OCR Text |
Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. ~ X X X ~ X achievements in war, and to sit with a solemn gravity at the councils ' of his chiefs constituted his most serious employment. His squaw was his Slave. With no more affection than a coyote feels for its mate, he brought her to his wigwam t.hat she might gratify the basest of his passions and minister to his wants. It was Starlight or Cooing Dove that brought the wood for his fire and the water for his drink, that the field and sowed the maize." These were the conditions of the Indian's existence in the past; bat, now, on the war-path and in the chase he can not exalt himself by brav-ery and endurance, and he should not he permitted to live any longer in idleness and debauchery. ,He should' be brought under the opera-tions of thelaw, LLIn the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground." .He should he educated to labor. He does not need the learning of '6 William and Mary," but he does ueea the viitue of industry aud the ability of the skillful hand. Ee should, therefore, be taught how to work, alnd all the schools that are opened ' for his children should be schools in which they will he instructed in the use of agricultural implements, the carpenter's saw and plane, the stonemason's trowel, the tailor's needle, and the shoemaker's .awl. And the Indian should be tanght not only how to work, bat also that it is his duty to work; for the degrading communism of the tribal-reservation system gives to the individual no incentive to r/ labor, hut pots a premium upon idleness and makes it fashionable. Under this system, t.he laziest man owns as much as the most indus-trious man, and neither can say of all the acres occupied by the tribe, This is mine." The Indian must, therefore, be taught how to labor; and, that labor may he made necessary to his well-being, he must be taken out of the reservation through the door of the general allotment act. And he must be imbued with the exalting egotism of American civilization, so that he will say &'I"in stead of "We," and "This is mine," instead of L'This is oars." But if he will not learn? If he shall eoutinne to persist in saying, "I am content; let me alone?ll Then the Guardian must act for the Ward, and do for him the good service he protests shall not he done-the good service that he denounces as a bad service. The Government must then, in duty to the public, com-pel the Indian to come out of his isolation into the oivilized way that he does not desire to enter-into citizenship-into assimilation with the masses of the Republio-into the path of national duty; and in passing along that path he will find not only pleasure in personal independenca and delight in individual effort in his own interest, but also the con-snmmation of that patriotic enjoyment which is always to be found in the exercise of the high privilege of contributing to the general welfare. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JOHN H. OBEBLY, Commissioner. The SEORETARY OF THE INTEILIoR. 12798-IND 8 8 ~ 1 1 |