Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1872-12-12
TEE INDIANS.


the Policy of Fighting The Present
Number of Savages-How They are sup
ported
The annual report of the Commission
er of Indian Affairs is too lengthy to
admit of its publication in full in these
columns. The document opens with an
exposition of the Indian policy of the
Administration, in which the Commits
sioner remarks that the Indian policy,
SO called, of the Government, is policy,
and it is not a policy, or rather it con-
sists of tive policies, entirely distinct,
seeming, indeed, to be mutually incon-
sistent and to reflect each upon the
other; the one regulating the treat
ment of the tribes which are potentially
hostile, that is, whose hostility is only
repressed just SO long as, and so far as,
they are supported in idleness by the
Government; the other regulating the
treatment of those tribes which, from
traditional friendship, from numerical
weakness, or by the force of their loca
ton, are either indisposed toward, or
incapable of, resistance to the demands
of the Government. The treatment of
the feeble Poncas and of thu friendly
Arrickarees. Mandans and Gros Ventres
of the North, is an example of the lat
ter; while the treatment of their inso-
lent and semi-hostile neighbors, the
Sioux, furnishes an example of the
former. In the same way at the South
the treatment of the well-intentioned
Papagoes of Arizona contrasts Just as
strongly with the dealings of the Gov
ernment by their traditional enemies,
the treacberous and vindictive Apaches
This want of completeness and consist
ency in the treatment of the Indian
tribes by the Government has been
made the occasion of much ridicule and
partisan abuse; and it is indeed calcu-
lated to provoke criticism, and to afford
scope for satire; bat it is none the less
compatible with the highest expediency
of the situation.
1t IS no more unreasonable, the Com
missioner says, that the Government
should feed and pamper hostile and
treacherous Indians, while at the same
time denying the same indulgences
to other and friendiier tribes, than that
| citizen should deliver his purse to a
highwayman to save his life 1t is not
to be understood that the Government
is entirely at the mercy of the hostile
| Indians, but thousands of citizens upon
| the frontier are, and their position on
| the verge of settlement affords iustifi-
cation for buying off the hostility Of the
savages, excited and exasperated as they
are by the invasion of their hunting
grounds. 1t would require 100, 1000 troops
at least to form Gordon sufficient to
| protect the frontier settlements by force
of arms alone; indeed, the presence of
no military force could give that conf.
dence to pioneer enterprises which the
general cessation of Indian hostilities
has engendered The Commissioner
proceeds at length to show the evils
which would result from the breaking
out of an Indian war.
There are inuumerable little riffs of
agricultural or mining settlements all
over the western country which, if I'M
molested, will in few years become
selfprotecting communities, but which,
| in the event OF general Indian war oc-
curing at the present time, would ut
terly and instantly disappear. either by
abandonment or massacre.
Besides, argues the Commissioner, a
general Indian war could not be carried
on with the present military force of the
United States. Regiments would be
| needed where now are only companies,
and long lines ofposts would have to be
| established for the protection of regions
which, under the present feeding system,
are now left wholly uncovered.
After commencing the policy of pa
tience and forbearance that has hith-
erto been exercised toward the savages
of the plains, the Commissioner pro-
| ceeds:
1t belongs not to sanguine but to
sober view of the situation, that three
years will see the alternative of war
| eliminated from the Indian question,
and the most powerful and hostile
bands of to-day thrown into entire help
lessness on the mercy of the Govern
ment. Indeed, the progress of two
years more, if not of another summer,
on the Northern Pacific railroad will, of
itself, completely solve the great Sioux
problem, and leave the 10000 Indians
ranging between the two trans-conti-
mental lines as incapable of resisting
the Government as are the Indians of
| New York or Massachusetts,. Columns
moving north from the Union Pacific,
and south from the Northern Pacific,
|
crates as between the upper and the
neither milestone; while the rapid move
ment of troops along the northern line
would prevent the escape of the savages,
when hard pressed, into the British pos
sessions, which have heretofore afforded
a convenient refuge on the approach of
a military expedition. Towards the
south the day of deliverance from the
fear of Indian hostility is more distant :;
yet it is not too much to expect that
three summers of peaceful progress will
forever put it out of the power of the
tribes and bands which at present dis
turb Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New
Mexico TO claim consideration of the
country in any other attitude than as
pensioners upon the national bounty.
The Commissioner says that the Gov
eminent ought to extend over the In
dams rigid reformatory discipline, to
save them from falling hopelessly into
the condition of pauperism and petty