Indian agent

“ First-class men, and no others, can settle the Indian question. The want of them is the bottom fact in our Indian troubles. Government pays the market price for good beef and sugar and tobacco, but will not pay for good men. There is only one answer to the question, “Can a superior man afford to be an Indian agent?” No! There are excellent Indian agents, thanks to their noble impulses, but Government should buy and not beg what it is bound to get. ”

“ Now if near every agency, instead of an agent and half a dozen helpless civilians only, there was a military force, the rascalities would be summarily suppressed, and end, and the supplies would be as sure as they are at the military posts. The crowd of Indian traders and agents are bent upon making money, and the Indians consequently suffer. ”

“ This agent, who has passed many years among the Indians, speaks with great feeling of the sad prospect staring them in the face. He says: “But one course remains which promises any permanent relief to them, or any lasting benefit to the country in which they dwell; that is, simply to make such modifications in the ‘intercourse’ laws as will invite the residence of traders among them, and open the whole Indian Territory for settlement. Trade is the only civilizer of the Indian. ”

“ We only import the best of everything and the Indian buying from our stores is assured of the purest provisions and the strongest and most durable goods. This is no boast for where we have no opposition the Indians and our interests are identical, and the company's agent at such posts has the Indians' welfare at heart. ”

“ In 1861 the agency for the five tribes—Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches, and Prairie Apaches—was at Fort Wise, and, as the time [Pg 9] approached for the Indian agent to make the annual distribution of gifts from the government, the tribes would come in to receive their annuities. Our trading with the Indians had to be done quietly, because the post sutler had the exclusive privilege of all Indian trade on the post reservation, and, by order of the commanding officer, no one else might carry on any traffic with the Indians. ”

“ The Government has put aside various tracts of land where the Indians may conduct their lives in something of their old way, and stationed in each an agent to protect their interests. For every white man, as an agent told me, "thinks an Indian legitimate prey for all forms of cheating and robbery." ”

“ We can suggest no change in the existing laws that might benefit the Indians, unless it be that Indian agents should be people who have a correct knowledge of Indian character. If it be really the object of the Government to benefit this race of people their agents should be chosen from experienced traders or others who have and still reside with them and are well acquainted with their manners and customs. ”

“ The white man, with his intellectual energy, far-reaching science, and indomitable perseverance, is the peculiar object of my sympathy, and should receive the especial protection and support of government. In this territory there are numerous "Indian reserves," of magnificent extent and choice fertility, capable of sustaining a dense civilized population, now held unimproved by numerous Indian tribes. These tribes are governed by Indian agents, entirely independent of the executive of this territory, and are, indeed, governments within a government. ”

“ But even that long period of irresistible expansion was a period of almost constant co-operation between British and Indians. The East India Company extended its authority quite as much by a system of alliances with indigenous rulers, who turned to our growing power to save them from destruction at the hands of Haidar Ali or of the Mahratta confederacy, as by mere force of arms, and, when it had to use force, its most decisive victories in the field were won by armies in which Indian troops fought shoulder to shoulder with British troops. ”

“ In a Report for the protection of the Western Frontier, submitted to Congress by the Secretary of War, we have a very fair exposé of the conduct and intentions of the American Government towards the Indians. Although the Indians continue to style the President of the United States as their Great Father, yet, in this report, the Indian feeling which really exists towards the American people is honestly avowed ”

“ It is easy to understand that if the management of Indian affairs were turned over to the military service the interests of the Indians and the interests and convenience of the Army might not always agree ”

“ On the other hand, if the Indians think it more for their interest that the Americans should have possession of the posts, and be established in their country, they ought to declare it, that the English need no longer be put to the vast and unnecessary expense and inconvenience of keeping posts, the chief object of which is to protect their Indian allies, and the loyalists who have suffered with them. ”

“ At times the Indians have been regarded as independent nations, with which all differences were to be settled by treaty as between equals; and again, as a body of subjects whose affairs could be and would be administered willy-nilly by the United States. Such vacillations are certain to result in trouble, especially as, needless to say, the Indians invariably considered themselves as much independent nations as England and France might consider themselves, in dealing with the United States or with one another. ”

“ You cannot say that Indians are lacking in fighting qualities, because the existence of them in a high degree they have proved conclusively in face of difficulties, by no means light and contemptible. That the Indian soldier can hold his own in Europe, even better than the European soldier in Southern Asia, has been established beyond the shadow of a doubt by the experiences of this war. ”

“ But those intrusted with the management of Indian affairs must not forget that, with regard to some Indian tribes and reservations at least, the matter is pressing; that the Government cannot control circumstances but is rather apt to be controlled by them, and that it must not only devise the necessary preparations for the change in the condition of the Indians with forecast and wisdom, but must push them with the greatest possible expedition and energy if untoward accidents are to be avoided. ”

“ Not as a matter of justice, but as a matter of fact, the rapid development of the country puts before the Indians the stern alternative of civilization, or destruction by conflict. Wise and human statesmanship will see to it that the Indians do not stand in the way of that development, but become part of it, and benefited by it. This is the “Indian problem” in a nutshell. ”

