The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1895-08-06

(RoclSy Mountain News.)

We desire to offer remedy
for the Indian troubles which
are constantly recurring source
of trouble to this government
and which serve to ALLEVIATE the
East and the West more surely
than the financial question. We
feel sure that the government
will see at once how altogether
admirable is the proposed ar
rangement. In fact the wonder
is that no one has thought of it
up to the present time, yet how
plain it is. 1t has been figured |
out that about half the trouble |
in this world is in bringing sup
ply and demand together. A
poet tells how damsel wander
ing by the sad sea waves with a
paddock under her arm met a
fisherman going home with a
shaddock. "Oh, me-" sighed
the maid with the paddock, eff |
only twas had that shaddock,"
while the fisherman curses his
evil fate which deprives him of
the longed for haddock. A
word, and all would have been
well, and this is exactly the state
of affairs in the case of the nat
ions wards.
The people of New England
know nearly everything. This
is well understood. They know
more about negroes than the
people of the Southern states,
for instance, and they are i'm
measurably better posted on the
needs and character of poor Lo
than the residents of the West
ern states and territories. In
deed, as Mrs. Browning would
say, they ''know beyond all
doubling, truly" just how to
make a Bannock into a rival for
Wendell Phillips and how to
transform Ute into an elegant
and cultured gentleman, and we
propose to let them do it. The
United States has spent millions
and millions on the Indians; it
has given them it's choicest gar
den spots, and whereas the white
settler has been limited to 100
acres, the Indian has had miles
to range over. He has been
furnished with implements and
seeds and paid to work. Prov
isions have been given to him
and clothing, and he has wanton-
ly killed thousands of head of
game out of season and then
complained that he starved be-
cause, after had cut off his own
supplies, the government didn't
furnish him with porterhouse
steaks. Then having nothing to
do, but draw his rations, his
mind has turned to ghost dances,
and he has begun to long for
"bellud, 'sdeath," and war paint
and scalps, and has gone out and
murdered and tortured the enter
prising New Englanders who
have had the "gumption" to
leave their perpendicular, stony
farms and come West.
Now there are many hundreds
of abandoned farms in New
England, farms which would
make good prairie dog towns
and rattlesnake holes but moth
ing else. Why not move the
Indians East, just as fast as pos
sible, and settle them down
among the rocks and hills of
Vermont, New Hampshire and
Maine? They don't want to
farm; they have no desire to be-
come civilized, so the rock-rib-
bed farms would suit their pur-
poses admirably. We freely adj
NIT that the West has not handl-
ed the Indian question we'll, one
principal reason being that it
has been handled from Washing
ton, and politics has had much
to do with it. But if these pic
turesque redskins could be trans
ferred to the East where they
would be dealt with lovingly and
tenderly we feel sure that an era
of good feeling between the East
and West would set in right
away. By the time some of the