Irreclaimable Savages

Definition of barbarous, Oxford dictionary: Savagely cruel, exceedingly brutal; primitive and uncivilized

“Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1900” History Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/3YVW4ZRARQT7J8S

“If we would be successful in our work, the Indian child must be placed in school before the habits of barbarous life have become fixed, and there he must be kept until contact with our life has taught him to abandon his savage ways and walk in the path of Christian civilization.

Instead of roaming with parents, riding wild ponies, sitting by railroad stations – favorite places of amusements – learning the white man’s vices around saloons, etc., the children, if in school, would have the example of right living in present and past history daily set before them, and would be taught to look upward for their ideals, to have a right appreciation of life, and respect and obedience for constitutional authority.” (page 426)