Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-11-17
.awIIn1BUs,DH1o, TUEsDAYaMoRNING,
.QDblo Statesman,

|QDgIo Statesman,
Letter fronn George Alfred Town
send i'm Regard 10 the Indians.
Especial Correspondence of the Cleveland Leader ]
/ WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 1868.
TALK WITH AN INDIAN COMMITS
sIoNER.
| A few days ago 1 discovered party
of Indian Braves en Pennsyl yania ave-
nue.. One Of them was sitting in an
ash barrel on the sidewalk in maudlin
condition, and clergyman of my ac-
quaintance saw in the Indians posture
confirmation of favorite theory of his:
"They are descended from the ten
tribes" he said: Behold the custom
of humiliation by sackcloth and ashes" !"
A nearer view of these children of the
plains satisfied me that they had fallen
into benzine quarry. One of them
had an entirely red cloth blanket, in
which he held very much of his stomach,
the same having refused to stay down |;
and another was engaged in scraping
gravel out of his moccasins, so that his
shoe presented the appearance of
chicken "crop." The third of the In
dams was a demures Old sachem, grave
yet resigned as a man over the corpse of
his step-mother, and looking at the
ruins of his companions in arms he
showed none of that difficulty which be-
[set ourselves to know whether their
faces expressed lofty grimace of scorn
or plain grin of idiocy. He evidently
set it down as between the two.
,The-gentlemen of an aboriginal race
finally gathered their draperies around
them and disappeared down the side
walk. walking, with toes pointed togeth-
er, upon the inside of their feet, and re-
producing nnconsciously some figures of
the green corn danee.A
remembered that friend of mine in
the Indian Bureau had invited me at
some time to come up and see him, and
this picturesque episode upon the side
walk revived some ancient desire l had
to see the place of directory of the af-
fairs of so many nations.
| THE INDIAN BUREAU.
Turning up Seventh street to the Pat
ent Office, l sought that corridor which
threads the rear of the building, and
here, in a comfortable room, Brussels
carpeted, reclining in an Office chair
and "rummaging arhong rSPorts,i I
found the principal clerk, Mr. Ash.
White.
Mr.. White is one of the old adherents
and officials of the Indian Office, having
travelled extensively among the tribes
and assisted in making many treaties.
His proper rank is disbursing clerk of
the Indian office, and he is responsible
not to the commissioner of Indian affairs
but totherSeeretary of the Interior.
In the Indian ofices proper there are
about four hundred and fifty employees,
only about fifty OF whom are employed
in the general Office, the rest being dis
tributed over the country at the various
Indian agencies, some as instructors in
practical mechanics, members of tools
for Indians, interpreters, millers, mis-
sionaries, schooimasters, etc.
The salaries of these vary from $3,-
900 to $500, the former sum being paid
to the commissioner, the latter to some
of the half breed interpreters.
In few moments l was introduced
to Mr.. N. G.. Taylor, the commissioner.
He is ,middle-aged gentleman Of q
sipgqlafly bensSolepf faces formerly 2
Methodist clergyman and afterward a
member of Congress from East Tennes-
see. Owing to the war he was driven
to the mountains by the rebels, and up
wards of a year ago he took charge of
this important bureau, in which he has
a conscientious missionary interest.
1t is popular belief, however, that
among the older attaches of the bureau
| those who belong to what is called the
Indian Ring of Fuller, Anthony, Mix &
Goa system of plunder has Icng been
pr1cticed. The Commissioner being a
Fubsidiary officer to the Secretary of the
Interior. has but little more than nomi-
nal jurisaictiony but bis probity and hu-
manity are patent among all who know
him, and as fairly as any man beneath
Hercules can labor in this Augean stable,
Mr.. Taylor has given it his diligence and
sagacity.
Few men have more thoroughly mas
tered the diplomacyIof the Plains, and
the Grand Council which he held in 1866
was one of the largest collections of In
dams ever assembled on the face of the
globe, possibly the very largest.
| 1t was their cession of lands to the
Pacific railway, that fiery track which
flashes the signal that the domination
of the red man exists ne, more. And
possibly it was the unconscious assem-
blage of the Indian at his own funeral.
There he bade farewell to the buffalo and
put upon the prairie swifter stallion
than his own wild pony, welcoming to
to the plains, with his homely formula
Of pipes and presents, the courser that
| is to put belt around the world.
l had opportunity to talk TO Mr.Tay-
lor at some length, while he gave the
fresh expression of his opinions, as the
latest observer, upon the status of the
Indian on this continent.
A part of this conversation I think
worthy of reproduction as the most t'pep-
ular form in which can transfer to you
some intelligent estimate of the relation
Of the Indian to the present generation
and its succeeding one.
TALK WITH Mr.. TAYLOR.
."Mr. Taylor, have you been much
personally among the Indians %
Eyes sir, 1 have spent considerably
more than half the time, since entered
upon the duties of this office, among the
Indian tribes on their reservations"
"You find much hardship and COM
plant, do you not q