The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-03-28

human CIVILIZATION yet unfOlded, IS to
be counted one of the necessary
stages in the progress of the race. If
our forerunners, the Indians, are I'M
able or unwilling to assimilate them
selves with us, and share in the pro-
gressive subjugation of nature, they
must inevitably give way before us,
and to call our occupation of this
country robbery, is to use language
unwarranted by the circumstances.
In one way or another they have
been amply compensated by us for
the lands which they have surrender
ed. They have had abundant oppor-
tunity to profit by the white mans
superior knowledge, and to share
with him the numerous advantages
that bis civilization offers, but they
have scorned him and his ways; have
preferred darkness to light, and saw
agery to civilization; they have not
always observed their agreements
with fidelity, and their hands have
not been free from the stain of inno-
cent blood
Not long since l listened to the
address of one of Americas most
popular orators while he depicted
with a flowing fancy the wrongs of
the Red Man, and the phenomenal
prosperity of his spoilers, the much
abused Indian agents. 1t was a
thrilling speech and produced pro-
found impression upon the assembled
wealth and culture gathered in the
luxurious drawing room to listen; but
it was caricature on American his
tory, SANDER on American civiliza-
ton, and too often void of fact. That
there have been dishonest agents is
true, and that they have sometimes
enriched themselves at the expense
of the Indians is indisputable; so it
is likewise true that there have been
dishonest railroad magnates and
financiers who have grown rich on the
wreckage of Wall street, feasting
while the widows whose houses they
have devoured have starved. But
during the last twenty five years, GER
tainly, the Indian service, as whole,
has been comparatively free from
corruption, and the average agent is
certainly entitled to as much conf
dence and respect as the average
alderman, perhaps as the average
member of the legislature; indeed, I
am not sure but that l might go fur
ther and say that he would have no
occasion to blush if he were to be
placed alongside the average Con
gresham
The Indian service has not been so
much the scene of corruption as OF
incompetency, arising from the fact
that men were selected chiefly from
political considerations for the per-
Torrance of duties of very complex
and exacting nature.
have been frequently asked, as l
was quite recently by distinguished
city clergyman, questions about the
Indians, prompted by the fancy that
they are all alike, and that what is
true about the Sioux of the Dakotas
is equally applicable to the Apaches
of Arizona, or the Pueblos of New
Mexico; while the fact is that they
differ among themselves in every re-
spect-in language, dress, mode of
living, manners and occupations.
The Apaches as tribe are ignorant,
degraded, semi-savage, unprogres-
sive, warlike; the Flandreau, Sioux
and the Stockbridges are industrious,
frugal, thrifty, progressive, peaceful
and upright; the Pueblos occupy
houses and carry on peaceful pur-
suits, and the Navajoes are shepherds
and live in rude houses. Examples
can be found among them illustrative
of almost every stage of human prog
ress, from the lowest level of animal
ism, as exhibited by some of the
Yumas, burrowing in the sands of
Arizona like lizards, up through the
predatory Apaches, the pastoral Nav
ajoes, the village Pueblos, the Agri-
cultural Flandreaux,to the Christian
lied and thoroughly civilized thou.
sands gathered into various churches,
out of numerous tribes.
nEN