INDIAN GIRLS TO TRY TO RECLAIM THEIR RACE

ONEQUAWING is going back to her people - that is, if Uncle Sam sees fit to send her back. Onequawing left them when she was 16 years old. Even the spirit which now and then animates her had made itself felt.

She knew that her people needed elevating influences; she recognized the necessity of education if they were to be lifted to a higher level of living. So Onequawing decided to go to the schools of the East, when the kindly ministrations of a Philadelphia institution made it possible that she might learn and, in turn, impart what she had learned to her people. Today, as Mae L. Purdy, the Indian maiden is recognized not only as a faithful scholar, but a clever teacher, and the Lincoln Institution through whose offices she was enabled to study and to acquire a wider view of life than her sisters of the reservations may know contains no pupil who gives promise of a brighter and more useful career.

The transformation of the Indian maiden Onequawing into the educated teacher, Miss Purdy, in a period of less than five years, is illustrative of the effective mission of the Lincoln Institution situated on Eleventh street, near Pine. It was founded in 1866, largely through the devoted efforts of Mrs. John Bellangee Cox, who is still one of the most active figures in philanthropic work. Until 1883 the institution, together with a branch organization in West Philadelphia, known as "The Educational Home," was devoted to the care of soldiers' orphans. Feeling that their charges were then old enough to take care of themselves, and seeing the needs of the Indian, Mrs. Cox and her associates of the Managing Board decided to make the two homes Indian schools. To-day they are conducted under one corporate title, and care for forty-two Indian girls and seven Indian boys.

Stories of the educated Indian returning to wild and sometimes savage life are numerous. But one does not hear so much of the righter side - the Indian who goes back to the reservation and preaches a new gospel of racial rehabilitation. Perhaps there is less of the sensational in it, but a close observation reveals much that is romantic and even inspiring in this reclamation from a life that is at no time improving, physically or mentally, and is too often degrading. That the very children thus rescued from the squalor of the tepees should serve as factors in a general uplifting of their race is not the least remarkable feature in it.

Gradually the Indian is becoming a part of the newer American people. In the Eastern reservations agricultural and industrial employments are followed by many to the extent of an acquirement of a fair share of prosperity. In the West progress has been slower.

The Apaches, Arapahoes and Sioux have not taken kindly to the innovations proposed with a view to their own betterment, as the government's expenditure of lives and money in past years has made unpleasantly manifest. But even here the passing of the elders and the educational training of the young is having its effect. In many tribes there exists an ambition to acquire a standing that the culture of its youthful members alone can make possible. The line of resistance is weakest here, and here the ranks of the future factors in the "Americanizing" of the Indian are recruited. There is one great drawback to all the work - the Indian's inborn dislike of restrictions or regulations, and his fondness for ease even though obtained by questionable means.

In many cases these undesirable traits are emphasized by intermarriages, the half-breeds, it is said, too often taking on the worst qualities of both progenitors. Those who have made a close study of the Indian problem assert that the commingling of Caucasian with native blood does not furnish a solution but rather complicates it. They believe that the stable improvement of the Indian people, their permanent establishment onto a higher plane of civilization, must result from a force that will come from within. The encouragement and development of that force has for eighteen years been the mission of the Lincoln Institution, and its methods and the results obtained exemplify those of similar schools throughout the country, save that private charity alone supports the Philadelphia organizations in its work.

The Lincoln Institution has accommodations for 150 pupils. But relying as it does solely on donations, it has on its roll at present only 42 Indian girls and 7 Indian boys, the 'Educational Home" in West Philadelphia having been closed last summer on account of the discontinuance of the government appropriation.

Onequawing, who is going back to her people, is a type of the Indian girl graduates turned out by the Lincoln Institution. She is ambitious of passing the civil service examination which is necessary to the obtaining of a position as a teacher. If she is successful she will soon leave for the Oklahoma Reservation. There are several other Indian girls who will follow her course. Miss Purdy, as she is now known, is a High School graduate who took the kindergarten post-graduate course. She taught last year at St. Mark's Mission, and at the present time is active in "slum" missionary work. She is only 19 years old and is of the Winnebago Nation, from the Anadarko Agency, Oklahoma. This transformed Indian maiden recognizes the difficulties that beset her own path no less than the dangers which surround her race.

