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THE INDIAN TO-DAY
THE AMERICAN BOOKS
A LIBRARY OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP
"The American Books" are designed as a series of authoritative manuals,
discussing problems of interest in America to-day.
THE AMERICAN BOOKS
THE AMERICAN COLLEGE BY ISAAC SHARPLESS
THE INDIAN TO-DAY BY CHARLES A. EASTMAN
COST OF LIVING BY FABIAN FRANKLIN
THE AMERICAN NAVY BY REAR-ADMIRAL FRENCH
E. CHADWICK, U.S.N.
MUNICIPAL FREEDOM BY OSWALD RYAN
AMERICAN LITERATURE BY LEON KELLNER
(TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY JULIA FRANKLIN)
SOCIALISM IN AMERICA BY JOHN MACY
AMERICAN IDEALS BY CLAYTON S. COOPER
THE UNIVERSITY MOVEMENT BY IRA REMSEN
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL BY WALTER S. HINCHMAN
(_For more extended notice of the series, see the last pages
of this book._)
_The American Books_
The Indian To-day
The Past and Future of
the First American
BY
CHARLES A. EASTMAN (OHIYESA)
_Author of
"Old Indian Days," "Indian Boyhood," etc._
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1915
_Copyright, 1915, by_
Doubleday, Page & Company
_All rights reserved, including that of
translation into foreign languages,
including the Scandinavian_
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The author of this book was born in a teepee of buffalo hide near
Redwood Falls, Minn., during the winter of 1858. His father was a
full-blooded Sioux called "Many Lightnings," (Tawakanhdeota). His
mother, the granddaughter of Chief "Cloud Man" of the Sioux and daughter
of a well-known army officer, died shortly after his birth. He was named
Ohiyesa (The Winner).
The baby was reared to boyhood by the care of his grandmother. When he
was four years old, the so-called "Minnesota massacre" of 1862 separated
him from his father and elder brothers and only sister, and drove him
with a remnant of the eastern Sioux into exile in Manitoba. There for
over ten years he lived the original nomadic life of his people in the
family of an uncle, from whom he received the Spartan training of an
Indian youth of that day. The knowledge thus gained of life's realities
and the secrets of nature, as well as of the idealistic philosophy of
the Indian, he has always regarded as a most valuable part of his
education.
When Ohiyesa had reached the age of fifteen years, and had been
presented with a flint-lock musket in token of his arrival at the estate
of young manhood, he was astonished by the reappearance of the father
whose supposed death at the hands of white men he had been taught that
he must some day avenge. He learned that this father had adopted the
religion and customs of the hated race, and was come to take home his
youngest son.
Ohiyesa's new home was a pioneer log cabin on a farm at Flandreau,
Dakota Territory, where a small group of progressive Indians had taken
up homesteads like white men and were earning an independent livelihood.
His long hair was cropped, he was put into a suit of citizen's clothing
and sent off to a mission day school. At first reluctant, he soon became
interested, and two years later voluntarily walked 150 miles to attend a
larger and better school at Santee, Neb., where he made rapid progress
under the veteran missionary educator, Dr. Alfred L. Riggs, and was soon
advanced to the preparatory department of Beloit College, Wisconsin. His
father had adopted his wife's English name of Eastman, and the boy
named himself Charles Alexander.
After two years at Beloit, young Eastman went on to Knox College, Ill.;
then east to Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire, and to Dartmouth
College, where Indians had found a special welcome since colonial days.
He was graduated from Dartmouth in 1887, and went immediately to Boston
University, where he took the medical course, and was graduated in 1890
as orator of his class. The entire time spent in primary, preparatory,
college, and professional education, including the mastery of the
English language, was seventeen years, or about two years less than is
required by the average white youth.
Doctor Eastman went directly to the large Pine Ridge reservation in
South Dakota as Government physician; and during the "Ghost dance"
troubles of 1890-91 he was in charge of the wounded Indian prisoners in
their emergency hospital. In 1891 he married Miss Elaine Goodale of
Berkshire County, Mass.; and in 1893 went to St. Paul, Minn., with his
wife and child. While engaged there in the practice of medicine he was
approached by a representative of the International Committee of the
Y. M. C. A., and served for three years as their field secretary in the
United States and Canada.
