Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/162

128 this progress, by making larger appropriations for the appointment of men competent to instruct the Indians in agricultural work, and for furnishing them with farming implements. Unfortunately, members of Congress are frequently more intent upon making a good record in cutting down expenses in the wrong place, than upon providing the necessary money for objects the accomplishment of which would finally result in real and great economy. It may be remarked, by the way, that the promotion of agricultural work among the Indians is frequently discouraged by well-meaning men who reason upon the theory that in the transition from savage to civilized life, the pastoral state comes before the agricultural, and that the Indians, therefore, must be made herders before they can be made farmers. This theory is supported by historical precedents. It is true that the transition from the savage state to the pastoral is less violent than that from the savage state directly to the agricultural, but this does not prove that the latter is impossible. Moreover, the former requires certain favorable conditions, one of which is not only the possession of large tracts of grazing land but also of large numbers of cattle; and another is, that the transition, which would necessarily require a considerable time, be not interfered with by extraneous circumstances. There are only a few isolated instances of Indian tribes having devoted themselves successfully to the raising of herds and flocks, such as the Navajoes, who have hundreds of thousands of sheep, and manufacture excellent blankets by hand. Some thrifty Indians on the Pacific coast have raised small herds of cattle, and something more has been done by the so-called civilized tribes in the Indian Territory. The rest of the Indians have only raised ponies. To make all our wild Indians herders, would require the maintenance of the system of large reservations which, as I have shown, will