WHITE] GOVERNMENT 61 



appointment and tries to be excused, but, of course, no one will 

 allow it. Instead, they encourage and reassure him, and speak of 

 his many and eminent qualifications for such an important and 

 honorable position. 



"Political Parties" at Acoma 



The use of this term may seem at first glance to be an unwarranted 

 projection of our own concepts into foreign material, but there is no 

 disputing the fact that there are parties at Acoma. There are 

 Liberals and Conservatives. To be sure, the interests and activities 

 of these parties quite exceed the bounds of politics; they cover every 

 phase of life. But the same may be said for the political parties in 

 practically all of the nations of to-day. 



In a word, the Conservatives are those who wish to preserve the 

 old aboriginal traditions intact. The Liberals wish to adopt such 

 items of white culture as would be to their advantage; they wish to 

 compromise between the old and the new. Their position might be 

 stated somewhat as follows: "Beyond the boimdaries of our reserva- 

 tion there are many peoples. Our ways of life are not the ways of 

 other groups, nor are they superior at every point. The whites are 

 crowding in on us, and whether we wish it or not, we must deal with 

 them. Through ignorance of their ways and their laws we are often 

 at a disadvantage in our transactions with them; we are very often 

 cheated in business deals. Therefore we should learn their ways in 

 order to protect ourselves against them. Then the whites have 

 many things which we have found useful — the rifle, kerosene lamps, 

 hoes, saws, etc. If we have profited by taking these things from the 

 whites, should we not go further and adopt anything else that we 

 like? The white man's treatment of disease is vastly superior to 

 our owTi; we should follow their doctors, etc." 



This is the way the Conservatives feel: "We are an ancient people. 

 We have a long and honorable past. We were living here happily, 

 long before the white people ever came. Our fathers have handed 

 down to us the wisdom of many centuries. They found it good, 

 and all went well. Everyone was happy. Then the white men 

 came. They have crowded in on us on all sides. They are forever 

 trying to meddle with our own business. They are trying to run 

 our lives. Their Government is forcing us to do things which we 

 hate. Their churchmen are trying to rob us of our gods. Our 

 children are driven into their schools like sheep into a corral. The 

 young folks are falling away from the ways of our fathers and are 

 losing respect for the gods who keep us, and it is all because of the 

 whites. We hate them and want to have nothing to do with them. 



