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Show 8 BEPORT OF THE C o M M I s a o m R OF INDIAN AFFAIIts. promotion of their own interests, as well as to those persons generally who know the full meaning and worth of the ballot. Already, in un-merous cases that have come under my personal knowledge, Indians, by reason of the fact of their citizenship, have acquired a standing in a community which has been denied ihem heretofore; and those among whom they live whose interests may be affected for weal or for woe by the ballot which they cast become desirous that they shall be fitted for their new duties. In this reapect certainly the mere fact of citizen. ship becomes immediately helpful to the Indians, or at least may do so. The fact remains, however, that citizenship is a great privilege and a aolemn responsibility, and ought not to he conferred upon the un-worthy or the incompetent. I look with extreme solicitode upon the future of some of those who have already become citizens, but who have not had the advantages of education, and who seem indisposed to allow their children to be sent to school. It is necessary to bear in mind that the condition of the Indian dsers essentially from that of the average foreigner who comes among us and becomes naturalized. In the fist place, foreigners who come to our shores in most cases have inherited the advantages of old civilization, and while in some instmces they are themselves rather poor represen-tatives of the civilization from which they come, they are nevertheless predisposed in favor of the essential elements that enter into American life. It is only necessary to allude to the fact that multitudes of those who come to n$ from England, Germany, and Scandinavia are persons of liberal culture, and are prepared to enter at once into competition with those whom they meet here in their varied walks of life on terms b of equality. Then, again, our civilization being a composite, transplanted to this continent fiom diflerent parts of Europe, the foreigners who come to us find at once a point of contact with those who have preceded them fiom their native country, with whom they almost immediately enter into sympathy, from whom they derive help, and with whom they more or less fully assimilate. It is entirely different with thaIndians. They do not represent civ-ilization. They are not in sympathy with lls generally. There are no sueh points of contact between them and our own people, and it is, con-sequently, a task of vastly greater proportions to assimilate them than it is an equal number of persons from almost any country in Europe. Besides this, which is a m a t h of special importance, the children of foreigners, by virtue of the fact that for the most part they settle in the midst of well-established communities, are admiteed at once, and ndeed are forced by public opinion, in most cases, into either public or private schools, where they acquire a knowledge of the English language and become associated with American youth, being taught by Ameri- ' ctanteaohers, so that they become fitted for the duties that devolve |
