The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-06-26
THE INDIANS.
The Threatened Troubles on the From
tier the Result Of Bad Treatment
by the Government and
Its Agents.
Corrupt Radical OmeiaIs are Response
BILE for the War.
New York Times.l

remarkable tracteDil1ty and striking Will
iDgness to conform, in some measure. 70 the
ways of the white race. From their first In
tercourse with us they have been far more
friendly than many OF the tribes of the Mis-
sissippi and Missouri valleys. The Bannocks
and Shoshones, now in revolt, were allies of
our troops for many years, and furnished
them soldiers until very recent date. Buf-
falo Horn, the leader of the present war, was,
up to last winter, a favorite scout of Generals
Howard and Crook. The same was true
of the Nez Perez, up to the time of their re-
volt-prior to that, during seventy
years OF intercourse, no Nez Perez, it is be-
heved, has ever killed a white man, except
in one justifiable instance. The Bannocks,
like many others of the Idaho Idians, have
displayed much capacity for agriculture.
The last annual report of the Bannocks and
Snakes at Fort Hall agency shows that "a
families had cultivated 100 acres of land as
their own, on which they raised 500 bushels
of potatoes and 2 600 bushels of wheat
worth $1,000. They were constantly at work
on their crops or in building fences, corrals
stock yards and cellars. With few hun
dred dollars their agent got them seed, shov-
els, picks, reaping hooks and half dozen
plows. Besides this, Indians, aided by one
white man and the head farmer, raised on
the agency farm wheat and vegetables worth
about s., 800 and put up hay
worth 100, and several hundred cords
of wood worth $500. The Fort
Hall Indians own 5000 head of horses, and
some mules, cattle and swine. The greater
part of their subsistence, by far, was fur
nished by their hunting and fishing; about
quarter part was government rations while
the rest came from their farm produce. As
sundry classes of destructive diseases are
called by physicians preventable diseases, so
the wars of Idaho Indians hitherto may be
styled preventable wars-wars that Justice
good faith and discretion would have avoid
cd vxrau fr1lx wit he Me- De-
war last year, and it is so with the Bannock
war of to-day. 1t is alleged that trouble in
the latter case arose from the effort of the
military authorities at the request of the
civil authorities, to arrest an Indian offend
er; but even il so, the Indians offense sprang
out of a prior one OF the whites. At ali
events, the Bannocks had been embittered
for years by the misconduct of government
agents, by the keeping back of annuities,
and by their reduction almost to starvation
through governmentneglect. Commissioner
Hyatt acknowledges that discomfort has long
existed at Fort Hall agency among the Ban
nocks, because the congressional appropria-
ton for their wants is insufficient This is
not difficult to believe, when we learn that
the total appropriation for subsistence at
Fort Hall has been $24 600. As there were
according 70 Agent Donaldson's last report,
39S Bannocks and 964 Snake Indians at his
agency a year ago last winter, with $50 Ban
nocks absent in the buffalo country. we find
a total of 1912 Indians connected with this
agency. This would allow about SIS each
for them a year out of the government ap-
preparation, or four cents q day. Ii is not
surprising to learn that when Gen. Crook
visited the agency, q few weeks since, the
Bannock chiefs said that the rations issued
for seven days were all consumed on the
fourth, and that he concluded that the war
is the result of miscalculaton, neglect, or
downright thleying on the part of govern
ment agents.
Were this temporary or exceptional state
of things, the Bannock revolt would be less
excusable. But, on returning to the official
report of Agent Donaldson, we find him de-
scribing a lack of food winter before last
even worse than that of the past winter and
spring. He says that all winter long only
half rations of -four, beef and potatoes were
issued, and that on March all the flour was
gone and nearly all the beef. Seven weeks
later he stopped all issues of rations, except
those made TO the "a families of farmers, to
agency employees, and to the old and infirm,
making about 800 persons in all fed during
the summer. THE rations OF more than /, 900
Indians were cut off, says the agent, land
they were thrown upon their own resources
for living at season when the mountains
and foot bills were covered with snow, and
in a country where there is scarcely any
game. Large numbers of men and women
came to my office begging piteously for food,
stating that there children were crying for
food. had nothing to give them" And
now, more than a year later, we find this
same agent, who testified then that the Ban
nocks behaved most admirably under their
misfOrtunes" telegraphing from Fort Hall
10 Washington: Gould not keep the roam
ing Bannocks here, for the amount of sup
plies was scarcely enough to keep even the
Indians engaged in farming" 1t is plain,
therefore, that these gross neglects and
wrongs have been of long continuance, and
will sufficiently account for the preasent
outbreak.
The Bannocks have a second agency in
1daho-that at Lemhi: and affairs there
have been quite as bad as at Fort Hall.
The conduct OF one of the agents at Lemhi
was such that he was removed; another was
appointed but he was as soon as loudly COM
planned OF as the other, and great numbers
of the Bannocks last year left the reserva-
ton. Summoned to Fort Ellis, a few
months ago, to account for this escapade,
their chief told his story OF the lack of food
and clothing; temporary supplies were sent
from the fort, and the general feeling of the
officers Is said to have been that of pity for
the Indians and anger against those who
ought to have properly provided for them.
The Nez Perces and Bannocks are not the
only Idaho Indians that have suffered in this
way. When General Howard heard the
news of the BannocK outbreak be telegraph
ed instantly to the division commander
General Mcdowell, as follows: LAS a war
preventive measure, please ask the president
that formal patents be authorized, as already
guaranteed in treaties, to the reservation In
dams in my department. The promise could
be carried out at once by the agents and
thus the main cause of Indian dissatisfac-
ton be obviated. Quick work in this direc-
ton will, / think, save lie and vast expense"
We may not be entitled to call this hasty
dispatch the working of an uneasy con-
sciecne, but it certainly is suggestive add it
is an additional proof of the assumption
that invariably some wrong done to the
Idaho Indians has been the cause of their
wars with the whites.