INDIAN NEEDED TO BALANCE CIVILIZATION

The following editorial is credited to an undated issue of the Dubuque Herald and was reprinted in the source listed below. It is included as an example of the racism that has been present in American society.

Indian Needed to Balance Civilization

The chief law officer of the Indian Office at Washington says that of 300,000 Indians in the United States less than 50,000 are self-supporting and that the states soon will have to help the national government carry the load.

Some few tribes of Indians are industrious agriculturalists, weavers and silversmiths. They are, however, the exceptions. Nor is this is the least surprising. The Indian never was trained in habits of industry, and the means by which he formerly sustained himself withdrawn he is left dependent upon the support of government. More than a single generation or two will be required to train the race accustomed to live upon nature's wild bounty, to punch a time clock regularly and respond to the factory whistle promptly. There is something in the blood that calls them to the bank of the creek when the fish are biting, to the woods when the wild fruits are ripe and when the game is plentiful, and which stretches them out in rest in the languorous days of summer. It's a poor nation that can't afford some gentlemen, and while the Indian is not the choicest dinner guest, he is a gentleman withal in that he lives like one in refusing to work when he lacks the inclination and adopts his mode of life to the seasons. It is well to keep the Indian to remind the busy worker of what he is aspiring to do on that day when his ship comes in-go fishing when he wants to, hunting when the mood moves him, and trudge through the woods afoot when the wanderlust possesses him—Dubuque, Iowa, Herald

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Source:

The Indian School Journal—About Indians (February 1913) Department of the Interior Office of Indian Affairs