The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1873-05-09
Our Indians.

experience with Indians, and furnishes
some wholesome truths in regard tc
their treatment which it would be vel
for those in authority to take to them
selves. She states:
In 1862 l asked the Secretary OF the
Interior to use his influence with the
President to have the Sioux prisoners
retained as hostages, aud notify THEFT
tribes that, tor every non-comhatsnl
they murdered the Government would
hang one OF these hostages. The answer
was prompt and decisive.
Such a proposition is not to be en-
tertaiL ed Tor moment Mr.. Lincoln
will hang nobody"
When it is considered that these
prisoners were all warriors, that the
whole tribe had, in council, resolved TO
exterminate the pale tsces from Min
nesota, in revenge for some grievance
alleged against the United States Gov
ernmeut that they had chosen time
when the State was drained OF men by
recent call for troops, and had go far
carried out their plot as to have muir
dered nearly or quite one thousand peo-
pie, principally women and children,
that every one OF these prisoners had
been proved guilty Of active psrticips-
ton in those murders, with indescribs-
BILE attendant atrocities, and that 80 tsr
from banging them or continuing their
imprisonment, the Government supplied
them with arms, blankets and provisions
and turned them loose to be a terror 70
all traders and dwellers ou the Upper
Missouri from that day to this, when
their war whoop is hourly expected in
the homes OF the Minnesota settlers, It
surely cannot be charged upon Presi'
dent Grant that he has been the first to
tender the olive branch to our red
brethren.
WAS on the frontier, in Minnesota,
during the massacre OF '62 and noticed
that the line between the United States
sud British possessions was also the
line between panic and peace. All
through the northern and western part
of the State the settlers were murdered
aud driven from their homes, their
dwellings burned and goods destroyed.
10 that struggling cluster OF barracks
aud huts known as Fort Abercrombie,
a small garrison o. men, with many
women and children, we're shut up, be-
sieged by hundreds OF Indians. Or the
men who risked their lives to carry
news OF their peril to the settlements,
one-hali were butchered on the way,
aud six weeks elapsed, after their eX-
tremitv was known in st. Paul, before
the Government whose misconduct had
brought them into that straight could
send them any hope OF assistance.
When help arrived, men and women
were so worn out by constant watching
that they could have held out but little
longer, and all this time the residents OF
British America. just beyond them, sat
al case in their possessions, and went
10 SAFETY, whithersoever they desired.
The new policy retains that ten
thousand times accursed system OF an
nui,ies-a system doubly sccursed in
that it curse- him that gives and him
that takes. 1t has cursed our Govern
ment by creating in it an lncsIculabIe
amount OF corruption, by go debasIng
public sentiment that the people have
learned to tolerate and maintain q Get OF
officials whose name and Office have
long been bv word, souonym Of
wholesale fraud and petty peculstion,
and will continue to be 70, 30 long as
there is An Indian annuity 10 paw, un-
less we find men for agents and COM
missiOners who did not sin in Adams
fall, and need no reger GRAFTON.
Into our town, in Ilmes OF peace, the
noble red man" used TO come in such
costume that it was impossible 10 dis
tingulsh him from the noble red woman,
a peculiaritv OF his which no doubt
accounts for General Sheridans war
on women, OF which we have heard go
much. Their common dress was q
filthy blanket, but occasionally the
braves laid this aside and wore g coat
OF paint and a breech cloth instead.
Their hair WAS always stlff with vermin
and dirt They hung around kitchens
like hungry, surly dogs waiting tor
bones, or danced war dances for pen
nies. Occasionally the Cbrrpewsys and
Sioux met in deadly conf ct, in our
Immediate vicinity, after which the
Chips" would bring their trophies into
town and kick them about through the
streets These consisted oil discovered
heads, hand-, 'eet, or other portions OF
their dead enemies. 1t was estimated
that the Government and churches had
spent ten-tbousaDd dollars head on
these Chjppewsys, in the effort to civil
ze and chrisuaUlze them. This is
what they were then, and are now, after
ten more thousand have gone into the
same slough OF despond.
The temptations OF Indian payments
and contracts are 20 great, the opportu-
mites for tbe't 90 ample, that there
must be an uniaihng fountain OF cor
ruptlon ss long az they exist. An hon.
eel man might get employment in the
COuOuCl Ol our luuidu oil huu HIdy
honest for little while, Tor healthy
soul, like a healthy body, has great
power OF reei-tsnct; bnt sooner or later
the contagiou ssps the bes, constitution.
But the curse 10 the takers OF their
an0uitres IS even greater than to the
giver; for 50 long az We hold out 10 the
Indian the hope Of maintsinspce, 90
long We deprive m Of the natural in
ceutIves to maintain himself, 50 long
We foster his besetting sin, naughty
contempt for labor So long ss We
promise TO Iced and clotbe him, 90 long
We offer q premium for idIeness and
stand between hIm and God's great
teachers, hunger and cold; thus to the
extent Of our power preventing his civ
litigation bv the only agent that ever
did civilize any people necessity for
labor.
What Justice requires Of US ls, that