University of Virginia Library

THE future of the Indian race in the United States is a question that possesses an interest out of all proportion to the numerical strength of the surviving tribes. The Indians were the possessors of the country when our forefathers came, and they must ever hold a large place in our history and our literature. Those who remain are entitled to the most considerate treatment, under the guidance of the best intelligence. They have been too long the victims of our spoilsmen in politics and of ignorant and inconsiderate methods. A few months ago we published an article prepared for this REVIEW by the pen of Prof. Frank Terry, of the Crow Agency Indian School, in which was shown the serious wrong that is being perpetrated against the Indians by the haphazard and grotesque manner of their renaming for purposes of legal identity as landholders and citizens. In their tribal state the Indians are without a permanent name, their modes of designation bearing no resemblance whatever to our plan of a fixed patronymic which passes from one generation to another.

In an article contributed to the Forum, which we summarize in another department of this number of the REVIEW, Mr. Simon Pokagon makes it clear that the destiny of the American Indians is ultimate absorption into the white race. Mr. Pokagon read Professor Terry's article when it appeared, and several weeks ago sent to us the following very pertinent and instructive farther comment on the subject of Indian names. We are sorry to observe by the newspapers that this distinguished Pottawatomie chieftain has fallen very ill since his letter for this magazine and his article for the Forum were written, and that some fears are entertained lest he may not recover. Simon Pokagon is one of the most remarkable men of our time. He has been connected in an official capacity with the work of the Government's Indian industrial schools, and his great eloquence, his sagacity, and his wide range of information mark him as a man of exceptional endowments. To know such a man as Simon Pokagon is to understand the remarkable ability of some of the Indian chieftains whose names occur in the earlier annals of our country. The average reservation Indian does not seem to bear out the romantic traditions of the "noble red man;" but under more favorable circumstances in the earlier days, the fine qualities of the Indian were no myth, but a fact recognized and acknowledged by many a white pioneer. Simon Pokagon's father was the Pottawatomie chief who sold the land upon which the city of Chicago now stands, and the present chieftain—whose letter is herewith printed as the second contribution he has made to this magazine—was one of the most honored and conspicuous of the guests at the World's Fair. His present home is in Hartford, Mich.