The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1872-12-05

raised and scourged without intermission. It is
seemed somewhat tardy IN proceeding u un,
der the second half of thu rerervation pol
icy. and in applying the scorrge to individuals
and bands leaving their prescribed limits without
authority or for hostile purposes. The sentiment
of the general community being that for
past Mrons and the having SUCH full
knowledge of the difficulties to be encountered
in fully acquaintng these people with its benevo-
Cancellation have been exhausted before the aid of
the military arm has been invoked. It is
communities which suffer most from.a continuance
Of the evils should complain bitterly, and accuse
the Government of inaction without inquiring
previous wrong on the part of those to whose
good things they succeed alike, whether their
Is over and past but it is the duty Of the Govern
ment to act in the premises with, somewhat
broader view and more philosophic temper than is
in their families and taeir property from the
scourge of Indian depredations. The patience and
forbearance exercised have been fully justified in
alsos have s wh sy
tenn. There Is residue whose disposition and be-
havior certainly give little announcement to fur
ther forbearance. The numbers of actually hostile
and dePredating bands OF to-day probably do not
several bands Of Apaches IN Arizona, principally
the Tolono Apaches, the Quehoda, the CoInanches
and their confederates of the Staked Plains west
of the Indian country, and the greater portion of
the Kiowa nation. 1t would be impossible from
known to the annals of the country, to select
three which have so little in the way of past
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 K1owas 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 as 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 semi-peaceable tribes to allege as is
evil. TemporiZing, an expedient IN govern
ment, may be either proof of weakness and folly,
or it may be proof of the highest wisdom. When
evil is manifestly on the Increase, and tends to
go from bad to worse, to temporize with 1t Is cow
ardly and mischievous Even when an evil cannot
be said to be on the increase, yet when-not being
selfimited or self destructive. and having, there
fore, tendency to expire of inherent vices-it
cannot be shown to be transient, the part of pru-
dence and of courage is to meet and grapple with
it without hesitation and without procrastinaton;
tends to expire by the very conditions of its exist
ence, when the fights against it and the progress
of social and industrial order by steady degrees
crcumscribes its field cuts it's dimensions and saps
its strength, then temporzing may be the highest
craftsmanship. 1t belongs not to the sanguine but
to the sober view of the situation, that three years
will see the alternative of warelimnated from the
Indian question: and the most powerful and hos
tile bands Of to-day thrown in entire helpless
Indeed, promises of two years more, if not
another summer, on the Northern Pacific Rail
problem end leave the 90, 900 Indians ranging be-
tween the trans-continental lines incapable of
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 line would prevent the escape of the
savages, when hard pressed into British America
on the approach of military expeditions. The day
of deverance from fear of Indian hostility is not
fanf fS mt ton ,,nnh To hot f1rroA
summers of peaceful progress will put it 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.
Little riffs of mining settlement now found all
through the mountains of the Southern Territories
will have become self protecting communities
feeble wavering lines of agricultural occupation,
sensitive to the faintest breath of Indian hos
ulities 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 il discharge of these obligations which
receptive of their own efforts; Just soon as these
tribes cease to. De formidable they shonld be
brought distinctly to realization of the law that
If they would eat they must also work; nor should
it be left to their choice how miserably they
will live in order that they may escape work. AS
much as possible the Government should extend
over them a rigid reformatory discipline to
them from falling hopelessly into condition of
pauperism and petty crime. Merely to disarm saw
ages; to surround them by forces which it is hope
less in them to resist without exercising them
for series of years system of paternal control,
requiring them to learn and practice the arts of in
dustry at least until one generation has been fairly
started on the course of self-improvement. is to
make it pretty much matter of certainty that by
far the larger part of the now rowing Indians will
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 located,
the men resorting for a living to basket-making
and hog stealing the women to fortune telling,
etc. The reservation system affords place for thus
dealing with the tribes and bands without access
t is only necessary 1 that Federal laws be
judiciously 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
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 sentiment, and have re-
Trained from appealing to higher considerations of
humanitarian charity, not because have not re-
spect for such considerations 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,
communities have wearied of appeals in behalf of
Indians to the sentiments which are, perhaps,
Idtuer 100 HHe LOT pOpuldT use. IhCio 10
nothing that the Government is doing toward the
Indians but be indicated OIL the grounds of
practical usefulness and economy as completely as
expenditures of our American communities for the
education of the young.
FEW CONGRATULATIONS.
The Indians within the limits of the United
States, exclusive of those in Alaska, number, ap-
proximately, 100000.
They may be divided according to their geo.
graphical location range into five grand divis-
ions, as follows: In Minnesota and States east of
the Mississippi river, about $4,000; in Nebraska,
Kansas and The Indian Terri DRY, 70650; in the
Territories of Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and
Colorado New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, "a, 900;
and on the Pacific slope, $4,000.
In respect to the three lines of railroads--bullt
or projected-between the States and the Pacific
ocean, viz. the Northern Central and Southern
routes, they may be divided, excluding those
r1ver, south of Dakota, as follows: Between the
proposed northern route and the British posses
sions, about $4,000; between the Northern and
Central routes $4,000; between the Central and
the proposed Southern routes 81 600; and between
the Southern route and Mexico, IS 600, 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 re-
servatlons, receiving nothing from the Govern
ment, except interest on their own moneys or an
nuties granted them in consideration of the ces-
about 100 600; those who entirely subsisted by
the Government, about 81 900; those IN part sub
sisted, 81 ,000together about 115, 900; those who
subsist by hunting and fishing, upon roots, nuts,
berries, etc., or by begging and stealing, about
81, 600
They may be divided again with respect to their
connection with the Government, as follows:
There are about $50 900 who may be said to remain