Show The Good Side of the IndianS Indian-S The communal ownership oifood says Major Powell in his ethnological report to the Smithsonian Institution and the great hospitality practiced by the Indian have had a very decided influence upon his character The peculiar institutions prevailing in this respect gave to each tribe a profound interest in the skill ability and industry of each member He was the most valuable person in the community who supplied it with the most of its necessities For this reason the successful hunter or fisherman was always held in high honor and the woman who gathered great stores of seeds fruits or roots or who cultivated a good corn field was one who commanded com-manded the respect and received the highest high-est approbation of the people The simple sim-ple and rude ethics of a tribal people are very important to them the more so because be-cause of their communal institutions and everywhere throughout the tribes of the United States it is discovered discov-ered that their rules of conduct were deeply implanted in the minds of the people An organized system sys-tem of teaching is always found as it is the duty of certain officers of the class to instruct the youth in all the industries necessary to their rude life and simple maxims of industry abound among the tribes and are enforced in divers and interesting in-teresting ways The power of the elder men in the class over the younger is always al-ways very great and the training of the youth is constant and rigid Besides this a moral sentiment exists in favor of primitive prim-itive virtues which is very effective in molding character |