TO INTRODUCE AMONG INDIANS THE CUSTOMS AND PURSUITS OF CIVILIZED LIFE

In this speech, President Chester A. Arthur outlines what he sees as the historic failure of federal policy towards Native Americans, and he outlines the foundations of a new way of dealing with the "Indian problem." 
 

This question [of managing "Indian affairs"] has been a cause of trouble and embarrassment from the infancy of the Government....
 
It has been easier to resort to convenient makeshifts for tiding over temporary difficulties than to grapple with the great permanent problem.... It was natural, at a time when the national territory seemed almost illimitable and contained many millions of acres far outside the bounds of civilized settlements, that a policy should have been initiated... of relegating them by treaty stipulations to the occupancy of immense reservations in the West, and of encouraging them to live the savage life, undisturbed by any earnest and well-directed efforts to bring them under the influences of civilization.
 
The unsatisfactory results which have sprung from this policy are becoming apparent to all.
 
As the white settlements have crowded the borders of the reservations, the Indians, sometimes contentedly and sometimes against their will, have been transferred to other hunting grounds, from which they have again been dislodged whenever their newfound homes have been desired by the adventurous settlers.
 
These removals and the frontier collisions by which they have often been preceded have led to frequent and disastrous conflicts between the races.  It is profitless to discuss here which of them has been chiefly responsible for the disturbances....
 
We have to deal with the appalling fact that though thousands of lives have been sacrificed and hundreds of millions of dollars expended in the attempt to solve the Indian problem, it has until within the past few years seemed scarcely nearer a solution that it was half a century ago....

[To alleviate the "Indian problem," I propose]... to introduce among the Indians the customs and pursuits of civilized life and gradually to absorb them into the mass of our citizens, sharing their rights and holden to their responsibilities....
 
First.  I recommend the passage of an act making the laws of the various states and Territories applicable to Indian reservations within their borders.... The Indian should receive the protection of the law.  He should be allowed to maintain in court the rights of person and property.  He has repeatedly begged for this privilege.  Its exercise would be very valuable to him in his progress towards civilization.
 
Second.... Permitting the allotment in severalty to...  [Indians] of a reasonable quantity of land secured to them by patent, and for their own protection made inalienable for twenty or twenty five years, is demanded for their present welfare and their permanent advancement.
 
In return for such considerate action on the part of Government, there is reason to believe that the Indians in large numbers would be persuaded to sever their tribal relations and to engage a once in agricultural pursuits.  Many of them realize that their hunting days are over and that it is now for their best interests to conform their manner of life to the new order of things....
 
[Allotting Indians personal title to land] would have a direct and powerful influence in dissolving the tribal bond, which is so prominent a feature of savage life, and which tends so strongly to perpetuate it.
 
Third.  I advise a liberal appropriation for the support of Indian schools, because of my confident belief that such a course is consistent with the wisest economy....

President Chester A. Arthur, Third Annual Message (on the Indian problem), 1884