The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-14
THE INDIAN SCARE.

There IL new Indian scare among the
Eayajoes, . powerful tribe, equal in in
telligence and warlike qualities to the
Sioux, and superior to them in the knowl-
edge and practice of the arts of civiliza-
ton. The secret of the whole business
probably il that the Navajoes, who are
wealthy and skillful herdsmen, owning
great numbers of cattle and immense
docks Of sheep, regard the white cattle
men - intruders upon their range, and
have quarreled with them just as the
white cowboys of two great cattle kings,
whose ranges adjoin, not seldom have
bloody fights with each other. The Ma
vajoes know the power of the United
States, for 1t took our army nearly
twenty years to conquer q peace
from them, and before the war the
Navajoes were rs formidable and restless
savages rs the Apaches were after the war
until General Crook reduced them to sub
mission. The Navajoes for many years
have given US no trouble whatever, and it
10 quite likely that the white cattlemen
ore greedy fellows who yearn for the red
both's vineyard, or King David for the
eve lamb of Uriah.
The treatment Of the Indian by the white
b the early settlement of all our states was
necessarily ''blood and iron" policy that
has been bitterly denounced by professional
humanitarians and sentimental cranks,
and yet this 'blood and iron" policy has
Just as good defense as the aggressive
policy of civilization against barbarism
VAS ever had in any age, cline or country,
where, in order to make its way, it always
vent mounted on a powder-cart. The
sword Of civilization has been a very wood
hans Ak to open the jungle of barbarism
10 the light of religion and humanity.
The story of every great march of civil
lzation begins first with the soldier that
has cut down the trees that sheltered bar
barian chiefs and knocked the chiefs. like
bears, in the head. The sword against the
savage has been necessary TO make way for
She settler with his hoe and his harvest,
and 1t is but sentimental waste
Of words to analyze, under the
christian doctrine of the fatherhood
81 God and the brotherhood of man.
Inc validity of the title Of old England to
India or that of New England to Massachu-
setts. Pilgrim Miles Standish and the
Puritan captains. Church and Mason.
treated refractory Indians just as Samuel
sid King Agag they hewed them to
pieces. The right of title in India or Mas
sachusetts is the right of man to slaughter
OF subject the wild beasts to his
service. whether the wild beast be biped
or quadruped; whether ii be q mustang or
grizzly bear; whether it be a catamount
or Conianehe; a sheep-slaying wolf or a
horse-ssealing Sioux. That is the way civ
iiixstion has got forward, not by the
Quaker method of negotiation with saw
ages, but by their determination.
The Ak of the woodman slashes the FIR.
est under the shelter Of the sword of the
soldier, who bids the human wild beast 70
surrender, fly or die. Disguise il as Won
may, that is the inexorsble law of nature
Ind Of man, and If the worlds progress
had waited 10 consider the abstract right
Of wild beasts and wild men 10 their forests
w NAAg tuNAf De the Wig
wan of the susquehsnnshs: Chicago the
grand lodge Of the Pottowattomies; Svra-
cuse and Utica the chief villages of the
Onondagas and.oneidas; ..Boston and Lon.
don the home of a few naked fishermen;
Calcutta mudhole, and Cape Town a col.
lection of Caffre novels.
The sword, the ak and the hoe cannot
afford to halt and parley about land titles
With the temahswk, the scalplng knive
the bow and the fish spear; the farmer and
the trader cannot afford TO wait the
Measure of the WOOD 10 recede. of wild
beasts and untsnisoH hunters to retire.
The motto of Englsb utilization in the
early settlement 81 aot Europe, India or
America, when i str harbarism, has
always been "rrsAs, ie or Travel. ="
As the savage was gef unwilling to
treat or trade, becaas found himself