But it was not so easy to
overlook or to excuse national bad faith. When distinguished
emissaries from the Father at Washington, some of them ministers of
the gospel and even bishops, came to the Indian nations, and
pledged to them in solemn treaty the national honor, with prayer
and mention of their God; and when such treaties, so made, were
promptly and shamelessly broken, is it strange that the action
should arouse not only anger, but contempt? The historians of the
white race admit that the Indian was never the first to repudiate
his oath.
It is my personal belief, after thirty-five years' experience
of it, that there is no such thing as "Christian civilization." I
believe that Christianity and modern civilization are opposed and
irreconcilable, and that the spirit of Christianity and of our
ancient religion is essentially the same.
II
THE FAMILY ALTAR
THE FAMILY ALTAR
Pre-natal Influence. Early Religious Teaching. The Function of
the Aged. Woman, Marriage and the Family. Loyalty, Hospitality,
Friendship.
The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He
had neither a national army nor an organized church. There was no
priest to assume responsibility for another's soul. That is, we
believed, the supreme duty of the parent, who only was permitted to
claim in some degree the priestly office and function, since it is
his creative and protecting power which alone approaches the
solemn function of Deity.
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