Letter XIV.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRÉCIS HISTORIQUES, BRUSSELS.
Indian Question.
UNIVERSITY OF ST. Louis, Dec. 30, 1854.
REVEREND FATHER:
The " Indian Question" has been much agitated in the United States during the course of this year. Two great Territories, Kansas and Nebraska, well henceforth form a portion of the great Confederation. They embrace all that part of the wilderness included between the confines of the State of Missouri and the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, and extend westward to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.
Questions concerning the future of the Indians have frequently been laid before me by persons who appear interested in the destiny of these poor creatures. Knowing the affection and the interest which you, Reverend Father, entertain for them, I propose giving you my views and apprehensions in regard to them-views and apprehensions which I have .long entertained. I have already said a few words on the subject, in a letter written in 1851, and inserted in the fortieth number of your Précis Historique In the course of that same year I received a letter from a much respected gentleman in Paris, who requested me to give him some details of the condition and present state of the Indian tribes of North America. I will give you in this letter the questions of that correspondent, and my replies. I Will add what has passed since; above all, the resolutions taken and the treaties concluded, from 1851 till December of the year 1854, between the American government and the aborigines.
First Question.-Do you think that the aborigines west of the Mississippi will be exterminated like those east of that river ? In other words, will the Indians west of the Mississippi share the same fate as their brethren east of it ?
Reply.-The same lot that the Indians east of the Mississippi have experienced, will at no distant day overtake those, who dwell on the west of the same river. As the white population advances and penetrates into the interior, the aborigines will gradually withdraw. Already, even (in 1851, it is perceptible that the whites look with a covetous eye on the fertile lands of the Delawares, Potawatomies, Shawnees, and others on our frontiers, and project the organization of a new Territory-Nebraska. I should not be surprised if, in a few years, negotiations were entered upon for the purchase of those lands, and the removal of the Indians, who will be forced to retire further west. The great openings offered to emigration by the definitive arrangement of the "Oregon Question," as well as the acquisition of New Mexico, California, and Utah, have alone, thus far, hindered any efforts for extinguishing the Indian titles or rights to the lands situated immediately west of the State of Missouri, and those situated on the south side of the River Missouri, between the Rivers Kansas and Platte, and probably as high as the Niobrarah or Eau-qui-court.
Second Question.-In case the Indians, having formed a constitution for their own government, should find themselves in the territory of one of the United States of America, would there not be reason to fear that these rising communities would be treated- with the same barbarity and injustice as were the Cherokees, who, contrary to all equity, were deprived of their territory by the State of Georgia, and transported to the lands of Upper Arkansas ?
Reply.-I answer in the affirmative. In a few years hence (1851), treaties will probably be concluded with those tribes for "reserves," that is to say, for portions of their lands set apart for their future residences. But, although the letter of the treaty guarantees them such "reserves," you may rest assured, that as soon -as the necessities of a thriving white population will demand these lands, the whites will find pretexts for dispossessing the Indians. This is accomplished, either by negotiation or nominal purchase, or by rendering their situation so painful, that they find no alternative but a transfer or emigration.
Third and Fourth Questions.-When the Territory of Oregon is incorporated as one of the States of the Union, could not the missionaries of that region organize the converted tribes into districts and distinct counties, peopled with American citizens of Indian origin ? Then the property of the Indians would become inviolable, and the missionaries would have time to persuade them to abandon their wandering, hunter life, and embrace the pastoral ; after a time they would cultivate the soil, without being disturbed oy the pretensions of the whites.
