Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1871.djvu/10

8 Such an organization would have a tendency to obliterate many of the existing obstacles to Indian civilization. The traditional feuds which now keep tribes in a state of continual warfare, compelling them to live in camps for protection, would be speedily crushed out by a strong home government. The custom of holding all property in common, which is always a tax upon industry, and a premium upon indolence and unthrift, would be abolished. Frequent changes of reservations, the source of so many of our troubles with that race in the past, would cease. The rewards of industry would be so liberal as to obliterate their long-standing prejudice against labor, while the lack of opportunity to engage in the chase, or in hostile raids, would soon do away with the desire to engage in those diversions, and those who were not convinced of the propriety of industry would soon be compelled to recognize its necessity.

We must not expect to great results from the immediate operation of the new policy. We cannot hope to make intelligent law-abiding citizens of a race of unlettered barbarians in a day in a year, or a decade. Time is required to change those habits which are firmly fixed by immemorial custom. Nor can we hope to mature a perfect system by a single act of Congress. We can only shape a policy and arrange its details gradually, as experience dictates, after a careful observance of the results of measures already in operation.

Few of those now actively engaged in promoting the existing policy may live to see its full fruition, and it may never succeed, but no candid philanthropic man will deny that the policy seems to be right and proper under all the existing circumstances. A Christian Government like ours owes it to her own good name, to civilization and Christianity, to use every effort for the elevation of a race which has been placed under her gaurdianship. Should it fail, I trust it may not be through any want of fidelity on the part of any of those now engaged in its execution. The path of duty seems clearly marked; it is ours to follow it.

During the year a number of citizens of the United States moved upon the lands of the Indian Territory adjacent to the Kansas boundary, evidently for the purpose of effecting a permanent settlement thereon. They erected improvements and began to till the soil. These trespasses gave great uneasiness to the owners of the lands, who naturally inferred that they were but the beginning of an organized movement to deprive them of their territory. Upon being informed of this condition of things, I issued a proclamation to the trespassers, ordering them to withdraw at once from the Territory, and notifying them that unless they did so promptly, force would be used to secure their removal. This step seems to have been generally effective, and but few of the trespassers remain. Trespasses of another character are sill being made, however upon these lands by citizens of Kansas, and much valuable timber is being cut down and carried away. The effort of the Department will be to prevent these spoliations in the future, as they do much