New-York tribune., 1880-02-29
BOTTOMF1CTS IN THE INDIAN MATTER.

! about the Indians fill the papers just now that
the average reader is likely TO thrust aside
the whole matter in disgust. He would like to
! know the truth and deal justly. But what Is
| truth How is he to be just2 As he repre-
sents the people with whom the ultimate set
| tlement of this question rests, 1t may heip
him to conclusion if We try to reach the bot
tom of the matter in few brief words, with
out regard to the prcjudices OF either party.
First-As TO the P0nca claim, now foremost
| in public notice. The POncas and their friends
claim, and the Government never has Denied
| that their title to the land and houses from
which they were banished is absolute. That
! is enough. That should settle the matter. The
/ men should have their property without regard
! TO the color of their skins. Bishop Hares tes-
/ timony unfortunately bewidered the Judgment
] of careless readers this point lhe
Bishop stated that the Poncas were poor
| (from the white mans point OF view; that
| part of the tribe appeared willing to 20, and
/ that he, with Inspector kimball, thought that
| when the Government had once ordered the
| removal If wOud not do to back down, " be-
cause of the bad effect on other tribes and
| hence he gave his sanction to il and helped to
/ carry it out 1t seems strange that he should
| have approved from motives of policy of the
| consummaton of an act of injustice and tyr
amy. But even faithful missionary such rs
| DIR. Hare has been is liable TO errors of
Judgment. The fault is not in the Bishop or
| the Inspector, but in the law which places it
in the power of any two men, were they the
most honest and godly on earth to eject, 1T
their will. seven hundred men, women and
children from the farms they owned and the
I A.. Ill l,,;I
them for life What does it matter that the
Bishop Thought their houses poor" or that
Inspector Kimball says that they ought to
have lived in their new home Uhough, as 1t
turned ont. they persisted in dying probably
from sheer stubbornness). These considcra-
tons do not touch the main matter al all. II
is that, III this year Of 1850, IN this free
Republic. these 2jO,000 men are as much the
slaves and chattcs of the Government aS ever
field-haud in Georgia WIS of his master;
that their property. their persons and their
lives arc absolutely in the power OF the Com
missioner, or. as in this case OF any Inspector
or Bishop to whom he may ielcgate authority
We urge this fact on our readers until It Is hack
nryed This is the subject with which they have
to deal not the question of Inspector kimballs
honesty. or Bishop Harc's Judgment. 80 long
as the Indians renal IN without the protection
of the law, we give the lie to om claim to be
"A Republic as much as we did when we per-
mitted slavery. So far they are concerned,
our Government is as autocratc to-day as
that of Russia or Persia.
Secondly-Concerning the Utes and other
semi-ciyilized tribes On one side we are told
they are cred imps," drunkards, murderers OF
decent white men and rayagcrs OF women.
We are pointed to the Moekcr outrages, and It
is urged that the whole tribe shall be sacri-
feed Tor the crimes of dozen men, On the
other side, missionaries who labor among them
make sworn testimony that in four years
they have not seen drunken Indian that
they are struggling to become civilized, to
farm. TO build houses to educate their chill
drcn. We are pointed to massacres of these
people by the Army at command OF the Gov
ernment, in which men. women and little chill
dren who had surrendered on promise of
protection lay in bloody, butchered heaps.
1t does not to us essential that
the truth of these outrages on either
side SHOULD be hotly discussed any longcf.
The essential fact is that the land be-
longs to the Indians, or they have been told
that it belongs to them by solemn pledges and
white men trespass on this land, they (not
being persons in the eye of the law cannot
bring civil suits against them. The only way
we have left to an Indian to redress any
wrong is by murder. When the courts are
open TO him, when he is protected by the law
and can be punished by it. there will he an
end Of Meeker outrages and Cheyenne massa-
cres The first step toward this end is an
honest adjustment of the Ute difficulty now
before Congress. Let Secretary Schurz put n
stop to the Colorado swindle now going on
let us give this people their land in fee sim
ple.-or sufficient land for all their needs
making it inalienablc for a generation. Let
them have the chance they crave of education
in books, III the trades and farming; recog-
nize them in law, and then, if they deserve
it, put them in Jail and hang them Once
again in our history let us, as people, have
the moral courage to look below the color of
the skin and be just.
Thrdly-The strongest argument against
treating the Indians as other citizens of the
United States is, that some of them are op- |
posed TO it. A few words will make tins mat |
Ter plain In every tribe there are two parte, !
the Chiefs and the Young Mems party. The |
chiefs naturally wish to preserve the tribal |
relations which insure their own power, and |
they are backed invariably by the agent |
trader and other white hangers-on, through |
whose hands the enormous sums paid by !
the people for the support of the Indians |
must pass Thcir occupation is gone the day |
that the Indian becomes civilized. or is recog-
nzed as " person." On this side, also, are the |
whole Indian Ring, from the highest officials
at Washington to the smallest contractor III
Arizona 1t is to their interest that these
wards should remain helpless and ignorant,