Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/168

134 interest in the things they see around them. Most of this success is undoubtedly due to the intelligence, skill and energy of the principals of those schools, General Armstrong and Captain Pratt, who in an eminent degree unite enthusiasm with practical ability. But it is evident that the efforts of the most devoted teachers would be of little avail, did not the pupils possess a corresponding capacity of receiving instruction. A third school of this kind was more recently established on the same plan at Forest Grove, in Oregon, for the education of children of the Indian tribes on the Pacific coast.

When the Indian pupils have received a sufficient course of schooling, they are sent back to their tribes, to make themselves practically useful there, and to serve, in their turn, as teachers and examples. We hear sometimes the opinion expressed that the young Indians so educated, when returned to their tribes, will, under the influence of their surroundings, speedily relapse into their old wild habits, and that thus the results of their training will, after all, be lost. Undoubtedly there was good reason for such apprehensions at the time when the Indians had no other conception of their future than an indefinite continuance of their old life as hunters and warriors, when civilized pursuits were not in demand among them, and all influences were adverse to every effort in that direction. Then, an educated Indian necessarily found himself isolated among his people, and his accomplishments were looked upon not only as useless, but as ridiculous. Under such circumstances, of course, he would be apt to relapse. But circumstances have changed since. It is generally known among the Indians that hunting will soon be at an end; that the old mode of life has become untenable and productive work necessary. Now, knowledge and skill are in immediate demand among them. As long as they expected to live all their lives in tents of