The Portland daily press., 1867-05-30
Tho COndiliOM of The ludinn..

Tho Condition of ,he lndinns.
A Joint Special Committee of the two Houses
of Congress was appointed to make inquiry in
to the condition of the Indian tribes and their |
treatment by the civil and military authori- |
ties. This committee have made very elabor- |
ate report. The work was immense, covering |
continent. We gather from the report many |
important facts and the following conclu. ions. |
LIST. The Indians everywhere, with the ex- |
ception of the tribes within the Indian Terrific |
ry, are rapidly decreasing in numbers from va
rious causes, such as disease, intempe, ance,
wars among themselves and with the whites
and by the steady and resstess emigration Of
white men into the Territories of the West,
confning the Indians within narrower bounds
and destroying game.
This proximity to the white man has always
demoralized these sons of the forest. That the
Indians have been most outrageously cheated
by many of the Government agents, and the
''fire-water' introduced among them has been
productive of immense evil 1t is a noteworthy
fact that the Indians more readily adopt our
vices than our virtues; hence their contact with
our civilization has always been demoralzing
IN Its effects. The tribes which cultivate the
soil and raise cattle and horses have ever been
been in better moral condition than those
who hunt or engage in war. d 7pr'
! I'd. Indian wars, in great majority of cases
can be traced to the aggressions of lawless
| white men, who are always lowering around
| the frontiers or boundary lines between savage
and civilized life. This is an important fact
! and reminds us of what Gen. Sherman has re-
! Gently said, that "we can have an Indian war
or not, as we choose" Now we have no wish
| to engage in war with the Indians and our
] Government ought to see to it that honest men
| If they can be found-and only honest men
| be appointed as agents. When Gen. Hancock
| met the Kiowas at Fort Larned recently,
prominent chief named Santanta, who is de-
scribed as the most important Indian west of
the Missouri River, was summoned to his pres
| ence This chief made rude speech but not
| without its touches of pathos and exposed
| some of the wrongs of his tribe, charging the
! agent who sat by the Generals side, with ap-
| propriating to his own use the annuities he had
been appointed to distribute. 81 want friends, .
| said this chief, ''and am doing all 1 can for
| peace. Send us an agent who is an honest
man, and who will not steal half our goods and
hide them in the earth" ..
| That is a very reasonable and just request
and if our Government would heed it, much
would be done towards making our red breth-
rem quiet and peaceable. All the witnesses
concur in the statement that the Indian wars
are occasioned by the aggressions of the whites
This well attested tact ought to, open the eyes
of all who have any regard for the aborigines
of our country. We have always believed that
these red sons of the forest would have been
more quiet and exercised less prejudice against
the whites, if they had been treated by the lat
ter with anything like justice and proper re-
gard for the rights their Creator had given
them. But disguise the fact as we nay and
attempt to excuse ourselves for our treatment
of the Indians as much as we please, still the
fact stares us in the face, that justice has not
been meted out to them.
We boast of our higher civilization; but il
has done the Indians more harm than good.-
There are many noble traits in their character
when uncontaminated by the fire-water and
licentious propensitles of the white man.
1 While it is true that many agents. teachers
and employees of the Government are ineffici-
ent, faithless and guilty Ofpeeulations and
fraudulent practices, the committee think it is
equally true that military posts among the In
dams have frequently become centres of de-
mOralization and destruction of the Indian
| tribes. The blunders and want of discretion OF
| inexperienced officers in command have
brought long and expensive wars The cost of
these wars being included in the expenditures
of the army are never seen and realized by the
people of the country. The committee are sat
isfied that these evils are sometimes aggravat-
| ed, not so much by the system adopted by the
| government, as by the abuse of that system.
| The committee recommend the subdivision
of the Territories and States wherein the In
| dian tribes remain, into five inspection dis
tricts and the appointment of five boards of
| inspection A great mass of testimony has
| been collected which throws much light on
these important questions. Now that negro
slavery has been abolished it is to be hoped
that we shall have time to consider all these
4 great questions and do equal and exact justice
to the Indians who once exercised ownership
over this great territory and roamed unmolest.
ed over their extensive hunting grounds
These hunting grounds we have taken from
them, or greatly limited them, and the Indian
fathers have told the story to the young braves
whose ambition is to wear the gaudy wealth of
victory, and his dusky wife or sweet heart new
er fails to excite his ambition and prompt him
to deeds of daring. What other hope of dis
tinction can stir the heat of the young war
rior? And hence the Importance of doing jus
tice to all the tribes SO that the fathers can
change the burthen of their song and instil in
to the hearts Of their sons more friendly feel
ing towards the whites. Much wisdom, sound
discretion, good Judgment and philanthropy
are demanded in the consideration of these
great questions. Our Government has been
slow to learn these lessons, and yet after all,
our laws have been better than their adminis-
| tration so far as the indians are concerned
In too many cases the executors of these laws
have been bad and selfish men who have no
proper sense ofjustice or love of humanity. A
general sweep of all such agents ought to be
made, so that our Government can show a
clean record of all its transactions with these
q &Ix,f