Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1888-02-24

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY q 1855
THE RESERVATION SYSTEM.
1t is to be Abolished, and the Scvcralty
System is to Take its Place

System is to Take its Place.
Public sentiment in the Clearwate
country is slowly crystnlyzing aroun,
the fact that the times are ripe for Al
effort to be made towards opening tn,
Nez Perce Indian reservation. A few
weeks ago we published LIST, take1
from the report of the Commissioner o
Indian affairs, showing the reservation,
and tribes on which and to whom it i,
the intention Of the government tC
apply the severaty system, and the
Nez Perce reservation was prominent
in the list. Delegate Dubois further
advises us that he has frequently urged
the immediate appointment of COM
mission to negotiate the matter with
the Indians, and that the Indian de-
partnent have the matter row under
advisement, with every indication that
the commission will be appointed some
time this year. As matter of fact, it
is the settled policy Of President Cleve-
lands administration to abolish the
reservation system as rapidly as it can
be done consistently with doing Justice
to the Indians. The gradual extension
OF the severaity system over so many
small tribes is beset with obstacles so
numerous that the first attempts to in
augura'e the new policy should be corr
sldered as experiments, to be cautiously
made, and the work of reform will be
necessarily slow. But the fact that the
reservations are doomed is matter for
congratulation, and we, living ada.
cent thereto can we'll afford to possess
our souls in patience, knowing that the
time is near when all the reservations
in the country will be thrown open to
American citizens.
And it is time they were. From the
date OF the organisation Of this govern
ment Congress has legislated in the
interest of the Indians. 1t has reserved
large tracts Of the choicest lands in the
country for their exclusive occupation.
At has expended millions of the people's
money for their benefit, apnojnted
agents TO W tth over them, given them
ahnulties, houses and farming impe-
ments, and maintained them on resery-
ations to keep them from associatng
with the whites. But in spite of all
this lavish expenditure of money and
time and enforced isolation, the Indians
are not materially advanced towards
CIVILIZATION, and the most enlightened
tribes are those who, BY contact with
the whites, have adopted the white
mans methods and relinquished the
habits Of barbarism. Our own Nez
Perces are a fitting illustration. and
they have undoubtedly acquired their
habits of thrift and industry from long
anu close association with their white
nelg hbols. The negro element was. on
its fifst introduction to this country
as alien to our civilization as the Indi
ans, and yet the negroes have made in
nhlteiY more progress towards civiliZa-
tIon III state OF slavery than the Indi-
ans have done in freedom and with all
the resources ofthe Indian department
to back them. But it must be remem-
oered that the negroes, even in slavery,
were brought into daily contact with
white people as house servants and
companions to tie children of their
task-masters, and surrounded by such
Influences the negroes very soon forgot
their barbarsm and their language, and
adapted themselves to the civilization
that surrounded them. On the other
hand, the Indians have been kent from
civilization. 1t is almost crime for
white m&n 10 enter a reservation to
teach the Indians something they did
not know before. The present system
says in effect that Christian civilization
Is a fraud and a failure, and that the
Indians will be despoiled and DESTROYED
off the face of the earth if they are per.
mitted 10 come in contact with it. We
isolate the Indians on their reserves.
and then we wonder at the end of ten
or fifteen years why they have made
no progress towards civilization.
AS to the ethics OF the question of the
right of the government to dispossess
the Indians of the land, the common
sense of the centuries has decided that
the Indians enjoy no higher title to the
soil than that founded on simple occu-
pancy. We incline to believe that the
cultivation of the soil is an obligation
imposed by nature upon mankind, and
that the human race could not subsist
or multiply, or fulfil its destiny if the
Indians are permitted to retain the
exclusive possession thereof. The right
of the Indians to monopolise the best
portions of the continent for a hunting
ground is utterly inconsistent with the
civilization and moral improvement of