The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1881-12-15

indian m lbe reservation has these priv.
loeoa and lmmunlllts m iaf ns Inc United
states government Il allie 10 ensure ~ and
enforce them for him. Then Tie President
thinks In the next place that there should
be an allotment Of 80 much estate 10 each
family Of each tribe, inallenable for twenty
or thirty years, and believes that by these
means the tribal spirit would be broken and
the first step taken toward civlllzlng
the red man. Here he displays his
ignorance Of the Indian character. 1fhe had
ever been among the civilized Nations In
the Territory just north Of Texas he would
discover that gifts of land nor even cduca-
ton can eradicate from the Indians mind
his powerful love for his own race and tribe,
and his unconquerable determination to re-
main as a people apart from the whites
And aside from this fact, if the Government
should make such allotment, the depraved
white advcnturer would have posses
sion OF every acre of ground if not
sooner, at least, after the prohibition of
alienation was removed. The United
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 He 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 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 civili-
zation, 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
leaven 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
| oivili1afinn Gapfurioc- ran11iraH
for absorption, but to treat all as some have
been treated is but matter of a few years.
The trouble is the government has been at
tempting to bind giant with Irvine and it
hasn't worked we'll. When to do 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
lized ought to operate as 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
drifted into sympathy with our institutions,
but the Indian has never been and will
never be, and towards him different policy
must be pursued. As we have intimated,
that policy is briefly, so far as we studied
him, to guard him, educate his children,
and then provide a permanent home tor his
tribe where, apart from the rest of the
world, he can work out his own destiny and
civilization.