In 1897 Dr. Eastman went to Washington as attorney for his tribe, to
push their interests at the national capital, and from 1899 to 1902 he
served again as a Government physician to the Sioux. Beginning in 1903,
he spent about seven years giving permanent family names to the Sioux,
and thus helping to establish the legal descent of their property, under
the direction of the Indian Bureau.
His first book, "Indian Boyhood," was published in 1902. It is the story
of his own early life in the wilds of Canada, and was the outgrowth of
several sketches which appeared in _St. Nicholas_ a few years earlier.
Since that time he has written "Red Hunters and the Animal People"
(1904), "Old Indian Days" (1906), "Wigwam Evenings" (1909), "The Soul of
the Indian" (1911), and "Indian Scout Talks" (1914). All have been
successful, and some have been brought out in school editions, and
translated into French, German, Danish, and Bohemian. He has also
contributed numerous articles to magazines, reviews, and encyclopedias.
In connection with his writings he has been in steady demand as a
lecturer and public speaker for the past twelve years, and has recently
devoted his entire time to literary work and lecturing, with the purpose
of interpreting his race to the present age.
When the first Universal Races Congress was held in the city of London
in 1911, Dr. Eastman was chosen to represent the American Indian at that
historic gathering. He is generally recognized as the foremost man of
his race to-day, and as an authority on the history, customs, and
traditions of the native Americans.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE INDIAN AS HE WAS 3
II. THE HOW AND THE WHY OF INDIAN WARS 19
III. THE AGENCY SYSTEM: ITS USES AND ABUSES 34
IV. THE NEW INDIAN POLICY 49
V. THE INDIAN IN SCHOOL 64
VI. THE INDIAN AT HOME 81
VII. THE INDIAN AS A CITIZEN 95
VIII. THE INDIAN IN COLLEGE AND THE PROFESSIONS 115
IX. THE INDIAN'S HEALTH PROBLEM 135
X. NATIVE ARTS AND INDUSTRIES 148
XI. THE INDIAN'S GIFTS TO THE NATION 164
BIBLIOGRAPHY 179
TABLE OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS 183
THE INDIAN TO-DAY
CHAPTER I
THE INDIAN AS HE WAS
It is the aim of this book to set forth the present status and outlook
of the North American Indian. In one sense his is a "vanishing race." In
another and an equally true sense it is a thoroughly progressive one,
increasing in numbers and vitality, and awakening to the demands of a
new life. It is time to ask: What is his national asset? What position
does he fill in the body politic? What does he contribute, if anything,
to the essential resources of the American nation?
In order to answer these questions, we ought, first, to consider fairly
his native environment, temperament, training, and ability in his own
lines, before he resigned himself to the inevitable and made up his mind
to enter fully into membership in this great and composite nation. If we
can see him as he was, we shall be the better able to see him as he is,
and by the worth of his native excellence measure his contribution to
the common stock.
In the first place, he is free born, hence a free thinker. His
government is a pure democracy, based solidly upon intrinsic right and
justice, which governs, in his conception, the play of life. I use the
word "play" rather than a more pretentious term, as better expressing
the trend of his philosophy. He stands naked and upright, both literally
and symbolically, before his "Great Mystery." When he fails in obedience
either to natural law (which is supreme law), or to the simple code of
his brother man, he will not excuse himself upon a technicality or lie
to save his miserable body. He comes to trial and punishment, even to
death, if need be, unattended, and as cheerfully as to a council or
feast.
As a free man himself, he allows others the same freedom. With him the
spiritual life is paramount, and all material things are only means to
the end of its ultimate perfection. Daily he meets the "Great Mystery"
at morning and evening from the highest hilltop in the region of his
home. His attitude toward Deity is simple and childlike.
Social life is kept as simple as possible, freedom of action only
curbed by reverence for Those Above, and respect for the purity and
perfection of his own body and those of his fellow-creatures. Only such
laws are made as have been found necessary to guard personal and tribal
purity and honor. The women do not associate freely with men outside of
the family, and even within it strict decorum is observed between grown
brothers and sisters. Birth and marriage are guarded with a peculiar
sacredness as mysterious events. Strenuous out-of-door life and the
discipline of war subdue the physical appetites of the men, and
self-control is regarded as a religious duty. Among the Sioux it was
originally held that children should not be born into a family oftener
than once in three years, and no woman was expected to bear more than
five children, for whom both masculine and feminine names were provided
to indicate the order of their birth.
