The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1876-07-07
Our Indian Enemies.


On yesterday the telegraph con-
veyed to the nation the sad news of
the defeat of one column of our
army on.the Little Horn river by the
Sioux Indians, and the killing of
Gen. Custer and sixteen other Off
GERS, and three hundred and fifty
soldiers of the 7th cavalry, by the
Indians.
Anticipating that such informa-
ton at this time will be considered a
convincing argument in favor of the
''peace-at-any-price' policy of many
of our eastern friends who live re-
mote from the dangers that have me-
naced the citizens ofNebraska, Wyo-
ming, Colorado and Montana, from
this same foe for the last fifteen
years, and. that many good men
through sheer Ignorance ofthe causes
of this conflict will espouse the cause
Of these disciples of Fenimore Coo
per, who imagine that every red
handed Sioux is a Royal INCA, and
a genuine Mohican, we think it pro-
per to lay before our readers a few
facts in reference to this. matter,
which are not mythical suppositions,
or fne-spin theories, but on the con-
trary, stern realities, susceptible of
indubitable proof.
A state of war on the part of the
Sioux nation of Indians has existed
towards our white people ever since
the massacre of Lieut.. Grattan and a
company of soldiers, near Fort Lar
annie, in the year 1856. From that
time until 1868 the Sioux were the
terror of all travellers on the overland
route across the continent and hun
dreds of innocent men, women and
children we're murdered by them,
many of whom we're tortured to
death in the most horrible manner.
mo continuous record was ever kept,
of these tragedies, but enough is
known to satisfy any fair-minded
person that hundreds Of victims fell
by their hands and that millions of
dollars worth Of stock were ruth.
lessly taken by them from the poor,
weary emigrants and settlers. There
are perhaps two or even three hun
dred men living in this Territory to-
day who witnessed many of these
murders or buried the victims, and
their united testimony should be pro-
cured to hand down to posterity the
facts concerning these fearful muir
ders and robberies. 1t would of
course be a book of horrors, but be-
ing true, it would c~ontrovert the
broad assertions of our would-be
guardians of the Cooper school who,
living thousands of miles from the
bloody enc our people have been
compelled to experience, yet claim to
know about more the real causes of
our conflict than the people who have
toiled and undergone the hardships
of settling in a country and ac-
cumulating a few COWS and horses or
mules about them and then behold u
band Of Indians come to their homes
and drive them away, beyond the
settlements and on to the reservation
or hunting ground, where recovery
was not possible, and in very many
instances the robbers adding murder
and arson to their crime of robbery.
From 1856 to 1867, when the
building of the Union Pacific
brought white people into our Ter
ritory to construct and protect hat
great enterprise, the terrible out
RACES committed by these profess
ional robbers were for the greater
part perpetratcd upon defenceless
emigrants whose only t-ransgression
was that they were travelling en-
route from the Missouri river to the
States and Territories west Of the
Rocky Mountains, including Mon
tana and Colorado. No white man at
that time desired to locate and re-
main in any portion Of the country
claimed by the Sioux nation farther
than to establish ranches at conven-
lent distances to accommodate the
travel on the great overland route.
Nevertheless these same Sioux con-
tinued to rob and murder without
cessation wherever and whenever OPP
portunities fer success were presen-
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