The Indian Question [pp. 438-447]

438 THE INDIAN QUESTION. [July,
Art. 111.-THE INDIAN QUESTION.
By Rev. GEORGE AINsLIE, Idaho Ter.
THE most noticeable feature of the Indian race is its ten~ dency to decay. Could we have counted them, scattered~over
our country when first discovered, we would have numbered
millions. Now, only a third of a million remains.
Another feature is their slow progress in civilization. Nearly
three hundred years ago civilization planted itself upon their
shores, and yet only a few have yielded to its power.
These two features, taken together, tend to discourage effort
in behalf of the Indian. If doomed to decay, why waste mind
and material upon them? If averse to civilization, why cast
such a pearl before such swine? And yet we think that that
decay, although a present fact, is not a necessary doom; and
the reason our civilization has not commended itself to them,
may be due to the faulty presentation thereof.
Towards this decay, war has done its part. Since the first
serious conflict, in 1622, until now, scarcely a year has passed
without more or less of bloodshed. Moreover, many and
deadly have been the feuds among themselves. No wonder
the race has melted away.
Aside from war, three potent causes of decay have been
incessantly at work:
I. Intemperance. This to the shame of our civilization!
An enemy, unknown until civilization threw it among them an armed, deadly host. Every year its victims are thousands.
And while it maddens the brain and provokes to deeds of
violence and blood, it also hastens decay by sapping the
strength and producing disease.
2. Disease, the result of licentiousness. This is still more
the shame of our civilization. Throughout this vast Northwest,
where the abundance of the precious metals and valuable furs
has attracted adventurers, often of the vilest class, it is hard
to find an Indian whose system is not polluted by the poison
of this disease. Once introduced, it spreads and propagates
itself, and branches out and produces consumption and other