In time we came to recognize that the drunkards and licentious among white men, with whom we too frequently came in contact, were condemned by the white man's religion as well, and must not be held to discredit it. But it was not so easy to overlook or to excuse national bad faith. When distinguished emissaries from the Father at Washington, some of them ministers of the Gospel and even bishops, came to the Indian nations, and pledged to us in solemn treaty the national honor, with prayer and mention of their God; and when such treaties, so made, were promptly and shamelessly broken, is it strange that the action should arouse not only anger, but contempt?

     The historians of the white race admit that the Indian was never the first to repudiate his oath.

     I confess I have wondered much that Christianity is not practiced by the very people who vouch for that wonderful conception of exemplary living. It appears that they are anxious to pass  on their religion to all other races, but keep very little of it for themselves. I have not yet seen the meek inherit the earth, or the peacemakers receive high honor.

     It is my personal belief, after thirty five years' experience of it, that there is no such thing as "Christian civilization." I believe that Christianity and modern civilization are opposed and irreconcilable, and that the spirit of Christianity and of our anchient religion is essentially the same.

 

 

 

     Long before I ever heard of Christ or saw a white man, I had learned the essence of morality.

     With the help of dear Nature herself, my grandmother taught me things simple but of mighty import.

     I knew God. I perceived what goodness is. I saw and loved what is really beautiful. Civilazation has not taught me anything better!

     As a child, I understood how to give. I have forgotten that grace since I became civilized. I lived the natural life, whereas I now live the artificial.

     any pretty pebble was valuable to me then; every growing tree an object of reverence. Now I worship with the white man before a painted landscape whose value is estimated in dollars!

     In this manner is the Indian rebuilt, as the natural rocks are ground to powder, and made into artificial blocks which may be built into the walls of modern society.

 

 

 

     I am an Indian; and while I have learned much from civilization, I have never lost my Indian sense of right and justice.

     When I reduce civilization to its most basic terms, it becomes a system of life based on trade. Each man stakes his powers, the product of his labor, his social, political, and religious standing against his neighbor. To gain what? To gain control over his fellow workers, and the results of their labor.

     Is there not something worthy of perpetuation in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth, our mother, was free to all, and no one sought to impoverish or enslave his neighbor? Where the good things of Earth were not ours to hold against our brothers and sisters, but were ours to use and enjoy together with them, and with whom it was our privilege to share?

     Indeed, our contribution to our nation and the world is not to be measureed in the material realm. Our greatest contribution has been spiritual ond philosophical. Silently, by example only, in wordless patience, we have held stoutly to our native vision of personal faithfulness to duty and devotion to a trust. We have not advertised our faithfulness nor made capital of our honor.

     But again and again we have proved our worth as citizens of this country by our constancy in the face of hardship and death. Prejudice and racial injustice have been no excuse for our breaking our word. This simplicity and fairness has cost us dear. It has cost us our land and our freedom, and even the extinction of our race as a seperate and unique people.

     But, as an ideal, we live and will live, not only in the splendor of our past, the poetry of our legends and art, not only in the interfusion of our blood with yours, and in our faithful adherence to the ideals of american citizenship, but in the living heart of the nation.