Last of the Mus-Qua-Kies and the Indian Congress, 1898 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Last of the Mus-Qua-Kies and the Indian Congress, 1898 "Giltche Manito, the mighty, The creator of the nations, Looked upon them with compassion, With paternal love and pity. "I will send a Prophet to you, A Deliverer of the nations, Who shall guide you and shall teach you, Who shall toll and suffer with you. If you listen to his counsels, You will multiply and prosper; If his warnings pass unheeded, You will fade away and perish!" As civilization grows older in our country, the Indian, once a theme for romance and song, becomes a subject for our philosophy. The object of the white mans benevolence and malevolence, his assimilation has been slow. Mixture with French, Spanish, Negro, Mexican, and Anglo-Saxon breeds has not improved his kind. The virus of our blood and the poison of our still have left him a degenerate, and a full-blood is as highly prized among the pupils of an Indian school as a thoroughbred among a herd of bronchos. The Indian has been fading. Pious priests and kindly sages could not save him from brigand and bully. To the frontier ruffian the Indian presented claims for the survival of his race surpassed by those of the fox, wolf, and buffalo, and the soldier was relied upon to consummate the work of his assimilation. What rum, the ruffian, and the soldier could not accomplish for civilization was left to the missionary and the teacher. The Indian population of the United States, including mixed bloods, exclusive of Alaska, is less than the fourth part of a million souls. Whole tribes that were powerful when the French fortified the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes are now extinct, while other tribes have been reduced to mere remnants of their former strength. The Indian and the American are now pitted against each other at the ratio of one to three hundred. And still I repeat an old, old question, "How long will the racial instincts of the Indian last?" About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.