192 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



condition of the Indians, accompanied by statements of the 

 teachers, wliich show great numbers of the children are in 

 attendance on school, and derive much advantage from it. 



The condition of the Indians would no doubt be much im- 

 proved if the operation of the laws were well understood, and 

 their influence upon the circumstances and upon the disposi- 

 tion and character of the Indian were appreciated by those 

 having the power to change them. But unfortunately, those 

 who see them, if they are disinterested, are without the power 

 to remedy them. If one not bearing official relations to the 

 government or the Indians, should ojffer his counsel and com- 

 municate his knowledge to the proper department, it would 

 not be well received ; and even if the Superintendents sug- 

 gest any change, the evils that are described are not perfectly 

 understood by persons whose lives have been always passed 

 at a distance. It is as difficult to make such comprehend the 

 condition of matters among the Indians, as it is to make a 

 foreigner fully understand in a few words the working of our 

 political system. A few men who understand them, it is 

 true, do get into Congress, but all attempts to set matters 

 right, if made, are overpowered by the great majority who do 

 not understand them, and who cannot be made to understand 

 them by the discussion had upon them on the floors of the 

 capitol. The same difficulty is in the way of a proper dis- 

 position of the public lands. A Secretary of War, some three 

 or four years since, recommended that the mineral reserves 

 should be sold at a minimum of $20 per acre ; while 

 those acquainted with them well knew that if oflered at $1 .25, 

 the great body of them would remain in the hands of the 

 government. This defect of a practical knowledge in those 

 who are called to shape the laws, has been the cause of a 

 ten years' war in Congress, against a permanent pre-emp- 

 tion system, and a graduation of prices. The discussion 



