Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-10-02
"In the Land of the Dakotas

The Indian question is one which Still
continues TO interest portion of the Amer
lean people. This interest is aroused by
different motives. In one class 1t has Its
origin in desire to have these people re
moved from lands which they desire to pos
sess, either for agricultural or mining pur-
poses. and when this object is accomplished
their interest ceases.
Another class is interested SO far as gain
can be made from them through traffic,
Government contracts, or any Of the ways
in which money is gained by contact with
them.
Another and believe an increasing class
of persons are interested from purely philan-
thropic motives, and honestly desire to See
a Just and humane policy adopted in their
management
The first class, however, has had pow
erful influence in moulding the destinies of
/ these people. From one pretext or another
I they have succeeded in depriving the In
dams of almost all lands suitable for human
habitation, and have settled the greater part
OF this unfortunate race upon what IN our
old Biographies was known Is the Great
American Desert.
We used to hear great deal about the
fertility of the Indian Territory, but
after spending five years in that Gar
den spot, of the world" and visiting
all the tribes within its borders. found a
large portion of that territory wholly unfit
for agricultural purposes, lacking in both
the important elements of suitable soil and
water. Over some of this country the sand
is constantly drifting with every shifting
wind in other places the soil Is white with
the alkaline deposits, and again over extern
sive portions little may be seen but the ex-
tended towns of the prairie dogs, the grass
even through these regions having disap-
peared.
tits true that the Eastern civilized tribes
the Cherokees, Greeks, Choctaws, Chicka-
saw and Seminoles and few of the small
Ter bands are located in fertile country,
but the western half of the Territory will
disappoint any one who should seek to live
there, from the products of the soil alone.
But it was after leaving your beautiful
! portion OF East Tennessee and coming to
this LAND of the Dakotas," that l found
this policy of our great American people
carried to the greatest perfection. That is,
the policy of settling the original owners OF
all our fair land upon the American desert.
l then learned, for the first time, the sig
nifcance of the late treaties with the Sioux.
In former treaty the Sioux had included
in their great reservation small portion OF
fertile lands, where it was thought they
might make living. This was their one
"ewe lamb" But this was discovered by
some Ehite men, together with the fact
tlat the Black Hills might be useful
for mining purposes, and that the Indians
were required to give up their small belt OF
fertile country, notwithstanding they were
assured in the treaty that the country should
be theirs g forever" or as usually interpre
ted to them ''as long as the sun shines and
the waters runs" Eight years after thai
solemn promise was made they were tolG
that the eountry was wanted by the white
man, and they must go! According to the
terms of the treaty, then should have beer
the end of the world? But the sun still
shines and the waters run, and they are
excluded from those lands forever
The region now occupied by these In
dams is q part of the Great American Des
ert. above referred to, a part of the sam'
belt extending on south through Yves
tern Indian Territory, where many othe,
tribes are located. In the report of the
Commissioner of Idnian affairs for 1876, ht
says, of the Sioux: "Their main Deepen
dance for support must ultimately be the
cultivation of the soil, and for this purpose
their own country is utterly unsuited."
Their present possessions includes the
, Bad Lands, which have been rightfully
named. 1t is :" the habitation of dragons.
The dragons are now all dead for ths
country is too poor to support them, bu
their bones are here, enormous bones petri
: fed. While write there lays before me {