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60 It is the government agents who are at the center of the present-day problem of the Indians. The men of the pueblos are wanted as farm-hands, herdsmen, and laborers, the women as domestic servants. As long as the Indians hold to their "heathenish" beliefs, they will stay in their villages and continue their "useless" manner of life. And so the ideas which the Spanish padres allowed to live until now, must be destroyed by the new missionaries of education and industry. Charges of immorality are trumped up against the ancient ceremonies, and no device that could lead to their suppression and the turning of the Indians into useful citizens is considered too ugly for use—the end justifying the means: the end and the means, in fact, being altogether worthy of each other. In some localities the agents have met with success, the first one of their lives, in many cases, for they are frequently men who have failed in other occupations and are sent out to the Indian country to start life anew. Their attitude toward the people under their care may be judged by the remark made by one of them to a well known archeologist who, like many of his confrères, had been advising the Indians against abandoning their old practices. "If it weren't for you damned scientists," said this agent, "we'd soon have the Indians down off the mesas and at work."

This does not accord with the argument that the change in the life of the pueblos is simply the march of progress, the evolution of history, or whatever other phrase we may use to exalt our actions. Perhaps the ancient life is doomed, perhaps we must see the disappearance of the last of the nations we displaced on this continent. There is justification for our past acts in the higher needs of the white race, but no such excuse can be offered for the stupid course that is now being pursued. The Indians ask only to be let alone. Surely it is time for us to realize that even backward peoples have their rights. Undoubtedly we have progressed in our dealing with the Indians; to-day it is more our intelligence that needs quickening than our sense of justice. The important thing is that our new understanding of the problem come about quickly, for we have only a limited time in which to correct our policy. The life of a people is no more to be given back, once it is destroyed, than the life of an individual.

And the white Americans should realize that a new understanding of the Indians is important, not for their sake only, nor that we