OCR Text |
Show observer who looks beneath t,he surface sees victory assured along the entire line. So great, indeed, has been the gain already achieved that in many instances where twenty years ago Indian civilization ruled supreme, it would he difficult now to find any of its features as enumer-ated above clearly expressed. The busy farmer, the thrifty housewife, the skillful artisan, the careful tradesman are no longer rareoccurrences; on anumber of reservation;. they are beginning to be respected as marks of superiority to which all, should aspire. The Indian school can point with satisfaction to fervent missionaries, devoted teachers, physicians, lawyers, field matrons, nurses, and trained workers in other professional fields who owe the impulse for their carcer and much of their equip. ment to its work and influence. Returned students may have relapsed more or less completely into Indian savagery; a number of them may have susered intense agony in this process; others may have fallen into evil ways, yet the partial or increasingly complete success of the greater number of these heroic lovers of their race entitles them to the proud distinction of coustitut-ing the most efficient factor in the elevation of their people into the light of American civilization. To decry them because of the failure of the unfortunate or the fall of the weak would be to decry a victo-rious army because of the fallen comrades it left on the field and because of the cowards or worse that fell into the enemy's hands. In another direction the "returned studentv has been equally valiant and victorious. In the school service, as well as in the agency service, he has deliberately separated himself from tribal ties; has taken up his abode in reservations distant from his origiual home; has earned by the character of his work and life the respect and confidence of white superiors and associates, and, at the same time, proved to the Indians that the nation has higher claims and rewards than the tribe and that the amenities of Anglo-Saxon civilization are within their reach, if they will but honestly and earnestly assume the right attitude with regard to it. Still others of the LLreturnesdt udents," or, rather, in this case, grad-uates of Indian schools, have found fields of labor and usefulness in white communities, and have, by the faithful and intelligent perform-ance of duty, proved to their white brothers, howsoever reluctant of belief, that in vlew of the high qualities of his essential character, edu-cation has the power of conferring upon the red man the right of claiming full eaualitv in American c i t i ~ e ~ s h i ~ . I n tl~&t:onncktiouiw oulddirc~:ry our a t t e d o n ronpnperon thinsob-ject which n.asre:~da t theoulaha l~~s t i t n1t1eyN iss Folson~o,f Ilamptou, bdwhich accomnanies thisrenort. Hamnton has for man6vearscl6se1v follo~rcchi er ret~; r~~re;tdot lcnis I I I 11)c.i~l ife I I ~ O I Ith e re~eriatiousm, arc. ing them from t i~ncto timn :IS exc'elle~~gto,o d, fhir, poo~,orl,ad. Anlong the excellent Eam:,rou had rlussed tl~osem l~oh ave exercised n 1>;11.ticu. 1~1.lyw ide and teiling inrloence, ;In teachers, ministers, inissi;,narics, tirld marrous, lawyers, docu~rst,r ained nuries, surveyors, mechanica, farmers. and stock raisers; amnne the good, those w~ho &re industri- 011s al~d temperate, legally married, if mhrricd at all, nu0 exerting a decidc.d intl~ienecf or a butter civilization. Thc list of the fair incluale.8 the siek, the ~~~e u t ndlellivc ieut, aud those who for other reasolrs Eqiled to come'up to the sfandard of the good, yet who in many ways are worthy of commendation. The list of the poor includes those who are not actively bad, but whose general influence is against rather than for the better way. In round numbers the record at the time of reading the paper in queation included 450 names. Of these 100 are classed |