The Washington critic., 1890-02-24
WHAT MILES WILL SAY.
SKETCH OF AN INTERVIEW HE IS
EXPECTED TO GIVE.

ments OF the Pursucrs OF the SIP
perry Geronimo-General Crooit's
Policy and That of HIs Successor.
While two eminent brigadcrs Of the
Regular Army are conducting the
Apache campaign in the District Of
Columbia, the unfortunate settlers In
Arizona are pouring in protests against
their own possible slaughter, should the
Crook bill pass and Geronimo and his
murderous band be sent to Fort sill in
the Indian Territory.
While the War Department aud In-
dian Office in particular are trying TO
find out whether or not Brigadier
Crook, who did not capture them, or
Brigadier Miles, who did Is the hero of
this occasion, the distressed citizens of
Arizona, who will be directly affected by
the order, are completely lost sight OF.
But so long as Brigadier Crook sees
the eagle on Brigadier Miles shoulder,
and goes him one better, there is apt TO
be more or less delay in the solution of
the Indian problems.
Within the past three or four days
the Mexican Minister has supplemented
the Arizonians by filing letter of pro-
test against the passing of the bill. He
claims that the Mexican Government.
after years of experience with these
raiding bands of Comanches from
across the border, does not want a repe-
tition of such outrages. He says, fur.
ther, that since the settlement of the
Northern provinces, over 10000 people
have been butchered and their lands
again and again laid waste by these
savages.
To the mind of the plain civilian, it
begins 10 look as if this entire Apache
removal, so deeply concerning the East.
ern philanthropistand SOuthwes settler.
were based on the official difference of
two blue and gold brigadiers rather
than the interests of the white settler
or the improvement of the Indian.
The removal bill, having passed the
Senate, is now being warmly discussed
in the House, and it is claimed by the
friends of Brigadier Miles that the en-
issaries of Brigadier Crook, several
beardless cadets just assigned to duty
from the Point, are here in Washing
ton testifying before the House com
mittee and otherwise managing the
campaign of the ranking brigadier
against his insubordinate subordinate.
However much Brigadier Miles may
have blundered in his Apache cam
paign, it certainly appears that he cap
tured and corralled the hostile band.
which had already massacred over 600
of our soldiers and settlers in the South.
west. 1t likewise appears that Briga-
dier Crook, who had previously wrestled
with this same Geronimo, did not cap.
ture him, and the natural sentiment
among the people still desirous of pre-
serving their lives and property is a
very decided objection to a renewal of
Crook policy.
Within day or two Brigadier Miles
will probably be interviewed by an cs.
teemed contemporary and will, in all
probability say
Years ago it was proposed to gather
all the Apaches and place them on a
reservation in the Indian Territory but
it was never intended that part of
them should remain in Arizona, a part
in Mexico, and the hostile bands in the
Indian Territory, from which ground
Of vantage they may and would so
easily escape TO renew their depre-
dations."
When Brigadier Miles is questioned
in reference to his discharge of Briga.
dier Crooks scouts he will probably
say:
1T was unnatural and unreasonable
to suppose that Indians of not only the
same tribe but having brothers, sisters
and mothers with the hostiles, would
make reliable scouts to hunt down their
own people. Even savages could
scarcely be depended upon to commit
so unnatural a crime, especially since
! the clannish spirit of the Indian is so
well known"
When questioned concerning the cap
ture of Chato, the scout, and his i'm
prisonment, General Miles will admit
that he was with Geronimo's band in
the last raid, but that "he was one OF
the most brutal of them all, and stands
before the Territory indicted for the
most atrocious murders ever committed
there"
To the question as to whether or not
these Apaches can escape from the
reservation in the Indian Territory and
find their way back through familiar
country to their instructive occupations,
the General will probably answer by
asking:
why not?"
Should he be pressed for solution OF
the question and asked to name region
where these savages can be properly
cared for and gradually educated anC
civilized, the Brigadier-G General vii
undoubtedly say: Keep them east O
the Mississippi. Remove them entirely
from their native surroundings, preven
them from sowing discord in the peace
full trib es of the Comanches and Kio
was; keep them within the refining in
fluences of an impregnable and estab
lished Christian civilization"
Moral suasion and boiled shirts fol
the savage, and not the temptation o
native heath, are what Brigadier Mile'
will demand
A prominent Army officer, comment
ing yesterday on the Indian situation
remarked:
Between the extreme brutality Of
the West, the unguided philanthropy oI
the East, the Indian agent, the Indiar
Office, the Army and Christian whisky
the poor devil of a savage has hare
row to hoe"
This same officer, well gro unded il
the petty jealousies and heart burning
of regular army life, says: Because o.
mere personal feeling of pique on tn,
part of ranking officer, the people o
both Arizona and Mexico will be forced
to again suffer the same uneasiness
terror and loss of life and property
more than that he insists that "Briga
dier Crook is inconsistent when h
says in his late report that it would b,
unsafe to return them to their old res
ervations, and yet urges that they b.
sent to another, from which escape
easy and almost certain.
The war of the Brigadier is not We
done, and Arizona must wait the call