The Indian, in his simple philosophy, was careful to avoid a centralized
population, wherein lies civilization's devil. He would not be forced to
accept materialism as the basic principle of his life, but preferred to
reduce existence to its simplest terms. His roving out-of-door life was
more precarious, no doubt, than life reduced to a system, a mechanical
routine; yet in his view it was and is infinitely happier. To be sure,
this philosophy of his had its disadvantages and obvious defects, yet it
was reasonably consistent with itself, which is more than can be said
for our modern civilization. He knew that virtue is essential to the
maintenance of physical excellence, and that strength, in the sense of
endurance and vitality, underlies all genuine beauty. He was as a rule
prepared to volunteer his services at any time in behalf of his fellows,
at any cost of inconvenience and real hardship, and thus to grow in
personality and soul-culture. Generous to the last mouthful of food,
fearless of hunger, suffering, and death, he was surely something of a
hero. Not "to have," but "to be," was his national motto.
As parents are responsible for the conduct of their children, so was the
Indian clan responsible for the behavior of its members, both among
themselves and in relation to other clans. This simple family government
extended throughout the bands, tribes, and nations. There was no
"politics" and no money in it for any one. The conscience was never at
war with the mind, and no undue advantage was sought by any individual.
Justice must be impartial; hence if the accused alone knew the facts,
it was a common thing for him to surrender himself.
INTERTRIBAL WARFARE
As regards the original Indian warfare, it was founded upon the
principle of manly rivalry in patriotism, bravery, and self-sacrifice.
The willingness to risk life for the welfare or honor of the people was
the highest test of character. In order that the reputations thus gained
might be preserved as an example to the young, a system of decorations
was evolved, including the symbolic wearing of certain feathers and
skins, especially eagle feathers, and the conferring of "honor names"
for special exploits. These distinctions could not be gained unjustly or
by favoritism, as is often the case with rank and honors among civilized
men, since the deeds claimed must be proved by witnesses before the
grand council of war chiefs. If one strikes an enemy in battle, whether
he kills him or not, he must announce the fact in a loud voice, so that
it may be noted and remembered. The danger and difficulty is regarded
above the amount of damage inflicted upon the enemy, and a man may wear
the eagle plumes who has never taken a life.
It is easily seen that these intertribal contests were not based upon
the same motives nor waged for the same objects as the wars of
civilization--namely, for spoil and territorial aggrandizement. There
was no mass play; army was not pitted against army; individual valor was
held in highest regard. It was not usual to take captives, except
occasionally of women and children, who were adopted into the tribe and
treated with kindness. There was no traffic in the labor or flesh of
prisoners. Such warfare, in fact, was scarcely more than a series of
duels or irregular skirmishes, engaged in by individuals and small
groups, and in many cases was but little rougher than a game of
university football. Some were killed because they were caught, or
proved weaker and less athletic than their opponents. It was one way of
disciplining a man and working off the superfluous energy that might
otherwise lead to domestic quarrels. If he met his equal or superior and
was slain, fighting bravely to the end, his friends might weep honorable
tears.
The only atrocity of this early warfare was the taking of a small scalp
lock by the leader, as a semi-religious trophy of the event; and as long
as it was preserved, the Sioux warriors wore mourning for their dead
enemy. Not all the tribes took scalps. It was only after the bounties
offered by the colonial governments, notably in Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania, for scalps of women and children as well as men, that the
practice became general, and led to further mutilations, often
stigmatized as "Indian," though in reality they have been practised by
so-called civilized nations down to a recent period. That one should do
murder for pay is not an Indian idea but one imposed upon the race by
white barbarians.
It was a custom of the Plains Indians to hold peaceful meetings in
summer, at which times they would vie with one another in friendliness
and generosity. Each family would single out a family of another tribe
as special guests of honor. Valuable horses and richly adorned garments
were freely given at the feasts and dances. During these intertribal
reunions the contests between the tribes were recalled and their events
rehearsed, the dead heroes on both sides receiving special tributes of
honor. Parents would entertain the participants in an engagement in
which their son had fallen, perhaps, the year before, giving lavish
hospitality and handsome presents in token that all was done in fair
fight, and there remained no ill feeling.
