The Present Status of the Catholic Indian Problem 4 * — REV. DR. H. G. GANSS Publifhed under the euipicct ef the HHarqupttr Slragur UNITED CHARITIES BUILDING , FOURTH AVE. AND 22o STREET, NEW YORK V t,: /f^7 The Present Status of the Catholic Indian Problem REV. DR. H. G. GANSS Published under the auspices of the UNITED CHARITIES BUILDING FOURTH AVE. AND 22d STREET, NEW YORK To the Rea^der The following articles on “ The Present Status of the Catholic Indian Problem ” appeared serially in The Messenger magazine. They give so clear, concise and informing a description of the work and needs of our ' Catholic Indian 'missions, that with the consent of the author and permission of the editor, it was decided to publish them in pamphlet form. Inasmuch as it practically covers the scope mapped out by the constitution of the Alarquette League, it was thought fit to give it to the public under its auspices. In submitting the pamphlet to the public, the League invites its careful perusal, commends it to the serious consideration of its members, and indulges the pleasing hope that it may arouse intere.st and enlist material aid in coming to the assistance of a most worthy, but un- fortunately underestimated, cause. The conversion of the American In ban was the first missionary enterjjrisc on our continent ; it should now, in view of the gradual disappearance of the aborigines, receive our prompt and generous support. Eugene A. Philbin, President of the Marquette League. New York, October, 1307. The Present Status of the Catholic Indian Problem I. The publication of the annual report of the Catholic Indian Bureau (1) brings to our attention the oldest missionary endeavor of the Church in this country. The conversion of the aboriginal peoples inhabiting the newly discovered continent was, as we well know, the leading motive of its discovery, just as the immediate evangeli- zation was the first solicitude of its discoverers. Co- incident with the unfurling of the royal banner was the planting of Redemption’s emblem. Began four cen- turies ago, prosecuted with varying success but unfalter- ing determination during the elapsed centuries, inter- rupted only by the political readjustments incident to a change of government by conquest or purchase, forced to a temporary closure by the martyrdom of the men engaged — the work to-day is continued with the same patient endurance and steadfast constancy. Few chap- ters in the history of the Church in America more elo- quently attest the best elements of the Catholic apostolate. We need not be surprised, therefore, that our standard, national historians, whether we consult Bancroft, Park- man or Fiske, take grateful and appreciative cognizance of this, and that the names of these Christian heroes are perpetuated in the geography — whether it be stream, city or mountain — of the nation. Much less that, within the last few days, one of our metropolitan dailies, not dis- (l) Report of the Director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, for 1906 . 3 tinguislied for an overweening admiration of the Church, anent the Jamestown Exposition, in unhesitating frank- ness states that “ no more heroic work was ever done by man than the pioneer work of the French missionaries wdio penetrated from the seaboard to the Mississippi.” (1) The same work, under new and changed conditions, is done now. It is characterized by the same reverent hu- mility, meek unobtrusiveness, calm self-effacement, not uncoupled with hardship and privation, meeting with the same successes or reverses that have always marked mis- sionary labor. Ebi fortunately, in the eager haste of modern life, the agitated rush of commercialism, and the consequent blindness of our spiritual perceptions, this crowning work of the Church in America is in a measure overlooked, or at least receives the most inappreciative recognition. The Report, unlike all of its predecessors, with one exception, is informing and comprehensive. It is more than a skeletonized statement of income and expense, a bald recapitulation of w'earisome generalities, an ostrich- like evolution of facing danger, a vague and non-com- mittal enunciation of policy. It teems wdth solid data, enters honestly into the involved condition of the work, and by its frankness and candor of statement must com- mand respect and inspire confidence. It is happily devoid of that scathing arraignment of the administration, that acrimonious pilloring of Government officials, which de- tracted so much from the dignity and value of many of the politically flavored documents that emanated from the same office in olden days. Fortunately, the conditions are such now' that the strong person alitv of President Roosevelt has left a most wholesome impress on the Indian Department, so that (l) Xew York Times, April 27, 1907. 4 ST. FRANCIS MISSION, RUSFBUD, SOU TH HAKO'T.' its every fibre and tissue is inoculated with the vitalizing serum of a “ square deal." Again, the commissionership is no longer a snug harbor for superannuated clerical derelicts and pulpit bankrupts, who could only raise them- selves from an inevitable obscurity by a clamorous, ob- sessional hatred of " Romanism." Glorified bigotry no longer sits enthroned in the seat of authority to lord it magisterially over the Indian's best friend, who looked upon the very persecution inflicted as a stepping-stone of an approach to his Divine Ideal. The office is now filled by an open-minded, fearless man, with an experi- ence based on personal knowledge and a courage born of unflinching conviction. We need not wonder, therefore, that instead of berating the Indian Department — in its day not an altogether profitless procedure, much as we may question its wisdom — the Report now in applausive language records its satisfaction at the amicable and helpful relations that exist between the Government and the Bureau. The Report, again, is the result of patient inquiry, as well as painstaking care. Its concise, authoritative and verifiable data — though the absence of sixteen or more reports, as well as the fragmentary character of others, deprives it of a sense of final completeness — will all the same be read with interest, consulted with confidence, quoted with pride, and. above all. fulfil the object of its publication — stimulate effort to continue and render more effective the oldest missionary enterprise of the Church in the United States. THE C.VTIIOLIC INOI.VX MISSIONS. The missionarv work among the Indians in its entirety cannot fail brt impress even the casual observer by the geographical magnitude of its scope, as much as by the resourcefulness and adaptability, aside of the higher tokens it calls for, of its agents. Though directly con- fined to a comparatively small number of souls, its ac- tivity extends over the territory of an empire. It de- mands resources, calls for qualifications, taxes endurance, tests faith, and even at the present day is beset by diffi- culties and hardships that only a few missionary prob- lems in the present world’s history can parallel. Let us take in view a few of these : the territorial ex- tent, the tribal complexities, the disjointed condition of the flock, the enlisted agencies and the statistical results. In this view the eye of faith, though it be short-sighted, must discern the directing hand of God ; to the Catholic heart it will reveal the visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit. There are eighty-eight missions, or, if you will, mis- sionary centres. These, in accordance with the Reserva- tion system prevailing, are distributed over the isolated, at times almost inaccessible, parts of thirteen of our remote, least populous and most sparsely settled states. These states have a gross area of 1,831.169 square miles. The vastness of this original field, which now is dotted with cities, towns and settlements, will be more readily appreciated when compared to that of the great mission- ary epoch in Europe. In actual mileage it surpasses the total area of France, Germany. Austro-Hungary, Italy and Spain combined. The whistle of the locomotive, the clang of the trolley car. the honk of the automobile, the puff of the steam- boat. the click of the telegraph, even the chirping of a bird in some places, are still unfamiliar sounds. The mode of transportation is as sluggish and the