The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-12-27
SCHURz' PROPOSITION FOR THE CHEY-
ENNES


OF the plan OF fetching the Indians to Fit
Leavenworth to enable those who com
mitted murder and other crimes on our
border TO be identified:
UNITED STATES SENATE CHAMBER,
WASHINGTON, Dec. IL, 1878.
Hon. G. Sclttrz, Secretary Of Interior:
SIR beg leave to record my dissent
from some of the suggestions made in
your annual report, recently submitted,
with respect to that portion of the tribe
of Northern Cheyenne Indians who, in
the month of September last, escaped
from their reservation in the vicinity of
Fort Reno, Indian Territory, and made u
bloody and destructive raid through the
States of Kansas and Nebraska.
The paragraph in the report to which
I particularly except is the following:
Nearly all of the remaining Chey-
ennes have been captured or have sur
rendered, and are now held as prisoners
by the military authorities. In the in
terest of general discipline, and in order
to show the Indians that nothing can be
gained by such disorderly conduct, it Is
thought best to return them to their res
ervation in the Indian Territory, after
having given the civil authorities of the
State of Kansas an opportunity to identi-
fy those who committed murders or 9TH
er crimes while passing through that
State, so that they may be dealt with &C
cording to law"
1t seems to me absolutely certain that
the practical result of the policy thus in
dictated will be to prevent any punish
ment whatever from being visited upon
these savages. The Identification of the
particular Indians who with their own
hands perpetrated the enormities which
cd &c ole
practicable. Their murdered victims
cannot speak; the women and little girls
who have survived the brutal outrages
perpetrated upon them will scarcely be
able to recOllect and identify by form or
feature their individual assailants; in a
word, it would be manifestly impossible
to single out from band of one hundred
Indians, having the same general appear
ance, and similarly dressed and accOuter.
ed, the identical ones chiefly or exclus.
iveley responsible for the crimes-assum.
ing that there is properly any discrimin.
alton to be made in the degree or extent
of responsibility incurred by the mem.
bers of this maFauding band
But l respectfully insist that there is
no warrant, either in law or in morals,
for such discrimination. That all OF
these Indians were and are alike guilty,
scarcely admits of doubt. They raided
together; the plan and celebrity of their
march suggested pre-arrangement; there
is not the slightest circumstance TO indi
cate that the preparation of any of the
enOrmities in question was opposed al
| the time or has been since disaVOwed by
any of the band those who were not df
rectly engaged in the deeds of cruelty, il
any such there were, were clearly acces
series, aiding and abetting the actual
perpetrators, and all deserve the same
punishment.
Suppose, however, that one or two OF
| even half dozen of these savages be
identified and brought to punishment
through the medium of the Kansas courts
That would be equivalent to a declare
ton of innocence as to the remaining
members of the band-and would, prac
tically, encourage the repetition of the
| offence by thus reducing the danger OF
punishment to the minimum. Hundreds
of horses were stolen, thousands of dol
lars worth of property destroyed, forty
men murdered and mutllated, and hall
that number of women and girls subject
ed to the awful brutality of the lust OF
this band of savages, who were organized
and operating for the sole and express
purpose of robbery, arson, murder and
rape. Against any plan or policy which
band from his just share of responsible
ty of these almost unparalleled atrocities
committed against unoffending men, wo
! men and children, / most urgently pro
| test.
1t may be asked how these Indians are
to be punished ifnot through the forms Of
the civil law? 1t may not be strictly
| logical, but it is certainly pertinent re-
ply, that if their punishment depends
upon the operations of the law as admin
istered in the courts, they are in no dan
ger whatever, and it would be much bet
| terto dismiss at the GU tset all thought OF
punishment than to institute proceedings
| which could only end in failure These
Indians were captured by, or surrender
ed to, the military authorities; they were
VIGOROUSLY engaged in acts of hostility
| and are amenable to trial by court mar.
| tial. l do not hesitate to assert that the
| cause of justice and humanity would be
much more effectually subserved by the
| utter determination of this band of muir
derers and outlaws, than by absolvine
them from any punishment whatever.
Against the proposition to return these
Indians to the reservation of the tribe in
| the Indian territory, / also most earnest
ly protest. 1t is standing menace to
hundreds and thousands of innocent peo
| not be subjected. Nor can forbear tC
add that when proposed as disciplinary
measure it falls infinitely short of fit
ting retributiOn for the excuses, which
are far too leniently characterized by the
| general phrase of "disorderly conduct"
With the army at its present strength
and there Is no reasonable prospect OF
| its increase-it will be next to impossi
BILE to have always assigned to the duty
of guarding this tribe, force adequate
to prevent the occasional escape of it,
more discontinued and blood-thirsty
members. Moreover, if this were mo-
the case 1T would be long before conf
dence could be fully restored among the
settlers on that portion of the frontier Iy
ing between the present reservation anC
the northern hunting grounds of the
tribe. The damage already inflicted up
on the state by the expulsion OF hardy
industrious settlers from their homes
and by retarding the further settlement
of the localities afflicted by the frightfu
outrages mentioned, is very great, anC
will be increased by the continuing ap
prehension of further visitatiOns of Xix,
character.
The government owes protection t.
those people; it invites them to OCCUPY
the public domain, and while they ar
| tAAO vi SClSlcllSu
and civilization, and to greater or les
extent contributing to the general pros
per1ty, 1t tacitly guarantees them i'm
munity from violent assaults, and in tn,
peaceful possession of their property.
1t has no moral right, insist, to estab
lish permanent source of danger upor
our border, especially as experience hal
shown its inability to avert fatal conse
quences IN an emergency at any TIM
likely to arise.
l renew, in closing, my protest agains
any policy that will permit these guilt
savages to escape punishment for theii
crimes. But if what must regard as
mistaken notion of humanity shall brin;
about that result, then protest agains
the return of the Indians to their reseE
walton in the Indian territory. The pro
lection of peaceable citizens is dut,
which should take precedence of doubi
full experiments for the civilization o
the Indians, and for attracting them Il
agricultural and pastoral pursuits. Ant
have the less hesitation in urging thi
consideration upon your attention, be
cause it can neither be impossible no
very difficult to locate these Cheyennes
where the danger to the whites from
their incursiols would be vastly les,
than while they are on the reservation
to which it is proposed to send them.
Very respectfully yours,
p B. PLUME.