Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/142

 The Indian language does not contain qualifying clauses; the Indian mind does not comprehend them. It is easy to understand how Joseph could have mistaken the General's reply that, so far as he knew, the Indians were to be returned to Idaho.

Popular indignation was pressing hard upon the Commissioner of. Indian Affairs; and the righteous wrath of justice-loving citizens has to be reckoned with as well as the importunities of the Vociferous Few.

"The extinction of Joseph's title," he says, "to the lands he held in Idaho will be a matter of great gain to the white settlers in that vicinity, and a reasonable compensation should be made to him for their surrender. It will be borne in mind that Joseph has never made a treaty with the United States, and that he has never surrendered to the Government the lands he claimed to own in Idaho. On that account he should be liberally treated upon his final settlement in the Indian Territory."

Passing strange, this recognition of the Indian title after, and not before, the Indian's summary expulsion from his country! Possibly it was compelled by public opinion; and surely, with the Indian country gained, Washington could safely indulge a conscience which at an earlier stage would have been fatal to its plans. The Commissioner continues in the same strain:

"The present unhappy condition of these Indians