Reply.-When Oregon takes her place as a State in the Union, she will follow the same policy that has been hitherto followed by the other States; that is, she will subject all the inhabitants to her jurisdiction and laws. The policy of the United States has ever been to remove the Indians from each new State as soon as it is admitted as a part of the Confederation; and in case portions of the tribes remain on their lands, as was the case in the States of New York, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, the situation of the Indians is extremely disagreeable, their progress very slow. Comparing themselves with the whites who surround them, and whom they see, ordinarily, so enterprising and industrious, they generally experience a sentiment of inferiority, which overwhelms and discourages them. The Stockbridges (Mohegans), who enjoyed, for several years, all the rights of citizens in the State of Wisconsin, petitioned the authorities to relieve them from their obligations as such, and earnestly solicited the government to grant them an abode, either in Minnesota or west of Missouri. Even those who live in the "reserves," fine sections of land granted .and secured by special treaties, in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, finding themselves strangers on their native soil, sold all they had, and rejoined their tribes in the West. The neighborhood of the whites had become intolerable to them, When the lands of the Indians cease to be valuable, and the whites will and can do without them, then only will the Indians enjoy the privilege of retaining them.
Fifth Question.-The following is an extract from a law of the 27th of September, 1850 : "It is granted to each inhabitant, or occupant of public land, including herein the half-breeds above eighteen years of age, citizens of the United States, or having made a declaration of intention to become citizens, or who shall make such declaration either before the 1st of December, 1851," &c. Remark that this law proves two things : first, that there are half-breeds in Oregon; second, that the half-breeds have the rights of white citizens. Do you not think that at some future day, say in the course of a century, Oregon will be peopled solely by a heterogeneous race, with striking traits of a mixed race of Indian and white blood, and a remnant of the aborigines in the defiles or valleys of the mountains, like the Celts of Scotland and the Araucanians of Chili ? Then Oregon would enter in the category of all the Spanish States of South America, in which the red men, far from being exterminated, have, on the contrary, used efforts to assimilate themselves to the whites.
Reply.-I answer to this last question, that in case the missionaries should collect the half-breeds with the most docile Indians, in districts or counties, under this territorial law of Oregon, and give the youth an education, both religious and agricultural, the result would be a greater mingling of Indian and white blood, and thus the future population of Oregon would be in some manner heterogeneous.
The future prospect of the Indian tribes is very dark and melancholy. Placed, as they are, under the jurisdiction of the United States, surrounded on every side by whites, their ruin appears certain. These savages disappear insensibly as the emigrations of the whites succeed each other and advance. In fifty years there will be few traces of the native races in the western portion of this hemisphere. Where are those powerful tribes which, at the commencement of this age, dwelt in the extensive and beautiful region, now divided among the States of the West ? Remnants only exist on our western frontiers. In our own day the same causes are in full play, and produce the same effects. And for the last four years, the great tide of European emigration but makes the effect more certain. These emigrations multiply more and more in the present day, and succeed like the waves of ocean. They must find room; that room is the West.
Such are the responses which I gave in 1851 to M. D-. In the space of three years, what was simply an opinion has become a fact. My answer to the second question has been literally verified.
In the course of this year, 1854, treaties were concluded with the Omahas, the Ottoes, and Missouris, the Sacs, the Foxes of :Missouri, the Iowas, the Kicapoos, the Shawnees, and the Delawares, as well as with the Miamis, the Weas, the Piankeshaws, the Kaskaskias, and the Peorias. By these treaties, these different tribes cede to the United States the most extensive and most advantageous portions of their respective territories, and retain, as we have already said, but a limited and circumscribed demesne, termed a “reserve," for the wants of each particular tribe, and intended as their future residence.
We remark daily in the newspapers, that great numbers of emigrants are spreading already over the territories ceded ; yet the conditions precedent of the treaties between the government and many of the tribes, expressly forbid the whites to settle there before the survey and sale of the lands to the profit of the Indians. Notwithstanding these conditions, the whites settle there, and even defy the authorities to deter there.
