At first we were content to crowd them beyond the Mississippi, but our example at the East has proved contagious among the settlers of the new States west of the Mississippi, and now all these States, by their influence over the General Government, are emptying their Indians into the Territories. The Pawnees and Poncas, and the great bands of Sioux Indians, under those famous chiefs Red Cloud and Spotted Tail—in all 15,000—have been pushed out of Nebraska within two years. The great States of Iowa and Kansas have but 1,000 each remaining in their borders, and Missouri has none. At the present moment, Colorado is making an effort to push the 3,200 Ute Indians, who have always lived upon her soil, either beyond her borders or up into the mountains, 7,000 feet above the sea level, and far above the possibility of self-support.

The Stockbridge Indians, whose original home was amid the beautiful valleys of old Berkshire, in Massachusetts, and who, while there—130 years ago—enjoyed the stated ministry of David Brainard, and afterwards of Jonathan Edwards, were moved west as far as the State of New York, ninety years ago. Since then they have been moved five times, and now a remnant of the tribe occupy a little reservation in Northern Wisconsin. Why should they have been exposed to such perils as haunt a people, thus violently and repeatedly torn up by the roots, and compelled to make new homes far distant from the graves of their sires? Or, rather, civilized and Christianized as they are and were, why should they not long ago have come to individual homestead rights of portions of their land in fee, with citizenship, as do multitudes of foreigners, of far less education? Instead of girding the Indians about with bands of love, and holding them to their ancient homes, where they could be easily reached by Gospel influences, the nation has taken it for granted that the “wilderness and solitary place” was the only fit home for them; and therefore, in the expressive language of Red Cloud, has “kept them on wheels.” We have been crowding them before the ever-increasing column of our Western emigration, and even now, the hand of the nation does not spare, neither does its heart relent. The Santee and other bands of Indians, fully civilized, are now petitioners for the right to take up homesteads that shall cover the present allotments, already cultivated and improved by them. Their petition is indorsed by the Indian Bureau and Interior Department, and though urged upon Congress last winter by all the added influence of the Board of Indian Commissioners, nothing was done. Congress has always shown more willingness to feed the Indians than to locate them. To secure progress in civilization, we must locate them—give them permanent homes, with all the motives for industry which they will inspire. To herd and feed them from the public crib permanently, like cattle, is to degrade and pauperize them, rather than to civilize and bring them to self-support.

There is a feeling quite too common in the community, that Indians, after all, are only outlaws, Ishmaelites, savages, “having no rights which white men are bound to respect,” and no elements of character which encourage efforts for their improvement.

A popular encyclopædia affirms that, “as a race, the animal propensities in the Indian strongly preponderate over the intellectual, and render their civilization, even with the help of education and Christianity, an event hardly to be hoped for.” Neither the experience of Christian philanthropists, nor the facts of history, will justify this sweeping assertion.

We do not claim that they have taken on them the nature of angels. We only claim that they are men, and that our Divine Master made no mistake in giving His Gospel to enlighten them, His blood to redeem them, or His command to us to publish that Gospel to them. If Eliot and Brainard and Edwards found encouragement for Christian efforts in their behalf, why may not the Christians of this generation labor for them with hope? Are we wiser or better than they? Or are the Indians worse and their condition more hopeless, than in the days of our fathers?

It is safe to affirm, in spite of all the obstacles in their path, that, under the efforts put forth in their behalf, many of the Indian tribes are making commendable progress in civilization, and large numbers of them are bringing forth in their lives the peaceable fruits of righteousness.

We, therefore, recommend not only that the Association continue its work for the evangelization of the Indians, but that it enlarge and extend it, as fast as God in His providence may open the way.

A. C. Barstow,
Col. Franklin Fairbanks, 		Rev. A. P. Marvin,
Rev. Geo. F. Wright.

On motion, it was voted that the report be accepted, and taken up for discussion on Thursday forenoon.