Harper's Weekly/The Faith of Treaties
THE FAITH OF TREATIES.
The Indian question in this country, like
the Irish question in England, will vex us
until we settle it honorably and justly.
How difficult a problem it is, every fresh
revelation shows. But the first and
supreme condition of our policy should be
honesty and good faith. We have chosen
to treat the Indian tribes as nations, and to
put our requirements into the form of treaties.
We have pledged our word to them as
solemnly as we pledge it to any people, and
there are Americans who urge us to spurn
our own word as a mere dicer's oath. But
if Indians are vermin, what business have
we to bind ourselves to them by pledges?
If we mean to treat them as we find most
convenient for our advantage at different
times, but still to refuse them citizenship or
the protection of law, would not a policy of
extermination be more charitable for them,
and less degrading and demoralizing for
ourselves? They are, indeed, a poor and
ignorant remnant of a people. They have
learned vices, and have been incited to
crime by our advancing frontier. So far as
they have traditions, they are those of white
treachery, except, as Mr. Douglas Campbell
urges, in colonial New York. But
because they are poor and few and ignorant,
and because we are responsible for much of
their offensiveness, ought we, being powerful
and enlightened, to lie to them and steal
from them? This is really the plain English
of the question.
Nearly fifty years ago we made a treaty with the Cherokees and kindred tribes, solemnly guaranteeing the Indian Territory. It was, as Bishop Whipple says, to “be and remain theirs forever, a home that shall never, in all future time, be embarrassed by having extended around it the lines, or placed over it the jurisdiction, of a Territory or a State, nor be pressed upon by the extension in any way, of any of the limits of any existing Territory or State.” The Territory so guaranteed has been invaded by individuals and companies, and despite the plainest treaty stipulations, a bill has been introduced in Congress to erect over it a Territorial government. Against this violation of rights guaranteed by the United States, the representatives of the Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw Indians, who are, as is well known, the most advanced in civilization of any of the tribes, who are neither hunters nor warriors, and who peacefully pursue agriculture, have presented this protest to the President:
“From information received we are advised that white intruders, with their families, in considerable numbers are beginning to locate on the Cherokee lands in the Indian Territory, immediately west of the Arkansas River, and on and contiguous to the Red Fork of that river; also that the railroad trains of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad Company a few days ago emptied several cars of Texas negroes into our country at a point near Caddo, on the line of the railroad. We respectfully but firmly protest against these infringements of our treaty stipulations, and request your Excellency to immediately inquire into the matter and to put a stop to it, and to have the intruders permanently removed from the Indian country. In this connection we also beg to call your Excellency's attention to the fact that we are advised, from sources we deem authentic, that the emigration raid which was attempted last spring on our country, and which your Excellency checked, is in contemplation again by the interested railroad corporations and land pirates who inspired the movement originally, and we respectfully ask that your Excellency take early steps to prevent this unwarranted assault.”
If it is pleaded that our whole Indian policy of treaties is a mistake, it can be renounced without infamy upon our part. When the Utes massacre their friend Meeker, or ambush our soldiers, there is a cry of wrath and horror for the most summary justice. But when the Indians are driven to starvation and despair by the villainies of contractors and criminals, and burst out into fierce reprisals, it is they only who feel our avenging power. Why should not the soldiers who are summoned to drive the Indians back to their reservations when they escape also drive off the marauders who trespass upon the reservations? If our policy be to take care of the Indians, and not to leave them to take care of themselves like all other people in the country, we are morally bound to protect them from offense as well as to punish them when they offend. Secretary Schurz's plan — and he has been sincere and strenuous in the effort to benefit the Indians — is to place them in severalty on land in fee-simple. To do this, and to surround them with all the usual defenses of law, without which the plan, as it seems to us, would pauperize them, would be to place them upon the same standing with other citizens. But the first thing to do is to resolve that we will treat them honestly and justly, and the second and simultaneous thing to do is to prove to them that such is our purpose. We have made the proof difficult, indeed, but that does not affect our duty.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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