1868, November 10 - Effort and Failure to Civilize the Aborigines, Edward D. Neill

Files

Subject

November 10, 1868, letter from Edward D. Neill to N. G. Taylor, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, concerning effort and failure to civilize the Indians. Included is an August 1, 1622, London Company letter to the Virginia Colony concerning the Indian massacre in 1622.

Description

In his 1868 letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Edward D. Neill, former Secretary of the Minnesota Historical Society, wrote that "past generations of white men have not been indifferent to the welfare of the red man of America." He pointed to the benign efforts of early settlers to "bring the infidels and savages ... to human civility and settled and quiet government." He noted that numerous efforts had been made by the English "to bring those infidel people from the worship of devils to the service of God." Neill discussed the efforts of various communities and organized religion to educate and civilize the Indians, generally to no avail. He pointed to numerous examples of Indians discarding the white man's dress, slipping back into the customs of their fathers and joining their savage relatives against whites. Neill went on to identify what he perceived as the causes of the failure to civilize the Indians.

Source

Internet Archives: https://archive.org/search.php?query=Report%20of%20the%20Commissioner%20of%20Indian%20Affairs

Format

PDF File

Language

English

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Education | Law | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Original Format

Paper

Document Type

Report

Recommended Citation

"1868, November 10 - Effort and Failure to Civilize the Aborigines, Edward D. Neill" (2017). US and Indian Relations. 56.
https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/hornbeck_usa_2_e/56