The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-08-17

TO civiIizE HIM MS COUNTRY MUST he
orENED TO SETTLERS.

OPENED TO SETTLERS.
Major John NJ Burke, Buffalo Bills
right-bower, who is known in the West
as "Arizona Jack" thus speaks of the
Indian and his condition:
/ know the Indian Territory well.
having ridden over a great part of il,
and had occasion to know many of lis
Legitimate inhabitants, and l speak ad.
visedly when | say that no policy more
antagonistic TO the spread of oiviliza-
tion and injurious to the best interests
OF the Indians could possibly be adopt-
ed--short of general mcrciless massa-
ere OF the red mcmillan that which
excludes white settlers from that por-
tion of that country which is unoccu-
pied by the Indians and is of no use to
them, and to which they have no legal
or moral right. The Territory is too
vast for tho Indians alone to occupy
with any good result. They rattle
around like a grain of shot in a bass
drum. Even if they were restricted to
their reservations they would still have
far more land than they could make
any good use of it. The latest and
closest census of the Indians in the
Territory that we have shows that there
were only 1884 of them all counted,
to occupy reservations amounting to
1l,6S5,O35 acres, and their numbers
are decreasing all the time. Why, this
is sample of how they are scattered (:
The last time was out there / went
with Brave Bear to call upon White
Eagle, both Pawnee chiefs. We had
supper with White Eagle, and after.
ward Brave Bear told me he expected
us both to go to breakfast with him
"next door" as he expressed it. / ac-
cepted the invitation, innocently sup
posing that it meant to go half mile
or 80, and at daybreak we saddled up
and STATED for his house next door.
Imagine, if you can, my disgust and
hunger when you learn as l then did,
that it was eighteen or twenty miles
from White Eagles to Brave Bears.
They thought nothing of it, but l did.
and when we got 10 Brave Bears his
children fled at sight of my white face
as if l had been ghost. l don't think
they had ever seen a white man before,
and not many red ones either. What
can you expect of children growing up
in such isolation but that they will be
savages I? Are they subjected to any
influences of civilization Hardly.
THE ALLOTMENT OF THE TRIBES.
Yet the Pawnees have smaller al
lotment of land in their reservation
than most of the other tribes, which
seems to me, by the way, an injustice,
since they have long been the staunch,
reliable friends of the whites and were
brave soldiers of our government on
the frontier, fighting the Sioux during
the Rebellion, when so many other
Indians were enlisted by the Southern
Confederacy against us, They have
but 2o7s acres per capita, while the
Sacs and Foxes have l,O494, the Potta-
wotamies and Tonkawas 1,047 and
1857, respectively, the Cheyennes and
Arapahoes l,l938, the Iowas 2,5661,
and the Wichitaws no less Than 5000.
That is per capita, mind you, buck,
squaw and papoose. Give them I6O
acres for each family of four all round
which would be as much as they would
ever make any good use of, and 462,-
$40 acres would settle them all COM
fortably. Mind you, am not in favor
of robbing them of an acre that now
belongs to them. simply believe that
it would be for their highest good for
the government to condemn their sur
plus land for the purpose of planting
upon it actual white settlers, paying
them reasonable price for it. The
bill now before Congress proposes to
allow them not more than Sl.25 per
acre for all the land to which they have
even a disputable claim. That means
$l.25-of course, less what they have
already received for it-and the "not
more than" goes for nothing in all such
matters. 1t looks like liberal price
and it is but our nation can afford to
be liberal. We have done well in land
transactions. We only paid Ct cents
per acre to Mexico for 4OO,0OO,OO
acres of land, out of which we have
made three thousand millions OF dollars.
And the S1.25 per acre for this land
the government will readily get back
from actual settlers.
THE INDIAN BOYS AT CARLISLE.
The talk of impractical theorists,
rank hypocrites and interested, design
ing schemers that it is ''for the good
of the Indian that they want ciyiliza-
tion kept out of the Territory is the
most arrant, impudent nonsense. 1t is
precisely for his good that want to
see the example of thrifty agriculture
set him upon all sides towns, school
houses and churches established about
him; railroads extended through bis
lands to enhance their value; commerce
and manufacturers hourishing in his
vicinity. Then his land will become
OF great value to him; he will have
learned the white mans lessons of in
dustry, economy and self-help, and he
will be in time a oontented, happy,
law-abiding citizen and-with the start
he will have from the sale of his sur
plus land-a very well-to do one, much
better off than the average white agri-
oulturist. But keep him in his present
isolated condition, and you compel him
to become a savage, or rather to re-
main one. Even the bright Indian
boys you are educating in Carlisle and
teaching various handicrafts to, when
you send them back to the Indian
Territory, are compelled to lapse into
savagery for lack of demand upon them
for exercise of their several calliugs,
owing to the tparseness of the popula-
tion aud the limited wants of its savage
mode OF existence. Indeed, they are
apt, by reason of their hopeless plight,
the advance they have made in civiliza-
tion and the degrading retrogression