The Social Elements of the Indian Problem

Abstract

The problem of wlhat to do with the native American Indians has been the cause of much effort and discussion for three centuries. The white race in its endeavor to take possession of the continent has experimented with three great plans of dealing with the aborigines and none of them has so far entirely succeeded. In the beginning there was an endeavor to occupy the land forcibly and by various means to exterminate its barbaric owners. These things could not be at once successfully done. With the establishment of the United States as a government another plan came into vogue. The idea of extermination persisted for a long time, to be sure, but there was enough sentiment to bring about a new coursethat of segregation. The Indian up to i850, let us say, refused to be exterminated, and his fight for life and territory has no parallel in history. Segregation, however, did more to exterminate the Indian than did bullets. Rigorously guarded reservations became a place of debasement. The noble red could not exist upon them. As wards, ruled over, guarded, fed, clothed, thought for, and done for, they lost much of their ancient spirit. With the Dawes act of I887 another experiment was launched. Its purpose was absorption. The Indian under certain restrictions was to be made a citizen. But how could men who believed themselves robbed and without a court of justice, who were confused, blind, and broken in spirit, become citizens? What could citizenship mean to them ? What manner of man is the reservation Indian today? One needs only to look to see that there has been a calamity. But who is responsible? one may ask. Every man who by neglect and indifference has permitted the soul of a race of men to sink beneath the evils of civilization into misery,