Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-03-10

! readily be seen. Fortunately, while the
Indians cannot speak for themselves, they
have friends in the Commissioners APP
, pointed by the President, who understand
. their case and can state it as it is. The
from Felix Il. Brunot, which is published
in the Pittsburgh Gazette, that presents the
condition and conduct of the Indians and
the course of the government toward them
in very different light from what the au-
thor of the despatch intended. The bands
referred to as lettering around Forts Lar
annie and Fetterman came there by the in
fiuence of Red Cloud, acting for peace and
in the interest of the government. 1t is
the first step towards inducing them to
settle and begin the civilizing process as
others have done. The government re-
fused to allow them to buy ammunition Of
the traders through the summer and fall
to shoot small game, which is now their
chief reliance since buffaloes became
scarce, and so necessity and Red Clouds
persuasions have brought them in to ask
bread, and eventually to raise it for them
selves.
But allowing the worst to be true that
may be said of the Indians, it is infinitely
cheaper and better, taking the question in
its pecuniary view alone, to feed than to
| fight them. Nothing in the experience OF
the government has been SO costly as the
Indian wars of the last twenty years. Ac-
cording to the report of General Sherman
the Cheyenne war "cost the government
thirty millions, and carried conflagration
and death to the border settlements" The
result Of a years campaign was, says he,
that Fifteen or twenty Indians had been
killed at an expense of more than million
dollars apiece, while hundreds of our sol
diers had lost their lives, and many Of our
settlers had been butchered and much
property destroyed At last finding that
peace could not be conquered, the govern
ment was obliged to make the best terms
it could So in the war with Red Cloud
| in 1866. The forts which had been erect
ed in his territory by the government
against his protest, and on account of
which he took up arms. had to be aban-
doned after sacrifice of many lives and
heavy expense. and the right of the In
dams to the undisturbed possession of their
lands was guaranteed them. These facts
are only samples of the whole, and show
that Indian wars have been the most ex-
pensive and humiliating Of all our wars,
and that the feeding of the Indians were we
obliged to do it would be less expensive
and more honorable than fighting them.
But the government policy contemplates
the avoiding of future war with the In
dams and the educating Of them 70 feed
themselves. The aid afforded them is de-
signed to be but temporary.
In his letter Mr.. Brunot exposes the mis-
chievous character of the despatch of
which we have spoken, where it states
that the Indians Twill not permit any
whites to 60 north of the Platte or permit
line of communication with Montana to
be established through Their territory"
As though the Indians were committing a
great act of wrong and injustice, when
the truth is that the great wrong is upon
the other side. In 1867 a treaty was made
with these Indians by which the territory
was guaranteed to them, and it was stipu-
lated that no white person should be per-
mitted to settle upon it or occupy it with
out their consent, and that all the roads
leading to the settlements in Montana
should be closed. Now since the white,
are attempting to trespass upon their terri
tory and they object, how unjust to send
abroad the idea that it is the Indians who
are in the wrong and not the whites. Yet
this, says Mr.. Brunot, has been about the
course usually pursued toward the In
dams. Public opinion has been for
hundred years more uniformly led astray
on this question of justice between the
white man and the Indian than upon any
other. They, poor wretches,' wrote
Washington, have no press through which
their grievances are related; and it is we'll
known that when only one side Of story
is heard and often repeated, the human
mind becomes impressed by it insensibly.'
Luckily the President is in earnest in his
desire for the civilization of the Indians,
and the men whom he has appointed to at
tend to this work are moved by unselfsh
and christian impulses, and are indefatiga-
BILE in their efforts to accomplish it.
GENERAL NEWS.
Advice to the fish eaters-Deal gently with
the herring.