The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-08-03

Horace Greedy, writing from the flkes
Peak regions. thus speaks of the In
dams.
l have learned to appreciate better
than hitherto, and to make more allow
ance for, the dislike, aversion, contempt,
wherewith Indians are usually regarded
by their white neighbors, and have
been since the days of the Psrltans. 1t
needs but little familiarity with the actu-
al, palpable Aborignes to convince any
one that the poetic Indian - the Indian
of Cooper and Longfellow-is only vlsi-
bic to the poets eye. To the prosaic
observer, the average Indian of the
woods and prairies is being who does
little credit to human nature-a slave OF
appetite and sloth, never emancipated
from tue tyranny of one animal passion
save by the more revenous demands OF
another. AS passed over those magn~
ficent bottoms of the Kansas which form
the Reservations of the Delawares, Pota-
watamies, &c, constituting the very best
corn-lands on earth, and saw their own
ers sitting around the doors OF their
lodges at the hight of the planting season
and in as good, bright planting weather
as sun and soil ever made, l could not
help saying, "These people must die out
there is 40 help for them. God has
riven this earth to those who will subdue
and cultivate it, and it is vain to strug-
gle against His righteous decree" And
l yesterday tried my powers of persua-
sion on -Hand-the only Arapaho
chief who talks English-in favor of an
Arapaho Tribal farm-say Of two hun
dred acres for beginning-to be broken
and fenced by the common efforts of the
tribe, and a patch therein allotted to each
head of family who would agree to
plant and till tt apprchend to very lit
tie purpose. For Left-Hand, though
shrcwd in his way, is an Indian, and
every whit as conservative as Bostons
Beacon street or our Fifth avenue. He
knows that there is certain way in which
his people have lived from time i'm
memorial, and in which they are content
still to live. knowing and seeking no bet
ter. He may not have heard that it is
the common lot of prophets to be stoned
and reformers to be crucified but he prob
ably comprehends that squaws cannot
fence and pillow, and that ''blaves' arc
disinclned to any such steady, mono
tonous exercise of their missiles. | believe
there is no essential difference in this re
pect between "braves" of the Red and
those of the White race, since even oul
countrv's bold defenders have not beer
accustomed to manifest their intrepidity
in the corn-fields along their line of marcel
save in the season of roasting ears, anc
the verb ''to soldiers" has acquired
throughout Christendom and in all it
moods and lenses, n significance bcyont
the need of n glossary. Briefly, the ''brave,
whether civilized or savage. is not !;
worker, producer, and where the mer
are all ''brayes," with war always OF
hand, tie prospect for productive industr,
is gloomy indeed. II, then, the hope 0
Indian renovation rested mainly on th
men, it would be slender indeed. Their
is little probability tina. the present gen
Grafton of ''bravcs'' can be weaned from
the traditions and the habits in whcl
they find certain personal consequent
and immunity from daily toll, whicl
stands them instead of intelligence an
comfort, Squalid and conceited, proud an
worthless, lazy and lousy, they will stru
out or drink out their miserable existence
and at length afford the world sensibl
relief by dying out of it.
But it is otherwise with the women.-
Degraded and filthy as they are, beyon
description or belief, they bear the gerr
} of renovation for their race in that the
are neither too proud nor too indolent
labor. The squaw accepts work as ht
destiny from childhood. In her father
lodge, as in that wherein she GENES
! turn to hold fifth or sixth interest in
husband-(for all Indians are polygan
ISIS in theory, as oil who have means {
energy become such in practice ISL
comprehends and dutifully accepts druds
cry as her peculiar institution" ST
pitches and strikes the tent, carries it frol
! one encampment to another, gathers an
. chops the wood, and not only dresses an
, cooks the game which forms the family
) food (when they have any but goes I'M
the woods and backs it home when b
al LII rotnrnc with fha tiI;p,, that bo /,