9298

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9298
• Author: Water Education Foundation.
• Title: Colorado River Project
• USFW Year: 1999.
• USFW - Doc Type: Symposium Proceedings.
• Copyright Material: NO

that policy, then I insist that they be given Reserva-
tions where they have a rational chance of becoming
self-sufficient." What could be more absurd and what
could be more cruel than giving them Reservations
where there isn't the slightest chance that they can
become self-sufficient peoples? This is the policy of
cynICIsm.
Third, I argued that, instead of giving them
rations, which had been the policy of the War
Department for a long time, we ought to give them
tools. In other words, we don't give them clothing, we
give them cloth. We don't give them houses, we give
them lumber. We don't give them saddles, we give
them leather. It's in our interest as a people to teach
these native beings self-sufficiency. Their own self-
sufficiency is no longer possible so we must teach
them a new kind of self-sufficiency and it mustn't be
done by way of creating paupers on our Reservations,
it must be done by way of empowering them to fend
for themselves.
We also ought to give them, in my opinion, horses
and cattle because it seems to me that the most
important single leap that they will make towards an
assimilated life, and I am in favor of a benevolent
assimilation policy, is for them to learn the uses of
private property. So if you give an Indian family a
cow, that family will learn the uses of private property
sooner rather than later. I also believe that they
should be strongly encouraged to learn the English
language, not forbidden to know their native tongues,
but encouraged to learn English.
And I feel very strongly about this, that their
jugglers, their medicine men, their charlatans, their
spirit beings, on the whole it seems to me a fraudu-
lent group, should be heavily discouraged. We should
send blacksmiths and carpenters and physicians and,
perhaps, some enlightened religious beings from
amongst ourselves to them. But we should deeply
discourage their continual dependence upon jugglers
and mystics of all sorts. This, I think, has done more
damage than good in white Indian relations in the
West.
Finally, apropos of Indians, let me say that I feel
we always overreact to depredations and skirmishes
and misunderstandings in the West. The United
States government has a history of overreaction
which, I think, has caused more problems that it has
solved. I never traveled in any of my trips into the
West, no matter what rumors were floating about,
with a military escort, I refused that. It seems to me
that a military escort always is provocation to trouble.
When something bad occurs in the West, when a
homestead is burned or a pioneer is tortured, it seems
to me that the government of the United States ought
to forebear and show a policy of restraint.

I wrote about this in a popular article and said
this, "Some hungry Indian steals a beef, some tired
Indian steals a horse, some vicious Indian commits a
depredation and flies to the mountains. No effort is
made to find the real offender but the first Indian
met with is shot on sight. Perhaps the Indians
retaliate and soon the word has spread through the
country that war has broken out with the Indians.
Federal troops are sent. They march about the
mountains and return, perhaps, a few Indians are
killed and perhaps a few white men. Usually, in all
such cases, the chief sufferers are the white men
because they have
property that can be
destroyed while the
Indians have none
that they cannot
easily hide among the
rocks. Their methods
of warfare are such
that we cannot cope
with them without

REFLECTIONS
OFAN
ADVENTURER
ANDA
VISIONARY

We had it in our power

to plan for the future
of this district and to

bring to it institutions

that would pay respect

resorting to means
that are repugnant to
civilized society. And
after spending
thousands and even
millions of dollars on
an affair that, at its inception, was nothing more than
a petty larceny, we make peace with the Indians and
enter into negotiations to provide them lands which
we will not fulfill, and to give them annuities, the
cost of which would be a burde.n on the public
treasury. How much more intelligent it would have
been to show tolerance and forbearance and to
investigate rather than send out parties of reprisal."
This is my conclusion about our native peoples.
It's a stark one but it was an honest and scientific one.
If these peoples, whom I greatly admired and studied
all of my life, if they wish to survive biologically, and
they must if we are a great republic, then probably
they are going to yield to a certain extent culturally.
In other words, cultural absolutism will almost
certainly lead to biological extinction and so some
assimilation is required, it seems to me as a 19th
Century ethnologist, if biological survival is to be
contemplated.
Now, this troubles me because when I stand before
a fire amongst my Indian friends and hear their
storytellers and hear their history and their mythol-
ogy, I do not judge it. I see it as no different from
that of my own culture at another phase of its
existence. We mustn't moralize cultures but, on the
other hand, we must, if we are an enlightened people,
plan for successful coexistence and that requires, it

to its capacities, to

its rainfall.

SYMPOSIUM
PROCEEDINGS
SEPTEMBER 1999

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