Indian Question.

It is not often that Cambridge people or Harvard men have had the chance to hear so clear and concise an exposition of the Indian Question in South Dakota as the Rt. Rev. Wm. H. Hare, Bishop of Dakota, gave at Sanders Theatre last evening. The speaker is one of the foremost, if not the foremost Indian missionary and worker in the country, and to this important educational labor Bishop Hare has given his undivided attention for the past eighteen years.

In the beginning of his speech Bishop Hare said that he came to speak of the Sioux tribe only, a small portion of the Indians of the United States, but by far the most important. These Sioux constitute the most important tribe of recent United States history. It was this tribe which has been most strenuous in opposition to the advances of civilization; it was to settle difficulties with the Sioux that the famous council of 1868-9 met; it was this tribe whose warriors were most belligerent.

But education and missionary work have done much for the Sioux in recent years. It is often asked, however, if education really subdues the inherent fierceness of the Sioux blood-if these Indians do not often relapse into vicious modes of life after leaving the mission school? Not often, but sometimes. Can not any one cite examples of college friends who have had every advantage of education and surroundings, and yet have gone to the bad? And should one expect better things of the Indian? Can a settlement of Indians be very vicious where it is perfectly safe for a single woman to live alone and teach, far away from white friends or acquaintances?

How, then, did it happen that this last outbreak occurred? Briefly, it was the last uprising of heathenism, a manifestation of savage impatience. The old chiefs, discontented with the present, looked back on the past and remembered only the times when they shot the buffalo, forgetting the intermediate periods of hunger; they forget the days in their youth when they were ill-clad, and remember only the festal days when their bodies were gaudily decorated.

Then, too, the United States government has not always observed the various clauses of its treaties. The promises of the government to give comfortable houses to the Indians have not been observed in one case out of five. When we think of these things, and remember that the Sioux are a people who in years gone by were wont to roam from Kansas to Canada, and from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, can we wonder at their restlessness? By the recent action of Congress in depriving this tribe of half their land, 11,000,000 acres, this restlessness was changed into dissatisfaction, a dissatisfaction which caused them continually to brood over their wrongs, having no work to occupy their time. And history tells us what happens when idle people brood over their wrongs-uprisings and out-breaks are inevitable.

Bishop Hare then gave a vivid description of the recent ghost dances, skirmishes and massacres in Dakota, in which the speaker thought the action of the soldiers was muct to be blamed. In conclusion, Bishop Hare suggested several practicable remedies for the Indian troubles. The government is, by agreement, bound to furnish the Indians rations and clothing. First of all, let money be given instead of clothing, instead of cattle. When the government promises a good coat to the Indian, who is to say what a good coat is? But about a silver dollar there can be no question! And, again, money given to the Indians is pay and bestows upon them a certain independence. If they are paid, the stigma of pauperism cannot be applied to them. And if money should be given them monthly, there would be no danger of their indulging in revels. Secondly, the Indian educational and mission work should be strengthened.

At the conclusion of Bishop Hare's address, resolutions advocating the applying of civil service rules to the appointment of Indian agents, where feasible, were passed; and it was further voted that these resolutions, with the signatures of prominent members of the C. I. R. A. should be sent to President Harrison. After the transaction of this business, the meeting then adjourned.