L JU .C1W5 FOUR WEEKS ,\Mi>X(, ~,,\|| .,1 THE SIOUX TRIBES DAKOTA AND NEBRASKA, ■io(;ether with a BRII-F CONSIDBKATIOX THE INDIAN PROBLEM HERBERT WELSH Host Office Address, West Walnut Lane, Gwmantown, Phflad<;li)hia. GUKMANTOWN, PHILADIiLrjlIA: rfDRACE P.XfcCANN/StEAM-POWER PK INl Ek. 4958 Gkrmantown AvF.M.i:. Glass. Book. F1^ A FOUR WEEKS AMONG SOME OF THE SIOUX TRIBES OF DAKOTA AND NEBRASKA, TOriETHKR WITH A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF THE INDIAN PROBLEM t few years the Goveinment has ceased to treat with the Indian tribes as foreign nations, they have been accorded, only in exceptional cases, a permanent right to their land. 26 A Month Among the Sioux bidiaiis. perity, individual or national, were tlie efforts of our people charged with such a burden as this? Wherever the tide of emigration has brought the white race in close proximity to the reservations, there is a strong tendency on the part of settlers to invade the lands allotted to the Indians, and pressure is then brought to bear upon Congress to secure their removal to some other place. We saw a striking illustra- tion of this fact when at the town of Chamberlain, which is situated upon the east bank of the Missouri, in the Territory of Dakota, with Crow Creek Reservation touching its northern boundary, and Lower Brule, to the west, upon the opposite bank of the river. This town is at the present terminus of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Rail- road. A strong effort was on foot to break into Crow Creek Reserva- tion, upon the north, and to run the railroad through the Lower Brule Reservation, upon the west, so as to gain communication with Dead- wood, in the Black Hills. It was urged, with considerable show of reason, that for fifteen miles to the north the land was unoccupied by Indians, to whom much more had been given than their wants could possibly demand, as the country was destitute of game, and it was therefore unjust to forbid its cultivation by the whites. To this the reply might be made that were the land given to the Indians in sever- alty, with the assurance to each that his possession would be protected by the Government, then the surplus land might be opened for set- tlement, to the advantage of both Indians and whites. Congress has as yet made no provision by which the Indian can claim land upon the reservation where his lot is cast with the certainty of a constant possession. For him to claim land beyond the limits of a reservation is practically impossible, as his ignorance of our language, of the value of money, and of property in general, would put him completely at the mercy of men who have pity neither upon his poverty nor his lack of knowledge. Why, it may well be asked, should our Government longer hesitate to grant the Indian an individual right to the land, at least to such men as have turned to honest labor — land with which he should not be permitted to part during a given number of years, a suf- ficient time to allow the development of qualities moral, intellectual and physical, which are absolutely necessary to his self-support? The A Mo7ith A)no)i_^ the Si mix Indians. 27 present jjolicy is both incunsistt-nt antl unjust, and has destroyed com pletely the Indian's taith in the honesty of the (rovernnient's inten- tions toward them, 'lo place tribes upon ground which all men know shall be theirs but tor a time, and of which the march of emigraticjn shall surely rob them, is to act alike regardless of statesmanshi]) and of morality. May the time be not far distant when the people of this country, animated by no spirit of sentimentalism, but by the dictates of that justice upon which their own prosperity has been most surely founded, will demand that a more righteous policy be pursued toward this people, too weak to speak in its own behalf. Before closing, 1 would touch upon two points, which, from the political aspect of the iiuestion, are worthy of consideration. The first bears upon the sys- tem of agents, the second upon that of distributing rations. Doubt- less, in the present state of things, the agent is a necessity, but one which has connected with it many evils. First, the salary of an agent is not sufficient to frequently induce men of the best qualifications to accept the position — a position which should be regarded as one of very high importance, and which men of unquestioned character and ability should occupy. The agent is the representative of Government authority, in many cases among several thousand Indians, over whom he may exercise almost unlimited control. They regard him as chil- dren do a father, and are strongly influenced by his example. It is in his power to curtail, or stop their supply of rations; to reward with plenty or punish with want, to afford facilities for house building and farming by the supply of a thousand trifling articles which can be ob- tained only through him. He can encourage industry by his precept and example, aid those who are well dispcsed toward progress, and anxious to be instructed in the first rudiments of civilized life, help the missionary by a regular attendance at church, advance morality and sobriety by his own well-ordered life, in fine, exert a mighty influence for good upon the lives of all over whom he has been placed. Or he may be the reverse of all tiiis, a man devoid of dignity, capacity, sym pathy, puffed up with a sense of his own importance and impressed beyond measure by the grandeur of his position, violent in his exer- cise of authority, petty in his jealousy toward those who would benefit 28 A Month Among the Sioux Indians. his people, insolent, and frequently unjust, in his administration, indiscreet, or as is but too often the case, immoral in the conduct of his private life. Our experience in the West was sufficient to show us that both classes of men are represented by Indian agents, and that it is probably due to the very insufficient salary which he receives that the agent of the former kind is not more frequently found than he of the latter. If the mass of right-thinking people in this country be- come aroused to a sense of the importance of the Indian question, if they recognize justice and honor as the basis of our dealings with this people, and resolve that systematic perfidy is an unworthy policy for the United States to pursue towards men too weak to defend them- selves, then may we look for a great and lasting change in this matter — one which will secure benefits of a substantial nature to the Indian, and reflect honor upon the Government. It will then be deemed right to place the salary of an Indian agent not at the insuf- ficient sum of one thousand, thirteen, or fifteen hundred dollars,* but at such a figure as will more certainly secure men of ability and high character to fill so important a post. I would now speak briefly upon the subject of rations issued by the Government to the Indians. That the Indians are at present dependent upon such help, in many, even in most cases, may be taken for granted. The inheritance of former habits, their ignorance of mechanical arts, and of farming on the part of the people generally, renders this a necessity ; otherwise starvation would unquestionably be their lot. The Government owes them such assistance in consideration of the many injuries inflicted upon them, and the wholesale appropriation of their land. But it must be remem- bered that the Indians are not to remain forever in this condition of weak dependence ; they are already accepting the general change which is rapidly overtaking them as a people and is fashioning their habits and occupations into those of settled, civilized men. With the progress of this movement, which it should be the Government's care to foster and hasten, the Indian becomes less dependent upon food furnished him by another, and in greater need of implements for the * Of later years a higher sum is given under some circumstances, but the majority of Agents are paid as I have stated above. A MontJi Ainoiis; the Sioux hidiaiis. 