Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-10-18
INDIAN TROUBLES.

One general description might
serve for all the difficulties which,
since the first European occupation
of American territory, have occurred
between the red and white races.
The whites occupy certain territory
in common with the Indians; the
incompatibility Of their modes of
life soon leads to an irrepressible
conflict in which the Indian is ulti-
mately wOrsted, and then certain
limits are set him by treaties, the
force of which he does not under
stand and which the whites expect
to observe just so long as it is their
interest to do so. Presently, white
population increasing, the lands as
signed TO the Indians are needed by
the whites. Squatter settlements
take place there; the Indian finds
himself aggrieved by the violation
of his stipulated rights; he seeks re-
dress by the only means conceivable
to him, war according to his savage
ideas Of warfare; sooner or later he
again suffers defeat and is removed
to new territories with new treaties,
and the same routine sooner or later
recommended.
The troubles which have recently
occurred in Nevada and Colorado
differ in no respect from those which
have for centuries preceded them,
except that the fragrant violations
of treaties by the aggre-sions of
white settlers have in this instance
followed so soon upon the signature
of the treaties as to render the scan
dial of their violation even more
apparent than in former cases.
Scarcely was the ink dry on those
documents when it was discovered
that gold and silver in abundance
hitherto nprecedented existed in
the rocks and ravines of the other
wise worthless wastes which had
been assigned to the Indians.
Straightway Operatedthe di1-t sGcra
fumes, the accursed thirst for gold.
Miners in swarms, needless of
treaties or of anything else but the
rabid lust for metallic wealth, rushed
into the territory sOlemnly set apart
for the red man and secured to him
by the nations honor, and the red
man arises in his wrath; he mas
sacres, tOrtures, mutilates and again
meets his fate; he dies by the white
mans bullets, or again he is re-
moved and located to renew the
CHASTITY record again when the time
comes.
Is there no way of arresting this
endless series of crime and Oppres-
sion? Cannot the Indian be COM
PEELED to cOnfne himself to the ter
ritory reserved to him and the
white man to respect its sanctity ?
In the present instance the aggTes-
sion is all on the part of the white
man. He has established himself
without a shadow of pretext in the
/ center Of territory secured by treaty
to the Indian; the Indian scalps,
burns and kills; the white screams
to his government for help, gets it
( the Indian is again repealed after
! scenes of sickening carnage, and
now arises the cry, 1.-The Indian
must CO." 1t is not only in Colorado
that this cry Is raised, but the long
sacred Indian Territory itself is
| threatened with swarms of white
l settlers, rifle in hand, who desire
( the fertile fields which the civilized
Indian has covered with maize, and
he too cries, "The Indian must CO."
! Where must ne 60? The available
territory for establishing him is be-
( coming narrower, the periods oil
renewed aggression shorter, and the
/ Pacific Ocean is near, and what
( then? Can this civilized and en-
lightened nation deliberately enter
tain the thought of premeditated
/ MASSACRE Hitherto no alternative
has been proposed. Are we ready
/ for that? If not, our statesmen had
better be considering what substi-
tute they have have to propose.