Viewing page 62 of 88

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Recently I had an unusual experience. I visited a resort in Minnesota who hires none but Indians of a nearby Reservation to do his work. He is the only employer in our state who has come to my attention as getting along extremely well with Indian workers and would hire none other to do his work. He has, however, rather unorthodox ways which would not work on most jobs. He needs two men to run his fishing boat, so he hires five, knowing that two will always be on board. If he needs one man to take care of his cabins, he hires two or three men in order to have one always on the job. These men when they work are excellent employees, and, as I said, this resort owner prefers them to white men and were it not for their unorthodox demands on the job, they would undoubtedly outcompete the white man. For them, the Indian problem would then be solved. ****** I have no doubt but what, with proper education, the proper approach to Indian employment, elimination of governmental interference, and all these other things, the Indian problem can be solved almost within a generation. The biggest job, however, is up to you Indian leaders. You are the ones who can bring this story home. 

It is true, of course, that some answer must be found to the problem of government interference and domination of the Indian in his homes and personal life. Since I have been attending Indian meetings, I have heard that thought repeated often, that the poor Indian doesn't know how to think for himself any more, after having lived so long under Federal wardship and domination, where all his thinking has been done for him. Some of this is undoubtedly true and without a doubt mistakes have been made in the past. But the poor Indian will still be a poor Indian in 100 years from now if the only lesson we can learn from this is, that the Federal Government was at fault. I believe the time has come -- in fact is overdue -- when all of us, the Federal Government, the states and the Indians themselves should be take an honest look at themselves to see how each can profit form past experience and do better from here on. With or without a confession of sins, we can all start anew. the Governors' Interstate Indian Council, which has gotten off to a fine start, and about which I want to talk to you in a moment, is an invitation for all of us to let bygones be bygones, and work together in a fresh, cooperative endeavor. Progress in some places more than in others. We have Indian groups within the State of Minnesota, where there really isn't much of a problem because the children have been educated for several generations, the same as whites. These Indians have moved into the economic and social stream in a perfectly acceptable way and, as years go on, less and less will be heard from these folks about any special problems. We also have other places within the state where the same is not true, and where the Indians must figuratively be lifted up out of their squalor by the bootstraps, starting way back with the education of little children, and planning to spend a whole generation or two to get results.

Let me congratulate the National Congress of American Indians for the excellent work this organization has been doing. You are the nucleus of Indian leadership. Your organization is a wonderful thing, if for no other reason that the fact it displays to the whole country, at least once a year, the excellent Indian leadership in men such as Justice Johnson

-60-