The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-08-25

ioi uier Ouiy, as IDulan oounuafleS are
not very we'll 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 Camanches on
the south-all these tribes having for the
present a good understanding. The Utes,
who inhabit the mountains, and are
stronger and trayer than any one of the
three tribes first named, though hardly a
match for them all, are at war with them /;
the Arapaho Chief Left Handed assures
me that bis people were always at war
with the Utes-at least he has no recollec
ton, no tradition, of a time when they were
at peace. Some two or three hundred
lodges of Arapahoes are encamped in and
about this log city calculating thatthe pres.
ence Of the Whites will afford someprotec-
tion to their wives and children against a
Ute onslaught while the "braves" are of
on any of their fighting -thati is, ste aling
expeditions. An equal or larger body
Of Utes are camped in the Mountains,
some forty or fifty miles west, and the
Arapaho warriors recently returned in
triumph from a war party on which they
managed 10 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 secret incantations
and public observances with reference
thereto. Last midnight, they were to
have had grand war dance, and to have
left on the war-path to-day; but their
men sent out after their horses reported
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 very improbable, and | pre-
sumo the three Utes who caused all this
uproar were simply scouts or spies, on
the watch for just such marauding sur
prise parties as our Arapaho neigbbors
are constantly meditating. do not see
why they need take even this trouble
There are points on the Mountain range
west of this city where wa.chman with
sharp eye and good glass would con.
mand the entire plain for fifty miles north,
south and east of him, and might hence
give intelligence of any Arapaho raid at
least day before brave entered the
Mountains. For, though it is true that
Indians on the war-path travel or ride
mainly by night, [ find that the Arapa-
hoes do this only after they have entered
on what they consider disputed or dan
gerous 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 confessedly the stron.
ger, mig ht ambush and destroy any Ara
paho force that should venture into their
Rocky Mountain recesses, by the help of
good spy-glass and little White fore
cast.
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 human existence. Some few of
the chiefs have narrow and short-sight-
ed shrcwdness, and, very rarely in their
history, really great man, like Pontiac
or Tecumseh, has arisen among them;
but this does not shake the general truth
that they are utterly ncompeteutto cope in
any way with the European or Caucasian
race Any baud of schoolboys from ten
to fifteen years of age, are quite as capa-
bic OF ruling their appetites, devising and
upholding public policy, constituting
and conducting a state or community, as
an average Indian tribe. And unless,
they shall be treated as truely Chris
tain Community would treat band OF
orphan children providentially thrown on
its hands, the Aborigines of this country
will be practically extinct within the next
fifty years.
have learned to appreciate better thar
hitherto, aud to make more allowance
for, the dislike, aversion, contempt, where
with Indians are usually regarded BY
their white neigbbors, and have been
since the days of the Puritans. 1t needs
but little familiarity with the actual, pal
pable Aborigincs to convince any one
that the poetic Indian-the Indians oi
Cooper and Longfellow--is only visible
to the poets eye. To the prosac observ
er, the average Indian of the woods aud
praires is being who does little credit
to human nature-a slave ofappetite and
sloth, never emancipated from the tyrnn
ny of one animal passion save by the
more revenous demands of another
As | passed over those magnificent bot.
toms of the Kansas which from the Res
eryations of the Delaware, Potawatamies
&C.. constituting the very best corn-lands
on earth, and saw their owners sitting a.
round the doors of their lodges at the
height of the planting season and In as
good, bright planting weather as snn and
soil ever made. / could not help saying
"These people must die out-there is ut
help for them. God has given this earth
to those who will subdue and cultivate it
and it is in vain to struggle against His
riqhteous decree.u And / Yesterday tried