The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-12-28

A DANDY COPPER OF THE INDIAN SQUAD.
GERS are, many of them, brave, loyal and
even heroic at times in the discharge of
their duties There are no of these police,
seventy of them being officers and the re-
mainder privates. The officers are graded
as captains, lieutenants and sergeants, and
all are furnished uniforms by the govern
ment. The privates are paid $40 month
and the officers SIS, pay which Indian Com
missioner Morgan and all the Indian
agents who know well the services rem
dered by these men think very much too
small. The uniform of the police is blue,
much like that worn by privates in the
army, and is adorned with gilt buttons
and metal badge on which is inscribed
"U. S. Indian Police" Indian agents tes-
tify that the effect of donning one of these
uniforms is almost like magic. The red
skin at once appears like a new man. He
seems to transfer his allegiance from the
tribe of which he has been member to the
Great Father in whose service he has en-
listed.
Of course this Indian police force has not
the discipline of a city force composed of
white men, but it contains good material,
and their loyalty and courage have never
yet been found wanting. Indian police
officers are very proud of their uniforms
and of their buttons and badges, and
among them there is many a dandy copper
of the squad who knows how TO make the
most of his regimentals in impressing his
manly beauty upon the dusky maidens of
the agency or nearby Indian village. The
Indian policeman is not required to show
up in the morning at roll call, nor is he
subjected to civil service examination in
the arts of his trade or anything else. He
is simply hired, clothed with the dignity of
uniform and badge, placed under the or
ders of the Indian agent, and told to come
when sent for, aud to do what he is told.
He rarely fails. He will arrest his own
grandmother if 80 ordered, and he is ter
ror to whisky sellers, intruders on reserva-
tions, horse thieves and gamblers. Many
stories are told illustrative of the courage
and pertinacity OF these policemen of the
plains, such as riding hundreds Of miles
into the bad country in pursuit of horse
thieves, arresting drunken Indians while
surrounded by scores of their friends as
desperate as themselves, and boarding
gangs of half breed gamblers and liquor
peddlers in their dens
The average Indian policeman is so
proud of his calling that he devotes his
whole time to it. The government pro-
vides him with Colt or Remington six
shooter, but no gun, blanket or horse.
These the officer furnishes himself, and he
keeps his horse at his own expense. draw
ing from the government simply his
meager pay and the same rations which
all of his tribe enjoy at the hands Of the
Great Father. The result of this pride on
the part of the men is that nearly all of
them are mounted, and many of them are
well mounted, as fleeing horse thieves and
other criminals, overhauled ana brought
to justice by men of their own tribes, know
to their cost.
Naturally these Indian policemen are
not all saints or models. 1t is one of the
traditions of the frontier that the captain
of squad of Indian police can be seen"
and fixed" and this is true in some cases,
but not in many, as the Indian agents who
have charge of them, and others who have
had an opportunity to watch them, readily
testify. For these reasons, aud as a matter
of Just payment for services rendered.
services of surprising value considering
the conditions-Air. Morgan has asked con-
gress to increase the pay of privates to S13
Month, of sergeants to Sl7, OF ieutenants
TO $50 and of captains TO S25.
The men who know most about the In
dian police are the Indian agents who have
them in charge, and while the agents nat