Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-11-27
SEC. SCHURZ DEFENDS THE INDIAN
BUREAU.
A Sharp Answer TO the Army Officers
by the Secretary of the Interior.

The following information was
telegraphed from Washington No
vember Goth: The secretary of
war received and referred to General
Sherman letter from the secretary of
the interior sharply replying to certain
statements by Gen. Sheridan in the lat
tiers annual report. Secretary Schurz
says: These statements, as far as they
reflect upon the conduct of the Indian
service, are Of a sweeping and some
what vague nature but it must be as
sumed that General Sheridar would not
have made them and permitted them
to become public had he not in his pos
session specific information concerning
certain agencies and certain branches
of the Indian service to which these
statements may be individually APP
Piled General Sheridan in his official
document gives it as his opinion
that with wise management the
amounts appropriated by congress
ought to be sufficient, if practically APP
piled to the exact purposes specified,
but that the reports of the department
commanders would indicate different
result except in the case of the Red
Cloud and Spotted Tail bands of Sioux.
He would certainly not have expressed
such an opinion without being &C
ouainted III detail with the appropria-
tons made by congress and the specific
purposes for which they were intended.
1t is also to be supposed that before
making the sweeping charge above
quoted, he was cOgnizant of specific
cases in which these appropriations
were not either applied at all or divert.
ed from the purpose intended by con-
gress. You will greatly oblige me by
requesting Gen. Sheridan to COM
municate such facts as may
be in his possession, giving nam es
of agents, dates and other circum-
stances which warrant the charge
which includes all the Indian agencies
in the military division of Mo-, except
those of Red Cloud and Spotted Tail
agencies of Sioux. 1t has been my
constant and earnest endeavor since l
entered upon my present duties, to
correct all abuses in the Indian service
that come to my knowledge, and Gen.
Sheridan by furnishing such specific
information would thereby render great
er service to this department as well as
to the Indians than by mere general
statements. As he has put forth sweep
ing charge the specifications may Justly
be called for. l make this request
with particular urgency in view
of the fact that certain mill
tary officers seem of late to
have fallen in the habit of INDUCING
officially and probably in general re-
Elections on the Indian service, without
taking the trouble of substantiating
such statements in detail in manner
that would facilitate the discovery and
correction of the abuses. l do not
deprecate critscism at all; l rather in
vite 1t. but when it is officially put forth
there Is, 1t seems to me, certain fair
ness in producing proofs due from one
branch of the public service to another.
L should, for instance, not deem any
officer of this department justified in
blaming in general terms the army for
its failure to intercept the runaway
Cheyennes on their march Of several
hundred miles through Kansas and Ne
braska and across the Union Pacific R'y.,
without beng able to point out certain
instances OF mlsmanagement or neglect.
If such instances had come to the
knowledge this department which they
have not, l should have considered it
due the army that they be specifically