Show STUDENT LITE 16G with his heart full of hate for the white nan and the first great lesson in civilization still unlearned With the coining of the troublous times that led to the Revolution the good fathers found themselves in the role of the oppressed and then how changed became their views of man’s rights It was then that the growing nation announced to the world the discovery of these migljtv truths in human affairs —“That all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights among them being life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” With the impassioned cry and protest that “None shall he set above us” no thought was given to those below nor was the voice of love heard saying “Arise my brother and stand with me” On the contrarv there had F grown up a strong feeling of “no right for the Indian until he has turned to the white man’s way” Ilut whatever our belief one right the Indian did have namely the tangible right to he shown a new and better way by those who had made his way impossible The very lack of his rights as a savage have measured the white man’s tremendous obligation to bring him by all reasonable means into the rights that come with civilization for one of three things must follow when the higher civilization comes in contact with the lower subjuganamely transformation and this tion or extermination eternal inevitable law of God the American people tried to avoid by fencing in the Indian expecting to make his civilization that of the higher equal to The tragic results of the long unequal contest were made more tragic because of the unyielding conviction of the Indian that his right to “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was being ruthlessly trampled upon To his untutored mind there was no difference between defending his native land against the incursions of other wild tribes as he had often defended it and his final contest w'itli the white man There was the same bitterness in defeat the falling of his braves was as tragic and the suffering of his women and children as real as though he were yielding to another barbarian IIow it was possible for the United States Congress in the face of such a mighty truth as that “All men are created equal” to violate through its regularly constituted authority the real right of the Indians to the ownership of land can be but faintly imagined Yet to learn that such has been the case one needs only to read one of the reports of the many Indian agents With the final placing of the Indians upon reservations thirty forty or fifty years ago the Government found itself for the first time in its history in full control of the Indian situation and consequently for the first time with full responsibility for his care and civilization The Indian was sub- - |