The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-11-02
Ghe Chilly grg,,s.
d How Hayes Protects the rron ti.~.

N. I. Sun.
Ihe Hayes Administration does NJ
propose to pay for the houses burned ~
crops destroyed, and the farm stock drive,
away Dy the Northern Cheyennes in thei
late desperate run for life: nor will !;
| atone to the fanatics of settlers for n
forty and more lives of slaughtered hna
0ands and sons. Yet to the banefn
policy OF the Hayes ADMINISTRATION thes,
calamities are directly due.
. when the Indians broke from For
Reno, there were at that agency sos
Cneyennes and Arapahoes, guarded b,
two understood companies Of the Fonrtl
Cavalry and two of the Eighteenth Infan
try. The two latter, aggregating only
sixty or seventy meD, obviously had to re.
main near the 100 Indians who STAYED
quiet, while the cavalry pushed after the
fugitives. When they came mn with the
1nolans, on the third day, they were badly
defeated, from lack of numbers, But
why were there available only two compa.
MES OF the Fourth Cavalry at Fort Reno.
and one each at Fort Sill and Camp Sun
ply, when less than year ago there were
SIX other companies of this same regiment
stationed 10 the Indian Tarritory? The
reason is that last December Col. Macken-
zle was. with companies, A. G, ID K. l..
and NJ of the Fourth Cavalry, taken away
from Fort Sill. and sent down into Texas
to assist in Hayes's outrages upon Mexico.
Fort Reno, new post, is on the north
fork OF the Canadian, only seventy or
eighty miles from Fort Sill. 1t Is thus
clear that the six companies taken awav
to Texas would have been available. on
timely warning, at the beginning of the
Cheyenne outbreak, and, properly handl-
ed, would have crushed it in the bud. The
pernlclous Mexican plotting of HAYES
thus bore lruit of evil, not onIv on the Rio
Grande, but on the frontiers he stripped
at the West.
What ma kes this eonduak more glarina-
~ reckless is the fact thafwhen the trans
Ter to Texas was made, the distress which
has now ended in bloody war had been
developed. and the outbreak was predict
ed AT the time the six companies of the
Fourth cavalry were taken away the Chew
ennes at Fort Reno were suffering for lack
OF food; and Gen. Pope, the department
commander, Ia his last annual report. had
said:
Il must urge upon the authorities the absolute
necesslty both IN the safety of this frontier and in
the interest of humanity and fair dealing
tuuIans be better fed than they are now or have
oeeh. y Snch state of things as now exists
cannot last long without some violent outbrsak.
ahke fatal to life and TO confidence
Gen. Pope also informed Secretary Nc
Crary that notwithstanding the Cheyennes
nad been away six months, subsisting up-
on buffalo, yet, on their return, supplies
meant tor year were not sufficient to fur
nlsh them with half rations for the re-
mainder of the year. He, in addition, last
winter urged that immediate arrange
ments be made to save these Indians from
restitution, if not absolute starvation, to
protect the honor and good faith of the
government, and to relieve this frontier
from constant danger of outbreaks"
What did the Hayes administration do,
on this and many repeated warnings? 1t
took away from this very region, where
starvation threatened violence, half the
available troops, and masseG them against
Mexico. Meanwhile. so little was done for
the Indians that shortly before the SEN
tember outbreak, the northern Cheyennes
were known to be eating the flesh of horses
that died OF disease, to appease their hun
ger At last the outbreak came, and
troops that should have been on hand to
help protect the settlers were far away at
San Antonio.