St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1884-03-29
General Sherman on the Indians.

Mr.. E. v. Smalley contributes to the
Century a very graphic sketch OF Gen
eral Sherman, in which he brings out
a point of great interest as connected
with our Indian relations. 1t is to the
effect that in 1910 General Sherman,
then a Second Lieutenant in the artil-
lery, was sent 20 Florida to assist in the
removal of the Indians from the Ever
glades to the Indian Territory. 1t was
towards the close of the Seminole war,
and while engaged in pursuing and
capturing these savages in the forests,
bayouS and swamps. he came to the
conclusion in his own mind that the
policy of the Government was all
wrong. and that it would have been
better to have allowed the Semino,es to
remain in Florida and to have concen-
trated the Choctaws. Chickasaws,
Cherokees and Creeks there rather than
20 localize them in territory that was
better fitted for occupancy by white
men. Mr.. Smalley says: ''They
would have been surrounded by the sea
on all sides but one, and could easily
have been protected against encroach-
ment, and the vast agricultural plains
west of Arkansas should have been left
open to civilization. This was his idea
then and he has never changed it,
The course of events since those DAYS
has only emphasized the correct
ness of the young Lieutenant's judg-
ment. There is no question that it
would have been better if the Govern
ment had made an Indian Territory out
of the lower half of the Florida penin-
sula and left the present Indian Terri
tory open for white settlement. Its
capabilities for supporting large popu-
lation are as great as those of Kansas,
or even Missouri-much greater than
those of Nebraska or Arkansas. Kansas
has now over million of people, and
the Indian Territory is given mp TO
about 100000 Indians, who are of no
use in developing the Territory and
whose only purpose seems to be to keep
white men out In the raising of grain
and fruit and in stock production it is
not excelled by any of the States ad-
joining it, and yet it is allowed to lie
idle for the accommodation of quarter
of a million of Indians, who have very
crude ideas of industrial progress or of
any industry that goes beyond mere
personal demands involving as little
labor as possible.
The southern half of Florida supplies
everything that the Indian Graves Its
forests, streams and bayous are ac-
cessible to him and not to the white
man. They could live there easily;
white men cannot live there at all.
The most that they want is game and
fish, and that part of Florida teens
with them. If the Southern Indians had
been concentrated there they would
have been protected from encroach-
ments, as Mr.. Smalley has said, and
such wants as they could not supply
themselves could easilcr have been met
by white trading-pc-ts along the coast.
This would have left the present In
dian Territory open to white settlement,
which must be its ultimate destiny, and
would have saved all the trouble that
must ensue when the pressure of the
advancing tide of emigration becomes
SO strong that it cannot be resisted.
The first signs of that trouble are al
ready manifested. 1t is already ex-
tremely difficult to keep white settlers
out, and the time is rapidly approach
ing when the rush will be so great that
it cannot be stopped. 1t is inevitable.
Was not General Sherman right, there
tore, in his judgment forty years ago
that the Governments policy was
wrong.-Chicago Tribune.