aring before the presence of the white man, and the
sound of the pioneer's axe: scantier and scantier grow the natural means
of subsistence, fainter and fainter the attractions of the chase; and
when at last hunger drives the Indian in to the agency, made ready by
suffering to learn the white man's ways of life, the provisions of the
treaty are well-nigh expired. One, three, or five years pass. All the
instalments have been honorably paid: the appropriation committees of
Congress, with sighs of relief, cross off the name of the tribe from the
list of beneficiaries; and another body of Indians, uninstructed and
unprovided, are left to shift for themselves.

The importance of the subject will justify us in dwelling so long upon
it. Of the expenditures made within the last twenty years under treaty
stipulations, probably not one-half has been directed to uses which the
government would have chosen, had it been free to choose. It is most
melancholy thus to see the scanty patrimony of this people squandered on
worthless objects, or dissipated in efforts necessarily fruitless. The
action of Congress at its last session, in authorizing the diversion of
sums appropriated under treaty stipulations to other specific uses, at
the discretion of the President and with the consent of the Indians, is
a step in the right direction. But the time has come for a complete and
comprehensive fiscal scheme, looking to the realization from Indian
lands of the largest possible avails, and their capitalization and
investment upon terms and conditions which will secure the future of the
several tribes, so far as human wisdom may be able to feet this.

In addition to the lands held by the eighty thousand Indians who have
already been spoken of as amply endowed, there are one hundred thousand
square miles of territory yet secured by treaty to Indian tribes
aggregating one hundred thousand persons. Besides these, forty thousand
Indians enjoy, by executive order, the occupation of other sixty
thousand square miles of territory, which, or the substantial equivalent
of which, should be secured to them by law for their ultimate endowment.
It is to these lands that such a fiscal scheme as has been indicated
should be applied. The reservations assigned to tribes and bands are
generally proportioned to the needs of the Indians in a roving state,
with hunting and fishing as their chief means of subsistence. As the
Indians change to agriculture, the effect i