Mr. Humphrey’s conclusions may here be reproduced in part.
“When we hear of dark injustice among the natives of Africa, or in Russia’s Siberian wastes, we turn in horror from the oppressed to vent indignation upon the oppressor. But when the tale of our own Poor Lot is told, we lift our eyes to Heaven—not being so well able to see ourselves as to see others—and murmur, reverently, ‘’Tis the Survival of the Fittest!’ Those who think lightly are wont to exclaim impatiently, that the Indian’s story is a closed book. It is—nearly so; but the book of history is never closed except by those who think lightly. * * * * *
INDIANS’ COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT. HASKELL INSTITUTE
“Bishop Whipple of Minnesota, who gave the best part of his life to the Indian cause, declared, after recounting the acts of broken faith which led up to the great Sioux massacre of 1863, ‘I submit to every man the question whether the time has not come for a nation to hear the cry of wrong, if not for the sake of the heathen, for the sake of the memory of our friends whose bones are bleaching on our prairies.’ This bookful of wrongs, and volumes more, have been perpetrated since. * * * *
“Col. Richard I. Dodge, after thirty-three years on the Plains as Indian fighter, displays in his ‘A Living Issue,’ this same confiding hope: ‘It is too much to expect any one of these (politicians) to risk the loss of votes and thus jeopardize his future career for a miserable savage. Politicians will do nothing unless forced to it by the great, brave, honest, human heart of the American people. To that I appeal! To the press; to the pulpit; to every voter in the land; to every lover of mankind. For the honor of our common country; for the sake of suffering humanity; force your representative to meet this issue’.” * * * * *
“Thirty years ago a Commissioner of Indian Affairs delivered himself of a fervent opinion which should become classic. The miserable story of the California Indians had dragged itself through twenty-five years; every measure of relief had been blocked in Congress by the interested few—the Vociferous Few in the Indian country. ‘This class of Indians,’ concludes the Commissioner, ‘seems forcibly to illustrate the truth that no man has a place or a fair chance to exist under the Government of the United States who has not a part in it.’ A more illuminating commentary on the Indian’s unhappy status in the land of the Free can hardly be written in one sentence. The Indian’s story does not argue that the Indian should have been at any time given the protection of the franchise; but it does argue that in a loose-jointed republic where national legislation is at the beck and call of every little coterie of irresponsible voters, the Indian has been subjected to more devilish variations of human caprice than if he were at the mercy of an openly oppressive, but more consistent and centralized style of government. There is no despotism more whimsically cruel than that of men unused to power, who suddenly find themselves in absolute control of a people whose one vital interest—an advantageous foothold on good land—is in continual conflict with their own chief desire—the possession of that same good land.”
I have reprinted from these books for a definite purpose. All four authors had practical experience with Indian affairs; all knew their subjects—not one was visionary. Our historians and public officials have denied none of the statements contained in these books. Since the abuses continue, and we have forgotten the lessons of the past, it now remains for us to change our Indian policy—to do so absolutely. We have been repeatedly warned, we cannot escape our responsibility.
CHAPTER XXXV. OFFICIAL VIEWS OF INDIAN CONDITIONS
Commissioner Sells very kindly instructed a number of his Supervisors and Superintendents to reply to my fourteen questions covering the present condition of our Indians. The questions need not be repeated as they are given in the table, Chapter XXXII.