Chapter 2

We have, it is true, a cumbrous system of machinery which is supposed to educate and civilize the Indian, called the Indian Bureau. Some men have studied it for years, and they fail yet to comprehend it. I believe it is incomprehensible. I believe it was never intended to be understood. Some men ask what it does. It does little, and largely shows how _not_ to do; and any effort to Christianize and elevate the Indians, so long as the present system remains, will be a failure. Now, when our philanthropists are endeavoring to lift them up, when our legislators are taking favorable action, this Indian Bureau, through its Assistant Commissioner, issues an order which says that the English language must be the only language taught or _spoken_ in the mission-schools. The only language the Indian knows is forbidden. Suppose we were to try to learn a foreign language in that way? Suppose a Frenchman should come to teach us French, and neither of us spoke a word of English--how rapid would our progress be?

Thirty barrels of whiskey and one thousand scalping knives were issued not many years ago as civilizing agencies by this department. An instance given us last night by our friend from across the water, shows that the English circumlocution office is a greyhound compared with our Indian office. I remember a similar story that Bright Eyes told in Boston some years ago.

She was then a teacher in an Indian school. She had little children in her school that came some seven, eight, or ten miles barefooted, and winter was coming on, and her heart sympathized with these poor children who came so far to be taught. They happened to have a good agent, and he said, "Send an order for shoes for these children;" and she sent an order, with a request that they send the shoes, as they were really needed, on account of the frost and snow. The order went to Washington, went through the regular routine, and the next spring, after winter had passed, a case of shoes came for these little Indian children. When it was opened, she found it full of brogans, that had been made for the Southern negro in the rice-fields; and every shoe in that case was so large that there was not an adult Indian on the reservation that could wear it. That is how the Indian Bureau provides for the little Indian children when there is a case of special necessity. (Laughter.)

I could mention numerous illustrations showing that it is impossible to do any work that is required immediately, through this Indian Bureau. If people are starving, you cannot get food for them until they die.

Now, what is the remedy? I believe that Christianity is the only remedy--the only solution of the Indian question. Where they have had good Christian agents--and they have had some--where they have missionaries, the Indian has made wonderful progress. I think we can point to a few civilized and Christianized communities among the Indians that can find no parallel among the whites of the country. There is less crime, less immorality, more faithfulness to the requirements of the Christian religion and better observance of the Sabbath, more sincerity and earnestness in the performance of every Christian duty, than we can find in the same number of whites anywhere. At Metlakatla, as told by Mr. Duncan, the Indians now form a community of twelve hundred people, who have their churches, their stores, their town-halls. They live in houses, like other people; they appear like civilized people; they carry on all the vocations of civilized life; and all this has been done by the work of one man. There is no liquor-drinking or liquor-selling there. A majority of this twelve hundred people are earnest, faithful, consistent Christians. They get no help from the Government. They have built up and support their churches. Where can you see anything among the whites that equals it?

Then there is another reason why we should go to them with the gospel of Christ. It is a good thing to engage in works of charity and benevolence, but before we do this we should pay our debts. We owe so much to the Indians of this country, that I think before we go anywhere else we should do something to atone for the years of wrong, for the centuries of injury, that they have suffered at our hands. We have taken their homes from them. We have driven them from reservation to reservation. We have taken their crops when almost ready to reap. We have removed them into climates where they have died by hundreds. We have not listened to their cries. We have on various trumped-up charges frequently slaughtered these people, and treated them in the most cruel manner. There is no question that I know of that so holds a man, once interested, and so grows upon him, as this Indian question.

I was first interested in this subject about ten years ago in the city of Boston, where Bright Eyes, Mr. Tibbles, and old Standing Bear came to tell of the wrongs of the Poncas. They were to hold a public meeting. Wendell Phillips was to speak. I went to that meeting more with a desire to hear Phillips than from any interest in the Indian. At that time all I knew about him was what I had learned from the current literature and romance, and my idea was very far from correct. At that meeting a state of affairs was shown to exist that seemed astounding and impossible. A committee was appointed to investigate these statements. They found that the half had not been told. That committee started measures that rectified these wrongs done to the Poncas. It commenced suit under the Fourteenth Amendment to see whether the Indians were citizens. The Judges of the Supreme Court decided that the Indian was not a person under the law. Then it tried other channels; to get legislation that would help the Indian. Senator Dawes soon became interested in this question, and from that time to the present he has been interested; and how much the Indian owes to the legislation which has been started and carried forward by Senator Dawes, but very few people know; but it must be followed by other legislation before the Indian is safe.

