Professor of Philosophy and Education in Columbia University, New York 19 EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN BY WILLIAM N. HAILMANN Superintendent of Schools, Dayton, Ohio THIS MONOGRAPH IS CONTRIBUTED TO THE UNITED STATES EDUCATIONAL EXHIBIT BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN INTRODUCTION The first successful attempts to colonize America on the part of the Anglo-Saxons were made during the first quarter of the seventeenth century. Immediately the struggle set in between brutal greed and a certain irrepressible spirit of fair play on the part of the intruding race in their intercourse with the Indians. Greed saw in the Indian a hateful obstacle in the way of its advance in the acquisition of territory. Fair play, aided by a nascent spirit of broad Christianity and genuine philanthropy, emphasized in the Indian his essential humanity and labored to lead him, for the sake of his own salvation, to a recognition of the fatherhood of God and to lift him into a condition that would render him worthy of being received as a full equal into the brotherhood of man. This struggle is still going on with shifting success. Yet, on the whole, humanity and fair play are steadily gaining. The intellectual and spiritual upheavals of the sixteenth century, which had culminated in Bacon and Luther, had directed thought to education as the chief reliance in the liberation of the race from the trammels of superstition, and in leading him out of the worship of physical prowess to the recognition of his duty to God and man. Naturally, therefore, those who sought the conversion and uplifting of the Indian directed their attention primarily to efforts for his education. The very charters, granted to the colonizing companies, breathed the hope that their work might bring about "the enlargement of God's kingdom among the heathen people." The present system of Indian education, under the direction of the government of the United States, is in no way the outcome of a deliberate and carefully-conceived plan on the part of Washington officials. It is descended directly from the first attempts in Indian education on the part of Virginia, and more particularly on the part of New England. Here its seeds were planted. From these it derives certain inherent, vital principles, rooted in a broad Christianity and a fervent philanthropy which have enabled it to withstand blights of partisanship, of greed and rapacity on the part of spoilsmen, of incompetence on the part of teachers, of race prejudice on the part of settlers and other unfavorable conditions of environment and policy. JOHN ELIOT A remarkable pioneer work, and of a typical character, was done by Rev. John Eliot in Massachusetts. Mr. Eliot was actuated by motives of broadest Christianity and purest philanthropy. His simple measures were chosen with consummate wisdom. In the first place he familiarized himself with the language, disposition and character of his Indians. Then, by according them the same, he secured their confidence and respect and stimulated in their hearts reverence and a sincere desire for the industry and thrift, the godliness and purity of life, of which New England communities afforded the example. Those who would follow him he gathered in towns, where he taught them the liberties and responsibilities of township government and the devices and institutions of civilized life, among which the church and the school naturally occupied places of honor. A number of "choice Indian youths" he induced to attend English schools that they might prepare themselves for missionary work as teachers and catechists among their own people. He was warmly supported in his work by "the corporation for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts," by the general court of Massachusetts and, particularly, by Mr. Daniel Gookins, the official superintendent of the Indians in Massachusetts. Mr. Eliot began his work in 1646. In 1674 there were fourteen towns of "praying Indians" whose schools and churches, in the majority of instances, were administered by educated natives. At the same time, an |