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FREEDOMWAYS FOURTH QUARTER 1972

main areas. Most were missionaries; the rest were anthropologists. Their aims seem to have been to further the process of Christianizing the Indian and exalting his native culture. The group is chiefly responsible for the promotion of Indian crafts and the influences of these crafts on the American scouting movement. Though they had an active intellectual interest in the Indian and his well being and seemed to have sincerely sought a meaningful resolution to his problems at the hands of whites there is no indication that their understanding of the Indian experience was any better than that of the general public. It could be said that their lack of understanding was merely based on a broader range of knowledge.

Hertzberg has failed not so much by what she had said but by what she has failed to say. There is no real answer here about why the Indian has failed to become a full participant in the twentieth century American saga. What of the physical isolation of Indians on reservations that are remote from any major centers of commerce or industry? The lack of any major organs of communication? Did this pay a role in their inability to organize? Hertzberg does not choose to deal with this kind of question. Given the exploitation of Indian land by white industry is it not possible that the Indian was a victim of a conscious effort on the part of some to keep him separate and ignorant? Again we find no hint of this in Hertzberg's text. What connection did the Indians have with other oppressed people? Hertzberg tells us that the rise of Indian groups occurred at the same time as the rise of black groups and dealt with nearly the same problems. She cautions us not to take this too seriously; it was not significant, only an interesting coincidence. She suggests that the Indians had pronounced anti-black bias within their movement. This is a curious generalization to make, given the historical nature of Indian-Black relations. Though some Indians had held black slaves prior to the Civil War and many had fought for the South, it should also be pointed out that many runaway slaves found refuge in Indian communities and even received high honor such as Jim Beckworth's election as a chief of the Crow nation. Many of the leaders of the movement had been educated at the Hampton Institute in Virginia which was a predominantly black institution. If these Indians had any serious problems with anti-black feelings it is strange they would have returned for so many years to such a situation as Hampton.

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