The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-08-02
The Independent.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 1877.
The Indian Policy.

elephant of this country. The vexed
question, "What shall we do with
hint" is constantly recurring. Every
year some new phase of this question is
presented, and the solution always
seems difficult. One policy and
another has been tried but as yet, if we
may Judge of the fruits of these poll
cies, the true one has not yet been
adopted. The nation is gradually
learning by experience, that, to treat
its Indians like a lot of children, by
humoring them in their whims or cajol-
ing them with presents and fair words,
or temporizing until everybody, even
the Indians themselves, is out of pa
thence, is not the true policy. Judi
cious efforts to civilize them are wise
and generous steps, and the peace poll
CIV. so far as it is concerned in this.
cause, is to be commended; but when
it introduces, among those who are
appointed to deal with the Indians,
sickly sentimentalism averse to that
firm and decisive course that hesitates
not to follow wrong doing with punish
ment meet for the ofiense, then it be-
comes injurious, not only to the inter-
ests of the white people on the frontier,
but also neutralizes the appropriate
work of the policy itself. Indians have
lively appreciation of brute force, and
such force is an effective agent in civil
lization. Indians cannot be subdued
without it, and they cannot, In the ma
jority of cases, be civilized until they
have been, in some degree, subdued.
To this end, an adequate army should
be stationed on every frontier. Not
handful of soldiers and a cannon or
two, but good respectable force prop
erly equipped, and in numbers equal to
at least half the wild Indians in the
country. The presence of troops has a
salutary effect on Indians, especially if
they have ever heard the canisters
rattle about their ears. This would
cost the government but little, if any,
more than it now does to be continually
carrying on war somewhere, and trans
porting troops from one side of the
country to the other.
Another point. More stringent laws,
and better modes for enforcing them
against the white renegades which
infest the frontier, should be adopted.
We have laws against selling whiskey
to indians. Why not have laws against
other evil practices that are introduced
among the Indians by lawless white
menl Adopt such laws and make
them effective by attaching penalties
thereto that will be a terror to evil
doors. Provide better means for APP
pretending and Furnishing the violaters
of these laws. And, finally, treat the
Indian more as the white man is treat
ed, less like children and idiots, and
more like responsible beings.
The whites do not set good examples
before the Indians. They are not
generally as dignifed as they should be
before their interiors We have noticed
in our travels in Indian countries, that
the majority of white people treat In
dams in silly or jocular manner, and
seldom with that dignity which would
command their respect. If man
would have any influence over the
Indian he must hold himself above the
Indian, for the moment he descends to
the level of the Indian, that moment
the willy red man will begin think him
self the better man of the two. The
experience of priests, both protestant
and catholic, attest this point They
understand and appreciate the value Of