The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-07
TIE INDIAN PROBLEM

The question, what to do with the savages on
our Western plains, is assuming prominence
and importance at this time that il is hoped
will secure for it more thoughtful and
statesmanlike consideration than heretofore.
Our Indian policy up to the present time has
been a system of laundering and criminal
mismanagement which is anything but
creditable to one of the most enlightened,
practical, and business-ike nations of the
| globe. Wandering bands of savages have
been ostensibly treated as independent nations
under the protection of our Government, and
the absurd form of making treaties with them
! is continued from year to year, al
| though there has certainly been ex-
! perience enough to show that they
know little and care less as to what the real
meaning of such compacts is. Even admit
ting that a set of squalid savages who have
no ideas above a scalping-kn and whisky
bottle are able to comprehend all the fine
points of our complex system of diplomacy,
it is certain that the bargains made with them
have never been properly carried out on the
part of the Government The white settlers
on the plains trouble themselves very little
about treaties and bargains, but they, with
very good reason consider the redskins as
nuisances, and feel it incumbent to adopt a
policy of their own towards them, which is
anything but conciliatory to the savages
Our Indian Bureau too is, and has
been from its organization, den
of iniquity 1t is a question
whether one honest agent has ever been ap-
pointed under it, and it is well known not
only that its officials growrich on the plunder-
ing both of the Government and the Indians,
but that the very facility for plunder and the
magnitude of the spoils are the chief obsta-
cles in the way of a reform. The Indian
agents have an influence in the national
Senate which has been thus far sufficient to
maintain the present iniqutous system in
spite of every effort to have it superseded by
something better.
The President, so far as he has the power
has endeavored to create a reform; but his
hands are so tied that he can do little or
nothing. With the completion of the Pacific
Railroad, however, and the rapid advance of
emigration westward, it has become impera-
lively necessary that some decided effort shall
be made without much further delay to bring
]
opinion will oblige Congress to take some
action. Hon. Sidney Clarke. the Chairman of
the Committee on Indian Affairs, has been on
tour among the savages to find out if pos
sible what their real grievances and condition
are. A few days ago he held a conference
with the representatives of the Usage Indians.
The treaty of 1869 by which they consented
to sell their lands to the Leavenworth, Law
renee, and Galveston Railroad Company, was
denounced as fraud and swindle They
claim that the treaty was procured by threats
and promises of bribes to some of the chiefs
and half breeds, and they also complain tha
their annuities are not paid; that the agent
when he visits them, fails to give all that il
due them, and that the settlers on their reser
walton are destroying their timber con
trary to former treaties
There is very little doubt that all these
grievances are well founded, and this state
ment gives us a picture of the usual manner
in which the Indians are treated by the
agents of the Government and the white mel
on the plains On the other side we have
statement that in one county alone of Ari
zona there have been tifty-twO whites killed
eighteen wounded, and two made captive b,
the Indians since January last, and it is Ger
tain that this state of affairs will continue un
less there is a complete and thorough reform
in the whole system of dealing with the In
dians. 1t is time that all this treaty busines
was done away with, together with tn
whole system of bribes, bounties
and agencies. Let a certain territory be Sc
apart for the Indians, and measures be talel
to prevent white settlers intruding upoi
them. If they will go to work like othe
people, and cultivate the ground and earl
their living, the Government should pu
forth its whole power to protect them; but j
they will not work, then they will have t.
take the conseque nces of starvation and ex
termination. 1t is useless to say that th
saVages cannot work, and it is because tn
Government has chosen rather to encourag
their savage propensities and to conside
them as licensed paupers that a great portion
of the present depredations are due. Civ
the redskins a fair chance to earn thei
living like other men, and if they won't wor]
like other men, then they will have to suffe
as others do who have a disinclination t.
honest labor.