Page:LewisMeriam-TheProblemOfIndianAdministration.djvu/874

Lack of Success in Developing Indian Leadership. Without doubt the ultimate success of Indian missions depends upon the development of leadership within the native congregations. One of the outstanding policies of all successful missionaries has been the employment of the native leaders. Pride in their own leadership does not deter them from giving the Indian leader a large place in their programs. They recognize that they themselves are only temporary factors; that the native must be the perpetual, permanent maintainer of the work. To this end they labor with all their might. They accord the native of ability and promise an everincreasing share of authority and influence, and with unselfishness indicative of their own greatness, go so far as to transfer to him the fruits of many years of missionary labor, relinquishing gradually the direction of the workers and the duties as pastors, evangelists, and executives. Only in those matters requiring extensive business experience, administrative ability, and the disposition of large sums of money, do they retain control.

Possibly the pessimism of some missionaries regarding the development of native leadership has its origin in the fact that they have wanted native leaders to do just what they have done. To be a real leader one must have opportunity for self-expression and some originality. If the broader program can be generally adopted, native leadership may develop in a number of different lines. One would hazard the opinion that among Indian men and boys native leadership would quickly develop in the field of athletic sports, and among women and girls in the field of native arts and sewing. Every native leader in any field is a real achievement, and an achievement made in the course of the ministry to temporal needs may prove also to be an achievement in the conversion of the race to Christianity.