The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-08-18
FORMER INDIAN WARS
OUTBREAKS RECALLED BY THE
TROUBLE OVER THE BANNoCKs.
Battles with Turbulent Modocs, Sioux
and Acknowledgements of White
Settlers I'm the Far West.
New York Tribune.

Sherman that the cruel death of General
e r. S. Candy at the hands of the Mo-
doc chief Captain Jack would probably
end the Quaker or peace policy of the
government. that veteran commander re-
piled:
"Of course 1t will not. In three weeks
more Quakers will be sent on to remon-
strate and make peace. Why, sir, Gen.
eral Canbys death would not have oc-
CURED but for the Quaker policy. He
was in command of the division and the
department.. doing the duty of a soldier,
and was directed to confer with the
Peace Commissioners, to aid them in
their efforts. In doing this service he
was shot. That is all of it. OF course
had to be accommodated. The army was
not allowed the appropriations required
for maintaining peace. The agencies, the
commissioners ETC., were Of the politi-
clans kind. Congress would not give the
$1,000 900 to the War Department, but il
could be spent in other ways"
The words seem as significant to-day
to the average army officer as they did
then on that memorable 18th of April,
1878, when General Canby's death, to-
gether with that of the Rev. DR.. E.
Thomas, of the Peace Commission, and
the wounding of A. B. Meacham fired
East and West alike The act of the
Modoc Indians, which called forth the
expression of General Sherman quoted
from the Tribune of April IA 1873, marked
the climax of what has been known to
history as the Modoc war. The trouble
had broken out in the preceding January,
and it was the old familiar story of In
dian dissatisfaction with treaty terms;
much the same story, in fact, as that
which led TO the recent alleged uprising
of the Bannocks, with the difference,
however, that the later have no appar-
ent cause for dissatisfaction in the mis-
use of terms The treaty of 1868 made
use of the term Kansas" when "Camas"
Prairie was undoubtedly understood by
the Bannocks.
The Modoc Indians had been known to
the Indian Office from 1853, and they had
generally been hostile to the whites. A
year after the treaty with the Shosh-
ones and Bannocks in 1869, treaties were
made with the Modoc tribes, which were
afterward amended by the Senate. and
were only accepted by Captain Jack
hesitation. Under the treaties a tract
of land was set aside for them in the
Klamath reservation. in Southern Ore
gon. 1t is needless to follow the matter
further than to say that the Klamaths
and the Modocs could not live in the
same territory, and the latter, under
Captain Jacks leadership. went away to
their former holdings. On July 6, 1872.
an order was issued for forcible remov-
al of the Modocs to the treaty reserva-
ton, and then arose the war. Captain
Jack fled to what was known as Ben
Wright's Cave, which was invested by
the troops. This was on the border of
Tule Lake, on the shores of which are
the historic lava beds. In the lake were
numerous islands, to which, in the last
extremity, the Indians could flee. The
troops in the initial engagement, in
the middle of January, 1873, under COM
mand of General Wheaton, We're re-
pulsed with loss. While there had been
uprisings and rumors of uprisings and
thieving episodes among different tribes,
for the Apaches were always stealing
and the Sioux were always rebellious,
this was the first disastrous Indian de-
lection In a long period, and that it was
of vital interest is illustrated by refer
ence to the Tribune files, the account Of
the massacre covering more than a page.
The official report of the matter was for
warded to General Sherman by Major
General, now Lieutenant General. John
NJ. Schofield.
UNREST AMONG THE SIOUX
Those were days Of unrest among the
Indians, this same month of April being
especially fruitful. Spotted Tails band
of Sioux were threatening retaliation
for the death of some Of their chiefs in
the preceding January, and the Sioux
problem was the subject of a meeting
Of the Indian Commissioners held at the
Fifth Avenue Hotel in this city. Expe-
ditions were forming for the protection
of surveying parties along the line of the
Northern Pacific railroad between the
Missouri and the Rocky Mountains.
There were fights with the Blackfeet and
intense uneasiness among the interior
settlements in Manitoba because of the
apparently hostile intent of the Yankton
and Toronto Indians, who, to the num-
Der of between 1000 and 5000, had crossed
the line. A large body of Sioux Indians
under Sitting Bull and Half Moon, were
moving toward the Red Cloud agency on
the Platte river. This was at the close
of April 1873, while the Modocs were
still firmly intrenched in their rocky
fastness. The defeat OF the troops on
April 20 was announced, and Brigham
Young, on May s, expressed his views
upon the INSCRIPTIONS nature of Indian
agents and the necessity of ending the
war If the commercial progress Of the
West was not to be retarded for two
decades and the entire frontier embroiled
in a general Indian war. After stoutly
resisting the combined forces sent out
after him, Captain Jack was finally dis
lodged from the lava beds, and then be-
gan a running contest. He was captured
on June ], on Lost river, Oregon, and
was hanged October %, together with
Boston Charley. Black Jim and Schon-
chin, at Fort klamath, in Oregon.
In the fall of 1875 an effort on the part
of disaffected Indians to massacre the
Black Hills Commission was defeated by
the GOODNESS and signal devotion Of the
Ogalalla chief. ng-Man-Afraid-of-
His-Horse. This was at a time when
the Indian ring was under fire and Sec
rotary Of the Interior Delano had just
sent in his resignation to President
Grant.
The campaign which found its awful
climax in the Custer massacre was inau-
gurated because of the refusal of the
Sioux Indians to leave their camps on
the Big Horn and Tongue rivers, in the
Yellowstone valley. and enter upon a
reservation which had been set apart
for them by the government. This was
the most disastrous. though ultimately
successful. campaign ever undertaken
against the hostile Indians, and the off,