Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-21

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| Indian camp at Apache, which was the recruit
! ing station and camp of supplies from which all
these raids have been made, and to which they
have oftentimes finally returned, was broken up
and cleared out of that country
! The Apaches were finally forced to beg
| for terms. Gen. Miles promised proteo-
| ton, but said that they should be sent
from the country. After sketching the
| campaign against the Apaohes and its
i successful conclusion, he says:
| That, think, in brief, gives the history of my
| connection with those Indians. As far as their
| confinement in Florida is concerned, had moth
ing whatever to do with it. 1 have, however, al
| WAYS believed that it was mistake to send them
there, because they were accustomed to the high
| altitude OF the mountains.
Regarding the comparative healthful-
ness of Fort Marion and Fort Sill, he
says:
description of the healthfulness of these two
places, Fort Marion and Fort Sill, the report of
| the surgeon general for 1881 shows Fort Marion
to be much healthier station than Fort Sill, as
| shown on pages ninety-Six and ninety-seven OF
the report and also on page thirty-One. Fort
Sill appears,to be one OF the worst places in the
country. The following is official, and from the
surgeon general of the army:
Fort Sill is situated at the junction Of Cache
and Medicine Bluff creeks, on an elevation about
fifty feet above the low water of the adjacent
streams and about ], 700 above the sea level.
1.-The extremes of temperature are very great,
running from below zero to 105 deg. to l07 deg,
the mean for the year being about 62 deg. Fair.
Rainfall from fourteen to forty inches. Fort
SILL in its diseases, differs from other Western
posts only in having a larger proportion of
naIarial fevers owing to the streams in its vicin-
ties. During the past twelve years the average
annual proportion Of these diseases was 609
cases per LOCO OF strength. as compared with
1S4 among the other posts of the army. 1t is
Dc characterized by any excess OF mortality,
out has larger number of men. constantly
non-effective from intermittent and remitJent
fever.
AS disabling factor, that is due to what V
called malaria, which accounts for 80 of tn
non-efectiveness from us per 1000 of strength.
Fort Brown. Tex, is VIGOROUSLY the highest,
with Little Rock and Fort Sill contending for
the secon~ place, as to which is the most health
full.
One difficulty, presume, with those Indians
at Mount Vernon is that they have been taken
from the high altitude of the mountains where
they are accustomed to live 5000 feet above the
sea. Where they are now they are only l57 feet
above the sea level. That difference would be
injurious to any people, and think it was inju-
dicious to send them there. Neither do 1 think
it would be wise to send them to Fort Sill. 1t
certainly would not be to people subject to
lung diseases. have at this season of the year
seen the Thermometer register 26 deg. below
zero in that territory. That would be as injuri-
Gus to them as any thing that could be done.
"HaYe they changed any in DISPOSE
ton since they have been captured and
been in confinement
81 have no more confidence IN them
than IN other Indians that have broken
their promises and been good for little
time. They were only thirteen months
on the reservation when they came in
the last time before they broke out
again. It should be understood that
they were about the same Indians then
that they are now, and if they were sent
to Fort Sill there is nothing to prevent
them getting into the mountains of New
Mexico There are some other Apache
Indians there, renegades from the Mes
calero agency. They go back and forth
every season. They can ride across IN
five days.
''The Apaches, Comanohes, and Kio-
was now there have a perfect knowledge
of the country. If these are placed here
they will be together, and possibly
armed in six weeks. If they once start
it will be most difficult, if not impossible,
to intercept them. The trail is along the
tributaries of the Red river and North
ern Texas.
1.-The Indians think that a good coun-
try in which to steal horses, they can
obtain remount in every valley, and
have often raided down into the state of
Chiricahua, Old Mexico. -
"Would there be any danger Of their
exciting the Klowas or Comanches to go
out?"
CT certainly think there would. This
is the route which they would take Gndi- !
eating on map the route from Fort Sill l
to old Mexico. 1 do not think their in
f1uence would be enhanced for good by |
being put with the Indians or the Indian
Territory that have been but few years |
at peace. These Apaches have only been |
at peace at short intervals. l think it |
would be exceedingly dangerous to place |
them there; there are no military posts
H., o. I.a-- AoI-
are troops at Fort Elliott, but that is too |
far north; there are troops at Fort Stan |
ton, N. Nj. but that is west of the trail |
they would take.'
''Do you think the people of Arizona |
and New Mexico have just cause for sp- |
prehensions?
81 know they have. 1 have never |
seen any people anywhere who were in
such state as those people were
during the Apache outbreak. 1 have
never seen people in such terror. They
have been at peace since these Indians
we're removed. They have had three years
of profound peace, when a man could
go out without danger; their children can
with safety 60 long distances to school.
A man can go into the mountain with
out being armed.
As to proper place to confne the
Apacnes, Gen. Miles says:
I believe that these Indians could be placed in
North Carolina, but not in Arizona, where they
know the country too we'll; according to the state
ment of one of their own men, Kumay, con-
frmed by Tokanay, the Indians, when they were
at Camp Apache, ''were getting drunk all the
time and killing each other" In North Caro- |
lima they would be 2200 feet above the level of the
sea, free of malaria, and have opportunity of
seeing how civilized Indians live; ia ms could be
rented without difficulty. There are some |
places where they might be placed where they !
would be so far away as to prevent their getting
back. North Carolina strikes me as the best
place. see difficulty in removing them to
place where there could be no possible reason for
their complaining danger of their returning
to the war-path think it would be a threaten
ing element to place them in the Indian coun-
try.
What the people of Arizona can expect
if the Apaches are sent in their direction
is, TO say the least, not pleasant. He
does not give them a first-rate bill of
character.
''The Chiricahua Apaches are,'' he says,
1.-THE lowest, most brutal and cruel of all the In
dian savages on this continent. They kill for
the pleasure of killing, and they take iendish
delight in the most cruel tortures,
burying men. all except their heads.
over great ant hills, to have their
flesh slowly eaten off until death relieves
their victims of the most excruciating agonies,
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