Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-05-27
AS SEEN BY OTHER EYES.

Our policy toward the Indians Is a matter of considerable interest to a large number of our citizens, and par ticularly to that earnest body of men and women who are banded together in a national association with the purpose of securing the red man his rights from the government. As the Indian ques. tion appears to others is shown by statement made in the Council Fire by Dr Herman F. c. ten Kate, an eminent and philanthropic European scientist who was the anthropologist of the Hem enway expedition.
 Dr ten Kate holds a lack of real un- derstanding of Indian character on the part of the government to be at the root of much of the evil consequences of our dealings with the Indians, and, if heed ed, the ethnological studies in which several American investigators have won brilliant distinction ought to ac- complish much practical good. In fol- lowing the negotiations with the Sioux or the opening of half of their reserva- tion he has been struck by the unwise and undignifed manner in which the He regards the severalty measure to be premature, and likely to be disastrous {; for civilization, to be beneficial to a primitive race, must be given i'll small doses, not larger than they can digest, at time and he reminds us of the fact that the Indian has adopted civiliza tion comparatively very much sooner and more readily than many another civilized race, although the process seems too slow to the nasty American, at once. Another injustice, and also absurdity as Dr ten Kate holds, is to make uncivilized Indians responsible before eur courts for their acts as if they were civilized citizens; wrong on &C., count of different standards of morality also because, if the Indian is not enough civilized to be citizen, his code of morality ought not to be admitted to be the same, and if he is considered as a ward of the government or a member of an independent nation, he should be treated ill one way or the other. He should by right, it is held, be tried before an official court for Indians, | with members who know something of Indian character and Indian institutions. Dr ten Kate makes this rebuke: "They who on this side of the ocean believe in justice, true liberty and wise philan- throphy, they who do not worship Nam mon only, see, with sorrow and anger, how a weak race is treated by strong nation. AS long as liberty and equality are not granted equally to men of every race and color within the American dominion. this device is nothing but a parody" And he considers the fact that the late Mrs Helen Jackson's noble ap- peal has remained unheeded by the
 nation in general to be an everlasting and burning shame to the American people.
 There is little question that many of
 the injustices complained of by Dr ten
 Kate are a reproach to American civili,
 zation and sense of fair play, but that
 there is disposition and a tendency to
 correct them seems equally certain. Il
 is held with justice that the enactment of what is known as the Thayer bill
 would go far toward remedying these
 injustices, and those who have at heart
 the interests of the Indians are hoping
 that the next congress will make that measure a law,
 | Choice Pineapples very cheap at Ladd's
 Strawberries fresh every day.