mode of life as primitive a.s they were when the white settler first set foot in the country. The two main arteries which convev life and activity to the Reservation are the Agency, where the Government has its seat, and the Mission, from which circulates its spiritual vitality. The activity of these mission centres dift'uses itself over seventy tribes. These are no longer nomads, but Reservation Indians, living in disconnected tribal rela- tions, to the laws and customs of which they are in a way amenable; subject, however, to the sovereign power of the guardian, the United States Government. Though ethnologically homogeneous, to the eye of the casual observer, as well as to the practical experience of the missionary, they are utterly heterogeneous. Springing from a common stock, they have no common language. A most bewildering confusion of tongues prevails, and not the least difficulty in the way of the missionary is the mastery of these tongues. A tribe living adjacent to a different tribe has no other mode of communication than the unsatisfactory and imperfect sign language. The familiarity with the tribal language or dialect is always the first prerequisite of the traditional as well as the successful missionary. The employment of an in- terpreter is of little benefit, and frequently makes con- fusion worse confounded, not to allude to the irreverence and grotesqueness that it leads to. These Indians have no common pursuit. Formerly the abundance of game and the never deserted warpath allowed some tangible method to provender their families, and some outlet to gratify their ambition or glut their vengeance. The e.xtermination of the buffalo and elk disarmed the hunter ; the rigidly policed Reservation closed all avenues to the warriors’ trophies. Tradition- ally, most of the tribes are clever at some handiwork, but this is more in the nature of an exception than a rule. The Navajo weaves a beautiful blanket; the Moqui makes a waterproof wicker jug; the Pueblo models cunningly in clay; the Iroquois fashions a serviceable birch-bark s vessel ; the Klamath shapes a quaint basket ; but, after all, these are rather pleasant diversions than profit-pro- ducing industries. They are the accomplishments of in- dividual tribes, produced greatly by the exigencies of their local environment, of which the others are in utter ignorance, and for which they manifest no other feeling than ill-disguised contempt. The first emancipating step in civilization is, and always has been, the methodic culti- vation of the soil. This was unknown to the Indian as a means of self-support until the missionary and the school reached him. What was accomplished in this field forms one of the most historic and imperishable triumphs of the Jesuit and Franciscan, and even at this day produces results that have left enduring marks on several tribes and powerfully effected the present policy of the Indian department. If we add to this the indi- vidual land ownership the Government makes possible under a wise law, we have the first step from communal barbarism to self-supporting citizenship. The crux of the missionary are the widely scattered and detached “ camps ” and pueblos of the Reservation. The geographical boundaries of the Reservations are sur- veyed and fi.xed by the Government, after official inquiry and investigation, in which the Indian prior to 18T0 had a consultive, but no determining voice. They were mapped out to save the Indian from the friction of the encroaching white settler, and were designed to save him from those bloody collisions which we usually find depicted in such conventionally gruesome colors as “ massacres.” when the red man was successful, and painted in all the tints of patriotically fulsome eulogy as “ victories ” when he laid down his life in defense of his rights. A great misconception prevails in the Eastern mind about these Reservations. It is usually assumed that 0 they are so many small strips of territory on which the Indians, tenement-house like, live in collective bodies about the Agency — the centre of the Reservation — within reach of both law and religion. Nothing could be more misleading. A Reservation is a tract of land, large or small, reserved for the Indian, extending over a clearly defined territory, and safeguarded from all unlicensed intrusion or occupation by the state or national govern- ment. In size it may range from a few acres of land to the proportions of a state. Thus the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, with its 14,T53 square miles, is larger than the state of ^Maryland ; the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, with its 4,930 square miles, is as large as Connecticut ; the comparatively small Red Lake Reserva- tion in ^Minnesota is as large as Rhode Island. All the Reservations make up a territory as large as the com- bined area of the states of New York, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania and Ohio. Taking the Reservations, which in accordance with President Grant’s Peace Policy were allotted to our mis- sionaries, under consideration, it is obvious that their very extent almost places an insuperable barrier to a wider spread of religion. Let us take a closer look at this condition. The Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota has one zealous priest attending a scat- tered flock stretching over an area of 4,481 square miles, with only one church and three chapels and three cate- chists. Probably — the absolute fact that it is not in the reach of human endurance to assume more binding obli- gations, makes him with characteristic modesty ask for two chapels — both of which the “ camps ” have been skimping themselves for years in ineflfectual efforts to build with their unaided resources. We have four de- voted Jesuit Fathers at the Pine Ridge Reservation, like- wise in South Dakota, whose parish embraces 4.930 10 square miles, with one church and four chapels and three catechists — but with six “ camps,” each populous enough to fill a good-sized chapel. Thus we might pass in review almost all the Reservations. In these “ camps ” we have one of the most anomalous conditions of missionary life. The units of the tribe scattered, so that all tribal cohesion is lost; social inter- course, even in its primitive character, practically inter- dicted ; the periodical visitation of the missionary an im- possibility — in all this lurks one of the great dangers of the work. Sad necessity compels the missionary here to assume the defensive instead of taking the aggressive ; his prudence emphasizes the necessity of rather maintain- ing an unbroken, disciplined squad, than creating a dis- ordered, undisciplined army. His ministry confines itself perforce to the dying adults and new-born infants, in whose final perseverance he may have at least some shadow of a well-grounded hope. d'he regret at this situation is not lessened, nor is the future brightened by the patent facts staring us in the face, that a melancholy leakage is evident here and is daily growing. This is especially the case among those tribes who had the gift of faith for generations, who were the offspring of the firstlings of the old Jesuit and Franciscan pioneer flock, who at one time were veritable object lessons to the nation, and are usually found in states where every landmark, waterway or mountain peak bears testimony of their spiritual fathers’ zeal and devotion, and in not a few instances are sanctified bv the blood of martyrdom. The figures of the Report here almost unconsciously raise the query whether we may not be witnesses to those spiritual disasters in Indian work — Paraguay and California! Absit omen! If so, we cannot as Catholics wash our hands of the responsi- bility. In both these calamitous instances, a rapacious n government was the minister of spoliation and destruc- tion. Now a fair government is an instrument of help- fulness and support. When we come to the enlisted agencies, the sombre hues of misgiving give place to emotions of amazement, gratitude and joy. No work has met with a more uni- form and unstinted appreciation on the part of our national historians than that of our Indian missionaries. Nor has the Government, and especially the branch in most intimate relations with it — the army — been chary in giving it the most pronounced recognition, nor