Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-01-30
THE INDIAN TROUBLE.
A IaIk With Maj. Polloek-His Expsrienee
With the sioux.

With the sioux.
Few men I'M the country have had q wider
experience with the Indians than Maj Pollock,
now superintendent of the free delivery system
OF the Post Office Department He has been
acquainted with the Sioux Indians since 1859.
He was superintendent Of Indian affairs for the
northern superintendeney, which had juris-
diction over all the Sioux country. and was
afterward q special agent at large and subse-
quently an Indian inspector for four years.
TO what cause do . on attribute the late up
rising which resulted in the sanguinary conflict
at Wounded Knee asked . STAB reporter Of
him.
There we're many causes; principally broken
promises on our part In the main the civil
lized man. and not the savage, Is TO blame for
the unfortunate conflict. However. it is but
another step in the struggle that had its origin
in the landing of the pilgrim fathers IN q eoun-
try to which our courts have always
held that the Indians had the right
That right they have now yielded
the continent. and what have we given them in
return? Chippewa Indian near Red Lake,
Wis, once sAid 70 me in reply 70 this question:
All of the vices and none of the virtues OF
| the white man. and this reply was not far
from wrong"
THE CIVIL sravIcE IDEA.
| fOllOCk, uhl vCQ Tcou tuc Nic"o VA
pressed Big Commissioner Morgan lately in The
! SrAR?'
Yes. sir: and am frank to say there were
some eminently wise and valuable suggestions
| therein, foremost the placing of the agency
employees in the classified civil service.
| The Indian service il peculiar one; but few
people in the country know anything about its
methods or its management. and the fact that
| newly appointed agents generally want to make
a complete change in the agency
force, to remove old, experienced and
often good and honorable employees,
merely to make places for friends,
has always been one of the greatest obstacles
TO the proper management of Indian agencies.
And right here let me say that il requires as
much ability and business capacity to success
fully manage several OF the larger Indian
agencies 40 it does to successfully discharge
the gubernatorial duties Of a state.
aside from the agent and his head clerk,
agency employees should not lie removed or
changed without Just cause under the civil ser
vice rules. This rule should also be applied to
licensed Indian traders, who, next TO the
agents themselves, have the most potent infiu-
ence for good among the Indians.
THE INDIANS AND TIE TRADERS.
''The loosely made statements recently pub
lished broadcast that the traders had furnished
firearms to the Indians, in so far as they relate
to regularly licensed Indian traders, are with
out foundation in fact. Though have had no
official connection with the Indian service since
1888 venture the assertion that no licensed
trader has furnished Indians firearms or fixed
ammunition within the last fifteen years. The
real facts are that many of the reservations are
in the main surrounded by the lowest specimens
Of the white race. who furnish the Indians with
anything they have the money to pay for, in
Guiding whisky, firearms and fixed ammunition.
and when trouble ensues they are the first to
cry out, Disarm the savage This they do
that they may again supply them and then
again Join in the cry for their disarmame Mt
to create race prejudice and finally drive the
aborigines from the homes Of their ancestors.
1.-The wisdom Of Commissioner Morgan's sug
gestion TO place agency employees under the
civil service cannot be emphasized too strongly.
and his suggestion in regard to changing the
method of supplying the Indians with beef is
also long step in the right direction, though
not new one by any means, for the present
method Of supplying the Indians with beef, as
reprehensible ~ it is, has been in vogue for
many years. to wit, the buying of beef on the
hoof in the fall Of the year when il il fat, at
least in better condition than during the winter
months, and delivering it over to the agency
employees to be issued to the Indians during the
winter and spring months at the same average
weight at which 1t was received from the con-
tractor the preceding fall. that is, to be issued
to the Indians if the beeves have not strayed
away or been stolen or died Of starva-
ton, all of which sometimes happens, and
then all the Indian can do is to tighten up his
belt and appeal to the Great Father to fulfill
the promises made to the Indians in the solemn
form of a treaty. Meantime all the wrongs,
real and imaginary. and all the broken prom
ises Of the Great Father are recited around the
camp fires or in the ghost dance to their hun
CRY squaws and children"
MIGHT HAVE BEEN AvERrED.
do you think. Mr.. Pollock" queried STAR
representative, that the recent bloodshed
among the Sioux might have been averted?''
.Yes, l have no doubt of it. There was an
uprising among the Brules in July. 1878, be-
cause the government failed to comply with
the treaty of 1876. and about 100 of the young
men put ON their war paint left their agency
and started out for war, when, under the direc-
ton Of Hon. Carl Schurz, then secretary of
the Interior. / wens to them alone. brought
them back to their agency, and. with the as
sistance of five agency employees, removed the
entire Blule tribe to the Rosebud. where /
built their new agency and remained in charge
of them until q new agent was appointed in
1879.
in September. 1882. the Ogallala Sioux. driven
to desperation by injustice, surrended their
agency and threatened to massacre the en-
ployes and devastate the country, and again
was called by telegraph, this time from Wyom-
ing. to hasten to the scene. and after q turbu-
lent experience of thirty DAYS with them peace
WAS restored, which lasted until the uprising
this winter, and have no doubt but that the
appearance Of q trusted friend among them,
and q little more beef, would have accom-
plished a similar result in the instance"
But" aueried the reporter, ''you did not
have the influence of the ghost dance to con-
tend with in your experienceg
My dear sir" replied Mr. Pollock, 1.-THE
ghost dance. instead OF being Of modern origin.
~ seems to be the impression, is rs old as the
Indians themselves. and has been practiced BY
them in some form since the days when the
memory Of man runneth not 10 the Contrary
We had a ghost dance at Rosebud agency when
l was there in the winter of 1878. 1t is an old
religious rite they have always followed; and
varies no more in its form than one OF our old
fashioned camp meetings varied from pre-
ceding one"
Automatic Track Tester.
There was car in the yard Of the New
York Central at AID street, New York. q few
DAYS since, which Was novel specimen of a
lsbor-saving machine. Inside the car is some
ciock-like mechanism, which as the car goes
over the track records every defect in the
rails. II the rails have spread the thirty
second part Of an inch beyond the standard
width, or there il q loose Joint or defective
connection, the machine notes ii all down,
as well as the distance from one place to
another. Formerly this work was done BY
nm army OF men called track walkers. Now
a single machine does it with unfailing accu-
racy. Ii is proposed to develop the inven-
ton 80 A. TO combine the detective mechanism
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