Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-04-06
SHERMAN AND THE INDIANS.
How the General Would Settle al
Difficulties and protect
the Red Men.

Gen. Sherman having read the adj |
vance proofs of Col. Richard Irving
Dodge's forthcoming book on "Our
Wild Indians" soon to be issued by
worthington & Co., of Hartford, and
r. b. Russell, of this city, has written
an introduction to the book, in which
he very clearly expresses his views
upon the much-agitated Indian ques-
ton. Having congratulated Col. Dodge
upon the accomplishment Of his inter
esting work, Gen. Sherman goes on to
say that the Indian of America has
been for centuries the subject of study
and romance-alternately treated as
an unmitigated savage, or as the dash
ing, bold hero fighting for his native
land and his native privileges. Col.
Dodge he regards as the first man who
has attempted to treat the Indian as
he exists in fact-the creature of an
cient habits, of manners and customs
imposed on him by former ages, modi-
fed by recent and modern changes.
He observes with satisfaction that
broad distinction has been drawn be-
tween the tribes like the Chippewas of
the lakes; the Seminoles of Florida;
the Kiowas, Comanches, ETC., of Texas;
the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Sioux
of the plains; the Utes and Apaches
of the mountains: the Navajos and
Pueblos Of New Mexico. and the Dig
gers and fish-eating tribes of the Pa
cifc coast. There is as wide differ
ence, says Gen. Sherman, in these types
of the same race as between the
Swedes, French, Spanish, and Italian
peoples. The character of each tribe
or nation has been formed by long
antecedent events, by the nature OF
the country in which they have re-
sided and the means necessary to
obtain a livelihood.
Gen. Sherman does not agree with
Col. Dodge and the world generally III
amusing our ancestors and the general
government with deliberate purpose
to be unjust to and to defraud these
people. He thinks a per1sal of the
statutes and of the many treatise ex-
hibits purpose to deal with them lib
orally, but so rapid has been our devel-
opment that violence was sure to hap
pen. Our wisest and best statesmen
did not and could not fOresee, the fu-
ture. Mr.. Van Buren,, in 1888 in urg-
ing the Cherokees, Creeks, and Choc-
taws to exchange their possessions in
Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, for
lands west of Arkansas, annunced,
and he believed truthfully, that they
would never again be disturbed by
white neighbors, because the land was
not suitable for white men, but admir-
ably adapted to Indian life. So in 1868
the Indian peace commission composed
of four most humane and hOrable cit
liens and three army eficers gems.
Harvey, Terry, and Sherman), had no
conception that in ten years the region
north of Laramie and east of the Rocky
mountains could become habitable to
the white race. Nor does Gen. Sher-
man think it just to accuse all Indian
agents Of being incompetent, if not
dishonest. He says he has personally
met great number of these, who are
generally tried, honest, and well-mean-
ing people, badly paid, and deprived of
all the comforts which civilized men
desire to enjoy. Some motive higher
than a desire to plumber must actuate
men who risk so much and endure
such hardships and privations. If our
Indian policy has failed, Gen. Sherman
thinks we should seek for the cause
elsewhere in the nature of things, rath-
er than in systematic desire to do
wrong.
In the treatment by the national
government of the Indian, the military
and civil officers of the government
have generally been dramatically OPP
posed, the former believing the Indians
to be as children, needing council, ad-
vice and example, coupled with force
which commands respect and obedience
from a sense of fear; the latter trusting
mostly to moral suasion and religious
instruction. The absolute proof pro-
duced by Col. Dodge that the Indian
has a strong religious bias, but is alb
solutely devoid of moral sense as con.
nected with religion, more than ever
convinces Gen. Sherman that the mill.
tary authorities of the United States
are better qualified to guide the steps
of the Indian toward that conclusion
which we all desire, self-support and
peaceful relations with his neighbors
than the civilian agents, most of when
are members of some of our Christian
churches. Congress, however, alone
has jurisdiction of the whole matter
and Gen. Sherman is sure that Col
Dodge's volume will be received by its
members with great satisfaction, as il
will enable them better to understand
a subject which has always been in
volved in honest doubt.
The treaty system began at an early
period in our history, when the white
settlers and Indian tribes were more
nearly equal than now and, Gen. Sher
mans recollection is that this system
was FIRST discountenanced on motion
of Gen. A. II. Terry, by the IndiaI
peace commission of 1860. Still, a.
long as distinct tribes like the Sioux
Cheyennes, Kiowas, Arapahoes, Utes
and Apaches are assigned to specih,
reservations. there must always b