| Show AN INDIAN ON INDIANS for an indian to discuss the future of the red man inan in one of the leading ma of the civilized world was wae not thought of a few years ao ago but today it is ia done by simon pokagon Pok agoo la in the forum tor for august and he be does no BO in an intelligent and forceful ma manner he points out oat that ebeo white men first came to america the indian wae to them kind and coonfi ling but instead of being shaped into a bable manhood by the race the alo aborigine origine was oftener backed to 0 o pieces pieced and destroyed mr pokagon go oed e on to eai aa it is ia useless to deny the charge that at times we have been goaded to vindictive and cruel aota acts some of my own tribe however were soldiers in the northern army during the civil war some of them were taken and held prisoners in the rebel prisons and the cruelty which ace according to the tales they tell ws was witnessed there was wan never outdone in border warfare with the scalping sea ping knife and tomahawk andyes and yet I 1 believe that had the northern people been placed in the south under like circumstances their prisoners of war would have been treated with similar cruelty it was wan the result of a desperate effort to save an expiring cause I 1 believe there is no reasonable person well grounded in united states history who will not admit that there were ton ten times as many who perished miserably in southern prisons as an have been killed by our people since the discovery of america I 1 recall these facts not to censure but to show that cruelty and revenge are the offspring of war not of race and that nature has placed no impassable gulf between us and civilization the point here made by the indian cannot be gain goin salD salu the red man has bai been no more cruel and barbarous than his bis savage e brother when goaded by adverse con COD dit dilione ione the foot fact that civilized white men come BO near dear be uncivilized indian in 10 his fierceness shows that the accusation of cruel blood bloodthirstiness th i rat iners ineve against the aborigine to is not a bar to the latter being raigan to a high stand ard of civilization through methods method 1 that will reach his hie better nature and lead the nobler faculties to victory over the baser passions pa but the victory in not to be attained by on en aou raging idleness on the part of the indian and his ob children ildron a ai is being done in a part of the be government polley policy and as taken exception to by the forum writer who says while I 1 most heartily endorse the present policy of the government in dealing with our people I 1 must admit to be true to my mv own convictions that I 1 am worried over the ration system under andr which so many of our people are being fed on the reservations I 1 greatly fear it may eventually many of them beyond redemption it permits the gathering of lazy immoral white men of the worst stamp who spend their time in idleness and in corrupting indian morality thus the vagabondism to be feared la Is that which comes from the ae soola tion and influence of the lower classes of white moo meo the future of the indian in lie its safety and progress lies in causing bam to realf tI the necessity of his bia being Inde independently penitently moral and self reliant that his hie destiny is above the white manla mand support as a pauper or his use as a cui cuspidor |
