The New York herald., 1879-10-09

y
body of hostiles into open ground and then
punished them so severely that they were
all anxious for talk and some of the chiefs
ready to surrender But when Merritt an
nouneed his intention to 60 TO the agency
with his troops the offer of surrender was
Withdrawn, the savages saying that If the
| soldiers invaded their reservation they
would be fought until the last of the Utes
were killed.
So tho celebrated peace policy has pro-
duced another war. We do not mean to
attack the policy at this time, though 1t is
in some points very open to attack. 1t was
tho device of benevolent but not very
practical men, and it has in their hands
undoubtedly accomplished some good.
What we now wish to point out is that the
peace policy is no longer sufficient. 1t does
not cover enough ground. 1t needs to be
supplemented by something else, in order
to meet the very greatly changed circum-
stances of the vast region which was the
home of the Indian when this policy was
| contrived, but which is now the happy
hunting ground of white miners, farmers,
| adyenturers and spectators.
| Every mile of railroad that has been
| built in the centre of the continent in the
| last ten or twelve years has changed essen-
| TALLY the conditions of the Indian prob
lem. Every new discovery Of gold or sill
yer bearing rock in this central region in
like manner essentially alters the condi-
tions Of the Indian problem. But in the
| last twelve months railroad building has
| gone on at an unexampled rate in all this
region, stimulated by remarkable mineral
discoveries, and also by great migration
of farmers to newly discovered agricul-
tural country. The Utes fight, it is said.
because they have been swindled; but the
plain truth is that they fight because they
do not like neighbors and can no longer
find new country empty OF neighbors.
Now, as everybody, and especially as the
government, has known all along, that.
first, the wild Indians do not like to have
their hunting grounds intruded on, and,
second, that constantly increasing crowd
of restless, adventurous, entorprising and
determined whites is intruding on them,
it seems to us that the authorities in Wash
ington ought to have been thoroughly pre-
pared for this Ute outbreak.
careful calculation, made some years
ago, showed that each family of wild tribe
OF Indians, subsisting by hunting, requires
not less than ten thousand acres OF land to
live comfortably. There was perhaps q
time when the hunting ground was sufii-
ciently extensive to allow all the Indians
abundant subsistence; bat even in the
early days of this country's settlement there
were wars between the Western tribes
which had for their cause, very frequently,
lack of sufficient space for an increasing
tribe. Since the building Of the Union
Pacific Railroad the hunting grounds have
been constantly and rapidly diminishing;
and within the last two years the rush into
the central region has been SO great that
there is no longer room for hunting In
dians. The Ute complaint that the whites
have made it impossible for them to live is
perfectly just. They cannot live any longer
by hunting unless the whites can be driven
back into the Missouri River.
Now, the whites cannot be driven back;
that is the central fact in the Indian prob
lem. It is too much to expect Ute chief to
see this; therefore the government ought
to have seen it for him. The time has come
when the Indians can no longer live by
hunting, and the first and highest duty of
the Indian Bureau and the Interior Depart
ment is to so manage and control them
that they shall not be able to set up what
will be, in the nature of the case, futile
and disastrous resistance.
However we may sympathize with the
hard fate of the wild warriors of the Plains
they have now got to make radical change
in their lives, and it is the duty OF the gov-
ernment not only to prepare them for this,
but to compel them to it. If the Ute
fights it is because his guardian has
neglected him. If We have new
Indian war it is because the govern
ment has failed to adapt its Indian
policy rapidly enough to the new order of
things TO place petty Indian tribe on a
reservation as large rs Massachusetts, in
these days when plains and mountains are
filling with miners and farmers, is to delib-
erately prepare the way for assassina-
ton of the peaceful whites, and for u just
feeling among the Indians that the govern
ment deals treacherously with them. The
honest way is to show the Indians that the
hunting days are past for them; that they
must conform themselves to the general GUS
toms OF the whites and to the necessities ofa
new and to them intensely disagreeable
life; that they must be content with one
hundred and sixty acres for family; and
that resistance is vain and futile. The no.
tion that we may tide the Indians over
gradually from savagery to civilization by
placing them for period on vast reserves,
where they may raise and herd stock, is
nonsense in the face Of the great rush