The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-09-27
OUR INDIAN POLICY.

tn trouble in Arizona with the Indians is
nov directing public attention to the mis-
management of Indian affairs by our govern
ment. To say that our dealings with the In
dams have resulted in a lamentable, misera-
bile and disgraceful failure, so far as keeping
them in a peaceahle attitude towards Us, is
but voicing the opinions of nine lsnths of the
people of the Territories. Everyone " no has
resided east of the Missoui river for the last
fifteen or twenty years will testify how utter
ly inadequate are the means adopted by the
general government to preserve our frontiers
So from the invasions OF the cruel, merciless foe.
Montana has been retarded in her progress
several years by their continuous outbreaks
and depredations upon our people. Other and
contiguous territories have also felt the
injuries sustained to their several industries
to the development Of their resources and
to their material pros perity. Not only in
these but in another and deeper respect have
We suffered. Hundreds of true. noble and
valued citizens have yielded up their lives as
sacrifices to the isnoble, crafty asssassins.
Women have been v.irly outraged; families
most hidiously and vilely tortured; homes
devastated and properly destroyed and laid
waste. We have seen ali this, and at times
too, when there was no general uprising
among the Ind ians-when the agents report
ed that the tribes on their reservations were
quiet and peaceable, and on.y out on such
pursuits as hunting aud fishing, and We have
seen these same Indians, after perpetrating
coid-bloGd~d murders, return to their reserva-
tions and be received, as the prodigal son
was received, with outstretched arms, and
fed and pampered by the government until
they were ready to make another raid upon
the defen.eless inhabitants of The surround
ing country. This has been SO cfien repeat
ed and protection from the wrath of the out
ragged settler and immunity from the opera
lions of thu civil law extended to them that
no one cau be surprised at this last savage
outbreak i'll Arizona. 1t is but the legitimate
outgrowth OF the policy Of the government to-
ward the indians and so long as that policy
shall continue just so long may such outbreaks
be anticipated.
But how is this matter to be renedied is
the question that naturally arises. There
are those, and they comprise all those Who
have given the subject thought aud careful
study-who hold that the question can be
solved only by turning over the care Of the
Indians to the wal department. An effort
was made some tive ago to effect this re-
suit. In the latter part Of the forty-fourth
Congress a bill was introduced and support.
ed by the solid representation Of the Pacific
Coast, providing for the transfer Of the Indians
to the department named. Two objects could
be gained by the enactment of this measure
First the reduction of the expense of MAIN
tanning the Indians by dispensing
with the vast number of agents and
subordinate officials on the reservations, and
second, by placing the military in such con-
tact with the various tribes as to enable them
to obrain Information conc IN ng their in
entions and movements and check them
when such movements would lead to a col.
lision with the whites. Other advantages
were also to be gained by the transfer which
would have shown themselves in the better
behavior of the Nations wards. But there
appeared to be a spirit of philanthropI born
of ignorance OF the Indian nature that had
much to do in defeating the wholesome
change. And then again there was a great
aversion manifested against dispossessina
agents, contractors, and a long line of greedy |
cormorants, of positions in which q syste-
matte swindling of the government appeared
to be permitted. However, the wishes OF
the people were disre -arded, and the Indians
were continued in charge of the Interior De-
partment. To rende the matter worse, the
government has sent out men from the east
as agents who are in eutire ignorance of the
Indian nature, and for whom the average
Indian entertains supreme contempt. We
may rest assured shat as long as this policy is
continued our frontiers will be visited by
predatory bands of Indians, aud settlers, to |
protect their own lives and property, will be
compelled to organize, as they have in Ari
zona, and meet the savage Oh his own ground
and in his peculiar manner of warfare. The
patience f the long suffering frontie. sman 10
becoming w~sllnigh exhausted, and unless
the government can afford them better pro-
lection in the future than it has in the past,
they will undoubtedly be forced o solve the
Indian problem in a way that may result
more disastrously to the Indian than would
his tranfer to the War Department. |
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