The Red Man and the White Man

THE title of Dr. Ellis’s important work on the Indians ¹ intimates the exclusion of one subject which just now engages the attention of scientific historians. Dr. Ellis does not concern himself with archæological questions ; he makes no pretense of determining the origin of the red man on this continent, nor does he examine the materials for determining the condition of the Indian before he came into contact with the European ; the mound-builders and the pueblo Indians are dismissed in a sentence. His interest is not that of a scientist, but of a social and political philosopher, and his book appeals thus to the widest class.

The method which Dr. Ellis uses is mainly topical, although in his arrangement of topics he follows as nearly as may be a chronological order; but since his purpose is chiefly to make the facts about the relation of the red man to the white man throw light upon the still unsolved problem of that relation as it regards the public policy of the United States, the conclusions which he reaches are repeatedly foreshadowed. To obtain his facts he was obliged to make a patient and much-enduring examination of a vast body of literature regarding the Indian, and he has systematized his knowledge without troubling the reader with too close a statement of his separate authorities. If Dr. Ellis’s book were a history, one might object to the absence of foot-notes ; it is not a history, but a discussion and a practical essay ; the conclusions reached are the judgments of years of study, and we think the author chose wisely in resting his arguments upon the clearness of his own statements, rather than upon an array of fortifying authorities. In point of fact, there can scarcely be such a thing as a scientific presentation of this subject. The personal equation is so great and so varied that its elimination or its measurement is practically impossible. It is of very much more importance to know what a diligent student, an honorable and just judge, a wise citizen, bred in the best schools of thought, thinks about the Indian question, and all these conditions meet in Dr. Ellis.

After a general and superficial survey of the field, he recites the story of the relations held to the red man by the Spanish discoverers and invaders; and then, since the Spaniard disappears from the field, — for Dr. Ellis hardly refers to Mexico, his business being with the roving tribes, — he proceeds to draw a picture of Indian life as it has appeared to the French and English since their permanent residence here and intercourse with the aborigines. He treats of the personal characteristics of the Indian, his condition, his resources and surroundings ; and if it be objected that this assumes a stationary quality in the Indian, it may be answered that one of the strong points made by Dr. Ellis is in the substantial identity of the Indian seen by the first settlers and the Indian seen by the frontiersmen to-day ; the unimprovability of the savage when in contact with the white man is made to be one of the few facts established by history.

Having sketched the Indian, Dr. Ellis enters upon an interesting and valuable inquiry into his tenure of land as viewed by European invaders and colonists. The confusion attending the subject is a further illustration of the utter incompatibility of savage and civilized views as to real estate. The way is thus open for a more strictly narrative portion, in which he relates successively the intercourse of the French and the Indians, the colonial relations, missionary efforts among them, both by Romanists and Protestants; and then the comparative relations of Great Britain and the United States with the Indians, in which he disposes with admirable candor of the specious plea that Great Britain has pursued a policy resulting in amity, and the United States one issuing only in war. He makes, by the way, a shrewd suggestion of the possible complications which may arise in the future from the passage of disaffected Indians back and forth across the Northwestern frontier. One further chapter, upon the military and peace policy with the Indians, brings him to the conclusion, in which results partially anticipated are summed up in the discussion of the Indians under civilization.

Of the general treatment “which is thus outlined we can make no complaint; in two particulars only do we think the author falls short of his subject. The comparison of Romanist and Protestant missions is based almost exclusively upon a consideration of the Jesuits in Canada and of John Eliot in Massachusetts. There is an advantage in this from the well-sifted historical material which exists, and because the remoteness in time excludes partisanship ; but as a contribution toward a solution of existing problems we should have been better pleased if inquiry had been made into the vigorous Christian movements on the frontier. The relation of the Praying Indians to King Philip’s war is of faint interest beside the part borne by Christian converts in relation to the Sioux massacre in Minnesota.

Again, there is a serious omission in a failure to recount the experiments of self-government in the Indian Territory. There ought to be a good deal of material here for use in determining some of the problems connected with the Indian question, and, above all, some light might be thrown upon that fundamental problem of the tribe. Dr. Ellis, we think, assumes too readily the necessary extinction of the tribal relation in any settlement of the Indian question. He sees, as is so readily apparent, the incompatibility of the tribe with citizenship, but does he recognize the profound significance of the tribe as an elemental property in Indian life ? We talk glibly of severalty possession, but if the Indian were to Indianize us he would probably fail to understand our creed of individuality.

