Candid Testimony.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 30, 24 July 1902, Page 20

Candid Testimony.

The work which the Catholio Charch has been doin* amone the Indians of the United States has been acknowledged by all fairminded men as worthy of all praise, but the greater the success of the Oathohc missiouer and teacher the greater the opposition of those who would prefer to B ee the natives remain heathens than become good Catholics. In a lecture delivered recently in Lob Angeles, California, Mr Charles F. Lummio, a woll-known writer and a non-Catholic, who has lived for many years amone the Indians, gave his views on the work which is being done by the Catholic Church among the various tribes. 'Y 01 \ know '' he Baid ' <that for something liko a dozen years there has been a great ory raised in regard to •■ sectarian education " of Inrhan^ In plain language, the fight has been to wipe out the Cathoho Contract Indian Schools. . . . "If it is fair to leave out tno Presbyterian* an-i Methodists, it is also fair to leave out the Catholics, said the sly politicians. The simple fact that there are one or two Methodist Bchools and five or six Presbyterian, and fifty Catholic, does not cut any figure, of course ! The faot is that the Catholic schools were and are the vast bulk of the Indian sohoola. Do not think I mean to say that Catholic schools should be allowed to rema.n became they ate Catholic sohooK My reason for objecting to the campaign against them is not because they are Catholic but because they are r/ood schools ; not because they aro Church school-, bit because they are beneficial and competent and honest and thut is the chief reason why you should object to the campaign' with the added reason that your faith is attacked. I pity the man who does not believe what he believes, enough to fight for it The fact is that the Catholic Charch and its schools are the pioneers in Indian education in America. Ib wa« not until 1807 that an English-speaking persoa came to New Mexico. In 1617 there were 11 Catholic churches in New Mexico, and all had their Indian schools. The reason why lam opposed to this campaign ia because these arc the only schools I know of that are doing the 1 ndians lasting goi-d Not because of the religion, wLioh is nothing to me, although it is the Indians' religion to a great extent Ido not believe that one should be taken from his father's faith' or hit mother's faith for the whim of a school teacher. lam judging by the Ion? result. I have nut kno-vn a child from a Catholic school whn had forgotten his parents or hia hnguag •. I have not known any of the girls that have gone wrong in the Indian towns to have come from a Catholic school. Not one ! But I 7m ve known a good many from Carlisle and other Government Rchools. Go with me to that exquisitely neat and motherly school of Sister Margaret at Bernahllo; go with me to the Albuqueique, or to the Santa' Fe school, and then let a man of the w,;rld judge which of those he would choose as a pla( c for hib children. If there is anything in the world, though not a Catholio that I revere, it is a Sister of Charity. There is something selfish in that admiration as well as something of experience for I have known them for i long time, and in boyhood I thought they were terrible; but I have seen then when the black vomito'raeed in the tropicfl, and mothers and fathers fled away from their own children, and people fell in the street?, and those daughters of God picking up the deserted dead and dymg. And I have felt their tender mercy myself ; and when a man comes to me and says that a child—or a dog— had better be taught by a politician who is rewarded by a place in a government Indian tchool than by a Sister or Chanty, he wants to bring his fire-escape with him that's all And it seems to me that any American, not to say any Catholio American, could not better employ part of his money than in aidine the support of the Indian schools conducted by these noble and un«elfißii women, now frowned upon and even actively antagonised by the partisan spirit of our politicians.'