The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-03
CHEROKEE TROUBLES.

, William P. Ross, Principal Chief of the
Cherokee Nation, issued, Angus. l, procla,
nation calling attention of the public officers
of the nation to the prevalence of crimes and
ofenses, which demoralize the country,
spread apprehension, endanger rights and
bring shame upon the Indian name and char.
acter. He urges increased energy and dill.
gence in the prevention of crime by excluding
ardent spirits, the most fruitful source OF
these evils; he urges them to fully enforce
the act against carrying unlawful weapons;
to place no bad Indians on guard, or any one
charged with crime, or drunkard, or one
having an overbearing, disreputable char
acter; and to hunt up and capture known MUIR
derers, su mmoning for that purpose such
posse as may be necessary.
He admonishes them to preserve order at
the approaching election, secure q free
and fair exercise Of the elective franchise, and
to appoint an ample guard Of sober men at
each precinct for whose conduct they will be
held strictly responsible.
! The instincts Of the Indians are SO widely
different from those of Caucasians that the
laws and institutions Of the latter can never be
established over our aboriginals by their own
act or be preserved by their own consent.
Our system of government would be good for
them if they had the disposition to adopt and
abide by it.
If all the whites and negroes were to aban-
don the continent to the Indians, with all
their present enlightenment and christian
ization, which with some tribes are by no
means small, their tendency would be strong
toward their hereditary manners, customs,
creed, laws and government. Their scientific
and literary knowledge would subside into
traditions The government of physical
strength and prowess would steadily super
sede that of representatives elected by the
masses. That which is now preserved for
them in law books would find fewer readers
from year to year, and at length none
at all.
What is known of the white mans civilzs-
ton would be retained only by the memory
and be transmitted to succeeding generations
orally, and more and more incompletely,
until in the lapse Of centuries, the Indian
child would hear the stories about the pale
faces, their railroads, their mills, their tele-
graph, their firearms, their steamboats,, their
written language, their money and their
Bible, with disbelieving criticism OF such idle
wonder as our children listen to fairy tales.
In proportion as Caucasian control is now re-,
moved from the Indians their native instincts
reassert themselves
They have great desire for personal liberty,
and find every sort of restraint of laws CT
magistrates irksome. The Indian is essen
TALLY "a law unto himself" He hates con.
fnement even to his own large and fertile
farm. The instinct of persistent toll which
marks our race, in him is substituted by an
instinct of rambling idleness. They have no
affinity for the civilization which has grown
up from labor and which is maintained by
discipline. If there have been conspicuous
exceptions they have been only numerous
enough to prove the general statement true.
In no invidious sense, it is a proposition
which can not be successfully controverted, |
that people with such aboriginal tendencies |
and instincts requires the presence and con-
troll of those in whose minds and instincts
civilization, the spirit of order and the spirit |
IF industry are mixed by the habits and
hereditary ideas Of many centuries. The
white mans laws can not prevail unless the
white man is present to execute and interpret
hem; the white mans literature and science
IAN not be perpetuated and diffused unless
he white man goes with them to teach, ex-
plain and disseminate; the white mans vices
an not be controlled when kindled among
avages, except by the presence of the white
Judge and magistrate.
Unaided and alone, the Indians of North
America cannot maintain the civilization to
which large number of them have been
aised.
Beyond the prevention of crime, restric-
ions upon the liberty of Indians, whether in
he Indian Territory, where many advances
rave been made or even in the wildernesses of
he far West, where primitive habits prevail
viii not meet with ready sanction in any
quarter.
But our government and people are res
,onsible for the present condition of the
riginal occupants of the soil from which our
utilization has nearly expelled them, and
therefore, are we justified in exercising just
UGH moderate and wholesome control as their !
aried circumstances may require. The
United States Government can keep whisky
way from the Indians and it ought to be
one at any cost. It can prevent the commits
ion of murders by Wholesale and it ought to
AXE the needful steps ut once.
Splendid mixed tea, one dollar per pound, at
be Tea Depot, Camp street.
The highest Endorsement as to the merits of
Iarsden's Zarsaparilla is, that physicians t
rescrfbe it.
AL steamboats, and hotels use Paragon Yeast a
owder.