The New York herald., 1876-07-30
The Indian Question-Do We Under
estimate Our FOess

The despatch we published yesterday
announcing another attack on the command
of General Crook and the killing of three
hundred officers and soldiers is not con-
firmed. General Sheridan pronounces it
false and sensational. 1t may be dismissed
as one of those wild stories which are sure
TO find circulation in such time The fact
that it should be accepted upon so slender
an authority MS an unknown scout shows how
sensitive the public mind has become on the
Indian question. After the massacre Of
Custer and his command anything is posi-
BILE, and the people are in q mood to believe
anything. More than all, the news from the
Indian country, for some time past has not
been reassuring. We should infer from the
tone of General Sheridans interview with q
Chicago reporter that this distinguished
officer is not altogether satisfied with the
position of affairs in the Indian country.
Two or three things are apparent We made
a mistake in not knowing how many Indians
we were expected to fight in the Territories.
We had no information whatever in refer
ence to the position or the purposes of the
Sioux. Our officers went gayly out to the
Yellowstone country as to a summer picnic.
The imaginations of men were excited by the
stories Of the beauties of the Yellowstone as
seen in other expeditions-tle spouting gey-
sers throwing up many-colored clays, the
wonderful flora in the valleys, the gold in
the Black Hills. AS soon as spring came
and the grass peeped out our soldiers were
as eager for an expedition into the Yellow
stone as the young Indian bucks for the
warpath. And as the history of our Indian
wars, especially since the time Of Tecumseh
and Osceola, had been little more than
superior force crushing out an inferior force,
no one had ever dreamed of anything but
triumphant march, the killing of few
Indians and glorious time after buffalo and
antelope.
The attack on Sitting Bull was the awaken
ing from dream. We then saw our blunder,
and we paid for it in the massacre of one of
the finest generals in the army and the de-
struction of one of our best cavalry regi-
ments The manner in which the news Of
this massacre was received by Sherman and
Sheridan the tone Of the reports of Terry,
the repulse of Crook, one of the most expe-
rienced Indian fighters, all showed that the
military authorities had underestimated the
savages The news Fl ON the frontier con-
firms this opinion. One body of troops
after another have gone to the front,
but nothing is done. We hear of
tribes. The young Indians are leaving
the agencies and hurrying to the warpath.
Other agencies have been turned into hos
pitfalls for the nursing of the wounded in the
last campaign This enables Sitting Bull to
move more rapidly. Then, the Indians are as
we'll armed as our infantry and better armed
than our cavalry. Our paternal government
has given them rifles of an approved pattern,
ANN munition, army blankets, tomahawks and
scalping knives. They have better horses
than our troops and are much better cavalry
men, They fight us on their own ground
and in their way. There are no such cavalry
as Indians. An Indian may be said to be
part of his animal. To the Indian the wide
open Wilderness, with its prairies, forests,
streams, ravines is an open book. Every
twig or pebble has ameaning and purpose
We have few scouts who know the condi-
tions Of Indian life and warfare, but every
Indian is scout. The Indian fights with q
wilderness behind him, which is his home,
but in which our troops could not live. He
has over the frontier the English dominions,
where he can retreat and live in perfect i'm
munnity Wecould not pursue Sitting Bull
across the frontier, and England could not
give him up.
The Indian war must be accepted by rs rs
the war of the Indian race against the white
race We have never had-at least since the
time of Tecumseh and Tippecanoe-so many
Indians arrayed against us rs at the present
time. The head of the Sioux seems to have
followed the policy Of his great predecessor,
Tecumseh, who labored to unite the red men
against the whites and make q confederation
which compelled MS to send one of the most
capable soldiers in our young army against
/ him-General Harrison. In that campaign
Harrison won the fame which made him
President of the United States. With the
death Of Tecumseh and the destruction of
| his power came to an end every serious diff
Guilty with the Indians in the valley of the
Mississippi. We shall have to pursue the
same policy with the present federation. 1t
would not surprise us to learn, when
the truth is known, that all the
Indians in Montana and Dakota are
now under the command of Sitting
Bull. We hear from British America that
an effort has been made to induce the Black
feet and other tribes under the British
Crown to CROSS the frontier and make war
upon the whites. The despatch says that
| these overtures have been declined that the
British Indians are at peace and prefer so to
remain. We have little doubt that the
Young men Of the Canadian tribes are as