29 cultivation of his farm and by which he may secure his own bread. Therefore, should not the poHcy of the Government look to the gradual decrease and final extinction of the ration system, and its sub- stitution by such help as men rapidly moving toward a civilized life might require? During our journey we heard of such an instance as would seem to illustrate the feasibility of this suggestion.* The In- dians at Sisseton Agency, at the time when reports were being indus- triously circulated of an impending outbreak upon their part, were actually petitioning the Government to supply them with farming im- plements in the place of rations, as they deemed the possession of tools of greater value than the gift of food. A serious discouragement to growing industry and independence on the part of many Indians in Bishop Hare's jurisdiction, lies in the fact that rations are issued at such short intervals, that men living at long distances from the Agency are obliged to waste valuable time in coming to the office to collect their goods. Indeed, we have known of Indians, who, at seasons when their crops demanded constant attention, found it cheaper to forfeit their rations than to abandon their farms in order to procure them. The i)rincipal difficulty, however, which lies at the root of the whole matter, seems to be that the Government's bounty has been designed rather to pacify the more restless and warlike tribes whose enmity it feared, than to reward and encourage those who were making every endeavor to lead honest and peaceable lives. This fact has been so patent that the wilder Indians have employed it as a powerful argument to dissuade their more advanced brethren from adopting the habits of civilized life. "Live like white men," they have said, " and the Government will despise and iheat you ; join us, rob, burn, kill, and you will get all you want."t Are we content that such words should be uttered in the future with the same truth as in the past — we who pretend that in our land of all others industry is re- * Since writing the article, tlie author learns that such is the ohjoct of the Depart- ment, and that such a plan has been successfully adopted in Indian Territory, though little seems to have been accomplished in that direction, in the Northwest. f This stricture, while at one time capable of wide application, must now be used in a more limited sense. 30 A Month Among the Sioux Indians. warded, the rights of the poor are protected and justice is equally ad- ministered to all ? It has been my object in giving the foregoing account of our jour- ney, among a people of whom such contradictory reports continually assail the public ear, to show to others what actual contact has indeli- bly impressed upon myself, that the Indian is a human being, not only possessing the evil instincts of sloth, selfishness and cruelty, but endowed with all noble faculties which that term implies. He is a man ! Not a wild beast whose extermination is necessary to the safety of a higher order of creation, but a man for whom honor, purity, knowledge and love are not only within the range of possibility, but are qualities which already in numberless instances have been attained. Words are power- less to describe the depth of impression which our visit produced upon us in this respect. At every step we saw evidences of the mighty change — physical, intellectual, moral — which the religion of Christ has wrought in his condition, evidences of what his race may yet become, will we, as a people, not only point him to higher life, but break down the bars that block his progress toward it. Not twenty years have yet passed since the sin of slavery brought upon this land the awful chas- tisement of civil war, and lo ! again to-day rests upon us a kindred shadow lying dark and motionless across our honor. We, who never tire of affirming the principle of man's equality have put our foot upon another neck, and whilst we offer protection to the oppressed of dis- tant nations, we rob with systematic complacency, the poor within our own borders. Surely the wealth which we so persistently and dishon- estly extort from them, shall have but bought us in the eyes of coming generations a crown of infamy to invite contempt long after our riches have been forgotten. The time has now come when all lovers of liberty and justice throughout the land should awaken to vigorous and organized action in defence of Indian rights, assured that their labors will 'not be without reward. To the writer of this article it seems apparent that permanent good can be secured to the Indian by the attainment of three things : First, the gift of land in severalty, which should be made inalienable A Month Among tJic Sioux Indians. 31 for a given term of years, to all who arc disposed toward progress and are desirous of tilling the soil. Second, the establishment of a suitable code of laws by which pro- tection may be secured to the innocent and pimishment to the guilty. Third, the increase of sound education by means of Government and Church schools, and by the vigorous 'advance of missionary effort. Tf these advantages can be secured to the Indian it will not be many years before the full rights of citizenship should be his also. The friends of the Indian ask not for a sentimental, but for a search- ing and rational consideration of this subject. They make no attempt to screen from public notice the atrocity of Indian war, whilst they demand the right to lay bare those hidden causes from which but too frecjuently such barbarity has sprung, and to bid men look not only upon the bloody spectacle of savage outbreaks, but to the beautiful though unnoticed triumphs of the Church, the school-house and the farm. They recognize the presence of evil among the red men as among white, and the necessity of force for its punishment, and for the protection of civilized life; they simply ask such discrimination in its employment as shall protect the innocent and punish the guilty. In this they invoke the aid of Christians who not only profess but live their creeds, and of citizens who conceive the State to rest upon a stronger basis than the dollar ; upon the everlasting foundation-stone of justice and of truth. They would suggest for the solution of this enigma a method so old as to be perchance obsolete, though the essence of His teaching who lives forever, the precept, "Whatsoever ye would men should do unto you, even so do ye to them " — the golden rule. ^\c-.--' .OAO'-