Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1872-12-06

nara0ement in it, 1t was not expected IN tne ma
bn1td he restrained in Ishmaelitish proclivities
without the part OF the more audaclous
for their traditional freedom. In the nrst an
nouncement made of the reservation system 1t was
expressly declared that the Indians should be made
as comfortable on and as uncomfortable OF their
reservations as it was in the power OF the Govern
ment to make them; that such OF them as went
right should be protected and fed, and such as
went wrong should be harrassed and scourged
without intermission 1t is unquestionably true
that the Government has seemed somewhat tardy
in proceeding under the second half of the reser-
walton policy and in applying the scourge to 1ndl-
yiduals and bands leaving their prescribed limits
without authority or for hostile purposes. The
sentiment of the general community being that
forbearance was due to the Indians, on account OF
past wrongs, and the Government having such
full knowledge OF the difficulties to be encounter
ed in fully acquainting these people with its benev-
client intentions, all resources OF approximation
ard Cancellation have been. exhausted be-
fore the aid of the military arm mas
for wonder or blame that communities which sui
fer most from continuance Of the evils should
complain bitterly, and accuse the Government OF
naction without inquiring very closely whether
the evil is not the result of a previous wrong on
the part of those to whose good things they sue
coed alike, whether their present troubles are
not the waves of storm that is and past; but
it is the duty of the Government to act IN the
premises with somewhat broader view and more
phlosophic temper than is to be expected OF those
who are actually snlarting in their families and
their property from the scourge of Indian depre
dations The patience and forbearance exercised
have been fully justified in their fruit The main
body of rowing Indians have with good grace, or
with i'll grace, submitted to the reservation sys
TEN. There is a residue whose disposition and
behavior certainly give little encouragement to
further forbearance. The numbers of actually
hostile and depredating bands of to-day probably
do not exceed in the aggregate 5000. Among
these are several bands of Apaches in Arizona,
principally the Tolono Apaches, the Quehoda, the
Comanches and their confederates of the Staked
Plains west of the Indian country and the greater
portion of the Kiowa nation. 1t would be impos-
sible from the large number OF tribes, great and
small known to the annals of the country to select
wrongs to justify their present hostility as these
three tribes, which commit practically all the out
RACES properly to be charged against the Indians.
The depredations of the Kiowas and Comanches
are utterly without excuse. An example made
here would do much to strengthen the policy Of
peace both with other Indians and with the country
at large well to free the borders of Texas from
a ScOurge that has become intolerable 1t is say
ing nothing against the course of the Government
toward the mi-peaceable tribes to allege, as is
often done, that 1t iss merely temporizing with an
evil. Temporizing. as an expedient In govern
ment, may be either sign OF weakness and folly,
an evil is manfestly on the increase, and TENDS to
go from bad to worse, to temporlze with it is cow
ardly and mischievous. Even when an evil cannot
be said to be on the increase yet when-not being
selfimited or selfdestructiVe, and having, there
fore, tendency to expire of inherent vices-1t
cannot be shown to be transient, the part of pru-
dcnce and ofcourage is to meet and grappe with it
without hesitation and without procrastinatlon:
but when an evil is in its nature self-limted and
tends to expire by the very conditions of its exist
ence, when time fights against 1t and the progress
of social and industrial order by steady degrees
circumscribes it's field cuts its dimensions and
its strength, then temporizing may be the highest
craftsmanship. It belongs not to the sangune, but
to the sober view of the situation that three years
will the alternative of war eliminated from the
Indian question, and the most powerful and hos
tile bands of to-day thrown in entire helpless
ness on the mercy of the GOVernYn ent.
