Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press

by Jacqueline Emery

  On the other hand the extreme progressionists take the opposite view. They assert that every element that makes an Indian an Indian should be expunged and supplanted by the elements of culture that make a white man a white man. They insist upon the Indian giving up his language, his religion, his folk-lore, his tribal relations, and his “Indianness,” and becoming a white man in thought and appearance, forgetting that this is a basic error resulting from confusing civic and ethnic elements.

  Many an unfortunate Indian youth who has been schooled by this class has forgotten his mother tongue and has learned to despise his tribal history and look upon his ancestors as savage beasts deserving of no respect. He may have discoursed learnedly of Plato and Socrates, of Sanskrit verbs or Semitic substantives, of trigonometry and the nth power of pi, of the heroes of Thermopylae, of the astronomy of the Arabs, of the migrations of the Indo-Aryans, and the social system of the neo-Goths, but he may never have known of his own flexible language, of the philosophy of his own people’s sages, of Tecumtha or Hiawatha, of the heroes of the Pequoit massacre or those of Wounded Knee, of Chilcat art or Zuni pottery. To him a katchina or a kiva, a totemic system or linguistic stock, folklore and tradition, the Wallum Olum or the codices of the Aztecs, the Pawnee Hako or the Objiwa Mide Wiwin, mean nothing but pagan mummery.

  Many an educated Indian who wears a white collar and a frock coat has been pointed to with pride by his tutors because he knew nothing of the “heathen ways” of his ancestors. Yet this very Indian when he commences to mingle with cultured men and women in the civilized world finds himself at a distinct disadvantage. He is flooded with questions he cannot answer, and his audience soon turns away in weariness, if not disgust, to welcome with open arms his unlettered brother clad in show buckskins and eagle feathers, whose English is abominable but sufficiently vivid to explain the picturesque things of his native life. The “de-Indianized” in his white collar then commences to think. He commences to study his people, learn their ways, and understand their system of thought. Then the whole scheme comes to him as a revelation. He feels that he has been outraged and robbed. Straightway he commences to “re-Indianize” himself. If his tutors have taught him to despise his heathen father and mother too deeply he is very likely to take the directly opposite view and pride himself on the idyllic side of their life. Thus do the wrongly educated Indians “go back to the blanket,” figuratively, and become strenuous champions of the “old regime.” It was an unjust and one-sided education that caused the revulsion of feeling. Despite what one may say I think the ordinary man who thinks broadly will respect the Indian for his pride in his people. He who holds his head high is apt to find more room on the sidewalk of life than he who hangs his head in shame.

  Now then, where shall the sane middle ground be found? May it not be found in admitting that under the circumstances the Indian must give up certain things and take others in their places? May it not be found in asserting that the Indian need not entirely “deculturate” himself, but go on developing the best that is inherent to him? Will it not be well to admit that absolute uniformity of thought, method, and outward appearance are not absolutely necessary and that some virtue may be found in things and ways other than our own?

  The writer of this article believes that as long as the Indian finds efficiency in his native ideas there is no absolute need of causing him to abandon those ideas. Every race as a result of its racial history develops certain characteristics, practices, or habits. The Frenchman would not copy the Englishman or use an English method of expressing himself, neither would the German imitate, except for profit, Japanese art or music. How incongruous any one of us would find the singing of the Russian national hymn by a Chinese coolie, who yet claimed to possess self-respect! How we would despise the Italian for donning the garb of a Turk and strolling down Broadway singing, “Erin go bragh.” We consider the abandonment of racial characteristics of virtue as indicative of shame or lack of pride and appreciation of one’s own culture, and we either laugh in derision or secretly despise the man who has so little dignity that he can find nothing in his blood worthy of standing for. Each man and every race should develop and be entitled to develop its own virile qualities and its own inherent virtues. For the Indian to cast aside all that goes to make him such and abandon all that his fathers have produced would be conducive of great harm. Without pride a race becomes dispirited, inefficient, incompetent, and the prey of every stronger force. The Indian of America may wear his own style of swimming suit and use his own special swimming stroke. He will progress faster and keep afloat better by so doing. He may swim in his own way and win if he will, but take the stones out of his pocket and the leaden weights from his feet. If this is done the Indian will not have to be upheld by a life preserver or be towed by a man of a lighter color.

  If the Indian, now, will cast aside certain outgrown habits that bind him to past ages and will adjust himself to modern conditions, if he will rise to the demands of modern social and material culture, and develop his own best qualities, arts, and virtues, he may add materially, not only to art and literature but to philosophy and politics. Those Indians who have not become degenerated by the vices and diseases of civilization will transmit to the future race many healthy qualities and add to its brilliancy and virility. A review of the lives and achievements of men and women possessing Indian blood who have adjusted themselves to civilization substantiates this contention. It is not the dream of an enthusiast but the verdict of a statistician.

