Harper's Weekly Editorials on Carl Schurz/The Faith of Treaties

Indian question in this country, like the Irish question in England, will vex us until we settle it honorably and justly. How difficult a problem it is, every fresh revelation shows. But the first and supreme condition of our policy should be honesty and good faith. We have chosen to treat the Indian tribes as nations, and to put our requirements into the form of treaties. We have pledged our word to them as solemnly as we pledge it to any people, and there are Americans who urge us to spurn our own word as a mere dicer's oath. But if Indians are vermin, what business have we to bind ourselves to them by pledges? If we mean to treat them as we find most convenient for our advantage at different times, but still to refuse them citizenship or the protection of law, would not a policy of extermination be more charitable for them, and less degrading and demoralizing for ourselves? They are, indeed, a poor and ignorant remnant of a people. They have learned vices, and have been incited to crime by our advancing frontier. So far as they have traditions, they are those of white treachery, except, as Mr. urges, in colonial New York. But because they are poor and few and ignorant, and because we are responsible for much of their offensiveness, ought we, being powerful and enlightened, to lie to them and steal from them? This is really the plain English of the question.

Nearly fifty years ago we made a treaty with the Cherokees and kindred tribes, solemnly guaranteeing the Indian Territory. It was, as Bishop says, to “be and remain theirs forever, a home that shall never, in all future time, be embarrassed by having extended around it the lines, or placed over it the jurisdiction, of a Territory or a State, nor be pressed upon by the extension in any way, of any of the limits of any existing Territory or State.” The Territory so guaranteed has been invaded by individuals and companies, and despite the plainest treaty stipulations, a bill has been introduced in Congress to erect over it a Territorial government. Against this violation of rights guaranteed by the United States, the representatives of the Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw Indians, who are, as is well known, the most advanced in civilization of any of the tribes, who are neither hunters nor warriors, and who peacefully pursue agriculture, have presented this protest to the President:

&ldquo;From information received we are advised that white intruders, with their families, in considerable numbers are beginning to locate on the Cherokee lands in the Indian Territory, immediately west of the Arkansas River, and on and contiguous to the Red Fork of that river; also that the railroad trains of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad Company a few days ago emptied several cars of Texas negroes into our country at a point near Caddo, on the line of the railroad. We respectfully but firmly protest against these infringements of our treaty stipulations, and request your Excellency to immediately inquire into the matter and to put a stop to it, and to have the intruders permanently removed from the Indian country. In this connection we also beg to call your Excellency's attention to the fact that we are advised, from sources we deem authentic, that the emigration raid which was attempted last spring on our country, and which your Excellency checked, is in contemplation again by the interested railroad corporations and land pirates who inspired the movement originally, and we respectfully ask that your Excellency take early steps to prevent this unwarranted assault.&rdquo;

If it is pleaded that our whole Indian policy of treaties is a mistake, it can be renounced without infamy upon our part. When the Utes massacre their friend , or ambush our soldiers, there is a cry of wrath and horror for the most summary justice. But when the Indians are driven to starvation and despair by the villainies of contractors and criminals, and burst out into fierce reprisals, it is they only who feel our avenging power. Why should not the soldiers who are summoned to drive the Indians back to their reservations when they escape also drive off the marauders who trespass upon the reservations? If our policy be to take care of the Indians, and not to leave them to take care of themselves like all other people in the country, we are morally bound to protect them from offense as well as to punish them when they offend. Secretary plan &mdash; and he has been sincere and strenuous in the effort to benefit the Indians &mdash; is to place them in severalty on land in fee-simple. To do this, and to surround them with all the usual defenses of law, without which the plan, as it seems to us, would pauperize them, would be to place them upon the same standing with other citizens. But the first thing to do is to resolve that we will treat them honestly and justly, and the second and simultaneous thing to do is to prove to them that such is our purpose. We have made the proof difficult, indeed, but that does not affect our duty.


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