New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-02-19
THE NOBLE TETON S{OUX.

How beautiful the picture of the Red Man
of the Forest walking westward with meas
ured tread and sometimes tangled lOcOmOtiOn,
sustained and soothed by the unfaltering arm
of the Indian agent Barbarism falls back
slowly before the onward march of Progress
and Civilization, but Philanthropy sends out
at the nations expense shining band of
agents and traders, who smooth the Red Mans
pathway to the setting sun with whisky of an
inferior quality but tremendous power, and
who see to it that when the noble savage
reaches the goal of his earthly career and
wraps the drapery of his couch about him, the
drapery shall be such as has paid several
hundred per cent profit to the trader, with
the privilege Of Ieverson. No finer picture
could be than of the Indian and the agent walk
ing westward together; Government supply
ing the Indian the Indian supplying the agent,
and the agent making remittances East Com
plete and harmonious circle of operations. Here
is no complication of relations, no balance of
trade no delicate adjustments; nothing but q
simple process Of drawing from the Treasury
in the name of the untutored savage, on be-
half of the tutOred agent. 1t is the refine
ment of simplicity as well as philanthropy.
In such work Orville Grant, brother of the
Great Silent Man, has not shrunk from en-
caging But being man of a sensitive tenn
permanent and sympathetic nature, he has re-
Trained from joining personally in the mourn
full procession that escorts the Sitting Bull
and Shacknasty Jim to that mysterious realm
where scalps don't count, and if they did
would only contribute an Odor of burnt hair !;
he does not personally superintend the march
or light the Red Mans way TO dusty death
with talow candles charged to the Govern
ment at fourteen prices. At two removes he
contemplates in fearful silence the rapid dis
appearance of the Noble Red Man of the For
est, and signs distressfully as he counts the
commissions on his contract.
Nothing in the annals of our country can
equal the generosity with which the American
People have treated the original owners of the
soil. The amount of money that has been
paid for the maintenance and support of each
individual Indian in the country would, il
ciphered out and tabulated, astonish the effete
monarchies 1t has always been the policy of
the Government to do the handsome thing by
the Indians. For years and years we have
watched their retreating forms with unmixed
sadness, have pursued them with our sympa-
thies and emigrant trains, and for the sake of
old associations in part and partly for agri-
cultural purposes, have occupied the lands
they abandoned. We have made large and
frequent appropriations for their benefit,
and some of the most brilliant and acute
statesmen of this or any period have watched
with constant interest the flow of money from
the Treasury to the Red Man, and have
amassed handsome fortunes by simply stand
| ing by and seeing that everything went right.
We have made treaties with them as with
independent nations, and at the same time
maintained them as Government wards. We
have sent them the@ agent and trader as ex-
| amples in the process Of Christianization, fur
nished them with rifles and ammunition to
keep the peace, and promoted contentment and
quiet with whisky of the highest projectile
force. We have Gied various policies Vp0p