It is therefore suggested and earnestly recommended that a system which has heretofore proved to be eminently practicable should in the next emergency receive at least a fair trial. As the government has in its employ men who by long and faithful service have established reputations for integrity, character and ability which cannot be disputed; men who have commanded armies, reconstructed States, controlled hundreds of millions of public property, and who during years of experience on the frontier have opened the way for civilization and Christianity, it is believed that the services of these officials, in efforts to prevent war and elevate the Indian race, would be quite as judicious as their employment when inexperience and mismanagement have culminated in hostilities. Allowing the civilized and semi-civilized Indians to remain under the same supervision as at present, the President of the United States should have power to place at any time the wild and nomadic tribes under the control of the War Department. Officers of known character, integrity and experience, who would govern them and be interested in improving their condition, should be placed in charge of the different tribes. One difficulty has been that they have been managed by officials too far away, and who knew nothing of the men they were dealing with. The Indians, as far as possible, should be, as they now mostly are, localized on the public domain, in sections of country to which they are by nature adapted. The forcing of strong, hardy, mountain Indians from the extreme North to the warmer malarial districts of the South was cruel, and the experiment should never be repeated. Every effort should be made to locate the Indians by families, for the ties of relationship among them are much stronger than is generally supposed. By this means the Indians will become independent of their tribal relations, and will not be found congregated in the large and unsightly camps that are now usually met with about their agencies. All supplies, annuities and disbursements of money should be made under the same system of accountability that now regulates army disbursements. The officers in charge should have sufficient force to preserve order, patrol reservations, prevent intrusions, recover stolen property, arrest the lawless and those who take refuge in Indian camps to shield themselves from punishment for crime or with the object of enabling them to live without labor, and to keep the Indians upon their reservations and within the limits of their treaties. The officer in charge would be enabled to control or prevent the sale of ammunition, as well as to suppress the sale of intoxicating liquors among the Indians. Many thousands of the Indian ponies, useful only for the war or the chase, should be sold and the proceeds used in the purchase of domestic stock. A large percentage of the annual appropriations should be employed in the purchase of cattle and other domestic animals; the Indians desire them, and their reservations even now support many thousands of them. They have already replaced the buffalo, and must finally replace the elk, the deer and the antelope. From a nomadic pastoral people the Indians should be induced to become agriculturists and taught the use of machinery as a means of obtaining food. The step from the first grade to the second would be easily accomplished, provided the Indians were directed by a firm hand. As they accumulate property and learn industry there have already been shown strong incentives to their remaining at peace, namely: occupation, the fear of confiscation of property, and the loss of the comforts of life. Two more important measures of improvement are also needed, and should be authorized by Congress. In all communities there will be found disturbing elements, and to meet this difficulty, courts of justice should be instituted. Frequently outbreaks and depredations are prompted by a few mischievous characters, which could easily be checked by a proper government. This is one secret of success with the Canadian system; where disturbances occur, the guilty suffer, and not whole tribes, including innocent women and children. As a remark from Sitting Bull has been quoted, we will now repeat the words of Joseph, who said that "the greatest want of the Indian is a system of law by which controversies between Indians and white men can be settled without appealing to physical force." He says also that "the want of law is the great source of disorder among Indians. They understand the operation of laws, and, if there were any statutes, the Indians would be perfectly content to place themselves in the hands of a proper tribunal, and would not take the righting of their wrongs into their own hands, or retaliate, as they do now, without the law." Do we need a savage to inform us of the necessity that has existed for a century? As these people become a part of our population, they should have some tribunal where they could obtain protection in their rights of person and property. A dispute as to the rights of property between an Indian and a white man before a white jury might not be decided in exact accordance with justice in some localities. Fortunately our Constitution provides that “the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as Congress may from time to 1. Spotted Tail, Sioux Chief, Rosebud Agency, Dakota. 9. White Man, Apache Chief, Indian Territory. Dakota. 4. Red Shirt, Sioux Chief, Pine Ridge Agency, Dakota. 10. Stumbling Bear, Kiowa Chief, Indian Territory. time ordain and establish;" and it is believed that Congress has power, at least in the Territories, to give such jurisdiction either to the military courts, or the Territorial courts, or both, as will secure justice to the Indians in all disputes arising between the Indians and the white men. That warriors may be made to care for their flocks and herds has been demonstrated, and the industry of the Indians that is now wasted may be still further diverted to peaceful and useful pursuits; yet the great work of reformation must be mainly through the youth of the different tribes. The hope of every race is in the rising generation. This important work seems now to have enlisted the sympathy and support of all philanthropic and Christian people. As we are under obligation to support the tribes until they become self-sustaining, it is undoubtedly advisable to support as many as possible of the children of the Indians at places where they would be the least expensive to the government, and where they would be under the best influence. The children must not be exposed to the degrading influence of camp life, and the constant moving of the tribes destroys the best efforts of instructors. The children that are taught the English language, habits of industry, the benefits of civilization, the power of the white race, after a few years, return to their people with some education, with more intelligence, and with their ideas of life entirely changed for the better. They naturally in turn become the educators of their own people, and their influence for good cannot be estimated. Finally, the Indians, as they become civilized and educated, as they acquire property and pay taxes toward the support of the government, should have the same rights of citizenship that all other men enjoy. The President of the United States should have power to transfer from the War Department to the Interior Department any tribe that shall become so far civilized and peaceable in its disposition as to render it unnecessary to keep its members longer under the control of the military power. Whenever an emergency arises which has not been foreseen and provided for by Congress, such as failure or destruction of their crops, the President should have power, on the recommendation of the officer in charge or the governors of the different Territories in which the Indians are living, to order the necessary supplies, as has been done in several instances to white people, in order to prevent great suffering or a serious disturbance of the peace; such supplies to be limited to the smallest necessity, and only until such time as Congress could take action on the matter. A race of savages cannot by any human ingenuity be civilized and Christianized within a few years of time, neither will 250,000 people with their descendants be entirely exterminated in the next fifty years. The white man and the Indian should be taught to live side by side, each respecting the rights of the other, and both living under wholesome laws, enforced by ample authority and with exact justice. Such a government would be most gratifying and beneficial to the Indians, while those men who have invested their capital, and with wonderful enterprise are developing the unparalleled and inexhaustible wealth that for ages has lain dormant in the western mountains; those people who have left the overcrowded centers of the East, and whose humble homes are now dotting the plains and valleys of the far West, as well as those men who are annually called upon to endure greater exposure and suffering than is required by the troops of any other nation on the globe, would hail with great satisfaction any system that would secure a substantial and lasting peace. |