The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-03-20
The Cheyennes---Findings of General
Crooks Court of Inquiry.

The board of officers OF the army, convened
by order of General Crook, with instructions
"to examine into and report the facts attend
ing the arrest, confinement, disarmament, es-
cape, and recapture of a number of Cheyenne
Indians" has made its report, which, after
giving a detailed history of the affair, con-
cludes as follows:
1t is difficult to arrive at correct estimate of
all motives which influenced the Cheyennes il
their desperate course, without going beyond
the strict limits of this investigation consid-
cIiue facts not dcN NelOp<u py IT The Village oI
those Indians, numbering over 1000 souls,
was DESTROYED by General Mckenzie in the
Big Horn range in the fall of 1876. Left at an
inclement season without a tepee, they ap-
piled to their allies, the Sioux, for shelter,
and were refused, or were at least received
very coolly. Having no other course, they
surrendered at Camp Robinson, and were per-
shaded to go to the Indian Territory. largely
influenced thereto bv Chief Standing Elk, sup
posed to be a Southern Cheyenne. 1t is not
known to the board what assurances were
given to them by the Government, or what
promises, IL any, were broken. They were
probably received very coldly by the Southern
Indians, and they are very unanimous in their
complaints OF their treatment by the Southern
Indians. 1t Is easy to imagine that they were
quite justified in their fight-at least in their
own minds.
After their surrender and incarceration at
Fort Robinson in October last, 1t is under
stood that certain State authorities intended
to make n demand upon the General Govern
ment for the surrender to their tribunals of
the perpetrators of certain outrages charged
upon these Indians. That demand would be
eminently proper and right, but It could only
refer to the guilty individuals upon due iden-
tifcation. The punishment for these acts of
an entire band, tribe or nation, as body, was
the province of the Government, and not
properly to be delegated to any inferior au
thority. 1t Is quite probable that identification
OF the guilty might have been impossible, but
might Il not as well have been attempted at
Fort Robinson as elsewhere! Could not the
State officers have gone to that place for the
purposei Apart from these outrages, did the
dignity of the Government require the forci-
BILE removal of these people back to the Indian
Territory! At any rate, prior to full in
vestigation into the merits OF their COM
plants, IL is neither the province nor the in
tention of the Board to criticise its superiors.
But II is convinced that the return of these
Indians TO the South could only have been ac-
complished by bloodshed; and it desires to
point out the only course which IL seems to
think could have avoided that issue.
In view of the orders received, the only ques-
ton left with the military authorities at Fort
Robinson was, what steps to be taken.by them
would involve the least shedding OF blood! |!
The recourse to measures of starvation bears
too strong an analogy to the ancient but now
exploded practice of torture applied to the
prisoner to compel confession, not to startle
the supporters of modern leniency. But what
military course could have been devised. 1t
was evident to the Indians that they had no
alternative but to consent TO return; that a
OutDEcdh VI eoilc coft Iuust OCCuT,
should have been apparent to every one
who considered the temper of the In
dams. Had 1t been practicable to secure
barricades to prevent their actual exit
from prison, 1t is altogether proba-
BILE that they would have inundated them
selves rather than surrender That they
would attempt to escape on the night Of Jan.
seems to have been clearly indicated that
day, and was even predicted. In view of these
circumstances, 1t would seem that sufficient
precautions we're not taken. Itwas manifest
ly an error Of Judgment TO relinquish the
guard, or at least the watch over the Indians
when discovered in their intrenchments; but 1t
Is so much easier TO point out after the event
what might or should have been done before
it, that the Board finds 1t difficult to condemn
an officer who was otherwise jealous in the
discharge of his duty, who seems to have act
ed upon the best of his judgment, and who
afterward crowned his works by deeds Of gal
lantry.
It must be borne in mind that he supposed
the prisoners to be without firearms, and that
such was not the fact is a state OF things which
the Board finds itself unable to clear up. The
responsibility for the continued possession Of
firearms by the prisoners seems. OF course, to
they were captured. To disarm them was the
first and most natural idea. Yet the Board is
satisfied that its accomplishment was i'm
practicable at Chadrou Creek. After their
| imprisonment at Fort Robinson, while
| they were apparently contented and sat
| isfied, and before the determination of the
| Government was announced to them, it is
| possible that disarmament might have been
| effectually and thoroughly done. The officer
| who undertook il certainly supposed that he
was being successful in his attempt. The
| Board is of opinion that the arms and ammu-
| milton used by the Cheyennes in their out
break Except those captured by them from
| the troops) were previously in their posses
sion, and had been introduced into and con-
cealed by them in the prison. 1t is possible
| that q very few might have been conveyed to
| them by visitors, but certainly not all nor
| nearly all. With regard to his arms the In
| dian is so adroit and cunning that it is not
| surprising that he should have eluded the
vigilance Of his jailers. The arms were most
probably taken apart and concealed upon the
persons of the squaws until favorable oppor-
tunity of hiding them under the floor of the
room presented itself.
Colonel Carlton, in his evidence, has given
| his reason why he deemed 1t impracticable or
unwise to convey the men separately from the
women and children. II has occurred to the
Board that the latter class might have been