Indians of North America; Indians of North America -- Government relations; Indians of North America -- Legal status, laws, etc.
observations of the writer have been well made, no reason to suppose
that any considerable division of opinion or feeling exists respecting
the duty of the government, at the present moment, by the aborigines of
the country.
Take the public sentiment of Arizona, for example. It is the almost
universal belief throughout the country, that the people of this
Territory have a deadly hostility to the Indians, and meditate nothing
but mischief towards them; and it certainly must be admitted that press
and people alike indulge in expressions which fairly bear that
construction, and are quite enough to create an impression that the
citizens of the Territory hate an Indian as an Indian, and have no
humane sentiments whatever towards the race. And yet the writer would as
soon leave the question, whether the government should render some
kindly service to the Papagoes or to the Pimas and Maricopas, in the way
of assisting them to self-maintenance, or of providing instruction in
letters or in the mechanic arts, to the general voice of the people of
Arizona, as to any missionary association in New York or Boston the
coming May. When the press of Arizona cry out against the Indian policy
of the government, and denounce Eastern philanthropy, they have in mind
the warlike and depredating bands; and they are exasperated by what they
deem, perhaps unreasonably but not unnaturally, the weakness and
indecision of the executive in failing to properly protect the frontier.
Indians to them mean Apaches; and their violence on the Indian question
arises from the belief that the administration of Indian affairs has
been committed to sentimentalists, who have no appreciation of the
terrible stress which these Indian outrages bring upon the remote
settlements. But were the question one of helping, in a practical
fashion suited to the habits and views of life of a border community, a
tribe of Indians who are peaceful, and in a poor way helpful, there is
no reason to suppose that the inhabitants of Tucson or Prescott would be
behind an Eastern congregation in readiness for the work. And this
impression the writer derives, not alone from the amiable and cultivated
gentleman who represents that Territory in Congress, but from contact
and correspondence with many influential and representative citizens of
Arizona, and from a study of the very journals that so teem with
denunciations of the Indian policy of the government.[B]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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