FIRST EFFECTS OF CIVILIZATION
Whatever may be said for this scheme of life, its weaknesses are very
apparent, and resulted in its early fall when confronted with the
complicated system of our so-called civilization. With us the individual
was supreme; all combination was voluntary in its nature; there was no
commerce worthy the name, no national wealth, no taxation for the
support of government, and the chiefs were merely natural leaders with
much influence but little authority. The system worked well with men who
were all of the same mind, but in the face of a powerful government and
an organized army it quickly disintegrated and collapsed. Could the many
small tribes and bands have formed a stable combination or league, they
might have successfully resisted the invader; but instead they stood
separately, though too weak to maintain their dignity by force, and in
many cases entered upon a devastating warfare with one another, using
the new and more deadly weapons, thus destroying one another. Since
there was no central government, but a series of loose confederations
of linguistic or allied groups, each of which had its titular head, able
to make treaties or to declare war, these bands were met and subdued one
at a time.
The original North American knew no fermented or spirituous drink. To be
sure, he used a mild narcotic--tobacco mixed with aromatic leaves or
bark, and smoked in strict moderation, generally as a semi-religious
ceremony. Though wild grapes were found here in abundance, none had ever
made wine from them. The introduction of liquor completed the ruin of
our race.
During a long period the fur trade was an important factor in the
world's commerce, and accordingly the friendship and favor of the
natives were eagerly sought by the leading nations of Europe. Great use
was made of whiskey and gunpowder as articles of trade. Demoralization
was rapid. Many tribes were decimated and others wiped out entirely by
the ravages of strong drink and disease, especially smallpox and
cholera. The former was terribly fatal. The Indians knew nothing of its
nature or treatment, and during the nineteenth century the tribes along
the Mississippi and Missouri rivers suffered severely. Even in my own
day I have seen and talked with the few desolate survivors of a
thriving village.
In the decade following 1840 cholera ravaged the tribes dwelling along
the great waterways. Venereal disease followed upon the frequent
immoralities of white soldiers and frontiersmen. As soon as the Indian
came into the reservation and adopted an indoor mode of life, bronchitis
and pneumonia worked havoc with him, and that scourge of the present-day
red man, tuberculosis, took its rise then in overcrowded log cabins and
insanitary living, together with insufficient and often unwholesome
food. During this period there was a rapid decline in the Indian
population, leading to the now discredited theory that the race was
necessarily "dying out" from contact with civilization.
It must always be borne in mind that the _first_ effect of association
with the more advanced race was not improvement but degeneracy. I have
no wish to discredit the statements of the early explorers, including
the Jesuit priests; but it is evident that in the zeal of the latter to
gain honor for their society for saving the souls of the natives it was
almost necessary to represent them as godless and murderous
savages--otherwise there would be no one to convert! Of course they
were not angels, but I think I have made it clear that they were a
God-fearing, clean, and honorable people before the coming of the white
man.
THE TRANSITION PERIOD
The transition from their natural life to the artificial life of
civilization has been very gradual in most cases, until the last fifty
years, when the changes have been more rapid. Those who were first
affected were the so-called "Five Civilized Nations" of the South, and
the "Six Nations" of New York State, together with some of the now
extinct bands in New England, who came in close touch with the early
colonists. Both politically and commercially, they played an important
part in the settlement of America. Their services as scouts, guides, and
allies were of great value in the early history of this country, and
down to recent years. Many received no salary, and some even furnished
their own horses. It is a remarkable fact that there is not one instance
on record of a scout betraying the cause he served, even though used
against his own tribe and his own relatives. Once his honor is pledged
to a public trust, he must sustain it at any cost.
In many cases those tribes which declared allegiance to the French, the
English, or the Americans, were in their turn the means of bringing a
neighboring tribe into subjection. Thus began a new era in the history
of the Indian, inaugurating a kind of warfare that was cruel,
relentless, and demoralizing, since it was based upon the desire to
conquer and to despoil the conquered of his possessions--a motive
unknown to the primitive American.
