The thought of
this weighed heavily upon Red Jacket's lofty spirit, and affected
materially the disposition with which he regarded the white man.
He had observed also that the Indian had not been improved, but rather
made worse by intercourse with the white man. He more readily acquired his
vices, than his virtues.
The schools likewise that had been established among the Indians, had not
been attended with very salutary results. And some of the Indian boys that
had been sent to the schools of the whites, had failed to be qualified for
usefulness among white men, and were unfitted in their tastes and habits
for a life among the Indians. As was observed by Red Jacket: "they have
returned to their kindred and color, neither white men nor Indians. The
arts they have learned are incompatible with the chase, and ill adapted to
our customs. They have been taught that which is useless to us. They have
been made to feel artificial wants, which never entered the minds of their
brothers. They have imbibed, in your great towns, the seeds of vices,
which were unknown in the forest. They become discouraged and dissipated,
--despised by the Indians, neglected by the whites, and without value to
either,--less honest than the former, and perhaps more knavish than the
latter." [Footnote: Washington had always been earnest in his desire to
civilize the savages, but had little faith in the expedient which had been
pursued, of sending their young men to our colleges; the true means he
thought, was to introduce the arts and habits of husbandry among them.
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