This Conference is unique in its character, and in the place where it
is held. Lake Mohonk was born in a great earthquake that sunk it in
its solid rocky bed, and piled up around it wonderful ranges of hills
and vast splintered rocks. The splendid summer resort built on the
margin of the Lake is the work of Mr. A.K. Smiley, a man of creative
genius, and of kind manners and a warm heart. The house, or rather the
range of houses, is picturesque, and the walks among the hills and
down the rocky gorges, and the forty miles of excellent roads, give
the widest scope for walking and driving.
The Conference is the invention of Mr. Smiley. To it, he invites
annually a hundred or more guests, giving them the freedom of the
house; and three days are spent in the discussion of Indian affairs,
interspersed with afternoon drives amid the striking scenery. The
invitation is extended to those who are supposed to be intelligently
interested in the Indians; but within that limit there is the freest
range--men and women of all political parties and of all religious
denominations being included. The acts of the Conference, like the
utterances of a Congregational Council, have only the authority of the
reason that is in them; yet it is wonderful what an influence this
peculiar body has had on public sentiment. Its utterances have been
discussed and have had their weight in the pulpit, the press, in
Congress and in the White House. The Indian and the Nation owe much to
the Mohonk Conference.
The Sixth Annual Conference, which closed September 28th, sustained
the interest of past years in the importance of the topics discussed,
in the divergency of opinion at first, and in the complete harmony at
the end. The points agreed upon in the platform were arranged under
five heads. The first relates to the establishment of Courts of
Justice in the Reservations and accessible to the Indians; the second
to the important need of education, demanding that the Government
shall undertake at once the entire task of providing primary and
secular education for all Indian children; the third urges that this
education shall be compulsory, under proper limitations; the fourth
emphasizes the duty of the churches to furnish religious instruction
to the Indians, and the immunity of their work from all governmental
interference where sustained wholly by missionary funds; the fifth
approves of the co-operation of the Government with the missionary
societies in contract schools during the present transitional
condition of the Indians. We append the last two items of the report.
4. In view of the great work which the Christian Churches have
done in the past in inaugurating and maintaining schools
among the Indians, and of the essential importance of
religious as distinguished from secular education, for
their civil, political and moral well-being, an element
of education which, in the nature of the case, the
National Government cannot afford, the churches should be
allowed the largest liberty, not, indeed, to take away
the responsibility from the Government in its legitimate
sphere of educational work, but to supplement it to the
fullest extent in their power, by such schools, whether
primary, normal or theological, as are at the sole cost
of the benevolent or missionary societies. And it is the
deliberate judgment of this Conference that in the crisis
of the Indian transitional movement the churches should
arouse themselves to the magnitude and emergency of the
duty thus laid upon them in the providence of God.
5. Nothing should be done to impair or weaken the agencies
at present engaged in the work of Indian education. Every
such agency should be encouraged and promoted, except as
other and better agencies are provided for the work. In
particular, owing to the anomalous condition of the
Indians and the fact that the Government is administering
trust funds that belong to them, what is known as the
"contract system"--by which the nation aids by
appropriations private and missionary societies in the
work of Indian education--ought to be maintained by a
continuance of such aid, until the Government is
prepared, with adequate buildings and competent
teachers, to assume the entire work of secular
education. In no case should the Government establish
schools to compete with private or church schools which
are already doing a good work, so long as there are
thousands of Indian children for whose education no
provision is made.