The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-08-15
END THE INDIAN TRUST.

Testimony in the Indian investigations has,
after some delay, reached the stage where the
principle of Governmental guardianship has
been reasserted. In the face of evidence tending
to show that the system so long in vogue has re-
suited chiefly in the slow dissipation of tribal
property, largely through fees paid to I'M
scrupulous attorneys in the more or less vain
hope of securing from the Government the exc
cution Of the trust which it has assumed in In
dian lands, it is now prophesed that if the long
standing obligation shall be ended, the Indians,
once in control Of their property, will speedily
become paupers. Their want of business sagacity
is pointed OUT Their shiftless habits insisted up
on; their credulity advanced as reason why
the Washington government should still continue
toward them the relation of guardian and ward.
True as it is that of the magnificent Indian
empire there is left ridiculously small part,
that of an inheritance of vast riches there re-
mains TO them but pittance, it ought to be re-
membered that these results have accrued from
the operation of the very guardianship which is
now insisted upon. The Indians have been
''robbedn Who robbed them Has not the pro-
cess by which they have been exploited and de-
nuded of their possessions hourished under this
very policy now invoked for their salvation Has
not the Indian race dwindled to handful of
beggars who ought to be testui qua trustent Of
millions under exactly the paternaistic spirit
now vaunteds Have the agents of the guardian
not been the robbers-in-chiefl Has not the trust
been exercised with criminal laxnessl And is
there any reason to suppose that the beggary
which is feared from the final execution of the
trust will be anything except delayed for a shorter
or longer time by a continuation Of what has
proved wasteful system?
If one thing is better established with refer
cnce to human nature than another, it is that the
power of self-presevation is not possible in con-
junction with protective policy. Initiative is
smothered and enterprise prevented by denial
of sef-dependence. The rich mans son who
makes success scarcely ever shows the stuff
that is in him until his father is dead The
child in leading strings never realizes himself
until they are withdrawn. In the individual or
the race that looks to stronger power for sup
port there is ever want of power. If there be
hope Of the Indians, therefore, does it not lie
in turning them loose, in throwing them upon
their own resources, in applying in their the
belated benefit which happier races have always
had of looking to necessity the spur to effort
A century and half of guardianship has only
served to make them weak, to vitiate their char
acter to despoil them of their natural wealth.
r. it not time, when the remnant cries ont for
the opportunity to seize an escaping civilization,
to give them the chance so long denied
In the face of the descendants of the three mil
lion slaves which moral issue turned out
pennless and Ignorant to take their places in
competition with a race endowed with riches and
the long custom of independence, is it not
fa,uous policy on the part of this Government
longer to stife and pervert the destiny of race
so much more noble, intelligent and potential
as the Indians whom long years of guardian
ship have served, not only to impoverish, but to
Drug