Dr. Ellis, even in his last chapter, does not explicitly and deliberately outline an Indian policy. He is too wise to propose a panacea, but by his admirable statement of the questions at issue he half answers them. He faces, fairly and squarely, the alternative of extermination and civilization, and does not flinch from reciting all the facts which bear so heavily in favor of the former course; but, in spite of the generations of failure which he has been obliged to record, he ranks himself with the undaunted but not blind adherents of the better way. He believes that a great advance was made when the government committed itself to a policy which regards the Indians as wards of the nation, and not sovereign powers ; much of the contradiction which has marked previous relations will, he thinks, disappear under this clearer and more rational attitude. He contends strongly and with reason against a policy which pauperizes the Indian, and he recognizes with moderate but hopeful regard the experiments at Hampton and Carlisle. We wish he might have found it in his way to discuss two important questions: the proximate disappearance of game, upon which the hunting Indian depends, and the possibility of transforming the hunter into a herdsman.

Dr. Ellis’s contribution, however, is rather in his orderly collection, of facts and views, and his illumination of the problem by his statement of the points under consideration, than in a detailed, formal, and pragmatical scheme for settling what is, after all, one of those questions which command the broadest statesmanship, but lie beyond the definite control of executive organization. The most significant sentence in the book, and the best exposition of Dr. Ellis’s creed, is the final one, and it will linger long in the reader’s mind : — “The Indians seem now to have become aliens in the land of their nativity. There is one ray of possible hopefulness for them, and with such cheer as it may afford we may close the review of their sad history. ... It is that the race may soon present to us one or more specimens of truly great and wise men, patriots, civilians, of lofty minds, pure aims, with the faculty of quickening, guiding, and inspiring their fellows, lifting them and leading them onward. It will be well, too, if such a man or such men may be of pure Indian blood, of unmixed native stock, with the virility and the nobleness of a wilderness birth, and that he accept without shame —ay, glory in — the tinge of his race. . . . We have had a few of the Indian race whom, by our standards, we call able, gitted. great. They have, indeed, been few. We may count them for the centuries on one hand, — five. But all of these foremost Indian chieftains — Philip, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Osceola, Black Hawk — have represented savagery, have stood and fought for savagery. They have all been familiar with what civilization is and does; but they have loathed it, despised it, rejected it, and given their whole power and sway to forbid and crush it. Now may not this native greatness, this leadership of men, manifest itself in a few gifted with genius, nobly endowed, patriots in spirit, yet horn or self-trained to a conviction that civilization is for man a state preferable to that of savagery ? The elevation, if not the security from extinction, of the race of red men depends upon its furnishing masters and guides from its stock. A race that cannot itself contribute its redeemers will never be redeemed.”

This will be pondered, for it is weighty. Nevertheless, without excluding this view, the hope which offers it may add the conjecture that not one great leader, but a number of humble men and women, with all the qualities of wise conduct, may silently but effectively work a change in the condition of their race. The view which contemplates a personal redemption is impregnable.

We may, at all events, express our obligation to Dr. Ellis for such a presentation of the entire subject as ought to make it possible for reading people to have juster opinions. We can assure our readers, besides, that the book need not be taken up as a task. The thorough assimilation of his material has enabled the author to reproduce it almost as if it were original, and the soundness of his judgment has ordered a style which is refreshingly clear and direct. One may sometimes be a little impatient at the leisureliness of the author’s movements, and wish that some of the repetitions had been omitted; but with this easy manner comes now and then a good-humored passage, which is worth waiting for, and a shrewdness of observation and comment which has all the effectiveness of wit, as where, for example, he looks at civilization from the savage’s point of view. Mr. Parkman, to whom Dr. Ellis confesses his obligation. has written with greater detail, and is our finest authority for most phases of Indian life; but Dr. Ellis has rounded our knowledge in a work which will do much to establish just and comprehensive views.