Weekly Trinity journal. [volume] (Weaverville, Calif.) 1857-1972, 1866-01-27

~ The damage that could be done by twelve or
fifteen marauding savages is incalculable, and as
long rs they at large travellers are in danger.
We derive all our supplies from the coast and it
is more than hard that we cannot safely travel
the only road open to US. We know that the In
dams are faithless, that treaties amount to no.
thing. While we cannot suggest the proper
course to be pursued, we feel that there must be
some way to put end to these incessant agita-
TONS The Rogue River Indians warlike
and crafty as the Redwood Indians yet now an
Indian is as seldom seen there as in the city of
Washington. What we want is security. A
whole community should not be kept in a per-
petual ferment by few thieving, marauding dig
gers.
While the Ners man cannot suggest the prop
er course we look upon the limited condition of
the Rogue river country very suggestive
that there is but one way to have good Indians
They are best planted.
Thus argues the Shasta Courier, and we must
confess that we are just in the humor to relish
its suggestions. q They are best planted. -
That remedy has been advised by most of the
border people and papers for years, but they
have been prevented from enforcing it by the dis
gustingly lenient policy persisted in by Govern
ment agents and officials who were taking care
that their occupation was not done away with.
In this manner fourteen years have been spent
in trying to subjugate a few hundred predatory
and mischievous Indians in Humboldt, Trinity
and Klamath. In the Rogue River country, Sis
kiyou and Shasta they were planted, and fur
Their trouble or cause for complaint ended. In
Nhe first three counties Indian expeditions were
Authorized and prosecuted at a cost of hundreds
&c ND will rb
In NS5S, Messed and his men would have exter-
minasd the troublesome redskins, but the
der came not to shed blood if it could be avoid
ed but to gather them up gently, that they might
be removed to and cared for some of the
convenient Reservations where lot of lazy louts
would be fed and feed under the pretense of
guarding them and enforcing subsection. New
ertheless many a - bad Indian bit the dust
during Messec's campaign. The boys knew
them and concluded thatthey were best plant
ed Several hundred prisoners were taken,
though, and these sent to a Reservation
hardly out of sight of their native hills and hunt
ing-g-ounds When summer came most of them
were back to their old haunts, if anything more
daring and malignant than ever. People who
live remote from Indian Reservations, and only
know what is read and heard in regard 10 them,
may suppose that they are very wise and philan-
thropic institutions and that the object for which
they are intended is in the highest degree praise
worthy. Those who live near enough to and
know them as they are conducted in this portion
of the State, pronounce them unmitigatcd hum
bugs In six months after Messec's lndian-hunt
ers were disbanded the redskins who had been
so leniently dealt with were at their old work of
murder and destruction, and in the three years
following forty citizens of these counties, with
out regard to age sex, were murdered. and
some two hundred thousand dollars worth of
property destroyed necessarily abandoned on
their account. What cared the Reservation keep
crs so long as the Government PaymaSter made
his regular monthly visit?
Again the people petitoncd for aid, and after
nearly year spent in arranging prellminarlcs
the Battalion of six Companies of Mountaineers
was put in the field. but the same order to spare
life was promulgated. The new force took pos
session of the forts and military posts in the en-
emv's country, and to the best of our recollec-
ton held them for about a year and a-half. The
officers lived in clover, taking good care that the
formula of - dress parade - was regularly cXecu-
ted morning and evening, meanwhile keeping
guards posted on the adjacent hill-tops to warn
the guardians of the post Of any design on the
part of the enemy to besiege 1t. On one occa-
1t Is told that the mountain nONtLcTS Nclc
brought out at Fort CASTOR to awe the Indians
gathered on the Opposite side of the river into
good behavior, as the sportivc Government pets
were actually making threatening demonstra-
tons and showing their white brethren at the
Fort how greatly they exccled them in the exc
cution of the . manual of arms We expect
that full and truthful history of the last Indian
campaign would make very readable volume.
:: Shoulder-straps were in their element, while
TO lo;r ho II of the DrlyatcS
became disguised with the farce, and on more
than one occasion was INSTRUMENTATION threaten
Ell. 1t is but justice to say that there were lew
officers of the Battalion who seemed to realize
what their duty was and endeavored to do 1t
to the letter. Several hundred Indians were
finally awed or coaxed into Imprisonment, ana
the soldiers were notified that their services were
no longer needed. Some of the Indians were
kept at IIoopa Valley, and these we believe have
been faithfully guarded. The balance were sent
to the Mendocino Reservation, a locality with
which many of them were acquainted, ana 10
whom the beaten paths to their old hunting
grounds were familiar. Eight months have pass
ed, and many of those taken from this county
are back again, armed and ready for bloody
deeds, while the Humboldt papers and hiamath
Ncrs tell the same same story in regard to thelr
respective counties The Indians have been put
through this farce two three times, and very
naturally make light of the operation. The ON
GERS of the Reservation are at fault, and that is
why the system is pronounced humbug.
AS the Legislature is in session, may it not be
well enough to call the attention OF the Repre-
sentatives OF these Indian-scourged counties to
the condition of things, to the end that some
steps NAV be taken toward the final adjustment
of the evil? Is it wise or safe to neglect 1t TN
til the savage work is again commenced and the
torch applied to the lately re-occupied homes on
the border Shall more innocent lives be offered
as a sacrifice through such neglect? They are
best planted" But if it is determined to place
them on Reservations, let it be on some one lar
removed from their old accustomed haunts-
And would it cost the Government any more TO
subsist them on some Reservation south OF San
Francisco bay than it does at Round valley or
Smiths River? We wish Superintendent Maltby
would make an estimate and report.
MoIsr.-We have had over two weeks OF I'M
interrupted storm, and though the snow was
closely followed by several days of warm, steady
rain, it disappears very slowly so FAR there
has not been twenty-four hours of continued
peasant weather during the month "ednes-
aay noon the shone out for few minutes,
out SINCE that time, before, we have been en-
yel0ned in foo