Omaha daily bee., 1893-08-06
INDIAN SOLDIERS.
Changes Indicating Their Failure in the
Service.

Service.
The War department has directed that
company L, Fourth infantry, and troop
l., Fourth cavalry. shall be mustered
out; and troop l., First cavalry, was
mustered out several days ago. All
three are Indian organizations.
In view of the strong desire hitherto
manifested to obtain Indian recruits,
says the New York Sun, this step is very
significant; and some officers are dis
posed to read in it the beginning of the
abandonment Of the whole system Of
Indian companies in the army.
One trouble is with the red men them
selves, for many of them are taking ad-
vantage of the new system of discharge
by purchase to buy their release from
the army. That, OF course, shows dis
satisfaction with the restraints andA
duties of military life. In one case just
spoken of, it is said that there was such
rush to buy discharges that the author-
tiles suggested a consolidation of Indian
companies, and thereupon came a hub
bub of opposition, and disbandment was
resorted to.
The enlistment of Indians in the reg.
ular army, forming companies of their
own, with white officers, but with their
own sergeants and coporals, has always
been an interesting experiment. 1t has
had much in favor of its practicability.
To begin with, it had the experience
of other nations, which, after the subJu-
cation of savage tribes, are accustomed
To form contingent5 from among them
for local service, ocered by the con-
quering race. England, France Russia
and many other nations offer familiar ex-
amples of this practice on very large
scale.
Our red Indians of the west were par
ticularly promising subjects for such an
experiment here, because individually
they were considered among the best
soldiers in the world. Brave, capable Of
enduring great labor and privation,
skilled in woodcraft, excellent horse
men, adopts with the rifle, they have
many admirable qualities for the hard
show and of martial movements Their
capabilitiy OF obedience to orders and
their fidelity has been shown
in the service rendered by the
organized Indian police, some-
times against their own tribesmen,
and in critical emergencies, as for ex-
ample, at the capture and death of Sit
ting Bull Besides, Indians had for u
long period been regularly enlisted in
the army as Scouts, sometimes to tho
number of hundreds, 50 that the change
experiment.
The government also needed them;
for, strange as it may seem, with only
about %, 900 enlisted men in the army,
and u nation of 65, 900, 900 to recruit from,
there is always much difficulty in keep
ing the ranks full of desirable men. II
was therefore hoped that the Indians
would supply certain number of COM
panles OF cavalry and infantry, just as
organizing the colo.,ed regiments had
provided for tour out of the forty regi-L
mcnts.
But there have been difficulties in the
way. The Indians, it appears, like the
cavalry better than the infantry service.
Then they have, of course, in their res
ervation system, q totally different life
from that To which the native con-
tingents of foreign colonial armies arc
accustomed
Still, it may be hoped that the infer
ence drawn from the recent musteriHg--
out of these companies As to the eventual
abandonment of Indian enlistmcnts is
unlounded. Life in the army is un-
doubtedly an education for the red men.
1t accustoms them to obedience and self
support. 1t gives Il safe outlet to the
martial spirit which comes 20 the young
men with their blood. 1t teaches them
TO look on the government as more inn
portant than the tribe, and fits them for
American citizenship. We are prob
ably correct in surmising that there will
be no such stress under Secretary La
mont in encouraging the organization OF
Indian companies as there was under
Secretary Proctor, with whom the pro-
ject originated; bat there is no warrant
yet for the assumption that the system
will be wholly abandoned.
--->op------------