The new organization of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska abrogates the protecting "intercourse laws." There-. by it has overthrown the feeble barrier which opposed the introduction of intoxicating liquors, which the inhabitants so expressively define by the term " Indian fire-water." In a few short years these little " reserves," or Indian settlement`, will be surrounded by a white population ; these whites, being for the most part vicious and corrupt, will introduce and furnish liquors in abundance, in order to satisfy the depraved taste of the Indian. In .all this the sole object is to deprive these unfortunate men of all that remains to them in land and money. In this position of affairs, I cannot conceive how the Indians can be protected against the dangerous influences which will inevitably surround them on all sides. Ere long (perhaps by the close of 1856) the delegates of the Territory of Kansas will knock at the door of Congress for admittance into the Union. If this request be granted, we may at once bid farewell to the independence of the Indians and the maintenance of their "reserves." The new State will directly establish her jurisdiction over all the inhabitants found within her limits. Although the Indians appear to be necessarily protected by the general stipulations accorded on the part of the government itself, constant experience demonstrates that they cannot exist within the limits of a State, unless they become citizens thereof. Witness the Creeks and Cherokees in the State of Georgia, who at one time were on the point of bringing the General Government and the State into conflict.
In several of the late treaties that I have mentioned, the Indians have renounced their permanent annuities, and, in exchange, have consented to accept considerable sums for a limited number of years, and payments at fixed terms. However liberal be the annuity, the Indian never lays any thing aside for his future necessities : this is his character. He lives from day to day. All is expended in the course of the year in which the payment is made. Let us suppose, therefore, that the amount of the last payment has been poured forth, what will consequently become of those poor tribes ? Here, it appears to me, is the solution of the problem : they must either perish miserably, or sell their reserves, or go and rejoin the wandering bands of the plains, or cultivate the soil. But, observe well, they are surrounded by whites who contemn them, hate them, and who will demoralize them in a very short time. If it be asked, to what must be attributed the improvidence of the tribes, which neglect to exhange their permanent annuities for sums to be paid at limited terms, but of greater length ? The reason is found in the disparity of the parties who make the treaty.
On one side stands a shrewd and, perhaps, unscrupulous government officer ; on the other, a few ignorant chiefs, accompanied by their half-breed interpreters, whose integrity is far from being proverbial.
Adding to these facts the ravages caused every year by the small-pox, the measles, the cholera, and other maladies, as well as their incessant wars and divisions, I think I may repeat the melancholy foresight, that, in a few years, there will remain but very feeble vestiges of those tribes in the reserves guaranteed to them by the late treaties. At this moment the agents continue to make new treaties, by which the government proposes to purchase the lands of the Osages, Potawatomies, and several other tribes.
Since the discovery of America the system of removing and of exiling the Indians further inland or in the interior, has been assiduously exercised by the whites in this portion of the continent. In the early times, they went by slow degrees; but as the European colonies multiplied and increased in power, the system has been pushed with more vigor. At present, this same policy marches with gigantic steps. Resistance on the part of the natives but hastened their ruin. The drama of population reaches its last scene at the east and west bases of the Rocky Mountains. In a few years the curtain will fall over the Indian tribes and veil them forever. They will live only in history. The whites continue to spread like a torrent over California, over Washington, Utah, and Oregon; over the States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Texas, and New Mexico ; and lastly, over Kansas and Nebraska.*
(* On the l st of August, 1854, in the Territories of Kanzas and Nebraska, there was not a town or village of whites. On the 30th of December, of the same year, thirty or forty sites had been chosen for building villages and towns without delay. Labor was begun at many points; houses are building, farms laid out. All is life and activity in these virgin territories.)
Within a recent period, and since I have resided in America, all these States and these Territories were still the exclusive domain of the Indians. As the whites settle and multiply in them, the Indians disappear, and seem to die out. The immense regions that I have just named include several millions of square miles.
Father Felix Martin wrote me recently from Canada "The Indian Missions are reduced almost to nothing. They follow in the train of those sad tribes which are no more what they once were. It is like a body which gradually sinks in itself. It is losing its grandeur, its force, its primitive forms. They have lost the character of nations ; they are individualities, with some ancient traditions, and even these traces are gradually becoming effaced."
