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Show 73 My experience with Indians in this Teritory has satisfied me that by judicious management no trouble will be • had in maintaining with them the most peaceful relations. I have never been among any people who appreciate more highly any exhibition of kindness and good will. I have known no instance of difficulty between them and the whites in which the Indians were the aggressors. They realize fully the power of the government, and would at all times greatly prefer to remain at peace. -In this, as in the other newer Territories, are numerous reckless and unprincipled adventurers, who, for purposes of traffic, will sometimes give the Indians whiskey, or will sometimes shoot an Indian from sheer wantonness, and thus cause the lives of innocent whites to be taken in retaliation for their acts. Fewer occurrences of this nature, however, transpire here than in any other Territory, owing to the fact that the people of this Territory are almost entirely engaged in agricultural pursuits. The almost entire tranquillity can be preserved with kindness and liberality. A bale of blankets or a sack of flour will accomplish more in accordance with the spirit of our institutions and our professions of Christianity and civilization as a people to treat these poor and ignorant wards of the nation with a spirit of enlightened charity, than to put in practice the doctrine of military surveillance and extermination, which is worthy of the darkest ages of the race. Within a comparatively short period, with proper management, the Indians of this Territory can be made nearly self-supporting, and may look forward to a future of peace, comfort, and tranquillity, in entire subordination to law. I should be doing injustice to my own feelings did I fail to merition in this report the cordial cooperation I have at_all times experienced from all the principal Mormons throughout the Territory. In the executing of my official duties I have been obliged often to ask their assistance and cooperation, and in no instance have I failed to receive the most cheerful and hearty aid.4 The above was Head's expression of his personal experience. He and the Mormons had the same end in min'd,i. e. , the removal of the *Ibid. |