The Portland daily press., 1891-05-29
INDIAN TROUBLES IN AMERICA.
CONTINUED FROM FIRST pAoE.l


tion in peace and general contentment until
recently. Meantime the school teacher and
the missionary have made marked progress
among them, eseecially among the children.
Most OF the young Indians read and write
English readily.
In 1888. eight years after the submission of
Sitting Bull, commission was appointed
with General Crook at its head, to visit the
various camps and endeavor to obtain the
consent OF these Indians to reduction of
their reservation. The plan was to open to
settlement belt of land about seyenty-fye
miles wide between the Cheyenne on the
north, White liver on the south, the Missouri
on the east, and the Black Hills on the west.
The consent of the Indians was obtained
with great difficulty. 1t could not have been
they placed in the advice of General Crook,
for whom they had the greatest admiration.
Big Foot and his immediate followers,
whose village was wholly on the strip Of
land to be given up, like that of Joseph's
people In Idaho, absolutely: refused to sign
the agreement, and complained that other
bands not residing on the strip had no right
to give away their homes. Two years were
given for the Indians TO move off, or to select
lands IN severalty ON the tract. The two
years did not expire until some time this
spring, In April, | think. Meantime the
Indians complain. and it has been conceded
that many or all the conditions on which
their consent had been given had not been
lulullou Dy Tie government.
In addition to this, the Indian department
had taken upon itself gradually to reduce
issues OF food, in order, as was claimed, that
the Indians might learn by hunger to become
self-supporting. The motive was undoubt-
eddy good, but the wisdom of the method
will be doubted by all who are acquainted
with the Indian character, especially as 1t
was applied during the dry years of 1889 and
$780, in which crops of all kinds failed,
causing hunger and want among white
settlers as well as Indians.
In the midst VI this starvation and discon
tent came the Messiah craze. 1t seems to
have started in Nevada, and to have taken
rapid possession Of the Indian MIND every
where. The Sioux were especially ripe for
| this new departure. They were hungry and
naked and troubled to the very limit Of des-
pair. Even the earth had refused to yield
| them corn They knew the white mans
Messiah had commanded His gospel of peace
and His promise of deliverance to be
especially proclaimed as the boon of the
poor, the hungry and the prosecuted. 1t is
not strange then that these Indians were
ready to believe a special visitation was
about to be made for their deliyerance.
The medicine men, with the crafty old
Sitting Bull in the lead, like the false pro-
phets of old, distorted the peaceful character
in which their Messiah was at first an
| nounced, joined the new belief to their old
| ghost dance, mixing the Christian sentiment
| with the pagan practice. The devotees
| shouted and danced in circles until they
| swo0ned and fell. and in their seeming sleep
they saw the happy hunting grounds-the
| country black with buffalo, just as starving
white men have feasted in dreams on every
dainty dish known to the human palate.
| The medicine men told them this vision was
| to be realized. that the white man and all
doubling Indians were to be destroyed, that
the dead warriors were to come back with
| the buffalo.
They were also advised to supply them
| selves with arms, and with ghost shirts,
which were to protect them against the
| white mans bullet. And so was the frenzy
warped and twisted to suit the end desired,
| which was the preparation of the Indian
| mind, like that of the Jews, for a warrior
king and leader. In this way the. ghost
dance, in itself as harmless as any other
peaceful amusement, was source of danger.
1t was thus made the means of preparing the
| young men, almost unconsciously, to follow
/ that Messiah when he should appear. One
would no doubt have been found in due time
by these medicine men. say the Indian
was to be prince OF peace, but the medicine
men had already transformed him into a
warrior king, character more c0ngenial to
the Indian Q, today, as it was to the Jews of
old, and had any other kind of Messiah ap-
fed.
The collection of troops in sufficient force
| and their judicious distribution, the arrest of
Sitting Bull, and the subsequent capture OF
his followers, and finally the pressure of the
hostile camps to a surrender, in midwinter
when the warpath was frozen and imprac-
| tlcable, have probably saved the country an
| extensive and bloody war.
The idea that Indian wars are no longer
possible is mistake. On the contrary the
Indian was never so we'll prepared as now.
Herds of cattle scattered everywhere on the
plains and in the foothills, have more than
replaced the buffalo as a food supply.
The Indians are better armed; and worst
OF all, the pratries over which his rage was
harmless In former wars, are now thickly
covered with settlers, to become victims OF
| savage violence and murder. If there ever
| was time when a Fabian policy was the
part OF wisdom In Indian affairs it is now.
ana here the saying SO eite9 4zs Fjfe9I ali
familiar figure on the turbulent frontiers
who never was known to turn his back on
hostile trail, though reduced to eating th
hesh OF bis exhausted horses and mules
VINO was relentless as fate in war. yet witt
courage also to be just, even to an Indian
modest General George Crock, had fought
his last battle, and gone to his rest In the
"bivouac of the dead"
Yet another commander of equal expe.
riepce and fame, whose zeal has more than
once made hot the frozen trails of Montana
and Dakota, overcoming the elements as well
as Indian cunning, was on the ground early
and won the victory. by his patience and
prudence, as he has often done by military
skill and valor.
The causes which brought the Indians Sc
close to open war, enumerate as follows:
| !, Hunger. 1t Is universally conceded tha
the Indians on the Sioux reservation were
insufiiclently fed. Not only the tiger and
the white man, but even the Indian is made
savage my hunger.
=; A feeling that the government has
trlned with his rights, ignored Its treaty
oDngations and, through its agents, swindled
and robbed him.
| g. The unscrnnulous vvbita MOI, xnho g.
gam mas been willing to put into the Indians
hands implements of war and murder in the
form OF the best and most effective repeating
arms and ammunition. The law Should
murder itself.
4. The disposition of our people every.
where, and even the high officials in Wash.
l1gton, to treat with distinction those sayages
VINO have been guilty of the barbarities OF
indian war, while ignoring those who have
kept the peace. and perhaps paid heavy pen.
alties for their loyalty. The Indians All
know this, and 1t is often remarked among
tnem tnat no Indian is respected in Washing
ton or elsewhere until he has made himself
terrible In war. And this evil has been re-
Gently verified, according to the accounts we
read OF the visit of the Sioux delegation in
| Washington.
:, II were to suggest measures for proven
tion Vi Inaian wars beyond the correction
OF the evils Just enumerated they would
be: "'N'"
l.. Give the Indian tribes agents selected
for their knowledge Of the Indians with
whom they are to deal and not for political
reasons: | have known Indian agents of the
latter kind who were afraid Of every motion
of an Indian, just as women are afraid Of
| spiders. "a
Such men the Indian cannot respect, but
only despise. | believe most of the tribes.
certainly the Sioux, are competent to select
their own agents. There are missionaries
and irontierSmen everywhere now, known
and trusted by the Indians, and when such
an agent is appointed retain him as long as