The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-04
The Indian Treaty.

from The NJ Y, Tribune.
On the 21st of October the Indian Commis-
sioners concluded treaty with the Kiowas
and Comanches at Medicine Lodge creek, in
Kansas, by the terms of which those tribes
were allotted a reservation of about 5000
square miles in the southwestern part of the
Indian Territory The United States Govern
ment promises to give each of the savages a
suit of clothes every year; to supply seeds
and implements to those who will undertake
farming; and to distribute annually to the
tribes $25, 900 worth Of goods. In return, the
Indians agree to keep peace and to offer no
obstacle to the construction Of the Pacific
Railroad. Saturday we published the still more
agreeable intelligence that the Arapahoes
and Cheyennes, who at first refused to attend
the council, have concluded a similar bargain.
These were our most dangerous enemies, the
fercest and most influential tribes of the
Plains, whereas with the other two we can
hardly be said to have really been at war.
1t is, of course, too soon to congratulate our
selves upon a complete cessation OF Indian
hostilities; but the success of the Commits
sioners, so far, ustifes the expectation that a
peace of some sort or other is not far distant.
How long it will last depends entirely upon
ourselves. We are by no means confident of
its lasting very long, because white men, when
they get on the frontier are apt to become
such dreadful ruffans and swindlers. The
treaty leaves our old reservation system un-
touched; it leaves the agency business still
open to the lowest class of white rascals; it
subjects the ignorant savage to the same risk he
has hitherto run of being placed at the mercy of
broken-down bar room demagogues, and robbed
for the benefit of petty hack politicians. If
we are to 90 on in the old way, the treaty
will be an unqualified evil. 1t will only be
adding so many thousand Indians to the
already large collection of those who are regu-
larly and Systematically gOaded into hostility
by theft and outrage. 1t will just be putting
the savages into preserves where we can the
more readily get at them. They seem to have
understood this pretty well themselves. Our
special correspondent describes their unwil-
lingness to remove to reservations, their dread
of being compelled to live in houses, their sig
niicant reluctance to have Government EN-
plOy6s sent among them. The famous Chief
Satanta made during the council, pointed
allusion to official dishonesty, which we should
think might have made the Commissioners
blush. "When you issue goods, said he,
"give all that is our due to US. DO not hide
any from us. Keep none back
The Commissioners Of course have no power
to change the policy Of the Government with
relation to the Indians. Their part is only to
negotiate peace. But this is merely the be-
ginning. We have yet to devise some way of
amending the whole system of our dealings
with the savages, and eradicating the abuses
which brought about not only this war but
nearly all the previous difficulties. Until we
do that our treaties will be nothing but dan
gerous delusiODs, and the Indian problem will
be still unsOlyed.