The New York herald., 1870-06-12
The Indians and the Government-The
Red Mans Plain Talk mt Washington.

Red Mans Plain Talk mt Washington.
The sentiment of Hiawatha, the crude and
brave philosophy of Uncas, the stern pride OF
chieftainship which animated the old Mohcan,
Chincathgook, have not all passed away The
romance of Cooper and the poetry OF Long
,, fellow, after all, are vindcating themselves;
and, singular to say, not in the forests or on
the Plains, but in the matter-of-fact, practical
precincts of the Interior Department at Wash
ngton It is here that the Indians-born
where the sun sets-Red Cloud, Brave Bear,
Red Dog and Bear-in- Grass, all nota-
bes among the Sioux nations who live
in the vicinity Of the Platte river,
| opened their minds to the government authori-
| ties who are entrusted with the care of the
red men in words of eloquence that recall
those beauties of Cooper's fiction which Will
never be forgotten. 1t is here, too, that they
| have uttered more truths concerning our
Indian policy and let in more light upon the
management of its machinery than the public
were quite aware Of. Let US take the words
of Red Cloud when the map Of the Indian
Territory was shown him by Secretary Cox,
and the treaty of 1867, made with his people
by Generals Sherman, Augur, Terry and the
other Peace Commissioners, was read to him.
This treaty, in fact, included clauses surren-
dering certain lands to the Pacific Railroad;
but the chiefs who signed it supposed that
it was compact to keep peace with the
whites on the understanding that certain forts
were to be removed They were quite salts
fed with these provisions. They evidently
had no idea that they were giving up any por-
tion of their lands, and hence they regard the
| advance of the railroad over their lands as an
| aggression, for which they have not received,
as they say, seven brass ring" 1t seems
evident that the treaty was either falsely or
imperfectly translated to them by the inter-
prefers. Red Cloud said ''This is the first
time / have heard of such treaty. l never
heard Of II and do not mean to follow it.
want to know who was the interpreter who
interpreted these things to the Indians.
know nothing about it. 1t was never explained
to me. l do not say" he adds, ''that the
| Commissioners lied; but the interpreters
were wrong" SO there appears to be great
blunder somewhere. In truth, our Indian
treaties have been all blunders mixed up with
| good deal of fraud.
| The chieftain ''Bear- in the e-Grass'-calling
upon the Indians god TO bear witness to the
truth of his statement, which, with the Indian,
is equivalent to an oath-said: ''The Great
| Spirit hears me to-day. l tell nothing but
what is true when l say these words Of the
treaty were not explained. II was merely
said the treaty was for peace and friendship
among the whites. When we took hold of the
pen they said they would take the troops away
| so we could raise children" Red Cloud abso-
lutely refused to accept the treaty, copies of
which were offered to him to take to his
people. All the promises made in treaties, he
| said, had never been fulfilled. The Great
| Spirit would Judge these things hereafter; but,
he says, 81 will not take this paper with me.
It is all lies" 1t is clear, therefore, that the
feeling of the red men in Washington is not
much in harmony with our method of
dealing with their race. Look at the
fine philosophy and keen sarcasm COM
bned in the words of the ancient warrior,
seventy-iive years old, Brave Bear, who said,
"The Great Spirit told me, when Chief if
you get strong and become rich you cannot
take your riches with you when you die. He
must have told different thing to the white
man, who is so grasping and who piles up
money he must have told him, when ou
die you can take all into the next world"
But, with all their eloquence, their sophis-
try, their satire, and even acknowledging that
some injustice has been done the Indians, we
have to deal with them, after all, as saw
ages whom our civilization cannot reach
They stand in the way Of our progress. They
are an obstacle which must be removed by
some process, as humane, of course, as car
possibly be devised. But the idea that We
must abandon our forts and cease to rur
roads through the Indian lands conditions
which the delegation in Washington has
the effrontery to proposes absurd. Our
civilization is moving westward towards
the Pacific. 1t Is destined TO compass
the whole of that region, and it must moi
be impeded. The problem is as old as the
world that intelligence has always to combat
with ignorance, that progress has always t.
struggle against retrogression, and the problem
is not yet solved. We have seen it from th,
earliest history of mental development. We
recognized it in the days of Calico, and We
see it to-day in the grand Council at Rome
We hope it is not indecorous to make com
parison between the spirit which animates th'
savage Of the Plains in his opposition to pro
gress and the advance of civilization and tn,
retrogressive ideas which may possibly
be the governing rule in the Ecumenica
Council. And yet is not the foundation of tn
opposition the same? However, the world il
this advanced stage is not likely to permi
either of these influences to stop its marcl
towards finer and wider and more practica