s to contract the limits of
actual occupation, rendering portions available for cession or sale,
which with proper management may be so disposed of, without impairing
the integrity of the reservation system, as to realize for nearly every
tribe and band a fund equal, _per capita_, to that of many of the
civilized tribes of the Indian Territory. But this cannot be done by
helter-skelter or haphazard administration. The subject must be taken up
as a whole, broadly considered, and intelligently treated, and the
scheme which shall be adopted thereafter be regarded as not less sacred
than the compromises of the Constitution, or than existing treaty
obligations.

For the tribes and bands having no reservations secured to them,
separate provision should be made. These number about fifty thousand
persons, deduction being made of such as already have their lands in
severalty, or as are hopelessly scattered among the settlements. Many of
these tribes and bands might, with the assistance of the government,
advantageously "buy themselves in" to the privileges of tribes already
provided for, without involving any further donation of lands.

Where it is found impracticable thus to place the unprovided bands, the
government should secure their location and endowment separately. Their
right is no less clear than the right of other tribes which had the
fortune to deal with the United States before Congress put an end to the
treaty system. We have received the soil from them; and we have
extinguished their only means of subsistence. Either consideration would
be sufficient to require us, in simple justice, to find them a place and
ways to live.

* * * * *

The foregoing constitute what we regard as the essential features of an
Indian policy which shall seek positively and actively the reformation
of life and manners among the Indians under the control of the
government, as opposed to the policy of hastening the time when all
these tribes shall be resolved into the body of our citizenship, without
seclusion and without restraint, letting such as will, go to the dogs,
letting such as can, find a place for themselves in the social and
industrial order, the responsibility of the government or our people for
the choice of either or the fate of either being boldly denied;
suffering, meanwhile, without precaution and without fear, such
debasement in blood and manners to be wrought upon the general
population