The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-05-17
INDIAN WARFARE.
The Difficulties that Troops Have
to Contend With.

Making war on Indians is unlike
any other war making in which ar
mics engage, writes General Merritt
in Harper's Magazine. Finding
them, not fighting them, is the diff
fcult problem to solve. If the
reader will consider that the thea
ter of operations in any Indian
campaign-whether in Wyoming,
Dakota, the Indian Territory and
Texas, or Arizona-is about as large
as the New England States with
New York added; that each of
these possible theaters of war is an
uninhabited wilderness; that they
are without roads, and often i'm
penetrable for hundreds of miles
because of arid deserts or impassa-
BILE mountain ranges; that while all
parts of each territory are to the
Indian as familiar as the paths of
the home orchard are to the farmer
and his children, it is and of neces-
sity must be an unknown land to
the best informed white man; that
in these trackless wilds the Indian
has no fixed habitation; that upon
being discovered by his enemy, the
direction Of the trail he takes is a
matter of indifference to him; that
where night finds him is his home,
and that his substance and clothing
are always with him-if all these
and collateral matters depending on
them are considered, an idea can be
formed of how difficult it is TO make
successful war on the Indian.
In war the Indian, though par
TALLY civilized, reverts to his worst
phase of savagery. Much has been
written as to the false sentimentality
which crops up in the discussion of
the Indian question by humanita-
rians and lovers of fair play, which
it is not intended here to repeat.
But it may properly be observed
that it is worse than nonsense to
urge that the Indian regards the
white intruders as the descendants
of those who, two centuries and
more ago, came to this country and
by might deprived the Indians of
their lands and hunting fields, and
is through his children pursuing
the "red man toward the setting
SUM-" The Indians knowledge of
history scarcely extends beyond one
generation. His white enemy is
served in war as is any other enemy,
and for the same reasons. He has
no inherited animosities dating
from the time ofthe lgrim Fathers,
nor does he feel gratitude for kind
usage shown to his ancestors or to
himself. The annuities paid him
are looked upon as tributes exacted
by fear or some less worthy prin-
ciple, and kindness shown him are
evidences in his mind that those
by whom they are shown are weak
and afraid OF him.
Fortunately for the whites, the
Indians in their warfare are not in
the habit of attacking our So called
forts on the frontier, else the hor-
rors of post wars would equal in
any year the fearful pictures of the
Indian mutiny against the English.
Our frontier forts have often been
at the mercy Of the Indians, but
the capture in any instance could
not have been made without great
loss of life, and it is characteristic
of the race that they are slow to at
tack when certain death awaits any
great numbers. They are brave
where superstitious belief makes
the chances of safety greatly in their
favor, but will not take risks that
satisfy the civilized warrior.