has tlie voice of the most savage bigotry ever had the hardi- hood to assail it. Here we have a roster of 144 priests. These include 32 Jesuits, 13 Benedictines, 13 Franciscans and 16 secu- lars who devote themselves exclusively to the Indian. The others are in charge of large fractions of Indian remnants, such as have shaken off the “ old ways ” and now follow civilized methods of life, such as have inter- married with whites and now are full-fledged citizens, such as have their own homes and are contributing mem- bers of the parish — but who all the same come under the designation of Indians. This collective body attends 175 churches and missions. It will be freely admitted that the most arduous part of its work is confined to the numerous and remote “ camps ” and pueblos. These “ camps ” — the name itself a relic of the old, unstable and roaming days of the Indian, making his home where there was good game for his family and abundant pasture and water for his ponies — usually con- sist of a numher of families living in a detached, but still closely knit fashion, with a shack, dugout, log hut or tepee serving as chapel. At the present time, since the Indian has taken his allotment of land, they are and will continue to be established and inhabited localities. Being 12 (iKOUP, ST. FR.\XCIS MISSIOX, ROSEBUD, SOUTH DAKOTA. 13 very far away from the Mission, they can only be visited at the rarest intervals, unless peremptory demands for the presence of a priest makes the visit imperative. These “ camps ’ have come to stay, and since many of them are large, with a population numerous enough to form a good-sized parish, the need of a chapel is one of the most urgent wants of the missionary. The chapel in itself would form the nucleus of a fixed congregation and settlement. The frontier country may show aban- doned farms and homes, but we rpiestion if it can point to one abandoned chapel, unless, indeed, it was replaced by a more pretentious church or necessitated by the transfer of the tribe to another locality. No magnet has a greater drawing power, or effects a more solid perma- nency, and imparts the character of a more immovable stability, than a chapel or church. This is simply history repeating itself. Almost every large city in France, England, Germany or Spain was at first a missionary centre. The missionaries, whose life and training precluded all the bizarre and theatrical self-exploitation of the machine-made, lecture-platform genus, have studiously refrained from bringing this crying need of chapels ob- trusively to the public attention. The Report here dis- closes a vital need that we propose to enlarge upon in a later article. These “ camps,” far removed from the elevating con- tact and pervasive influence of the Blackrobe, have made it a matter of necessity to appoint a properly accredited and qualified body of men to act as sentinels and cus- todians of the faith, known as Catechists. The impor- tance of this office and the demands it makes on its en- cumbent cannot be estimated by those living in civilized communities. In the ancient Church these catechists played no inconspicuous part. From apostolic times 14 clown to the Middle Ages these doctores, “ teachers,” endowed with the spiritual gift {charisma) of instructing the ignorant and unbelieving and devoting their lives to active benevolence, were invaluable aids in the conversion of the world. The missionary in selecting and appoint- ing the catechist is not only guided by the precept of St. Paul, to choose a man who will be “ an example of the faithful in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity,”( 1) but also one who possesses the attributes of high intelligence, commanding ability and prudent zeal. Not the least qualification exacted is the respect, good will and confidence of all the tribe, Christian or pagan. The catechist devotes himself to his clearly outlined work, and this to the exclusion of all other avocations. With his catechism he visits the tepees of the pagans or catechumens to teach them their prayers and instruct them in the mysteries of religion. The religious oral instruction, in the Indian tongue, in which he is firmly grounded by the missionary, reaches all who come within range of his zeal or voice. With his Indian prayer book, he summons the Catholics to the shack, dugout, or one of the more presentable tepees on Sundays and holidays, recites the Mass prayers, leads in .some hymns, reads from some pious book, conducts the night prayers in common, and does not hesitate, if circumstances warrant it, to give an exhortation in simple and dignified lan- guage. He visits, solaces and pravs with the sick, and in necessity baptizes infants or desirous adults. With a penetration, the result of clo.se observation and wide e.x- perience. he anticipates impending death ; hastily saddles his active little cayuse (Indian pony), and with unbroken haste, unmindful of heat or cold, rain or snow, sunshine or storm, scurries over the prairie — sometimes a hun- dred miles and more — to summon the Blackrobe. Nor (1) Tim. IV, 12. 15 does he relax his passionate ardor until the last spade of clay covers the grave of the fully prepared object of his solicitude. The main strength of the Protestant missions lies in the work of its well-trained and well-paid catechists. If we could furnish the quota asked for, or even part of it, we would create an engine for such an amount of good that would at least partially make amends for the dearth of priests. The statistical result, the record of the mission regis- ters, in spite of a meagreness incident to such a desultory life as that of a Christianizing pioneer, who spends much, if not most of his time in the saddle or in his buggy away from the central mission, is most gratifying. The many failures to send in reports will no doubt be remedied in the course of one or two more annual re- ports. However, even in its condition of incompleteness, it bears witness to the well-directed energ}' and compen- sating efforts of the apostolic men having the work in hand. Of course, these reports in the main have refer- ence only to the available data that were gleaned at the missions proper ; the transient work, far from insignifi- cant, done while on the itinerary, being doubtlessly un- recorded. Here we have the statistics of 651 adult bap- tisms, 2,106 infant baptisms, 590 confirmations, 60,211 holy communions (that little ideal Catholic tribe of 550 Coeur d’Alenes alone having 1,581 to its credit!), 1,094 first communions, 414 marriages and 823 deaths. The most significant and edifying fact in all this mis- sionary work, one which concretely epitomizes the Cath- olic apostolate in all times and places, one which must have cost many a heart-burning to impart, and which the Report fearlessly discloses, one which should stir the Catholic heart to its innermost recess of compunction, is the scant financial outlay which goes to the support of 16 the purely missionary work. To those Catholics un- familiar with our missions the figures will look para- doxical ; to Protestants accustomed to the costly ap- paratus they generously support they will appear in- credible, if not impossible. The total cash expenditure for the purely Indian mis- sionary work, exclusive of the school work, for the year 1906 was $15,695.00! By an equitable per capita dis- position this would allow each missionary the sum of $ut with one or two feeble and tentative efforts, these churches had never done any missionary work among the Indians, and prob- ably without the invitation and support of the Govern- ment would never have attempted it. Again, if their assignments had been made to the pagan Indians, to initiate the work of Christianization, no exception could have been taken to the provision. What inducement could be offered to enlist their interest and secure their co-operation ? 