OCR Text |
Show Snch is the pnre dogmatizing, for it is nothing else, on this subject by me11 ~rliosel~ iilitaryc onflicts n-ith India~lsh ave given a mordant to their ideas. They have had little or no experience in dealiug mitli Indians with books, Bibles, i~~struotiosny,m pat,hy, and e~~conwgementS. uch men know l~t t l eo f efforts to amalien the better wscegtibilities, to inspire ambition rut1 hope, and to steady the totteriug feet ill paths of virtue, iudnstry, and higher living. Smords, bayo~~etbsu,l lets, and oan-non balls constitute the chief military curric~~luomf I ndia11e ducation. As to iuuate uuconquerable savagery and bloodthirstil~esst,h e allega-tion is now currently withdrawn from most of the Indian tribes, as tribes, and apl~liedo uly to portions of tribes-the renegades, who hold the same relation to their tribes as white desperrtdoes do to the white \ pol~ulatiou. Where is the 111dia.n tribe that can vow be spoken of as a ferociously savage tribe? Carl one be found in California? No. In ! Oregou'b No. In Wa s l~in~tonN?o . I n Nevada? No. In Mol~tana? No; unless me except the Clreyennes at Tongue River Reservation. Shall I pursue the i~~q u i r yG? rant that there is riome wildness among a portion of the Sious, the Bannacks, the Coma~~cl~these, C heyennes, tbe Utes, the Savajoes; how easy to parallel such cases ill the large cities of Chicago, Pittsbnrg, New York, etc., a.nd even ill places outside the cities. The n111nber of the trouhlesorne Indians. di~~linishersa pidly every year, and is now oouuted by tens where uot long ago it was thousands. Looking to Ariaona, ~rhered o me find savage?? eexept among the Apaches; a11il among tl~eln the desperadoes are less than oue or two score, even by the co~~fessioouf the ulilitary autl~orities. How came the Apaches to acquire this evil eminence? How far baoli may it be tmced? nave t11e~-alvaybse e11s o? In the earlier tirnev all theIndian tribes, indeed, weremore or less at war mitl~e ach otiher, and hence tllcir depletion. The Apaches also marred nn~oh with the early Slmniards in retaliation for n-rongs endured, as mas trnc of o;;hcr tribes elsewhere under griernuces with white neighbors. Nevertl1,eless the element of savagery 11ns been constantly din~inishing,a nd ndlitary restraint has been steadily removed year by yeas. A score of forts have been &an-doned witl~ina score of years. Among the Apncles, terrific as are the slangl~tersof ''Icid and hi - band," what other uame call now be asso-ciated with his, as a leader of blood thirst,^ Indiarls, either in Arizona or arty place else? I have been all over the field and I do not know mhrre to look for a parallel to Kid aud his ba~~da, :t' t he present time. Furthermore, as to the Apaches, I luore than suspect that the hostile spirit they ha,ve exl~ibitedf or a decade or two has its explw~at~iaon~d~ , that tho blmne is 1;lrgely chargeable to the white~i. Testimony is not wa~~t ingI.n the Report of the Commissioner of 1:lidian Affairs, 1871, pp. 43 and 44, Ire find the following: Mr. J. H. Lymnu, of Northampton, Mars., who spent a Tear, in 1860-'41, among the Apaohes df Arizona, relnt,es an inoicleni which occurred imonn the Apaches at a. time whent.heg treated the A~neriosnsw ith the ruost cordial hosstality : |