Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1904-11-25

OUR NEW INDIAN POLICY.
Llvlng-the Passing Of the Reservation
and the Agency Store.

HOW TO support the ln0lan mas Deen q
troublesome problem for the government
ever since It changed its policy toward
the red man from war to peace. 1t made
the mistake of passing at a single bound
from one extreme to the other. In its
zeal to prove The sincerity of its repent
ance, 1t beat the sword into a pap-spoon
instead of stopping halfway vita
ploughshare. Now It is compelled to take
the backward track and in the name of
humanity is trying to lift the disarmed
Indian from the cradle where II has been
cpnfining him for quarter of a century,
set him on his feet and teach him to
walk alone.
The so-called new policy" has so much
common sense underlying IL that the only
wonder is that Ii Is not already an old
policy. But the question when 1t ought
to have been begun is academic the
practical question is, how to get the
machinery of the reformed system into
good running order. The idea is to give
the Indian. not food, but the means of
obtaining food by paying the price for It.
To this end n year or two ago, orders
were issued at Washington to notify the
younger and able-boded members of the
several tribes that the issue of rations
would be suspended after certain date,
and that they must prepare for the
change. At the same time, all practical
means were studied for providing work
for those Indians who wished a chance
to earn something. If the Indian had any
knowledge of agricultural or stock-rais-
ing, he was encouraged to turn it to ac-
count; If he had not. the government
sought to devise some form of bread
winning labor that he could pursue
Now and then the method employed
was crude as that described in the old
story of the oeggar who was directed to
spend his whole morning carrying pile
of bricks from one spot in mis- patrons
garden to another. and his whole after
noon carrying them back again.
But more rational scheme was grad
ually evolved when II was discovered
that a people reared to war or the chase
could not be turned into farmers or lab
orers overnight. The authorities OF the
Indian establishment perceived that they
must reckon for a good many years to
come with the question of giving their
wards something to do. So they looked
about for possible improvements, which
would not ordinarily have been considered
necessaries, yet which would dis
tinctly benefit the Indian to have at
command. An irrigating ditch here a
better highway to market there q fence
to enclose tribal cattle-pasture in an
other place were started with Indian
LABOR under white supervision. Those
Indians who had not facilities for rails
ing crops or lacked the wnerewithal to
procure livestock, could get job at day
wages by applying for It. provided they
did SO before the rolls were full: their
compensation came, as a rule. out OF the
funds, or the interest on the funds held
in trust for them by the government so
that the process suggested taking money
from one pocket to put into the other.
But the trust funds were by law designed
to promote their education and civiliza-
ton. and to spend their income upon
labor which would at cnce fiji their stom-
achs. train their hands and strengthen
their LIN
number OF birds with one stone.
Still, all this was providing only for
the hle-oodied class, young enough to do
something Tor their own maintenance
The older generation, whom II was hope
less to try to bring into relations with
their changed environment must be
cared for as long as they lived. They
We're too feeble to labor. too old to be
taught. They belonged. moreover to the
historic stratum which had resisted the
governments cncroachment upon the
open hunting grounds of the West, and
had laid down their arms with an implied
understanding that their conquerors
would provide for them virtually as for
prisoners of war The government has
continued to recognize this obligation. on
the theory that the old people cannot last
very much longer any way, and that
their treatment as objects of charity will
establish no embarrassing precedent
But behold the result If the Indian has
one trait more firmly seated In his nature
than another, 1t is generosity in material
things. He Will give away the last object
he owns to any friend who asks him; and
accordingly, now that the bulk of the In
dams receive no gratuities from the gov
ernment, no sooner does an aged red man
draw his periodical issue of rations than
he is surrounded by all the loafers in
the reservation, and before ne can reach
home with his prize. they will have
c rtT hft.aE Of I.
which the authorities appear po%Herless to
abate unless the system is radically
changed. Orders issued against the
spendshrift practice are so much wasted
ammunition; the spongers ignore them.
or course, and the victims are too good
natured to refuse an appeal. As a con-
sequence, this doubly harmful eXtray-
agance bids fair to be indefinitely contin-
ued, and the aged and nfrm people
whom the government desires to SUNNY
some comforts may have their end hast
ened by hunger in spite of benevolent
intentions.
Only one practicable solution of the
difficulty has been proposed thus far.
That is, the foundation by the govern
ment OF a central soup-kitchen or free
eating house in every area inhabited by
a considerable number of old and feeble
Indians. around which they can camp
and where they can be fed twice or three
times a day, on presentation of a ticket
being allowed to carry nothing away
This would insure their protection from
the harpies. The soup-kitchen could
moreover, In cases of extreme emergency
ike a sudden crop blight or an epidemic
| or disabling disease, be used for dspen-
sing little temporary relief 10 the sound
| and youthful members of n tribe who
would otherwise be forced to fast through
| no fault of their own. From any point
or view the free-meal dspensary system
would be only makeshift of a few years
| duration; for as soon as the now decrepit
generation passes away there would be
no more use for anything of the sort
with such an addition to the equip
ment of the Indian establishment we
should see the new policy" in full blast
ana Its effects upon the reservation In
dlans at large could be philosophcally
studied. AS matters look now, its re-
suits Will amply justify its adoption. 1t
| VIII be a blessed day for the red race and
| for the whole country when the last YES
tige of the reservation system disappears.
put meanwhile the new policy will afford
bridge from the conditions of the last
20 years to those of independent Indian
citizenship and lf-support.-[New York
| Evening Post.
Charles Vincilette, 8, found a dynamite
cartridge at Swanton and attempted 10
warm 1t over stove. 1t exploded and his
| thumb and "a 6nqar tuaro to,n