CHAPTER XIII.
THE INDIAN QUESTION.
Melancholy future of the tribes - Game disappearing - Enforced migration of the natives - Misery, destitution and bloody wars - Difficulty of introducing agriculture - Catholic missions needed - Kansas and Nebraska - Tragic end of Father Duerinck - Rapid decrease of the Indians - Their critical position - Attitude of the RepublicRascality in execution of treaty provisions - Approaching extermination of western tribes - Self-government- Regarding mixture of races-Treaties of 1854- Progressive invasion-Bad faith of the whites - Indians at their mercy.
Gentlemen:'
N order to complete the observations which I had the honor of offering you in my late letters on the western tribes of Indians of the United States, I purpose submitting to you certain facts touching the present condition of the Indians of the upper Missouri and among the Rocky Mountains.
The facts - such is, at least, my opinion - reveal clearly the melancholy future which at no very remote epoch awaits these nations, if efficient means are not employed for preventing the woes with which they are threatened. My visit to several tribes, and above all that which I lately paid to the great Sioux nation, have only confirmed the sad forebodings to which my experience, during a prolonged residence among these forsaken children of the forest, had given birth. I have communicated these views, in substance, to an honorable agent of the United States Government, who is labor
1 Letter addressed to the directors of the association at Lyons, dated St. Louis, June 1o, 1849. Forms Letter V, Cinquante Nouvelles Lettres, Vl, Western Missions and Missionaries. The latter text is here followed.