, 1876-08-02

we may have own ideas about Logan and
Red Jacket and Tecumseh we may know
the Indian to be a false, cruel, peridious
creature, to whom blood is as much a
passion as it is to the tiger or the shark,
who has no possibilities Of civilization, and
whose fate must be determination we
may think this, and with Justice but it
IN no way excuses our treatment of the
Indian. The fact that the whole question
is a sentiment is, perhaps, one reason for
the way in which we treat it. The In
dian, even now, is as much of q romance
to US as the caliphs of the " Arabian
Nights" We DO not know him. We
never see him. We are indifFerently &C
quainted with his manners or customs.
We question if one in twenty, even of our
educated people, could tell where the
Ap8ches, the Utes or the Sioux inhabit.
We know in q vague, half-informed way,
that out in the vast expanse beyond the
Mississippi there still wanders o remnant
OF those savage men who once ruled and
dwelt here. Before we had the rebellion
to discuss WI used to shout about our
military achievements over these tribes,
and we once went so far as to elect o SOL
der President because he had overcome g
savage at Iippecanoe. But this was when
the trophies Of 1912 were worn out, and
before the new ones came. AS o general
thing we know nothing of the Indian, and
as q consequence he has fallen into the
hands OF robbers and adventures. He
has been plundered and starved. We
have kept no faith with him. We have
hunted him as a bear or q panther. AS one
OF our most eloquent and enterprising cor
respondents showed some months since,lin
this very Sioux region where blood has
been shed there has been o systematic
robbery of the Indians. The benefcence OF
the government has been diverted to ring
after ring. Tribes have been compelled
to live on dogs and ponies, that the friends
OF Belknap might live in purple and fine
linen. The Indian had either to die in
his hut from starvation or on the field
in arms.
We shall have to fight out Of this as
best we Can-as we have betOre-with
triumph in the end, but with humiliation,
all the same, with a loss of money and,
perhaps, OF life. But now, when we are
mourning the death of brave men, and
what looks like q reverse to our arms, why
can we not again take up the Indian ques-
ton and solve it, The President started
out well, but he broke down, as 10 civil
service and other reforms. Can we not
deal justly with the Indian. Of course
Sheridan will reinforce Crook and of course
there will be another battle and a terrible
punishment of the Indians. But is this
all7 Why not end the whole question nowH
Why not make one Job OF the Indian
business Why not march against the
Indians with force enough to make every
one a prisoneri Then why not give them
some one place to inhabit and keep them
within its limits There are not as many
Indians in the whole country as there are
inhabitants in the lower wards of New
York, and we certainly could handle them
without this constant drain of blood and
treasure. We might take Arizona OF
New Mexico, or we might purchase Low.
er California and have a territury under
military rule where every Indian could
live and work out his own salvation. It
is inconsistent with our civilization and
with common sense to allow the Indian to
rove over a country as fine as that around
the Black Hills, preventing its develop.
ment in order that be may shoot game and
sca;p his %neighbors. That can never be.
This region must be taken from the Indi-
an even as we took Pennsylvania and