OCR Text |
Show EXTRACT. 5 worth. But this is not the only evil resulting from it. When a treaty is made, a large array of debts is presented, and provision usually made in the treaty for their payment. Witnesses are pro-duced who establish the debts by evidence, which cannot be contra-dicted by any available proof, sufficient to absorb most of the proceeds of their lands. They are left to depend upon their annuities from the government for subsistence, and these find their way into the hands of the traders, while the Indians receive from them goods at a profit of from one to three or four hundred per cent. It is apparent to all acquainted with Indians, that they are incom-petent to manage their own business, or to protect their rights in their intercourse with the white race. It is the duty of the gov-ernment to shield them from the arts of designing men, and to see that they realize the full benefit of the annuities to which they are entitled. This can only be accomplished by breaking up the whole system of Indian trading. The power granted to agents to license persons to trade with the Indians should be revoked. A11 contracts made with them, and all obligations for goods or other property sold to them, should be declared utterly void. All future treaties should provide for the payment of their annuities in goods and agricultural implements, at the lowest prices at which they can be procured by the government. The department should be authorized to procure the consent of the tribes, with which treaties exist providing for the payment of cash annuitie6, that it shall furnish them with such goods and agricultural implements as their wants require, at the wholesale prices of such articles in the best markets, in lieu of the cash annui-ties provided for in the treaties. By such a change the Indians would avoid the payment of profits which are now paid to the traders, and would realize a much larger amount in goods for their annuities than they now receive. |