OCR Text |
Show Self-Supporting Indians. THE OBJECT LESSON presented by the story of Jesuit missions in Idaho, published elsewhere in this paper, offers a solution of the Indian problem if the government will take advantage of the means by which the Church obtained its conquest over the children of the forest These are the simple means which obtain everywhere the Church comes in contact with a savage'or half civilized people: First, teaching the natives the faith; and, second, by precept and example impressing im-pressing upon their minds the dignity of labor, so that they become self-supporting self-supporting and live without the aid of government supplies. All this has been accomplished in the tribes of the Nez Perces in Idaho through the zeal of the Jesuit fathers, and a standing monument to Indian effort is the De Smet Industrial school. No better illustration of the aptness of the Indian mind to grasp at even the highest form of "education is given anywhere than that explained in the narrative written by an Indian pupil of the De Smet school. It is astound- j ing. almost miraculous. We. have been told that the Indian is stupid; has no I asjiiration beyond the tepee and Wan- I ket, and awaits only the coming and gojng of the government agent to provide pro-vide means to live' in indolence and degradation. The. De Smet mission wipes away this impression entirely. Here the Indians cultivate the lands they own and bring their products to market. Here they dress and send their children to "school. Here, the Catholic Indian costs the government not a penny. And here is where Commissioner Com-missioner Jones should go to witness a demonstration of President Roosevelt's Roose-velt's recommendation in his message, i. e., the self-supporting Indian. |