The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-10-01


of the difficulty it win show that Count Mon
tholon, who did his master such good service
some few years ago at Washington, has not
been laboring in vain in Lisbon.
The Indian War-Its Causes and Remedy.
The troops under command of Colonel For
sythe, who were attacked by the Indians lately,
have arrived in safety at Fort Wallace. They
must have given the Indians severe lesson,
for, although they were only fifty against seven
hundred, they kept the savages at bay and lost
only five men and had only fourteen wounded,
while their red enemy, after discharging ten
thousand rounds of ammunition from our very
best Henry rifles, supplied to them by the gov
eminent, and covering the ground with clouds
Of arrows, had to retire with loss of seventy
five, many of whose bodies were found on the
Plains by Colonies Bankhead and Carpenter as
they advanced to the relief of Colonel For
sythe. It appears from the latest news that
the Indians are moving south OF the Kansas
branch of the Pacific Railroad, in the direction
of Texas and New Mexico, driving herds Of
ever, is located in that direction and ready to
meet them with five hundred cavalry, posted
seventy miles south Of Fort Dodge on the Ar
kansas river. These are the latest facts,
officially confirmed, from the Indian country.
Raids upon the railroad stations are talked of,
and Captain Clouse, who commands near Mon
ument station with very small force, is said
to be preparing to resist them.
Now, as to the cause of all this trouble. We
would trace it, as we have said before, directly
to the bad management of the Interior Depart
ment and to the correlative fact that the govern
ment is the ally of the Indian and furnishes
him the means to murder our soldiers. A gen.
eral officer now on the Plains, holding promi-
nent command, writes to friend in this city
thus :-''All the Arapahoes and Cheyennes
are on the warpath. They are splendidly
mounted and have extra animals enough to re-
mount two regiments, all stolen from the whites
this year and last year, animals which
the Peace Commissioners told them that
they might keep, provided that they did
not steal any more" We have it on excellent
authority that. almost every warrior who at
tended the council of the Peace Commission
ers last summer was mounted on horse or
mule stolen either from the government or
from some white settler, and some of them rode
thoroughbred horses known to have been stolen
from army officers. Yet, as the correspo ndent
referred to says, they were permitted to retain
these animals. Dispatches state that the In
dams who attacked Colonel Forsythe
were armed with Spencer and Henry rifles.
Of course they were furnished by the Indian
Bureau at Washington. They could not have
come from any other source. In confirmation
of this statement the general officer alluded to
says: ''They (the Indians) are all well armed,
some with the latest patent firear m Cbreech-
loading Henry rife), and have any quantity Of
ammunition--at least so / should judge from
he way they fired-lately presented to them
by the Peace Commissioners" What COM
ment shall be made on authentic statements
like these? 1t is through such nefarious man
agement in the Interior Department that Indian
wars are brought about. How can we expect
anything else but war when the government
supplies the means and literally subsidies the
enemy? 1t is well known that bands of In
dams who have kept faith with us hitherto are
actually to-day reproaching their chiefs in
such language as this ''See how rich and
proud the hostile tribes are and what fine
presents they have received from the Peace
Commission, while we, who are at peace, are
poor, starving, and receive nothing. Let
us also make war and become rich" This is
no exaggeration. III il true of the Cheyennes,
the Arapahoes, the Sioux, the Kiowas and
other tribes in Kansas, where the present diff
ficulty exists.
When the government Withdrew the troops
from the frontier during the war with the
the South the savages grew bold. The
first Indians who roved from their reserva-
tons were attacked by the Territorial troops,
and the last war on the Plains was in
augurated by the terrible Chivington
massacre" of November 20, 1864. From
that time the Indians and settlers were al
most daily engaged in fights until the govern
ment in 1866, relieved from its harder struggle
with the South. was able to send General Han
cock with sufficient force to bring the Indians
to terms. Hancock, however, knowing no.
thing Of Indian warfare, approached the
enemy in regular line Of battle, as II he was
fighting with white men, with his cavalry
and infantry fanked by batteries Of artillery.
The Indians laughed at this mode Of warfare,
but of course were wise enough not to give
BATTLE while at the same time, being alarmed
at the display Of force, they were cunning
enough to see that the hands Of the govern
ment were free to send any number Of troops
against them; and hence, with the additional
persuasions Of Father De Smet, the Indian
missionary, the treaties were brought about.
But our Commissioners committed the error