The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-06-25
The News from the Frontiers -
Centennial War.

was, uccoIuiug 10 tne poetss W DC ccdSon VI
peace and reconciliation. 1t was only the
other day that Mr. Bryant told us in his
gem-like little ode, which we are all to try
and sing on the Fourth, about the peace and
prosperity which were to come after so many
bloody tides Of war. While we are pre-
pairing to celebrate with becoming fitness
the hundredth year of our Independence
there comes upon US suddenly the announce
ment that we have war, battle, and if not
defeat, certainly not victory. 1t is hard
to understand the exact position of affairs in
our Indian country. Some time ago we
knew of certain regiments going into the
Yellowstone region. Why they went there
is not so clear. But, after weeks of silence
we suddenly hear of an encounter with the
Indians-a battle, and, as we have said, if
not defeat, certainly not victory. The
graphic dispatches which came from our
correspondent with General Crook, and
which we printed exclusively, will show
ment. 1t is difficult to describe it
without telling what has already been told
so we'll. An American commander, with
thirteen hundred and fifty white and two
hundred and fifty Indian troops, attacks an
Indian force of twenty-five hundred under
the Sioux chief Sitting Bull. AS result of
the contest bur Indian allies run away
because, as they ellege, we did not support
them we hare ten soldiers killed and
twenty wounded, and we do-well, we can
scarcely say what except ''hold our ground"
We do not wish to criticise an absent COM
mander in presence Of foe, and we
can we'll believe that General Crook
will do his best in any position;
but we have not been in the habit of losing
battles with the Indians, especially where
sixteen hundred men under a regular
officer have twenty-five hundred savages
opposed to them. If the Sioux tribes
can meet our regular army with this
odds, and under brave and gifted cap
tains and even hold their own, the
serious aspect.
We shall defer any criticism upon the
battle in the Big Horn region until we know
all about it. We can rest content with any
campaign in the hands of Sherman and
Sheridan. If Crook cannot find the Sioux
and whip them other commanders will be
more successful. Critics of the admin
istration will say that if General
Grant had not removed that superb
Indian fighter Custer, to avenge Belknap, we
should not now be mourning ten dead and
twenty wounded soldiers. But criticism of
this kind is not fair. The best that could be
done has been done Our captains were
loyal and skilful, and our soldiers fought
their pitiless foe with gallantry and zeal.
The practical fact is that we are in the pres
ence of an Indian warAanother of those
small, cruel, expensive, teasing wars which
do our arms no honor, which are stains
upon our history, which have been marked
with perfdy and outrage on one and some
times on both sides. There is not high
minded American who, when he reads his
country's annals, does not skip, with shud-
der and a blush, the records of these wars.
Our treatment of the Indians is the blot upon
our civilization. 1t is written that we came
over the seas that we found this new land
that we planted empires here-Latin en-
pires like those in the South Saxon empires,
like those in the North ; that in a short time,
as the worlds history goes, we built up on
this open, unknown, savage land, nations
that will live with Greece and Rome, Eng
land and France. 1t is written that in do
ing this we founded political system which
commands the admiration of the elder and
the wiser world But while we may proudly
-, III he a< ~, =,
with shame and sorrow that we think of the
Indian and the manner in which we have
treated him.
We have no doubt we could settle the In
dian question without war if we gave our
minds to the work, and, as we are not neces-
sarily cruel people, we could do it with
humanity and justice. No one wants to
deal hardly with the Indian. We oil respect
the sentiment which surrounds him. We
may not share the poetic conception of Pope
or the romantic ideas of Cooper we may
have our own ideas about Logan and Red
Jacket and Tecumseh we may know the
Indian to be a false, cruel, perfdious crea-
ture, to whom blood is as much pas
sion rs it is to tho tiger or the
shark, who has no possibilities of civiliza-
ton, and whose fate must be determination
we may think this, ana with justice but it
in no way excuses our treatment of the In
dian. The fact that the whole question is a
sentiment is, perhaps, one reason for the
way in which we treat it. The Indian, even
now, is as much of romance to us as the
caliphs of the arabian Nights" We do
not know him. We never see him.
We are indifferently acquainted with
his manners or customs. We ques-
ton if one in twenty, even of our
educated people, could tell where the
Apaches, the Utes or the Sioux inhabt. We
know in vague, half-informed way, that out
in the vast expanse beyond the Mississippi
there still wandcrs o remnant of those saw