Omaha daily bee., 1885-01-08

oN0h " bAbtNnA1os
l am in a position TO view this matter
impartIally, being neither q cattleman
nor a granger. On the broad principle
should rule the disposal of public lands,
it is to be hoped that an immense tract
of rich land, which would give 100 acres
apiece to $4,000 industrious settlers, may
not be tied up In the hands of a few.
The true plau-that which Is fair, to the
Indian and the settler, and TO the citi-
zens of Montana-is the cesslon to the
government of such portion of the reser.
walton as the Crows do not need, and its
sale by the government, in properly lin
tied quantities for their benefit. Let us
keep all that remains to us of the land
out of the hands of monopolists, or we
shall have In our young territories the
curse of absentee landlordism, and In
another century three.fourths of their
fertile surface will belong to foreign bull
lion lords. and the free young regions of
the far west will be crushed into the
Irelands of the future.
Meanwhile, it is said that the agents of
the syndicate are working hard among the
Indians TO obtain consent and signatures,
and with considerable success. The peo.
pie here are very much afraid that the
pressure of cert,in political e~xigencies will
cause the success of the syndicats's pro-.
ject. But until it is an accomplished fact,
and some of them say after, they are going
to fight it, as they say, ''for all they are
worth"
The effort on the part of a very small
party, calling themselves cattlemen, to
run out the Cheyennes on the Tongue
river and the Rosebud, has died out, and
quiet is restored. The Cheyennes are
hauling logs to build a new s~torehouse on
the Rosebud to replace the house that
was maliciously burned by a supposed
sympathizer with Tollifer, the Cowboy
who wantonly shot at and wounded Black
Wolf last spring. Two Horns is now at
the Rosebud station on the Northern
Pacific with a train of sixteen teams haul
ing the supplies to the agency. The
teams are ali owned by Indians of Two
Horns band, and driven by Indian
teamsters. Forage to subsist their ami
mails on the return trip was teleg;aphed
for from here yesterday, and a quantity of
oats shipped them by Iail. White Bull,
who leads the Tongue river settlement, is
out with some of his following hunting
stray buffalo bulls on the Upper Powder.
The cowboy Tollifer. who attacked
Black Wolf, has not been brought back.
A deputy sheriff, at considerable ex-
penae to the long-sutfering taxpayers OF
Custer county, went as far as old Mexico
and succeeded in getting Tollifer on the
American side of the Rio Grande, and
temporarily securing his person, but the
funds which we're sufficient for the search
for the fugitive were not enough for his
detention and return. The needful sim
eWs were telegraphed for, but the Custer
county authorities could not or would
not respond financially, and the deputy
sheriff turned his prisoner loose. Thus
Custer county has q pretty big bill to pay
for nothing. In the mean time one of
the Cheyennes who pleaded guilty to
burning the ranch where Tolifer made
his %uprovoked attack on Black Wolf
has died in the territorial prison at Hele.
ma of pulmonary disease.
Taking Into consideration the signal
failure of the officers of justice of Custe
county to bring Tollifer, the origin of
the whole trouble, to trial, it would BET
gracious act, If not an act of justice, on
the part of the present acting governor
or on that of the new governor when be
assumes his office, to pardon the three
surviving Cheyennes. 1t would have a
very go1d effect ON the Indiana, and
would restore in some degree their faith,
so widely shaken, in the white mans law.
1t was hoped that the late governor would
have done this act of clemency.
The only attacks to which the Indians
of this portion of the territory are now
subject are from wal parties--or, rather,
parties of horse. thieves of their own race.
Both Cheysnnes and Crows are suffering
from the thieving raids of the PieganH.
The last mentioned Indian, who were in
a starving condition at the beginning of
the present year, are now said to have
plenty to eat and any number of horses
and ponles-stolen principally from the
Crows, bat some from white settlers.
The Piegans regularly raid the Crows.
They have taken, year after year, thous-
ands of horses and ponies from them.
The Crow Indian has been 30 terribly
thrashed by the Sioux, and so utterly
crushed, morally, that he considers an ex-
aggerated discretion the better part OF
valor. Indeed, the Crows no longer
know what valor is. The Sioux
have knocked all the fight
out Of them. As far as they
are concerned, the Plegans have a pretty
sure thing and a safe one. It Is different,
however, with the Cheyennes, to whom
the Plegans have recently, on one or two
occasions, turned their attention, but
scarcely with the success and not with the
safety of their operations against the
Crows. A party of Piegans recently ran
off some stock belonging to the Rosebud
Cheyennes. Two Horns quickly followed
them, attacked them, killed two of them,
and recsptured the stolen stock. The
Piegans who succeeded in escaping to
their reservation were naturally very
much incensed by their defeat. They
sent word the other day to the Rosebud
Indians that they were now going to give
the %Cheyepnes all the fighting they
wanted. The Cheyennes replied with a
request to them to come on at their
earliest convenience, and they would give
them some more.
SKIN q