The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-22

She begins by proving what nobody denies that the
Indian had certain right of occupancy of american
| soil. Just how much land he owned, where it was To-
Gated, and what his title was in what manner the
tribes held it. whether tribe owned the i've acres oe
cuped by its village and cultivated the five States
that it occasionally wandered over, and how 1t to
be conveyed if at all, are important questions that
are hastily passed over
1t is then asserted that treaties with Indians
treaties with nations and that by the law of nations
| treaties should be observed. Although treaties and
contracts have been often broken it has not been
often asserted that in morals in law it could right
fully be DONE Yet disprove this, twelve pages are
written and the authority of Justnian GrotiuS, at
| tel Wheaton Kent Woolsey and Won Martens is in
voked, with quotations from each. Then follows
history of seven different tribes of Indians Mrs;
jackson says there about three hundred
tribes and bands. We may assume that she selected
from these such were best suited to her purpose
Throughout the book the writes is troubled with two
contradictory purposes. She seeks to show the woes
of the Indian and the terrible effect of unjust treat
ment, and. when pursuing this argument, the con-
dltlon OF the tribes is gloomy, indeed Their numbers
are diminishing they dependent upon the govern
ment, suffering and starving She also attempts
to prove that the Indian is Industrious tractabe cas-
lily civilized and anxious to hear and follow the teach
ings of missionaries When upon this branch of the
discussion we are told of cottages sprnging up of
fields titled of churches schools and all the evidences
OF rapid progress and great prosperity among the very
Indians that on preceding page We're starving and
| wretched
Thus she tells us how the chief of the Nez Perces
for long months suffered for the common necessaries
of life because I'm Just government would not pay
| what was promised him. Four pages further on she
tells how, in this very year. the Nez Perces
| were prosperous, and raised Is, 600 bushels Of
wheat with much corn and oats, besides selling to
mining camps So, 900 worth of vegetables. The tribe
| numbered about 400. a very similar statement is
| made in respect to the Sioux There is no escape
from the conclusion that least of these pictures
is very highly colored The history of the tribes
lected disproves the statement that persecution has
reduced their numbers made worse their condition
THE Cheyennes, for example, introduced to the
reader in S25, and reported to number zoo and to
be engaged in desperate struggle for existence with
Pawnees and Blackfeet. They are now reported TO
number 255 and to be making fair progress toward
| civilization.
The Poncas were first encountered in 1903 by
| Lewis and Clark and their chief spent some time in
explaining to these explorers that he then chief of
the remnant of once proud and powerful people.
who had been wenlgh extermlnated notify whites but
by the Sioux. They numbered but 200. The remnant
is now in the Indian Territory, and numbers 542,
The Cherokees first presented in 1877 and their
number is given at ., 600 They lived in Georgia Ten
nessee and the western portion of the Carolinas and
about in the ordinary condition of Indians of
that time. Then follows the account of their
The story of their removal from Georgia and the
abandonment of their happy homes for the wilderness
beyond the Mississippi is graphically told. One
quanted with the country the subsequent history
| OF the tribe would suppose that, although
they got five mi lions of money and seven
as they occupied, yet the tribe was broken
in spirit and sent into the wilderness to mourn the
loss OF ther hunting GROUNDS ana TO await speedy ex
termination The picture of woe and DISSOLUTION is
considerably lighted up when remember that this
same people now number more than twenty thousand,
have cattle on thousand hills, and cultivate many
thousands of in country with as fine climate
there is in all vast territory, and fertile soil
! as the shines upon.
Some of Mrs. Jacksons lamentations about the
elimination of the Indian lands well nigh amusing
She tells us. for example OF 5000 Sioux in Mime
sofa who patient industrious and thrifty. They
had, she says given up the chase and were relying
upon agriculture for subsistence. They had few inn
plements, and were compelled to borrow wagons and
| plows, and one cart served many families They had
tract of land amounting to 80, 100000 of acres.
The government made treaty for about half of it,
and gave them some land further west together with
a large of money. By the transaction their lands
reduced to about 90, 600 900 of acres, Before
the treaty each individual Indian could have had f.,
375 acres or each family about 20 900 By the
trade the holding of each family reduced to about
1880 acres Mrs jackson probably did not indulge
in mathematics at all, but she gives glowing picture
of the sufferings of the Sioux and the injury done
these farmers by this treaty There are appeals to
justice and humanity emphasized by exclamation
points. But in sober truth the spectacle of farmer
who has to borrow cart and has but rude pillow
exchanging his farm of 600 acres for one of 500
and q sum of money is not distressing
The of the whole land question in so far as in
jury the Indian is concerned is simply this: If In
dams to live by the chase and such crops their
squaws raise there was land enough under
the sun to support them comfortably If they to
cultivate he soil and get living as white men do
there has never been time when every Indian tribe
did not have ten times much land as 1t could posi-
bly, cultivate.
for room, In 1898 the Delawares Chippewas Ottawas
and Wyandottes' with few other tribes, occupied
what comprises most of the great States of Ohio
Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania. They complain
of a few struggling settlements along the Ohio and
with the customary Indian eloquence say: I'VE can
retreat farther because the country behind barely
affords food for its present inhabitants and have
solved to leave our bones in the small space to which
we are now confined" There lived then in this vast
territory many Indians, perhaps, there peo-
pie in three wards of Indianapolis and they tell with
touching eloquence how they must leave their homes
in that confined space which lies between the Ale
cheney mountains and Lake Mcigan, and the straits
of Mackinaw, and the Ohio river.
Mrs. jackson presents this case of hardship.
The book closes with account of various
of Indians by white men. They comprise instances
course many Of them were horrible and quite
unjustfabe. Everybody knows that the list
might be made much longer, and still counterpart
be found tor each scene OF horror by portray1ng
massacre of whites by Indians But no good can
come from reviewing that bloody drama which began
at the Atlantic and has gradually the Pa
cic. There have been murders and slaughers almost
without number. They were the work, for the most
part of individuals or small parties Il helps no
bodys argument to show that the side the other
is responsible for few or less of these of
horror
Mrs. Jackson bitterly arraigns the government and
condemns its Indian policy. She shows as it is per-
fecy easy to do that the government has often done
injustice to the Indian. Governments do JUS
tice for century together to any race upon any
subject 1t is easy to find many instances in the
history of courts of injustice to white men,
and still more to negroes In the conduct of egsla-
lures and congresses, matters still Gov
ernment is far from perfect machine. The Indians
have suffered because they have had votes direct
representation. They have suffered because of their
remote situation and the extreme difficulty of sending
them supplies promptly. and of learning of their ne
cesstes and wrongs. Beyond the settlements, white
men and Indians suffer alike from temporary failure
of supplies, from long journeys lack Of medical at
tendance, floods and unusual seasons and often
murdered with mpunty. The Indian cornfields
not exempt from grasshoppers or drought yet large
part of the evils depicted by Mrs jackson of this
kind. Indians, and white men as well who
have valid claims against the government grow
weary while their bills for relief fail one
session in the Senate and the next in the House In
the press of affairs, and amid the clamor of many
interests governments fail to do justice promptly and
often fail altogether The Indian knows little of the
for this, and reasons do not satisfy hungry
man, if he knows them Deducting these things
from the account something remains of course to be
charged to prejudice against the Indian and deliber
purpose the part of many individuals to do him
wrong Everybody who knows anything of human
nature knows without being told that government Of
white will not be always good to a of In
dams they to themselves
Mrs. jackson quotes sentence here and there from