Great Falls weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1894-1???, 1895-08-30
The Indian Scare.

Several reports that have come from
the seat of the Indian troubles in Idaho
and Wyoming are calculated, if they are
reliable, to make the average mind con-
clude that 1t is almost a pity the story of
the taking off Of some of the Jackson's
Hole settlers is not true. Mr.. w. p. Ram
sey, all officer of the coast survey, who
has spent five years in the vicinity Of Fort
| Hall, said in an interview with the
Washington correspondent Of the Phila-
delphia Ledger:
The whole trouble is a matter of state rights
more than anything else. The treaty be-
tween the Indians and the United States gave
the Bannocks the right to hunt on the public
domain, and the question now is whether the
admission of Idaho and Montana into the I'm.
ion repealed that right. The Indians hunt an
nually beyond the reservation on passes is
sued by the agents and rarely go IN parties of
more than four individuals. JaAson's Hole
is an extremely tough community, located
about 100 miles from the railroad and inhab-
tied by IA squad of settlers who sllbsist mainly
upon the game they kill on the government
lands. They are, as n rule, desperate charac-
tiers and bitterly resent the privilege given to
the Indians to hunt off the reservation. They
have been known i'll the past to forcibly inter
fore with their right to do so. Although there
is a game law on the statute books, it has
been "a dead letter, and no one has thought of
enforcing it against the whites. The character
of the people who are now raising the cutlery
against the BannockS can be shown by the
fact that six years ago the state authorities Of
Idaho and Wyoming requested the agent at
Fort Hall to furnish them with n squad of
Indian police to help raid the cattle thieves
lCrltpl in tl1t ntipnhprhotI The newt ypar
the white authorities made a raid and cap
tur"d several of the outlaws. None of the
~ncighbors of the Bannucks living near the
reservation fear them at all, as they are well
enough acquainted with them to know that
the hammock is not looking for trouble and
will not seek ii of his own accord.
The treaty giving tho Bannocks the
right to hunt off their reservation was
made in 1868. The real milk in the
cocoanut may be found from some state
ments of an army officer to the same
correspondent. The army officer also
knew the situation we'll.
He said the Bannocks mako their annual
hunt at this time of tho year in the vicinity
of tho park. 1t is while the H.
dams are on these hunting trips that the
traders incite them to acts Of mischief. 1t is
agreed by nearly all army officers VINO have
had experience with the Indians that almost
every sporadic outbreak during the past few
years was due in the first instance to the dou-
bic dealing of white traders. They have an
interest in making trouble and do what they
can to incitc the Indians to acts of violence.
Then they hasten to call upon the govern
ment for protection and make urgent appeals
for troops. The presence of troops is "a great
source of revenue to the traders, and they re-
sort to all means to secure it. The Snl1iprs
and their horses require food, and this food
has to be purchased in a large degree from
those near by. 1t is for this money that most
of the reports Of Indian roubles are circulat-
cd and many Of the disturbances have been
started.