  Under conditions as we find them now the Indian must buy, trade, or sell, he must own real and personal property. He must, therefore, know how to buy advantageously, how and when to sell, how to acquire, hold, and protect his property. He must learn how to resist the diseases and overcome the temptations and vices that civilization brings. It is therefore manifest that he must acquaint himself with these ways and customs in order that he may exist in health, live in more or less comfort, and protect his property. Otherwise the Indian will always be at disadvantage, he will fail to utilize the forces and the property within his grasp. He will be preyed upon, be robbed and shifted about if he still persists in clinging to his own methods to the exclusion of all others. This will not be because he is an Indian but because civilization in its present phase is competitive and predatory. We thrive on the weaknesses, the necessities, and the ignorance of others. We use as capital our greater strength, our stored-up supplies, and our superior knowledge. At the same time, seeing the misery this creates, we seek to alleviate it, and yet somehow generally in such a way that the advantage is still ours. This we call “hard-headed” business. We weaken our patients by prohibiting or making impossible the exercise through which we ourselves became strong; we administer anesthetics instead of mental and moral stimuli.

  Howsoever unfortunate these things may be, yet, with all its crudities, this state of society is the one the Indian must successfully compete with or be destroyed. Whether the current phase of civilization is right or wrong it is nevertheless the state of society in which we live. Below its surface we drown, above it we are tempest driven upon but vapory supports, on its surface we may swim but we must still swim to survive. If we cease to struggle on we are drawn back by the current and down by sheer gravity. It is motion, progress, achievement that gives the right to live. Adjustment to present environment alone can save the man or beast that has lost its earlier environment. If there can be no adjustment there can be no hope for survival.

  Any race which becomes satisfied with its present condition, believing that it has reached the ultimate goal, and refusing to consider a state beyond and another world to conquer, has reached its western shore and may only look out into the deep to see a setting sun. Even those who believe that their condition, their social or economic system, is the criterion, needing only proper remedies to correct the faults, are wrong. Like the diseased and dying limb of a pine tree overshadowed by a new and higher one, the old must perish even before it is truly perfect. Nothing can
save it. The law of growth, the necessities of the tree, demand that the newer and higher limb receive the sap and grow in full vigor until another, ever higher, in turn shuts out the sun and the lower one drops wilted and dying from very lack of light and nourishment. So stage by stage races have developed. It will not avail to cling to the lower limb. Modern man is in the top branches of this ethnic tree; his slower brothers cling below on branches brittle and decayed. Many have dropped into the abyss below and we call their bones, for lack of better names, the Man of Spy, of Neanderthal, of Calaveras, or the pithecanthropus erectus.

  The Indian is not inferior as a race or as an individual except as he is made so or so chooses to be. He has ability, even if much of it is dormant, and he has capacity. With a white man’s fighting chance he has always demonstrated this. The great need of teaching the Indian to appreciate and measure his own culture in the full knowledge of others is apparent. To this end the writer strongly believes in the necessity of an Indian college or university. Others, both Indian and non-Indian, share in this belief. In such an institution graduates of the higher schools might be trained in the art, literature, history, ethnology, and philosophy of their people. Along with such subjects might be taught political and social science and such other academic branches as might be found necessary.

  The writer is not alone in the belief that the American Indian has something permanent to contribute to civilization. By a conservative policy alone he cannot contribute, however. To bring his contribution to humanity he must move upward and movement means progress. It is this belief of the race in itself that leads the Society of American Indians to state as one of its objects, “To promote and co-operate with all efforts looking to the advancement of the Indian in enlightenment that leaves him free as a man to develop according to the natural laws of social evolution,” and then at the same time to state as another object, “To present in a just light the true history of the race, to preserve its records, and emulate its distinguishing virtues.”2

  Needed Changes in Indian Affairs, 1912

  With every thoughtful student of human development, I believe that the Indian possesses every ability and capacity for development and that he is capable of any attainment possible for men, providing his environment is made normal. This postulates that the Indian is equal in inherent capacity and therefore not an inferior.

  Many mistakes and much misery have been produced by dogmatically asserting the contrary. Hampered by a false environment and artificial social conditions thought necessary to restrain him, the Indian has found it difficult to develop along normal lines. The education, civilization, and incentive came from without and not from within. It was a gift and not a growth. When the contrary was occasionally true, the Indian’s social and legal position prevented his highest success.

  That some Indians attained great distinction as leaders in the white world proves the vitality of the race and demonstrates its capacity. The Indian is a capable, useful American when he is permitted to be. There can be little doubt that the majority of Americans desire justice and progress for the Indian. Americans as a rule believe in fair play. As the law stands this is now difficult to give. An uncertain and indetermined status makes it possible for dishonest interests to prey upon the Indian so affected.

