St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-02-11
Story of a Government Murder.
TOLD BY MIR. DAWES TO THE U. 5. sen.
ATE.
[Extract.I

TOLD BY MIR. DAWES TO THE U. 5. SEN
ATE.
Extract
When government officials set about
extOrting from the POnca Indians, at
the point of the bayonet, their consent
to leave the home of their fathers deed
ed to them by that same government,
those officials encountered the strong
and uncOmpromising opposition of two
men of the tribe. They were brothers,
born leaders of men, intelligent, bold,
brave, chivalric and patriotic. They
could neither be persuaded out of their
homes by soft words, deceived by false
ones, corrupted by promises, or moved
by threats. Their influence with their
fellows was, accordingly, very great,
and proved a serious obstacle to the
fOrcible deportation of the tribein which
those officials were engaged. That OBJ
stacle could not be overcome, and it
was necessary therefore to crush it.
The heavy hand of the government was
laid upon these two men, and has new
CT been taken off. One of them has
fallen in the conflict the other is an
exile; and the government is at this
moment engaged in the laudable at
tempt to starve into submission as
brave Il spirit as lives, since it has not
as yet been convenient to dispose of
him otherwise. The biography of the
latter days of these two men is full of
interest and pathOs, if not to the credit
of the government under which they
lived. When the work of driving the
pnnaaS ntrf Of thnir hnnnaS honon thaSa
two Indians told their associates that
they had a country, and had bought
and paid for it as other people had
bought and paid for theirs, and that in
a land of law and justice they could not
be dispossessed of it; and their coun-
trymen listened to them. Thereupon
these two men were seized by soldiers
and cast into prison, many miles away
from their people, and there kept in
confinement till the work of driving out
the tribe at the point of the bayonet
had been completed. They were then
permitted to join the exiles on their
forced march to the Indian Terrific
ry.
But neither Punishment nor inhospi-
table cline, nor sickness and death on
all sides and in their own households.
could break or humble the proud spir-
its of these two heroes, or save them
from the persecution their obstinacy
had brought upon them. They were
singled out for that watchful care which
suspicion slways begets in the minds of
petty tyrants, and submitted to sur
veillance and espionage which have no
parallel in dealings with civilized men,
in, fhiC tpy at lnnSt nnI vVhioI, lao
came at last intolerable, even to 4 saw
age. One of these brothers, Standing
Bear, with 30 followers, enfeebled by
sickness and want, discouraged and
homesick, turned their faces homeward
with no other guide but instinct and
their feeble knowledge of the courses
of the stars. They were taken in for
rest by their friends, the Omahas, worn
out and exhausted by long wanderings
over the pathless prairie and almost
ready to give up in sight of the sold
burial places of their fathers" But rest
was not yet for them, the pursuer was
on their track. Soldiers marched into
the Omaha reservation with the stars
and stripes of a free country at theiI
head, and dragged these helpless fugi-
tives from the tents of savage hospital
ity and charity, and turned them back
toward the forced banishment to which
civilization had doomed them. A writ
of habeas corpus set them free, and
now stands between them and all other
benevolent efforts of the Indian bureau
to subdue them, except starvation. This
they still cheeIfully brave for the sake
of living where their fathers lived and
bapa fhair oh il1par
Our business at this time however is
with the other brother, Big Snake. With
him the work was quicker and more
effective, aud it brought sooner the rest
he lOnged for. There was no power
within or without him which could
make him content with his exile OF
teach him to brook the indignities that
his naughty spirit brought daily upon
his devoted head. He sought for con-
tentment in visit to a friendly tribe
without the permit which the Indian
agent set over him as a master had re-
fused, only to be incarcerated in a pris-
on house on his arrival in place of the
feast of welcome prepared for him by
his red brethren.
On his release from this imprison-
men, this proud chief returned to his
companions in exile not whit hum bled
but with as naughty spirit as ever.
But conscience made "A coward of the
Indian agent. Not capable of compre-
bending that his miserable life was safe
in the very contempt which his petit
ness had begOtten, he feared bodily
harm at the hands of the man he had
maltreated, aud appealed to the interi-
or department for soldiers to arrest this
noble among his race, and now use
his wOrds-''cOnvey him to Fort Reno,
and there cOnfine him for the remain
der of his natural life" Even this tri-
vial pretext was subsequently, shown to
be groundless but had it been found
ed upon some actual danger, this was
proceeding that neither law nor de-
cency could justify, and the occasion
required only that just and mild treat
meut which is sure to win the conf
dence of even a savage. Yet because
of the fears of a coward, and upon 8
charge which was only pretext, and {