St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-11-19
PUT THEM TO WORK.

The way to dispose of the threatened
Indian trouble is to put the Indians to
work. 1dleneSS is ALWAYS breeder of
mischief, and as long as the government
pursues the policy of feeding the In
dams on the reservations and insists
upon making lazy Migrants OF them,
just so long will we have trouble with
them.
We are inclined to think the accounts
of prospective Indian uprising are
exaggerated, and that an unnecessary
uneaSineSs is experienced by the set
tiers living in close proximity TO the
reservations. Still, we know enough OF
Indian character to realize that there is
always danger of an outbreak when the
bad men of the tribes are permitted to
go among them and stir up their preiu
dices. The antipathy OF the Indian to
the white man is the natural result of
his bad treatment. Then again, the In
dianS are religious enthusiasts, and,
like all persons of that temper
ament, whether white or red
skinned. they become fanatical. A
civilized fanatic is bad enough, but
savage fanatic is terror. The present
crisis in Indian affairs has been brought
on by the cunning of SITTING BULL and
other chieftains, who have Skillfully
worked upon the religious element in
the Indian nature until their people are
now riding on high tide of fanaticism.
Impressed with the BELIEF that the COM
ing of their Messiah is at hand. the In
dams are wholly indifferent to all ma
terial affairs, and can be easily per-
suaded to enter upon crusade against
the whites. They are doubtless as zeal
Gus as the followers of MAHONET when
they started out to eXterminate the in
fdels. and would be as dangerous If
they We're as numerous and all the con-
ditionS were as favorable for pro-
long|d war.
But the security of the white settlers
is in the inability of the Indians to
gather formidable army into the field.
They have learned from many sad eX-
perience that it doesn't pay to massacre
whites i'm patches. The slaughter must
be wholesale or not at all in order to
raise them to the dignity of being treat
ed as public enemies and entitled to the
protection afforded by the rules of civil
lied warfare. The Indians understand
well enough that to kill dozen or SO
white settlers would be plain murder,
for which they would have to hang. If
they could surprise and capture some
fort garrisoned by United States troops
and then murder the soldiers they would
expect the liberal treatment accorded to
SITTING BULL and his gang after the
CUSTER massacre. Whatever else an
Indian may be, he is no fool. And for
this reason we are confident that the
white people in the neighborhood of
Mandan have no serious cause for alarm.
Still, it is time that the government
were adopting some policy to relieve the
white people of the frontier of this con-
slant source of dread from an Indian
uprising. First CT all, the government
authorities should prohibit the war
dances. These dances are an intolera-
BILE relic of barbarism that should not
be countenanced. Then they give oc
casion to the seditious Indians to get in
their bad work among the tribes. Then,
again, If the government should compel
all the Indians to engage in agricultural
pursuits. and make 1t compulsory upon,
each Indian tribe to perform SO many
hours of farm work each day, their deV-
iltrv WOuld all come tO an end.