Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-11-17
DEALING WITH INDIANS.

ing Company employs a number of Indi-
ans in whale and seal catching. Recently
on one of these expeditions a bomb-lance
exploded on board a steam launch, and
killed one OF the Indians, who happened to
be medicine man. This accident caused
the Indians to become hostile to the traders
at that post. They seized the boats be-
longing to the company, demanded two
hundred blankets as compensation for the
dead man, and threatened to destroy the
post buildings if they were not paid. In
telligence of this was conveyed to the Cor
win, and her commander forthwith repaired
to the place. Then the Indians renewed
their demand for compensation, but were
met by a counter demand for four hundred
blankets, as reparation for having, so far
az we can make out, done nothing beyond
making threats against the company g
white employees. The Indians were very
much startled by this sudden turn to the
affair, and still more so when the Captain
of the Corwin told them that he would de.
stroy their villages unless they paid the
fine he had imposed, promptly. The chiefs
went ashore, and for some time were seen
going about collecting blankets. Presently
they came off with eighty-one blankets,
declaring these were all they could get.
The Corwins commander appears then to
have first taken the blankets, and then
shelled the villages. The result was the
destruction of all the Indian houses, boats,
and winter supplies of provisions.
Now it has always been one of the chief
difficulties of dealing with Indians that
they cannot be brought to understand the
principle of personal responsibility. If a
white man Injuries an Indian, revenge is
taken upon any other white man who may
come along subsequently. The Indians do
not discriminate at all. So far as they are
concerned all white men are held re-
sponsible for the deeds of any particular
white man. And this trait in their char.
acter has always been referred to as cen.
elusive evidence of barbarism. Yet when
certain Indians commit a trespass upon
certain white men, what is the course pur-
sued towards them The Corwin goes up,
demands restitution from whole tribe.
and proceeds to destroy the property of all
the Indians within reach. Is there any
difference between this method and the
Indian method And if there is. will some
defender of the Corwin's policy be SO good
as to point it out? To us it appears that
the United States Government, as repre-.
sented by the Corwin, has adopted Indian
methods altogether iii dealing with these
Indians; and if Indian methods are savage
and irrational, what are we to say of the
same practices when employed by great
and highly civilized power?
Again, there does not appear to have
been any proportion between the offense of
the Indians and their punishment. Let us
suppose case for the sake of getting more
clearly at the moral status of this affair.
Suppose that China was as much more
powerful than the United States as the
latter is than the Indians. And suppose
that number Of San Francisco hoodlums
had molested and ill.treated half dozen
Cinnamon. And suppose that in conse-
quence of this feet OF Chinese ironclads
should anchor opposite San Francisco, de.
mand a fine of $1,000, 900, and in default
of instant payment proceed to shell the
city. This supposititious case clearly ex.
hibits the enormous disparity between the
offeuse and the penalty in the case of the
Alaskan Indians. All they did was to
seize some boats, and make some threats.
They did not assault the white men. They
did not kill any of them. They evidently
thought they were justified in demanding
compensation for their medicine man whom
the white men had killed and it will be
hard to demonstrate that they were not so
justified. But for this the most sweeping
retribution is visited upon them. Perhaps
the burning of their houses does not signify
much. But the destruction of their boats
that is to say the destruction of their
means of livelihood the destruction
of their winter supply of provisions, may
very easily mean death by starvation to
hundreds of men, women and children.
On this same cruise the Corwin dis
covered several villages, all the for
mer inhabitants of which had died of
starvation. 1t is said that they had been
supplied with whisky, had given them
selves over to drunkenness, and SO had
neglected to lay in their winter supplies of
food. Here again the contact with civil
cation has brought the usual curse with it.
Who is responsible for the evil deed of
furnishing whisky to these Indians? Was
it done by the traders on whose behalf the
Corwin has just reduced several other In
dian villages to restitution? And if starva.
ton is the natural result of failure to Sc.
cure winter supplies, what fate must
overhang the miserable creatures whose
stores of food have jast been so ruthlessly
destroyed by the Corwin The presump-
ton is that for the awful crime of threat
ening the employees of the Northwestern
Trading Company, these Indians are to be
put to face an Arctic winter not only with.
out food, but without the means of procur-
ing food. The destruction of their boats
was refinement of cruelty. It was
equivalent to saying =" We will not only
take away what provisions you have, but
eve will prevent you from obtaining any
"m more" Perhaps next spring the Corwin
may go no there again, and find other vii
lagos strewn with the skeletons of their
inhabitants. In such an event the public
will not need to be told how the poor
wretches came to their death.
We are apparently expected to congrat-
uiate the Captain of the Corwin On his
success. We cannot do anything of the
kind. We do not believe that this is the
way great and civilized government
ought to treat the Indians within its iuris.
diction. We do not believe that the en-