The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-30
roorr,rurp FROM FIRST pAaE.l

Tooyr1yuEp FROM FIRST PACE
Sberidan's report: The troops stationed alon
tha Pic Grande have had the humiliatin
dutv of attempting to protect our citizens an
their property from raids by the people OF
foreign country, who came over the boundar
in armed parties to steal cattle, and do no
hesitate to attack and kill our citizens whe
necessary to accomplish their purpose.
The low stage of water in the Rio Grande
and its great length, twelve hundred or titteel
hundred miles long, make the duty OF pro
tecting it difficult, in fact almost impossible
with the few troops available for this pur
pose. In speaking of this duty as humili
tating one, l do not mean that it ID not per
fecty legitimate, for any duty is such wnicf
has for its object the protection OF the ilve'
and property of the people on an internatlona
boundary line, but when it is considered ina
these armed parties, as soon as they are pur
sued, take refuge on the opposite bank Oh tne
river, and there in sight of our troops, which
dare not cross, Craze and slaughter the stolen
cattle with IMMUNITY, the sight Is very
Notifying to those engaged IN the protection
of tLat frontier. This condition OF affairs
has been going on for the last twenty years.
In the Department of the Gulf everything
seems to be getting along quietly. Last win
ter, when the department came under my
Jurisdiction, thought it best to call halt In
a forcible way on much lawlessness from
armed bands, which action brought the
attention of the Government and the law
abiding and good people of the country TO
growing and inhuman evil. Peace has been
the result, and prosperity, hope, will follow
Gen. Crook in his report concerning the
Black Hills think the settlers bordering the
Sioux reservation have just ground for com
plant when they claim that the Sioux violate
81 m
ing their cattle and absolutely breaking up
their business, and this violation of the treaty
is by the Indians who are fed and clothed by
the government and supported by taxes paid
by the frontiersmen as well as other tax-pay-
ing citizens
When these same settlers, impov erished
by the raids of the Sioux, 60 to the Black
Hills-a country, by the way, the Indians sell
dom visit on account of terrible thunder
storms in summer and deep SHOWS in winter
for the purpose of prospecting for mines, they
are charged with the violation of q treaty the
main features of which the Indians have
never regarded. Crook says there are two
sides to this story, and the frontiersman
should be heard as the Indian. The settler is
the weaker, as compared with the Indian, and
most deserving of sympathy and protection.
Gen. Sheridan, in his report to the Secre-
tary of War, recommends that some imme-
diate action be taken that will settle this
Black Hills question and relieve us from an
exceedingly disagreeable and embarrassing
duty.
"I feel quite satisfied, he adds, "that all
the country south of the Yellowstone River
from the Black Hills of the Cheyenne as far
west as Big Horn Valley, and perhaps as far
west as Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone, is
gold bearing, but as to the amount of
al
be great. 1t may be sm sll." Gen. Sher-
idan discusses the Indian policy of the
past and present, and says: "The observa.
ton of many years in my own command and
throughout most of the Iudian country for
the last twenty years, has left the impression
that the present system of civiliZing the wild
portion of our Indian Inhabitants has not
met with a success that gives fair equiva-
lent for the expense, trouble and bloodshed
which have attended it. / believe there is
true humanity in making the reserva-
tons reasonably small, dividing them
Into tracts for the heads of families,
making labor gradually compulsory, and
children to 60 to school. To
accomplish this purpose, to civilize, make
and save many more of these
poor people than otherwise can be saved, l
believe it is best to transfer the Indian Bu-
reau to the military, and let it be taken under
the gradual administration of the army, gov
erned and controlled in sponsibility of &C
count in accordance with our present system.
"The Indians would thus be humanely and
Justly and honestly dealt with, and l believe
if this had always been the case, there would
have been but few of the troubles and bloody
records which have characterized the civiliza-
ton of the Indians in the many years gone by. J."
The opinion of the Supreme Court to-day
1na 80 VI.
in favor Of the Union Pacific Railroad Com
pany, was unanimous. The court fully sus-
tanned the position of the company.