Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-06-01
PASSING OF THE INDIAN.

PASSING OF THE INDIAN.
an Indian uprising was ended with
the surrender of the great Sioux
Chieftains, and the Sioux were plac-
ed upon reservation at Standing
Rock, whence they went upon mis-
sion of warfare that cost a good
many brave lives. At that time the
Sioux tribe numbered a good many
noteworthy braves, including Gall, the
warrior, and Sitting Bull, the medi-
of the most conspicuous figures in
the uprising that had as a tragic out
come the massacre of Custer and the
gallant soldiers of the Seventh caval-
ry. At that time, there was a real
frontier. The Northern Pacific road
had been built through this section
only few years before. The Stand
ing Rock reservation was a good
many miles from railroads, either
then existing or prospective. The
Sioux tribe was a formidable fighting
force, and its hunting and fighting
ground had been all along the Mis-
souri, river, and in both the present
states Of North Dakota and South
Dakota. The passing of the Indian,
as tribesman, is In a measure pro-
phetic, but is inevitable. It is in
.evitable that in this day and age
the white man and civilization shall
have the mastery. The white man
came into the Indian land and con-
equered it, because the blood that was
In him has always demanded adven-
ture, conquest, development and
&Erowta of. civilized customs. In the
third Of century that has passed
since the last really great uprising
Of the Sioux tribe, there have been
marked changes. A new empire has
been developed, two new states have
been created out Of the old hunting
grounds of the Indian, lines Of rail-
road thread the territory where a
comparatively few years ago the bis
on roamed, and travel was by stage
coach. Even the reservation lands
Of the Indians are to be crossed by
two lines of road, and the lands
will be opened to settlement and
cultivation. The Indians have be-
come small and almost pathetic:
band, in the progress of civilization,
and who can say how long before
an Indian Of the historic kind will
be rarity as great as the bison.
whose comrade Of the prairies he
was and whom he is destined to fol,
low, as tribesman if not as an in
diyidual. O." ~ '''. - =
The government, however, has en-
deavored< to TT the Indian for the in.
eyitable change. Schools have been
provided for the children, and efforts
have been made to lead the older
Indians into the ways of agriculture
and thrift. As an adjunct of civil
zation, the old Indian is a good deal
Of child. His life, his aspirations
his manner of 1iving-al1 were en-
ttrely different from what it has been
sought to instil into him. He was
used to life in the open, to hunting
for his game, to a nomadic existence.
free Of the cares and conventiona1i-
ties Of civilized life. And even the
younger Indian is a victim to some
extent Of the changed condition, and
is an easy victim of tuberculosis.
It is all a very interestfnr study in
tie survival Of the nttest--an exam
pie Of the Interchangeable natural law:
that those who are stronE and, alea
ma progressive in theways l the,s
iake fort breadth and grow ph,1t
saevive and that ths eker Gle
msnts shall be destpttsy1ssd z ~