Selected Editorials from THE'native

45) Selected Editorials from THE'NATIVE 'A 'ATEIZIC.AN TEN YEARS SELECTED EDITORIALS FROM THE NATIVE AMERICAN 1915-1925 BY JOHN B. BROWN Superintendent United States Indian Vocational School Phoenix, Arizona THE NATIVE AMERICAN PRESS PHOENIX, ARIZONA 1925 TEN YEARS THE present superintendent assumed charge of Phoenix In- dian School, April 1, 1915—ten years ago. Ten years is a short time in the work of cutting the Grand Canyon or in the de- velopment of a race of men, yet it is longer than the average term of office at one location for Indian school men and some things of importance have happened during those ten years. The World War had begun, but we were still two JOHN B BROWN years from our entrance into its maelstrom. We entered, hastily and clumsily prepared but emerged with prowess and we are well on the road toward the payment of the bill. Phoenix School has increased its average attendence from 700 to 850 with a percentage of Indian blood above ninety-nine. Of the ninety employees now at Phoenix School and sanatorium but eight were here ten years ago and five of these are academic teachers. We modestly believe that the work in most departments of the school is better than it was ten years ago and that better results are being secured. This is not a boast. The next ten years should also show progress whether under the same or a new leadership. Progress is normal and each ten-year period should be better than its pre decessor. Ten years ago the new superintendent of Phoenix School had a friendly letter expressing the opinion that the superintendency of a nonreservation Indian school offered a most comfortable berth. We have found it comfortable at times and in spots but never a berth. Ten years ago we took upon ourselves the editorship of the NATIVE AMERI- CAN since which time we have covered topics reaching from "bath bricks" to the "over soul" and the "valetudinarian." For some of them we were soon sorry and others do not seem as virile and pungent as they once did. Some of them we have recently re-read and frankly enjoyed as they recalled incidents which had been forgotten. The work on the NATIVE AMERICAN has been a labor of love. It hasn't taken long to live these ten years. Here goes for the next decade. THE GR AND CANYON IT IS quite common for "writing people" who visit the Grand Canyon to begin by saying that no one can describe it, and then to immediately prove their statement by spoiling some pages of good white paper in one more abortive effort. We recently visited the Canyon for the first time, and with much difficulty restrain ourselves from making the usual attempt. We real - 1j' think it would be educative to us and others and that everyone should write a description of this phenomenon. When it comes to printing the description, that is quite another matter, and for ourselves we some years since 4 TEN YEARS secured the services of Zane Grey, whose word painting still stands as worthy to be copied by the Santa Fe railway, and by George Wharton James, both good writers and good advertisers. Dr. Gray and Prof. John Vandyke will permit us to say, however, that the Canyon is a silent place and when undisturbed by the autobiographical babblings of the guide, it is viewed by silent men and women. Our school day adjectives are brought out and dusted off, our lips part but the speech remains as a potentiality. Like the good elderly woman of the hill country, sometimes we "just sit and think" and sometimes we "just sit," but mostly we think, and we dream wordless dreams. As with any spectacle or event, we see and we think as we are trained to see and think, depending on the mental angle from which we approach. The painter sees color and form, the scientist sees strata and prehistoric life forms from which he reads the earth's history, the philosopher reads from the pictured story of combat between the rocks and the river. At the same time the guide sees the trail, the curio dealer sees a customer and the garage man within sight of the Canyon sees the broken spring on the front of your Ford. Leaving out the class which does not see the Canyon at all, the more we can sympathize with the scientist, the artist and the philosopher, the more of benefit, of growth and of happiness we gain. We consciously or uncon- sciously soon fit the impressions, inspirations or ideas into our own life's work. Here is the thought, the analogy and the lesson that came to us out on Maricopa Point, one day, looking down at the chasm, one mile deep, eighteen miles wide and one hundred miles long with the thread of a stream at the bottom, the maker of the Canyon: You and I, dear reader, are striving to be educators. For some few cen- turies we and our forebears have labored for the enlightenment and develop- ment of a race. As rays of light have reached us we have tried to radiate as well as to absorb. We have met with obstacles and discouragement. We have grown weary at the struggle and impatient at the slowness of mind and body sometimes shown by our co-workers, as well as by those whom we would benefit. We have toiled for a human generation and seem only to have scratched the surface of our humanizing, civilizing problem. Men still fight when they should love, destroy when they should build, weep when they should sing and loaf when they should work. During this time, as examples of industry and patience, we have been pointed to the ant, the bee and to other frugal and praiseworthy workers of the smaller type. May we not, however, looking at the Colorado River and its work, even though inanimate and inarticulate, see an example which dwarfs all others into insignificance. What did the Infusoria say in that remote geologic dawn when the person- ified rivulet was assigned the stupendous task of cutting the Canyon? We may rest assured that the writhing of their microscope molecules, could it be translated through the ages which measure the growth of species TEN YEARS 5 and the orgin of language, would signify, "It can't be done." And after the first million years of grinding, when but a small seam marked the sur - face of the mountain, we may in fancy again hear the protesting paleozoic denizens murmur in chorus, "What's the use!" Yet the stream which be- came the Colorado River promptly settled down to do its work from which it has never taken a vacation. And there today is the Canyon, so great and so wonderful that the mind of man cannot conceive of the time or of the energy expended in its making. Our tasks today loom large in front of our restricted vision. The work of our few years seems to have had little effect, yet we esteem ourselves the lords of creation and the acme of nature's product. We fume and fret betimes attack and retreat, yet may we nor, without being in any degree satisfied with our results, still take courage and gather hope from this greatest of nature's examples. Continue to consider the ant, thou sluggard, if thou wilt, but oh, thou pessimist, consider the Colorado. ARE WE DEMOCRATIC? (1919) WE hear much these days and very appropriately, concerning the neces- sity of making the world safe for democracy. Kings and princes are abdicating so fast that the list is no longer complete if a few days old, and nationalities that are but ill prepared for the experiment are to attempt self government for the first time. Our representatives at the Peace Confer- ence, headed by our great President, are there not for the purpose of en- larging our area by a single acre but for the primary purpose of rendering secure the right of every people, including ourselves, to govern itself as it sees fit according to the judgment of its own majority. In the working out of this plan by the conference and the several nations in pursuance of the conclusions of this conference, it is becoming apparent in most cases that each citizen of these governments is to have one vote and that neither race, religion, finance, birth, color, or sex are to cut much figure. Of course all men are not equally able to govern, but on the whole it is probable that fewer national errors will be committed where the majority rules and where each person of sound mind and mature age has one vote and uses it. Because we are now approaching this condition and because in our country we have no permanent castes or social strata, we proclaim our democracy and invite our European neighbors to copy us. In their gratitude for the fine help we have given them they have charitably overlooked some of our faults which as educators we might all do well to recognize and labor to correct. The two chief factors in the education of youth are in our churches and our schools. Our churches may be sufficiently democratic to welcome men and women poorly clad and who contribute no funds, but they have not succeeded in convincing such persons that this is true. Our schools lack in democracy when a majority of wealth decrees a form and expensiveness of dress or social activities which the majority of num- bers can ill afford.

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