The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-12-09
THE PRESIDENTS INDIAN POLICY.

tIdte uuS Htu sOtuclHlHS W say uboub ~ anu
poor Lol is still in wretched condition,
the white settler next to him equally as
wretched, vast unclaimed tracts of most yalu-
able character are still the abodes of
savage life, and the Govern
ment continues to wrestle with
its elephant. 1t is absurd to suppose that
there is any real cause for this state of af-
fairs or that there is no practical way of
settling it. The truth is that the men who
dictate the policy know nothing of the In
dian or the border and draw their deduc-
tions from the political science applicable to
an entirely different state of society and
order of things The first recommendation
of the President on this subject is that the
laws of the various States and territories be
within their borders. The Indian, he
says, should receive the protection of the
law and is entitled to the right
to maintain in the courts his personal
safety and property. This is all proper,
but the fact is none the less true that the
Indian on the reservation has these priv
ilegcs and immunities so far as the United
States government is able to ensure to and
enforce them for him. Then the President
thinks in the next place that there should
be an allotment of so much estate to each
family of each tribe, inalenable for twenty
or thirty years, and believes that by these
means the tribal spirit would be broken and
the first step taken toward ciyilizing
the red man. Here he displays his
ignorance of tue Indian character. Ifhe had
ever been among the civilized Nations in
the Territory just north of Texas he would
discover that gifts of land nor even educa-
ton can eradicate from the Indians mind
his powerful love for his own race and tribe,
and his unconquerable determination to re-
main as people apart from the whites.
And aside from this fact, if the Government
should make such allotment the deprayed
white adyenturer would have posses
sion of every acre Of ground if not
sooner, at least, after the prohibition of
States ought to know that it cannot reach
the savage on the Western Plains by giving
him money or land or blankets or the priv
ileges of the courts. lie can only be civil
lied as the others have been, by keeping
up his tribal organization and educating
for him in the first place, his children. To
do this two things are necessary, and in
this connection another suggestion of Mr..
Arthur's is full of some practical sense as
well as humanity. He says there ought to
be q liberal appropriation for the sup
port of Indian schools and that there
is strong desire even among
the most uncultivated tribes for the educa
ton Of their children. This is certainly
true. But education must precede civil
cation, and it will be found that even after
this is accomplished the spirit and pride of
race and tribe will only be strengthened. A
dog may forget his blood and ancestors,
but never human being. Why not put
men and money enough in the field to
place every tribe upon reservation and
keep it there, educate its children until the
lcaven has begun to work and then
Keeping their race and tribal organi-
cation intact convey them to the Indian
Territory beside their more civilized breth-
rem, and supplying them, as were the
Others with liberal territory, assist and
continue to protect them from the en-.
croachments and Vaccinations of the
whites, until they have worked out their
own civilization. Centuries are required
Tor absorption, but to treat all as some have
been treated, is but a matter ola few years.
The trouble is the government has been at
tempting to bind giant with Irvine and il
hasn't worked well. When to do Il thing
requires just so many men and so
much money, one-tenth the men and money
can only do it in ten times the length of the
original proposition, But this is matter
that ought to be attended to at once, and
the history of those Indians who have be
come intelligent and prosperous and civil
Lied ought to operate as q guide to policy
in this matter, rather than the speculations
and experiments of men totally ignorant of
the situation. No people have arisen so
rapidly to enlightenment as have the Cher.
okees, and if the general Government
will but protect them In their
present liberties, immunities and
possessions, and do the same for the Others
of the Five Nations, by giving proper assist.
ance and keeping the white man away
from them, they will in few years set an
example to many of the States of the Union
so far as intelligence, thrift, education and
growth of population are concerned. Any
other course is bound to throw upon the
hands of the Nation dangerous
vicious, irreclaimable and most costly
and ignorant race of paupers
The slaves Of the South were
used to us and our manners, and easily
driited into sympathy with our institutions,
but the Indian has never been and will
never be, and towards him a different policy
must be pursued. As we have intimated
that policy is briefly, so far us we studied
him, to guard him, educate his children
and then provide permanent home Tor hi,
tribe where, apart from the rest of tbe
world, he can work out his own destiny and
civilization.
TnE bank failures within the past few
years, and notably within the past fcw |