  There often has been the lack of fair play and often no redress. The law blocks the way. The Indian has never been the subject of searching sociological study. Basic causes for conditions have never been studied. Hence the “problem.” There must be a new beginning. Scientific system must supplant disorder. To prepare for such a change it is first necessary to understand the laws that now affect the Indian. Obsolete and injurious laws must be repealed; needful laws must be enacted. The exact status of every tribe, band, or class of Indians must be determined as far as existing law affects his status. In this way a true legal basis will be found on which to build anew. The legal position of the Indian is now so involved that with the further changes that come through allotments, the payment of claims, new contracts, through intermarriage and changes of administration and policy, matters only grow more complex. Laws made for the “blanket Indian,” of two generations ago are still in force to make life miserable for the educated Indian of today seeking to compete in modern life. Competent men are declared incompetent, an Indian congressman is arrested for selling his own land, an Indian attorney is prevented from buying a cow with his own money, and an educated Indian leaves his children to discover that with all his education and civilization he is declared incompetent to make a will disposing of his property. These “incompetent” men, on the other hand, had been fully trusted with the legal and financial interests of their white neighbors. They were only incompetent because of obsolete Indian law.

  The answer to many discouraging remarks about Indian capacity and progress is to point to the legal position into which the Indian is thrust. A reservation Indian is enslaved by his reservation Indian environment. To remedy such a state of affairs was the object of the Carter Indian Code Bill (H. R. 18334, 62nd Congress, Second session). This bill was drafted by the Society of American Indians and introduced by Congressman Charles D. Carter. It provides for a new epoch in Indian affairs, and when passed will simplify the work of the government in dealing with the Indian and give the Indian a foundation upon which he may stand securely. It will make possible a rapid transition from a lower stage to a higher one and render justice more a common matter. It will reduce the cost of administrating Indian affairs and save large amounts of money both for the government and for the Indian. It will pave the way for freedom and self-government and mark the passing of “ward” and “subject” and ultimately give the Indian American now possessing “diminutive rights” every right that the nation vouchsafes to its sovereign people.3

  Henry Roe Cloud (Winnebago)

  Henry Roe Cloud (1884–1950) was born as Wo-Na-Xi-Lay-Hunka (War Chief) on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska. He attended the Genoa Industrial School, the Santee Normal Training School, and the Mount Hermon School before attending Yale University. After graduating from Yale in 1910, he spent a year at Oberlin Seminary College and then transferred to the Auburn Theological Seminary, where he earned his bachelor of divinity degree. He also received a master’s degree in anthropology from Yale in 1914, making him the first full-blood Native American to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Yale. One year later he founded the American Indian Institute in Kansas, a Christian preparatory school for Indians. He acted as the institute’s president, principal, chief fundraiser, and editor of its journal, the Indian Outlook. Roe Cloud later became superintendent of Haskell Institute. He was a founding member of the Society of American Indians and an advocate for Indian education. (Littlefield and Parins, Biobibliography: Supplement 191; Peyer, American Indian Nonfiction, 388–89; Pfister; Southern Workman, March 1921, 125)

  Education of the American Indian, 1915

  Education is for life—life in the workaday world with all its toil, successes, discouragements, and heartaches. Education unrelated to life is of no use. Education is the leading-out process of the young until they themselves know what they are best fitted for in life. Education is for complete living; that is, the educational process must involve the heart, head, and hand. The unity of man is coming to the forefront in the thought of the day. We cannot pay exclusive attention to the education of one part and afford to let the other part or parts suffer. Education is for service; that is, the youth is led to see the responsibilities as well as the privileges of his education so that he will lend a helping hand to those who are in need.

  Indian education offers no exception to these general definitions. The educational needs of the Indian can be best seen in the light of his problems. He has before him two problems—the white man’s and his own peculiar racial problem. The one confronting the white child is the Indian’s also, for, if the goal for the Indian is citizenship, it means sharing the responsibilities, as well as the opportunities, of this great Republic.

>   The task of educating the American young is a stupendous one. The future welfare of the American nation depends upon it. Children everywhere must be brought to an appreciation of the great fundamental principles of the Republic as well as to a full realization of its dangers. It required long, toilsome marches of peoples beyond the seas to give us our present-day civilization. Trial by jury came through William the Conqueror. America’s freedom was at the cost of centuries of struggle. America’s democracy is both the direct and the indirect contribution of every other civilized nation. Our wide-open door of opportunity was paid for by untold sacrifice of life and labor. It involves the story of the sturdy and brave frontiersman, the gradual extension of transportation facilities westward, the rise of cities on the plains. So great and rapid has been this progress, that already the cry of the conservation of our natural resources is ringing in our ears.

  Along with these great blessings, there are the national dangers stalking through the land. I need but mention them. The stupendous economic development of the United States has meant the amassing of great and unwieldy wealth in few hands. It has meant the creation of a wide gap between the rich and poor. Industries have been revolutionized by the introduction of machinery. There has now grown up the problem of the relation of labor and capital. Our railroad strikes and mine wars are but symptoms of this gigantic problem. Immigration and the consequent congestion in our cities have put the controlling political power into the hands of the “boss.” There is the tenement problem of physical degeneracy and disease. It requires no prophet to foresee the increase of these problems and dangers, owing to the war now raging across the sea. The desolation of those countries, the inevitable tax burdens, will mean an even greater influx of immigration into this country. There is the problem of “fire water,” that has burned out the souls of hundreds of thousands of men, to say nothing of the greater suffering of their wives, mothers, and children. There is the big national problem of race prejudice. Is America truly to be the “melting pot” of the nations?