Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-01-31
GENERAL MILES ON THE INDIAN
QUESTION.
tia Views ms to where the Responsibility
Lies.

Lies.
No one who has not experienced 1T
can comprehend or appreciate the forti-
tude, hardships and sacrifices displayed
and endured by our army, in its years OF
experience in Indian warfare: frequent
" in the widest and most rugged sec
tions of country. .amid canons, noun
tains and lava beds, under the tropical
heats of the South or in the Attic biz
Yards of the extreme North; yet year
after year it discharges whatever SER
vice is required of it with most COM
mendable fidelity. You ask me who Is
responsible for this condition OF affairs.
The answer is. both the whites and the
Indians.
First. those white men who have COM
PEELED the Indians to live upon limited
tracts of land and allowed them to get
into the condition in which we now find
them, dissatisfied and equipped for
war.
Second. another class OF whites are
those who have committed the great
crime OF distilling into the minds OF
these superstitious and vicious savages,
the delusion that they have q Messiah
among them. and that the white people
who do not believe it will be destroyed
by some supernatural power: it matters
not whether the Indians have been In
cited by this class OF white people in &C
tual words to open hostilities or not;
the receptions that have been practiced
upon them have aroused their warlike
natures until they are in condition Tor
devastation, plumber, ravage and all the
horrors that savage tiends can inf1lct
upon deienseless and unprotected peo-
pie.
Third. another class Of people who are
responsible are the white men who have
made merchandise OF the warfare and
safety to their own people; in other
words. those who have sold thousands
of improved magazine long-range rifles
and tons of ammunitian to savages,
which alone enables them to devastate
the country. Those Indians could man.
facture neither rife, q cartridge, nor q
knife: vet they are better supplied with
ammunition to-day than at any time In
their history.
Fourth, those who are to blame for
this threatened danger are the Indians
themselves: and Halleck's description
of Red Jacket is not bad 1llustratlon
of the Indians double character. While
they have wrongs and grievances thRt
have been fully enumerated, at the
same time they have friends anxious to
protect their interests; but, notwith.
standing this they would in justification
of some real or Imaginary wrong, or
prompted by some wild, savage, relig-
iious frenzy, ravage country and brain
the innocent, prattling babe with fend.
ish delight as readily as they would
meet stalwart foe.
II you ask for the remedy that will
prevent the possibility of such a condi-
ton OF affairs in the future, Iwould say
that have not changed the opin1on
formed and stated in an article IN this
review thirteen years ago. After care
full observation OF all the principal tribes
in the United States, / believe that
those people who have been and are
still terror to the peace and good or
der of certain states and territories
should be placed under some govern
ment Just and strong enough to control
them. The time has come when the
lives, welfare, prosperity and future OF
those great states are too precious and
too valuable to be jepardized by these
yearly alarms and frequent Indian wars:
While thousands Of people have fed
from their little homes and abandoned
most of their property to seek shelter
and refuge in any place where 1t could
be obtained, and while thousands OF
resolute and intrepid officers and sold
iers are enduring the severity of Q Dar
kota winter to hold in restraint these
tribes of turbulent savages, it is hoped
that some conclusion viii be reached by
the government to permanently end the
present state of affairs. The subject Is
to serious for selfshness, acrimony or
partisanship. 1t requires judicious,
humane and patriotic treatment.-Gen.
Miles, in the North American Review.
Brutality Among Cooks.
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