New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-01-03
MR. PRLCES INpLAN LAWS.

The Indian probe IN is settled at last Com
missioner Price has taken it IN hand. The
Nation will probably be startled to find that q
man of such universal powers and with such
superhuman moral backbone has 30 long eA-
isted unknown in its midst. But 1t has nothing
more 10 do with its red wards; he has assumed
the whole responsibility.
The government Of the people of the United
States is coniided. rs is popularity supposed, to
three branChes-COngresA, which makes the
laws; the Executive that carries them into
eject and the Judiciary that applies them in
ind vidual cases. Ii requires AL the power and
wisdom Of these three departments to keep the
Nation in a passnble condition of order and
civilization and the Indian part of il has hith-
erto Jeen the most difficult OF all to deal with
Commissioners Price. seeing that Congress. the
Executive, the Army and the ChuIch each in
diyidually found the government OF these
people too much for 10 to grapplo with, has
come to the rescue aud taken 1t out OF their
hands and into his own. He sat down one hue
day last week and scrubbed Of complete sys-
tenn of government in which all existing regu-
lations, laws aud the customs aud religion of
these people which they nave preserved for
thousands of years are totally subYerted and
swept away at one fell swOop.
What effect v i'll these laws have on the peO-
pie TO whom they are sentl Let us look into
them minute. In every tribe. according to
Mr.. Prices edict, court is 20 he established of
three judges, Indians to DO appointed by the
agent; and they, rs common sense will show
anybody, will simply be the tools of the agent,
be he honest or dishonest Each judge is
to receive $40 per annum, and will be ap-
pointed every year; hence ii he does not
humor the agent in his wliTs and prcjudces
by all of his decisions. out he goes. All orders
or judgments of these courts and agents can,
however, be o,enuled by MI. Price who keeps
the rrns of sovereign power in biz own hands.
His principal object appears To be the imme-
date conversion Of the savages To Christianity
by brute force. He has apparently been stLdy-
ing some Of the old Saxon methods Of dealing
with the heather: Baptism, or your head
Any Indian indulging i'll sun dance or any
other sports called dances or " other heathenish
customs" shall be starved from ten to thirty
days, or be imprisoned for n month. medi
cine man on practising any Of his rites shall be
imprisoned and kept on bread and water until
he shall forever abandon all such offences"
IOlg RhHll Is llOIc EcDl'g hN"tOu ~ "Ai' i've
Twenty days imprisonment is considered
sufficient punishment for that offence.
1t does not seem TO have occurred to Mr..
Price that the customs which he is going to put
a stop to with such high hand are not" Indian
offences" altogether. The Shaker has his re-
ligious dance. The Chinaman has his joss and
wOrships it. Spiritualists, MesmeIists and
astrologers practice as "heathenish customs"
as the medicine men. Why not hale them into
the nearest Jail and keep them on bread and
water until they forever abandon their prac-
tees or religion. Mr. Price forgets that their
religion is real to these Indians. OF all conn
tries in the world is this the one in which men
are to be starved and beaten and imprisoned
until they give up the faith in which they hon
estly believed Conversion by force Is an ex-
pertinent as old as the Inquisition, the stake,
the cross IL Is as old ns human bigotry and
cruelty but 1t Ia al experiment which no man at