Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-11-26
THE INDIAN QUESTION.


land in sevcralty to the Indians, taking 1t
from the reservations. Seeing that this
plan has been not only urged upon the
Government for years by those who were
most familiar with the Indian question,
but that it has had the best results when
tried with several tribes, the only wonder
ia that it has not been adopted more gen.
erally before. The attempt to transform
the Indians into peaceable agriculturisss by
showing them how to till the ground,
while at the same time they were being
partially supported by the Government,
and were not taught the value of property
in land, has failed for the most obvious of
reasons. Where the Indians have been
given lands in severalty, and have been
shown how to employ it, they have in
every instance become farmers and
stock raisers, and the problem of their
civilization has been put in fair
way to solution. But it is unhap-
PLY too certain that all the en-
beavers that have hitherto been made to
settle the Indian question upon enlight-
ened and rational principles have been
frustrated by the Vaccinations Of gangs OF
white scoundrels, who have found the un.
settled relations between the Government
and its wards far too profitable to be aban-
doned. No abuse in the history of the
republic has proved so obstinate as this, in
fact. Protest, denunciation, exposure, have
been resorted to in vain. At intervals the
scandal of the Indian Ring would become
too great, and then there would be an os-
tensible publication. The worst of the
gang for the time being would be got rid
of, at least nominally, and then things
would gradually fall back into the old posi-
ton and continue to get worse and worse
until the time was ripe for another super.
fetal reform.
In the course of the last century this
state of things has produced an almost
| uninterrupted succession of crimes and
frauds. No darker page in the history of
any nation can be found than that which
contains the record of our dealings with
the Indians. And the end of every fresh
outrage upon them has been devastation
We have first driven them to desperation
by our lying and swindllng, and then we
have shot them down. That has been the
monotonous and infamous method OF our
procedure. Every Indian outbreak, too.
has been cited as fresh proof of the IN
tamable character of the Indian, to the
end that reformers might become disheart-
ened, and drop their efforts. 1t is impos
sible for any candid and honorable man to
follow out the inside history of single
one of the Indian wars without coming
upon so many illustrations Of perfdy,
greed, falsehood, chicanery and cruelty,
as to disgust him with the whole black
business. He will learn how Indian
wars have been brought on to enrich con-
tractors and stock-raisers, without the least
regard to the suferings inflicted upon the
white settlers and their families. He will
learn how broken.down politicians, OBJ
tanning positions as Indian Agents, have
stolen the supplies sent to their charges
until the latter, starved into fury, went
upon the war path. He will learn how
brutal frontiersmen have committed want
or and atrocious massacres of Indians, and
then thrown the blame of the war that fol-
lowed upon the victims. He will learn
how the Government has broken its most
solemn engagements to the Indians under
political pressure, and has then ordered out
the troops TO punish them for complain
ing. In short, he will learn that there has
been no iniquity too base to practice upon
these tribes, or for the United States to
carry the responsibility of.
It is therefore time that a change was
made in their treatment, yet those who
have studied the past will be the last to
believe that such change can be made
easily. Secretary kirkwood so far only
proposes the sensible plan we have spoken
of. 1t will be time enough to congratulate
the country on Indian reform when it has
actually taken place. At present it is
necessary to remember that nothing has
been done to break up the Indian rings.
They exist as heretofore, and they are as
powerful as ever. When Belknap was in the
War Department the country got glimpse
at their methods, and the Secretary of War
was disgraced. But the rings remained,
and they lost none of their influence or
their rapacity. Let it be remembered
that for full fifty years attempts have been
making to bring about just such change
as Secretary Kirkwood now proposes, and
that the reform is still unaccomplished. In
truth the matter is almost as full of diff
culties as the question of civil service re-
form, and it would be folly to suppose that
any Secretary of the Interior, however
good his intentions, can achieve SO moment
GUS change without powerful assistance
from without.
The Indians, unfortunately for them
selves, have no votes. So far as the polit.
ical government of the country is con-
cerned they are no better off than slaves.
Yet there are thousands of Indians quite
intelligent enough TO exercise the suffrage,
and it is by no means improbable that the
majority of them could in few years be
fitted to take part in the choice of dele.
gates to Congress. There can be no doubt
that if they had votes Congress would be
very much more willing to do them right
At present they are politically impotent,
and therefore every white rascal can cheat
and abuse them with IMMUNITY if he pos
sesses political influence. So long as they
continue to be a helpless prey we must ex-
pect this state of things to remain. By
slow degrees the Indians may perhaps be