TRIBAL CULTURE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 43, 19 January 1938, Page 16

TRIBAL CULTURE.

REVIVAL ADVOCATED. NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. NEW YORK, Dec. 22. There is domestic strife among the Indians of North America over the recurring question whether the red men will preserve their ancient tribal ways and mystical religious beliefs, or adopt tho white man’s civilisation and living standards. The Governments of the United States and Canada, wards of the Indian race, are urging them to preserve their tribal beliefs and customs. Tho American Indians now number 346,000, and are increasing at a more rapid rate than any other national group under the Stars and Stripes. “The Indian who takes up the white man’s ways tends to regard himself as an inferior white man,” says the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (Mr John Collier). “Tho Indian who keeps in touch with the best in his spiritual inheritance retains his selfrespect, and therefore has a better morale for grappling with his problems. COLLECTIVE THOUGHT. “There is even more involved than tho question of morale. In so far as our modern problems call for collective thought and action in their solution, tho Indian’s tribal ways have taught him a whole lot better how to proceed and how .to carry on than the ways of the white man.” Young Indians who mix with the white folks and get jobs in the tourist season favour Jiving life as it is depicted in Hollywood. Indians close to the soil are for propitiating Nature with sun and rain dances.

Canada has granted her Indians the right to exercise the franchise. That they do not vote is due to the fact that they prefer to continue as wards of the Dominion, rather than become an autonomous group. LAND HOLDINGS INCREASED. The 189 tribes, bands and reservation units in the United States have been given domestic rule in regard to land tenure and communal systems. Last year they increased their land holdings by millions of acres, their incomes and property by even more significant figures. To the west, north and south of the border, tribal rehabilitation proceeds apace. The Apaches of Colorado, a tribe of savage fighters of other days, increased their income from £2OOO to £30,000 from their sheep and cattle alone; fast year they established a trading co-operative, with £16,000 capital. The Sky Pueblos of New Mexico have achieved a similar economic revolution. The historian of the future will be fully entitled to paraphrase the famous' tribute to Dalhousie’s rule in India: “Our Indians of to-day commemorate the greatness and the genius of the Paleface Administration of the nine-teen-thirties.”