GENERAL O. PRATT
Great Educator of Indians
Passes
General R. H. Pratt, U. S. A. Ret.,
for many years prominent in Indian
affairs and education died at his
daughters home in Rochester last
February.
General Pratt, enlisting as a pri
vate at the outbreak of the Civil
War, was promoted to lieutenancy
before the close of the war for dis
tinguished services. He continued
in the cavalry service after the
close of the war. During the wars
with the Indians he was placed in
charge of some seventy prisoners
of war. His contact with them and
association led him to believe that
the Indian was just as much a hu
man as any other race of people
and that they would react to the
good as well as bad influences. While
in command of these prisoners he
recommended and urged that a non
reservation school be established to
try out his scheme of making better
Americans of these people. Through
his untiring effort Congress provid
ed the appropriation and a military
post at Carlisle, Penn., to try his
scheme.
For over forty years he
preached the doctrine of non-segre
gation of the Indian races. His
forceful Christian character and per
sonality dominated all who came in
contact with him. He sent from
that school hundreds of young men
and women who lived his teachings
so well that the elimination of the
paternal system of the Department
of the Interior seemed a certainty.
His entire principle of education
of the Indian races might best be
stated in his own words: “To
civilize the Indian, get him into
civilization; let him stay.” Frances
E. Willard, prominent in prohibition
circles, asked him for the proper
solution of the so-called Indian ques
tion and he replied. “I would put
an Indian in every county, town and
village and let him stay. There
v.-ou’d be no more Indian problem.”
The Carlisle school became so suc
cessful in the practical working o"
his ideas that it threatened the very
existence of the self-interested of
ficials in charge of Indian affairs.
In a speech before Friends Society
of Philadelphia he stated that the
“Indian Bureau was a barnacle to
be knocked off” from the life of
the Indians in order that they might
make advancement in modern civ
ilization. For this the department
took offense and made every effort
to misquote and secure his dis
missal. Upon reaching retirement
fure for army service he was retired
and relieved from duty at Carlisle.
His enemies pointed with glee at
him and promised themselves the
complete destruction of his many
years of labor. Another army of
ficer, Major Mercer, was put in
charge with instructions to complete
ly destroy the principles of educa
tion laid down by General Pratt and
to remove his influence.
From the most successful school
in the Indian service Carlisle became
but a poor instrument for the edu
cation of these people. The newer
pupils, not having the ideals and
principles of the old School Father,
were not able to keep up the “old
Carlisle standard.” But, though the
Bureaucrats were successful in re
moving the influences of this great
hearted man they were not success
ful in eradicating his memory and
influences from the minds and the
hearts of his “children.” Here and
there, throughout the States and
Alaska, the seeds planted in the
minds of graduates and returned
students from this school, took root
and grew, and slowly began to bear
fruit.
Six years ago the writer, sec
retary of the Grand Camp of the
Alaska Native Brotherhood joined
that organization and then began
to urge the principles obtained from
that greatest of Indian educators,
General Pratt. The convention of
Juneau six years ago brought forth
a platform which urged the preven
tion of the reservation system in
Alaska; the establishing of the legal
status of Alaskan Indians as citi
zens; one Territorial school system,
without segregation and equal op
portunity to assimilate education; de
velopment of competent Christian
citizenship.
Drawing the ragged ends of an
organization that was without
strength and co-ordinating all forces
in organization was wielded until
at the Wrangell Convention in 1921
it began to be felt as a force in
the affairs of the Indians of the
Territory.
Drawing further upon the educa
tion and leadership of William L.
Paul, another product of the Carlisle
School, the organization was further
drawn together in the common fight
against fish traps. Under his lead
ership the legal status of Indian
citizenship was established in Alaska
Today it is very candidly admitted
I y all forces that the Indian citi
en is a potential power in Alaska
politics. And we might further add
lhat the true principles of Ameri
canism, Liberty, Right and Justice,
1 aught, from the Declaration of In
dependence and the Constitution by
General Pratt, intensively taught
among the native people of' the
territory will make Alaska a decent
place to live in after a regime of
political leadership which had thor
oughly corrupted its civic life.
The axiom that “the good men
do live after them” was forgotten
by the Indian Bureau. We point
with pride to the work of - General
Pratt, 3,000 miles removed from
Carlisle in twenty odd years after
contact and no one can gain say
that he worked in vain.
The many graduates of General
Piatt’s Carlisle School extend their
heart felt sympathy to the bereaved
family of their School Father.
Though removed from his cloak of
mortality his spirit lives with us
and we pledge our lives as a last
ing monument to the efforts of this
great hearted educator to incorpor
ate in the body politic the Indian
Citizen.
LOUIS F. PAUL,
Carlisle class 190G.
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RED SALMON
In another column we have print
ed something of the dispute between
the red salmon canners and the so
called Alaska Fishermen’s Union as
to prices for the season of 1924.
The so-called Alaska Fishermen want
8(4 cents per salmon (averaging 5
to 7 pounds each) and the Packers
offering 7 cents per fish.
The wholesale price of red salmon
is $2.25 per dozen or $9.00 per case.
A case of salmon contains about 12
to 14 salmon so that even at the
top price, the cost of the raw ma
terial would be only $1.12.
In contract with these prices, the
pink salmon packers are paying from
7 to S cents per humpback. There
are about 15 salmon of this species
to a case, so that the raw material
in a case of Pinks comes to $1.20
as against $1.12 for reds. The
wholesale price is $1.10 per dozen
ci $4.40 per case.
There is practically no difference
in all the other items of expense
between the cost of packing red
salmon in the westward division of
Alaska and in packing the pinks in
Southeastern Alaska.
The territorial basic tax on red
salmon is 10c per case, and the basic
tax on pinks is 4 (4c.
But the difference in the value of
the two species of salmon at the
present market rice is $4.60 per case.
This is the reason that 1 am re
printing a letter written two years
ago iby a man who has made a
thorough study of this phase of the
Territorial business.
After you have studied the facts
presented here, will you not agree
that the packers of the valuable red
salmon could easily pay one dollar
tax per case, and do it easier than
the packer of the pink species can
pay 4(4 cents.
“If the collections by the govern
ment from the people, industries
and resources in the United States
equalled per capita similar collections
from Alaska, then the yearly nation
al revenue would exceed twenty bil
lion dollars.” So states the gover
nor of Alaska in his report for the
year 1920.
Need this territory then hesitate
in taking its bit?