The New York herald., 1874-08-24
The Great Indian Problem-lnaPPlt-
cable and Delusive PRECEDENT.

cable and Delustve Preccdents.
1t is impossible to arrest the current of
events which will force upon our government
an early and radical change of its Indian pol
icy, and the subject is of such magnitude as
to challenge the ripest reflection OF our ablest
statesmen. Amid the difficulties which sur
round it one great point stands out in perfect
distinctness There can be no sectional diff
ference of opinion as to the final aim and ul-
innate result toward which all the efforts of
our government must be directed. The
mighty tide of enterprise and emigration,
which in the lifetime of people who are not
yet old has redeemed from the state of nature
the fertile region on this side Of the Missis-
sippi-creating great cities and important
marts Of commerce and dotting the whole
country with thriving towns and villages-is
destined to move on and work similar mira
cles in the vast region between the Mississippi
River and the Pacif, coast The rich mineral
resources and great agricultural capabilities of
that wide section of the national domain
beckon the hardy pioneers of civiliza-
ton to come and take possession, and
since the opening OF the trans Mississippi
railroads the only obstacle to the speedy set
tlement of the country is the roaming tribes
Of predatory savages, who are the terror of
peaceful emigrants. Cost what it may, this
obstruction must be removed. If the exter-
mination Of the marauding Indians were
necessary even that cruel necessity would
have to be faced, precisely as we would not
II
of bandits and robbers, or to drive out intrud-
ing, warlike foreigners. Happily. we are not
reduced to so shocking resort. By assign
ing limited reservations to the Indians and
compelling them by force to accept such agri-
cultural occupancy as we choose to give them,
we can insure safety to our settlers without
proceeding to the revolving extremity Of ex-
terminating the native tribes But this is the
only alternative. When this cardinal point
in our future Indian policy is accepted as
fixed we have sure criterion for judging of
the wisdom or expediency of intermediate
measures. They must be regarded as means
to this paramount end, and be accepted or
rejected according to their tendency to pro-
mote or defeat it. 1t is always great advan-
tage to know precisely what We aim at and to
adapt our measures to our object
Two prominent sources of instruction have
problem, neither of which is applicable if we
accept the reservation policy as the main key
of the situation. We allude to the Canadian
management, which has escaped our perpet-
ual Indian wars, and to the measures taken
with the Sepoys in British India. A very few
words will suffice to show how inapplicable to
our situation is each of these fancied prece-
dents.
We will begin with the uniformly peaceful
demeanor OF the Indians Of British North
America. Here the analogy fails in the i'm
portant respect that it was never in contem-
plation to open the vast territory occupied by
the British North American Indians for agri-
cultural settlement by the white race. The
greater part of it is forbidden by the climate
to be converted to such uses. 1t extends from
the settled portions of Canada to the Arctic
Ocean, an inhospitable and frozen region
which nature has surrendered forever to the
trapper and hunter. The escape from Indian
wars in that desolate wilderness is chiefly
owing to the long monopoly Of the Hudson
Bay Company, only recently terminated.
That great corporation, organized for the sole
purpose of prosecuting the fur trade, man.
aged the British Indians with consummate
skill during the long period of it's existence.
Never intending to settle any part of the
country, but only to prosecute lucrative
trade with the Indians the Hudson Bay Com
pany did not excite their jealousy by fears of
white encroachment.
We fear the Sepoy precedent will as little
bear the ordeal of q close examination. The
points of resemblance between the Sepoys and
our Western Indians are merely superficial.
The Sepoys, when aroused by the great
mutiny of 1857, showed themselves as
treacherous and bloodthirsty as our Indians
or the wild beasts in their own jungles but
in every ordinary particular the analogy COM
pletely fails. Our great task is to transform
the Indian tribes from hunters to agricul-
turists and give them settled homes. But the
people of Bengal, from whom the mutinous
Sepoys were enlisted, had been for ages in the
condition of settled peasantry, with fixed
places of abode. They were not marauding
tribes of savage hunters like our Indians; they
did not need to be reclaimed from roaming
TO settled life; they were not sparsely scat
tered over a vast territory but formed dense
agricultural population, and the management
of the soldiers enlisted from among them bore
no resemblance to the great problem with
which we are confronted of reducing fierce,
savage tribes to habits Of steady labor and
civilization. =: s@.'-Srs-~
We are convinced that little is to be gained
by the study of foreign precedents. The task
before us is unique and peculiar, and we must
depend upon the original and unborrowed
wisdom Of our statesmen applying strong
common sense to the facts of situation which