The sun., 1907-11-03

the part OF Captain JOHNSON to prevent
these perverse and desperate Indians
from making a last stand for their rights
as they understood them. At a pow
WOW on Three Bar Creek they finally
agreed to 60 With tho troops on these
terms:
That they ahoud be taken % Bare Butte Rort
Meads). where they ahouId receive food from the
Mig Chief Colonel RoD0ERH): that they were not
70 10 sent back TO white Rock Cthe Uintah agencyD
until some Of their number could 90 to Washington
and lay their case before the Great White Father.
Captain JOHNSON must 20 with them 70 Washington
and plead their cause
On the recommendation Of Colonel
RODGERS Of the Sixth Cavalry, who testi-
fed to the high courage and tact dis
played by Captain JOHNSON during tho
bloOdless campaign. that officer was sent
10 Washington with the disaffected In
dians. It was because he had their con-
fidence and because Of an experience Of
thirty years in dealing with Indian trOu-
bles that he was ordered to Thunder
Butte Station, 8. D., to act as intermedi-
ary in the present disturbance.
It is to be regretted that Captain
JoHNsoN's zeal has brought him into
collision with Commissioner LEUPP, who
thus comments upon Captain JoHNsoN's
report that the exiled Utes have not had
a square deal from Major Downs. the
Indian agent at Thunder Butte Station:
JOHNSON proceeds on the theory that
the way to handle troublesome Indians
is to set them of and feed them. This is
not the Indian Office theory Captain
JOHNSON, believing that the situation
was critical, had induced the restive Utes
to reconsider a vote in council TO defy
the agent, and ne had recommended that
they be put on full rations major Downs
had cut their rations down One-hal) and
be allowed to send their children to a
local day school instead of to a distant
boarding school. Captain JOHNSON ven-
tured to say that -One hundred pounds
Of -four and little patience are more
potent factors in the solution of this
problem than one hundred veterans.
Surely a pacific and humane sentiment
for an old Indian fighter
Il seems that the Utes had refused to
work on a railroad, frustrating the In
dian Departments plan to make them
soldiers of industry. Mr.. LEUPP thus
states the Indian Office theory:
we believe in nnding work for them. and then
in permitting them to 90 hungry II they will not
accept the opportunity to make living
So Major Downs was only Obeying
orders. In cold blood the theory sounds
harsh when applied to APPAH's Utes,
who burn with a sense of wrong that
goes back to the Uintah Agency allot-
ment Yet there is no man living who
has better intentions for the reclamation
Of the Indian than Commissioner LEUPP.
In the Indian phrase, his heart is good.
But it is no time to insist upon vindicat-
ing a theory when an experienced army
officer who has distinguished himself in
Indian negotiations diagnoses a case of
discomfort IA dangerous. IL is to be
hoped that in the process Of quietinG
APPAH's Utes and leading them into the
paths of peace and industry it won't be-
come necessary to add to their griev-
ances by shooting them up" or to make
an example of an officer who in an
emergency advises the use Of flour instead
of powder to reconcile restive Indians 10
their allotment and their lot.