THE RED-MAN.
AFRESH crime in the Far West has once more drawn attention to the relations between the United States and the Red-man. This time the scene is in Southern Oregon, upon the borders of California. The offenders are a small tribe of Indians called Modocs, whose " reservation " lay on the fringe of the surveyed country some miles east of the Klamath Lakes, and next in succession to the tribe which bears the same designation as those large inland waters. To the north and further eastward were other bands of Red-men, none of whom have made common cause with the refractory Modocs. It is not difficult to imagine a small and dwindling tribe growing irritable under the pressure and restraint of rapidly increasing settlements, gradually becoming dissatisfied with the narrow limits assigned them, and finally breaking into open resistance. The Modocs, though few in number, are fierce, courageous, well armed, and endowed to the full with that craft which stands the savage in the stead of more systematic warfare. They are accused of having gone out of bounds, but it is just as probable that the squatters, not for the first time, trenched upon the reservation. Perhaps there were transgressions on both sides ; at all events, there were hot disputes, and finally force was called in to press back the Modocs within their limits. They resisted success- fully, drove off the handful of Regulars, and improved the occasion by wiping off old scores with the settlers. Rightly apprehending the consequences, they retired into the moun- tains to the eastward, and selected a fastness in the broken and tortuous volcanic hills, where amid the seams and fissures, the coigns of vantage and hollow ways of lava-beds piled up on a stupendous scale, they hoped to defy their enemies. Appa- rently they have a leader, "Captain Jack," who unites cool- ness and skill with an aptitude for treachery, boundless courage, and a resolution not disturbed by scruples of any sort. The first success of the Modocs instantly brought down upon them the Regulars and frontiersmen, who followed the Indian into his well-chosen retreat. It is stated that the Red captain did not command more than two hundred men, but, posted in the volcanic rocks, these sufficed to defeat over four hundred, aided by howitzers, and to inflict great loss. Instead of attempting to repeat the experiment, the United States' Government resolved to treat, justly considering that it would be better to reduce the malcontents by gentle than by forcible means. Peace Commissioners were sent, chief of whom was General Canby, an experienced soldier and frontier diplo- matist, who had often before met the Redmen in council as well as in battle. The Modoc leader agreed not only to treat, but accepted the terms,—surrender, amnesty, a fresh reservation further removed from the Whitefaces. A meeting took place in the middle of March, between the Commissioners and the leading Indians, not far from the stronghold. In the midst of the " palaver " Captain Jack shot General Canby dead ; at the same time the Rev. Mr. Thomas was slain, and a third Commissioner wounded. The troops, of course, were power- less to prevent, or probably to avenge this striking treachery. But the assassination of a General has naturally stirred up the wrath of the Americans, and General Grant has empowered General Sherman to do whatever may be required in order to punish, even exterminate, the guilty tribe.
Despite the grave provocation, let us hope that the United States' Government will not be driven from its just policy into the taking of life in cold-blood, at least to any extent greater than the heinous crimes of the Modocs may fairly warrant. The murderers of Canby, Thomas, and Meacham have forfeited their lives ; if the rest of the tribe are killed in fight, we shall not mourn over their graves, but an indiscriminate massacre would be a stain on that generous conduct which has been observed towards the Red-men, even when these were most steadily and effectively hostile. We quite admit that it is hard to be forgiving in the face of every-day facts showing how incessantly the invaded savage resents encroachment with death. We open an American journal at random, and read that four men of a surveying party, west of Arkansas, strayed from camp, and search being made, they were found dead on the prairie. All round the frontier it is the same. Apache, Navajoe, Comanche, Blackfoot, Modoc, if he gets a chance, takes life or plunders, and probably holds himself fully justified. The White man, with his encroaching habits, railways, thirst for land, for pelter, with steamer and locomotive, fire-water and electric wire, has sought out and thrust back the Indian, driven off the bees and buffalo herds, moved him from his hunting- grounds, forbidden inter-tribal war, and even brought the rail- way through his reserved territories. It is not surprising that the Red-man should resent, and even assassinate in the first stages of the taming process ; nor that his persevering opponents should retort upon him when their blood is up. The Modocs, no doubt., have gone beyond the vulgar bounds of wayside murder, but in that respect Captain Jack has many brilliant counterparts,—say, the French prince who slew his brother of Burgundy ; or Sivajee, who ripped up Afzul Khan ; for the crime is the same, whether the scene be the bridge of Mon- tereau, the slopes of Pertabghur, or a wild waste in Oregon. The great fact to be borne in mind is not vengeance, but the character of a government, the repute of a people, the efficiency of a policy which has not been unfruitful. General Canby himself, could he have spoken, would have cried out,— Justice tempered by mercy, not revenge. But if the Modocs persist in rivalling the ferocious wolves of their native forests, there is no choice left save that of killing off a tameless tribe.
