Hoping to "rehabilitate" Indians from their, as he saw it, strange and sometimes wicked ways, General James A. Carleton of the United States Army recommended in a letter to a colleague what should be done with them: "Gather them together little by little onto a Reservation (and) teach their children how to read and write: teach them the art of peace; teach them the truths of Christianity... Little by little they will become a happy and contented people."
Many Native Americans, however, saw things a bit differently. In June 1744, in an offer not unlike General Carleton's, the College William & Mary in Virginia invited the Indians of the Six Nations to send twelve young men to their college to be "properly" educated. Soon after, William & Mary received the following reply:
Sirs,
We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinc'd, therefore, that you mean to do us Good by your Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, must know that different Nations have different Conceptions of things; and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our Ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some Experience of it. Several of our Young People were formerly brought up at the College of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger; knew neither how to build a Cabin or take a Deer; or kill an Enemy, spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, nor Counsellors; they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less oblig'd by your kind Offer; tho' we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them."
Many Native Americans, however, saw things a bit differently. In June 1744, in an offer not unlike General Carleton's, the College William & Mary in Virginia invited the Indians of the Six Nations to send twelve young men to their college to be "properly" educated. Soon after, William & Mary received the following reply:
Sirs,
We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinc'd, therefore, that you mean to do us Good by your Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, must know that different Nations have different Conceptions of things; and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our Ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some Experience of it. Several of our Young People were formerly brought up at the College of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger; knew neither how to build a Cabin or take a Deer; or kill an Enemy, spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, nor Counsellors; they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less oblig'd by your kind Offer; tho' we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them."
