Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/71

The Indian Dispossessed deem them to deserve, I beg to remain, respectfully, yours,

"F. L. PALLADINI, S.J.

"In charge of Saint Ignatius Mission.

""

This letter was laid before the Secretary of the Interior by General Garfield, but it availed nothing. The good priest had a distorted idea as to what observations were likely to impress the Indian bureau.

Then began a record unparalleled in Indian history for unique features. Charlos and his four hundred, clinging with Indian faith to the promise in the eleventh article of their treaty, determined to stand by their homes and passively await the action of their Great Father in Washington; "to suffer, peaceably, whatever the Government should put upon them," as they had said to General Garfield.

The Indian ring was in a quandary. To grant the demands of the "Vociferous Few," call out the military, and remove the inoffensive Indians by force would advertise the malodorous record to the country, with the certainty that swift condemnation of the whole business would follow. On the other hand, to redeem the national pledge required the removal of the whites from the Indians' land, besides congressional and executive acts in reverse order—a retreat unprecedented, impossible. 58