The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1897-07-02
INDIANS AS SOLDIERS.
Experirnents with Them Fave
Proven Failures
The Red Men Are Good Fighters, But
Not AmennbIe to Army Discipline
Their Retirement Viewed
with Favor.

VIII FhFoE.
With the close of April the last COM
many of Indians regularly enlisted in the
United States army were mustered out
and the aboriginal soldier will be mere
Iva "reminiscences. 1t is true that at some
of the posts few Indian scouts will be
retained, who have gone through the
form of enlistment for eXpediency, but
the Indian soldier as an auxiliary to the
regular army will be of the past. He
has had fair trial and the opportunity
to show himself capable, in all respects,
of bearing arms AID filling the require
ments of military service has been a
good one. Mr.. Lo as trooper has been
fou.d wanting. His aboriginal instincts
arc still too strong to enable HIM to en-
dure the rigid discipline necessary to
the service, the implicit confidence re-
1uired as to his commanding officer and
that prompt and unquestioning obedi-
ence which first of all a soldier must
learn in order to qualify himself for
service either in field or camp.
An officer high in rank and ripe in ex-
perience, both as a fighter and an eX-
ecutive, in speaking of the final dis
charge of the Indians from the service
said recently: sit is good thing for
the service. At one time was heartily
in favor of having them enlist, to ~
used as auXiliaries TO the United States
troops. They had the physique and the
powers of endurance and they are nat
nral fighters. They were apparently
admirably adapted to the cavalry, beng
excellent horsemen, and nearly oil of
them were good shots. But body of
men to be effective as soldiers must
make discipline Il second nature. IT.
regular warfare-guerrilla warfare-is
one thing, but scattered force never has
the impact of condensed force any more
than the charge of a shotgun has the
carrying power of rife ball, To make
a company of men available they must
move as one man, act as one man, think
as one man. This result can be attained
with white men. / have never seen it
brought about with red men.
~The hereditary instinct with the saw
age is the lack of self-restraint. 1t was
in his ancestors, it was in his life, his
surroundings and in his blood. The very
plains he roamed over breathed an air
of unrestraint. His pony, his squaw.
a wandering life, the feeling of ire
sponsibility, all combined to make hin
chafe at life of regularity. SuppoS
he was a young buck who had gone TO
school. Did an education cure him CT
his instructive restlessness? Not bit
of it. When he got back to his tribe
there was no opening for the knowledge
lie had acquired and the Indian in him
soon began to reassert itself. So that
when he Joined TIE regular army as a
recruit he really was beginning an ed
ucation that was the hardest possible
for a man of his nature and prediiec-
tions. he was entering into n serv'c"
where he must learn To become efficient,
the habits of obedience, discipline, or
der, regularity and system.
"Was it any wonder that he failed?
Would not the marvel have been had he
succeeded? We did have a lot of Com
anche and Kiowa bucks in the service
but they were gradually dispensed with
and this last lot which went on April
30 are part of the old Geronimo's
Apaches. Now l am free to admit when
I was fighting them in the southwest
never moderated them as soldiers.
Their mode of warfare, their code OF
fighting was simple to fault. 1t was
practically to do all the damage possible
to the enemy with as little damage to
themselves as possible. This Justified
in their eyes all imaginable tricks OF
cmbushment and guerrilla warfare the
shooting down of lone travellers, the
burning of ranches, the killing OF woH-
en- end children and the slaughter OF
horses and cattle. They fought wher
cornered. but they retreated II theA
could. At last we rounded them all u
and down at Fort Sill we made lot c
these captives auxiliaries of The regula
troops. Well, they didn't pan out" a
soldiers. And why should they? The
United States have spent good bit OF
money down that way civilizing the In
dams, but although they have their own
farms, houses and implements. they nave
also the wild streak in their nature, the
lightning in their blood.'-Chicago
Times-Herald.