The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1870-05-20
Hoac Ma,sv Ipdiass are There?

COlouel Parker is the Presidents clerk
and overseer of al Of the Indians In the
country, in al, 800, 900, or the total pcpula.
ton of Chicago II Is these few people who
give us 90 much trouble If they were
collected into ono reservation they would
not be ,s populous As the State of Vermont
But we are indebted to them, Of our own
acknowledgement, more than twenty mil
lions of dollars, and We are bankers of more
than seven millions of dollars OF their
money. These ragamuftins of the plains
and woods actually own about seven mil
lions in cash, and many millions Of acres of
land. The chief business of the Indian Of
flee is to get possession Of this money and
these lands, together with the annuitics of
money voted to the Indians. Tho ostensi.
bic business of the Office is TO take care Of
the Indian property, but outside Of the an.
nual reports of the Commissioner, nobody
Is practically concerned with this work.
The present Commissioner IS, no doubt, in
earnest, but he has merely clerical power,
and tho work of this country is antagonis-
tic to tho Indians existcncc,-not to speak
Of his purposes, If he has any. A Demo-
cratic form of government Is a worse enc
my to savage than despotism; not only
because despotism is half savage itself. but
because Democracy assumes that every man
must take care Of himself, which the Indian
has no disposition to do. Tho brains and
~n.n. - Sl>n ~><So, hcvn H>o>r nv>pnsansl
for two centuries to solve the problem how
to save the Indian and yet civilize the land.
The facts Of the Indian ofilce itself show
that every attempt to preserve the Indian
has been steady series of condign failures,
as great as if we had attempted to make an
eagle or panther human. The Indian Of.
fec reports arc the most worthless docu-
uments issued by any part of tie Federal
Government. Their figures sro unreliable,
and in many cases they are merely swim.
ding circulars, intended to deceive. Where
they arc responsible they are without inter.
est; for they make no attempt to deduce the
social, and economical, and epis.dicsl fess-
lures Of the various tribes; they are not in.
dexed; and if they ever do show anything
clearly it is that the Indian has no history
except - he 10 shoal, . snag, or quick
sand in the stream Of civilization.
At the close of the war . joint special
committee of Congress was sent travelling
over the plains 10 note the situation of the
tribes, and they reported that in New Mex
leo alone the Indians cost a, ,000, 900 year,
while Gen. Summer recommended that
white people evacuate the whole territory
to ssve the nation expense. To tho nstu-
rally fcrocious and treacherous character of
the Indian, 10 now added the despair of dis
ease, the moral ruin brought by rum, and
the entire failure Of any preaching or ex.
ample to teach the vagabonds thrift
"A feast to-day, and huge dunk; then
the mania posu; then long winter Of
starvation and smallpox, and in the spring
| war with the white man-this Is the In.
dian character, as you see it," said General
Sheridan, recently. What it may be as
you don't see it, leave distant people to
tell. But IS you do see it, as it is-incura.
bic laziness, spasmodic glutteny, and war;
-"Gata," in tie Chicago Tribune, Nay4.