PRIMITIVE FOLK OF THE DESERT


sufficiently wise to do it in the right way, and what seems good to
us in many instances proves fatal to the recipient of our charity.
   If it were possible to send among the Hopi missionaries who would
be men of wide learning and of genuine love for the work of recording
and preserving their significant customs and ceremonies and their
strange and beautiful beliefs, it might be possible to bring them
gradually into harmony with the modern world, and yet not destroy
them. Any efforts at quick reform and high-handed methods are
fatal, both to the Indians and to any success in the work so con-
scientiously, but, alas, so indiscreetly, carried on. Infinite patience
and perseverance, and an absolutely sympathetic understanding
of their point of view, are required of anyone who expects to work
among these people and so succeed in what he is trying to do. In
this respect we might well take a lesson from the old padres who
followed the Conquistadores, and whom ade their way for thousands
of miles over unknown and waterless deserts, under burning sun
and in constant danger from savage tribes, to leave an indelible
stamp upon the entire southwest of this country. They "converted"
the Indians to their own religion, it is true, but they did not destroy
them in the process. Priests and people came into such close touch
that it was hard to tell at times that they belonged to alien races,
and many of the good padres are to-day revered almost as saints
by the descendants of their Indians. The results have shown the
efficiency of the method employed. In fifteen hundred and forty
the Catholic Church brought its influence to bear with the pueblo
Indians of New Mexico, and since that time the work of the mission
priests has gone steadily on. Over three and a half centuries of
proselytizing, and every man engaged in it devoting his entire life
to the work of teaching the Indians by practical example to live in
the white man's way. If it has required centuries for the Catholic
Church to make its impression on these people, does it seem un-
reasonable to feel that it might be well for us to go about it with
equal tact and deliberation? Our missionaries unquestionably are
equally zealous and mean equally well, but my experience of the
result of their efforts to Christianize and civilize the Indians of the
present day leads me to believe that their canonizing at the hands
of the grateful aborigines may perhaps be small, and that future
centuries will see no evidence of their work beyond a brief record
of the annihilation of a race.


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