SPECIAL CAPACITIES OF AMERICAN INDIANS 163 



a corporate embodiment." There are possibilities in Mexico's effort to 

 build on Indian community living, therefore, that are important not only 

 for Indians in the American Southwest, but for American rural life and 

 civilization generally. 



in 



Perhaps for us today the most important thing is the way we choose to 

 look at these possible Indian contributions. The real question, whether in 

 terms of races or individuals, is the preservation and strengthening of capac- 

 ities and achievements. The real task is to encourage and stimulate talent, 

 wherever found, whether in individuals or in groups. The full-blood Indian 

 girl twelve years of age with an I Q of 145 whom Garth found in the Santa 

 Fe Indian School presents an opportunity for the discovery and develop- 

 ment of ability. "If superiority is worth conserving in the white race, it is 

 worth conserving in all races," says Garth apropos of this case, and he re- 

 minds us that "rarely has a society endeavored to build up the Negro or the 

 Indian. Nor has their education ever been properly undertaken and 

 generously supported." Not even the most ardent hereditarian questions 

 today the profound influence of modification upon native processes. The 

 problem for us is to exert this modification and at the same time accept fully 

 the possibilities of Indian peoples as they are. Jacobson, in his introduction 

 to his portfolio of Kiowa paintings, takes Anglo-Saxons to task for their 

 habit of "smashing the culture of any primitive peoples that gets in their 

 way and then, with loving care, placing the pieces in a museum." In our 

 program of education and adjustment today with the Indian people we must 

 somehow find the way to save and advance the significant contributions 

 they have made and can make to our civilization. 



