The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1890-12-13
THE INDIAN SITUATION.
(The Mandan PiOneer.)

The INDIAN SxIUAI1ONs
(The Mandan Pioneer.
Mr.. j. R. Cook of Miller's Point (up the
Missouri river) writes Pioneer as follows.
It has been IA years since the Sioux mas
sacre of Custer, and according to my in
formation that is much longer time than
the Sioux Indians have been at peace. If
it was not the scalps of helpless white set
tiers on the frontier that they sought and
obtained it was those of their own blood.
They are restless, war-like race of Indians.
They have excellent organizers among
them. Their medicine men are 80 ex-
tremely willy and cunning that when they
bring their arguments and their persuasive
force to bear upon other tribes, with very
few exceptions they bring them to their
way of thinking.
For the past five years they have been
sowing the seeds of discord among the
Crows, another powerful tribe Five years
ago this winter, when Sitting Bull made
his visit to the Berthold Indians-which
was the first time he ever dared to show
his face in their village since the date of
his birth-the Gros Ventres, Mandan and
Rees told him that they went hungry
sometimes. He replied that there was no
need for them ever to go hungry. If they
would do as he had done they would have
plenty to eat, "for," said he, 'I and my
people went to war with the whites and the
government now gives us full ration of
beef and anything else that we want"
The Sioux are constantly keeping pro-
minently before the minds of other tribes
the fact that the buffalo are all gone, that
the whites killed them and are now keep
ing the hills covered with speckled cattle.
The Sioux medicine men point out the
sites of their own deserted villages as the
present homes of the pale faces; they gaze
with spirit of envy upon the plowed fields
of the pale face where once they hunted
the deer and the antelope; they tell of the
way the whites have taken the fur from
their beaver dams, and are now watering
their horses in the streams, and forever
destroying their fur trade. Go where they
will and do what they may they find the
white man in their way. From discussing
these matters they have worked them
selves into their present religious frenzy.
Is it any wonder that they are able to find
plenty of reasons for going to wars lam
no alarmist, but having lived for thirty
years upon the extreme frontier have
learned something by experience, having
gone through the Nine Tribe alliance war
of 1868, and having fought with "A others
on the 18th of March 1877 against 291
Staked Plains Apaches aud Chohandy
Comanches from o'clock in the morning
until 8 o'clock in the evening; and after
seeing Dull Knife with about 159 warriors
whip the United States army from Fort
Reno Indian Territory, practically across
three states of the Union in 1873 I now
claim the right to express an opinion in
the present anticipated trouble. I believe
that am only voicing the sentiments of
the 1900 settlers and ranchmen between
the northern Pacific and the Great North
ern west of the Missouri river to the Mon
tana line when say that our military pro-
lection is wholly inadequate in case of
trouble in the coming spring. No sane Or
reasonable man who knows Indian tactics
and the geography of the particular re
gion would contradict the statement. Fort
Lincoln should be strongly garrisoned by
the very best soldiers our army has, and at
least two companies of cavalry should be
placed at old For tStevenson Fort Berth
old or Sully's lake on the Missouri river.
The people in this region just mapped out
are mostly homesteaders having located
here within the last five years, and long
since the last Sioux outbreak. They are
comparatively poor; the crops have been
partial failures for years; yet they are
hopeful Of better future and if ever peo-
pie needed the protection of the strong
arm of their government it is this people
and at this time.
Rustless Iron Reality.