Connecticut western news., 1875-12-10
CIVILIZING THE INDIAN.
What the Commissioner Of the Indian
 Bureau has to say About It..


 Bureau has to say About 1t.
 The commissioner of the United States Indian bureau reports the total number of Indians under his charge at 278, ,963. Tie figures are about the same as those of last year. In regard to the Indian and ms civilization the commissioner says:
 The question of Indian civilization is deeper and broader than is to be found in the inquiry and answer as to whether an Indian can be civilized. The oues- tion has not been raised as to whether an Indian should be subjected to 8 sys- tenn of enforced industry, and no plan has been devised looking toward his ele- vation by bringing to bear upon him the ordinary motives of industry, which are found in the responsibilities that at- tach to self support and individual man. hood. This negligence or long-con- tinued disregard of the main questions relative to Indians has largely resulted from the theory adopted from the begin ming as to the political status of Indians. We have taken from them the possibility of living in their own way, and are bound, in return, to give them the possi- bll1ty of living in our way, an obligation we do not begin to discharge when we merely attempt to supply their Ewants for food and clothing. They need to be taught to take care of themselves. An Indian is subject to like passions with the rest of us. So long as he can be subsisted by rations or by the chase he will not labor so long as he declines to labor he cannot take the first step in civilization. The call to labor must come to him, not through memorials or threats, councils Of presents, but through his necessities. When he has taken his first step toward self-support. his wants, which at the beginning were registered in his stomach, take on multi piled forms and urge to increased ln- dustry.
 l would recommend that the restric- tlons placed upon appropriations for annuities for Indians by the last Con- gress be hereafter continued, and that the discretion of the department as to releasing any tribe from it's operations be reduced to the minimum which the proper handling of wild Indians who cannot be at once reduced to labor will allow, and also that authority be given to expend necessary portion of annui- ties 1n preparing the ground for Indian labor and the purchasing of seeds and implements and stock cattle. All at tempts to require labor as condition of receiving annuities will meet with much opposition. The Indians will resist 1t from their constitutional disrelish for toll. They will also be melted to such resistance by half-breeds and squaw men, traders and other interested parties, who always t1Vn up as champions for the rights of Indians As the means of enforcing civilization become more avail able, and the necessity arises to com pei Indians, through the moral suasion of hunger, to do that which they dis like, it will be found necessary in many instances to rid agencies of the inter ference of this low class of whites by ex- polling them from the reservation. There is no reason why the government should continue to clothe and feed an army of men who are able to shift for themselves, and especially does such obligation cease toward men who persist in making the terms of 8 treaty their pretext for thwarting the purposes of the government and retarding the civili- zation of it's wards. A law providing for their summary election and punishment for their subsequent return would re- heve many reservation from great en- barrdssment.