The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-17

avenging troubles which follow injus-
tice as surely as symptoms follow the
disease, may not be able to see the In
dams side of the question. We, the
peaceful citizens, enjoy the security
of policed cities and fenced prairies;
and we are convinced that it is worth
the price. They, the pioneers, fight,
and are manned; they lose their world
ly possessions, and their heartstrings
are twanged to the tuning of grief,
and so they become partisans, to whom
the old scriptural saying @1at The
who is not for me is against me" comes
home with a sternness brewed of
tears.
But to those others who looked on
from the hight, to the men who sat
safe, but moved the pawns on the
board-to them there was a real JUS
tice, and they infringed it; a real duty
and they failed it. They held the whip
hand and spared not the lash, and it
! shall be visited unto them.
Nearly fifty years ago, a Lieut.. War
rem, at the head of a small exploring
party, approa ched the Black Hills. He
was met near the South Fork by a
friendly but firm deputation of Sioux
chiefs. Pah-sap-pah was sacred. Pah-
sap-pah must not be entered. All the
courtesy of the red men, to their
white brothers, but sacred land must
not be profaned. Warren acquiesced,
and contented himself with ascertain
ing the general extent and configura-
ton of the forbidden district When,
in the fullness of time, the government
entered into treaty with these Indians,
Warren's policy was continued, and
the Black Hills were, by a special
n Nff,d
forever. According to the Indians, the
place was the abode of spirits, and
each tree, each rock, each dell, had
its own especial manitou whom it We're
sacrilege to offend by the touch of
profane hands.
For many years the treaty was re-
spected. Then a Pawnee brought into
one of the reservations a small GUAM
tity of gold dust, which he confessed
to have found in the Hills.
The following spring, Custer, at the
head of an expedition of one thousand
two hundred men, entered into a long
scout with the avowed purpose of ex-
ploring the Black Hills for indications
of gold. In this he acted directly under
his governmental orders. Thus was the
treaty first broken.
Next year the Hills were overrun
with miners, illegal miners, just as the
troops had been with illegal explorers.
They scattered through the wilderness
in vast numbers, and about a hundred
of them staked out, near the center
of the Southern Hills, a town which
they named Custer City. The irony
was unconscious. What followed was
farclcal, and was relished as such by
the participants. Bodies of troops were
sent to enforce the treaty. Legally
they did So Although inferior in num-
bers to the miners, and no better arm
ed they succeeded several times in
sweeping all the trespassers together
into one land. The latter submitted
good-naturedly. The culprits were then
turned over to civil authority. Civil
authority waited only for the disap-
pearance of the troops to set the min
ers at liberty; whereupon they sour
ried, as fast as their animals could
carry them, back to the prospect-holes
of their choice. 1t was all a huge Joke
and everybody knew it.
In the meantime the Indians were
becoming FESTIVE. 1t may not be known
to the general reader, but it is a fact,
that one of the strongest virtues of the
red mans character is his fidelity to
his given word. A liar is, in his moral
code, the most despised of men. He
cannot conceive the possibility of brok-
en- faith, and there are recorded in
stances wherein an Indian condemned
to capital punishment has been set free
on his oral promise to return for his
hanging; and he has returned. There
fore the Sioux could not understand
the infraction of the treaty.
They had viewed with alarm the
scouting expedition by Custer. On the
invasion by the horde of miners. the
following spring, an outbreak was only
avoided by the prompt action of the
troops in evicting the trespassers; but
now, this winter of 1885, the more sa-
gacious of the Indian leaders were be-
ginning to suspect the truth, namely.
that the eviction had been nothing but
form, and that Pah-sap-pah, in spite
of the treaty, was lost to them for
ever. Affairs were ripe for great In
dian war; and. realizing this, the de-
partment set on foot Crooks and Rev
nolds unfortunate expedition toward
the Big Horn.
The savages at once began to gath
er under famous chief, Sitting Bull.
The storm rumbled, and Custer was
dispatched to effect junction with his
brother officers somewhere north of the
Hills.