The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-02-10
gnlttita1.
ASSASSINATION BY THE GOVERN
MENT.

Senate Of the United States passed the
following resolution:
ReSOIUed, That the Secretary of the
Interior be directed to communicate all
information in the department concern.
ing the alleged killing by soldiers, in the
Office of the Agent of the Poncas, in the
Indian Territory, of Big Snake, chief
man of the Poncas, ard what has been
the action of the department, if any, in
respect to the same"
For ten months this direction cf The
United States Senate. which was re.
ceived by Mr.. Carl Schurz on the follow.
ing day, was not obeyed. During the
Ponca discussions of the present winter,
this disobedience of Mr.. schurs was
sharply commented upon. On the 9th
day of January, 1881, Mr.. Schurz sent a
letter to the Senate, in which he made
the following so'called explanation
"a reference to the enclosed letter
from the Indian Office, dated the 23d
ultimo, will show that the report re-
quested was made by that Office in due
time, but failed to reach this depart
ment. This is explained by Mr.. Brooks,
late Chief Clerk of the Indian Office,
who says that either he or Commissioner
Trowbridge delivered the report in per
son to the Senate Committee for the
Investigation of the Condition, &C., OF
the Poncas'
Recently my attention was drawn to
the circumstance that the report had
not reached me, and at once directed
that copy of the same be made, which
I beg leave to herewith present, together
with the above explanation of the aCCi-
dental delay, which l very much re-
gret."
In this letter Mr.. schurz implies that
his neglect to obey the order Of the SEN
ate, which was addressed to him aud
not to any Mr., Brooks or Mr., Trow
bridge, was an inadvertenCe-of little
consequence, however, since the answer
had been already placed by one of the
subordinates in the hands of the COM
mittee. The Chairman of that commit.
tee, Mr.. Dawes, gave the Senate this
information
mo answer to this il quiry was ever
made to the Poncs committee. but, on
the contrary, the Indian Bureau was re.
peatedly reminded by members OF the
committee that it had not been received,
and it was only after the Secretary was
himself reminded of 1t, scarcely month
ago, that the answer ever reached the
Senate at all. There are other minor
inadvertencies in the letter of the Sec.
retary, but they are worthy of no other
mention than that the felicity Of phrase
often sacrifices truth" .'...
That Mr.. 9churz is disingenuous and
tricky is, however, no new discovery.
The main interest in the matter relates
to the tragic affair about which the Sen.
ate has at last extorted the official in
formation, and which is seen to have
been, as Mr.. Dawes described it, "tLe
violent death at the hands Of Govern
ment officials Of a high.spirited and
brave man, who had committed no
other offense than the harboring Of love
of his own country and home, which
time could not extinguish and power
could not suppress" The story adds
another blot to the record of the Hayes
Administration and the fact that the
victim was only an Indian chief does
not change the character of the crime.
Big Snake was the brother of Standing
Bear, the famous Ponca Indian who, de.
spite Schurz's plans to keep his tribe by
force from returning to the Dakota
homes, to which they to-day have as
perfect title as Mr.. Schurz has to any
thing he owns, escaped from the Indian
Territory, and was then taken out Of the
clutches of SChurz's soldiers by writ
of habeas corpus.
These two brothers, as Mr.. Dawes
tells the story, were leaders in their tribe,
and from the first opposed the removal
to the Indian Territory. Such was their
intelligence, eloquenCe, and influence,
that they we're seized by the soldiers
and carried many miles distant from
the tribe, until the Poncas had been
driven out of their homes, when the
two chiefs were permitted to join the
forced march to the Indian Territory.
When Standing Bear and his thirty fol.
lowers escaped north, his b. other Big
Snake, lonely and dissatisfied, went on
visit to a neighboring tribe; but on ar
irving he was seized and thrown into
prison for going without a permit. On
his release, Big Snake expressed himself
in such vigorous abuse of the conduct of
the agent, that the latter appealed to
Carl Schurz to have the soldiers seize
Big Snake and convey him to Fort
Reno and there confine him for the re.
mainder of lis natural life." The
shameful suggestion was caught up
gladly, and the agent, having beguiled
Big Snake into the agency with a prom
ise of paying some money due him,
turned to the soldiers and told them to
take him away. When Big Snake,
startled and indignant, called out that he
never had done any man wrong, and
did not intend any wrong, the soldiers
set upon him, and while, in the strug-
gle, one struck him with the butt of
musket blow fit to fell an OK, another,
from a prearranged position, shot him
through the head. ...... ..
From Mr.. Schurz's department it was
telegraphed all over the coun-
fpu thok Bic Snoba hod haan onoiJank
ally shot, and that he was a bad man.
But Gov. Longs committee declare that
this 80 called accident was murder, and
that 1t illustrates the reign of teFr r
that had been established" by Mr..
Schurz, with his system of spies and
shootings; while Indian Inspector Pol
lock, who afterward visited the spot for
another purpose, testified under oath |
that he could not trace Big Snakes |
a l1aOad thraata u0ainak thn a0o,,k IN INV, |