The Worthington advance., 1878-11-07

-. 80. .. ' NUMBER 10. q :.
THE INDIAN QUESTION, =.
1sts Dtss~ssea at L"ngth 1v Gen. Sherman,
{" HIS annual Repovs-Ths Caxsrs oJ
Indian Wars-Osr Policy Contracted
'stth that Of The Brtttsh Government. = ;
Tho following is IN abstract Of Gen. sher-
idsn TO Gen. Sherman concerning the work
and workings during the past year of tho
military division Of the Missouri. It con-
tains many interesting facts, which will be
very generally read throughout the West,
and its suggestions are such rs will, COM
mend themselves to all who are acquainted
with the state of affairs throughout the
Northwest, the West, and the Southw: st.
No other army in tho world has such
difficult line to keep in order, and no armv
in modern times has had such an amount of
work put upon the same number of men. In
all other countries it is the custom to estab-
lish garrsons of not less than regiment or
abrigade, while we have for the performances
OF similar duties only one or two companies.
With rs regiments are rarely, if ever, to
gether; the posts are generally garrisoned BY
one, two, or four. companies, who are ex
pected to hold and guard against ono of
the
MOST ACUTE AND WARY FOES IN THE WORLD
= space of land that in amy other country
would be held by brigade. To do this re-
quires sleepless watchfolness, great activity,
and tiretess energy, and l. am gratifed to
know that, as q general thing, our officers
possess those soldierly qualities.
The reports Of the several commanders
that accompany this will fully advise the
general of the army of the operations of the
troops in detail during tho past Year. The
frontier has been greatly advanced, aud
mineral and agricultural interests have been
largely developed, while the cattle and sheep
interests a. . assuming extraordinary pro-
portions. The valley OF the Yellowstone
and the valleys along the eastern base of the
Big Horn mountains are gradually opening
up with settlements and mail routes. The
mineral wealth of the Black Hills is now un-
doubted, and ores exist in such quantities as
to be almost inexhaustible, while the coun-
try around the foothills, embraced by the
south branch of the Cheyenne river and the
Belle Fourche, presents the most favorable
prospects agliculturally. The progress of
the settlements, and the increase of farming
and grazing interests in Nebraska, Western
and Southern Kans' 8, and Northern and
Northwestern Texas, has been very great,
while the agricultural and mineral develop
ments in Colorado, Utah and Montana, have
moro than kept pace with the healthy pro-
gress elsewhere noticed throughout this di-
vision.
THE INDIAN SITUATION At THE PRESENT TINE
is, am sorry to say, unsatisfactory. The
Indian department., owing to want Of sufi-
cient appropriation or from wretched MIS-
management, has given to the settlements in
the Western country constant anxiety dur
ing the last year, and in some places loss of
life and loss of property, attended with
dreadful crimes and cruelties. There has
been an insuficiency CT food at the agencies.
and, as the game is gone, hunger has made
the Indians in some cases desperate, and
almost any race of men will rather fight
than starve. 1t seems to me, with wise man.
agement, that the amounts appropriated by
Congress ought to be sufficient, if practically
applied to the exact purposes specified, and
if the supplies arc regularly delivered, but
the reports of the department commanders
forwarded herewith would indicate different
result, except in the case of the Red Cloud
and Spotted Tail bands of Sioux, who, al
though threatening in their conduct, have
been the best supplied, and have been hu-
mored until their increasing insolence con-
stantly threatens to bring about breach of
the peace. I had hoped that the agencies
of these Indians would have
been retained on the Missouri river, where
they could have been fed and and looked
after at comparatively small expense; but
that would not have suited the traders and
contractors, who, fear, labored systemati-
cally last summer and fall to work up the
result which has been obtained, and now
their Indians are on worse ground than the
Missouri river bottom, and located at points
beyond the river lines of. transportati. n;
for instance, Red Clouds band, where the
expense of feeding will be probably fiv-
times as great as on the Missouri river. In
addition, these Indians ARE now located near
the line of travel to the Black Hills, and are
on the extreme western limit of their reaer.
vation, and where contact with the whites is
liable to frequently occur, and doubt if, in
the present frame of mind of the Red
Cloud Indians, the two races can live SO
closely together without fighting.
There does not seem to be now, and there
never has been, much steadiness in the
management of the Indians, and, if it were
not for the results which so severely involve
the military, this would be none of my busi-
ness aud would not be mentioned here.
They believed that all the region have
described belonged to them, and
OUR INDIAN POLICY ACKNOWLEDGED THEIR
BIAHTS
to tho country and what it contained, but,
alas for the poor savage, along camo the
nineteenth century pro- ress, or whatever it
may be called, to disturb their happy condi-
ton. The white men crowded on the
ments on their rights which no government
could stop. Our handful If soldiers was at
first sent to protect the Indians, but such at
tempts we're powetless. The government
made treaties, gave presents, made promises,
none Of which were honestly fulfilled, and,
like all original treaties with Indians in this
country, they were the first steps in the pro-
cess of developing hostilities. The indian
became jealous; he made in his simplicity
blind bargains; he began to see bis lands
wrested from his possession, his herds of
buffalo, which believed the great spirit
had given him, rapidly diminish, and the elk,
deer, and antelope killed for the market. and
by tho sportsman, and widely scattered by
both, and his rude nature under similar
conditions naturally rebelled. He COM
menced war, war as he had been accustomed
to make it, and men, women, and children,
intruders upon his soil, were killed, no diff
ference being made between tho innocent OK
guilty, the armed or unarmed.
The government followed up these acts Of
hostility with an arr.y too small to intimi-
dste or even punish, and, after years ol
struggle. the Indians south of the Union
Pacific railroad and down to the Gulf of