25 The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his report for 1872, places on official record what is clearly and dis- tinctly a violation of the Constitution, by making estab- lished religions with exclusive privileges at various points of our national territory. The summary method was simply to parcel the Catholic Indians, who outnumbered all civilized Indians, to the different sects, heedless of the vehement protests of the Catholic missionaries who had converted them, despite the turbulent opposition, almost requiring armed intervention, of the Indians, in defiance of the elementary principles of justice and fair play. The prospective conditions were appalling. Pic- ture the consternation of the 1,700 Catholic Mission Indians in California, the 3,000 Catholic Yakamis in Washington Territory, handed over to the Methodist Church ! The 7,683 Catholic Pueblos of New Mexico — Catholics for ten generations — to the Campbellites ! The 4,321 Catholic Pimas relegated to the Dutch Reformed Church ! The 1,440 Catholic Winnebagoes consigned to the Ilicksite Friends, while the 400 Catholic Pottowa- tomies fell to the Orthodox Friends! The 1,362 Catholic Menominees to the Congregationalist Church ! The Catholic Chippewas to the Protestant Episcopal Church ! By an act of characteristic restitutive magnanimity the Government assigned the Fort Colville Agency, in Wash- ington Territory, with its 3,349 Indians, the Tulalip, with its 2,600, the Grande Ronde and Umatilla, in Oregon, with their 3,307, the Flathead, in Montana, with their 1,700, and the Devil’s Lake and Grand River agencies, in Dakota, with their 7,445 Sioux — to the Catholic Church ! The allotment of 23,000 Catholic Indians, the fruit of centuries of toil and care, pra)^er and martyrdom to Protestant church bodies ; these bodies in some instances filled with deadly hatred of everything that savored of 26 “ Popery ” ; the Indians corralled on Reservations, the boundary of which no priest could overstep, even in the most imperative exigency demanding his ministry, with- out subjecting himself to insult and arrest; the mission- ary the victim of scurrilous assaults and cowardly mis- representation of agents, nominated by the sect, or the Protestant missionary himself acting as agent, made the official Government reports a disgrace to the department, and an outrage on decency. The whole unfortunate and disastrous calamity marked one of the most perilous depths into which our Indian work in all its vicissitudes had ever sunk. Yet, when the calamity was impending, and an apparent deathblow dealt to a work in the very forefront of Catholic endeavor, one sanctified by the lives and deaths of men who, in apostolic heroism, were the ripest fruit of Catholic zeal on the American continent — the voice of Catholic sentiment was unheard, the quicken- ing of the Catholic conscience benumbed, the spiritual disaster passed unnoticed ! Aside of the alarm sounded by the Catholic Indian llureau, righteous indignation voiced itself in the sjjoradic, stammering, half apologetic, but futile accents of individual ])rotest. The Peace Policy, like many an utopian creation, in sj)ite of its supposedly well-meaning and equitable inten- tion, was doomed to failure from the very moment of its birth. This was manifest to clear thinkers on both the Catholic and Protestant side. There can be little doubt but that the Government was misled by overzealous, mis- guided philanthropists, who, aiscoiiced in their snug libraries in the far East, have ever retarded the work of Indian progress more than they advanced it, and have frequently proven themselves more of a stumbling-block than a stepping-stone in a work demanding practical knowledge and personal observation. In the light of history — we mean Protestant history — 27 the promoters of this policy might have read “ that the Roman Catholic missions among the Indians, from the very first down to our times, have been more successful in accomplishing their aims and results which they had in view than have those of any or all denominations of Protestants.”(l) They should have perceived the in- congruity, not to say impossibility and criminality of leading the Indian into such hazy mists of theological metaphysics, that clamor for solution in the circles of scientific culture and academic training. There is a vol- ume of condensed wisdom, at the same time an uncon- scious sarcasm, in the old Nez Perces Chief Joseph’s opposition to a mission school, finding in it another provo- cation to warfare : “ They will teach us to quarrel about the Great Spirit ... we fight each other, we don’t want to learn to fight about the Great Spirit.” This, a display of sententious wisdom that can be found in every tribe, would be enough to give the fullest confirmation of what Columbus wrote to King Ferdinand: “For the temper of the brain in quick apprehensions and discover- ing judgments (to say no more), the most High Sov- ereign God and Creator hath not made them inferior to Furopeans.” Certainly superior to some Americans. The principal stipulation was: that each denomination, in assuming the spiritual responsibilities of the tribe as- signed to it. must also assume the educational and indus- trial obligation. Its unaffirmed maxim was the old Cath- olic shibboleth — first Christianize, then civilize. The school must be in juxtaposition to the church ; the teacher must accompanv. or be identified with the missionary ; the alphabet must be taught in connection with the catechism, the Indian’s duty to God was to teach him his dutv to Uncle Sam. To assure the amplest scope of (1) “The Red Man and White Man.’’ George E. Ellis. P. 80. Boston, 1882. 28 ST. BRIDGET’S CHAPEL, ROSEBUD RESERVATION. Sample of $1,000 Chapel, Donated by Thomas McMahon, New York City, and Furnished at His Expense. 29 action and the fullest measure of success, the national treasury was flung wide open, and the pledge of the United States given, that if the respective church de- nominations would erect schools at their own expense, the Government would pay for each and every child of Indian parentage attending them. Hardly recovered from the stupefaction occasioned by the wanton and disastrous disruption of their old flocks, in order to save the remnant entrusted to them, sorrow and irresolution was soon changed into an intensified zeal and a more consuming ardor. Providence seemed to change the moment of supremest defeat into one of signal triumph. Individual charity with unexampled munificence came to the aid of our penniless cause; school houses sprang up as if by conjuration; fervid men and devoted women bravely entered the new field ; the In- dians in ever-increasing numbers crowded the missions ; and a pace was set that soon threw the earnest but dis- concerted rivals in the rear. In 1886 we counted 38 schools with an enrollment of 2,068 children; in 1896 the schools were increased and the enrollment doubled. The twelve languishing schools of Protestantism could barely muster 500 pupils. The result was that the loss of the Government appropriation, as much as the utter and irretrievable failure of all its attempts, compelled it to abandon them. “ The disproportion of pupils and appropriation compared with those of Protestantism,” said Dr. Lyman Abbott, “ was not to the discredit of the Roman Catholic Church, which works with efficiency be- cause it works as a unit, but rather to the discredit of the Protestant churches, which are unable to lay aside their differences and combine their efforts in so simple a matter as the non-sectarian education of a pagan people within the bounds of our country.” The Government pledged its honor that the appropria- 30 tions would be made on a per capita basis of every child educated. The whole plan, obnoxious to the Church, was formulated without its consent or approval, and was only entered under the stress of circumstances that could not be evaded, and against which it protested. In 1891 the Catholic Contract schools received an annual appro- priation of $317,689 ; the combined Protestant Contract schools, $206,689. A great hue and cry was raised in the sectarian press about the unconstitutional “ union of State and Church ” ; scintillating pulpit fulminations were heard throughout the land about the insidious encroachments of “ Roman- ism ” ; the insatiate cupidity of “ Popery ” in draining the national treasury was the keynote of resolutions hurled from synod, classis, convocation and conference; the hysterical mouthings of a secret political organization infected with a most malignant form of anti-Catholic rabies, thrust the issue into national politics, with the result that a timid, time-serving Congress abolished all the Contract schools, June 7, 1897. It was in vain that the leading Indian educator