The morning call., 1891-01-04
THE INDIAN CAMPAIGN.

owing to the want of accurate maps of
the theater of the present Indian war the
accounts which we receive Of passing events
are nes as clear as they might be. The
scene of the conflict is the barren prairie
which lies between the valleys OF the White
River of Dakota and of the NObrara in
Northern Nebraska. The State line runs
through it. Along the creeks which fall
into these two rivers there is scanty yege-
tatIon; but the bulk of the plateau is vol
canic plain, thickly covered with lava,
which the old Canadian yoyageurs properly
baptized by the name of Bad Lands. iheS
are bad, indeed, desolate and Ioroluu'hs,
even in summer. At this season, eXpoSeu
To hitter west winds sweeping over sho"
nloino in Montana and Billiards driven py
A. 18th ,,,ird from Canada, they must be
inhospitable indeed.
In tbs locality body of Indians, vari-
onsIv estimated at from 5000 to 5000, are
being slowly surrounded by the great bulk
of the army of the United States. 1t is EVIL
IDENTITY the plan of General Miles to corral
them in-the Pine Ridge Reservation, and IN
order to drive them in he has thrown ms
troops round them, an adequate force slillc-
ing prepared to prevent their retle emf - snr-
direction. This plan will insure re-, LIT mncb
render from cold and hunsei ,,ois, tl,a
fighting. The savaGeS must e.'iie ..,iS;os 90
white flag when thelI plesen' %" r..
o,Iansted or they must cut Their way
through the encircling Gordon at some
weak spot. Against the latter accident
Miles has probably taken his precautions,
and meanwhile the troops are being shell
tered in hastily constructed huts, which Will
at any rate keep out the snow. They are
-. Of DSiGnr1-
Bile towns on the Missouri, and run no risk
OF a scarcity of supplies 1t IS likely enough
that the corraled bands will attempt Sorties
from time to time, and that some lives Will
be lost in such encounters, but there is no
probability of a repetition OF the mistakes
at Wounded Knee.
The end will be the surrender of the hos
tiles, alter more or less suffering on their
part. They will be returned TO their reser-
yations. and such precautions as experience
suggests viii be taken to prevent renewed
uprising. 1t is perhaps too much to expect
that the event will lead to a revision OF our
Indian policy; and yet tie arguments in
favor of such course were never more
manifest than at present.
For forty years the best minds and the
men OF largest experience have condemned
tons wards should be placed under the con,
troll Of the War Department. Every Indiar
| outbreak which has occurred in that period
has been traced more or less directly to NAL
administration by the persons who have hat
the management of Indian affairs Most 0.
the Indian Agents have been honest, hu
name men. But some of them have been
neither the one nor the other, and have kert
StaaliIN in H-iau- 10 rbgf they in
Office for four years, and that it behooved them
to make the most of their brief opportunity
On this occasion such uninpeachable wit
nesses as General Miles and Father Craft:
agree that Sitting Bulls followers were in
cited to revolt by hunger. All of the sup
plies voted by Congress for their mainte-
nance did not reach them. Where they went
the Indian Agents perhaps could tell. That
men, with repeating rifles in their hands,
will Sit-idle while their wives and children are
suffering from hunger is more than can be
expected from Indian human nature.
1t was the destiny Of the race to which
we belong TO wine from the face of the land
race which numbered the earth. In the
doing Of it, the white people of the United
States have generally exhibited generosity
and foTbearance: but when the white mans
heart has warmed with sympathy with the
Indian, it has soon been chilled by demon
strations Of brutal sayagery by the red man
Sentimentalism was swept to the wind,
when the news came of Canby's murder and
of the cruel end Of little Charley McComas
We owe duties to an expiring people, ant
they cannot be eyaded by pleading the un
worlhmesS Of their objects. But, after all
we tread as a general thing in the footstep
of our Puritan progenitors, who when
they landed on the bleak shore of the old
Bay State first fell on their knees and then
fell on The Indians