The weekly Arizona miner., 1870-02-26
The Indians and the Administration

President Grant has taken upon himself the task of befriending the Indians, and the people of the frontiers might as we'll make up their minds for further warfare with the say ages, for we fear, but little hope need be cherished that his Administration will aid them to throttle the desperate savages. In "a -SGspt canyersation with ciyilized' Indian Chief, the President is reported as having said; "I am of the opinion that they (the Indians) should become citizens, and be en- titled to all the rights of citizens" Now, we believe, the President holds the same views regarding al Indians, consequently, it cannot be expected that he proposes making vigorous war upon those of them who do not care about his citizenship. But, what is to be done with theml Are they to be allowed to follow, unrestrained, the bent of their bloodthirsty minds Are the people of the Territories to be still left to their tender mercies Must we, eternally, have to work for the support of vagrant savages, who com init crimes too horrid and disgusting to be mentioned in a newspaper These, to us, are questions of great moment, and we would like to have them answered, soon, by the Chiefs at Washington, in order that we may know how to act. The farce of protecting" us is about "played.n The troops now in this Territory are too few in number to do much more than protect themselves, and per form the work around the posts. The fact is, we must have better protection, and that right speedily. If Government does not see fit to let us have more troops, it will then become incumbent upon us to quit business and take the field against our tormentors. Other Indians may be ripe for citizenship, but, we most earnestly and honestly assure our simple-minded President that the hostile Indians of Arizona will never bow the neck to the white race until forced to do so by the same arguments used by him in the late war But, the idea is fast gaining ground among our people that the Administration and its pets do not care to chastise, much less subju. gate, bad Indians, and it need not be won. dered at that such an idea depresses them They see company, or two, of soldiers at N
 post, two-thirds of whom are employed haul 1 ing wood, water, building and repairing quar ters, herding and taking care of stock, doine guard duty, escorting, etc, and, of course they know that the commander of that post cannot do much, if any, effective scouting Now, if Government felt for us, or even at tempted to do it's duty by us, this would no be. Most of tho troops would be kept ii the field, hunting and fighting Indians, ana citizens would be employed to do the work or, it could hire citizens to do the hunting and fighting. But, this is an economical Ad ministration, we are told An is it indeed
 Then show us wherein the economy par comes in. Its own officers tell us that il costs triie of S3,000, 900 per annum to car ry on "the war" in this Territory. We'll, VI doubt it not, and by the present mOds ope randi of carrying on that war, it will continu to cost that sum or more for an hundre, years to come. But, place four or five thous and troops in the Territory, at once, unde brave, sensible and industrious commander. keep them we'll supplied and steadily a work, and two years would not elapse unti the Indians would be subjugated, ,--the va and its expenses stopped.