New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-02
lBr TELEGRAPH TO THE 1RIBUNE.l

OF REPRESENTATIVES, HANCOCK, WOOD, AND
ADAMS.
lBY TELEGRAPH THE TRIBUNE.l
WASHINGTON, NAV IA speech of unusual inter
est and value was made upon the Indian question
TODAY by MI John Hancock, whose long residence
upon the Texan frontier and observation of Indian
habits gave him the advantage of treating the sub
iect from practical standpoint. He believed the
condition of the Indians to be worse now than it
was % wears ago when they were under the control
of the War Department. but this fact was OWING
chiefly to the changed conditions under which they
are placed. He estimated the total number of H.
dams IN the country at 100000 and said that if the
Government withdrew its assistance and forced
them TO rely upon themselves for food, the greater
number would starve in six months. They must be
fed or reduced to the necessity of depredatng upon
the whites.
Mr. HancOCk's views on the question Of cvilizing
the savages and making them self-sustaining were
somewhat novel and attracted much attention. He
surprised most members, who have no more thorough
KNOWLEDGE Of the condition Of the tribes in the In
dian Territory than is usually possessed by inteli-
gent people, by saying that the Creeks Choctaws,
and Cherokees attained higher grade of civiliza-
ton while in Georgia and Alabama than they now
possess Whatever advance had been made since
their removal TO the Territory had come from an adj
rather more savage than ever. There were bit three
alternatives for the Indian subjugation. amalgama
ton, OF determination, and the first would
alone make of them a civilized race.
By subjugatlon he meant reduction TO
Government control to the extent of obliging
them to labor. They could not be civilized by re-
lgious and moral teaching Until they could be
made TO work nothing could be done toward their
improvement. He gave account of the Pueblo
system in Mexico by which the Indians there have
been brought up to the general level of the civza
ton of the country, so that statesmen like Juarez
are found Of pure aboriginal blood. These Pueblos
were originally Catholic missions where the priests
gathered the Indians about the central village with
It's church aud taught them to work in the neigh
boring fields. Taking this plan as a model, Mr..
Hancock advocated the breaking up of the tribal
organizations in the Indian Territory the division
of the land into sections, and the establishment
upon each section Of q certain number of Indian
families, to be taught to labor under the con-
troll Of member of the Society of Friends He
proposed TO use the troops chiefly TO form a
curtain of posts on the frontier between the Terri
tory and Texas to prevent raids and to treat every
Indian found across that line as an outlaw. IL this
method were found 10 be successful II could be ap-
piled 70 the tribes in other parts of the country.
The Sioux who are the most troublesome Indians
we have now TO deal with, and who absorb more
than ope-sixth of the entire annual approximation
made for the Indian service, he thought would have
"a be removed TO a region more favorable 10 agri-
culture before they could be put on the road to civ
iiZation.
Among the speeches which followed Mr.. Hancock,
and which occupied all the afternoon, those Of Mr..