of the country. General Arm- strong, of the Hampton Institute, courageously main- tained that “ if the Catholics had more help than other denominations, it is because they worked the harder for it ... if the Catholics have gathered two-thirds of the appropriations of Government, it is simply because they have reaped what they have sown.” The nation was the victim of one of its intermittent anti-Catholic brain-storms, which usually topsyturns its rational facul- ties. and while opening new lines of specialization for the psychopath in its temporary aberration, trampled under foot the laws of equity and decency in indiscriminate madness. It was the hand of an enlightened, intrepid Presby- terian minister, the historian of his church. Dr. Robert 31 Ellis Thompson, who penned the epitaph of the Peace Policy: "Through the jealousy which has been excited by the greater extent and success of the Roman Catholic schools.” The withdrawal of the pledged Government support added another sad chapter to the unfortunate history of the Catholic Indian Missions. It precipitated a crisis, probably the last one we shall be called upon to face — a crisis unless it be met with decision and courage, open- minded intelligence and open-pursed generosity, will make the rising generation eyewitness of the Indians’ doom and disappearance as an object of our religious care and solicitude. The providential interjx)sition of a consecrated woman, who had cheerfully given her wealth as she dedicated her life to this national reparation, is momentarily staving off the impending doom. It was mainly, if not solely, through her unobtrusive charity that these schools, costing a million and a half dollars, were erected and equipped. Efficiently managed by men and women who love them as the very apple of their eyes, and undergo innumerable privations to sustain them in their unimpaired attendance, they elicit the com- mendation of the Government and the gratitude of the Indian. The death of this benefactress would plunge the Church into further complications, the mere contem- plation of which involuntarily makes one shudder with fearsome apprehensions. “ The history of the Indian Department,” is the sober and reflective judgment of one of the greatest of Indian specialists, made twenty-five years ago, one who was the friend and counsellor of Bancroft and Parkman — John Gilmary Shea^ — “ is a history of sectarian intrigues and violence to hamper and break up the Catholic missions, and raise such obstacles as would drive from the fields of labor, in which they were really serving the whole coun- 32 try, the devoted Catholic priests who gave their talents and education to the enlightenment of degraded members of the human family.” (1) III. CATHOLIC AND GOVERNMENT INDIAN SCHOOLS SOME SUGGESTIONS. The status of the Catholic Indian educational problem, which after all, under prevailing conditions, is the very soul of the missionary problem, necessarily takes up the greater bulk of the Report just as it touches with con- summate clearness on the vital issues at stake. It casts side-lights on a picture involved in considerable obscurity, but shows glimmerings of a view that will brighten the gloomy forecasts of the most avowed pessimist. It boldly sounds a keynote of conciliatory action in strange con- trast to the warlike slogan that characterized the Bureau’s former utterances. One fact it emphasizes, and in a straightforward, even courageous way, brings to our attention — the gradual disappearance of the old-time distrust and bitterness existing between the Catholic and Government schools, and the change of sentiment, that the large number of children placed in the latter shall no longer be looked upon as culpably outside the scope of religious oversight. This was brought about, in a large measure, by the reso- lute policy of the present .Administration in carefully winnowing the Indian service and with inflexible deter- mination stamping out, "as far as it could, the lingering traces of sectarian bigotry. A contributing element, if not paramount factor, was the slowly dawning realiza- tion on the part of our missionaries, that the poor chil- dren, involuntary subjects of finding themselves in an (l) American Cath. Quart., 1881, p. 528. 33 un-Catholic atmosphere, surrounded by faith-estranging influences, should not be dealt with as spiritual outcasts or irreclaimable reprobates. The Indian Department, on whose favor and grace all our work depends, and which, in the capacity of the Indians’ guardian, could embarrass and even neutralize it — as we know from sad experience — has shown a most commendable spirit. \Ye cannot reject or neglect it with- out dire peril to souls and an unpardonable disregard of our plain duties. 'True, some of the Indian Government schools, in spite of every precaution, may still be in the control of narrow-minded intolerance, may even by cun- ning evasion and crafty subterfuge set at naught its wise and prudential rulings. But we can rest assured that the conscientious vigilance of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, by a slow and effective process of governmental disinfection, will eventually rout the noxious element from the service. It took the Government more than a generation to oust the corrupt and corrupting Reserva- tion agent intrenched in his presumptively impregnable political defense ; the death-knell of the anti-Catholic school superintendent, shrouded in his sacrosanct self- complacency, is sounded by the very agency he helped to establish. However praiseworthy the attitude of the Administra- tion towards its Catholic Indian wards is, sympathetic as its relations with the Catholic Indian schools are, much as its fairness elicits our gratitude, the Government school, owing to a basic defect, can only partially meet the requirements of the Catholic conscience. This radical defect, which it can hardly cope with, being outside the sphere of its constitutional powers, will probably never be set aside. We refer to the absence of definite religious teaching. The analog}' between the Indian and Public School is identical, only in a more accentuated form. 34 The arguments that obtain validity there do so here only with more cogency. The white child has presumably a Christian home, a Christian church and Sunday school. The hapless Indian child is destitute of all these salutary adjuncts, and frequently finds the greatest barrier to its moral and intellectual advancement in the very source where it should find its most potent incentive — its family and people. The nationalization of the Indian school, forced on the Government by anti-Catholic politi- cal and sectarian exigencies, was, as we have already seen, intentionally or unintentionally more in the nature of a blow aimed at Catholicism than an honest attempt to uplift the Indian. Did its advocates foresee, that in the event of closing the contract schools they would sum- marily close the gates of a definite Christianity to the aftlicted race it was supposed to aid ? Were they unmind- ful of the words of General Armstrong, that unimpeach- able Indian educator of the age, that “ best of all, behind all and more than all, missionary work has helped the Indian ? ” That the open sesame to the Indian problem “ was to improve and increase the facilities for educa- tion, especially in industrial lines and under Christian influences? ” That the final solution would be found “ in many agency schools under religious influences?” The Indian's nature, like that of any other member of the human family, is concededly threefold — spiritual, in- tellectual and physical. All three must receive their pro- portional share of cultivation and development. His spiritual nature, however, is his priceless heritage, his life, his present, his future. Christian instinct, as well as common sense, tell us, in his pursuit of happiness the imperishable is to be preferred to the perishable, the im- mortal to the mortal, the soul to the body. In all sys- tems of educational reform, from Plato down to the latest pedagogic sensationalist, the moral must as a 35 logical necessity take precedence over the physical or intellectual. Charlemagne, under the inspiration of Alcuin, one of the earliest and greatest Christian educators, devised his scheme of instruction on the theory “ that the basis of