| Show who Is to blame biame A correspondent who Is troubled with that rare incumbrance a AM scrupulous up ulous conscience an and d a sentimental disposition writes us aking who is to blame for the present indian wael wai wat he desires to know know whether the sioux or the united states government have right and justice justlee on their side in the existing struggle the inquiry in jn the present situation of affairs is unprofitable and unpractical the war has been precipitated and it must be fought out to a bloody and decisive issue to go into the ethical question suggested by our correspondent would involve a long aad tedious story if the indian indians had been fairly and almly nna and consistently dealt with by our government if our administration of indian affair bad had honest if it there had been beeri na no greedy and fraudulent indian we had always faithfully observed our K t treaties with the aboriginal tribes as we observe them with pow fow powerful erful civilized nations if we the encroach ments of our population had not presented a constant te temptation to absorb the thel lands ands from time to time assigned them ia in lieu of others taken from them thern fi in 11 this ca carewe ewo ewe think it pio plo bable babie that there would have been na necessity for indian wars but these things have not been so berha perhaps pa 1 in tho the very nature of things considering their weakness and our strength and the selfishness and greed incident to our frail humanity it could not reasonably be expected that they would be so gen harney and others of our aur most famous indian fighters 1 have not hot hesitated to go so far as to say that in ln almost every indian war of which they knew anything the whites whiles have been veen thib first 9 sors the fact that the canadian government dealing with tribes as warlike as any of our own awn and possessing the same characteristics have been able to get along without wars goes far to confirm this view of the case The there can be no doubt that through the bungling inefficiency of our nalan indian system the bad character of or the majority of 0 indian agents and the prevalent doctrine among our frontier population that the red man ha 40 0 rights which a white man is bound boun ti to respect and the accepted maxim that dead indians are the only good indians the aborigines wave have been subjected to much injustice and to many outrages but the march of events and the billi y of giving full effect to purely equitable considerations where conflicting interests are involved involve d between the weak and the strong render all inquiries of this kind idle idie for any practicable purpose it is the maui maul manifest destiny of the white pioneer and settler to tor possess the i continent and it is the inevitable doom of the savage to perish before their irresistible advance san francisco chronicle |
