The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-07-16
TIE SIOUX VAR.
IN. Y. Sunl

We may as well make up our minds to it; we
are In for bitter and bloody Indian war. We
trust that the massacre of Custer and the
Seventh Cavalry will be alone in it's dreadful
atrocity but it is not safe to assume that it
will not be followed by Others fully as bloody
and horrible. Sitting Bull is q savage chieftain
who has the same hopes of driving the whites
into the sea over which they came that King
Philip entertained when Benjamin Church went
out to meet and Conquer him. carrying sword in
band and Bible in pocket. He is a master of
foes who, he thinks, are few in mum bers for he
laughs at the stories Red Cloud tells of the
swarming multitudes of the East
Custer had for years been known to the In
dams as great fighter, and they dreaded his
prowess. Now that Sitting Ball has whipped
him, they will celebrate the praises of that
savage warrior, and gain stimulation for con-
hict. The reverses we suffered at Rosebud
creek and on the Little Big Horn have en-
couraged the hopes of the Sioux, who will now
draw to their chieftain's standard many of
their apparently paoified or cowed warriors.
Worsted at the start, our troops are now
resting to receive reinforcements, gather
breath, and get into condition to again assail
or meet the forces of Sitting Boil Uudoubt-
edly they are too few in number; but, as Mr.
Cox said in the House on Thursday, if the three
thousand soldiers on electoneering duty in the
States of the South were at the seat of war the
situation would be different. With an army of
twenty i've Thousand men, we ought to be BILE
to gather q force sufficient to encounter the
warriors of Sitting Bull, aud not need to throw
against him merely two or three thousand men.
To get correct idea of the magnitude of the
war INTO which We have been so needlessly
plunged, it is only necessary to remember the
Modoo war, in which about one hundred COM
paratively tame Indians defied the military
power of the United States for weeks and were
at last overcome only through the treachery of
some of their own band. The foe that we now
have to contend against numbers MANY thou
sands of the fiercest savages on the continent
beaded by chiefs why arc adopts in strategy |;
ard instead of being hemmed in by our troops
as the mOdocs were In lava beds, they have an
area of thousands of square miles, Astounding
in natural fortIesses in which to play at hide
and seek with soldiers. There are 40 600
square miles in the great Sioux reservation
alone, and q population of about 80, 600 upon it,
while there are fifteen twenty thousand of
the same warlIke nation upon other roserva-
tions, besides several thousands who have
never entered into any relations whatever with
our Government, refusing to make treaties
with II or to acknowledge it any way.
In what was known as the Cheyenne war q
few yesrs a go, it cost the Government q million
OF dollars for every Indian that was killed
while in Florida, some forty years ago, hand
fnl of Seminoies held out for seven years
against the military forces of the United States,
commanded By some of the AbiesC generals we
have ever had. That war cost the country
$40 600. 600 and about fifteen hupdred lives.
With these examples in mind, the reader may
form faint conception of what the now Sioux
war is likely to cost.
But the worst has not been told. The effects
which may be produced by the Custer disaster
and the check upon Crook are fearful to con-
template. There are other Indian nations than
the Sioux who have been systematically swim
died and cheated by the agents OF the Interior
Department. during the past eight years there
are friendly bands of Sioux whose grievances
have been many, and who may be encouraged
by these events to assume an SttiCude of open
hostility. Should such be the case, aud should
general uPriSiug of the tribes of the North.
west OCCUR, the Indians will undoubtedly carry
the war into our unprotected frontier settle
ments, and the consequences would be horrible
| indeed. The progress of settlement in Mon.
| tSha, Wyoming, Nebraska. Idaho, Colorado and
New Mexico would receive q sudden check
enterprise in that vast region would be dis
| outraged. and throughout an area larger thar
that of Now England, the Middle and the
| Southern States combined, the population
would be constantly exposed to the attacks o
predatory Indian bands with all their attend
| ant horrors. We repeat that it is no exaggora
| tion to anticipate an addition of hundreds q
! millions of dollars to the national debt, aud
! the sacrifice of innumerAble innocent lives, u,