The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-03-13
NEGROES AMI. INDIANS.
sA,Coloradoan Discusses the Efforts OF.
The Government to Help Them.

WCahUE0fANDslt Dlhls0 -
sA,C oloradoan Discusses: the Efforts of
The Government to Help Them.
Editor of The Times:
for several months past in #readlns tne
letters from your Denver #corresponde1lt.#
They have given your readers a true ac-s
count of the great West. Too much can
not be said of Colorado. If there We're.
no mines to make men rich, if there was
no grass ito feed the cattle upon the
hills and plains, IL there was no fertility
in the soil, II there was no beauty in
the sky nor scene Of grandeur IN the
mountains and gorges of Colorado, there
would still be an attraction sufficient to
make a winters sojourn desirable. do
not wish to .detract from your CORE
spondents glowing descrip ton OF the in
Vulnerable resources, untold possibilities,
and environed beauties of thss health
restoring, wealtn-yielding region; neither
3hts pen nor mine can do 1T justice.
Neither do wish to "call him down on
single topic on which his letters have;
treated, nor by word or hint differ with
him in his well-chosen words, expressions
and criticisms. not even quarrel with
him on the niger question. " In his
views or tho ..nigger'' ] grant him
great big slice of allowance. His early
training and environments com pared
with mine, were as dGssimiIar as the
teaching of Buddha from that of Atohaln-
med. He has seen more OF the negroes
than l, knows more about their shiftlesS-
ness and depravity and lack of enterprise
and thrifty habits, is a better judge of.
what they are by ma ture. His conclu-
sionS are drawn from a point of view of
them as mass. w1lile 1 of the North,
having never been in a. Southern o.. for
merly slave State, can only Judge of them
from the wandering few that drift UP this
way It is true 1 have sat a the same
table with a Niger, but.I was suffering
from bolimia- I have sat by their side
IN a street-car but l was too weary to
walk. l, however, agree with him in
many things, not the least of which is
that "a Eigger is q niger and nothing
else. There may be some with brighter
minds than others some more suscepti-
BILE to being taught and much more apt
in learning, but experience has already
taught the people of tine North that the
negroes as a race are not inclined to be
provident or lift themselves above their
daily needs. My own conclusions of the
negroes are drawn largely from what I
have seen of the North American Indians,
on whom the United States Government
has squandered millions of money in an
effort to civilize and humanize. allotted
land to them, sent them agricultural i'm
PIGMENTS to till the soil, and all useful
and improved methods for them to be-
come self-sustaining. and thus gradually
change from an Indian to a civilized citi-
zen; even put muskets in their hands
and furnished ammunition by the car
load; established schools for the educa-
ton of their children, who. even with
said education, very often, many of them,
return to their savage anceSt tors, and in
many cases assert their natural savage
instincts. "An Indian is an Indian and
nothing else" They soon drop their
pillow, the reaper and the rake and HE
to the hunting grounds, but they never
drop the 1nusket; they hold on to that,
and too frequently use it for shooting
down their benefactors. The only good
Indian is dead Indian They will re-
main Indians forever.
CdviMza ton has driven them westward
until now they are on the brink A few
tribes are left, but disease, death and
occasional war are decimating their
ranks, and the places which once knew
them and the few places which now
know them will soon know them no more
forever. But the negro. like the tradi-
tional poor, rye have with you always"
There seems to be no decimating their
ranks or crowding them from their native
heaths In mankind the savage tribes
do not advance. The Indians of this
country have not learned TIE white mans
work. The Indian is gloomy and dis
tressed when urged to depart from his
habits and traditions. He is overpowered
by the gaze of the white. and his eye
sinks. The pioneers of Colorado can
relate many thrilling adventures with
the savage, blood thirsty people, and the
scalps of many white men, the cause Of
whose disappearance from earth was
never known, and the story of their
hardships never told, have dangled from
the belt of many a chief. The story of
the brave Custer and of the massacre al
the lava beds in Wyoming was never
half told The murder of the A1eeker
family has gone down to history with
but meagre account of its reality.
Could one-quarter of the outrages and
murders perpetrated by these hostile foes.
and slayers of white men be told and
fully realized the misplaced and misap-
piled sympathy so freely extended them
would sink into insisnificance, and the
add and succor of q masnanimous gov
eminent appear only in the light of a
price and premium for murder.
The raids which these savage tribes in
former days made upon settlers. destroy.
ing their homes, pilferEng their goods
killing their cattle, and devastating every
y
the slow and red-ta1oe process by which
the government makes reparation and
restitution. A case in point well known.
to me illustrates the facts and founda-
ton of such a statement. In 1S72-'7S this
section eff the country was frequented
by occasional raids by the warlike tribes
who pounced down upon the settlers
without warning or favor. and in the
case referred to destroyed a small herd
of cattle belonging to a peaceful herds
man, and other like thefts and depreda-s
tons We're committed supported by the
muskets and other means furnished by
the government to help (?) the poor
Indian The herdsman ar once put in a
claim to the United States government
for damages, basing tie same upon his
actual loss, amounting ITO about $500.
This claim was pending in the depart
ment and tossed about from pillar to
post, like thousands of others. until the
year 1sa1-twenty years-when Congress
finally awarded S1,175.
The giaring inconsistency and result of
treatment with these hostile tribes is a
9S