Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-05-15


is evidence also that the per-
sons employed in the department to make the
purchases are accomplices in these crimes.
have examined invoices of purchases made
by the department or its agents In eastern
cities, where the prices charged were from
fifty to one hundred per cent. above the mar
ket value of good articles. Upon an examlna-
ton of them, were "steel Spades made OF
sheet iron; ''chopping axes, which were pure
ly cast-iron; "best brogans," with paper soles;
blankets" made of shoddy and glue,
which came to shreds the first time they were
wet, ETC.. No doubt the senator was con-
vInced, as any other honest man would have
been from the facts he relates, that the In
dian contractors and agents are guilty of the
most Outrageous and systematic swindling
and robbery and nobody will doubt that he
selected the proper terms to designate the
character OF their conduct No mllder words
than swlndling and robbery could have b zen
truthfully used in describing the nature of
these transactions. The worst feature of the
matter is revealed in the statement that
there is evidence to show that persons en-
ployed in the department to make the pur-
chases are accompllces In these crimes. So
it seems that this corruption, fraud and ras-
cality exists in one OF the great departments
of the government, and extends from the
national capital all the way to the western
plains.
Senator Nesmith. in the same report
quoted from by Mr.. Young. says that many
articles are purchased which would be utterly
useless to the Indians if their quality were
ever so good, such as iron spoons, mirrors.
gimle Is, jews harps, hair-oil, fnger-rinRs,
and in one case forty dozen pairs of elastic
CATERS were sent to one tribe, In which there
was not single pair OF stockings. From the
same report we learn that one agent made a
requlsition for small steel-plows, and they
sent him fancy mirrors; he asked for harness
for ponies, and they sent him frying pans
and knitting needles; he asked for axes and
grain cradles, and they sent him scissors and
iron spoons. Quoting from Casey Young
very able speech, we learn additional to all
this that
at has been shown in investigation di-
rected by congress, by testimony too en-
phatic and trustworthy to be doubted, that at
many of the agencies where large numbers
of Indians had been collected by order of the
Indian bureau or commissioner, the pro-
visions furnished were not only far too scant
in quantity to meet the demand, but so in
ferior in quality as to be unfit for human con-
sumption. Moldy bread alive with vermin,
-four and meal musty with age and exposure
to weather, and tainted meat so far decom-
posed as to give out the most offensive odor
before being removed even from the barrels
and boxes in which it had been shipped, con-
situted the major part of many invoices Of
provisions. Fresh meat was supplied from
the putrid flesh of beef cattle slaughtered
when nearly dead from starvation or disease,
and issued as rations to the hungry multi
tude. This loathsome, repusive food, upon
which wild ANIMALS would hardly banquet,
and from which vultures of the air would
almost wing their flight In disgust, the Indl-
ans were compelled to eat or starve. If they
complained it only brought curses, insults
and abuse, for the heartless knaves who had
them in charge seem to have had neither
mercy, honesty, nor conscience, and paid no
heed to the demands of justice or the piteous
supplicatiohs of helpless suffering. SILVER
ing in their shoddy blankets before
the freezing winter winds that swept
from icy mountains across the western plains,
and starving of hunger or slckenlng and dy-
ing from uuwholesome food, the Indians
have experienced ali the horrors OF cold and
famine, and it is not surprising that they
should leave their agency and go in quest of
game to relieve the pangs OF hunger. But
they are not permitted this poor resort, for
no sooner do they leave the bounds of their
prison than they are declared to be 'hostles,
and the soldiers are sent out to hunt them
down, bring them back disarmed tc camp,
and then if the Indian, eXasperated to mad
ness by this tyranny and wrong, makes the
least resistance he Is shot down like a wild
beast. Forthwith an Indian war IS pro-
claimed, and the work of butchery and de-
structlon begins. Just such things as this,
added to the perfdy of violated promises,
broken treaties, and lawless invasion of their
reservations, have precipitated half the In
dian wars In the west that have occurred In
the past fifteen years, and notably the Sioux
war, which ended with the destruction of
General Clusters command and the wonder
ful retreat of SittineBull and his escape
across the line to Canada"
In the matter of economy the record of
this Indian commission is equally bad.
Eighty-two agencies cost the government for
salaries of employees alone SIX hundred and
two thousand nine hundred and seven dol
lars not including the salaries of clerks and
others employed here in Washington by the
Indian bureau. Another item is the sum of
forty-fve thousand dollars paid to newspa-
spers for advertising for the bids of the thieves
who perpetrate the robberies complained of.
For the ten years preceding the transfer of
the Indian bureau to the department of the
interior, it was conducted at a cost of seven
teen million six hundred and eleven thousand
eight hundred and thirty seven dollars and
ninety eight cents, and In the ten years fol-
lowing that period it was thirty-four million
one hundred and sixty-nine thousand seven
hundred and ninety nine dollars and eighty
two cents, while from 1870 to 1876, the cost
was forty-four million three hundred and
three thousand three hundred and thirty-two
dollars. 1t must be borne In mind that all
the time of this rapid increase of cost the
number of Indians was constantly decreasing,
and the expense of their management, it
would seem, should have grown less instead
of greater. If the cost of Indian affairs con-
tinues to be graduated upward In the same
ratio as their number continues to decrease,
it may be reasonably estimated that by the
time they are all destroyed, as is being done
under our present system, the whole revenues
of the government will have been swallowed
up in the Indian bureau. After summing up
all the items of expense, the committee on
Indian affairs calculate that one million may
be saved annually by making the proposed
transfer to the war department. One
million dollars to be saved to the
people and peace to be secured by the vigil
lance of the army which even now has to do
all the work of keeping the Indians in check
and preventing them from or Furnishing them
for revenging the robberles and wrongs per-
petrated by the thieves who have preyed
upon them under the very noses of the peace
commission. No just man can read these
facts or those In reference to the so called
civilized Indians of the Indian Territory with
out a feeling OF shame that with all our
boasted intelligence we have not been able
to do what Great Britain has found no
trouble In doing-that we cannot control the
Indians on the simple basis of justice by the
extension of the blessings of citizenship, if
not its responsibilities, by throwing over
them the protection of our laws and by the
honest enforcement of the treaty obligations.
Declare the Indian Territory, under the
name of Oklahoma. Territory of the Union,
make the Indians citizens, and as fast as pos
sible, when prepared by habits of peace and
industry, gather them all together in that
Territory, which can be thoroughly guarded
| and policed by our troops, and where the
philanthropist could find an ample field for
the exercise of his benevolence. To do this
would be to take them away from the in
famous, costly and communicating agencies
where war is bred by wholesale robbery, and
place them under the protection and super
vision of soldiers whose pleasure as well as
duty it would be to preserve the peace and
promote in every possible way the purposes
the people have honestly at heart of bringing
the Indian under subsection to civilization
and enforcing among them law and order
]. NIX.