Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1877.djvu/11

Rh such as to present extraordinary difficulties to civilizing influences. This circumstance alone, however, does not in itself constitute the main difficulty we have to contend with. We are frequently reminded of the fact that the character of our Indians does not materially differ from that of the Indians in the British possessions on this continent, and that nevertheless peace and friendly relations are maintained there between the Indians and the whites. That is true. But the condition of things in the British possessions is in some very important respects essentially different from that which exists in the United States. In the British possessions the bulk of the Indian population occupy an immense area almost untouched by settlements of whites. On that area the Indians may roam about in full freedom, without danger of collision, and the abundance of fish and game furnishes them comparatively ample sustenance. The line dividing the Indians and the whites can be easily controlled by a well-organized body of police, who maintain peace and order. But in the United States we have no longer a dividing line. The “Indian frontier” has virtually disappeared. Our Indian population is scattered over a vast extent of country into which the agricultural settlers, as well as the adventurous element of our people in quest of rapid gain have pushed their skirmishers in all possible directions. Wherever in the far West the enterprise of the whites advances, whites and Indians come into immediate contact and are “in one another's way.” That contact is apt to bring on collisions, especially as the more reckless element of the whites, which abounds in that part of the country, holds the rights and lives of Indians in very light estimation, and can, in many localities at least, scarcely be said to be under the control of law, while in frequent instances also the Indian provokes retribution by following, without restraint, his savage propensities.

There are still other complications aggravating this condition of things. The early colonists on this continent saw in the Indian tribes surrounding them a very formidable power, and naturally entered with them into formal treaty relations. That system has come by inheritance down to our days, when the Indians, under a radical change of circumstances, appear at the same time as “independent tribes,” as “national wards,” and as subjects. It is needless to recount the history of Indian treaties. As white settlements rapidly spread over the country treaties were, in a large number of instances, made only to be broken. When the advance of civilization found them as barriers in its way, they could not stand as finalities, although they were usually called so. That in the frequent and rapid changes to which those treaties were subjected, the Indians sometimes suffered great injustice, no fair-minded man will deny.

In the course of time new difficulties supervened. As the Indians were crowded out of their hunting-grounds their sustenance became precarious, and upon the government devolved the duty to supply them with food and clothing. That duty was and is now performed on a contract system, and through Indian agencies located at a great