“ As a class, the agents selected by the religious societies have been far more trustworthy and efficient than their predecessors, being themselves honest in their dealings with the Indian, and defending them from the frauds of ring speculators, and the temptations of the liquor dealers. (2) The progress of the Indians in their industrial, educational and moral advancement has been very marked, as is shown by a tabulated and comparative statement of facts, prepared by the Board of Indian Commissioners, and recently published. ”

“ The Indians must be led by a very plain path and a friendly hand. Feeling and preference are subsequent manifestations. I took this occasion to state to him the objects and policy of the government by the establishment at these falls of a post and agency, placing it upon its true basis, namely, the preservation of peace upon the frontiers, and the due observance, by all parties, of the laws respecting trade and intercourse with the tribes, and securing justice both to them and to our citizens, particularly by the act for the exclusion of ardent spirits from the Indian country. ”

“ As the Indians depend on the colonists for arms, ammunition and clothing, which are become necessary for their subsistence.' 'That the commissioners have power to treat with the Indians;' 'to take to their assistance gentlemen of influence among the Indians.' 'To preserve the confidence and friendship of the Indians, and prevent their suffering for want of the necessaries of life, 40,000 sterling of Indian goods be imported.' 'No person shall be permitted to trade with the Indians without a licence;' 'traders shall sell their goods at reasonable prices ”

“ They recognize, as we do, that the Indian has a possessory right to the soil. They purchase this right, as we do, by treaty; but their treaties are made with the Indian subjects of Her Majesty. They set apart a permanent reservation for them they seldom remove Indians they select agents of high character, who receive their appointments for life they make fewer promises, but they fulfil them; they give the Indians Christian missions, which have the hearty support of Christian people, and all their efforts are toward self-help and civilization. ”

“ That in the frequent and rapid changes to which those treaties were subjected, the Indians sometimes suffered great injustice, no fair-minded man will deny.
In the course of time new difficulties supervened. As the Indians were crowded out of their hunting-grounds their sustenance became precarious, and upon the government devolved the duty to supply them with food and clothing. That duty was and is now performed on a contract system, and through Indian agencies located at a great distance from the seat of the general government, and far-removed from its immediate supervision. ”

“ We have underscored the last two sentences, because they express in forcible and just language, the experience of the American government, in relation to the subject, after an experiment of fifty years, dating from ’75, and lie, indeed, at the foundation of the present Indian policy. It is also the experience of sound and calm observers, who have watched the operation of our laws and customs upon the isolated Indian communities in the States. Every year has exemplified the futility of raising them up to the European standard in industry, in intelligence or character, while thus situated ”

“ There is no reason to doubt that in most, if not all, of such cases, those who conducted Indian affairs on the part of the Government, not anticipating the rapid advance of settlement, sincerely believed in the possibility of maintaining those reservations intact for the Indians, and that, in this respect, while their intentions were honest, their foresight was at fault. ”

“ Already we have seen something of the way in which the burden of India came to be borne—the British East India Company, which was purely a trading concern, being forced to take military measures, for the defence of its trading stations and for the maintenance of good order, at one time against the French who were aiming at the establishment of an empire and at another against the native rulers, or rather the mis-rulers, of the Indian States. ”

“ The effort should be to save these Indians from the consequences of their own mistakes and improvidence and to secure to the real Indian his rights as against intruders and professed friends who profit by his retrogression. ”

“ To maintain peace with the Indian, let the frontier settler treat him with humanity, and railroad directors see to it that he is not shot down by employees in wanton cruelty. In short, if settlers and railroad men will treat Indians as they would treat whites under similar circumstances, we apprehend but little trouble will exist. They must acquaint themselves with the treaty obligations of the government, and respect them as the highest law of the land. Instead of regarding the Indian as an enemy, let them regard him as a friend, and they will almost surely receive his friendship and esteem. ”

“ Nor can the civil population be trusted to keep arms, much less to{37} manufacture them. Much fuss has been made over the Indians having been allowed to participate in the European War. The Indians have gone mad over the incident, as if that were the greatest boon that could be conferred on them. The truth is that the step was actuated by and taken purely in British interests. Without the Indian contingent Great Britain could not send a decent expeditionary force to France. The whole of the white army could not be removed from India. ”

“ In their way stands a short-sighted economy, and a service so organized that it changes with every change of party. The lines of work for the Indian are indicated with sufficient clearness;{395} the one thing now essential is intelligent co-operation of his friends.
“The saying that ‘there is no good Indian but a dead one’ is a cruel falsehood and has done great harm. ”

“ The difficulties connected with what is called the “Indian problem” have been steadily growing from year to year, as the Western country formerly occupied as hunting grounds by Indians exclusively, is required for agricultural settlement and mining industry. In the same measure as white men and Indians more and more jostled one another their contact has been apt to result in collision. We are frequently told that the method followed by our Canadian neighbors in dealing with the Indians is much more successful than ours, and that we should shape our Indian policy after that model. ”

“ Even the trade with the Indians living a thousand miles inland was changed in favour of the British and against the French, as all the guns and knives and beads and everything else that the white man offered to the Indian in exchange for his furs had to come across the sea, which was just like an enemy's country to every French ship, but just like her own to every British one. ”