Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-04
BY Senator Voorhees, Against the
Government, as the Cause of the
Present Indian Trouble.
SOME DAMAGING CHARGES MADE.
The Savages, Desperate From the Pangs
of Hunger, lie Says, Are Being
Driven Into War.
GEN. MILES QUOTED AS AUTHORITY.
Senator Dawes Says the Indians Ran Away From
Good Rstons.

WASHINGTON, Dec. Sin the Senate
to-day Mr.. Hawlev, from the Committee on
Military Affairs, reported and asked to have
put upon its passage a joint resolution,
authorizing the Secretary of War to issue
arms and ammunition to the States of North
and South Dakota.
Mr.. Nanderson moved to amend it by also
including the State OF Nebraska.
Mr.. Voorhees, said that if the proposition
were to issue 100, 600 rations OF food to the
starving Indians il would be more consist
ent with Christian civilization. Major Gen.
eral Miles, he said had stated in public in
teryiews that the Indians were driven TO re-
volt or rebellion or into sayagery by starva-
tion, and it was, in his Judgment, an mex
plicabe crime or the part OF the Govern
ment to stand silent and do nothing except
furnish arms to the whites He (Mr. Noor-
hees) looked upon the policy pursued in the
administration of Indian affairs as a crime
revolving to man and 20 God.
Some Grave Charges Made.
The Indians had no newspapers TO make
known their suferiugs and privations
They had been suffering for years In silence.
There was blood-guiltiness somewhere In
which the Indians in the Northwest were
being starved would result not merely in
the destruction of the lives of many Indians,
but the lives of thousands OF American citi-
zens and hundreds of American soldiers.
That condition of things had been brought
about by niggardly, parsimonious or dis
honest policy-he knew not which. While
he was willing that the joint resolution
should pass and that the people of the
Northwestern States should be armed, he
could not refrain from emphasizing the &C.
casion by these few words.
washing His Hands II.
He disliked to talk; he disliked to criti-
else; he disliked to animadvert on anybody;
but, he repeated, there was a crime some
where in the policy of the Government
toward those Indians, which somebody ought
10 answer tor. When he asked General
Miles whether something could not be done
TO prevent hostllities, the Generals answer
was that he feared it was too late. Whether
it was too late or not, he was glad that his
skirts were clear of any of the blood that
would be shed, growing out of a policy of
starvation In equity and crime toward the
Indians
Mr.. Hawley said that he did not know
that be had any objection 10 the remarks Of
the Senator IRON Indiana, except that they
".
He, too, had been thinking, as he presumed
that most American citizens had been, that
100, 900 rations of food would be worth more
than 100, 900 ball cartridges; and be had
been hoping that the time would arrive
when an appropriation would be made for
that purpose.
Religious Craze the Cause
Mr.. Dawes, Chairman of the Committee
on Indian Affairs, said good deal of what
the Senator from Indiana had stated was un-
dOubtedly true. There was a large BODY of
those Indians starving or at least short of
food, and that condition aggravated very
much the feeling prevalent among them
But be very much doubted that that was the
evil or that a supply of food would be the
cure for it. The Indians who were starving
were Indians who had been led by a reli-
gious craze to abandon their homes and fol-
low the standard OF their chiefs on the war
path, leaving all their sources of supply.
Mr.. Dawes said he had interviews with
General Miles, and that he had heard to-
day for the first time that the Indians were
the warpath because they were starving.
They had been on the warpath for three or
four weeks. They had been holding con-
ventions and camp meetings, and had been
giving themselves up to the delusion that
the time had come to go back to barbarism
and away from civilization, and they were
starving in consequence of that. He was
not disposed to deny that there had been
distress among the Indians, as there had
been among the white people in that re-
gion.
Mr.. Noorhees-Does not General Miles
say that the Indians have been hungry for
two years?
Mr.. Dawes-He may have said it to the
Senator from Indiana.
Mr.. Voorhees-He saws it in his published
interview.
Mr.. Pierce-I am nearer to the Indians
than General Miles is. l have no doubt
that in some of the agencies there are In
dams who complain OF insufficient food.
But | do question very much whether Gen
eral Miles made the statement attributed 10
him in the newspapers.
Mr.. Voorhees, paid high compliment to
the soldieriy and other good qualities of
General Miles, and said that he would take his
statement far sooner than that of a Senator
who lived near the reservation, and who
(with his people, wanted to get the Indian
lands as soon as possible The one was a
reliable officer; the other was the fox living
around the pen where the geese were. wait
ing to get some of them. Laughter.
Pending further instruction the matter
went over.