The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1879-11-12

For THE RECORD
Mr.. EDITOR =" Capt. Jack " appears to
think we are in danger of losing our scalp
We forgive him for ente rtaining such q mon
strons idea and are also very chAritably dis
posed toward him. We account for the pc.
siton that he takes upon the great Indian
question from the fact that he lives very far
from the seat of war, and apparently hasn't
been " reading up" on the subject-perhaps
because he has spent too much of his valuable
time in studying the anatomy of Ben Rce's
dead horse on the plains of Mount Airy, or
INDUCED in other similar important pastme.
He wants to know :" In the name of COM
mon sense What are the Indians rights -
That is just the question zoe might have ask
ed if we didn't kaow that we have taken from
the Indians and hold absolute ownership over
$685. 936, 35t acres of their lands their rivers,
praires, forests, game and homes, leaving to
their tribes, collectively, g7,745,0O9 acres of
ground, and as a general thing not of the best
at that even this is being sought after with
greed that is not worthy of Christian peo-
pie who have plenty of their own. Away with
such nonsense as to assert they have no rights.
Our church spires point heavenward, but how
many of them do not stand on stolen ground,
where the Indians rights were forfeited. -
" He is our most deadly enemy" he says
How consistent it is for him to make such
charge In the past $50 years we have vast
ed their number from 100000 to less than
100000 Official statistics of 1878 makes it
0h0 000N mr. a xuo sta of q nup,har aonal fo oil
their children born to them in the last $50
years, or to nine-tenths Of their original num-
Der. Now the savages have Ia retaliation
'melted down " at the stake few who be-
longed to the race who were working their
determination. Their mode of redress was
not quite SO eioilised or scientific as ours. He
says /" We are no nearer the solution of this
question than we we're when webegan.' Now
there are only about $4,000 hostiles in this
country, and that makes the number who do
the I" dark deeds " the exception rather than
the rule. He asks If we are &C so ignorant of
Indian affairs" &C., and demonstrates our
non-acquaintance with the subject by saying
"The Indians never work, consequently new
er own anything except what they steal. The
government made desperate effort TO civil
ize them and failed and to civilize the In
dams is ridiculous to talk about" What an
assertion In 1878 the Santee Sioux Indians
were found to have nearly all joined Christian
Churches. 800 of them: read English UNDER
standingly ; have 1000 acres Of land under
cultivation, and have all necessary schools
The Winnebagoes have republican form Of
government-electing twelve chiefs annually !;
have an industrial school and three day
schools annually they raise 5000 bushels of
wheat, $4,000 bushels OF corn, 1000 bushels
of oats, 5000 bushels of potatoes, large guam
titles OF vegetables, &C., and have numerous
skilled mechanics. The Omahas have 1900
acres of land under cultivation. Produce,
annually, 1900 bushels of wheat, 80 900
bushels of corn, /, 200 bushels of oats, 5000
bushels of potatoes &C., and have their
schools filed with pupils. Precisely the same
results are shown for the Pawnees, Ottoes,
Iowas, Sacs, Foxes, and several other tribes,
but why should we spend time and space to
exhibit these facts, when we know how easily
=" Capt. Jack y contradicted the mature ex-
perience of Gen. Crook, and think that posi-
bly, these facts won't be received by him as
evidence that the Indians can be civiliz-
ed We win say, however, before leaving
this point that we have it from the Joint
Committee appointed TO Investigate in behalf
of the War Department that not an Indian OF
the above tribes has been accused of murder
i =