re compelled to procure their cooperation, and this they do by
providing that their debts shall be paid. The traders obtain the
concurrence of the Indians by refusing to give them further credit,
and by representing to them that they will receive an immense
amount of money if they sell their lands, and thenceforth will live
at ease, with plenty to eat, and plenty to wear, and plenty of
powder and lead, and of whatever else they may request. After the
treaty is agreed to, the amount of ready money is absorbed by the
_exorbitant demands of the traders_, and _the expenses of the
removal of the Indians to their reservations_!

'After that the trader no longer looks to the Indian for his pay;
he gets it from their annuities. He, therefore, does not use the
same means to conciliate their good will that he did when he was
dependent upon their honesty. Claims for depredations upon white
settlers are also deducted out of their moneys before they leave
Washington, on _insufficient testimony_; and these are always, when
based on fact, _double the actual loss_; for the Indian Department
is notoriously corrupt, and the hand manipulating the machinery
_must be crossed with gold_! The 'expenses' of obtaining a claim
enter into the amount demanded and allowed. The demand is not only
generally unjust, but, instead of its being deducted from the
moneys of the wrong doer, _it is taken from the annuities of all_!
This course punishes the innocent and rewards the guilty, because
the property taken by the depredator is of more value than the
slight percentage he loses.

'Many of the stipulations as to establishing schools and furnishing
them with farming utensils, are never carried out. Building and
supply contracts are entered into without investigation at
outrageous prices, and goods belonging to the Indians are put into
the traders' stores, and _sold to their owners_, and the moneys
realized _shared by the trader and the Agent_!'

Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, in his appeal for the red man, confirms
this statement beyond doubt or question:

'There is not a man in America,' he says,'who ever gave an hour's
calm reflection to this subject, who does not know that our Indian
system is an organized system of robbery, and has been for years a
disgrace to the nation. It has l