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Show I REPORT OF THE COMMI8810NER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 15 I W b l e etfort should bemade toinduce them to become self.supporting st %a asearly s. day 8s possible. 1 I, therefore, m e s t whether it ianot practicableto formulate certain rules for the governmentof the Indians on theresem~(tiontab at shall restrict md ultim&telvsbolisht he ~raetioeIs have mentioned. I emnot ignorsnr of the dif8rulties that wlll tr mwl.nwrcci in chid cflrn. scl 111. l iev~~i~ti~les l l tnhg them will be f o u ~ dm auy Indian* n'bo will aid rh.: Govrmmenr in Ira ellon8 r~ nbollsll fitr% and eurroms so injutioua to the lodlenr and u, enurrsrg ru rhs rivilirarioo rhar rhrg csmrsrlsrlerir~. Upon this the office, with the approval of the Department, organized the court of Indian offenses, with a code of regulations the purpose of which was to suppress the practices the indulgence in which was fatal to Lndian progress. The judges of these courts (always Indians) are appropriated for by Congress. The rules governing their courts will be found in the regulations of the Indian Department. It is true long hair and painting may not be specifically mentioned, but it is not necessary, as they are merely concomitants of the demoralizing practices proscribed. It may be interesting to note that although these rules are stringent to a degree beyond any-thine su-e"e ested in the recent letter which has created so much excitement. and I have been enforced all these years, yet they have not received, so far as I can learn, any adverse notice from the press, if they have been noticed at all. But, whether there be s. precedent for the late letter or not, I have no apology to make. I still think, with all due deference to the opinions of others, that it is not only in the line of sound publie policy, but it is the interests of decency and justified by practices which are still too prevalent-practices which are too often encouraged by white spectators, sometimes, I regret to say, in the name of science, who are either actuated by a morbid curiosity or impelled by a desire to gratify the longings of a. depmved taste. It was only a few years ago that issue day at some of the ration agencies partook somewhat of the character of a levee. Visitora would come from a distance to see the animals, wild by nature and frenzied by their surroundings, turned loose to he hunted down over the prairie by the whooping and yelling Indians in imitation of the savage methods of buffalo days. This has been done away. But other and worse thing6 remain. Danm that are degrading and so-called religious rites that are immoral, though Mually disappearing, still prevail. It is these and similar practices, and the customs that areincident to them, that the Indian muat relinquish if he is to succeed, and it is against the encouragement of these that the letter was aimed. It is a familiar saving that error lies at two extremes and truth in the middle. and I. a striking illustratik i f the truth of this is found in the Indian question. AL one I extreme there is a cold brutality which recomiees the dead Indian as the only good . Indian, and at the other a sickly sentimentalism that crowns the Indian witha'halo ; and looks up to him as a persecuted saint.. Between the two will be found the true friends of the Indian, who, looking upon him as he really is and recognizing his inevitable absorption by a stronger race, are endeavoring in a practical way to fit ', him under new conditions for the struggle of life. With these I desire to be f numbered. A year ago and again recently, in the annual reports I had the honor to make to you, I took ocmion to make some observationsupon the obstacles in the way of the Indian's uroxreaa and to offer some suemstions lookine to their removal and his I . . .. . hei.oming an independent iartor in our ci\iliuation. It is nu1 nrvw-a?). to repeat thrnm here. It is eno~rghto say that therrntral idea a . th~at the Indian runst work out his own salvation. -To do-that he must learn to labor. He must put aside all w savage ways that are inimical to that. He must adapt himself to the ways of the civilization around him and cease to be a mere curiosity and a show. It was ideas like these that led to the writing of the let T under discussion and others in the same direction. There was no idea of interferi g with the Indian's personal liberty any more than civilized society interferes witp 'i hepersonal liberty of its citizens. It was not that long hair, paint, blankets, etc., are objectionable in themselves-that is |