In Boston, Mrs. H.H. Jackson listened to the statement of Bright Eyes in regard to the wrongs suffered by her people. She came to her and said, "It is not possible that these things can be true." Bright Eyes showed her the official documents; she convinced her that it was true. From that hour that woman's whole soul was in the work. She afterwards wrote "A Century of Dishonor," and "Ramona," which has preached for the Indians, and will continue to do so. She gave her life finally for the Indians, the sickness that caused her death being brought on while engaged in work for them. This work gets hold of a man, if he has any blood in his veins and sympathy in his heart, and makes him feel, if he would stand without condemnation before God in the last day, that he must do something to redeem his country from dishonor, and deliver this people from worse than slavery.

Suppose we do not do it. Suppose we allow the Government to care for them. The Dawes Bill gives them citizenship, but what does the Indian get? One hundred and sixty acres of land--and he as naked as a babe on that land. He has had no training in education and systematic work of any kind; he has no tools--and if he had he would not know how to use them. He is in the midst of white enemies, who want his land. He has turned his back upon all the traditions of his ancestors. He has turned his face toward the whites, and his friends of the past are now his enemies. He is in the midst of his reservation. His homestead is his own, yet no American citizen has a right there. If you and I go to teach him, we can be ordered off by the agent; and if we do not go he can put us in prison.

If we do not give protection and Christianity to them, there is no hope for these Indians. Their fate will be the same as Indians on the reservation in the State of New York, who have been for one hundred years in the midst of our best civilization, but are still lazy and shiftless, their reservation being permeated through and through with unmentionable vices. They have no interest in the civilization of the present. They are living in the past, dreaming over the glory of their ancestors. They cannot be reached through civilization without religion. To an Indian there is nothing secular. Everything pertains to his religion. When he goes on a hunt, if he has no success, it is because the gods are opposed to him; and if he is successful, the gods were in it. When we go to an Indian and seek to change him, we must first change his gods. We must Christianize him if we would civilize him. There is where many of our experiments have been wrong.

Is it not laid upon us, who know something of this work, to do this? I believe if we will not do it, that in the last great day, as we stand with the Indian before the judgment bar of God, our position will be worse than that of the Indian. It seems to me that I can hear what the Judge would say to him at that time. The Indian comes before God, a pagan from a Christian land; he comes having improved none of the powers that God gave him. The Lord might say to him: "Did I not give you as good opportunities and as good capacities as the white man in whose midst you were? This Christian nation is the foremost for missions. It has sent to all the lands of the earth, and yet here you come a pagan, not knowing God, uncivilized, a barbarian." Might not this Indian say: "I was in prison. I was surrounded by a reservation around whose outside lines were the soldiers of the United States, and I would be shot if I went off this reservation. I had no business with which to support myself; I had no chance for trade or commerce; I had to buy of and sell to one man. What opportunity had I? When an occasional missionary came to me with the gospel of Christ, I looked upon this man as one of my enemies--a man from the nation that had robbed me of my opportunities; and, my Father, why should I listen to him, especially when he spoke in a strange language? Am I to blame that I come here empty? Am I to blame that I must go away?" I believe the Lord would turn to us and say, "Inasmuch as ye have not done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have not done it unto Me." And, speaking for myself alone, I would rather at that last day be in the place of that darkened Indian---savage, barbarian, pagan, as he is--than in the place of the Christian that knew of his need and would not help him.

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THE CHINESE.

DOES RESTRICTION RESTRICT?

As a son of Maine, I am one of those who believe that prohibition _can_ prohibit, and will do so effectively, if you will give it a fair chance, but I doubt whether restriction restricts, and have expressed that doubt in these columns more than once already. But we have been favored with fresh lessons on this subject, in its application to Chinese immigration. Chinese women are held in our San Francisco market, at prices ranging from nothing up to about $2,000. The soul, being that of a woman, has no value at any time, but the body, till worn out, is held at a fair percentage of its weight in gold.

