The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1899-01-19
I Is the United States Government
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Is the United States Government
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5% The treatment Of the Indians by the
government Of the United States and
by the people themselves has always
been a vexed question because it has al 81
ways been viewed from two entirely
different standpointsof the east and the
west. The Indian is usually regarded
i'll the east from the kindly if not the
sentimental poiat Of view, and in the
west from the practical point Of view.
Between the extremes the government ll
has always been censured on the one
side for its laxity in Furnishing the In
dians and on the other side for its dis.
honesty in dealing with !. them The
Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst in q Thanks ],
giving sermon recently made the some,
what rash statement that he would
rather be a Malay subject to Spain than
bo all American indian subject to the,
Indian bureau. This broad imputation
of systematic cruelty on the part Of the
government called forth a reply, from
Mr.. T. j. Morgan, former commissioner
of Indian affairs, in which he defends
the government with few facts, and
bis statements are interesting if % only
because they put briefly before us some
of the things that the government has
done and tried to do for the Indian,
which things are usually overlooked or
forgotten when the wrongs of the red
man are canvassed. In tho first place,
the government does not regard the In,
dams as subjects of taxation or revenue,
but as wards and whenever it has taken
their land il has paid them for it under
treaty stipulations, by far. the largest
expense of the Indian bureau being the
moneys thus paid. In addition to this,
the government has provided an, enor-
NOUS tract of productive land for them
in the shape of reservation, where it
has supplied them with: schools,
churches, agricultural implements and
teachers. Mr.. Morgan cites the case of
the Usage Indians, now on this reserva.
ton to the number Of 1900. There is
to their credit in the United States
treasury the sum of $4,000, 600, of
which the government pays them every
three months 500, 900, and Mr.. Nor
gan very pe1tinently asks if similar
example can be pointed out on the part
of Spain. The five tribes of Cherokees,
Greeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and
Seminoes have their own domains in
the Indian Territory, where they are
under protectorate of the United
States and are never interfered with
unless they disturb the peace of ada
cent communities. Finally the United
States government is maintaining
among the Indians of this country a
system of public boarding schools which
cost $4,000, 900 annually and in which
there are now enrolled $4,000 Indian
pupils who are fed, clothed, instructed,
nursed and protected at the expense Of
the government. :, .%..,.
Ii IS 80 easy ~ Auu Lteu4t W I'LL dA esSA~
ministration or a system and SO natural
to take the side of the Indian unless you
are living beyond the reach of the Unit
ed States troops that an occasional re.
minder of what the government is doing
is valuable. There have no doubt beer
awful mistakes and ineradicable wrongs
committed in our treatment Of the III,
dams, but, after all, it was owing'to thu
system which is fastened upon a popu
lar government, and we ought occasion
ally to remember that democracy ha
in the long run accomplished what ii
other people have ever attempted
namely, it has offered citizenship and
free chance to a conquered people in til
very civilization that has overcom
them. r,''' -