New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-04-09
THE INDIANS UNDER THE LAW.

The Black Hills Times (Dakota) of March q
records an important first step in new line OF
Indian policy namely, the sentence of Sioux
Indian to term in the penitentary for assault
to murder; the crime having been committed
upon another Indian, in Indian territory, and
the trial having been held in an American
court under the provisions of an act passed al
the last session of Congress through the earnest
efforts of Senator Dawes and the Indian Rights
Association. Before the passage Of this law
Indian criminals were subject only to tribal
authority a state of things which in practice
granted immunity for all II amer of lawless-
ness from theft to homicide. The utmost
punishment inflicted by the tribal authorities
was a fine of few ponies. The effect OF this
absence of law and justice was most mis-
chevous, though unfortunately it was in accord
with the whole reservation system, all the
influences of which tended to make the Indian
irresponsible, indolent. savage and lawless
Such system, indeed, could be guaI anteed to
debauch and barbarze a white race in two gen.
erations, and how much more the Indians
The new law, the first case under which has
been noted, makes a crime committed by an
Indian against an Indian punishable in our
courts. The change thus introduced Is calcu-
lated to exert an important influence over the
tribes subjected to it. 1t is the beginning of a
new and practical education for the Indian an
education which if gradually extended will in
no long time prepare him to exercise the duties
of citizenship, by familiarizng him with the
restraints and obligations which hold civilized
society together and maintain order and
progress. 1t is matter for sincere cOngratnla-
ton that this initial step has been TAKEN for 1T
is in some sense an assurance that the old,
irrational, hopeless muddle called our Indian
policy has been outgrown and that henceforth
all the energy and intelligence available will be
concentrated upon the organization and eyolu-
ton of a new plan of treatment Had we not
been fettered by tradition and kind of super
stiion in the past, which made us regard the
Indian as somehow differing from common
humanity, the L" Indian problem" would in all
probability have ceased to exist as a source of
difficulty long ago. And what makes the slow
discovery of the truth so curious is tba. e, or
since the foundation of the American Republic
we. have been practising, in regard to the
perennial throng of immigrants from which our
population has been recruited, precisely the
principles which we are now beginning to see
would have succeeded equally veil with the
Indians.
To make them amenabe to law, to prepare
them for citizenship, we simply put our foreign
guests under our system of government.
Italians, Portuguese, IIungarians, Irish,
English, French, Germans, Swiss, Spaniards,
Greeks and many other nationalites land III the
United States every day wholly untaught in
our laws and institutions, and in n short time
they are assmilated. This, then, is the way to
take with the Indians. Give them land in
severaty. Secure them in the possession of
il for two or three generations, because if not
so secured they would be cheated out of it
before they had learned how to take care of
themselves. Put them rs speedily as prac-