The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1901-11 - 1901-12

              the Word Carrier.
volume  XXX.
HELPING    THE   RIGHT.   EXPOSING    THE    WKONG.
NUMBER  0.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER. 1901.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR.
OUR PLATFORM.
For Indians we want American Education ! We xoant American Homes!
We want American Rights! The result of which is American Citizenship!
And-the gospel, is the Power of God for
their Salvation!
IN  INDIAN   EDUCATION  WHAT  IS
WORTH WHILE.
Director Woodward of the Manual Training School of Washington
University of St. Louis delivered
an address at the meeting of the
National Educational Association
at Detroit on What shall be taught
in an Indian school. .And the
Hon. W. A. Jones, Commissioner
of Indian Affairs, takes up the
subject in his Annual report for
1901, * and gives it as his conclusion that the present Indian educational system is a mistake and
an obstacle in the way of Indian advancement toward independence
and self support. Both of these
utterances are radical criticisms of
what is now attempted in government Indian schools, and more or
less criticisms of the aims and
methods of all schools for Indians.
The subject is not likely to rest until it has had a pretty thorough sifting.
The question is not about what
branches of knowledge are to be
taught in an ideal system of education, nor as to what the individual
Indian might possibly receive and
be benefited by, but the question is,
What is it most essential that the
average Indian be taught when he
is considered as a component part
of his tribe ?
The main object is the enlightenment and elevation of our Indian
population. This imposes certain
limitations that it is our first business to discover. The gigantic
failure of the government Indian
sehool system is because the limitations of the case have never been
studied. The government has
thoughtlessly tried to duplicate for
Indians the educational machinery
of our public school system at its
highest form of development in our
large towns and cilies. True, this,
by force of circumstances, is being
modified along industrial lines. But
the whole problem is well buried
under four million dollars worth of
buildings, erected on the lines of
the old mistake.
The first limiting condition is
that the Indian pupil must be kept
in sympathy with his people. This
is the key note of Director Woodward's address. If we are to elevate the people the education of
their children must preserve their
interest in their people and the
interest of their people in them.
This is what Col. Pratt emphatically denies, which is the cause of his
having done so little practically for
the solution of the Indian question.
Director Woodward is right as to
the main point, though many of his
applications miss the mark, as he
has no personal knowledge of the
practical side of the question. This
will come up later.
The Commissioner of Indian
Affairs also sees that the field
of operations must be changed to
the neighborhood  of   the  Indians
* See extracts from the Commissioner's Report on
-nside of this paper.
themselves. He sees that the strategic point is the Indian home. And
he is right. But he has not followed
the question along its practical lines
far enough to reach his object. It is
doubtful whether he will. The probability is that the forty-five million
dollar mistake will go on propagating itself just the same.
Now there are some essential
points which must be aimed at in
the education of the Indian youth,to
give him a fair start, and to make
him most helpful to himself and
his people. They must be aimed
at from the beginning of his schooling and secured more or less as conditions and opportunity allows. We
will here name four essentials. To
cure his sell conceit, broaden, his
horizon intellectually, correct some
of his ethical standards and give
him some mechanical handiness.
The first great obstacle   to   the
Indian's   advancement is his  self
conceit.   There is no hope of benefiting him   until by  some   means
he learns his deficiencies  and becomes   dissatisfied   with   himself.
Some times it  has taken   war or i
pestilence to  shake him out of his
conceit.  But in a milder way it may
be   reached   through  these   other j
lines of educational training if we ;
go at them in the right way.
Nothing is better for the enlarge- j
ment of the   intellectual   horizon j
than  geography  and biographical |
history.   By geography we mean the j
story of the great  living world of
things and men as they are today; j
and   by history, the story   of   its ]
yesterdays.     All  lessons begin at
home, but for an Indian it is especially needful that the lessons do not
stay at home.   They need to become
citizens of the world.   Nor will this
remove them from the sympathies of
their people.    It is the vision of this
great outer world, of which the old
Indian  has  glimpses,  that makes
him ready and anxious to have his
child go to school to learn what he
himself cannot learn.
In biography it is not the lives of
the chieftains of his own race that
are most helpful. Few of them are
of any use to him except as sad
mistakes. Nor is the Indian of the
plains particularly interested in
King Philip or Powhatan as Indians. King Alfred is really as near
to him as King Philip and many
times more helpful. Of course it
goes without saying that much of
the details of ouv geographies and
histories can not be of any use to
him. No more are they to any
other children.
The world of nature is one in
which he is at home after a fashion.
But he needs to be taught its hidden
mysteries. The wonders of science
are eye openers for him. It is a
great thing for one who is by nature a destroyer to learn to reverence Life. He must learn that
the world has other uses than to
furnish things for him to kill. And
it means much to him that his
white teacher can show him so
much that he has never seen.
