New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-02-24
nR1lfS IND NOTES.

The attempt to see ourselves rs others see
us is an instructive experiment i'll moral
OPTICS. Just now numbers of American jour
mails are threatening the President with their
high displeasure if he do not forthwith inter-
fere between the Cuban patriots and their
Spanish 6B6F6ss0fs. And, as queer anti
climax, we read in the Voc 1s Cuba, O
Havana sheet an appeal to the Government
of Spain to condemn our scandalous Indian
war, and TO entreat of the United States
humane and honest policy toward the mlser-
able remnant of a fading race. Happy are
"they," says Benedick, "whO hear their de-
fractions and can put them to mending."
Let us look a little way into the milestone
of the latest Indian rascaGty.
In 1869, after much expensive negotiation on
the part of the Government, Captain Jack, the
Chief Of the ModOcs signed treaty binding
his tribe to retire to the Klamath Reservation, q
district in Southern Oregon, about as large as
Rhode Island. Government, however, true to
its habitual contempt of its Indian pledges,
neglected to dspossess the original holders of
the covenanted acres. When, therefore, Captain
Jack and his braves arrived at their new do
main, they found it swarming with low-bred
mind, as heather men and publicans. Natu-
rally, the pilgrims turned about, and, with
scOrnful steps, returned to the hunting
grounds of their youth. But the adjacent
white settlers, who had long thrown cOvetOus
gances at this red Naboths vineyard, and at
whose instgatiOn the original removal had
been accomplished, now declared that no Mo
doe had any ri gifts which q paleface was
bound to respect. Consequent quarrelS, raids,
and occasional bloodShed have marked every
month since the return of the tribe.
Last July, the Indian Office ordered the
forcible removal of Captain Jack and his fol-
lowing to the Klamath region. The happy
result of this benefcent decree has been two
or three pitched battles, the combatants being
the intrenched Modocs on the one side, and
on the other a handful of United States troops,
the greedy settlers, and contingent of
Klamaths, in whose celestial breasts ranked
the injury to their sighted beauty. A portion
of the ModOc country is covered with fields of
disintegrating lava, scanned with dark pas
sages, labyrinths, and caverns. These hiding
places are not only impregnable but I'M
discoverable to unframed eyes. Moreover, the
naked Indians fight with impunity among the
huge rocks from which their tawny hue is
hardly separable The troops, unsheltered, are
at an enormous disadvantage, which their
superiority of training, equipment and
discipline cannot overcome. Captain Jack
easily won the two battles of January 1G and
II. picking of thirty of the enemy and losing
but one man.
We have no sentimental regard for the
Noble Savage Nevertheless, if this tale were
told of Cretan peasants or Cuban patriots
there would be plenty of newspaper enthu-
sasm over the cool resolve of the besieged TO
die the death rather than desert their coded
rights and the bones of their ancestors We
do not discover that the accident of inferior
blood alters the quality of emotions or abro-
gates the sacredness of covenants Nor does
this history make it clear that what is called
perfidy in the individual becomes probity in
that congregation Of individuals the Govern
ment. We forget, at this moment how many
hundred thousand dollars must go to the cold
extiDguishmcnt of single redskin, nor can
we, without book, recall the estimated
debt of every Yankee man, woman, and
child with the statement of which the
land is periodically frighted from its pro-
pTicty. But it is safe to say that an Indian
war is really too expensive an amusement for