Weekly Trinity journal., 1868-11-28

With what terrible frequency have the ear, Of
our citizens been forced to hear uttered the h;l-
ling words, "killed by Indians" Numeron.
are the homes in our midst that feel and know
their fullest meaning - the events that rohhed
those homes of q father, mother, brother, sister
relative or friend, are required to. In our bur-
al places, along the trails over which the
packer, mountaineer, and traveller passes he.
side the ranchman's cabin and by the miners
claim may be read the mournful inscrint;on
" killed by Indians"
Nor as time rolls on do the numbers of theea
seem to grow less. Some unusually OUTRAGEOUS
depreciation; some scene of horror more mon.
strous than its immediate predecessors, compels
the people to rise up and demand protection a.
least, if not punishment for the demons guilty of
its commissions then follows an attempt at
chastisement. The excitement over, aud the
memory of the destruction of life and property
becoming dulled by the pressure of the cares
and duties of life, the authorities rest on their
laurels and the people, again luled into a false
security, are led TO go forth to their fields upon
the trails, among their cattle on the hills and
upon their ranches. Then again are repeated the
scenes of devastation and blood.
But every man, woman and child living in this
portion of our State is painfully familiar with all
these, and why stop to recount them here? They
have been watching the events of the last few
months with deep anxiety. They have seen one
after another fall by the bullet of the skulkng
blood-thirsty savage, and as each one falls the
assurance follows that something is going to be
at once done, not only to put stop to this ter
ribie destruction of human life, but to punish
the Offenders; but still the work of death goes
on, and the Indians hold high carnival in the
land.
That the whole method of dealing with these
red-handed wretches has been and is radically
wrong, is becoming to be the settled conviction
on all hands. Mercy for them is a crime against
humanity. Three centuries of intercourse with
civilized races should have been sufficient, if not
to civilize Them at least to demonstrate the fact
that they are not susceptible of being civilized
With very few exceptions all efforts in that d.
rection have utterly failed. Blood is the bever-
age for which they thirst, and they will con-
tinue to drink of it and hunt after it so long as
one of the race is left. Humanity toward them
is therefore thrown away.
The reservation system we believe to be one of
the supremest of humbugs, and the sooner it is
done away with the better. The amount of good
that has come from it, so far as protection to the
whites is concerned or so far as it has served to
civilize or humanize the Indians, is utterly over
whelmed in the vast aggregate of destruction to
life and property occasioned by them and their
propensity for killing, plundering and destroy
ing seems only to be sharpened rs kindness and
forbearance is shown them.
If we are mistaken in saying that the reserva-
ton system is humbug and that it has utterly
failed to furnish the remedy il was intended to
provide to the settler, to protect their lives and
property from destruction by the Indians then
we have but one alternative left US, and this is
to charge the fault upon those to whose hands
the management of the system is entrusted If
these continued and oft repeated raids and dep
relations result from the latter, there is where
the responsibility should attach and where the
penalty should be imposed. 1t is true that the
reservation officers have no power except through
the military department to subdue the Indians in
the field, and they should not be held RESPONSE
BILE for failures in this respect. 1t is to the mill
tary department alone that the community look
for protection against depredations from Indians
not yet brought within the reservations.
With alarming frequency of late, we have
heard of citizens falling by the hand of this
murderous Zoe, and the last, the attack upon
Mr.. Adams ranch and the killing of Mr.. Buck
man, gives cause for well-grounded fear that
none of the outposts safe, and yielding to
this fear the families are leaving their homes
and coming in towns for security. After these
have been driven in we may expect to have
repeated the scenes of former days, in the pick
ing off of our citizens at the very outskirts of
town, as were Mr.. Miner and Mr.. Sumption, at
Arcata.
The military at Fort CASTOR, can, if they but
will, rid the country of these cutthroats, or, if
they can not, let them but call upon the citizens
for aid Let them look to it that this is done
before other lives are sacrificed. All they have
to do is to fight the Indians as the Indians
fight white men.