Mountain Democrat., 1857-10-17
Indian ORtEa9oa.

sin, some 800 miles from Salt Lake City,
an account of which will be found in our
columns, taken in connection with the
outrages and murders Of the Indians on
the Northern route, have caused an ex-
citement among the citizens of this State
which can only be allaycd by vigorous
measures Of redress on the part of our
Government. What the people want is,
the prevention Of other Outrages Of the
kind. 1t is security for the future, not
vengeance for the past, that is now de-
manded by our citizens from the General
Government. We feel satisfied that the |
Government will exert its full power to |
render the travel over the Plains secure,
but how is that end to be best and most |
eGcctually attainedy For years the Uni
ted States have expended immense sums
either in the chastisement Of those Of the
Indian race who committed depredations
upon our citizens, or by purchasing peace,
paying them for their good behavior
Treaties with those tribes who lived not
very distant from the settlements Of the
whites, can generally he enforced. The
intercourse Of those tribes with the whites,
has taught them their inferiority, their
want of strength; becoming addicted to
the vices the superior race has introduced
among them, they have soon diminished
in numbers, and have lost that sclf-reli-
ance so essential to all migratory and un-
civilized people.
| Such people live for the present and
make little provision for the morrow
Our Government agrees to feed and clothe
them, if they will not rob and murder our
people, and they soon become absolutely
dependent upon the supplies so furnished
them, aad by withholding those supplies
whenever an outrage by any of their tribe
has been committed, until the perpetrators
have been given up, the tribe itself is fore
cd to hunt down and surrender the crimi-
mails. The alternative ispresentcd to them
of starvation for the tribe or punishment
for the individual offenders. In this man.
ncr, the murders by the Chief Inkpadu.
tab and his band of outlaws, was recently
punished.
With the Indians of the Plains, how.
ever, the task Of subugation is more
difficult ono and should engage the atten-
ton at once of our statesmen. The shoot
ing Of few warriors, the burning Of a
half dozen lodges by our troops, Of tribes
who deem it praiseworthy successfully to
rob, but adds to the incentive Of plunder
the more powerful motive of revenge
The posting Of few companies Of dra-
goons over an extent of fifteen hundred
miles Of an unsettled country, seems to
have no other effect than to convince the
savages of the facility with which they
may massacre with impunity. If war is
to be made upon the wild tribes of the
Plains, We must prepare ourselves for a
war almost of determination; their means
of subsistence must be destroyed, their
people slain, the sword, fire, famine and
all the other means and appliances Of civ
ilized and barbarous warfare, including
whisky and pcstilcncc, must be employed,
before the white may with impunity jour-
ney over the Plains. From such course
the American mind recoils with horror
from such scenes Of desolation the hu-
manc eye is averted in disgust Wcmakc
no excuse now for the inhuman savagcs
who have murdered our countrymen and
women. We do not now urge in pallia-
tion of their butchcry Of the dcfencclcss
immigrants, that which they themselves
say, when thoy point to previous wrongs
and aggravations by the whites. But we
do say, that our citizens must be secured
in their property and lives on their jour.
neys across the Plains; and that if our
Government would avoid a war of exter-
mination, prompt and extensive prcpara-
tons must be made. No white man, ex-
ccpt those in the employ Of the Govern
ment, should be permitted to reside among
the Indians Such men are generally the
outcasts Of society, and are the promptcrs
and promoters of evil. One fact induces
US to believe that the late massacre can be
traced to the wicked agency Of white men.
The Indians, in that instance, the report
has it, acted in spirit of revenge, because
some immigrants had placed St'ychninc
in dead OK, and the Indians themselves
give the report of the affair. White men
know Of strychninc as a poison, Indians
do not; the report Of the fight, therefore,
must have come from the white associates
of the Indians in assassination and rob-
berry. A force sufficiently large to keep
the savagcs in check, to afford protection
and redress summarily and upon the spot
to both whites and Indians, must be en-
ployed, to inspire with some respect these
primitive people for our learning and ad-
vanccment in the arts both Of peace and
war. Humanity itself requires that so
large force should at oil times be located
in the Indian country, that those people
should have before them an evidence of
our power which they are capable Of com
rrahandinO The exnenaa will be great