Show OF new york city june friend fir lend bed beel with I 1 have just returned from a visit to the greatest indian collection and indian museum in the world the home of the na lonal tonal geographic so clety one cannot help but be im pressed with its massiveness both in structure and in contents its diab rat eness is beyond description and he arrangement of the material dis played cannot but command admira tion of the most critical As I 1 passed through from one dis play to another and there are ver itally thousands I 1 was compelled to reflect on how man responds to nis environment and ard while there were no written records yet I 1 could see that the american indian lived in environmental districts just as we are doing today there was the corn district the acorn a and berry district the meat districts which showed plainly the buffalo area the moose area the fish rea all with its re spec lve tive culture cultum and its respect ve impress upon the tribes who were reared under that influence it Is all so very interesting and en lightening is no written record and the specimens pec amens are all of the re presenta five types of local handicraft and I 1 was most profoundly prot prof impressed with the wonderful progress the various tribes had made before the white man introduced his white man main s var lous tons gods from it all I 1 could read ily fly read into their lives their conduct and their activities these were seemingly restricted to their necess aties war superstitions and lux uries urles more or ess intermingled the one with the other again so in lightening I 1 had but one regret that you could have been with me to see the wonderful exhibit you will no doubt recall that I 1 am extremely and possibly over zealously interested in the field ot of education and too while I 1 sense it la is truly a breace of good form tor for one to impose his personal views upon another et our former ac and mutual understand ing and established friendship will surely allow me to break this rule or formality tor malUy and so when hesitatingly leaving the me seum I 1 tried mentally to correlate what I 1 had so recently seen with the present day attitude of educators toward the work of history person ally I 1 discovered that I 1 had devel aped a greater admiration for the men and women mhd had contri contribute but ed their millions in this field to the collectors who had given their best life s effort in tle woi k to the dy pioneers who had sacrificed their lives and there are many scalps as evidence of t lis its mighty struggle and lastly to the noble braves who lost tl air AI AT L and who are now compelled by the ao so called intelli gent whites to continue to live with out even the slightest ray of hope foi an outlet of expression tor for their pent up inherent potentialities and this is history and we think we teach it properly in our schools may I 1 here express my embarrassment for the present status in this rep sect it seems that me make compulsory the memorization of john smith powatan pocahontas squanto and others who were writ ten about and immortalized by east ern writers by people who tor for some reason allow enthusiasm to be sub tor for accuracy and who seem to localize their hero worship I 1 ac dept your critic sin here but if it this method is correct then why not do likewise in the west and emphasis on local characters and try to establish and impress on future generations a reverence and sacred veneration tor for uch as tommy ca boon hoon Dlack blackhawk hawk bridger brigham young gunnison kanosh and such other characters who actually con statute a vital part of our present cv civilization and who staked the very land from which our present sustenance I 1 Is wrought 9 to me it seems that to date we have imposed an easter spirit on a western tion to all of which I 1 say amen most soulfully I 1 tor for one will try to get some local history shoved in wedged in somewhere and some how FB I 1 think I 1 have made myself clear and after giving the subject much thought I 1 feel it entirely becoming timely and te to pay my highest compliments to millard cou nty that she has the happy bombina tion ot of a local newspaper editor who is local minded and with energy and untiring efforts Is in a proper and fitting manner liying to direct other minds into the same channel tally bour our labor will be the making of a better american youth on west ern soil our work continues to go well at columbia university and mrs mor ns ris joins me in v ashing you cantin aed success in your splendid under takone j m p yours n A morr rs a |