[Re "any Indian claim for reparations," I thought I'd share a passage from _Empire Express_ by David Haward Bain, concerning the building of the U.S. transcontinental railroad. The following was written by Silas Seymour, a high-level consulting engineer to the Union Pacific Railroad, at the time of the "100th Meridian" gala in Oct. 1866 , when the most notable U.S. government and business figures of the day, along with their families, partook of a celebratory "excursion" to Cozad, Nebraska, to mark a critical milestone in the westward progress of the Union Pacific's track laying. The festivities included a Wild West show staged by peaceful Pawnee Indians dressed up as warriors – the scene that Seymour remarks upon below.]
Perhaps no better illustration could have been given of the extremes of civilized and savage life, standing face to face with each other, than the one now before us. On the one side was the track of the Union Pacific Railroad, upon which stood that great civilizer, the locomotive and train ... and in the foreground stood the group of excursionists, composed of beauty, intelligence and refinement; while, on the other hand, were grouped these uncouth savages, many of them almost in their normal state, except for the profuse display of feathers and trinkets which bedecked their persons; low and brutal in their habits, and mentally elevated but slightly, if at all, above the level of the beasts that inhabit this vast and beautiful country with them.
But the laws of civilization are such that it must press forward; and it is in vain that these poor ignorant creatures attempt to stay its progress by resisting inch by inch, and foot by foot, its onward march over these lovely plains, where but a few years since, they were "monarchs of all they surveyed."
The locomotive must go onward until it reaches the Rocky Mountains, the Laramie Plains, the Great Salt Lake, the Sierra Nevada, and the Pacific Ocean. Lateral roads must also be built, extending in all directors from the main line, as veins from an artery, and penetrating the hunting grounds of these worse than useless Indian tribes, until they are either driven from the face of the earth; or forced to look for safety in the adoption of that very civilization and humanity, which they now so savagely ignore and despise.
[end]
Carl
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