The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-11-06
HUNGER PROMPTED THEM.

Wnlle IL mas Deen described IN Tue
newspapers as a battle" last weeks
collision between a band OF hungry
Indians Apd the sherin's officers OF
one~of Wtoming's counties was only
a fight, such as are of common oc-
currence in almost all parts Of the
country between officers of the law
and those whom they attempt to arrest
for violating the law. 1t was unfor-
tunate, of course, all such affairs are
unfortunate, and brave men seeking to
do their duty were sacrificed on the
one hand and a number of savages
who felt that they were transgressing
no law and we're merely acting on
a right that nature gave them, were
sacrificed on the other. Instead of
transgressing a law, the poor savages
believed they were obeying the behest
of the strongest laws they knew
aught of-that OF hunger, whose crav-
ings they yer seeking to satisfy in
the only manner open to them, that
of hunting the game to which they
considered they had a right. They
argued that they had hunted and kill
ed the game nature placed there for
their benefit long before the white
man and his laws we're known to them
and could see no harm in hunting it
then, for they were hungry and no
other food was to be had.
The statement that Indians are ac-
tually hungry and in want of food
may strike as rather far-fetched those
who read only the reports of the In
dian bureau and the glowing tales
told occasionally by Indian agents OF
the wonderful progress made by the
governments wards in the direction
OF self-support; of the immense crops
of grain and vegetables raised by
them and the countless cattle of which
they are possessed. To those who
live where the Indians OF the north
west have been placed by the govern
ment this is nothing new. Their only
wonder is that such events as that
in which Sheriff Miller was killed
are not of more common occurrence.
They know that in spite of all the
Indian bureau say to the contrary
time on the verge of starvation. The
fact that a commissioner has seen
fit to cut off rations and told the
Indians that they must work does not
supply them with food. Neither does
the possession of man. acres OF arid
and barren land place them in the
position of prosperous farmers, indie.
pendent of the governments aid.
Some of the land they occupy is
| such that a whiteman, a practical far
earn a living from. Testimony to
this is given by settlers that are
familiar with the natural conditions
and who would rather trust their own
knowledge and vision than all the
reports ever issued by the Indian bu-
reau. When on top of this is consid-
| cred the fact that the Indians are as
yet but little better than children,
that they have progressed no further
on the "whiteman's way than to
obtain the merest rudiments OF knowl-
edge calculated to make them capable
OF self support it must become APP
parent to all that there is still much
to be done before the Indian bureau
can truthfully declare that it is no
longer necessary to give aid to the
redman to keep him from starving.
The time may come when the In
dian is as the commissioner would
have the people believe he now is-in
a position and condition where he
can support himself and not entitled
to any assistance from the govern.