political unity is a unity of ideas and morals, and that moral unity is found only in religion.” Pestalozzi, with precarious theological leanings, maintains all the same that all education that is not based on the Christian re- ligion is inherently defective and disastrously incomplete. Rosenkrantz says that the highest culmination of educa- tional effort for the individual is religion — that the finite individual can only find himself in alliance with the In- finite. The late Dr. Harper was disturbed by the reflec- tion — what will be the effect fifty years hence of the education which is doing so much for the intellect and so little for the soul ? Ramsay eloquently appeals for the revival of the idea that there is such a thing as the spiritual life. How apposite in the case under considera- tion is Herbert Spencer, when from the viewpoint of simple morality, he tells us, that to educate reason with- out educating desire is like giving a repeating rifle to a savage? You do not tame the brute, you simply arm it. With what accuracy does not Dante define education when he tells us that its object is to fit men for eternity? What an identity of thought, in spite of its strong theo- logical tinge, do we not find in Milton, when he tells us that education is the effort to enable man to regain what he lost by Adam’s fall? Or to come nearer home and to our own time, what definition summarizes the func- tion of true education more sententiously than President Roosevelt, when he states that education is “ to train not merely body and mind, but the soul of man that he shall be made a good American and a good citizen of this great country?” Need we then be surprised, that with 36 37 HOI-Y ROSARY MISSION, SOUTH DAKO TA. a courage and thoroughness typical of the man, he has made this education so far as the prerogatives of his exalted office permit, the underlying principle of Indian education ? The recognition of God, the supremacy of the spiritual part of man, are the elemental truths grounding the whole fabric of Catholic education. To these all others must be subsidiary, and of importance only in propor- tion as they contribute to the enlargement and strength- ening of the former. “ What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and sufifer the loss of his soul ”(1) is the keynote of the Catholic school teacher, which, in spite of its decried obsolescence and modern repulsion, has served the world well for twenty centuries, and in the critical problems of our social and national life may yet claim its title to surpassing validity. The Catholic is still guileless enough to believe that “ truly, a lowly rustic that serves God is better than a profound philos- opher who pondereth the course of the stars and neglect- eth himself. ”(2) The sight of toil-bowed poverty, de- voutly counting the fifty beads of its rosary, discloses to him a more elevating moral grandeur than the vision of bloated wealth gloating over its ill-gotten fifty millions. In this educational scheme, morality is not separable from*religion. Morality must find its origin, its true meaning, its growth, its fruition, in religion. The ele- ment of responsibility in morality can only attain its supreme height in religion, where God and man are in fellowship and communion. “ What doth knowledge avail without the fear of God?” Again, this religion must be dogmatic. It can be Presbvterian, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist or Catholic. It must not be that vague, indefinite, creedless, (1) Mark VIII, 36. (2) “ Following of Christ,” Book I, Chapter II, 38 spineless, mawkish, unassignable nostrum, masquerading under the illusive garb and imponderable nomenclature of non-sectarianism. Why not dispense with the services of an accredited physician, because physiology and hygiene teach us the general principles of health, how to avoid ailments and cure disease? The teaching must be, as it is in Protestant Germany, with the most superb edu- cational system of the world — definite, dogmatic ; in which all denominations, under proper governmental re- strictions, will have the liberty to propagate their re- spective doctrines to their respective church adherents, and this without fear or molestation. It is for this reason, and this reason alone, that we are compelled to keep up an enforced condition of national alienation, by supporting our parochial school system, and at the same time carry the additional burden of a heavy jiublic school taxation, of which system, without violence to our conscience, we cannot avail ourselves, .^uch being the case, why should we hesitate to contribute from our already well-drained resources an additional mite to maintain the Catholic Indian school, which ap- peals to us by every sacred title of patriotic justice and Christian charity? \\’e educate over 1,06G,207 Catholic pupils, separated from their 11,318,256 comrades, play- mates and neighbors of the public school ; nor do we waver to tax ourselves to the extent of $21,078,912.39 annually to do this. Should we put a limit to our charity when the most helpless beings of the nation appeal to us for the same jwivilege we accord our own flesh and blood ? The Catholic Inrlian school is the cradle of civilization, the nursery of faith, the home of industry, the vestibule of Catholicity, the open door of self-respecting and self- supporting citizenship. — is it worthy of our confidence ; does it merit our support? 39 The history of our Catholic Indian school system gives us the most compelling claim to its study, just as its achievements in the past give the most convincing title to its existence in the future. Beginning in 1874 with 9 schools, 215 pupils, a Government allotment of $16,997, it grew with such rapidity both in the esteem of the Indian and the favor of the Government that in 1896 it counted 51 schools, 3,073 pupils and an appropriation of $314,890. The high-water mark was attained in 1892, when the system counted 54 schools, 3,729 pupils and an appropriation of $397,756. By an act of Congress, June 10, 1896, the law was enacted — be it remembered, at the undivided instigation of the various church bodies that created the sectarian school — “ that it was the settled policy of the Government to hereafter make no appropria- tion whatever for education in any sectarian school.” This law was further amended (1) until we found our- selves with our splendid school buildings, thorough equipment, capable teaching personnel and crowded class rooms, high and dry, in penniless destitution. As a mere matter of financial investment, which prob- ably never entered the minds of the missionaries, could we relinquish the valuable real estate? As a matter of duty, the only criterion consulted, could we abandon the children? Let iis see how the crisis was met, and the Report shall be our guide. The tabulated statistics, admirably arranged and scrupulously accurate, ,give us probably the most in- structive part of the Report. We find, to our surprise, that the law — which, in its inspiration, without a breach of charity can only be designated as iniquitou.s — instead of closing our schools, an eventuality predicted with cocksure certainty, not only failed to do this, but, what (1) Acts of Congress, July 7, 1897; July 1, 1898; March 1, 1899. 40 is more significant, failed even to reduce the enrollment. W'e have the gratifying spectacle of an attendance under the most untoward circumstances, limited only by the capacity of the schools themselves. We find 44 schools, 3,338 pupils, taught by 353 Sisters, 78 lay Brothers, 84 lay teachers, and 38 indus- trial employees. The Sisters belong respectively to the following orders : Franciscan, 96; Ursulines, 54; Charity (of Providence), 40; St. Joseph’s, 37; Blessed Sacra- ment, 27 ; Benedictines, 24 ; Mercy, 15 ; St. Agnes, 10 ; Xotre Dame, 10; Loretto, 9; St. Ann, 8. The lay Brothers are distributed as follows: Jesuit, 46; Chris- tian Brothers, 15; Franciscans, 8; Sacred Fleart, 8; Benedictines, 5. The Catholic trend of these schools looms up in a mis- sionary importance that can hardly be overestimated, when we discover in the total enrollment 107 pagans and 216 Protestants, a number that could no doubt be quad- rupled, did it not mean the exclusion of those of the household of the faith. Again, the 112 baptisms, 12,348 communions, are evidence sufficient that the work of the missionaries usually attached to the schools do not con- fine their ministration exclusively to the Reservation flock. I-ike that of the missions, the report of the financial problem dwindles to one of such unimportance and weakness that, in its utter inadequacy to meet the con- ditions, it places the Catholics of the nation in a rather humiliating light. .