Indeed, promises of two years more, if not
another summer, on the Northern Pacific Rail
road, will itself completely solve the great Sioux
problem, and leave the 80 900 Indians ranging be-
tween the trans-continenta lines as incapable OF re-
sisting the Government as are the Indians OF New
York or Massachusetts. Columns moving north
from the Union Pacific and south from the North
ern Pacific, would crush the Sioux and their con-
federates as between the upper and neither mill
stones, while the rapid movement OF troops along
the northern lines would prevent the escape OF the
savages, when hard pressed into British America,
which has heretofore afforded convenient refuge
on the approach of military expeditions The day
of deliverance from fear of Indian hostility is not
distant. 1t is not too much to expect that three
| summers of peaceful progress will put 1t forever
out of the power of the tribes and bands which
| at present disturb Colorado Utah, Arizona and
| New Mexico to claim consideration of the cOun-
try in any other attitude than as pensioners upon
the national bounty. The railroads now under
construction or projected, with reasonable assur-
| ance of early completion, will multiply fourfold
the striking force of the army in that section
through the mountains of the Southern Terrific
| ries will have become self-protecting communi-
ties; feeble, wavering lines of agricultural occu-
patton, now sensitive to the faintest breath of In
dian hOstilities will then have grown to powerful
reserves to lines still more closely advanced upon
| the last range of intractable tribes.
The assistance due to the Indians from the Gov
| eminent in discharge of these obligations which
have been adverted to, should not much longer be
| receptive of their own efforts; just so soon as
these tribes cease to be formidable they should be
brought distinctly to realization of the law; that
if they would eat they must also work; nor should
it be left to their own choice how miserably they
will live in order that they may escape work. AS
much as possible the Government should extend
over them q rigid reformatory discipline to save
them from falling hopelessly into condition of
pauperism and petty crime. Merely to disarm
savages; to surround them by forces which it is
hopeless in them to resist without exercising over
them for series of years system of paternal con-
troll requiring them to learn and practice the arts
of industry at least until one generation has been
fairly started on the course of sefimprovement, Is
to make 1t pretty much matter OF certainty tna5
become vagabonds in the midst of civilization,
forming little camps here and there over the face
of the Western States, which will be fostering
sores on the communities near which they are To-
Gated the men resortng for living to basket max
ing and hog-stealing, the women to fortune-tell-
ing etc. The reservation system affords place for
thus dealing with the tribes and bands without &C
cess of influences inimical to peace and virtue.
| 1t is only necessary that Federal laws be
| judiCiousy formed to meet all the facts of the
case, and enacted in season, before Indians begin
to scatter, shall place all members of this race
under strict refOrmatory control by agents of the
Government Especially is it essential that the
right of the government to keep the Indians upon
the reservations assigned to them and to arrest
and return them whenever they wander away
should be placed beyond dispute.
have purposely Invested these remarks of what
is commonly known as sentiment, and have re-
Trained from appealing to higher considerations OF
humanitarian charity, not because have not re-
spect for such considerations nor because senti-
ment is out of place in dealing with such ques-
ton but because believe that the Indian policy
Of the Government, past and present irrespective,
can be fully justified before the country by argu-
ments addressed solely to self-interest, and be-
cause it has appeared to that certain classes
and communities have wearied of appeals In be-
half of Indians to the sentiments which are,
perhaps, rather too fine for popular daily use.
There is nothing that the Government is doing to-
ward the Indians but can be indicated on the
grounds of practical usefulness and economy as
completely as expenditures of our American COM
munities for the education of the young.
A FEW CONGRATULATIONS.
The Indians within the lnits of the United
States, exclusive of those in Alaska, number, ap-
proXimately, 800, 900.
They may be divided according to their geo.
sions, as follows: In Minnesota and States east
of the Mississippi river about 80 500; in Nebraska,
Kansas, and the Indian Territory; 10000; in the
Ia9ho 5000; in Nevada and the Territories ;rS Sf
and %@ the Paclnc slope, $500 0'OO''
In respect to the three lines of railroads. built
or projected-between the States and the Pacific
Ocean, viz, the Northern, Central, and Southern
routes, they may be divided, excluding those re-
siding east of Minnesota and of the Missouri river
South of Dakota, as follows: Between the pro-
posed Northern route and the British possessions,
about $4,000; between the Northern and Central
routes, $4,000; between the Central and the pro-
posed Southern routes, .61,C00; and between the
Southern route and Mexico, $4,000, making a total
of 274,000
AS regards their means of support and methods
OF subsistence, they may be divided as follows:
Those who support themselves upon their own
ment. except interest on their own moneys, or an