Bismarck tri-weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1875-1881, 1877-08-03

TRAKs1RxT ADyRRrIsIHc:-Ten lines nonpareil, 1st
insertion $1.0O; additional lines five cents; addtaona
C.. A. Lounsbefry, Editor and Manager.
NE-s:- l~TTf -! BIsMA RCK, D. Z
Our IndianPolicy and It's Eject on
the Frontier.
Probably not more prolific theme ev-
er demanded recognition at the hands of
frontier editor or one more vital to the
interests with which he has become iden-
titled: Our Indian policy for the past few
years seems to have been q series ofegre-
gious blunders, the result of imbecile ig-
norance, inexcusable stupidity, or wllful
criminality in sacrificing the lives and
property of the brave men and women
who have gone to the frontier braving
the v1cissitudes of fortune to carve out
homes of comfort for themselves and fam
lilies, and not this alone but in sacrificing
the material interests of the country by
retarding its developement, and in ne
cessitating the expenditure of vast
amounts of money from the public treas
ury IN attempts to repair the damage oc-
casioned by Indian devilishness which
ought never to have been permitted to
occur and of other immense sums osten-
sibly appropriated for the benign purpose
of christianizing the poor, innocent red
heather but which through summers heat
and winters cold manages to melt away
and freeze out, until with the exception
of supply of the latest improved fire.
arms with plenty of fixed ammunition to
give force and functn>e-ation to the truths
of the gospel as taught by the Indian De-
partment and practically applied to the
settlers; the whole fades away into dim
outline merely of a skeleton essentially
resembling deaths head and cross-bones.
Thus the great vital interests of the coun-
try and the families and fortunes of the
frontier settlers are piled upon the sacrif-
cial altar of politics and feast of the
party harpies invited. Attempts to grasp
this skeleton outline and rechrystalize it
back into something tangible either mon
ey or its equivalent have been fully as
successful as the effort of the darkey min
strel who::stuck his finger in pail Of wa
ter and then looked for the hole. The
efforts Of the Department Of the last adj
ministration to remedy the evils existing
in the Indian policy were peculiarly un-
fortunate, from blunder to blunder and
each succeeding one apparently able to
discount in fatality its predecessor, it
went in its vain endeavors to successfully
solve the Indian problem; and finally af.
ter months Of painful travail it brought
forth the present existing christiani zing
policy which consists IN farming out to
the numerous religious sects of the coun-
try their legitimate portion Of the inter-
esting romantic heathen is healthy ma
terial for the future glsrifcation Of the
masters kingdom. This % called peace
policy is the legitimate child Of the im-
practicable philanthropy and maudlin
sympathy which 50 largely permeates
eastern society. The result simply Of en-
tire ignorance Of the true Indian charac-
ter and Of fostering the distorted novelis-
tic idea of the grandeur and nobility OIL
these 1slords Of the forest" The Indians
have 80 long been gone from their midst
that they know nothing about them ex-
cept in legend and they have been sys-
tematically Pocohontased to repletion by
those who wrote not to represent charac-
ter true to nature but for bread and but
ter; and who never saw an Indian but in
whose vivid Imagination melted by their
Pocohontas training every wearer Of al
breechclout appeared one of natures no.
blemen, and every dirty, filthy, greasy
squaw, mother in Israel. In every lit
tie male papoose strapped to a board at
his maternal ancestors back an embryo
Powhattan, Red jacket or Saosacus, the |
latter of which is most probable, ir fact
quite certain. ply,
While condemn,ng without stint the
utter absurdity of Eastern philanthropists |
indulging in such self adulation as to Law
the fattering JUNCTION to their souls, that
they know more Of affairs which were
never within two thousand miles OF more
Of them, than those in f,af,ia te,.o~se
there, or that they have clearer concep-
ton OF Indian Character BY this magnify
ing distance than those who IN their midst
for years have studied them from ..a to