The Portland daily press., 1867-10-01
DAILY PRESS.
ND.
Tuesday Morning, October l, 1867.
"A Remarkable Council,
PORTLAND.

IN which this year has been particularly fer
tile, hardly one surpasses in point of novelty
and interest the meeting between the Indian
Commissioners and the representatives OF
the hostile tribes, held at the North Platte,
three hundred miles from Omaha, Nebraska,
on the nineteenth and twentieth of Septem-
ber. There the civilization of the century,
in the person of its messengers, met barbar-
ism in almost the rudest form in which it
now exists on the globe. 1t was necessary
result of this that clumsy efforts were made
on The part of the Commissioners to adapt
their language and their proceedings to the
comprehension OF a primitive people, and
to represent the individuals and the
institutions of which they spoke, so far as
they were able, by the Indian equiva-
lents. The principal chiefs who conducted the
negotiations in behalf of the savages were
Spotted Tail for the Brule Sioux, the "Man-
Observation-Disclosures ground" friend of the
great chief, Red Cloud, Pawnee Killer and
Turkey Foot for the Cheyennes, and Big
Mouth for the Orgallalas. To tally with
these dignitaries, Commissioner Taylor de-
vised the ingenious plan of representing him
self as chief of all the Indian agents, Gen.
Sherman and the other officers as great war
chiefs, and Senator Henderson as great
peac chief, fresh from making laws in a
mammoth wigwam at Washington. But
perhaps the ceverest piece of fiction was that
invented to save the Indian, the trouble of
trying to comprehend an abstract idea, like
that of government. The government
of the United States was disguised not
only under a concrete but supremely
ludicrous designation. Throughout the pro-
ceedings the power with which the savages
were treating was referred to as their Great
Grandfather, that title being used with im-
piled reference to an individual who is better
known to the great body Of his subjects
under the shorter and less respectful appella-
ton of A. j.. On previous occasions, ii we
remember rightly, the requirements of sol
emnity and impressiveness have been suffi-
ciently met by calling the Executive the
Great Fatherof his red children, but it would
seem that the Indian mind is presumed to
be impressed with a sense of the Importance
of rulers in direct proper ion to the remote
ness of their position in the ancestral line,
and that, by adding another "Great' at the
next meeting. all hostility will be effectually
repressed by the awfulness of prefxes.
These and many other incidental circum-
stances, comical or novel, are calculated first
to strike the attention of the reader of the
reports Of the proceedings. Important OBJ
jects were, however, effected by the Commits
sioners at this meeting. In the first place, it
was most clearly shown that the hostility of
the Indians is not excited by any vague and
underlined imaginings of wrong, but that they
are able to reduce all their complaints to one
Simple proposition, viz: the wrong oil buildiLg g
the Eastern Branch of the Union Pacific Rail-
road, and opening the wagon-road to Monta-
ma through the Powder River country, in dis
regard Of treaty stipulations and TO the utter
ruin of hunting grounds. The railroad passes
over the territory of the Cheyennes, and the
wagon-rOad over that of the Sioux. 1t has
been said that they demand the abandonment
OF the main route of the Union Pacific Rail
road, but Pawnee Killer and Spotted Tail in
their speeches distinctly stated that they re-
quire nothing of the kind, while the other
chiefs made no slusion whatever to thai
road. Beyond the demand for presents and
annuities that have been promised to thom
they one and all presented this as their ulti
matum: stop the Powder River and Smoky
Hill roads,"
The reply of the representatives of the
Great Grandfather, after taking night tc
think the matter over, was so disingenuous
as to show with painful distinctness the diff
Guilty of the problem which must be solved il
treating with the Indians. Gen. Sherman
was the spokesman. He told them that, as t,
The Kansas road, the credulous Great Grand
father thought they had consented to wag
on road four years ago, and that the innocen
old gentleman supposed that the substitution
of an iron-road would make no difference
And as to the Powder River road, that wa.
forgetful Great Grandfather cherished Z
strong impression that the Sioux had waived
all objections to it at council held at For
Laramie last spring by Gen. Sanborn OH tn,
one part and Red Cloud and man-afraid-of
his-horses on the other. But whether ther,
had been mistake in these particulars or no
the Indians were assured that the railroad
would be built in any event, and the wagon
road would probably continue to be used un
less the whites found they could conveniensly
do without it. The Indians were then tol,
That they would be presented with new ter
ritory in return for that which bad been tax
en- from them. The Cheyennes were to b.
located on the Arkansas, and the Sioux OF
the Missouri, their tract to embrace TIN
White Earth and Cheyenne rivers. If the,
did not accept these terms, they were to b.
"swept away"-"all of them would be killed
-''the whites would wage war upon them il
different manner from what they had hith
erto done", coming to fight them "as thick a
herd of buffalo, They might have till th
first of November to consider which brancl
Of this alternative they would accept, and tn
Commissions would come to Laramie on tha
day to hear their reply. Meanwhile the
would meet other parties south of Fort Lar
ned on the 18th of the present month.
Senator Henderson must have felt placed il
peculiarly embarrassing position while hi
military coadjutor was making these repre-
sentations, for during the last session of Con
gress he had, in very able and perfectly un
answerable speech, shown the untrutbfulnes
OF every one of the excuses made in extenua
ton of the aggressons of the whites. He ha
also shown that there is no truth in the allie
cation that the establishment of lines of CON
munication through the Indian country doe
not drive off the game on which the Indian
subsist.
1t is said that the Brules and Orgallalla
consented to a suspension of hostilities, ant
that one chief of the Cheyennes was part
to the armistice. But the great chief of tn
latter tribe, Pawnee Killer. painted his fac
deep red, mounted his horse and rode ava
over the plains. The results of the interview
are not, therefore, entirely satisfactory. 1t
not in the nature ofthings that they should b.
A proposition to abandon the railroad woul
everywhere be regarded as prompted by sp,
cies of lunacy. Indeed hardly any one ca
feel that such course would be proper. Y,
it is difficult by any ingenuity of reasoning I
show any more satisfactory justification ft
completing itthan that the strong may disr
| gard the rights of the weak.
| Dominion of Canada.