The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MC6fiDAY EVENING, JUNE 21,' LE 9.

THE RED INDIANS.

---ojp-

(From. the Anglo-American Imes.)
We learn by cable that.the Washington Govern-
ment have determined on vigorous war against the
Indians, and General SIIERIDAN has gone West to

take the command. Additional troops are to protect

the Pacific Railway, and General SCHOFIELD is to
raise volunteers for the defence of Kansas. This
cannot be called a new war, considering that it has
been in active progress for two years, and in apas-
sive state since the opening of the Smoky Hill
route. Last summer the Indians committed great
atrocities in the valleys of the Solomon and the

Republican Rivers;and no sooner has the season
opened which enables their cattle to find food on
the plains and thus to move freely, than these mas-
sacres have been repeated. The system the Indians

pursue is to divide into small parties, to appear
suddenly at an outlying . settlement, when the
lonely family or small group of families are con-
fronted, unprepared, with these savages. They

demand what the house has to supply in food, treat
the inmates rudely, eventually pick a quarrel, and

proceed to perpetrate atrocious barbarities on the
persons of their unwilling hosts. By this system
they enter the stronghold, they disarm their vic-
tims, they enjoy the agony of their'suspense as a

cat does the terror iu the mouse with which it

plays, while the satisfaction remains that a delight-

ful massacre is in store. Those who meet their

foes as open enemies with barricaded doors and

rifle in hand generally escape, for the wary In-

dian has no nnion of fairly pitting bis life against
that of the settler, and unless the opportunity is
tempting the threatening bands disappear. I'he
Sioux and Cheyennes, probably the lodges to whom
CUSTAR made the winter so unpleasant, have in-

vaded the settlements in which during last summer

they left so disastrous a trace. On the 26th May
a Scandinavian colony, sauth-west of Lake Sibley,
Kansas, was attacked, and at least five persons
were killed. The operations of the savages ex.

•
tended from the Solomon and Republican Rivers
to the end of the Kansas Pacific Railroad ; and 20
more settlers were murdered, while several women
and children were carried off. At Topeka Saline
County fourteen men, women, and children were
massacred, and the inhabitants fled in a ranic to
more settled Eastern districts. Nor is it surpris-

ing when this is the way the poor people were

treated :

-------
" The tongues and hearts were cut out of their dead
bodies; the calves of their legs were slit down and tied under
their shoes; pieces of flesh were cut from their back;
pieces of telegraph wire were stuck into the bodies ; the
ears cut off and heads scalped. The Indians boiled the
hearts of their victims for medicine. The Swedish settlers
who were attacked all lived in one house. Only those
were killed who left the house and attempted to teach a
place of greater security. Those who remained in the
house were not molested. 'lbis occurred in two in-
stances. The calamity is mainly attributable to the lack
of arms. Whenever a gun was fired the savages made no
fight."
- -

At Fossil Creek Station, on the Paeitic Railroad,
the Indians tied a sleeper on the track with the tele-
graph wire. which threw a loco votive and two
cars from the rails, and furnished the opportunity
of killing two men and wounding four. Several
of the railway stations have been attacked, and
where the savages succeed in disposing of the
guard they tear up the track. In consequence of
these atrocities the movement of the troops under
General SCHOFIELD is active all along the country
in the neighbourhood of these outlying settlements.
Scouting parties traverse the land in whatever
directions their limited number will allow. Gene-
ral CUSTAR has started from Fort Hayes, Colonel
HAMILTON from Fort Riley, Colonel AtEuatt.t. from
Fort Harker;- Colonel WEIR, with a troop of
cavalry, is passing up the Saline River ; and Go-
vernor HARNEY has organized two companies of
scouts, who have been arine 1 by General Sctio-
FIELD. The Governor has telegraphed to the
PRESIDENT to request that orders may be sent for
the despatch of troops to the Southern part of
Kansas, as he anticipates an insurrection of the
settlers upon the Cherokee neutral land, but
this is an iffair among the whites, arising from

