The Indians are in our midst. Different solutions of the problem have
been proposed. It is evident that we must either kill them, move them
away, or let them remain with us. The civilization and Christianity of
the United States, with all that is uncivilized and un-Christian, is not
yet ready to kill them. One writer has proposed to move them to some
good country which Americans do not want, and leave it to them. We have
been trying to find such a place for a century--have moved the Indians
from one reservation to another and from one State or Territory to
another; but have failed to find the desired haven of rest for them. It
is more difficult to find it now than it ever has been, as Americans
have settled in every part of the United States and built towns,
railroads, and telegraph-lines all over the country. Hence no such place
has been found, and it never will be.
Therefore the Indians are with us to remain. They are to be our
neighbors. The remaining question is, Shall they be good or bad ones?
If we are willing that they shall be bad, all that is necessary is for
good people to neglect them; for were there no evil influences connected
with civilization(!), they would not rise from their degradation,
ignorance, and wickedness without help. When, however, we add to their
native heathenism all the vices of intemperance, immorality, hate, and
the like, which wicked men naturally carry to them, they will easily and
quickly become very bad neighbors. Weeds will grow where nothing is
cultivated.
If we wish them to become good neighbors, something must be done. Good
seeds must be sown, watched, cultivated. People may call them savage,
ignorant, treacherous, superstitious, and the like. I will not deny it.
In the language of a popular writer of the day: “The remedy for
ignorance is education;” likewise for heathenism, superstition, and
treachery, it is the gospel. White people can not _keep_ the
civilization which they already have without the school and the church;
and Indians are not so much abler and better that they can be raised to
become good neighbors without the same.
Impressed with this belief, the writer has been engaged for the past ten
years in missionary work with a few of them in the region of Skokomish,
and here presents a record of some of the experiences. In the account he
has recorded failures as well as successes. In his earlier ministry,
both among whites and Indians, he read the accounts of other similar
workers, who often recorded only their success. It was good in its
place, for something was learned of the causes of the success. But too
much of this was discouraging. He was not always successful and
sometimes wondered if these writers were ever disappointed as much as he
was. Sometimes when he read the record of a failure it did him more good
than a record of a success. He took courage because he felt that he was
not the only one who sometimes failed. The Bible records failures as
well as successes.