The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-04
MORE INDIAN DIFFICULTIES.


MORE INDIAN DIFFICULTIES.
Two leading phases of the Indian question
and of the practical difficulty of making
satisfactory disposition of the savages are pre-
scented by Associated Press dispatches pub
ished this morning. On the one hand Vim
cent Collyer, in letter to the President,
complains bitterly of the wanton cruelty of
military officer in bombarding an Indian vii
age in Alaska; and on the other despatch
from South Pass City, Wyoming Territory,
states that six white citizens have recently
been massacred, and that stage coach con-
Gaining number of important personages
has probably been attacked by body of In
dians who were supposed to be peaceable and
s'friendly, as they hadrecently been sent by
General Augur to the region in which they
committed these ravages. These dispatches
illustrate more forcibly than columns
of comment the irrepressible nature
of the unceasing conflict between civilization
and barbarism, and the many mutual wrongs
which are inevitably perpetrated when the
pale faces and red men are brought into
direct contact with each other. Army Off
are not always models of discretion and
humanity. 1t is their business to fight.
Their best hope of speedy promotion, like
that of the Indian warriors, depends upon
distinction gained in actual conflict, and
when difficulties or disputes arise, they are
naturally predisposed to conquer peace with
the sword or cannon rather than to restore it
by friendly overtures and treaty-making pow
vows. In Alaska the original wrong was
perpetrated by an Indian, even according to
the statement of Mr.. Collyer. While intoxi-
Gated he had severely bitten woman's finger
A lieutenant was ordered to arrest the
offender. Mr.. Collyer says that ''the
arrest of such a man as this is any day
effected by two or three ordinary policemen
in our cities with perfect ease and quietness."
True, but this Indian offender sought refuge
in an Indian village containing an Indian
population of five hundred souls; and Mr..
Collyer appears to be oblivious Of the fact
that the aboriginal mind has not been in
spired with an instructive feeling of respect
for the authority which is typifed by police
men. Our officers of justice rarely encounter
desperate resistance from offenders unless
they are men of the Haggerty stamp; and if
they are resisted, the bulk of the surround
ing population almost invariably rallies to
their defense. Thepoliceman who attempted to
arrest an Indian concealed among avid tribe,
however, would bring upon himself not only
the hostility of the individual offender but of
all his associates. In fact the task in ques-
tion would involve even greater risks AMI
dangers than those connected with the attempt
to arrest the savages of our own oity which
were exemplifed in the varied phases of Hag-
oertys career. Consequently Lieutenant
Loucks was compelled to take soldiers with
him, the soldiers had guns, by accident the
command to fire was given prematurely, the
offending Indian was shot dead on the spot,
all chances of his escape from a prison
van in the fashion adopted by our savage,
Haggerty, being thus prevented. This death
was instantly avenged by relative of the
defunct killing the first white man that he
had a chance to slay, and in return the lieu
tenant bombarded with solid shot and shell
the whole village. Mr.. Collyer does not say
how many lives were destroyed by the bonn
bardment, nor indeed that any destruction of
Indian life resulted from that demonstration.
The practical result was that the savages
found their habitations so terribly dilapi-
dated that they were compelled to beg fo1
mercy, and though the means adopted to
humiliate them were perhaps unnecessarily
harsh and cruel still it is likely that
the safety of the soldiers of the adjacent mill
tary post, and certainly the safety of every
white man who ventured beyond the precincts
of the post, depended upon some such hu
initiation. The military officers may have
been hasty and indiscreet. They do some
times precipitate conflicts; but clear judg
ment of the whole ubject can only be formed
after all the attending circumstances are full,
made known. On the other hand, Their
does not appear to have been shadow o
excuse for the reported Indian enormitie
near South Pass City. The savages had no