Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1879-12-20
Hi UTE

ties which goes by the name OF our indian
D ,licy. We are about to again perpetrate
o wrong upon a people whom we have
goadod into frenzy by our Entertainments,
and to despoil them of the lands guaranteed
to them by solemn treaty. Our people are
not naturally cruel, and the bloody injus-
tice, with which we have treated the In-
dams, is rather the result of a false theory
and of misinformation than deliberate in
humanity. The false theory is one that we
inherited from England in our Colonial
days, and which has been maintained in
spite Of its growing absurdity. 1t is that
each petty Indian tribe is q nation and
competent to make contracts in the nature
Of a treaty. This was well enough, per-
haps, when the small jamestown colony,
or the Plymouth colony, entered into
treaties with the surrounding tribes, but it
became absurd when a great nation, highly
civilized and progressive, affects to treat as
an equal contracting party a few hundred
nomadic savages. But this was not the
worst. Starting from this false theory we
have made treaties which we knew could
not be maintained. Common sense should
have warned us, and experience has GER
tainly taught us, that it is impossible TO
limit the expansive growth Of popula-
ton and civilization by guaranteeing to the
savages lands which are essential to that
growth. To secure to the Indians reserva-
tions of lands, in whose mountains SUM
Der uncounted tons Of gold and silver ore,
whose slopes are green with pasturage. and
whose valleys await the pillow to TEEN with
harvests, is to make a treaty which cannot
be kept. No invisible boundary line can
stand as a dixie against the i%nflowing tide
Of American growth and energy. The
hunter must give way to the agriculturist,
the miner and the manufacturer. 1t is a
law as pitiless as the law of gravitation'
We must have the lands that the Utes oc-
cupy. We cannot afford to keep the
mines and farms only for hunting
grounds, and our wrong will con-
sist not so much in taking them
now as in having promised by treaty not to
do SO. To make our attitude toward the
Indians still more inconsistentand absurd,
we have, while treating with them as SOW
ereign nations, maintained them as wards,
dependents, almost as paupers. We issue
them ~rations, feed them, clothe them and
in some cases educate them. Our frontier
tradesmen sell them arms and ammuni
ton, whisky, tobacco, and drive hard bar
gains with them for what furs and skins
they may have to sell. We keep q costly
Indian Bureau to feed and clothe them,
and to sink their native savage virtues into
indolent and swinish habits. and we keep
q Q ,stly army to arghter them when they
which we knew would be violated when we
made 1t. Folly and injustice are always
costly. and they have been intellectually
costly in our so-callei 'lndian policy"
ever since the history OF the United States
began. The Utes in this latest outbreak
made wal as q nation; they fought on the
lands secured to them by treaty. and
fought against the army Of the United
States. The United States comedies that
the attack on Major T~hornbursh was war,
but they call the killing & the Indian
agent murder. and demand the surrender
Of his murderers Tor trial. Their chief
refuses to surrender the accused to be tried
by a jury Of their enemies, and appeals to
Washington. There Is thus an endless
chain Of complications arising out Of the
original false theory-conficts Of local law
with Washington authority, between mill
tary and Indian Bureau authority, and in
consistencies arising out OF IT. ating the
Indians as sovereign contracting parties
and as wards Of the nation, as prisoners Of
war and as prisoners arrested for violation
of the civil law against murder and held
for trial. Into this maze and tissue OF
contradictions common sense can hardly
enter, and it is almost q certainty that the
settlement when reached will be equally
absurd, that old obligations will be modi-
fed or ignored. and new agreements made
which cannot be kept. Is 1t not time to
adopt a new theory on which to base u
Indian policy?
A GENTLEMAN named Pound, q heavy
weight, who represents a Wisconsin dis
trict in Congress, presented a bill the other
day, in which it is proposed to make the
term Of the President six years and declare
the gentleman ineligible after a six years
seige. 1t is also proposed to make the
term OF the members OF the House three
years instead Of two. We are rather dis
posed to favor this last provision. Con-
Rressional elections come rather too often
for comfort. and to acquire the trade Of
Representative in Congress, we think his
c~oastituents should be entitled to at least
ore year Of intelligent service. After this
they could turn him out II 1t SO
pleased them. As for the Presidential cleo
tons, we think we could stand them every
four years. Six years would be too long
for q mean President to afiict the country.
A clause prohibiting more than two consec-
utive terms TO the same person would be a
good one.
THx1 had q wedding in Butte City.
Montana. recently. and this Is the gushing
send-off the high contracting parties re-
ceived At the hands of the excruciating en-
thusiast Of the Frontier Index
As Aphrodite sprung from the foam,
trimmed the sails Of her fairy boat, and by
gentle breezes was waited to the Isle OF
Paphos. go, too. we hope the beautiful
bride will be carried down life's stream
hand in hand with the consort she has &C.
cepted for the joyous journey. We know
that roses will surround the brilliant craft
upon which they have embarked. and that
white throated prayers from generous
friends will follow the loving couple over