St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-07-25
THE INDIAN CRISIS.

1t is to the credit of the present
hatiOnal administration that it has
made the most earnest and the most
honest effort that has ever been made
by the government to find satisfactory
solution of the Indian problem. Mr..
CLEVELAND has handled this matter, as
he does every public question, in
thoroughly business-like way, discard
Ing sentiment and looking only to the
best practical results. Early in his ad-
ministration he took the position that,
in order to convert the Indian from a
savage into civilized being, it was
necessary to break up the tribal re-
lations which existed and to place
him as near as possible upon
the same footing that the white
man occupies. In other words,
that it was essential to pre-
pare the Indian for the duties of
citizenship and then to make a citizen
of him. In order to accomplish this it
was first necessary to treat with the
Indians and secure from them an agree
ment to surrender their reservations
and to take and hold lands in severalty.
Those who were most familiar with
Indian nature fully understood the
difficulties that would beset the govern
ment in the accomplishment of this
plan. Consequently the satisfactory
progress that has been made in this di-
rection has been as surprising as it has
been gratifying. Up to this time COM
paratively little trouble has been en-
countered in inducing the Indians to ac-
cede to the reasonable propositions sub
mitted by the government.
Bat now the crisis is reached. The
first serious obstacle, and probably the
most serious of all that will be encoun-
tered in the settlement of this question,
confrontS the Sioux commission in the
negotiations now pending at Standing
Rock agency. The commission re-
Gently appointed by the interior depart
ment to confer with the Sioux Indians
find that there is strongly organized
opposition among the Indians to the
plan proposed by the government, and
that it will require an unusual display
of tact and most earnest persuasion on
the part of the commission if the Sioux
are won over.
The Sioux race is the fierceSt and most
warlike of all the Indian nationalities.
and the most unforgiving. Antipathy
to the white man is part of their
nature. So intense is this feeling
that hatred to the white race has be-
come an Unborn principle with the Sioux
Indian. In the mind of the Sioux, op-
position to white domination is loyalty
to the Great Spirit. Thus we can
readily understand the difficulty with
which the members of the commission
are confronted in the Standing Rock
conference. We are Informed that the
Indians make no special objection to
that clause of the treaty which requires
REIMBURSEMENT of their lands in con-
sideratiOn of a large money payment
and farm supplies, but they do oppose
that provision which requires them to
adopt the customs and ideas of the
white people. Hence, it will not be a
great surprise if Judge WRIGHT and his
associate commissioners utterly fail in
their effort to secure from the Sioux an
Endorsement of the governments plan
for solving the Indian problem. If, how.
ever, the Standing Rock conference
should be success and the Sioux In.
dams accede to the governments prop
Osition, then the Indian question will be
virtually settled, and forever. When
She Sioux give in there will be no other
indian TRIES disposed tohold out.
If the Sioux fail to accept the condi
lions of the treaty, then the government
will be compelled to solve the Indian
problem according to ALEXANDRIA
method of unraveling the Gordian knot
Heroic treatment is the last resort, but
as a last resort it will have to be applied