-Xt the same time the one individual who sustains the schools, and who with self-eflPacing modesty and conscientious literalness carries out our Lord’s injunction about charity, is lifted to a height of moral loftiness that should inspire something more tangible and enduring than mere paroxysmal admiration. The Report here is naturally brief. The Lenten col- 41 lection taken up in 1906 for the Indian and Negro Mis- sions — this in accordance with a decree of the Council of Baltimore, (1) mandatory in every mission, village and city church, appealing to a population of fourteen millions, reaching the most prosperous and wealthy nation on earth — gave the Indian — the sum should be writ in numerals of dazzling vividness— $36,169 ! The membership fees of the Preservation Society, in spite of able and uninterrupted agitation, sinks to $10,429.68, and all other contributions to the Bureau do not raise the total income to more than $23,401.16. This means as a plain business proposition : that for an enrollment of pupils, for which the Government in 1889 made an allowance of $347,672.00, the Catholic Church in 1906 makes an allowance of $57,570.16! This' anomalous condition points a moral, embarrass- ing on the one hand and heroic on the other. It exhibits an apathy on the part of Catholics out of all harmony with their proverbial loyalty to the Church. It reveals, with the suppression of parading figures, the royal munificence of Mother Katharine Drexel. Probably the most significant chapter in the report is that devoted to the “ Religious Instructions of Catholic Pupils in Government Schools,” and which will no doubt create wide discussion. It is the first time that official cognizance is taken of them, being hitherto classified as public schools outside the purview of ecclesiastical con- sideration. The Government school is here to stay, and, supported as it is by the lavish appropriation of $3,- 010,489.16 annually, with an attendance of 20.382 chil- dren, has to be reckoned with. The system has grown to such proportions, offers such unusual inducements, is geographically so available, safeguards the health of its pupils so carefully, solves the little social and economic (1) Tit. VIIT, Cap. II, N. 243. 42 problems of Indian life so judiciously, above all advances its graduates so systematically, that even did we have accommodations for more pupils, we could not prevent many Catholics from attending its schools. This attrac- tion is made all the more alluring by the fact that the Government has come to the realization that, if it cannot teach religion, it would place no hindrance in the way of the clergy of the different denominations doing so. Ac- cordingly, the drawing up of such rules as contained in “ Education Circular No. 87, Outing Rules to Govern Indian Students, Rules Regarding Religious Instruction of Catholic Pupils,” all of which had their birth and were put in successful operation at Carlisle, before their introduction in the general system, mark a new departure that will be watched with interest and to whose advan- tages we cannot blind ourselves. These rules are broad and liberal, and leave little to be desired. For Catholics they make Mass and religious instruction attendance compulsory, afford ample oppor- tunity for confession and Holy Communion, allow a week for an annual retreat, prohibit under the penalty of dismissal or expulsion all proselyting, forbid a child to change its church relations without the consent of parents and superintendent, protect the pupils’ faith while living on the Outing System, promptly report all sick cases — in short, extend every aid than can be sug- gested to religious instructors. These rules are of course free from all discriminative flavor. They offer the same opportunity to every denomination. The same official impartiality marks the treatment of priest or minister. Catholic or Protestant. In some of these schools — Carlisle again, for instance — a precedent is established, which no doubt will be promptly followed, if it has not already been anticipated by some of the larger Non-Reservation and Reservation 43 schools, of allowing all services — Mass, sodality. Bene- diction of the Blessed Sacrament — to be conducted in some properly appointed hall at the school and placing the school's vehicle at the disposal of the priest and re- ligious instructors. The religious opportunities offered to Catholic pupils are of a character that can no longer be overlooked or neglected, nor dismissed with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulder or a scornful smile of incredulity. Steps should be taken without loss of time to accept the gen- erous invitation pf the Government, with the same cor- diality that it was given. Apostacy can no longer be imputed to the school authorities where every facility to maintain and strengthen the faith is given. Vigorous effort, systematized catechetical instruction and restless vigilance should be infused into the larger schools like Haskell, Carlisle, Chilocco, Albuquerque, Sherman In- stitute, etc. Where the appointment of special chaplains living outside the school precincts, but ever welcome to enter them, can be made, it ought to be done, and will doubtlessly meet with the approval of every considerate superintendent or agent. The action of the Administration has been so tolerant and helpful, that the voice of cavil should be silent, and the fact appreciated that so far as the exercise of re- ligious duties is concerned, to employ the language of the street, “ it is now up to the Church." We would have the presumption, based on an experi- ence of nearly twenty years with a leading Government school and with some knowledge of Reservation condi- tions, to suggest — that, if possible, no child be sent to a Government school until it has a strong foundation of its faith firmly laid ; that unusually bright, alert and promising pupils, after finishing their courses in the mission school, should be transferred to such Govern- 44 45 HOLY ROSARY SCHOOL, PINE RIDGE, SOUTH DAKOTA. nient schools where their studies might be continued under the best advantages and under the fostering re- ligious safeguards that such a school may give. If the pupil will not preserve his faith under such indirect church supervision, he will certainly not preserve it in the world, when he must fight the battle of faith single- handed. Moreover, we expect the product of a mission school to be something more virile than a callow molly- coddle who incontinently succumbs at the mere shadow of temptation or trial. Again, we would have the further temerity to suggest, without pretending to an uncommon acuteness of mind, that Government schools, after courteous, repeated and ineftectual efforts to gain an observance of the Govern- ment rules regarding religion, be placed by an exercise of ecclesiastical authority on a prohibitive list. The choice of schools is large and varied, and to make bigotry odious and pay the full penalty of its contumacy, hardly sins against the golden rule, especially when it jeopar- dizes the souls of our poor children. A decreased en- rollment and appropriation will be a more specific per- suasive than a long and embittered controversy to bring a dissident and refractory official to terms. In the statistics of Catholic children attending Gov- ernment schools, we find in the 25 Non-Reservation schools, 2,431 Catholic pupils out of a total of 9,279. Baptisms are given at 34 (of which 24 adults were bap- tized in Carlisle), 221 Confirmations (Carlisle 110 to its credit), and 1,765 Holy Communions. In the 91 Reser- vation schools we have, out of 11,103, 2,494 Catholic pupils, 144 Baptisms, 490 Confirmations, and 4,582 Holy Communions. Out of the total enrollment of Govern- ment Non-Reservation, Reservation and day schools we have an enrollment of 20,382, of whom 4,925 are Cath- olics. The total number of Catholic children attending 4f) mission and Government