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Show These miserable wanderers after rest in their new reservations, which are always assured to them a d t heir cl~ildrenf~ t?uei"b y our government in the treaty; meet with a fearful drawback' upon their prospects at everv remove. Bevond the tide of emirnation. and hanninn like the fr0t.h ~ ~" of the bil1ou.s upol;its veryedg~i,s ge6vrally k host of ~ ~ w ~ d ~ ~ f j . i u ~ n h i t e men. \\.l~oin trod~lrea mong the Indiana evcry form of dcnior:~lizationa ~td d-is~eh.-se. .w~-i~th ~ w.hi-ch de~$ved humanitv in-its most demadinc forms is ~ ever afflicted. These &e by far the moit n ume r o ~ s e x a ~ ~tfl ecsiv iliza-tion, except the military, these creatures ever seei and just when better people begin to appear in the advance of emigration around and among them, away they are required to move again. It is no wonder that the philosophic chief of the Arapahoes, Little Raven, laughed heartily in my face when, having told himsomething of hell and heaven, I remarked t,hat all good men, white and red,,xould go to heaven, and all bad ones to hell. Inquiring the cause of h ~ms e rriment, when he had recorered his brcath, he said, "I was much pleased with what you say of heave.11 and hell and the characters that will go to each after death; it's a good notion-heap good-for if all the whites are like the ones I know, when Indian gets to heaven but few whites will trouble him there-pretty much all go to t'other place." Thus while we have been puzzling our brains to find a solution of the ~roblemof Indian civilization and chris-tianization, the fact of their cipability for both and of the manner of achieving both is demonstrated to us so clearly that there is no possi-bility of being deceived. - What, then, is our duty as the guardian of all the Indians under our jurisdiction 9 To outlaw, to pursue, to hunt down like wolves, and slay? Must we drive and exterminate them as if void of rea,son, and without souls 1 Surely, no. It is beyond question our most solemn duty to protect and care for,\to elevate and civilize them. We have taken their heritage, and it is a grand and magnifice~iht eritage. Now is it too much that we carve for them liberal reservations out of their own lands and guarantee them homes forever '3 Is it too much that we supply them with agricultural implements, mechanica,l tools, domestic animals,, instructors in the use-ful arts, teachers, physicians, and Christian m~ssionarieBs If we find them fierce, hostile and revengeful; if they are cruel, and if they some-times turn upon us and burn, pillage,and desolate our frontiers, and per-petrate atrocities that sicken the soul and paralyze us with horror. let nus remember that two hundred and fifty years of injustice, oppression and wrong, heaped upon them by our race with cold, calculating and relent-less perseverance, have filled them with the passion~of revenge, and made them desperate. It remains for us. if we would not hold theirlands with theirblighting cnrse, aud the curs;. of n just God, \vhu hulda nntir,nsto n strict &ou~~i: ahility llpon it, to (10 josticr, :lnrl nlorc t l~i i l l j~~~ttoi ethee, r1?111n:1n;1 to l~ideo ur pnst inillstice under the mantlr* 01' pl.mcut ;ul(l Ilrt~~mree rcy. and to bl6t out t"he.ir remembrance of wrongs &d oppressions by deeds of God-like love and benevolence. That they can be elevat.ed and enlightened to the proud stature of civ-ilized manhood is demonstrated. We know the process b j which this result ia accomplished. Our duty isplain ; let us enter upon its discharge without delay; end the war policy; create anew department of Indian affairs; give it a competent head; clothe him with adequate powcrs for the performance of all his duties, defme those duties clearly, and hold him to a strict accountability. I trust that Congress, at its next session,will make liberd provision for |
