The Benton weekly record. [volume] (Benton, Mont.) 1880-1885, 1883-10-13
SITTING BULL SICK.
The effect of Civilization oR an Old
COpper.colored Warrior.

I 1he eI1eCt OF civilization OR an oil
COpper.colored Warrior.
A dispatch says that Sitting Bull, one
the proud leader of band of copper-colo1
ed eut-throats, is at his reservation dow
sick with cold, pneumonia, inflammation,
rheumatism, and jim-jams. This is th
result of civilization. When he was
wild Indian, roaming the plains in searcl
OF scalps, dressed in blanket and ear
rings, sleeping under the shelter of a tree
IN the snow, he was never sick, never haG
a cold, and never knew doctor. Now
he is civilized, is furnished with warm
garments, plenty to eat, and a house
heated by steam, and new disease catches
him every week. This should be a warn
ing to wild Indians not to accept the hospi-
talltles OF civilization. 1t may seem to the
wild man, who goes without his dinner
unless he can kill some game, that the
proffer of house, food, clothing and SER
wants, is not to be despised, but season
hghting the diseases of civilization causes
the red man to sigh for the open prairie.
the forest, the WigWam and the bloody
scalp of the pale face. 1t is enough to
cause tears to flow from eyes unused to
weeping, to think CT sitting Bull, the
greatest murderer of the age, perhaps with
the exception of the James brothers, re-
clining on his couch with the inflammatory
rheumatism. Details of soldiers from the
regular army may bathe his aching joints
with horse liniment, and savory dishes of
condition powders may be fired down him,
and everything may be done to make the
great man comfortable, but as the pain |
takes him by the shoulder, goes down his
spine and works into his legs and feet, and
curls him up like a coil of barbed fence
wire, pious man though he be, since he
has been converted, he will swear a blue
streak and sigh for his wet moccasins and
he snow-capped mountains in the vicinity
II his old stamping ground, where he kill
ID Custer. The government wet nurses
nay soak Sitting Bulls cloven feet in hot
mustard water, give him ginger tea, and
'our cough syrup down among the gut
eral sounds that escape him, and try to
reak up his cold, and they may read to
i'm from the good Sunday-school books. !
nd try to believe that he is good Indian,
ut the poor stricken man will always feel
lat the government has put up job on
I'M, to kill him by degrees. The aborig-
lal cough that racks his manly
anne may seem to his attendants like
he knell that tolls for a soul about TO de-
art from the clay, and they may try to
10Th him with hymns, bat he will feel ;
ke kicking them all out doors, mounting :,
trusty mule, and going out and killing :,
ttler or two, believing that such exer- :,
sc would do more to cnre him than all :.
e medicine of the doctors. A sick Indian
ust be mournful spectacle, not only to =
ltsiders, but to the aforesaid Indian. Hell
ust realize what mistake civilization is. :,
he has lived to arrive at mans estate :.
thout being sick day, while exposed to =,
the hardships of his race, and has :"
yer heard the name of disease, and then
es to reservation and lives in govern
7nt barracks, and picks up an almanac
d reads list of the diseases that his p
lite brethren are subject to, a list as tn
lg as a congressman's speech, and rea- k1
es that he Is liable to have all of those tr
eases if he lives long enough, it must lii
the Indian to thinking, and if he Ct
es not conclude that the government ha
cps these diseases on tap, to kill off In Di
ms that are captured, then he is truly to
ID Indian that ought to die. Sitting fe'
IL has seen the folly Of being civilized pa
lian. re,