Such being the demand, a supply became assured. No artificial barriers could exclude them. There would soon come to be some "Open Sesame" which no bolts could resist. As a matter of fact these women have been landed in numbers so great, and with an effrontery so flagrant, that even the Chinese Consulate now takes the matter up and puts to shame the appointed executors of American law. As to persons of the male sex, they come by various routes: some with certificates sent out to Hong Kong by our own officials to be sold there and vise├ęd by themselves on this side the sea; some come with strange stories of previous residence--stories confirmed by their vivid recollection of deep _snow_ on Clay Street, and of _Chinese_ conductors on our street-cars: some come smuggled from British Columbia, across Puget Sound, and others cross the invisible line between Canadian soil and that of our own _free_ land with none to say them nay. Meanwhile some of our recent officials who have grown rich with strange rapidity, or have spent money with lavish generosity, are under arrest, and sensational developments are the daily promise of "live newspapers" in San Francisco.

What shall be done? Some of these papers (however incredulous they may be about prohibition prohibiting) are disposed to try it upon Chinese immigration. Nothing else, they tell us, can deliver us from a perpetual invasion by these Asiatic hordes. But, so far as I have seen, no ringing or enthusiastic response has greeted this suggestion. So long as it lives only in newspaper paragraphs, and no serious danger appears of its being put into effect, few men will have courage, or zeal and forwardness enough to contend with it, but let it be taken up in earnest, and pressed to actual enactment, and it would soon go the fit and ignoble way that the _boycott_ has travelled. There are multitudes who do not object to cursing the Chinaman, but who don't mean to lose the double eagles which Chinese labor, and that alone, enables them to put to credit on their bank account.

It seems to me, however, well worth questioning whether a law that after six years of trial has been found to be fruitful in little except perjuries and briberies,--a law which cannot be shown to have benefited a single American laborer, but has had some effect to compel house-holders to pay larger wages to Chinese domestics, and to enable Chinese fruit-pickers to make better terms with our fruit-growers:--it seems to me a question whether a statute of that sort might not be suffered to expire through its own limitations, without any damage to the Commonwealth.

Whatever the fate of this law may be, it is sufficiently evident that our gospel work need not be stayed for lack of souls to work upon, till China herself and all her broad domain, becomes the Lord's.

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YONG JIN AT SACRAMENTO.

I reserve a little space in order to give our readers a little sample of this gospel work as it appears in a letter from our helper, Yong Jin. He has recently returned from China where he did good service under Rev. Mr. Hazen, and he has resumed service with us. "I will tell you what I had to do with the brethren. Monday night after the school is out [i.e. 9:30] we have the Bible lesson of Chinese, and Tuesday night too. Wednesday night we have a prayer-meeting after school is out. Thursday night we have ten or fifteen minutes to speak the gospel before the school is out. Friday night we have a Bible lesson in Chinese too. Saturday night we have a prayer meeting again. Sunday night all the same. But last Sunday noon I preach on the street where the Chinese live. Perhaps I will preach in the street nest Sunday. By and by, if I do not preach on the street, I shall preach in the mission-house on Sunday noon. I shall do as best I can, and I hope God will help us to do."

I will add that we are hoping to commence special evangelistic work early in December. Loo Quong will go to our missions in Southern California, and Chin Toy to those north of us, beginning in Stockton, where the door seems to be opening wide, and an earnest spirit among the brethren gives promise of good results. I wish these brethren might be remembered by our Eastern brethren with special prayer.

WM. C. POND

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BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.

MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS.

CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

ME.---Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.

VT.--Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. Henry Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

CONN.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.

MICH.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Mary B. Warren, Lansing, Mich.

WIS.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead, Wis.

MINN.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. H.L. Chase, 2,760 Second Ave., South, Minneapolis, Minn.

N.Y.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.C. Creegan, Syracuse, N.Y.

OHIO.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin, Ohio.

ILL.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago, Ill.

IOWA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Miss Ella B. Marsa, Grinnell, Iowa.

KANSAS.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. Addison Blanchard, Topeka, Kan.

SOUTH DAKOTA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. W.E. Thrall, Amour, Dak.

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FOUNDATION LAYING AND HOME BUILDING IN THE SOUTH.

BY MISS JOSEPHINE KELLOGG.

The estimation in which "woman's work for woman" is held by our more thoughtful colored students, will be shown by some extracts from an address by a graduate of Tougaloo University in Mississippi.

The effect of very unhappy experiences in early youth upon an exceedingly sensitive temperament, was to make this son of a white father and black mother cherish a feeling of intense hatred toward all white people as he was growing up; but being led, in the good providence of God, to a Christian training-school where he heard of One who suffered every indignity, and when dying in torture and ignominy prayed, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do," new thoughts and feelings came to him.

