“In time the ‘benighted Indian’ will be spoken of in the past tense. The rich Indian in this locality is truly an object of pity. The weight of his fortune, the world of uncertainty, indecision and fear in which he lives, is pitiable indeed. If the Indian is sagacious at all, it has to be brought out by the slow process of education and this ‘drawing out’ process is worse than the ‘pouring in’. Eternal vigilance and a world of patience, all tempered with common sense and good judgment, are the tools with which to work against this grafting, and schools, schools. These institutions should be continued indefinitely. As an illustration to the fact that the Creek tribe is waking to the possibilities these schools afford—our capacity is 125 and I venture to say we could have enrolled 300. It was pitiful to turn them away, yet our files were closed early in August!”
“Those educated away from the reservation have too much done for them to make life a pleasure—they learn and see the easy side of life and the methods by which it can be obtained easily—but when they return home the picture is not so alluring, and when they find that they must depend upon themselves they also realize that they did not learn how to depend upon themselves, and they as a rule give up and go back to the old Indian life more or less, and in the majority of cases altogether.
“In my opinion Indian Agents should have full control of their Agencies and Indians in order to push their people to the front. Indians like men who can do things, but in so many cases the Agent must go to higher authority and this delay has a bad effect in most cases. The Agent should be strictly responsible to the Commissioner for his action—there should be frequent and searching inspections of his work and if it is found wanting, he should be removed.”
One correspondent living in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, writes at length concerning the immorality in Indian schools ten years ago. Happily, such things are not possible at the present time. A number of correspondents have referred to most distressing moral conditions (in past years) in certain schools. It is incomprehensible that such conditions should have been permitted to obtain. The effect on the children was exceedingly bad, as it is impossible to keep such things a secret, especially in communities where two or three hundred persons are assembled together. There are statistics available on this unpleasant subject, although I shall not refer to them. Suffice it to say that because immorality was not prevented in past years, we cannot expect a high moral tone among all Indians. Too many of them have profited to their own detriment, by the bad example set them.