New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-05-21
O. w1E or NOT is NE cHOoSE:

Gen. Sherman has been ont on the Plains =,
see after the Indian business. and he tersely
INNS up the result of his Investigations by say
ing We can have IN Indian war or not, as
We choose"
We beg our Government ut Washington to
understand that the American people do not
choose to soil their hands with an Indian war
We beg them to reflect that the time has come
when the nation demands a summary reform
in the incfable wckedness which has been
digniiicd 10y the name of "our Indian
policy" Everybody knows what that pol
icy is: to swindle the savagcs first in
making our treaties and then i'll the
execution of them; to drive them from one
reservation to another; to modest them per
petually. even Oh the lands we have formally
set apart for their use to plumber their lodges;
to ravish their women; To turn loose among
them LOT of tlievng agents; to hunt them
like wild game when they get inpatient under
our encrOachmentS; and then to proclaim an
Indian war; and raise n howl for "extcrmi-
nation" We fay them alive, and expect
them TO smile under it, We put upon
them the crucleSt proy0caton. and wonder
that they feel it. We exasperate them, and
gfllmble if they get angry. When Cen Han
cock met the Kiowas at Fort Lamed on the
I'd of May, prominent chief named Satanta,
who is described rs the most important Indian
west of the Missouri River, was summoned to
his presence, and, IN Il speech of rude el0quence,
which is not without ts touches of pathoS, ex-
posed some of the wrongs of his tribe,
and charged the Indian agent, who was
sitting by the Generals side, with appro
priatng TO his own use the annuities he
had been appointed TO distribute :"
g" want friends said Satanta. land am doing
all | can for peace. Little Mountain, who
&" was chief before me, did all he could to make
"peace but the white man kept doing some-
" thing bad to him, and he was in so much
misery that he died You have cut away all
"our timber: there are no trees now on all
" this Arkansas river any OF these Northern
streams There are no buiiaoes nor any
" thing we can Kill to live on; the white men
"have driven them all of. We are all
poor men; but our hearts are strong; we
"can make robes and sell them; and
" such articles a. the white men may
" throw away we will pick up, and
"brIsh of, and use, and make ont the best
"we can. | thought when the railroad came
"that we should get our annuity goods, but l
"have not seen them. Send us an agent who
sis an honest man, and who will not steal half
"0ur goods and hide them in the earth" And
the accusation which the chieftain made in
this public manner was substantiated on the
oath of white men who had been prvy to the
swindle. With what composure, after scene
hike this, the United States commander
could talk of peace, or threaten punish
ment, or upbraid the untutored children of
the prairie with treachery and theft, we are at
a loss to imagine. The case of the K0was is
only one out of n hundred. The best of our
frontier officers who have passed the greater
part of their lvesl among the savages, are
nearly unanimous in their opinion that we have
brought all our Indian troubles on ourselves
The Western settler il often worse outlaw
than his copper -cOlored neghbor; the teamster,
the hunter. the camp-follower, or, lowest some
times of ALL the Indian agent, kindles lire
brand of hostility which is not extlngaished
until after months of desolatOn and bloodshed. |
Gen. Sherman is right: we can have peace or !
war, just as we choose.
We were told yesterday that the sioux ami
Cheyennes between the Platte and Arkansas
rivers were to be hunted to the death wher-
ever found aud the remark was coolly added |