He [Shoghi Effendi] was displeased with the progress apparently being made
among the Canadian and American Indians. During one conversation he said that
Indians take preference even over Negros. He requested that Canada not only
continue its work on Indian languages included in the Crusade but commence to
work on supplementary Indian languages. During another conversation he said
that he was sorry Canada, in particular, had not more success in teaching the
Indians. I attempted to explain the position as I saw it. I told him that we
had, to the greatest extent possible, been kind and loving to them, had invited
them to our homes, had visited them on their reservations; but all to no
apparent avail. He said that there was a lot more to it than inviting them to
our homes but didn’t say to what he was referring. He did, however, say that at
the root of the Indian situation is the Indian’s jealousy of material progress
of the whites.
- Allan Raynor (Notes of his pilgrimage in 1956)
