OCR Text |
Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AIRS. 17 directed that this policy be carried out, in those cases to which it is so peculiarly appropriate for the Indians and not inconvenient or ex-pensive for the government. As was anticipated, some complaints against the policy have been made, and some few tribes have been induced, through sinister influences, to hesitate, and even to refuse to accept money tendered to them, because the full annuity of the year was not offered. These complaints could probably he traced to un-principled individuals who hang around Indian payments in order to take advantage of the characteristic improvidence of the Indians, and fleece them of their money by means of gaming and drinking ; or in order to corrupt the leading men, and obtain money on fraudulent claims against the tribe. Some persons also, more honest, but still pecuniarily interested, have probably joined in these complaints and helped to sow distrust in the minds of the Indians. The successful establishment of the policy is intimately connected with the prosperity of the Indians, and indeed, in my judgment, quarter yearly payments would be even better than semi-annual ones. Opposition may be ex-pected from the influences referred to, and even from other quarters, but where the local agents act with energy and fidelity these must soon give way, and the practical effect of the policy will quickly com-mend it to the Indians, and it will be approved by them. From the organization of the government, it has been liberal in the expenditure of money to civilize the Indian and better his condition; and the benevolent and ~hilanthropicha ve appropriated of their means freely for his instruction in the principles of Christianity. Efforts have been constant and unremitting to reclaim him from a savage state, and to induce him to cultivate the soil and to embrace the arts of peace. But how could the Indian become a cultivator of the soil without a permanent and fixed home and habitation? While the government embraced every opportunity to purchase his home and remove him from his land, was it not in vain to enjoin on him to abandon his wandering life? How could he be expected to abandon his savage customs and habits and take up with the pursuits of a race whose approacb was only a notice to him tbat he must leave the graves of his family and friends, and surrender his home to the pale faces? His contact with the white race was, under qircumstances like these, calculated, it seems to me, to cause him to distrust the efforts of the government and the benevolent to reclaim him, and to confirm him in his savage babits and pursuits; and the policy of throwing him back into the wilderness beyond the outer circle of civilization, as the settlements approached him, while it excluded him from the benefits of the example and influence of the industrious pioneer and frontier man, did not protect him from another class, whose contact has been demoralizing and whose influence has always been exerted to confirm the Indian in his wild and savage habits. Without a fixed, permanent and settled home, in my opinion, all efforts to domesticate and cirilize the aboriginal race will, hereafter, as thcy have heretofore, prove of but little benefit or advantage. Many think tbat, with a11 the efforts and means that may be put into requisition, the extinction of the race cannot be prevented, that it must decay and waste away; and this view is strengthened by the 2 |