New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-12-05

The following is an extract from the report
of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs:
The people of the United States can never,
without dishonOr, refuse to respect these two
considerations First. That this continent
was originally owned and occupied by the
Indians, who have on this account a claim
somewhat larger than the privilege of one
hundred and sixty acres of land, and
'tind himself' in tools and stock, which is
granted as a matter Of course to any newly
arrived foreigner who declares his intention
to become a citizen that something in the
nature Of an endowment, either capitalized
or in the form of annual expenditures for
series of years for the benefit Of the Indians,
though at the discretion of the Government
as to the specific objects, should be provided
for every tribe or band which is deprived of
its roaming privilege and confined to dimin-
ished reservation; such an endowment not
being in the nature of a gratuity, but in COM
mon honesty the right of the Indian on ac-
count of his original interest in the soil.
Second. That inasmuch as the progress OF
our Industrial enterprise has cut these people
off from modes of livelihood entirely sufficient
for their wants, and for which they were
qualified, in a degree which has been the
wonder of more civilized races, by inherited
aptitudes and by long pursuit, and has left
them utterly without resources, they have
claim on this account again to temporary sup
port and to such assistance as may be neces-
sary to place them in position TO obtain a
livelihood by means which shall be compati-
BILE with civilization.
Had the settlements of the United States
not been extended beyond the frontier OF
| 1867, all the Indians of the continent would,
| to the end of time, have found upon the plains
an inexhaustible supply Of food and clothing 4
! Were the westward course of population to
be stayed at the barriers Of to-day, nOtwith-
standing the tremendous inroads made upon
| their hunting grounds since 1867, the Indians
would still have hope Of life. But another
such five years will see the Indians of Dakota
and Montana poor as the Indians OF Nevada
and Southern California; that is, reduced to
an habitual condition of suffering from want
of food.
The freedom of expansion which is working
| these results is TO us of incalculable value.
To the Indian it is Of incalculablc cost.
Every years advance OF our frontier takes in
| q territory as large as some OF the kingdoms
of Europe. We are richer by hundreds OF
millions; the Indian is poorer by large part
of the little he has. This growth is bringing
imperial greatness to the nation; to the. In
dian it brings Indebtedness, destitution, beg
gary. Surely there is obligation found in
considerations like these, requiring us in some
way, and in the best way, to make good to
these original owners Of the soil the loss by
which we so greatly gain.
Can any principle of national morality be
clearer than that, when the expansion and
development Of a civilized race involve the
rapid destruction of the only means of sub.
sistence possessed by the members of less
fortunate race, the higher Is bound as of sim
pie right to provide for the lower some sub
stitute for tho means of subsistence which il
has destroyed? That substitute is, ofcourse
best realized, not by systematic gratuities o
food and clothing, continued beyond pres
, ent emergency, but by directing these peopl
to new pursuits which shall be consisten
with the progress of civilization upon tn
continent; helping them over the first rougl
places on "the white mans road" and
, meanwhile, supplying such subsistence as
absolutely necessary during the period Of in
, tiation and experiment.