in enough, but it
will never be done by "Indian agents," selected from civil life, be these
ministers or laymen.

An army officer, methodical, orderly, and having the habit of command,
is the proper person for superintendent of a reservation; for drill
and discipline, regular hours, regular duties, respectful manners,
cleanliness, method--these are the elements of civilization that are
needed, and which an army officer knows how to impress without harshness,
because they are the essence of his own life. But under our present Indian
policy the army is the mere servant of the Indian agent. If it were not
for the small military force at Camp Wright, Mr. Burchard, the agent,
could not keep an Indian on his reservation. But the intelligent,
thoroughly-trained, and highly-educated soldier who commands there
has neither authority nor influence at the reservation. He is a mere
policeman, to whom an unruly Indian is sent for punishment, and who
goes out at the command of the superintendent, a person in every way his
inferior except in authority, to catch Indians when no mob is at hand to
drive them in.

A true and humane Indian policy would be to require all peaceable Indians
to support themselves as individuals and families among the whites, which
would at once abolish the Round Valley and Tule River reservations; to
place all the nomads on reservations, under the control of picked and
intelligent army officers, and to require these to ignore, except for
expediency's sake, all tribal distinctions and the authority of chiefs;
to form every reservation into a military camp, adopting and maintaining
military discipline, though not the drill, of course; to give to every
Indian family an acre of ground around its hut, and require it to
cultivate that, demanding of the male Indians at the same time two or
three days of labor every week in the common fields, or on roads and
other public improvements within the reservation during the season when
no agricultural labor is required; to curb their vices, as a parent would
those of his children; to compel the young to attend schools; to insist
upon a daily morning muster, and a daily inspection of the houses and
grounds; to establish a hospital for the sick; and thus gradually
to introduce the Indian to civilization by the only avenue open to
savages--by military discipline.

Under such a system a reserve like that of Round Valley would not to-day,
after thirteen years of occupation, be