Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1898-10-19
their church and its head by taking light
and civilization, as they understood 1t,
into dark places.

into dark places.
These exceptional cases demonstrate
that there were ways of overcoming bar
barism by other means than the sword
and the gun, the treacherous compact, and
the overreaching bargain But the bet
ter way was not chosen; the weaker was
not lifted up, but crushed; the stronger
was not magnanimous, but fierce; and the
worse elements among the intruders went
on a very pioneer work of disintegration
and destruction with their diseases and
their drinks.
The more one thinks upon it the sadder
it seems, yet it is done and cannot be I'M
done Still, II we bear in mind that an
cestors not only may leave heritage lof
wealth, but also heritage OF mistakes or
unsolved problems, it is quite blind for
our nations people to think OF all this
past, regrettable and interchangeable past,
as being without its share Of responsibility
for those Of us who have come into the in
heritance of a great national history and
prospect.
Just as child is not able by one years
study to come to full knowledge Of what
to do or how to conduct itself, thus with
a nation. So, though our best men came
long ago to a realization that justice was
due to the Indian, and was best to be
melted out by placing him in a huge res
ervation remote from interference and
free to remain in savagery, yet 1t is
now seen that the method chosen was ex
actly the one to lead to a continuance of
the Indian problem. According to the
dictum of one OF our great thinkers, "no
question is settled until it is settled
right" And we therefore still have re-
sponsibility in this day. as insistent al
most as in the 18th century, to deal with
the Indian as we find him; and II govern
ment records are to be trusted our treat
ment has, in some cases, been almost fatal
This leads, therefore, to a brief reference
to the Indian conferences 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 generosity
of A. X. Smiley, Of Redlands, Cal, and of
Lake Mohonk, N. Y, earnest men and
women have gathered each fall at the lat
ter place to discuss, amid the quiet and
charm of the beautiful Shawangunk
mountains, the needs of the survivors of
the great original proprietors Of every foot
of American soil.
Each year for fifteen years a species of
manifesto has been issued from this high
6 ! ., i.;f
the press, has served to arouse not only
the public, but legislators as well from
lethafgy that was content to regard the
Indian as being tttingly out of mind be-
cause out of sight on his distant reserva-
ton. And while the members of the con-
ference alone could have done but little to
change public opinion, yet their united
voice mas had mysterious influence which
is so characteristic of our American life,
where 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 national conscience.
Summing up now the work OF fifteen
years, and purposely barring out because
Of space-all details, interesting though
they may be, what is our present attitude
towards the 100000 wards of the nation
that still survive?
Briefly it is: That the reservation sys-
tenn, as at first organized with its barrier
like arrangement of rules stopping rail-
roads, telegraphs, roads, etc was defin-
lite set back to progress; that the refusal
of land rights to the individual Indian
was the most certain way to make his in
terest in the soil under his feet of the very
slightest character; that the resulting and
evidently necessary assurance Of rations
(some as matter Of treaty. only served
to make the Indian lazy and shiftless and
therefore still less desira BILE as an integral
part of this great, eager, pushing, toiling
na ton.
As deductions from the foregoing, a few
broad lines have been laid down for us to
follow; That the Indian must own his
land that he must have it in trust by the
government for twenty-five years at least,
80 that sharpers may not deprive him of