The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1867-08-10
THE INDIANs-oUR POLICY.

al InelF energies Crlppleu Dy tHe savage
anaconda. That there has been sad
mismanagement,i if not widely ranifed
conspiracy between interested parties to
keep alive an Indian war, is admitted by
all. The question is, what shall be done
to remedy the evil7 We have consid-
cred attentively the different suggestions
of determination, consolidation, reserva
tions, and the still more novel one of
forcing them to adopt the customs of
the whites by systematic destruction
of all their game. We premise, that,
with all the i'll feeling manifested by the
lower class of the eastern press toward
the people of the west, and the epithets
bestowed upon us; with all the imbe-
ciIity of the Department, and either
the apathetic indifference shown for the
welfare of the Territories by certain
Legislators, possibly ignorant of the stu
alton, probably bought by agents, that
the Government is in earnest sympathy
with the vanguard of the Republic, and
the great heart of the people would sus-
tain that legislation and policy demanded
for our protection. The policy of the
lindiscriminate and immediate extermi-
nation of 100000 human beings, for they
are human, is barbarous and inconsis-
tent with our advanced civilization. To
place and confine them upon any limited
reservation, however adapted to their
wants or extensive in it's limits, so long
as the buffalo roams on prohibited
ground, is impracticable. 1t entails that
impossibility, the consolidation of tribes
at deadly enmity with each other; their
removal, a work which years would not
accomplish; an unlimited expenditure
in removal, subsistence and providing
them with the means of agricultural pur-
suits which they would never adopt, and
setting apart an extensive department
prohibited to the whites, and which,
wherever located, would cut off the ave
nues to some region now, or hereafter to
be, opened up to civilization and devel-
opment. The proposition to destroy all
the game on the continent, to cpt off our
noses to spoil their faces, is simply alb
surd. AS well might we urge the killing
of all horses to prevent them being stolen
by Indians. We must be practical even
in our theories. The absorption of
weaker by stronger races and people, and
the final extinguishment of the weaker
| by natural laws, is written on every page
of history. 1t has been progressing on
this continent since Columbus planted
the Cross on the Atlantic coast, and the
work is nearly complete. There is a
very easy, plain, practical method of
managing the Indians, and would com
mend itself TO Congress was il not for
the fact that it pays somebody too well
to ignore it. We want no Indian Depart
ment. We might just as well establish
French, Irish, German, English or Yam
kee Department. 1t never should have
been established. 1t always has been,
is, and ever will be, while continued, a
field for swindling and the cause of war.
Let the Department be abolished, the
Indians roam where they may. When
they are peaceable they will do no harm,
when they are hostile deal death and de-
struction to them with unstinted hand
until they are subdued, and then make
no treaties. They are incapable of com
pretending the obligation, or too treach-
erous to observe it. Connor's Shoshones
and their allies needed no second blow.
/ This may seem more severe than the
/ laws of war would warrant, but it is the
only policy that will give as safety.
There have been more whites killed in
the last year than Indians in the last
ten. Reverse il for a month and we will
have peace for generation. Permit no
Agents among them. Who sells, trades,
or gives them arms or ammunition, let
him be hung by the neck until he is
dead. 1t is folly to arm foe and bat
tie impending. Let them hunt game as
they have hunted it for thousand years
Let those who are desirous of furnishing
them the most approved weapons of the
chase and battle field, consider the pro-
priety of furnishing them collins in which
to inter their victims. Send home the
$4,000 regulars, and the host of vampi-
rian commissioners, agents and specula-
tors who are under their wing, sucking
treasure from the Government and blood
from the people. Organize the militia
of the Territories, provide them with
arms and ammunition, as has been done
in Montana give the Executives author
ity to call out the volunteers to protect
themselves from hostile foe whenever