He thought there might be cruel men in the world now who know not what they do. He was led to bow in penitence and submission at the feet of Jesus. It is now his chief joy that since he entered upon the path of learning, he has, as a teacher, given several thousand children a start in the same path.

The little old chapel at Tougaloo having burned down in January, 1882, he graduated in the spring of that year, from our elementary normal course, in the new barn, Ayrshire Hall. He has since passed through our higher normal and college preparatory course, and is pursuing further studies in another institution, in the intervals teaching, and going from place to place with the great desire in his heart of bringing about a better condition of feeling and living, among the people of the State.

I quote from his printed speech: "We read of a time when 'a nation shall be born in a day.' We have seen it come to pass, and this people is a babe yet. 'Is not the babe a blessing in the house? Its very helplessness is a blessing, in that it educates the finest sensibilities of humanity.' The problem to be solved now is how to nurse this babe aright. The thoughtful observer will be easily convinced that the careful and proper education of girls is the first step in the solution of this problem.

"The education of girls is of the most vital importance for the uplifting of the colored people of the South. Yes, I venture to say that _the whole South_ will depend upon their condition for its prosperity. True progress depends upon the sacredness and sanctity of the home. That a people or a nation may be happy or prosperous it must have enlightened and intelligent homes, and for this purpose the girls must be educated in virtue, industry and self-reliance.

"The colored woman in all conditions and under almost all circumstances is abused by all races and classes. There are individuals who love and respect her, but no one fears to _insult_ her as they fear to insult other women. Let her turn wheresoever she may, she is met by all sorts of evil influences of a character too indecorous to think about, and I fear that I should never be forgiven if I should name them, yet we are compelled to look upon them everywhere we go. Now a reform must begin in the treatment of women, and it must be commenced by paying more attention to the education of girls. Only wise mothers can train champions for great causes like this. Therefore let our voices and our influence be given to the work of elevating the women who have the care of making and preserving society."

Thus it has come about that a larger and larger proportion of girls come to our schools, and it has seemed much better that they should be educated _with_ their brothers than _apart_ from them, for a great and grievous lack among the colored people, is a pure, safe and wholesome social life for the young people, and with all the other labors laid upon these "universe--ities" is that of fostering such a social life and, as far as may be, setting forth the pattern for it. Permit me to introduce you to one of these schools which is in many of its features doubtless like all the rest.

Tougaloo University is one of the six chartered institutions maintained by the American Missionary Association with some aid from the State in which it is located. It is but a few miles from the capital of the great but undeveloped agricultural State of Mississippi, a State in which the largest town had, at the last census, less than twelve thousand inhabitants. This is very far south, in "the great black belt," where the plantations are large, and upon the country roads you will constantly see ten or more colored faces to one white one. It contained at the last census, above two hundred thousand more colored people than at Emancipation, and above one hundred and seventy thousand more colored than white. Do you not see how rapidly Christian education and training must go forward to keep pace with such facts as these?

Stepping off the afternoon train down the Chicago and New Orleans railway at the little station of Tougaloo, we look up through a pleasant vista about three-quarters of a mile and see the Mansion, Ballard Hall, Ladies' Hall, and Strieby Hall, the latter a brick house three stories high above the basement, dedicated Thanksgiving Day of 1881 in the presence of the venerable secretary for whom it was named. The work on this building was done by colored mechanics, students of the school making the brick and the stone, a sort of concrete for the trimmings.

Strieby Hall has accommodations for nearly a hundred young men, besides a teacher's family or two. It is kept in scrupulous neatness by the young men under their matron's eye. She teaches them to nurse one another in sickness; she also instructs them in the care of their clothing and requires them to mend when the weekly wash comes in. One young man became so proud of his skill in this line that he wanted to put his darned old socks--old darned socks would sound better, perhaps--into our industrial exhibit for the New Orleans Exposition, among the chains and wheels from the blacksmith and wagon shops, the brackets, step-ladders, etc., from the carpenter shop, the cups and coffee-pots from the tinshop, and the girls' plain sewing and fancy-work.

There are regular apprentices to all the trades named, and all the boys of certain grades have lessons, one hour daily, in the several shops, to get the use of tools and simple work; there is also a course of industrial drawing running through the school grades for boys and girls alike.

The school is upon a plantation of five hundred acres, worked by the young men under the direction of the farm superintendent, a graduate of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, who gives them "talks," as he terms his lectures, upon practical themes pertaining to general farming, fruit-growing, and the care of stock.