Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-12-09
DECEMBER 9, 1868.
0bloI Statesman, Il ma i,
LFrom the Cincinnati Gazette.l
Our Indian Complications No. 2.
COLUMBUS, Nov. 27.

nrmy last stated that there were two
sides to the question of the origin and
causes, out of which the war, now waging
against the Cheyenne, Arapahoe and other
Indians, grew. To the task of proving
this Iinow solicit space in your columns.
Upon this point, as well as to the time
hostilities commenced on the part of the
army, the truth is concealed by the mill
tary. tJ'daE s2gi.y-lI si ll. '1 dzi
When, at the Chicago meeting of the
Indian Peace Commission, October 7th,
1868, General Terry, of that Commission,
introduced sundry resolutions, declaring,
among other things, that the time had
come for using military force against these
Indians, and those resolutions were adopt
ed by the votes of Generals Sherman,
Terry and the other military members
of the Commission, they knew their
action was deceptive AT that very time
they knew that General Sheridan had
then, been operating against the In
dams for more than two months, and
that, by his General Field Order No. 2,
he had complimented the officers and
troops engaged in five. different affairs
with the Indians, running back to the at
tack by Captain Moore, 2Sth Infantry, on
an APACHE Indian camp on Aug. I'd, 1868.
wherein three Indians were killed and
many wounded and-a large amount of
property destroyed and animals cap
tured.' Moreoverthey knew that when
they were resolving in Chicago. as an
original proposition of the Peace Com
mission, by the votes of the military part
of it, that military force should be used
to compel the removal into their reser-
vations of all such Indians as may re-
fuse to 60 after due notice given them,
and provision has been made to feed
and protect them within the same;" that
General Sheridan, under the authority
of General Sherman, had more than six
weeks before issued an order for {" the
forcible - removal of these Indians
to their reservations south of the
State of ai Kansas" They knew
more. They knew that, at the time
they were resolving at Chicago in Oc-
tober, 1865, against these Indians,i that
not one single provision of the treaty
) made with the Indians by these same
mea had been carried out-not one,
though more than one year had elapsed.
In giving orders to General Sheridan
2 as early as August, 1868, to proceed to
, forcibly remove the Indians, Gen
eral Sherman acted without author.
ity or law, and under a proper state Of
discipline would be the subject of court
martial. He was, a member, of the
j Peace Commission "a body organized
o in the interests of peace. AS command
er of the military Department, it was by
Executive order made his duty to sub.
, ordinate the, acts Of all the troops in his
? command to such PLAN of action as the
! Peace Commission might adopt By
: his order to General Sheridan in August
{ directing him to use force to compel the
Indians to go upon the reservation, he
violated this executive order. To shield
him from the effects of this grave mill
tary ofense was, | presume, the motive
I which induced him and his military col
= leagues on the Peace Commission tc
o adopt the resolutions they passed al
= Chicago, III October, 1868, so that there
!. by his war measures may be claimed tc
81 be subordinate to the plan of the Peace
Commission. 10. s-..sis.
4, Now, as to the causes leading to the
bdiscontent, and afterward the hostile at
ititudeg of a portion of the Cheyennes
q Arapahoes, &c. eusT'5 > yssqm
At the Medicine Lodge Greek Coun
Gil with these Indians, in October, 1867
the Peace Commission had great diff
tculties to encounter before treaty was
concluded. The Indians were distrust.
full and hesitated. They no doubt re-
membered the bad faith of the Govern.
ment in relation to former treaties
Chivington's disgraceful and brutal mur.
der of many of their companions al
Sand Creek in 1864, and Hancock's s dis
reputable work in destroying their vii
lage on the Pawnee Fork of the Arkan.
sas in April, 1867. But by persuasion
they were finally induced to execute
treaties. As an inducement to this, the
Indians were promised that at their next
annuity payment lin the spring of 1863
they should be supplied with some guns
and ammunition. By the terms of the
treaties reservations were to be select
ed, and appropriated to the use of the
Indians, and they were to be supplied
with homes, food, clothing, stock, tools,
&c, &c. The business concluded, the
Peace Commission left the country in
October, 1867, and the Indians retired
to their villages far from the white settle
ments, and there remained quiet and peace
full. Congress had placed, in July, 1867,
some $500, 900 in the hands of the Indian
Bureau to subsist destitute Indians. From
this fund these Indians were supplied dur
ing the winter and early spring. But il
became exhausted, and, although the atten
ton of Congress was, more than once, ur-
gently called to the matter by the Com.
missioner of Indian Affairs, no appropria-
tions were made to fulfill our obligations
with the Indians until the last of July
1865, and then, instead of placing the
funds in the hands of the Indian Bureau
all the money from which these Indians
were to receive any benefit, except small
sum under an old treaty, was turned over
to General Sherman, he receiving, by ex-
press provision in the appropriation bill,
upward of seven hundred thousand dol
lars to fulfill treaty stipulations in the
new treaties. ...-.es. - On
When, in the spring, the Indian agents
disclosed to these Indians that there was
no means to supply them further with
food, they were compelled to starve where
they were or to go out in pursuit of the
buffalo, whose favorite haunts are in West
ern Kansas, in the valleys and along the
streams, now sparsely occupied with set
tiers, with whom the Indians were thus