Kill the Indian, Save the Man

I mentioned this phrase a few posts back without thinking about it. Just to be clear, "Kill the Indian, Save the Man," was an official government objective, written out by the originator of the boarding school system, a guy appropriately named Pratt.

It was a widely accepted and adopted saying for many years.

Here's the quote it first came from:

A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.