Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/137

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Causes of the Indian Wars.The long considered question as to who and what caused the Indian wars had its relation to Oregon, as elsewhere in our early settlements.

The First Cause.The natural objection to the invasibn of the whites and their conquest of the Indian domains, and trespww upon their hunting and fishing rights. To the mis* sionary and the trader who laid no claim to the country the Indian never seriously objected.

The Second.The disregard of the whites to to Indian rights and privileges. The Indians were too often regarded as intruders, were forced from their favorite camping grounds, and driven further and further back to the bleak, barren and inferior places.

The Third.The Indians feared that they would never be compensated by the Government for their relinquished lands. This fear was confirmed by the delays of the Government in the execution of treaty agreements.

Finally, there were the wanton and ruffianly invasions of unprincipled white men and then violations of the family and domestic relations of the peaceful and neighboring Indians, together with lustful and murderous attacks by these same whites when remonstrated with. Their lands and their family rights were thus both set at naught. The saddening inhuman sentiment—"A good Indian is only a dead Indian"—became among many whites an accepted axiom. Our history teems with unprovoked attacks upon unoffending Indians peacefully gathered around their campfires. Want of space prevents a recital of the many instances which history unfolds. While this commentary in no wise justifies many equally savage attacks and robberies on the part of the Indians, it yet sheds a truthful light on the reasons for much of the Indians' deadly hostility to the white race. Had the whites treated the Indians with