schools is 8,553, nearly half the entire Government Indian school attendance. What lessons should we draw from the Report? I. — The need of 63 chapels reveals a severe handicap and serious impairment of our missionary field. Where the need of a chapel is most urgent, the conditions for its erection most favorable, and the number of Indians sufficiently large, no time should be wasted in establish- ing it. The Government will readily make a gratuitous allotment of land ; the dififerent Tabernacle societies will cheerfully give the full liturgical equipment, the Indian, willing and ready, will give his hearty assistance — and the sum of one thousand will erect a serviceable, even comfortable structure. What diversion of this sum could do more good, be an instrument of greater glory to God and productive of greater spiritual blessings, than such a votive or memorial chapel, where the donor has the personal privilege of selecting a patronal saint or memorializing his dead? If five of these chapels could be erected each consecutive year, in such districts where an absolute necessity exists, what a momentum would not be given to our missions? II. — The Indian catechist — of whom 6i are called for — is another valuable adjunct that dare not be over- looked. This vigilant, faithful, trustworthy ally of the missionary, consecrates all his time and energy with a most exemplary devotion to the spiritual wants of the territory assigned him. His services really partake of an indispensable character, and many a poor Catholic would h.ave died without the sacraments, many a be- nighted Indian grown to manhood and womanhood ignorant of all religion, but for the watchful care and the intelligent piety of the catechist. The remuneration doled v'ut to him — ten dollars a month (the support of his fami’ - and two ponies) — seems, from our modern 47 valuation of money, trivial to the point of contempt. If we could add ten catechists each year, we would be hold- ing up the hands of our missionaries in a way that could not fail but bring about marvellous blessings. What charities could commend themselves more powerfully to those on the brink of eternity, ready to adjust their temporal accounts for the final reckoning, and what act of beneficence would presage ? more merci- ful sentence from the lips of the Judge, than a testa- mentary bequest assuring those two worthy objects? As long as you did it to one of these, my least brethren, you did it to me.”(l) TII. — The Catholic Indian school not only merits, but demands our hearty and generous support. The annual collection for the Indian and Xegro should be lifted from the parochial rut of perfunctory routine to a deed of earnest charity, a charity all the more persuasive and binding because it is really in the nature of national reparation and restitution. The collection, with a few notable e.xceptions, has dwindled to the character of an empty formality or meets the reception of a recurrent infliction, instead of being an incentive for devout zeal and helpful beneficence. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith Amonq Indian Children should become a national organiz.iti(;n. with membership in every Catholic home. If out of i.v- fourteen millions of Catholics in the nation, only (i" - million would pay the trifling membership fee. th.’ woil: would be raised from its condition of prCv'a'-.ousne> s. the faithful workers in the field would be relieved of the haunting apprehensions of privation and the whole problem receive a new vitalization. The Marquette League, which has already done con- spicuous work, .should effect a larger enrollment of (1) Math. XXV. 40. 4S membership, and by its appeal to the wealth and culture found in its rank and acquaintance, bring the needs of the neglected Indian to public attention, diverting its work particularly to the multiplication of chapels, the appointment of catechists, (1) and the vigilant scrutiny of Indian legislation. IV. — The pacific and liberal overtures of the Indian School Department should be met without suspicion or distrust, and with frankness and confidence. The opportunities it offers for methodic devotions and in- structions should be repaid with grateful recognition and energetic correspondence. What more could be done than the privileges already accorded? The proper ad- mixture of prudence, patience and perseverance — espe- cially an imperturbable cultivation of suaviter in modo et fortiter in re will unfailingly bring about a change of manners, if not heart, of the most arbitrary and capri- cious agent, or Government official. The fault of many of the inharmonious relations existing between priest and school superintendent cannot always be laid at the door of the latter. Let us be frank enough to make the honest confession, that in many instances the unfortunate friction is traceable to a lack of calm discretion and well-poised zeal on the part of the former. In the event of wilful and persistent breaches of the Government school laws, a temperate, dignified, but evidentially un- assailable protest to the higher authorities will meet with a courteous, prompt and fair adjudication. The Government Indian school should no longer cause the (1) The Society for the Preservation of the Faith Among Indian Children has its central office at the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, 1326 New York Ave., X. \V., Washington, D. C. The Marquette League is affiliated with the Bureau. Its address is : Marquette League, 420 United Charities Building, X'ew York. X’. Y. 49 spine-creeping sensations of a charnel house for slaugh- tered Catholic aboriginal innocents. By every law of logic and every impulse of religion, the 5,000 Indian children attending them are as worthy subjects of our solicitude, as deserving of all the care we can give them, and certainly fitter objects of diligent attention and watchful oversight, than the 6,93? stu- dents attending non-Catholic colleges and universities, for whom every aid for the preservation of their faith is now being made. The Indian problem is drawing to a close. As a national problem it remains unsolved. Commissioner Leupp, with no claims to prophecy, but yielding to the stern facts staring him in the face, declared at the recent meeting of the Department of Indian Education a*- Los Angeles, that “ the day of the reservation is passing, and the future of the Indian lies in individual effort.” The abolition of the Reservation means the extinction of the Indian as a race. It remains for the true friend of the Indian to hold this steadily in view. The concentrated, perhaps final efforts of the missionary and teacher should be to prepare and fit him for this amalgamation or ab- sorption. Another generation will close the last chapter of the Indian as a nation. 50 MARQUETTE LEAGUE The main object of the ^Marquette League is to pre- serve the Catholic Indians in the Lnited States in their faith and to bring its consolations to the thousands still living in paganism : (aj Ily making the support of our Catholic Indian Schools the chief object of the League's existence: (b) By bringing to the attention of the Catholic public through the medium of the jtress and by zealous per- sonal agitation, the needs of our Catholic Missions and Missionaries, and by aiding the latter in the establish- ment of new chapels and the appointment of regular catechists. M.AROCETTE LEAGL’E. Room 420, United Charities Building. New York. EUXDS ARE URGENTLY NEEDED. Contributions of from $10 to $1,000 may be made for Special Works in the Mission Eield, to be designated by the donor. The regular dues are : Full Axnu.\l Membership, $2.00. Life Membership. $50. Checks, Money Orders, etc., should be made to Theodore E. T.\ck. Treasurer, Marquette League. .')i / BENEFITS TO MEMBERS. The members of the League, both living and deceased, share in one thousand Holy Masses offered every year. On the date of Pere Marquette’s birth, June 1 (1637), a special Holy Mass is offered for the Executive Officers and the Advisory Board of the League. On the date of his death, January 19 (1675), a special Requiem Mass is offered for the repose of the deceased members of the League. y ■ , - i- iKanjufttf ICfagup Hnttfb Qllfaritiffl SutUitng 4tlf Aopnup anb 22b &trfrt 5^fut ^nrk The Meany Printing Co., 6fli Ave. and 11th St., New York.