Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/16

14 all about Indian matters" without ever having given a moment's study to that large and complicated subject, has been incredibly great, and the readiness and volubility of their criticism, mostly condemnatory of everything that is done, seems inspired by an inexhaustible fertility of imagination as to facts. No story, ever so extravagant and absurd, can be told about Indian management without finding ready belief. But recently I saw a statement, seriously put forth in respectable newspapers, that the guns and ammunition with which the Indians fight our soldiers are to this day regularly furnished to the savages by the Indian Bureau, or are permitted to be sold to them by licensed traders on the Indian reservations. Whenever an Indian misconducts himself, or the greed or recklessness of white men provoke an Indian trouble, an outcry follows about the disgraceful remissness of the government, and it is at once proclaimed that we are as far as ever from the solution of the Indian problem.

No doubt the history of Indian management, under military as well as civil control, shows many instances of mistake, failure, and wrongdoing; but no fair-minded man can examine that history or the present state of things without admitting that the government has had to contend against enormous difficulties, and that the greatest of these and the most prolific of trouble was the pushing of settlements into the country inhabited by the Indians and the crowding out of the latter, regardless of their rights of occupancy, in many cases guaranteed by treaties. This difficulty could in many instances not be controlled by the Indian Department, which was held responsible for many complications and evils not in its power to avert. It must also be acknowledged that while every disturbance was generally and loudly noticed and commented upon, the good things done escaped in many, if not most cases, public observation and recognition.

It cannot be my purpose, however, here to go into a minute review of the past. Looking at the present condition of things it may be said, without exaggeration, that on the whole the Indian situation is now more hopeful than ever before. The desire of the Indians to maintain friendly relations with their white neighbors, to go to work for their own support, to cultivate the soil, to acquire permanent homes, to have their children educated, and to assimilate themselves to the civilization of the country, is growing stronger and more general every day. The measures prosecuted and in part originated under this administration, which have been mentioned before: the enlargement of the agricultural activity of the Indians; the distribution of cattle among them to promote the industry of herding; the extensive introduction of the freighting business; the encouragement of mechanical industry; the institution of the Indian police, stimulating their respect for law and authority; the increase of their educational facilities, notably among them the education of Indians at Hampton and in North Carolina, and the establishment, by the government, of the Indian