The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1870-08-07
The Crime Of the Infamous Quaksfized To-
dian Iraders.

dian Traders.
1t Is no wonder, considering TO Shas
depths of infamy the last for gold will
take men of a vicious nature, that the
traders among the Western Indians have
been able to ass = force sufficient to
unhinge and misdirect the COOL inten-
tentions of thu Government alikii toward
the people on he frontier and tie indi-
ans about them A trade has crown up
"a craft, that depends npon a swindling
commerce win the poor. deluded savages
| Of the border; and the men who have
been engaged in it for years are now SO
indurated, become so insensihle to every
feeling but the greed of gain, that they
watch jealousy every proposition for the
safe disposition of the Misunderstanding
that any policy different from that o
patronized must be an improvement in
the way of humanity, and necessarily q
detriment to their craft.
These peaceful scoundrels have just
been. perhaps only temporarily, cut on
in one of their grandest operations.
They hang upon the skirts of the Indian
settlements, getting furs, blankets, and
whatever would be useful to them, from
the savages, in exchange for baubles,
whisky, and other articles Of no merit.
They last Fall bit upon an excellent plan
for procuring buffalo robes. This is how
it came about-the Presidential harvest
over which these black-hearted, white
livered spectators, of meek mein, must
have gloated themselves fat:
In the Summer of 1869, a steamboat,
in passing down to Fort Benton, on the
Missouri river, happened to have a
breaking out Of the smallpox amongst
her passengers. The boat paused at a
point neal Fort Benton. to bury a man
who died of the disease. Indians wit
messed the ceremony of burial, and ex-
humed the body of the dead man for its
clothes-a proceeding not to be wondered
at, when we consider the exemplars of
decency they had about them. The
smallpox spread from that date. 1t is q
custom with them to lay the dead out on
the robes they die IN, instead of burying
the bodies. Thus, where tribes were
speedily riddled down by this disease to
one-half the former number, a large
amount Of buffalo robes appeared in the
vision Of these jaekals. The trade was
opened. The infected robes from under
the dead [good as Fitch calls them In
dams were brought in and sold cheap.
A large trade was brought N. Benton
was made q pestilential depot, to its
great damage, and the river thereabout
became a pathway for the dread scourge.
This it was that brought on the sugges-
ton of army officers, and the timely in
terdiction Of the Government, to pre-
vent the traffic in, furs-their tranporta-
ton from the upper Missouri into the
heart of the Country. But for this
timely and none too early embargo,
smallpox would have scourged the whole
Country as never plague enwrapped a
helpless people. The furs are still in
store in the upper country. Warehouses
are full of them. And the wonder is
that the meek traders have not yet sue
ceoded in having the embargo raised.
We see by dispatches of the past few
days, that smallpox has again appeared
in Ogden. II is from the illicit trade in
these goods. This all comes of the
sanity influence of these acquisitiyc
traders who affect the Quaker policy on
tha Tnd;a1 front;ars