Show I TO TODAY DAY and TOMORROW by by hyI hy- hy I PARKER PARKERS R RI I S S T 1 O 0 C K R n It III I I n G B E INDIANS 0 friends friend 5 Near the church in my old home town in las l Massachusetts i ithe is s 5 the Indian burying Bound gound iV JA roughhewn rough rough- hewn obelisk bears a bronze plate plat e Inscribed to the friends of ot ou our r f Fathers Descendants of the first firs t white settlers placed lt it t there as a tribute to the tribe of th the e 1 Mohicans the Stockbridge This old New England town J Is celebrating Ung this tins month the I 1 anniversary of I its ts establishment a arthe as ar the fir t community in America c 10 LO LOgie 1 give gi Indians equal rights of or citizenship citizen ship with the tho English colonists Th The e first Board Doard of Selectmen o oE of Stockbridge Stockbridge Stock Stock- brid bridge e in 1739 consisted o of ot f two Indian chiefs an and d and one ono Englishman Ephraim Villi Williams ms ll B By 1 1779 9 the fa failure of the tho a attempt lo to impose European civilization on of i the Ithe Indians was apparent even eren to tho Indians They drifted westward d and the last remnants o of their tribe trib e now live in Wisconsin The settlors settlers prospered Ephraim Williams Will iams founded Williams College The Colonists paid the lie Indians for their land but the Indians dad did not under- under i stand the value or use itse of money Few r Few Indians know anything about handling g mone money today RELIGION 0 The Mohican Indians were wore hunters hunters hunters hunt hunt- ers who wore glad to trade th their Ir skins beaver for the rum which the LIla white mien men brought them My y wife's ancestor van burgh and my own ancestor Charles Stockbridge whose name the town bears did a thriving trade with the Indians for years year before earnest young missionaries from Yale College came up to Christianize Christian Christian- ize the people of the Housatonic Valle Valley r. r Many Indians professed conversion conversion conver conver- sion sian and were baptized into the church It now seems doubtful that they ever grasped or accepted the rigid doctrines of or Puritan New Nev England It is certain that they were unruly under the harsh discipline e of of rile trIe lie Church John Joan To m Sergeant the devoted young minister d dried died ed after ten years of disheartening disheartening disheartening dis dis- heartening efforts to wean the tho Mohicans Mo Mo- Mohicans s awa away from their pagan practices practices practices tices and their thair fondness for the traders' traders rum ruin Religion to the missionaries meant conformity in outward appearances appearances appearances ap ap- to the standards of the I I teachers of as much as it meant meant spiritual regeneration The Theor Indians of or Stockbridge pi preferred to livo live in wigwams instead of oC houses and to go unclothed in Summer J CIVILIZATION 0 0 tolerance I To me there seems to be he a tl parallel parallel paral paral- lel h between the failure of his first t organized effort in America to Sze lize the Indians and the efforts of powerful nations to conquer or absorb absorb absorb ab ab- weaker nations composed or of people of oC a l different race and 1 tion than The roots roofs of all the present warlike manifestations throughout through ut Hie tio world lie He I believe in the assertion asser- asser I tion lion of superiority of one race over ovel Lothers I and the attempt t to make I the so-called so inferior race conform to to standards of the other I We Ve have learned a lesson in u America i We Ve no longer try to make Indians live like white men or adopt the white while mens men's religion and cus- cus toms So long as they do not behave behave be- be have contrary to the universal code f pf C morals which is essentially letI letting let- let I ting tang other peoples people's lives property nand and customs alone the tho American I Indians today are not only permitted permit permit- permit permit-j I ted but encouraged to maintain maintain their ancient tribal customs and beliefs I think they thoy are much more civilized on the whole than some j of the peoples of Europe EUrope or or their rulers I I |