The Portland daily press., 1869-06-15
A. In,Iinn Policy.

We suppose that the Circular of Indian
Commissioner Parker, which we pub
lished yesterday, indicates the Indian
policy of the administration. All
the Indians within the territory of the
United States are to be localized They are
to select or to have selected for their reserva-
tions. sufficiently large area for their pres
ent numbers and for any prospective increase,
and to these reservations their right of owner
shin. not sovereignty, is to be protected by the
whole power of the government. Gratuities,
presents of goods, and of provisions to rowing
Indians or Indians in hostility to the govern
ment are to cease When they come in, and
occupy the lands designated for them, with a
view of acquiring the arts and habits of civil
lied life, every assistance practicable, in the
way of clothing, provisions and agricultural
implements, will be given to them. Indians
outside of the reservations will be subject
wholly to the control and supervision of the
military authorities, to be treated as friendly
or hostile at their discretion.
This looks like complete solution of the
Indian problem upon the true method. 1t is
asserting the sovereignty of the Union over all
its territory. 1t is the declaration that an inn
PtFfCtUt tU fUtpefIO Cdu hO 'OhSOA W eotOf"tSA3 .
that it is incompatible with the safety, as we'll
as the dignity of the nation, to have within its
domain independent powers with which we
must have treaties, and with which we are
liable periodically to have wars. Hereafter
when an Indian commits murder or a theft
he must be tried in the territorial court, and
punished under United States law. This is
infinitely better and more just than to hold a
whole tribe accountable for crime, commit
ted by one, and send a company of regulars to
shoot squaws and burn wigwams. So when a
white man commits an outrage ON an Indian he
will be amenable to aud punished by law i'm
partially administered. This will be the status
of the tribes within the reservation, outside,
retaining their independence, the military au-
thorities of course let them alone, while they
behave well, but when they begin to plunder
and ambush, when unknown outrages are
Justly attributed to their agency, then they are
to be treated as enemies and compelled by mil
itary force to submit to localization and ciyi,;-
cation.
The situation of our country demands this
policy When the whole interior of the conn
try was considered an uninhabitable wilder
ness, and our principal communication with
our Pacific settlements was by Cape Horn and
the Isthmus, the Indian might be left in his
savage independence to hunt buffaloes and
fight battles with his neighbors encamped in
the adjoining valley. But now all the gorges
of the Rocky Mountains north and south have
attracted by the glitter of new-fonnd gold
thousands of adventurous white men,. In
those lonely glens they toll in little groups by
day and sleep by night, it may be, hundred
miles from the nearest white neighbor Ter
ritories 2nd States have been defined and set
tied IN the very haunts of the buffalo. A
railway, the wonder of the century, has been
built to facilitate travel and Communication
between us and our friends and families, who
have found new homes on the Pacific coast
These lonely miners must be allowed to toll
and sleep in peace. This magnificent highway
must be kept open, and the train, freighted
with precious lives, must not be a vehicle to
sweep into an ambush or over broken bridge
half thousand of innocent and unsuspect
ing citizens.