OCR Text |
Show A SWAGE sE.'riMET. Every once in a while a stale, flat and barbarous saying it expressed ex-pressed regarding the Indians of this country. It appears frequently in public Journals, and is uttered by individuals. It is this: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." Such a sentiment as the words indicate indi-cate either comes from a cruel and depraved heart, or is "merely a thoughtless expression of a human parrots, who imitates and utters hat he heirs because he hears it, and because other people have said it," he takes it fcr granted as being proiitr. When the cold-blooded declaration comes from a person of education it is an evidence that it is simply the enunciation of a civilized civi-lized savage, one whose malicious nature Is In conflict with his Intel-lectual Intel-lectual enlightenment. And the Indians could say with much more force in reference to that class, that the only good white men who pos--ess such brutal instincts are dead ones-. The oft-used expression quoted regarding re-garding the aborigines simply mean, according to the significance of tile English language, that the utterer of it is an advocate of wholesale whole-sale murder of helpless and Ignorant Ignor-ant human beings, and tbat it would be proper to exterminate them. This Is about as high a conception of tho "march of civilization" as some people peo-ple are capable of attaining to. In order to further the cause of enlightenment en-lightenment they would assassinate the unenlightened, and leave those only who have reached a more or less advanced stage of development. A prominent Indian in the Dakota region, in conversation on the present pres-ent state of affairs, drew the attention atten-tion of a leading white man to the fact that in many respects the In. Jlaus were better than the whites, having no brothels nor drinking shops. It is the high function and duty of the civilized to enlighten and develop de-velop the ignorant, not murder them. If the same eagerness had Vteen displayed In that direction to-l ward the Indians as there has been I in robbing them of their lands, the ! question in relation to them won I, I have been solvrd long since. They would have been lifted from the dark realm of savagery into tho oright region of correct civilization It is needless to assert that those poor benighted people are not susceptible sus-ceptible of cultivation. This theory has been smashed in Mexico and elsewhere on this continent. Some of the brightest and most liberal-mlnJed liberal-mlnJed publicists have been pure blooded Indians. But the develon. ment of the Indians can never be reached by placing them permanently perman-ently on the defensive again't" the unjust encroachments ot the race claiming to be their superiors." We never see the common expression ex-pression favoring the annihilation of the aborigines of this country without being inspired with a feeling feel-ing of shame and indignation. 'He who utters it with a full sense of its purport Is a heartless monster. He may ba intellectually advanced, but is morally decrepit and made of such material as constitute tyrants. It is a pleasure-to note the fact that' the horrible sentiment exhibited by the oft repeated siymg-'The only gooJ Indian is a dead Indian' is meeting with wtde and unsparing denunciation from numerous sources and directions. |