Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1879-12-10
WILLLdM PENNS WAY.

Our method of treating the Indian
tribes seems to be compounded of all
other methods. Like the Quakers we
treat with them; but unlike the Quakers
we never observe the treaties. Like
Spaniards we put them to the sword as
rapidly as we can out of greed for their
lands and the minerals they are sup
posed to contain; but unlike the Span
iards we do it by human authority
under the flag of the United States,
and not in the name of God and under
the flaming cross. We confine them
to reservations from which our people
are permitted to drive them, that our
soldiers may get chance to slaughter
thenN We pretend to feed and cletbs'
them, but our agents and contractors
steal the supplies, and when they hunt
to supply themselves, we cut the matter
short Differentiation: The incidents
of this composite system are an Indian
service honeycombed with corruption,
laws and treaties broken, desperate
tribes breaking away, fights like that of
the Cheyennes, massacres like that Of
the Piegans, and massacres in requital
like that of Custer 1t is the most ex-
pensive as well as the least efficient
system the wit of man could devise.
The countless millions of money it has
cost, to say nothing of the lives, would
have sufficed to build railroads and ca
nails for the accommodation of every
inch of all the inhabited parts of the
country. Had we not better change it?
1t is not yet too late to begin and
do better, by simply being honest and
just ourselves.
The Indians of our forests were q
fercer, though in some respects nobler
class of savages than the Indians of the
plains. The Founder of Pennsylvania
subdued them entirely to the wishes bya
strange habit he had of keeping his
word and paying squarely and honestly
to the last blue bead he ever promised.
His treaties were the "only treaties
never sworn to and never broken"
Half century after his death Hecke-
welder saw the Indians produce the
strings of pure white wampum which
represented "his speeches." and served
to remind them of their engagements,
which they thus renewed among them
selves by periodical ceremonies. In
the language of the Iroquois he was
called Onas; in the more plaintive
tongue of the Delawares, Miquon.
Both words mean quill, and indicated
their sense of his peaceful and truthful
character. lie came among them with
no other weapon, and with that he never
made either false or bloody record.
Under Penn and his children, and in
deed for nearly century, and until the
policy of the Founder was abandoned
by his successors in the government,
there was peace in all the borders of
Pennsylvania. There were no flying
settlers, no smoaking cabins, no captive
women and children, no abandoned
harvests. The Pennsylvania traders
were welcomed by every tribe, even to
the Mississippi for the fame of Penn
sylvania justice preceded them to the
furthest recesses of the wilderness, and
the political children of the good Mi
quon never wanted of hospitality or
protection at the hands of their red
friends.
But the Pennites and Broadrims
were hated by their neighbors almost as
as an advocate of justice to the
Indians is hated to-day on the Western
border. The Virginians were espe-
cially hostile both to the Pennsylva-
mans and to the Indians, and to their
cruel efforts to put strife between them,
and break up the lucrative trade of the
Pennsylvanians with the interior tribes,
were due some of the most terrible wars
of the last century. A Virginia butch
cry, unprovoked and cowardly, pro-
duced Dunmores's' war and with sun
dry aggravations added, the whole Sc
ries down to the victory of Wayne.
But we repeat that the policy of Penn
was the cheapest and safest of which
history makes mention.