Arizona republican., 1890-11-19
HOW To DEAL WITH INDIANS

HOW TO DEAL WITH INDIANS
 Perhaps an Indian outbreak in the Northwest might be productive of good in one way. The country is becoming thickly settled in the vicinity of the Sioux, many of the residents coming from New England and the Eastern States. It might be possible that an Indian raid among these people would result in the overthrow of the sickly pro-Indian sentiment in the East, a sentiment that has been the almost di- rect cause of the murder of hundreds of whites in Arizona; sentiment that sends to tue President petitions with thousands of names, praying for re- turn to Arizona of the 'poor, unhappy Apaches," now under surveillance in Alabama. The Indian Rights Associa- ton is composed for the most part of persons whose knowledge of the Indian character has been derived from Coop ei's tales. They should be instructed, for in their obstinate, sell-suflicient ignorance they are doing incalculable injury to every political division of the West. They should be taught that those whose relatives and friends have been murdered by the red fiends necessarily are more acquainted with the real facts bearing upon the question, though not SO we'll informed in the high moral ethics bearing upon the claims of the In- dian upon the white. The ..'philanthro- plst" should investigate and appreciate the reason for the bitter feeling that ex- ists upon the frontier against those tribes, wards of the government upon reservations, fed only that they might periodically break loose from all re- straint and pursue 8 murderous career that is only checked after months pur- suit and the expenditure of millions of money.
 These "friends of the down trodden red man' view with approval the hang ing of any white man who has murdered his neighbor. Their penitentiaries are well filled with evil doers of every de- gree. But, when the untiring efforts of the army have finally run to earth these wolves of the west, the advice is quick to come from these same good eastern people to "put them back on the reser- vation; give them plenty of food and clothes; teach them the blessed scripture and reform them by gentle means" With blunt disregard for sentimentality, we know that if one of these same inter- cessors was attacked by a wolf in the woods, he would defend himself; ay, and seek by every means to destroy the vicious animal. The same reasoning is equally applicable to the Sioux or the Apache, They are human wolves and as utterly untamable as the most savage of that species. Nothing but force will restrain them. nothing but fear will induce them to refrain from mur- der and rapine. Every Indian who is captured after murderous raid should be hanged. He is not prisoner of war. He is simply a criminal, vile murderer, and as such he should be arnenable to the civil law. Had s1ch course been adopted with Sitting Bulls band, the present rumored outbreak would never have been heard of. If such a course bad been adopted with the first band of Apache marauders who ever went upon the warpath, the Apaches today would be as peacable as the Pimas. Enforce upon them the law, which, though severe, is just and productive of good to the greatest number.