Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-08-05
Our Treatment OF the Indians.


emphasis in the affirmative. This
country has been bitterly reviled at
home and abroad for it's treatment of
the Indian problem. both in the days
of our grandfathcrs and at the pres
ent time. A distinguished Boston
clergyman declared from his pulpit.
Malay subject to Spain than an
American Indian subject to the United
| States" The "anti-imperialists" have
started a malicious chatter of this
kind, in an attempt to show that this
country is not able to deal with the
problem presented by our millions of
new subjects in the Pacific.
In the face Of these conditions it is
| well to know the exact truth, and out
of the fund of his great knowledge ex-
| Senator Henry l.. Dawes in the Au-
gust Atlantic Monthly answers a most
emphatic negative to the question
Have We Failed With the Indians ."
The Boston Journal discusses this
paper. and presents its statistics and
conclusions in convenient form. Mr.
Dawes explains that the Indian policy
of the United States as we now know
it is not an old policy. 1t was initiated
only about % years ago. 1t is, as the
ex-senator graphically says. still in the
green wood of its existence. That
policy was forced upon Is by the fact
-tiatly contrary to a popular supersti
! ton but a fact hard and undeniable-
! that the American Indians are not be
ing ''eNterminated." but are steadily
increasing in numbers-and they are,
| perhaps, the only important race of
aborigines in close contact with the
| white race of which this can be said.
This is our present Indian policy as
Mr.. Dawes defines it:
"Inasmuch as the Indian refused to
| fade out. but multiplied under the
| Sheltering care of reservation life. AMI
| the reservation itself was slipping
| ternative-either he must be endured
as a lawless savage, a constant men
| ace to civilized life. or he must be-
fitted To become a part of that life and
to be absorbed in it. To permit him to
| be rowing savage was uncomfortable.
! and therefore the task of fitting him
| for civilized life was undertaken
1t was only in 1877 that the first for
NAL step was taken in this new de
parture by the appropriation of $50. 600.
| The next year this grant to the ma
tons wards was increased to 100000,
the next to 100000. as the work grew
and prospered. then to $4,000, and
| finally to the very much more ade-
quate sum of $2,63S,390. the appropria
ton for 1899 Since 1877 the national
| disbursements for the benefit of the
Indians have aggregated almost thirty
millions. There are now about 100000
Indians in the United States. nearly as
many, probably, as when the white
men first landed on the continent. and
many more than there were within
our borders 50 or 40 or 20 years ago.
This government of ours. which is
so often and so vociferously accused
of having failed with the Indian,
now has $4,000 Indian children at
school. Seventy-six per cent. of the
graduates of these schools are vouched
for by the officials who have educated
them and watched their subsequent
conduct, as good, average men and
women, capable of dealing with the
ordinary problems of life and of taking
their place in the great body polite
of our country" BY the terms Of the
Indian Severalty Act every Indian
| head of a family is given a homestead
| of 100 acres of land, if he chooses to
| take it. either on the reservation of his
tribe or on the public domain else
where-this homestead to be inalien
able and untaxable for % years. I'm
der this generous and enlightened
statute, 50, 461 individual Indians, have
secured in all 6,7QS,62S acres. of this
great area, 1,066, 36S acres have already
been fenced in. and these, Indian farms
have produced in hay, vegetables.
| stock. grain. etc, not only, what their
owners have consumed but surplus
valued at s1,220.517. Hand in hand
with the civilizing has .prQceeded the
Christianizing of these onceintract-
able people. Eight. THOUSAND of the
$4,000 Sioux are church members. The
Presbyterians alone in various, parts
of the country have. 5000 Indians in
their churches and 1000 in their Sunday
schools. The total number of regular
church communicates among the, In
dams is 2S.351.
OF course there have been mistakes;
there are shortcomings; the results are
still far from complete, the methods
far from perfect. From time to time
there are instances Of wrong dealing,
like that which provoked the. Chippe-
wa outbreak of a few. months ago.