Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-11-04

VI Tue brltlSn POSSESSIONS on the north, and
almost to the Gulf of Mexico on the south,
had passed into the hands of the whites,
| with the exception of the limited reservations
assigned to the Indians, and with no COM
pensatlon beyond the promise of religious
Instruction, schools, supplies of food and
clothing, and an opportunity of learning the
ways in which the white man cultivated the
ground-most of which promises have never
been fulfilled. In other words. we took their
country and their means of support, broke
up their living, their habits of life, intro
duced disease and decay among them, and it
was for this and against this they made war.
Could any one expect less? Then why won
der at Indian difficulties?
These wars might have been regarded as
inevitable, and therefore sufficient number
OF soldiers should have been provided to
| meet them, but it was not done, and hence
the fatal results which followed. No other
nation in the world would have attempted
the reduction of these wild tribss and occu
patton OF their country with less than 10000
| to 10000 men, while the whole force en-
| ployed and scattered over the enormous re-
gion described never numbered $4,000 men.
and nearly one-third of this force has been
confined to the line of the Rio Grande to
protect the Mexican frontier. The conse-
quence was that every engagement was for
lorn hope, and was attended Nith
a loss of life unparalleled in warfare.
No quarter was given to the sava-
gts, and the officers and men had to enter
on their duties with the most barbarous cru
elites staring them in the face in case
of defeat Nor was this misfortune confn-
ed 10 the soldier: it extended to the settler,
who was himself killed, or came home to see
his wife. and children murdered and his
stock stolen. Such, in truth, has been the
contest on our western frontier during the
last ten years. 1t would have been less ex-
pensive if an army of 10000 or 10000 had
been maintained, and, moreover, the blood
of gallant officers, soldiers, and citizens
would not have rested on our hands. This,
then, was
THE FIRST CAUSE OF OUR INDIAN WARS.
They would have occurred, no matter
what course or policy the government might
have adopted. We could not deprive tn csc
primitive people of their homes where they
had lived in barbarous contentment for cen
turtles without war, and the only thing
strange about these wars was the manner
and means adopted by the government TO
meet them.
The second outbreak of Indian hostilities
is caused in this way. After he has lost his
country he finds himself compelled to re-
main on reservations. his limits circum-
scribed, his opportunities of hunting
abridged, his game disappearing, sickness in
his lodge from change of life and food, and
insufficiency of the latter, and this irregular
lY supplied, and the reflection coming to him
of what he now is, and pinched by hunger,
creates a feeling of dissatisfaction which, in
| the presence of good strong force Of sol
| diers, started him out OH the war-path again,
and unarmed people are killed, settlements
| are broken up, farms are abandoned, and
general confusion exists. This condition of
affairs is we'll illustrated by tie recent out
break Of Northern Cheyennes, who lat. ly
abandoned their reservation at Fort Reno.
and the same might be ga d of the
| certainly of that of the Bannocks and Sho-
shones in this year, of the Cheyennes,
Kiowas, and Commanches in 1874, and un-
less wiser measures prevail hereafter it will
go on. The Crows will come in next, the
Assinabolnes and Gray Ventures and wild
tribes north of the Missouri will be obliged
to follow. Spotted Tall and Red Clouds
people will be driven to the same conditions
eventually, and so on down to the tribes in
| the western part of the Indian Territory. To
prevent or even meet the calamity which
| may occur, we are entirely unprepared, for,
! without exposing other important points, we
can collect together but few hundred
men.
! Now that the game, upon which the Iudi-
ans depended for their regular supply OF
food, is gone, we shall require a great sup
ply of rations with perfect regularity in its
issue, to meet the ne eds of these people, to
gether with strong and stable government,
backed up by a sufficient number of soldiers
| to enforce spirit of obedience, and to keep
| these restless savages within the limits OF
| their reservations.
| In answer to tho frequent remarks about
THE GOOD MANAGEMENT OF THE INDIANS IN
BRITISH AMERICA,
1T is only necessary for me to state that they
have never had the conditions existing there
which we have had here. They never hac
10 encounter tide of emigration which for
chilly took away the lands of the Indians
and which was SO great no government
could resist it, and which not only
absorbed their lands, but killed the game or
which the Indians subsisted. Consequently
the conditions then were brought down tt
simply making profitable trade with the
Indians, and to further this they lntermar
ried, and the Indian being the most clannist
of all existing races Chs only government
being that of clans), they gradually extended
their influence by the Indians regarding
them as a part of their own people. Ihis
was notably the case with the Hudson Bay
company, which almost every agent, from
Gov. Douglass down to the simple employe
took an Indian wife, and thereby extended
! the influence of their government and trade
by this plan of assimilation.
| 1t is scarcely necessary to mention to the
general of the army that to accomplish the
changes which l have described was the duty
which
THE HANDFUL. OF TROOPS IN THIS DIVISION
has been performing for the past ten years
and no body of men of the same size was
ever before 80 hardly taxed, mentally ane
physically, or compelled to make such haz
ardous and exacting marches; and no body
| of men of equal numbers ever overcame &c
many embarrassing obstacles in their unequa
contest with willy savages, and none evel
lost SO heavily in officers and men. Then
battles, as heretofore mentioned, were {
series of forlorn hopes, mainly on account
/ of the inadequacy of the number of troops
engaged, and the peculiarities of savage
/ warfare.
Stearns County To the Front.
St. Cloud Times.
| Stearns is now the banner Democrat,
county of the State. Two years ago sh,
gave Tildsn 1926 majority, and McNair TO
Congress 1,243 majority. An exciting ant