The Ninth Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners is full of condensed information and valuable suggestion.
The tabulated results of the peace policy during nine years appeared in the MISSIONARY for March. In view of these figures, the Report says:—
“These results in industry, education, and Christianity in the short space of nine years confirm our belief, often expressed in former reports, that the peace policy is the only right policy, and there should be no longer any doubt as to its continuance as the permanent policy of the government. And yet every year the proposal is renewed to recommit the management of Indian affairs to the War Department, and abandon the work of civilization so well begun. The grounds upon which the transfer is urged, namely, greater economy, a more honest purchase and distribution of Indian supplies, more complete protection of the frontier settlers from Indian massacres, and a more effectual prevention of Indian wars—these are repeated year after year, in Congress and in the public press, and as often patiently answered and fully refuted.”
As to economy, a tabular comparison is published, which shows that “supplies contracted for and furnished to military posts have cost much more—in some cases thirty-eight to seventy-eight per cent. more—than at the neighboring Indian agencies.”
It is asserted that the quality of goods supplied, as well as the prices paid, command the approval of all competent and disinterested judges, while the vigilance exercised over the transportation and delivery of these supplies has been productive of most satisfactory results in securing for the benefit of the Indians the appropriations made in their behalf.
The Report refers to the conclusion of the wars with Sitting Bull and Joseph, and calls attention to the fact that, though it may have appeared as though the disturbances had been quite general, in fact only a few hundreds, even of the Dakotas and Nez Perces, have been engaged in them. The wars of the last nine years (of the peace policy) have been more limited, and have cost far less than in any other equal period of our history as a nation. During the forty years preceding 1868, the direct cost of the Indian wars averaged twelve and a half millions a year. Even the war with Joseph demonstrated the effect of civilizing agencies, in its freedom from the barbarities to women and children, which have attended such outbreaks in former years.