Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1872-12-06
Report OF the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs.

The following are the main features of
the report of General Walker, Commits
sioner of Indian Affairs:
Want of completeness and consistency in the
treatment of Indian tribes by the Government has
been made the occasion for much rdcule and par
tisan abuse and it is indeed calculated to provoke
criticism and to afford scope for satire. But it is
none the less compatible with the highest expe-
diency of the situation. 1t is of course, hopeless
ly Illogical that the expenditures of the Govern
should be proportional not to the good but the
Ill desert of the several tribes, but that large bod
les Of Indians should be supported in entire indo-
lence by the bounty Of the Government, simply
because they audacious and insolent, while
well-disposed Indians are only assisted to self
maintenance, since it is known they will not fight
1t is hardly less than absurd on the first view Of it
that delegations from tribes that have frequently
denied our authority, and fought our troops, and
who never yielded more than partial and grudg-
Ing obedience to the most reasonable requirements
of the Government, should be entertained al the
national capital, Toasted and loaded with presents
There could be no better subject for the lively par
agraphist in his best estate, for the heavy edi
torial writers on q dull news day, than such
course on the part of the Government These
things can be made to appear vastly amusing, and
are undoubtedly influenced, In great degree, to
the prejudice Of the Indian policy, by the inces
SAINT small arms fire of squfbs and epigrams even
argument and inveCtive declared against it. And
yet for all this, the Government is rigid and its
critics strong. The Indian policy is sound, sensi-
BILE and beneficent because it reduces the minimum
loss of life and property upon our
frontier, and allows the freest devel-
Opment of our settlements and railways
those who oppose the present Indian policy is not
In enormously trying to change the course of the
Government from the standard they have taken,
but IN taking an altogether false standard for the
purpose. II is not more unreasonable that the
Government should do much for hostile Indians
and little for friendly Indians than it is that pri-
vate citizen should, to save his life, surrender all
the contents of his purse to ahighwayman, while
on another occasion, to distressed and deserving
applicant for charity he would measure his contr-
button by his means and disposition at the time
There lie precisely the same justification for the
course of the Government in feeding saucy and mis-
chievous Indians TO repletion, while permitting
more tractable and peaceful tribes to gather bare
subsistence by hard work. It Is not, of course to
be understood that the Government of the United
States is at the mercy of the Indians, brit thou
sands of its citizens are at their mercy Their ex-
posed situation, on the extreme verge of the set
Elements, affords sufficient justification to the
Government for buying off the hostility of savages
excited and exasperated as they are, and most nat
Urally SO, by the Invasion of their hunting grounds
and the4hreatened extinction of game. 1t would
requlfe 100 900 troops at least to form Gordon be-
nlnd which our settlements could advance with
the extent of the range of unrestrained choice of
%S ssSeShs aSyg ct feeling and freedom Of
past three or four years Indeed, the presence of
no military force could give that confidence to
dian hostility has engendered Men Of an a Sl
turous cast will live and work behind Ina IS
fe eHRs on that account but as rule mem
will not place women and children
in situations OF even possible peril
nor will they put money into permanent improve
ments under such circumstances. Especially has
the absence of Indian hostlities been of the high
est value. within the last few years, in directing
and determining to the extreme frontier emgra
ton arriving in such vast numbers on our shores
Americans, habituated to contemplation of this
species of danger of the features of pioneer
life, will scarcely comprehend the reluctance with
which those accustomed to absolute security of
person and property in the settled countries of Eu
rope expose themselves and their families to per-
lis of this kind. The fact that Americans are
more daring and adventurous In the presence of
danger more familiar to them, constitutes strong
er reason for maintaining the immunity which has
for three years now been secured by the feeding
system. There are innumerable little riffs of
agricultural or mining settlements all over the
western country, which, If unmolested, will in
rev years become selfprotecting communities,
but which, in the event of general Indian war oc,
curing at the present time, would utterly and in
stantiy aisappear either by abandonment or massa-
valleys, up to which population il now slowly but
steadily creeping under cover of the feeding svs-
tenn swept bare by the horrible atrocities of an In
dian war, or deserted by their atfrighted inhabi-
tants, hastily driving before them what of their
stock could be gathered together at a moments
notice. and bearing away what of their household
goods could be carried in their single wagons
Such would be the result, even with the most IA
vorable issue of military operations.
1t is right that those who criticise the policy of
the Government toward the Indians, and ridfcule
it as undignifed in its concessions, and unstates
manlike in its temporiZing with recognized evil,
should fairly face one alternative which is pre-
scented. There is no question of national dignity,
be it remembered, involved in the treatment of
savages by civilized power. With wild men, as
with wild beasts the question whether, in given
situation, one shall tight or run is question mere
ly of what is the easiest and safest. The system
now pursued in dealing with rowing tribes danger
GUS to our frontier population and obstructing our