To be sure the new weapons were more efficient, and therefore more
deadly; the new clothing was gayer, but less perfectly adapted to the
purposes of primitive life. Indeed, the buckskin clothing and moccasins
of the Indian were very generally adopted by the white frontiersman. On
the other hand, his spiritual and moral loss was great. He who listened
to the preaching of the missionaries came to believe that the white man
alone has a real God, and that the things he had hitherto held sacred
are inventions of the devil. This undermined the foundations of his
philosophy, and very often without substituting for it the Christian
philosophy, which the inconsistency of its advocates, rather than any
innate quality, made it difficult for him to accept or understand.
A few did, in good faith, accept the white man's God. The black-robed
preacher was like the Indian himself in seeking no soft things, and as
he followed the fortunes of the tribes in the wilderness, the tribesmen
learned to trust and to love him. Then came other missionaries who had
houses to sleep in, and gardens planted, and who hesitated to sleep in
the Indian's wigwam or eat of his wild meat, but for the most part held
themselves aloof and urged their own dress and ways upon their converts.
These, too, had their following in due time. But in the main it is true
that while the Indian eagerly sought guns and gunpowder, knives and
whiskey, a few articles of dress, and, later, horses, he did not of
himself desire the white man's food, his houses, his books, his
government, or his religion.
The two great "civilizers," after all, were whiskey and gunpowder, and
from the hour the red man accepted these he had in reality sold his
birthright, and all unconsciously consented to his own ruin. Immediately
his manhood began to crumble. A few chiefs undertook to copy some of the
European ways, on the strength of treaty recognition. The medals and
parchments received at such times were handed down from father to son,
and the sons often disputed as to who should succeed the father,
ignoring the rule of seniority and refusing to submit to the election of
the council. There were instances during the nineteenth century in the
vicinity of Chicago, Prairie du Chien, Saint Paul, and Kansas City,
where several brothers quarrelled and were in turn murdered in drunken
rows. There was also trouble when the United States undertook to appoint
a head chief without the consent of the tribe. Chief Hole-in-the-Day of
the Ojibways and Spotted Tail of the Brule Sioux were both killed by
tribesmen for breaking the rule of their respective tribes and accepting
favors from the Government.
Intermarriages were not common among the different tribes in the old
days, and still less so between Indians and Caucasians. The earlier
intermarriages were with the higher class of Europeans: officers,
noblemen, etc., and many of the offspring of these unions were highly
esteemed, some becoming chiefs. At this period the natives preferred
their own marriage customs, which was convenient for the white officers
who were thus enabled to desert their wives and children when they
chose, and often did so, quite as if there were no binding obligation.
Later, when unions between the lower class of both races became common,
the Sioux refused to recognize their half-breeds as members of the
tribe, and a certain territory was set apart for them. These half-breeds
disposed of their land to the Government, and took instead certificates
entitling them to locate upon the public domain. Some thirty years
afterward they returned to their mother tribe and were allowed full
rights as members of their respective bands.
Except among the French Canadians, in no section has there been such a
general intermingling of the blood of the two races as in the Southern
States. The Virginia legislature early recognized intermarriages between
whites and Indians, and from the time of Pocahontas to this day some of
the best families have married among Cherokees, Chickasaws, and
Choctaws, and are proud of the infusion of aboriginal blood. Among the
"Five Civilized Tribes" of Oklahoma the Indian blood is distinguishable
only in a minority of those who call themselves "Indians."
This transition period has been a time of stress and suffering for my
people. Once they had departed from the broad democracy and pure
idealism of their prime, and undertaken to enter upon the world-game of
competition, their rudder was unshipped, their compass lost, and the
whirlwind and tempest of materialism and love of conquest tossed them to
and fro like leaves in the wind.
"You are a child," said the white man in effect to the simple and
credulous native. "You cannot make or invent anything. We have the only
God, and he has given us authority to teach and to govern all the
peoples of the earth. In proof of this we have His Book, a supernatural
guide, every word of which is true and binding. We are a superior
race--a chosen people. We have a heaven fenced in with golden gates from
all pagans and unbelievers, and a hell where the souls of such are
tortured eternally. We are honorable, truthful, refined, religious,
peaceful; we hate cruelty and injustice; our business is to educate,
Christianize, and protect the rights and property of the weak and the
uncivilized."
This sort of talk had its effect. Let us see what followed.