Indians' Friends

Hardly more than a generation ago, U. S. churches still had a stirring sense of the U. S. frontier. Much of their consecrated vigor derived from their missionary work among U. S. Indians. Today the welfare of the nation's 337,000 red men lies less with the churches than with the Government, particularly with Secretary of the Interior Ickes and zealous Indian Commissioner John Collier. Last week in Atlantic City, missionary chagrin over this state of affairs spilled over. At a Conference of Friends of the Indian--representing two secular Indian associations and Indian mission workers of 28 Protestant churches--a report cited lawlessness, drinking, vice, illegal marriages in Indian communities, blamed the "hands-off policy" of the Government.

"During all the years prior to the present Administration," said the report, "the story of the progress of the red men in adopting standards of Christian civilization stands out ... as an impressive illustration of the effectiveness of co-operative effort and sympathetic understanding between the forces representing the church in America and the governmental agencies." By contrast, the report cited Commissioner Collier's well-known policy of helping Indians to "turn back to their so-called ancient cultures, and to revive pagan practices and ceremonies of the pre-Columbian era." This "appears to the Christian forces of America to be a denial of the right of Indians to enter into an appreciation of their Christian heritage, implicit in their status as American citizens."*

Neither Indian Commissioner Collier nor Secretary Ickes showed up in Atlantic City, as the conference had hoped, to defend their work. Mr. Collier sent a message, in which he ducked religious issues, said his bureau is hampered by "a thousand antiquities," begged the co-operation of alert citizens, for "Indians will always have neighbors who stand to profit by despoiling whatever little property they may have, and debauching them as human beings."

*An interpretation which would be news to U. S. Jews, U. S. pagans. The Constitution says nothing about the U. S. being a Christian nation.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.