Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/569

Rh Hills was unsuccessful. Then, of course, followed the war, in which, perhaps more than in any other waged by us with the savages, we have been made acquainted with their reserved power, and with the depth of their conviction and resolve that they have some human rights. War is the recognized resource of white men under the infraction of a treaty. Why not then of red men? Had the mining region which tempted invaders been among the wilds on the other side of the British borders, and our citizens, bent on the development of all buried treasures in the interest of civilization, made their raids there, what would have followed? Formal expressed diplomatic “distinguished considerations,” and then, if these were unsatisfactory, fighting. But we say the Black Hills are within our own domains, and the Indians, — half citizens, half wards, — are really bound to make common cause with us in opening our common country.

If we may draw a reasonable inference from the tedious and prolix formalities and the stiff ceremonial of a council with Indian tribes for settling a peace, the cession of territory, or the negotiations of a contract, we should judge that while the white party cannot but have looked upon it rather from its ludicrous side, and held even its pledged obligations as likely to be but of a slight and temporary validity, the Indians themselves, though notoriously inconstant and treacherous to their own promises, did notwithstanding wish and intend that the business should have a very imposing and solemn dignity. The impatience and the banter which we expend upon the routine methods, the official intricacies, and the long-drawn delays in the disposal of affairs between civilized people and in the processes of each department of a government, might find full provocatives in the rehearsal of the proceedings of an Indian council. Red tape and circumlocution have full sway there. Commissioners and military officers who have transacted such business with a company of chiefs representing