The record-union., 1898-10-20

hardly be included in this column, Yet
review of past conditions, past ms
| takes, past injuSticeS ana present at
tempts to right great wrongs viii pe
particularly timely.
Concerning the early unhappy strug-
giles between the aborigines and the
white men. we have at this late date
very little survival of feeling; because
those struggles took place between
| generations of men that have never
| been seen by US; just as there seems
to the young man of the present day
something lacking in the reality or the
Mexican war. Yet-H we permit our
| thoughts to dwell on these events OF
| the past for any length of time they
| gradually assume a definite shape 10
| US. We then plainly see that thefe
was something more involved on the
| Indian side than mere blind resistance
| to the white man; and that the Wnlte
| man had more of an impulse back OF
| him than mere bloody slaughter Oh
| crafty foe. 1t was really struggle
| between progress and barbarlsm-oh
| one side a few hundred thousand men
with roaming nature and comDatlVe
| tribal instincts; on the other sloe the
| early ripplings of a tide that was deS-
tined never to cease in it's rislngs until
| the resistance on the Eastern shores
! had been driven beyond the MISSISSIPPI,
afterwards to the Rockies, and thence
| to the Pacific Coast The white man
| barbarian foe was made weak, not
solely by his hatred Of the white in
| truder, but because of his equally
strong hatred of his fellow red man
| of a neighboring tribe. The details are
nearly all sad, with only an occasional
gleam of native gentleness and tof-
| bearance, as when Hudson explored
the river Of his own name, or When
| Penn tried the effect Of Christianity
unadulterated and unperverted, or
when the impulsive Pocahontas fol-
| lowed her heart-leadings and saved at
the risk of her own the life of one OF
| the intruders, or when the Jesutts
counted their lives as dross II they
could but serve their church and ITS
head by taking light and civilization,
as they understood it, into dark places.
These exceptional cases demonstrate
that there were ways of overcoming
barbarism by other means than the
| compact, and the overreaching bar
gain. But the better way was not
| chosen; the weaker was not lifted up,
but crushed; the stronger was not
magnanimous, but fierce; and the
worst elements among the intruders
went on a very pioneer work of dis
integration and destruction with their
diseases and their drinks. The more
| "a o66ar If seems,
vet it is done. and cannot be undone.
| Still if we bear in mind that ancestors
not only may leave heritage OF
| wealth, but also a heritage Of mis-
takes or unsolved problems, it is quite
| blind for our nations people to think
of all this past, regrettable and un-
| changeable past, as being without Us
share of responsibility for those o. US
who have come into the inheritance OF
a great national history and prospect.
Just as a child is not able by one
years study to come to a full knowl-
edge Of what to do or how to conduct
itself, thus with a nation. So, though
our best men came long ago to re-
alization that justice was due to the
Indian. and was best to be meted out
by placing him in huge reservation
remote from interference and free to
remain in savagery, yet 1t is now seen
that the method chosen was exactly the
one to lead to a continuance of the In
dian problem. According to the dlctum
| of one Of our great thinkers, mo queS-
ton is settled until it is settled right"
And we, therefore, still have RESPONSE
| bility in this day as insistent almost as
in the seventeenth century, to deal with
the Indian as we find him; and if gov
ernment records are to be trusted, our
treatment has in some cases been al
most as fatal. This leads, therefore, to
a brief reference to the Indian confer
ences Of the past and the attention they
have attracted to the pauperizing and
destructive effect Of the reservation and
free ration system Of the past and even
the present.
Beginning with 1888, by the generos-
ity Of A K. Smiley Of Redlands, Cal,
and of Lake Mohonk, n. z, earnest
men and women have gathered each
fall at the latter place to discuss, amid
the quiet and charm Of the beautiful
Shawangunk mountains the needs of
the survivors Of the great original pro-
prietors Of every foot Of American soil:
Each year for fifteen years species OF
manifesto has been issued from this
high) place of the earth, and, given pub
licity by the press, has served to arouse
not only the public, but legislators as
well, from a lethargy that was content
to regard the Indian as being fittingly
out of mind because out of sight on his
distant reservation. And while the
members Of the conference alone could
have done but little to change public
opinion, yet their united voice has had
that mysterious influence which is sc
characteristic of our American life
where a great truth may be apparently
preached for long without results, and
then suddenly overwhelm and overturn
all opposition because of the subtle
spread through the mass Of the national
conscience.
Summing up now the work of fifteen
years, and purposely barring out-be-
cause of space-all details interesting
though they might be, what is our pres
ent attitude toward the 100000 wards
of the nation that still survive?
Briefly it is: That the reservation
system, as at first organized with its
barrier like arrangement of rules stop
ping railroads, telegraphs, roads, etc,
was q definite setback to progress
that the refusal of land rights to the
individual Indian was the most certain
way to make his interest in the sol
under his feet of the very slightest
character; that the resulting and evil
IDENTIFY necessary issuance of rations
{xyN ,lx-c oy~y--