secure it,while after several generations of captivity the young bird will return to the cage after a brief period of freedom. So with the Indian child. The first wild redskin placed in. the school chafes at the loss of freedom and longs to return to his wildwood home. Hi offspring retains some of the habits acquired by the parent. These habits receive fresh devel-opment in each sucoensive generation, king. new rules of conduct, dif-ferent aspirations, and greater desires to be in touch with the dominant race. . |
