The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-01-02
THE INDIANS.
Gen. sheridan's Reply TO eerreiary
achurZ

SChurZ.
WASHINGTON, Jan. IA supplemental report to
the annual report of Lev General Sheridan of 1878,
with reference to Indian affairs and in response to
the request of Secretary Schurz that specifications
be furnished in support Of the statement made by
Gen. Sheridan in his annual report bearing date of
Dec 22d, is addressed to Gen. W. 7. Sherman,
Washington. Gen. Sherman says:
The OBJECT had in view, in my annual report was
to show that the Indian wars came from two causes
but while the first could not be avoided by the gov
ernment the second clearly Nithin its CONTROL
and resulted from bad management of Indian affairs
made no charges against the honorable Secretary
of the Interior, made no charge against any one
desired simply to call the attention of my superior
officer to that produced discomfort and out
breaks, and that from the nadequacy OF our military
force resulted in the of officers soldiers and
citizens, and horrible and uncomfortable barbarties
perpetrated women and children. and to state nv
belief that these disasters might have been ayerted
by better organization more complete system and
| more integrity in the agents employed.
The Secretary OF the Interior saw fit to take this
| up and by disingenuously saying that had made
charges as to coruptions at every agency in the limits
of this military DIVISION challenges for the facts
to prove charge he has himself put into my mouth.
His differences are not warranted by the language of
| the report but in support Of what did say 1 re.
| spectfuly submit the data accompanying this sup
| Elemental report.
The question of justice and right to the Indian is
past and cannot be recalled. We have occupied bis
| country, taken away from him his lordly domain,
destroyed his herds of game, penned him upon
ervations and reduced him to poverty. For human
ity's sake then let us give him enough to eat and in
tegrity in the agents over him.
To show how inconsiderate the honorable Secretary
ut ha Tnfar til ;o 80
November 10th and November Oath, respectively, it
only necessary for to call the attention of the
General Of the army to the fact that since 1874,
have carefully retained copies of the Indian reports
coming to my Office, the briefs of which herewith
endorsed; and it this information that my re-
| port was made. Surely the honorable Secretary of
the Interior cannot impute untruthiuness to the
| officers making these reports. They on the
ground generally official inspectors for the Indian
Bureau or in some official capacity, and are among
the best in the service, most OF them known to the
General of the army and to the country. My object
to call attention to and, it possible prevent the
caamlties occurring TO frontier settlers and to the
officers and men of the army, and to educe unneces-
sary expenditures brought upon the United States.
The report Of Lieut.. Lee, giving an exact EXPOSE
ton of the Indian management at Spotted Tail agen.
cy was obtained since the date of my annual report
i
fact was instrumental to extent in the detec-
ton Of the Mccain fraud. His report is submitted
first for the reason that it gives fair ana compre-
hensive idea of Indian management, and I believe
may be assumed as fair explanation of what occur
red at many of the other agencies, and which pro-
duced the hunger and discomfort described in the &C
| companying Briefs
also call attention briefs of correspondence
from Lieut.. Doughty relative to the attempt to force
upon him, since he has been acting as agent at Crow
Creek employees of bad character and of the loose
| and criminal manner in which Indian goods were
| shipped without bills OF ladng or invoice This is
true also for Cheyenne and Brule agencies on the
Missouri river, as well as Crow Greek whose agent
DR.. Livingston has recently been indicted on about
l24 charges and as many more that were throw out
| under the statute of limitations.
The attention of the General of the army is ex-
| pressly called to reports on the Standing Rock
| agency under the management OF agents Burke and
Hughes Then look at the Mandans Arickocees,
Gros Ventres, Assinbones, Pegans and Crows in
Montana territory. At the latter agency fraud has
been rampant although to tie best of my knowledge
the agents have been changed at least five or six
| times in the last seven years. Then come down to
| the Shoshones, Bannocks, Northern and Southern
| Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches Utes
| and Southern Apaches, and ask them why they have
gone to war or been hostile turbulent for the last
six or seven years? The answer will be insuicency
OF food irregularity in its supply and broken prom
| Uses.
| Gen. Sheridan as in his annual report objects to
the removal Of the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail In
dams further West to worse ground than the Mis-
souri, river bottom, where the expense of feeding
them would be probably five times greater, and also
to their present location the line of travel to the
Black Hills where contact with the whites is liable to
| frequently occur.
| The present Indian Commissioner is doubtless
honest. He has discharged number of agents fol
| maintenance in Office. Commissioner Smith, who
preceded him, was an honest man also as far as
know, and likewise TIE Commissioner of Indian af.
fairs before him, and so on back. They did as well
as they knew how, but fear that with all the pre-
cautions Of honesty that the system and manner Of
accountability too loose for the government OF
people who cannot read nor write and are so pecu.
| liar in their habits as the Indians. It will
SEEM even by the extracts from the reports to the
board of Indian commissioners, as well as the Com.
missioner Of Indian affairs, herewith attached
| they too support me in this conclusion.