INDIAN AFFAIRS. In former years an idea was prevalent that the national govern ment had always striven to dispossess the In dians from the lands they occupied, or had sympathized with such efforts. This was the exact reverse of the truth. From its foundation until now history presents an unbroken record of quarrels between Indians and bordering or interdwelling white settlers, in which the gov ernment has been slowly and reluctantly pushed on to interfere; sympathizing with and justify ing the Indians against its own citizens, its commissioners usually reporting in their favor and even its generals in later days blaming the whites for the troubles; its courts deciding in their favor; attempting pacification amid local outcries against them, rebuffing appeals for aid and only using its armies to reduce the Indians and its administrative power to remove them when it was no longer politically possible to leave them in possession. Even then, it has meant to deal righteously by them; but the complexity of the problem — one may say its insolubility till the country was very strong and the Indians very weak — along with the universal curse of ((spoils') in the administra tion—hindered success. Until 1::7, there was no consistently formulated plan, but there has followed a sequence of government panaceas in a steadily descending line. First, there was to be one vast Indian reservation, large enough to give them all the hunting-room they needed and so far from the United States that our growth would never reach to them and create more troubles; then three great reservations, to prevent, so formidable an Indian district and internecine Indian wars; then a number of small ones, to segregate hopelessly hostile tribes, enable better training for civilized existence, and protect them from depredations; lastly, no reservations, but severalty ownership and indi vidual citizenship. These changes of policy have been due not to fickleness or visionary causes, but to broadening experience and vary ing conditions.
The policy of removing the Indians west of the Mississippi was first formulated by Jeffer son, who in a proposed constitutional amend ment (1803) set off the Louisiana Purchase north of the Arkansas as a pure Indian country, in which no land was to be sold to whites. This was carried out, on a much reduced scale, In the formation of Indian Territory (q.v.) by act of 30 June 1834; by another act of same date a superintendent of Indian affairs was ap pointed; no one to trade or settle in the Indian country without permission from him or his agents. Previous to this the Indian matters had been under the War Department; in 1849 they were transferred to the new Department of the Interior, of which they still form a bureau.
Under the Commissioner of Indian Affairs are eight inspectors and a large variety of subordi nate officials and employees. The Indian agents, though under his control, are appointed by the President for four years, with bonds; on their action depends often peace or war to great i white populations, but in too many cases form erly they were the football of politics and some times scandalously unfit for their places.
The legal theory, for some time, was that each tribe was a nation, but not a foreign nor independent one; a ((domestic dependent na tion?) but with which, nevertheless, all inter course was to be conducted through special commissioners appointed by the President. In 1871 Congress abolished this method of pro cedure, and substituted immediate Congressional control, but the fiction of Indian nations re mained; nor, indeed, could any other system well be applied so long as the Indians were recognized as national wards, and could not be made a part of the regular republican system or thrown into the current of unrestricted com petition. It was the general plan to let the larger and better advanced ones, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creeks and Seminoles (qq.v.), the five cnatione of the Indian Terri tory, govern themselves and thus develop polit ical life, including a full judiciary system. But the smaller ones could not be thus left, even in leading-strings; and in all, the govern ment has recognized its duty to watch over their ignorance, improvidence and savage in stability of will and emotion from either vio lence or cunning on the part of the whites. Traders with them must have certificates of good character and be licensed by the Indian commissioner, and the goods they sell are sub ject to regulation ; no one can hunt, cut timber or pasture cattle on Indian lands without the agent's permission; intoxicating liquors may not be sold to them. Still more important and beneficial is the educational work, which has not only been carried on by churches, missionary societies and private individuals from early times, but has been actively forwarded by the government. The five civilized nations of In dian Territory had their own school system, of considerable extent; but for others, and even for those where needed, the President was em powered in 1865 to appoint instructors of Indian children in reading, writing, arithmetic and agriculture, and in 1882 to appoint an in spector of Indian schools. See INDIAN, EDU CATION OF THE.