story, _qua_ history, as an
introduction to the discussion of the Indian problems of to-day. Equally
obdurate must one be to the seductions of Indian ethnology, except so
far only as it may simplify the classification of the present Indian
population to refer tribes and bands to recognized groups or families,
for the better or briefer characterization of their qualities and
affinities.

Even stronger yet is the temptation to enter upon the analysis and
portraiture of the original and native character of the North-American
Indian. Voluptuary and stoic; swept by gusts of fury too terrible to be
witnessed, yet imperturbable beyond all men, under the ordinary
excitements and accidents of life; garrulous, yet impenetrable; curious,
yet himself reserved, proud and mean alike beyond compare; superior to
torture and the presence of certain death, yet, by the standards of all
other peoples, a coward in battle; capable of magnanimous actions which,
when uncovered of all romance, are worthy of the best days of Roman
virtue, yet more cunning, false, and cruel than the Bengalee,--this
copper-colored sphinx, this riddle unread of men, equally fascinates and
foils the inquirer.

This, however, is the Indian of history. The Indian for whom the
government is called to provide subsistence and instruction presents no
such psychological difficulties. Curious compound and strange
self-contradiction as the red man is in his native character, in his
traditional pursuits, and amid the surroundings of his own wild life;
yet when broken down by the military power of the whites, thrown out of
his familiar relations, his stupendous conceit with its glamour of
savage pomp and glory rudely dispelled, his occupation gone, himself a
beggar, the red man becomes the most commonplace person imaginable, of
very simple nature, limited aspirations, and enormous appetites.

The Indian question naturally divides itself into two: What shall be
done with the Indian as an obstacle to the national progress? What shall
be done with him when, and so far as, he ceases to oppose or obstruct
the extension of railways and settlements? It is because these two parts
of the question have not been separately regarded that so much confusion
has been introduced into the discussion of Indian affairs. Widely
diverse, for example, as are the criticisms popularly expressed on what
is known as the "Indian policy" of Pres. Grant's administration, the
writer can confidently affi