Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-05-15

whatever. 1t will thus be seen that the
Indians above mentioned have sold to the
not less than twenty four mil
lion of acres of land IN the Indian Territory.
More than one-half of it was sold with thu
that the government should
locate other friendly and civilized Indians
upon it. but it has been bought and paid for
by the United States, and the Indians who
sold it have no longer equitable or legal con-
troll of it. The question of settling the NeZ
Perces, Sioux, or other wild Indians on these
Indian coded lands purely one of propriety
and expediency, and should be determined
with reference to the best interests of the
partially civilized Indians now in the Terrific
ry, and the interests of the people in the adj
joining States. But il is doubtful if it will
receive, this session, more than passing con-
sideration by congress. The question OF the
Nez Perces, of Oklahoma, of the corrupt ex-
penditure of the school and orphan funds of
the Indians of the Territory, and the transfer
of the management of the wild Indians to
the war department, are all likely to
sink out of sight when an investl-
CATION of the Presidential frauds
is begun. In that gigantic
crime the poor red man-civiized or wild
has no interest and in presence of it even the
ipjustiees he has suffered for nearly three
centuries must be put away for further con-
sideration. The Indians of the plains and of
session before more than a hearing can be
granted them. Their needs and necessities
must find redress-the latter under an anom-
alous system of government under which the
poor people grope their way dismally to the
goal of their hopes and endeavor, and the
former under commission which has proved
itself failure and prey to the money-g grab
bers and shoddy contractors who rob and
goad them to bloody reprisals that end in the
Iooo off Of nd bp
wasting of treasure that might more profit
ably be employed in building southern
transcontinental railroad.
THE POOR INDIAN OF THE PLAINS.
Here is what Casey Young, our member of
ing with our ''brothers of the plains:''
"In 1849 the control of Indian affairs was
transferred from ithe department of war to
the department of the interior, and for the
thirty years that they have remained under
the direction of the latter | think it can be
easily shown that there have been more In
dian disturbances, a larger and more waste
full expenditure of public money, and with
fewer good results, than during any former
period It is true that Indian wars were of
frequent occurrence previous to this time and
that large sums of money were expended In
their prosecution, but then it must be remem
bered that the Indians were vastly superior
in numbers to what they are now; that dur
ing most of the years preceding 1S49 many
of the southern and western States were in
great part held by large and warlike tribes,
and that these were reduced to subsection and
removed westward of the Mississippi river
previous to the transfer of the Indian ques-
ton to the interior department. Four of the
largest and most powerful of these tribes
were placed upon a reservation west of Ar
kansas, and have adopted the habits and GUS
toms of civilization under a stable govern
ment, organized and conducted by themselves,
and which is suited to their social and politl-
cal wants. AS ministers of peace, let US see
how the agents of our Indian bureau have
succeeded. At the time they assumed COLI
trcl of Indian affairs profound quiet pre-
vailed all along the line of our Indian from
tier, and for decade of years there was no
serious disturbances between the white and
the red man upon our borders, but
the exactions, frauds, and receptions
which they soon began to practice finally
drove the savages to madness and then to
war; So in 1852 and 1854 the Sioux war,
with all its horrors and savage ortrages,
burst upon the northwestern frontier, and
which required the use of the army for two
years to conquer peace at the cost OF many
hundreds of lives and forty million dollars.
Then followed, in 1864, the war with the
Cheyennes, the inception and moving cause
ical crime ever before conceived by either
savages or civilized men. The Cheyennes
were small tribe living in perfect peace and
quieb in the northern part of Colorado Terri
tory. In 1864, when the war between the
States was being waged with terrible fury,
of Colorado volunteers invaded
their country and commenced an indiscrimin-
ate pillage and massacre of their people with
out giving the slightest warning of their
bloody purpose; and finally, when they
sought protection under the flag of the
United States, their savage pursuers charged
like demons among them and slew men,
women and children with brutal ferocity
never equaled by the most barbarous Indian
tribes. Upon a subsequent Investigations of
this cowsrdly and horrid massacre, the act
was disclosed that the bloodthirsty poltroons
who perpetrated it were lnstigated
to the monstrous crime solely by
a desire to incite an Indian war in order
that they might not be called to the
field to fight for the maintenance of the
Union against foe from whom more danger
might have been apprehended than from
handful of unarmed and fleeing savages. 1t
would hardly be credited that civilized men
in this age of the world, could have been
guilty of such crime, unless it were proven
by the most conclusive and overwhelming
testimony. That testimony is found In the
report of Major E. w. Wyncoop, the COM
officer at Fort Lyon, Wyoming Ter
ritory, under date of January Is, 1865, in
which he says: The affidavits of many per-
sons show and agree in the statement that
the most fearful atrocities were committed
that were ever heard of. Women and chill
dren were killed and scalped, children shot
at their mothers breast, and all the bodies
mutilated in the most horrible manner. Nu-
merous eye witnesses have described to me
scenes of the most disgusting and horrible
oI,o of
famed IN such a manner that the recital is
All this, and more equally hor-
ribie, was testified to by numerous witnesses,
whose truth there is no reason to doubt. No
wonder the Indian should hate and detest a
people that could be guilty of such crime,
and bear fierce and implacable hostility to
a government that would sanction and ap-
prove it by not inficting upon the guiltyper-
petrators a merited punishment. Following
this came the war with the Sioux Indians of
Dakota, which was equally unprovoked, at
tended with similar horrors, though not IN
such horrid and diabolical form"
Then came the war of the Navajos, which
ended in their almost humiliation; the Sioux
war of 1875; the war with the Nez Perces,
just concluded; that of the Oregon Indians,
massacred by a surprise party of regular
troops while most of them were living sick
of smallpox; and lastly that which ended In
the destruction OF the Modocs. Mr.. Young
continues:
Many witnesses have been examined
upon this subject, and they concur almost
unanimously in the belief that every Indian
war, for the past fifteen years at least, has
been provoked by the ineficiency, rapacity
and dishonesty of the agents in charge of
Indian affairs. Among these witnesses l
may mention Major General Pope, BIigadier-
General Carleton, Major Wyncoop, and the
veteran mountaineer and plainsman, Colonel
Christopher Carson, who spent nearly his en-
tire life among the Indian tribes of the west.
The methods by which Indian agents, con-
tractors, post-traders, and others sent out by
the Indian bureau, defrauded the govern
ment, cheated and deceived the Indians, and
enriched themselves, are so curious and
unique, and were carried into effect with such
boldness and ingenuity, that it is difficult to
tell which most excites our wonder, their
Amazing yillainy Or aStnnndin o. hardihnnd and