National Republican., 1875-06-14

their repeated cessions. In his. whole eX-
tent tOfcountry-some forty thous md square
milet-only very small portion, and tha'
lying in narrow belts along The Missouri
river, is susceptible of supporting life Tor
families living in q civilized manner; the
main portion being water'ess and treeless-
an alkaline desert. One year since Rn,attempt
was made to find a site suitable for locating
the Spotted Tail agency, with viewto In
ducing the Indians to make beginning IN
farming and herding. After search OF
weeks the commission sent out for the pur-
pose found no such suitable locality in d.
kota, and placed the Spotted Tail agency
in Nebraska, outside of the permanent
Sioux reservation. For the same reason
Red Cloud agency has now been removed
north of the Nebraska line.
The game by which this large tribe for
merly supported themselves has been almost
entirely destroyed by the advance of rail-
roads and settlements, thus throwing them,
for the bare necessities Of life, helplessly
upon the annual appropriations of Con-
gress. Under any plan that is now posi-
BILE, this large sum of money thus appropri-
ated is expended simply in bringing beet,
coffee, sugar and -four to the lodges of
people who are doing nothing for their own
support. Hitherto this process of feeding
lazy paupers has been carried on as the
alternative of much larger expenditure in
fighting them. Much has been said upon
both sides of the question of the economy
Of this policy, but the fact remains substan-
tally undisputed that it is a wise eXpedient
for the Government to eXpend a million
and half annually in feeding rather than
risk ten-fnd expenditure in fighting these
Sioux. Gradually, Lowever, under the
demoIalzinL influences of an indOlent life,
supported at the expense OF others, the
warlike propensities of the Sioux have been
taken cut of them. In other words, we
have employed coffee, sugar and beef, in
the place of cavalry and GItling guns, to
conquer barbarous. warlike people.
But the Government is not thus by any
meaEs relieved of their support. They feel
the demands Of hunger now even more than
in their primitive condition, and if these
are not net in any other way they will
provide a supply ior themselves by scatter
ing and depredating upon settlers.
What is the outlook for this numerous
and barb; SSus people, who have. as yet
scarcely taken the first step toward self
support-without suitable country and
without prospect of adequate assistance
to begin civilization? They cannot exist
peaceably without help from the Govern
meEl; and yet it is hardly to be supposed
that the Government will continue year
after year, to spend a million or more in
feeding them as paupers. Such policy
is against all the theory and practice Of the
American people. There is no help out of
their barbarism except by au opportunity
TO labor for themselves, and that supposes
a country in which white man could
make his living; and even then they will
require for many years steady help from
the Government, while learning to care for
themselves.
This is the Sioux problem into which the
Black Hills question comes as another diff
fcult and disturbing element. The In
dams are asked to surrender a country
which has, to them, besides its value for
small game and timber and pasturage for
their ponies many sacred associations. If
the accounts by the Custer expedition of its
streams and grazing lands, confirmed by the
Indians themselves, are to be trusted, this
is the country of all others needed by the
Sioux. Especially is this view enforced by
the fact that the present waste of timber by
Indian camps will, within ten years. make
il impossible TO supply fuel to the Indians
Who have commenced farming along the
Missouri river without the importation of
coal.
The Department of the Interior has pro-
v:ded fora competent geological and mining
survey of the coveted territory; but in the
insane excitement which has not only car
ricd of. the floating population of the West
ern towns, but has seized upon the staid
cities OF Philadelphia and Boston, it is not
probable that any facts which this explora-
tor may report will be received us final
certainly not if it fails TO report gold in
abur dance. The ultimate surrender of the
Back Hills country by the Indians seems,
therefore TO be fOregone conclusion, and
the delicate and difficult duty is laid upon
the Department of the Interior to find a
way to bring about this cession without
war with the Indians, and without injustice
to them.
On the one hand is the suspicious and
Jealous disposition of the Indiins, who
have learned 10 regard any new movement
bv the whites as a fOreshadowing of their
loss in one form or another. On the other
hand is the quite prevalent feeling that the
Indian has no pnssessOrY right to a country
even after it has been defined as his by
law of Congress. And then there is the
opposite extreme to this feeling, that the
Iudian's right to his country and to any
country over which he has travelled or
hunted is sacred, and to be maintained
against all interests, private or public, of
the white people.
Another difficulty lies in the strong pres
sure for immediate action. Crowds of
miners, variously estimated at from two to
four thousand, are now camped outside of
the reservation at Cheyenne, Fort Laramie
and other points; others are en- route, and
others still are forming stock companies in
the Eastern cities, all of whom are expect.
ing an immediate deliverance by the Gov
ernment on this Black Hills question, Civ
ing full entree. And yet, by all law and
good faith on the part of the Government,
the right of occupation Of the Black Hills
is vested in the Sioux only; and it will not
be possible TO procure cession of this right
except on promise of compensation land
the price named is not likely to be incon-
siderable. Even if an agreement is made
at the council TO be shortly held by which
the Sioux surrender the Black Hills in con-
sideration of certain values, neither the
Department of the Interior nor the Presi-
dent has any power to guarantee this pay
ment until after an appropriation by Con-
gress.
Will it be at all safe for the President to
open the country on these terms before
they shall have been ratified by Congress
and the appropriations made? The answer