He needs to have his ethical standards corrected in a number of particulars. He never can build up a
true home until he has a higher
appreciation of womanhood. Nor
can be be of much use in civilized
society until he understands the val
ue of exact truth. While we may
call him honest, yet in his native
condition he never told the exact
truth in his life. Indeed it is a precept with him that one who lets out
the truth about another man must
either be temporarily mad at him
or bis enemy. His-idea of courage
is.defective; it is purely physical.
He has no moral courage, nor can he
do a right thing if he is in danger of
being laughed at. He also has a perverted idea of generosity. All economy is stinginess, which is the very
lowest notch of meanness in an Indian's estimation. So his ethical
code is a perpetual bar to thrift.
Therefore he must be helped to understand and accept new ethical
standards in many particulars, or
his education is of no avail.
Civilization also brings him into
new relations to work and to the
implements of labor. The least we
can do for him is give him mastery
over these new relations. He cannot live in this age of ours without
having a hand trained to many
kinds of labor. He must also know
some thing of the value and care of
machinery. Hundreds of sewing
machines are already in Indian
homes; and not a few Indian farmers have bought expensive farm
machinery, to say nothing of that
the government has given them.
Manual training has also vital
relations to the instruction of the
class room and to the discipline of
the will. Their thinking is inexact,
and their use of a new language
shadowy. It needs to be made
substantial and tangible. Their
physical powers need also to be
drilled iuto obedience to thought
and purpose. The bundle of appetites and impulses which they are,
needs to be brought into subjection
to a responsible will. For this manual training is a great help.
What will bring the Indian youth
to lose his self conceit, enlarge his
intellectual horizon, correct his ethical standards, and make his body
the useful servant of a right will,
these are essential points in the
scheme of Indian Education. This
is what is worth while.
The application of these principles is not attempted here. Noth
ing has been said about the number of readers or the amount of
arithmetic the pupil is to be put
through. And the teacher is more
important than the curriculum. A.
live teacher with a true aim will not
fail to secure results. And these results will he in character developed
rather tlian in sciialarshin^ Corn-
ones' proposition that
pupil may be taught
transact the ordinary
life, is both indefinite
missioner  «
the Indian
!enough   to
I business of
j and inadequate.  tTjp fnfnrp success
| does not depend so much, "p"» his
kSowingas upon his having the pow-
urrrf~wtTTing to do the business ol civilized hie." Education in his "case
means a re-creation .jmaw birth..
A CAMPAIGN PROMISE  KEPT.
The. "Browning Order" has been
revoked. But what is that order that
its revocation should have called
forth so mucn comment and jubilation ? Merely two letters written by
Indian Commissioner Browning in
1894 and 1896 to two Indian Agents
in  South Dakota authorizing them
in their discretion first to fill the
Government schools on the reservation and then to allow Indian children to be placed in non-reservation
or contract schools; instead of the
reverse. The object was to prevent
a Government day school, established and equipped to meet the need of
a special Indian community, from
being broken up by having the children taken from it and placed in
other more distant schools. The letter did not convey an order, but gave
permission, and the agents were to
use their discretion in each case.
This policy—it was never a generally promulgated order—has been
strenuously resisted by the Bureau
of Catholic Indian Missions in Washington, on behalf of the Catholic
church, though no other church has
made any objection whatever to it.
On the contrary, they have favored
it. The Indian Bureau, in defending
its course, has claimed its right to
put Indian children in Government
schools without regard to the desire
of outsiders to place them elsewhere,
and regardless of the parent, whose
decided preference for any particular school would be much more likely to be the result of outside pressure
than of personal judgment.
At the same time the Bureau has
over and over again affirmed that it
had no desire to discriminate against
or to embarrass any non-Government school, was ready to consult
the intelligent wishes of Indian
parents so far as practicable, had
no intention of laying down any hard
and fast rule, and would make no
case a precedent, but would decide
each on its own merits. Moreover
the Indian Bureau insists that as a
matter of fact it, has never practically enforced this policy, and the
Catholic Bureau does not contend
that it has done so; it is only anxious
lest under that policy some such
hardship as it fears might be inflicted, viz., that a child who wanted to
go, or whose parents wished it to go,
to a sectarian school might be kept in
a Government school.
Its fears in this direction are further aroused by a paragraph in the
Indian School Rules, which says:
"Once enrolled in a Government
school pupils will be considered members of the school until separated
therefrom by- authority of the Commissioner of Indian  Affairs."
The intention of this is merely to
prevent pupils from drifting from
one school to another for trivial
reasons,caprice,dissatisfaction with
discipline, desire for a change, etc.
The rule also is not arbitrarily enforced, but circumstances are allowed to control in each individual case.
Nevertheless this bugbear of possible Government interference with
the education of Indian children in
Catholic schools was made a feature
of the last Presidential campaign,
I and Archbishop Ireland and others
stipulated that the quid pro quo for
their support of the Republican
ticket should be the revocation of
the so-called Browning Order. When
the due-bill was presented in due
course to Secretary Hitchcock he
was very reluctant to honor it, but
he has succumbed to importunity
and paid it in full.—Tlie Independent.
Santee Normal Training School Press,
Santee, Nebraska.