If the poor and unfortunate inhabitants of the Indian Teritory were treated with more justice and good faith, they would cause little trouble. They complain, and doubtless, justly, of the dishonesty of the whites. These banish them from their native soil, from the tombs of their fathers, to which they are devotedly attached, and from their ancient hunting and fishing grounds: they must consequently seek what is wrested from them, and build their cabins in another and a strange clime. But they are scarcely at ease in their new abode when they are removed a second and third time. With each successive emigration, they find their grounds restricted, their hunts and fishing-places less abundant. Yet, in all the treaties, the agents promise them, on the part of the President, whom they call their Great Father, protection and privileges that are never realized. Is it, therefore, astonishing that the savages give the whites the name of forked tongues, or liars? They say that the whites "march in winding tracks to attain their objects," that their declarations of friendship, all beautiful and favorable as they appear,”never entered their hearts," and pass, ever with the same facility, "from the end of the tongue;" that they approach the Indian, "a smile on their lips," take him by the hand, to deceive him more easily, inebriate him, and corrupt his children. "Like serpents," said Black-Hawk, in his famous speech, " they have glided in among us; they have taken possession of our hearth-stones. The opossum and the deer have disappeared at their approach. We are overwhelmed with misery. The very contact of the whites has poisoned us."
These complaints and lamentations have been a thousand times repeated, in vain, in the speeches of the Indian orators, when the agents of the United States government endeavor to make propositions for the purchase of their lands. A feeble ray of hope for the preservation of a great number of Indians is left, if the law proposed by Senator Johnson is adopted in sincerity on both sides, by the government and by the Indians. Mr. Johnson proposes to establish three territorial governments in the Indian Territory inhabited by the Choctaws, Creeks, Cherokees, the Chickasaws, and other tribes, with the provision of being admitted later as distinct members of the Confederated United States. On the 25th of last November, Harkins, chief among the Choctaws, addressed a speech on this subject to his nation, assembled in council. Among other things, he said to them: " I appeal to you, what will become of us if we reject the proposition of Senator Johnson ? Can we hope to remain a people, always separate and distinct? This is not possible. The time must come; yes, the time is approaching, in which we shall be swallowed up; and that, notwithstanding our just claims !
I speak boldly. It is a fact; our days of peace and happiness are gone, and forever. No opposition, on our part, can ever arrest the march of the United States towards grandeur and power, nor hinder the entire occupation of the vast American continent. We have no power nor influence over the most minute project of this government. It looks upon and considers us in the light of little children, as pupils under its tutelage and protection ; it does with us as seems to it good. Can the Choctaws change the face of things ? If the desire of life is not extinct in our hearts; if we will preserve among us the rights of a people, one sole means remains to us: it is to instruct and civilize the youth, promptly and efficaciously. The day of fraternity has arrived. We must act together, and by common consent. Let us attentively consider our critical situation, and the course now left us. One false step may prove fatal to our existence as a nation. I therefore propose that the council take this subject into consideration, and that a committee be named by it to discuss and deliberate on the advantages and disadvantages of the proposition made to the Choctaws. Is it just and sage for the Choctaws to refuse a liberal and favorable offer, and expose themselves to the destiny of the Indians of Nebraska ?"
According to news -received recently, through a journal published in the Indian country, the speech of the chief has produced a profound impression, and was loudly applauded by all the counsellors, All the intelligent Choctaws approve the measure. The Protestant missionaries oppose the, bill, and employ all their artifices and influence to prevent its success. Harkins proposes their expulsion. "It is our money," said he, " that these mercenaries come here to get. Surely, our money can get us better teachers. Let us, therefore, try to procure good missionaries, with whom we can live in harmony and good understanding; who will give us the assurance that their doctrine is based on that of the apostles and of Jesus Christ."
The Chickasaws are represented as opposed to Senator Johnson's measure. We trust, however, that the vote of , the majority will prove favorable; and that the three tern tonal States will be established. It is, in my opinion, a last attempt and a last chance of existence for the sad remnants of the poor Indians of America.
It is, I will say, if I may here repeat what I wrote in my second letter in 1853, their only remaining source of happiness: humanity and justice seem to demand it.- If they are again repulsed, and driven inland, they will infallibly perish. Such as refuse to submit, and accept the definitive arrangement, the only favorable one left, must resume the pomade life of the praries, and close their career with the vanishing buffaloes and other animals.
I have the honor to be, Rev. Father, Your very humble and devoted Servant and brother in Christ,
P.J. DE SMET, S.J.