The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-20
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EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
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THE INDIAN COUNCIL.

AhE lNOlAN OOONOAhs
From the N. Y. Times.
The ''new departure" of the red men is,
when considered as O chapter in human pro-
gress, perhaps more momentous event than
the great political juggle which the Demo-
cratic pale-faces have been seeking to accom-
plish under that title. Mazzini the other day
ridiculed the idea of the French Communists
going back to the Middle Ages for political
idea, and asked why they should have stopped
short of the patriarchal unit of government
the family or the tribe. In the Indian effort
to form a elf-governing community, we have
an illustration of exactly the reverse of the
latter alternative. The patriarchal organi-
zation which our race left behind them on
the steppes of Asia finds its duplicate on the
Western plains The most advanced of the
political systems of the world finds itself
face to face with the most primitive whence
it has been evolved, and the tribe is suddenly
compelled to adapt itself to the township,
the electoral district and all the institutions
which these bring with them, or submit to
the terrible certainty of decay and ultimate
extinction. The ''fve nations" of the Indian
Territory number less than sixty thousand,
but they present conclusive proof that the
red man can be civilized, and they are the
only medium through which we can hope to
reclaim the wild tribes of the plains. Their
country comprises zone of the richest and
most fertile regions in the United States, is
3S2 miles long, 208 miles wide, and contains
20. 456 square miles. 1t has been described
as containing fifty millions of acres of land,
and as being equal to seventy States of the
size of Rhode Island, and about one and
half of the size of New York. For every man,
woman, and child in the Indian Territory
there is thus, at present, an area of not
much less than one thousand acres, SO that
the territory can undoubtedly sustain with
very great ease the six millions claimed for it
by General Sherman, and as large a field as
could possibly be desired on which to work
out great political and social experiment.
The Territorial Constitution on which the
General Council at Okmulgee is at present
celebrating is in many points merely an ex-
pansion of the existing political usages of
the Give Nations" Among the Cherokees,
for example, there exist already an upper
and lower Legislative Chamber returned by
nine districts, and elected after a fashion
essentially representative. The new Consti-
tuition aims at effecting fusion which shall
be first political and then social Its proba-
BILE results were thus described by General
Sherman:-There will be no longer Greeks,
Choctaws, or Cherokees; all the titles of
the tribes will be merged in one people,
and all executive, legislative, and judicial
functions will be consolidated in one centre.
1t is precisely at this point that the true In
dian problem is touched, and from it the diff
fculties in the way of the acceptance of the
Territorial constitution. will be found to arise
We have long since discovered that radical
error was committed in dealing with the In
dian tribes as with independent nations.
We are more slowly becoming awake to the
fact that in doing our best to strengthen the
tribal organization of the Indians we have
made no less decided blunder If the In
dian is to survive on this continent at all, it
must be by elevating himself to the social in
dustrial, and political level of the white man.
With time and opportunity, it is pretty obvi-
GUS that he can do this 1t is equally GER
tain that the maintenance of the authority
of the chiefs and their belongings forms one
of the most potent obstacles to Indian pro-
gress. Among the semi civilized tribes this
is specially obvious. We intrust to the chiefs
for distribution large proportion of cur
bounty, or of the returns of funds held in
trust by the Government The nominal head
of the tribe thus becomes vitality interested
in resisting that certain decay of his authority
and importance which results from the adop-
tion of civilized usages Nothing brings out
the independence of the individual so strongly
as our republican freedom, while nothing is
more inconsistent with its legitimate exercise
than the perpetuation of kind of dignity
which has no significance apart from barbar-
ism or warfare.
To the provisions of the Constitution
which was drafted in December last for the
new Territory of Oklahoma, we have pre-
viously adverted. They do not differ in any
marked degree from the type which prevails
in the other States. 1t was expected that be
fore the present meeting of the General
Council the new constitution would have
been formally accepted by the various tribes
in the Territory. The Indian seems, how
ever, to be as jealous of his distinctive triba
organization as any old German Duchy wa
of its mimic court and its solemn farce o.
State administration. 1t is easier to eontro
the outward semblanee of deliberative aR(
representative bodies than to grasp the new
idea of a coalesced nation on which they rest
1t is requisite to bear in mind that the IndiaI
tribes have historical memories whose foro,
esare very apt to underrate. For example,
the Cherokees, no later than ten years ag'
were said to have numbered $4,000, while a
this moment they do not contain more thar
10000 souls. Ascending by ever widening
gradations like this, through the decades o
couple of centuries, we begin to find our
selves in the presence of a veritable natioI
whose seven great clans are still represented
on the seven-pointed star of their State seal
and whose original wealth is but family re
produced in the four millions of acres of Lam
which they hold in fee simple, and the fou
millions of dollars of trust funds on whic
the Government pays them an annual interest
A competent authority states that previous t
the war the Cherokees ''owned immense herd
of cattle, one individual alone owning 200
head. Others owned 5000, 10, 900, and s
down to 800, and the man who owned les
was considered poor Indian" OF other tribe
similar statements might be made, and the
are of immense Importance in helping us
estimate the difficulties which arrest the con