"It has been my life's ambition" she said, "to go to the reservation schools and there work out as best I can the problem of rejuvenation. Education is not altogether opposed by my people, but many of the older ones have old habits too thoroughly ingrained in them to give up their mode of life. Too many of the educated Indian girls and boys have gone back to the reservations only to take up the old form of living. I had a girl friend who returned to her tribe to earn a livelihood by the use of her new found knowledge. But before long she was in the tepee and was following all the customs of her ancestors. If the race is to gain ground there must be a greater firmness among those who have undertaken the task of leading the way. The Indian girl who goes back to her tribe must be strong enough to resist the influence of the older people."

"In some tribes, of course," she continued, "the opposition to the new order of things is much greater than in others. The Sioux, for instance, for a long time resisted the adoption of white customs. But gradually, through the earnest efforts of the younger people who are educated to the new phase, the Indian will become a part of this great Nation."

Human nature is much the same, whether it be in the case of the Indian or the white man. As the Indian maidens of the Lincoln Institution have progressed with their studies and have learned more intimately the ways of civilization, their appreciation of the value and meaning of appearances has grown greater. Gradually they have lost that stolidity of form and feature, that awkward gait and expressionless physiognomy characteristic of the Indian. With the development of the mental there has come a corresponding improvement in the physical, and the influence of surroundings has grown markedly visible. Thus it has come about that a group of the Indian girls of higher education resembles in almost every particular any group of white girls of similar attainments. Grace has replaced clumsiness; stolidity has given way to sprightliness; vivacity brightens where taciturnity once dulled; and comeliness has become the common heritage. This is made strikingly apparent by a comparison of the photographs on this page.

The group of girls who have reached the more advanced educational stage could scarcely be distinguished from any gathering of their white sisters. Among them are several real beauties, and their expressions generally are lively and bright. Mis Purdy herself is a remarkably pretty girl, the olive of whose skin is lightened by a rich bloom. She has wavy black hair a pleasing form and refined features. In the group her picture does not do her justice.

On the other hand, the stolid expressions on the faces of the younger girls who have not yet been through the refining processes of education indicate the preponderance of the Indian. Little by little they, too, will be transformed into "Americans," armed with education and an understanding of the refinements of civilization, with all that these portend. And so armed, they will be sent out to conquer - not as their forefathers did, but in the cause of peace and prosperity.

Not only as teachers, but as dressmakers, artisans, musicians, housekeepers, doctors and in other professional and business capacities the Indian girls and boys who are being so carefully trained by the Lincoln Institution will find opportunities among their own tribes. Some will remain here, but most of them prefer to return to the reservations to follow their callings. This plan is favored by Mrs. Cox and her co-workers, when it is assured that the pupils have been thoroughly prepared for resistance to tribal influences, for they recognize the importance of having Indian leaders for Indian work. But this resistance must be made certain. A short time ago one of the girl pupils was brought back from the Buffalo Exposition, whither she had gone to visit some of her relatives of the Mohawk tribe. The girl was sent for long before the term of her vacation had expired, simply because it had been found that she was taking too readily to Indian life. She was living in one of the tents, in comparatively squalid surroundings, wrapped in a blanket. She was apparently contented, and seemed very willing to remain. But she was quickly brought back to other - and better - surroundings.

There is more than one reason for this solicitude. Some of the little girls when first brought from the reservations, in answer to questions, say that they have three and four "mothers" and two or three "fathers." Under such conditions the rehabilitation of the Indian would seem impossible.

Then, too, the bartering of cattle, tents, blankets and almost every other belonging for bad whisky is still a failing among some of the men. A strong moral no less than educational training is necessary to combat successfully an evil produced by a combination of degenerative tendencies, with a government system of paternalism which supplies incentives to laziness and thriftlessness. While the reservation system continues in vogue, say those who made a life study of the Indian problem, the best way to bring the red man to a higher plane of existence is to take from his own tribes as many of the young as possible and from the best of these to evolve the leaders in the work of improvement.

For this reason the future careers of Onequawing and her Indian girl companions will be watched with interest.

RICHARD A. FOLEY

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Notes and References

Courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Richard A. Foley, 1901.11.24 Philadelphia Inquirer p49.pdf