Owyhee semi-weekly tidal wave. [volume] (Silver City, Owyhee County, Idaho Territory) 1868-1869, 1869-02-16
Management OF India ms

all well-inforsned persons who have
had any experience with these west
ern Indians, is likely TO fail for this
session Of Congress at least, and the
old regime will Of course be contin-
ned. If Government shall finally
determine to permit the Piute, Snake
and other wild tribes to remain in or
near their old baunts, they should at
once be transferred 10 the Military.
The whole burden of control falls on
that branch of the Government in
the end, and to avoid complications
and vexations the whole manage
ment should be confined to one de-
partment. The reduction of the
army has left large number OF Off
GERS in proportion to the privates
who have but little or nothing to do
in connection with the service as at
present organized, and who could as
well attend to the agencies as not,
and bring the savages completely un-
der control of Commanders of De-
partments. The Indians have much
more fear of and respect for the
army than civil government, and
would much more readily submit to
its regulations than to those made
by civil agents.
The great objection to the trans
fer appears to be fear of harsh
usage on the part of the soldiers.
This is "a mistake, as any one may
learn by a little experience about
the posts on the frontier, where In
dams are better treated than by set
tiers or even local agents. We have
seen them protected by the military
when in order to do so an officer had
TO overstcp his orders and act on his
own responsibility. The mission of
the soldier is to deal Justly but
sternly with this difficult element,
and no department of the Govern
ment is in so good condition to en-
force obedience as the army.
Again, then let it be urged by all
who wonld do service to the from
tier, in case the Indians are retained
near their old hannts, that they be
transferred to the care Of the War
Department. The reservation sys-
tenn, however, so long as the natives
are not taken entirely out of their
old range, will always be attended
with trouble, no matter who has
control. II is impossible to confine
these rovers to compass of a few
miles when their native hills, streams
and hunting grounds are constantly
in sight aud inviting them to the ex-
elements of the chase and to the
exercise of their thicving propensi-
ties on the stock and goods Of the
white settlers on their ancient do
main. The purchase of some island
in the Pacific sufficiently remote from
shore to insure security, would not
only be the cheapest but most salts
factory of any scheme We eau think
of in handling this mixed question.
The establishment of all the wild
Indians west of the Rocky Mount
aims, say on the Island of Cedras or
Guadeloupe, off the Coast of Lower
California, from eighty to one hun
dred and twenty-five miles from the
main land, would be asuffieient guar
antee that they would remain away
from the whites, and the natural re-
sources of these islands in the way
of Just such food as Indians are fond
est of and most accustomed to, viz j:
fish, shell-fish, wild goats, etc, are
inexhaustible.
Prior to the settlement of Califor-
MIA by Spaniards and Mexicans these
islands we're thickly populated by a