Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-08-06
No. xrv.--''Lol THE POOR INDIAN ~

NhSuhsoi"o SOhboih SOiu.
No. xIv.--''Loi THE POOR INDIAN %
DENVER, June I6. 1859.
have been passing, meeting, observing
and trying to converse with indians almost
ever since crossed the Missouri Eastern
Kansas is checkered with their Reserva-
tions Delaware, Kaw, Ottowa. Osage.
Kickapoo, Potawatamie and Otters-while
the Buffalo range and all this side belongs
to and is parceled among the Cheyennes.
the Arapahoes and the Apaches-or per
haps among the two former only, as Indian
boundaries are not very well defined. At
all events, we have met or passed bands OF
these three tribes, with occasional visitors
from the Sioux on the north and the Ca
manches on the south--all these tribes hay
ing for the present q good understanding
The Utes, who inhabit the mountains. and
are stronger and braver than any of the
three first named tribes, though hardly a
match for them all, are at war with them;
the ArOpaho Chief Left-Hand assures me
that his people we're aIloays at war with
the Utes-at least he has no recollection.
no tradition, Of time when they were at
peace. Some two or three hundred lodges
OF Arapahoes are encamped iu and about
this log city, calculating that the presence
of the Whites will afford some protection
to their wives and children against a Ute
onslaught while the "braves" are off on any
of their fghting-that is stealing-expe-
ditions, An equal or larger body of Utes
are camped in the Mountains, some forty
or fifty miles west, and the Arapaho war
riors recently returned in triumph from
war party ON which they managed to steal
about hundred horses from the Utes, but
were obliged to kill most of them in their
rapid fight, so that they only brought
home forty more than they took away
They. are going out again in a day or two,
and have been for some days practicing Sc
cret incantations and public observances
with reference thereto. Last midnight,
they were to have a grand war-dance, and
to have left on the war-path to-day; but
their men sent out after their horses re-
ported that they saw three Utes on the
plain, which was regarded as premonitory
of an attack and the 'braves" stood to
their arms all night, and were very anxious
for White aid in case of Ute foray on
their lodges here in Denver Such an at
tack seems Aery improbable, and presume
the three Utes who caused all this uproar
were simply scouts or spies, on the watch
for just such marauding surprise parties as
our Arapaho neighbors are constantly me-
ditating. | do not see why they need take
this trouble. There are points on the Noun
tain range west of this city where watch
man with sharp eye and a good glass
would command the entire plain for fifty
miles north, south and east of him, and
might hence give intelligence of any Ara
paho raid at least day before brave en-
tered the Mountains. For, though it is
true that Indians on the war-path travel or
ride mainly by night, l find that the Ara
pahoes do this only after they have entered
on what they consider disputed or danger
GUS ground-that they start from their
lodges in open day, and only advance un-
der cover of darkness after they are with
in the shadows of the Mountains. Hence.
the Utes, who are confessedIy the stronger,
might ambush and destroy any Arapaho
force that should venture into their Rocky
Mountain recesses, by the help of a good
spy-gIass and little White forecast.
But the Indians are children. Their arts,
wars, treaties, alliances, habitations, crafts,
properties, commerce, comforts, all belong
to the very lowest and rudest ages of hu-
man existence. Some few of the chiefs
have narrow and short-sighted shrewd-
ness, and, very rarely in their history, a
really great man, like Pontiac or Tecumseh
has arisen among themj but this does not
shake the general truth that they are utter
y incompetent to cope in any way with the
IlOPNnnau or
of schoolboys from ten to fifteen years of
age, are quite as capable of ruling their
appetites, devising and upholding a public
policy, constituting and conducting a state
or community, as an average Indian tribe.
And, unless they shall be treated as truly
Christian community would treat band of
orphan children proyidentialIy thrown on
its hands, the Aborigines of this country
will be practically extinct within the next
fifty years.
l have learned to appreciate better than
hitherto, and to make more allowance for,
the dislike, aversion, contempt, wherewith
Indians are usually regarded by their white
neighbors, and have been since the days of
the Puritans. 1t needs but little familari-
ty with the actual, palpable Aborigines to
convince any one that the poetic Indian
the Indian of Cooper Longfellow-is on
ly visible to the poets eye To the prosaic
observer the average Indian Of the woods
and praires is being who does little cred
it 10 human nature-a slave of appetite
and slOth, never emanepated from the ty-
ranny of one animal passion save by the
more ravencus demands of another. ASH
passed over those magnificent bottoms of
the Kansas which form the Reservations Of
the Delawares, PGtawatamies. De-, consti-
tuting the very best corn-lands on earth, &
saw their owners sitting around the doors
OF their lodges at the hight of the plant
ing season and in as good, bright planting
weather as sun and soil ever made, could
not help saying, These people must die out
there is no help for them. God has Civ
en- this earth to those who win subdue and
cultivate it, and it is vain to struggle a.
gainst His righteous Decree And / yes
terday tried my powers Of persuasion on
LeftrHand only Arapaho chief who
talks English-in favor Of an Arapaho Tri-
bal farm-say of two hundred acres for
beginning be broken aud fenced by the