General Grant's Government has been distinguished by the initiation of a larger policy in dealing with the Red-men. At the outset of his administration he appointed a body of unpaid Commissioners whose duty it was to supervise and control the Indian agencies, which had fallen into laxity if not corruption. The plan adopted has been successful in the main, has reduced expenditure without detriment to the Indians, has diminished the forays upon the settlers, has helped forward railway enter- prise, and has improved the condition of the tribes. The numbers who remain out of bounds and unwilling to accept conditions are comparatively few, perhaps less than a fortieth of the estimated total. It is these re- fractory tribes who assail the farmsteads, slay and plunder the unguarded traveller. The bulk of those who have settled down seem to have made some progress under the generous sway of the Indian Board. During the year ending October, 1871, the various tribes, excluding the Cherokees, who are a higher type, raised agricultural products to the value of £1,600,000, while the Cherokees' produce was valued at half a million. At the same time there were 216 schools among the tribes, with 323 teachers and 8,920 pupils. It is remarked that the Indians living in New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and even in Kansas and Nebraska, " have made considerable progress in the arts of civilisation, in the cultiva- tion of the soil, or in the pursuit of general business," and are eager to obtain education for the young. Plainly, it is not just to confound all Indians with Modocs and Navajoes, or even give up these as wholly irreclaimable. The duty of the American Government, a duty they have hitherto practised, is patience, longanimity, and the adoption of wise measures. Among these must be unhesitating severity in the punishment of marauders ; but we do not believe that, even in the case of the truculent Modocs, the Government will sanction a policy of indiscriminate slaughter, still less when it has a large scheme on foot to bring all the Indians under the State jurisdiction into one abiding-place. The great Indian Terri- tory, lying west of Missouri and Arkansas and south of Kansas, contains nearly forty-five millions of acres, and only a popula- tion of sixty thousand. Even if all the Indians outside the boundary were brought in, there would remain one hundred and eighty acres per head. That is a grand project, but one can well imagine that it may look unlovely in Indian eyes. The, inducement to aim at this end on the part of the Government is, that millions of acres shut up in settled country would be thrown open to the Whites, and that the Indians themselves would be better cared for and more effectively governed if they formed a single concentrated territorial body. No one can doubt that it would be more humane, since isolated groups of a slowly improving race, some of which may not improve at all, must tend to extinction. The sole chance of civilising and preserving the Red-man is the plan of enabling him to form a body politic. Whether he can avail himself of the profferred opportunity is doubtful ; but if not, few will be the North- American Indians a century, or even fifty years hence. Not many years ago, those who are ever ready to predict ill of the American people, saw in imagination horsemen by scores of thousands uniting west of the Mississippi to play the part of Huns and Tartars through the States. Now it is a nice question, how long, even when aided by a very fair Govern- ment, the Red-Indian can survive contact with the Pale-face. Outrages like this Oregon tragedy will facilitate his destruction, but we believe the Central Government will persevere to the end in its efforts to save.
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