The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-06-24
RICHMOND.

tiphCu- ahN aAN NAi N'
lied expeditions against them; and
when for the most atrocIous murdors.
even of those of whom we have the
least cause oil complaint, a jury on tha
frontier can hardly be gotten to listen
to a charge, much less convict cul-
prit." They, poor wretch
es, have no press through which their
grievances are related, and 1t is well
known that when one side only OF a
story is heard and often repeated the
human mind becomes impressed with
it insensibly." Washington Speech
in Congress and Letter to Pendleton.)
The Board of Indian Commission
ers" is composed of gentlemen Of great
intelligence and practical business ex
perience. Their chairman, Felix X.
Brunot, and other members OF the
Board have traversed the frontier
country in their official capacity, and
made themselves personally familiar
with the facts bearing upon this fea
ture of the Indian question. In their
report to the President of the United
States, made November Is, 1872, they
state that hundreds of innocent set
tiers upon every frontier who have
suffered from the revenge of the saw
age, drawn upon them by the acts of
desperadoes and their coadjutors of
higher class, who profited by the dis
turbance, were unwlttingly made in
struments and particlpators IN the
deception. Time and again has the
nation been made to pour out its
treasure like water, and sacrifice the
priceless lives of its citizens and sol
diers to accomplish the objects of deS-
peradoes, or satiate the greed OF spec
ulators and land robbers. a Mormon
gives an Indian crippled COW; when
it RECEIVERS a frontiers man courts and
attempts to take it from him, and be-
ing resisted, demands the aid OF sol
diers. and Sioux war results. Twen-
tY millions OF money are spent, and.
far worse, the lamented Fe'terman
and ninety-eight of his command are
killed in day, and hundreds of inno-
cent lives on the border are sacrificed.
Again: The negro servant Of mill
tary officer entices the wife of Nava-
10 chief and is killed in the conse-
auent affray. The Navaioes have
large herds and fine lands, which are
wanted. They are a pastoral and ag-
ricultural people, not warlike, but war
ensues. In two years they are con-
quered, and moved to distant reser
vation as prisoners of war. Half OF
their number die The remaining
five or six thousand are brought ba..k
at last, poor and miserable, to occupy
part of their former home. What
did it cost in lives and treasure to ac
complish the crime?" Again: The
greed for gold and land causes its ra-
pacious subjects to overrun the coun-
try of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes,
when the ink of the treaty which guar
anteed them its possession is hardly
yet dried on the paper; and with no
provocation proved, a regiment of vol
unteers perpetrate the infamous Sand
Greek massacre. The consequent war
costs hundreds of lives, the depopula-
tion of the border, and thirty millions
of dollars. Those humiliating wars,
humiliating alike in their origin and
their end, are but some of the more
recent of many still less justifiable in
their origin, and are only suggested as
to the degree to which that public
opinion has been perverted which
made them possible (Fourth Annual
Report of the Board of Indian Com
missioners. 1872, page 201
OTHER CAUSES TENDING TO EXTER-
While their own inter-tribal feuds
and our border wars have been prolific
sources of mortality among the tribes
and bands of Indians, they have been
for half a century past rapidly de-
creasing from other causes, many OF
which are familiar to those who have
given the subject any attention. Prom
inent among these are
& l. !,
has driven the tribes from post to
post, depriving them of their fishing
streams aud hunting grounds, and re-
dGcing them to starvation, followed by
disease and death.
. Smallpox, measles, cholera, and
venereal diseases-all unknown among
them previous to contact with white
men-are now sources of IA largely in
creased morality.
3 Intemperance and the exposure
and disease resulting from indulgence.
T. A largely increased mortality
nourishmen neglect, exposure, and
hereditary vencrtal diseases
The Joint Congressional committee
of 1867 on the condition of the Indian
tribes and bands within the United
States collected mass of reliable ev-
idence showing that the number OF
red men was rapidly decreasing, and
that the decrease was mainly the re-
suit adopting and practicing the vices
and rejecting the virtues OF advanc
ing white populations condition
which the Indian policy of the Gov
ernment failed to comprehend or pre-
vent to any considerable extent. If
these causes of mortality should not
be checked, the extinction of the In
dian races of the United States would
5 ION be completed without other aux
iiiary influences.
The Government Indian policy was
no doubt we'll adapted to the prlml
tive condition of the country when it
was originally put in practice. Then
the area of the United States was
to a very limited portion of
the Atlantic slope, The border con
fines were contracted. and treaties
with the few tribes in immediate CON
tact with white communities secured
their own friendship and their coop
Grafton in keeping the unknown tribes
beyond them on friendly relations
But all this has become changed by
the expansion OF the national domain
and the increase of its population.
The old Indian policy has, as a re-
suit. outlived its day, and must now
of necessity pass into history, and
give place to system better adapted
10 the altered condition of the eoun
Is. and more in conformity with the
spirit of the age