a dispute about laud. The intelligence is clear that
strenuous measures will be taken by the Gov;_lrn-
'pent to punish the Cheyennes and the Sioux.
Sen-ttor Ross had an interview on the stihject with
GRANT. who as,ured him of. his stern de'erminatio
to suppres future depredations.; and Gen. SI
DAN has been ordered to treat as enemies all Indians
found outside their reservations, while the strength
of the troops is to be considerably augmented The
latest news is that the savages captured a Govern-
ment waggon train in Arizona, burnt it, and killed
three soldiers and wounded three. The manner of
dealing with the Indians is a subject attracting much
attention at Washington. In proportion to the•in-
dignation excited in soma by the ferocious acts of
the savages are the earnest efforts of others to save
an ignorant, barbarized race from a threatening
annihilation. There are many philanthropic Ame-
ricans who cannot divest themselves of the idea that
the Republic has not done its whole duty in at-
tempting to reclaim and save from extinction the
original possessors of the Continent. The settle-
m Jits of some tribes, now among the most peaceful
of inhabitants, have proved that there are Indians
who can be civilized, although it must be allowed
these were always of a far higher order than such
nomade Indians of the Plains as the Cheyennes and
Arapahoes. It is asserted that 14,000 of the Da-
cotah nation, located on three reservations on the
west bank of the Upper Missouri, have been re-
strained from depredation and preserved in a pas-
sive and peaceful state through the honest efforts
and the personal influence acquired thereby of Gen.
W. G. HAriNEY. Twenty years ago be conducted
against them a successful campaign, and they de-
scribe him as the man who fought Indians,but never
told them a lie. What the Government allows
is distributed amongst them to the last cent,
and in consequence of his .uprightness, the In-
dians have faith in his wisdom, his intentions,
and his word. A writer in the Tribune proposes
that the policy be adopted of gathering the Indians
into at most three reservations, over which the
Government could really exercise efficient control
and protect the inhabitants against swindling
agents. He would make Isle Royale, in Lake
Superior, the northern one, where he would plant
30,000 Sioux and 20,000 Chippewas and 'other In-
dian bands of the North-West. There are, perhaps,
15,000 Chippewas, who have 14 reservations in Wis-
consin and Minnesota, many so remote that they
cannot be visited by the Commissioners. In con-
sequence the Indians suffer from the cupidity of the
agents, and rapidly disappear. For instance, the
Stockbridge Indians in Wisconsin once numbered
10,000 warriors. They immigrated from Massa-
chusetts to New York in 1789, to Ohio in 1809, and
to Wisconsin in 1821, many of them havingsesided
in Stockbridge until a few years ago. The remnant
of the tribe, numbering about 300 men, women,
and children, reside at Shawano, and are now suf-
fering for food. The writer above alluded to ex-
presses the hope that the whole Indian population
between the Missouri River and Rocky Mountains,
not exceeding in all 150,000, may soon be gathered
into the Indian Territory, where the Cherokees,
Choctaws, Creeks, and others form a civilised In-
dian community, entitled to lead in the experiment
of creating an Indian Republic in the American
Union. It is but fair to the savages, whose fright-
ful deeds we have been recording, to state that the
whites, with whom they come in contact, are often
mre vici..us and savage than they. Indeed it has
been conjectured that among the Cheyennes and
Arapaho s who
ha b perpetratedreeds the late
PRESIDENT
e atrocities
is
were
white men andas
anxious to exL.rnt clemency and to preserve these
people from the effects of their own barbarism as he
is determined to put a stop to their depredations.
The Commission of Friends he selected to look after
their int(rests is sufficient proof of what we assert.
Friend SAMUEL M. JONES, the new Quaker Super-
intenden t of Indian Affairs, together with live Quaker
Indian agents for the Omahas, Ottoes, Nempas,
Pawnees, and Sautecs, arrived at Omaha, May 28,
and proceeded to their various stations at . ce,
where, it is to be hoped, they may be of service in
protecting settlers, and, we may add, the Indians as
well, and carrying out the policy shadowed forth
by the writer in the Tribune of gathering the tribes
into one reservation, eventually to-forava State.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

TUE CLOSE OF THE DEBATE.

. -
The John Bull gives a very interesting sketch of
the great debate from first to last. The Lord Chan-
cellor's speech is very highly praised, and it seems to
have taken everyone by surprise, for his lordship
had no reputation as a debater. The Bishop of
Oxford and the Archbishop of York lost
their chance of speaking, says our contem-
porary, through dining with the American Minister.
It may be that the incident was not wholly
unintentional, and that these astute prelates
preferred not to take a prominent part, at least, in
the debate, (Dr. Wilberforce has taken a very pro-
minent part in the division), and, moreover, did
not care to enter the lists of oratory against
the newest of the bishops, for whom, eloquent
though the latter prelate is, even he is no match.
Lord Derby, whi) had been ill throughout the week,
had a slceplecs night on Thursday, and was much
overcome by the effort of his speech. The faces of
the Bishop of Oxford and Mr. Gladstone during the
speech of Lord Westbury, especially when he
described himself as the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, and expressed his great devotion for
archbishops and bishops, were a study.

in a garret, and in close proximity mere was a
" sister" with a cane. Taking the side of the weaker
one, and despiting the law and the police, some
Protestants executed summary vengeance upon the
corrector of the servant. For two nights dis-
turbances have taken place.