The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1879-02-03
Prcferring Dcnth to Organization.

The series Of tragic events that have made
the name Of Fort Robinson forever Infamous
is not yet ended. WILD Hoo. II chief who
was seized and ironed by foul play before
the outbreak, and SO prevented from dying
with his warriors among the icy bluffs
around the fort, has fatally stabbed him
self; or else his wife, with u sentiment we
honor in Roman matrons If not in Cheyenne
squaws, has struck the blow for him.
Is it not time for the HAYES Government
to learn that the red man has his code of
honor ~ well as the white. and that he,
warrior, fears death less than degradation
Is it not time to cease trying TO turn, by force
or fraud u race OF warriors and hunters into
one Of sleek market gardeners. within the
limits OF a generation? Horrible as is the
story of the ChcycnL"s, there is nothing in
cXpicable in it; its browning wrong is that
the men at Washington who have robbed
these wretchcd fugitivcs Of their liberty and
life are now ascribng their desperate strug-
giles for freedom to low love OF crime.
We have seen the Chcycnncs rcscntng by
force the inroad of cavalrymcn and gold
diggcrs upon homes set apart to them by
treaty; then, after the bloody campaign
with SITTING BULL, coming in voluntarily
To try once moro the white mans faiths
next. invciglcd by false pretenccs to migrate
far south To malaria spot where they
never received the food promised them, but
weyc driven TO perform kind Of work on
the agency which their customs held de-
grading. We have seen them, after many
useless complaints, quitting this rrscrya-
ton because the contract which brought
them to it had not been kcpt-making their
way back north without striking a blow
until pursued and shot at. Nevertheless. in
this. and in the successive desperate efforts
at freedom, crushed out with terrible
slaughtcrs, which have reduced these once.
naughty bands to few old men and scores
of moaning widows and orphans. Mcssrs.
HAYES, SCHURz and MCCEARY see only an
annoying ease Of what one Of them calls dis
orderly conduct. and which they proposed to
punish by hanging some survivors IN Kan
sas, imprisoning others at hey West, and
fastening the remaining few, in disgrace, on
the reservation in the Indian Territory.
1t now appears that Mr. CARL SCHUEz has
consented that RED CLOUD shall take under
his protection thirty-thrce Of the Cheyenne
widows and orphans who have Ogallala
blood in their veins. II this bc concession
from the HAYES Administration to a request
it dared not refuse. It will hardly deceive
RED CLoUD and his warriors. II it bc
claimed rs an act of compassion. why was
compassion not thought OF before these
wretched people were made widows and
orphans?
The truth Is that the HAYES AdmInistra-
tion has been mainly concerned to Nindicatc
what 1t is pleased to miscall its Indian policy
and to demonstrate that it has never taken
step that ought 10 be retraced. The
gallows in Kansas and the jail at kcy West
were meant to imply that the Fort Reno
reservation had been all that the most
fastidious Indian could dosire-and this.
though Agent MILES few weeks ago
testified To Congress that he had just left
that reservation infested with malaria
| fever, and that in his opinion none of the
| Chcycnncs should ever have been moved
! down to the Indian Territory. The whole
| sale butchcrics in the Nebraska raVinc-,
| whore the Cheyenne warriors di~dained to
save their lives by surrender, and this pres
ont suicide Of WILD Hoo teach the same
thing that the HAYES Indian policy OF
death or degradation is policy Of massacre.