Daily camera., 1897-08-09
INDIANS AS SOLDIERS.
Experiments with Them Eave
Proven Failures.
The Red Men Are Good Fighters, But
Not Amenable to Army Discipline
Their Retirement Viewed
with Favor.

With the close of April the last COM
pany of Indians regularly enlisted in the
United States army were mustered out
and the aboriginal soldier will be mere
iy a Renaissance. 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 aRd filing the require
ments of military service has been a
good one. Mr.. Lo as trooper has been
fou.d wanting. His aboriginal instincts
are still too strong to enable him to en-
dure the rigid discipline necessary to
the service, the implicit confidence re-
quired as to his commanding officer and
that prompt and unquestioning obedi-
ence which first of all 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 eN-
charge of the Indians from the service
said recently: "It is a good thing for
the service At one time | was heartily
in favor Of having them enlist, to be
used as auxiliaries to the United States
troops. They had the physique and the
powers of endurance and they are nat
ural fighters. They were apparently
admirably adapted to the cavalry, being
excellent horsemen, and nearly all Of
them were good shots. But a body of
men to be effective as soldiers must
make discipline second nature. lr-
regular warfare warfare-ls
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 rifle ball. To make
a company of men available they must
move as one man, act as one man, think
rs one man. This result can be attained
ssith 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 him
chafe at life of regularity. Suppose
he was young buck who had gone to
school. Did an education cure him of
his instructive restlessness? Not a bit
of it. When he got back to his tribe
there was no opening for the knowledge
he had acquired and the Indian in him
soon began to reassert itself. so that
when he Joined the regular army as
recruit he really was beginning an ed
ucation that was the hardest possible
for a man of his nature and predllec-
tions. He was entering into a service
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 lot of Com
anche and Kiowa bucks in the service,
but they We're gradually dispensed with
and this last lot which went on April
80 are part of the old Geronimo's
Apaches. Now | am free to admit when
| was fighting them in the southwest |
never underrated them as soldiers.
Their mods of warfare, their code OF
fighting was simple to a fault. 1t was
practically to do all the damage possible
tos the enemy with as little damage to
themselves as possible. This justified
in their eyes all imaginable tricks of
embushment and guerrilla warfare, the
shooting down of lone travellers, the
burning of ranches, the killing of wom-
en- and children and the slaughter of
horses and cattle. They fought when
cornered, but they retreated if they
could At last we rounded them all up
and down at Fort Sill we made lot of
! these captives auxiliaries of the regular
troops. Well, they didn't pan OUT as
soldiers. And why should they? The
United States have spent good bit of
money down that way civilizing the In
dams, but although they nave their own
farms, houses and implements, they have
also the wild streak in their nature, the
lightning in their blood. Chicago
Times-Herald.
CuriOsisIes OF the Calendar.
Even our erratic friend the calendar