--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1845 to 1846. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 6 number: 20 published: 1846-01-01 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "“The Oneida Indains,” *Times and Seasons* 6, no. 20 (January 1, 1846): 1080–1081." printed_title: THE ONEIDA INDAINS. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1846-01-01_6_20 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v6n20.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1846-01-01_6_20 start_page: 1080 end_page: 1081 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1846 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1846-01-01_6_20 publication_year: 1846 --- # The Oneida Indains We regret that the Governor has failed to make a treaty with the Oneida tribe of Indians, in consequence of the utter unwillingness of a large majority of the Chiefs and Braves to conclude a treaty upon any terms that would compel them to sell the whole or any part of their domain near this sown. It would be better for them to remove to the Missouri territory, because their reserve, in this vicinity, will soon be hemmed in by white settlements-the land (which is of an excellent quality) being all surveyed and now in market-and these settlements will be to them like the poisonous Upas tree to the country around it. It is needless to reiterate at this time what experience has eloquently taught the American people, viz:-that when the Indians are in immediate proximity to our settlements, they quickly acquire the vices, with but few of the virtues of the whites: because we imagine the people of Green Bay have seen abundant exemplifications of the truth of the position: true the whole tribe are not immoral and not intemperate; but we are sorry to say that the number of such is very great. On this account more than any other, the people of this town desired their removal; and not because we envy them their rich lands and comfortable farms. As soon as Governor Dodge ascertained that it would be impossible to conclude a treaty, upon any terms, he desired that those who wished to go to Missouri at all hazards would make known their wishes; and eighty-seven answered favorably to this call. Their wishes will be made known to the proper department, and probably some means will be devised to remove them. Thus ends this attempt to make a treaty with the Oneidas. Governor Dodge, we are fully satisfied, exerted all the means that lay in his power to purchase either a part or the whole of the reserve, and his official conduct relative thereto, reflects honor upon himself and upon the Indian department.-Green Repub. (->) We have been frequently led to remark upon the truly singular course of the United States towards the natives, called Indians.- Great exertions and expense were made a few years since to remove the Oneida Indians from their "Reservation" in the state of New York, to their present location, Now they have begun to live again, and the voice of the white man from Washington to the Wallamette murmurs "go" And why? O because the poor Indians "acquire the vices and not the virtues of the whites!" What shall we say upon so extraordinary a result of christianity, liberty, and intelligence? We will say, and all nations of the globe will say-thy religion is a phantom; thy freedom false coin, and thy light as jack-o'-lantern. It is a melancholy fact, among all classes, sects, and denominations, (save the Mormons only) that there is not virtue enough among the better to create a reverence for purity. Sterling virtue! Where shall it be found? Who will forego the shining moments of amassing a fortune, for the mere name of "doing to others as he would wish them to do unto him?" Who is manly enough, and feels contented, to dwell in a common house and labor for a livelihood, when a few year's speculation, in goods, liquors, virtue, vice, and the other thing, will leave him in a palace with wealth sufficient to buy the opinions of thousands? A stranger to this world, would think that Jesus and this people had different views of the same subject; for he asked: "what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and loose his own soul?" but they are grasping for every jot. "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge!" Oh vanity!