Arizona citizen., 1879-11-01
HE MDlAN QUEsTIoA.
Probable Action or CORgress-Pgbbc Ser
 hment RaDidiy chaHgIHg Eastward.


 The Ute outbreak in Colorado has brought on general discussion of the
 Indian question throughout the coun- ] try. Congress is soon to meet, and it
 will probably take action and be more
 or less influenced by what is said by the press and prominent men and off cers. Arizona can not be indifferent
 10 such action. One year ago, the Sec retary of the Interior favored a re
 moval of the Pimas and Maricopas to
 Indian Territory. The Arkansas and Missouri delegations successfully Op-
 posed the removal, and the result was,
 after a warm discussion in the House, the incorporation of a proviso in the Indian appropriation bill, prohibiting the removal of Indians from Arizona
 without express authority of Congress. It is believed railway interests caused this prohibition.
 Secretary Schurz recently visited Indian Territory. He returned to Washington convinced that Congress will take radical action. He expresses the fear, sosay Washington dispatches, that the Government will not be strong enough 10 resist the march of empire. and he will recommend to Con gress, as he has already advised the Indians, the passage of laws dividing the Indian lands in sevcrally among them and securing individual titles He thinks the tribal system must be overthrown in order to preserve the h.
 dians. He strongly urged his views upon the leading Chiefs.
 The Secretary is right, but the ques- ton remains to be solved whether the
 "march of empire can be resisted long enough to first break up the tribes
 and get them down to their sclfsup-
 porting work individually: Had this
 stand been energetically and li5erally
 enforced fifteen to twenty years ago, its accomplishment, if at all, would have been much easier for several req sons.
 First. the Indians have been too long
 educated that il is the duty of the
 white people, through the agency of
 the Government, to feed and clothe
 them, all this time giving them ten
 times more land to the individual to
 roam over without cultivation than can be bought by their white support CTS on express condition of cultivation. They must now firmly believe that the white man must grow, manufacture and deliver to them their food and clothing and add spending money g thereto. and in default of the "spend- ing money they may rightfully mur- der such of their supporters as they choose. While it has always been and always will be cheaper to feed and clothe and give spending money Co Ithc Indians than to fight them, the generous policy has made the Indians more helpless and no less savage when |angered.
 ] Second, the killing of prominent army and civil officers and prominent
 men within the past five years, has ere
 ated different feeling throughout the whole country towards the Indians. l. k not creditable but nevertheless true, that so long as the Indians contine their slaughters 10 the poor and ob- .scure pioneers struggling for existence and a home, eastern people cOntint
 their sympathies to the barbarous In dians and their denunciations to tho
 struggling and self-suppOrting pioneer
 whites. In 1869, ten out of forty set 'tlers. farmers, on the San Pedro, were murdered, and in previous and subse .quent years, a like slaughter of Arizo ma miners and farmers was committed and all of them brought few words ot .. sympathy from the old states, and tho eastern press and authorities were, tc put ii mildly. indifferent 10 the suffer iugs of the settlers. Finally young Lorinr. Of Boston, Was killed neal Wickenburg, then supposed by In dians. Soon after Lieut.. Reid TStew } art, of Erie, Pa, (with some soldiers was killed by Indians in Davidson, Canyon in this county. By and by , Gen. Canby and Rev Dr Thomas wer, slaughtered by the Moducs in Oregon Later. Gen. Custer and command wcrt simply slain in actual war with tho l Indians. and recently Maj. ThornburEl r (wijh some of his commandJ whil, , moving Co make battle with the In
 diaus was killed, and the pcacah!c
 honest aud efficient Agent, Neeker
 well and fayorabiy known m Ohio
 New York and other states, was hille,
 and mutilated. These were so many ] erzrcEious mistakes of the Indian who should in their own interest, con fine their buicherics to the poor set } tiers whose sole aim in life is io carr F food and raiment and make home ; These mistakes have revoluiionizc. public sentiment eastward, and the i'm . pulse thus Occa~iJned ], cuphoniou-l. p called. by our eastern brethren. th
 march Of empire which 'he Indian
 Inc less than the Government may wei
 fear they will be able 10 longer to rl
 si>t.