New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1908-03-04
A SENSIBLE OBJECTION.


It has been suggested that a '.sham
Indian massacre OF 1862 be presented
to the visitors at the fair grounds dur
ing fair week in September, as a fit
ting celebration of the half-century of
.Minnesota's statehood.
From what we have heard expressed,
10y variety Of citizens of the state,
not all contemporary of that terrible
event, and some of them not even de-
scended from contemporaries, there
will be loud outcry If the thing is
attempted, a strong protest ii the
ching is permitted. That event is not
only too near, but too lastingly hide.
Gus, to ever be made the subject of
t'sham' representation. There are
hundreds Of persons resident in this
state who went through the terror of
those August days forty-six years ago,
Tor not a person in the state, even
over in Wisconsin,, was dull to the
possible destruction which might come
from the most warlike tribe of Indians
ever found in the territory of the
United States-not mere bloOd-thirsty
warriors Hike the Iroquois or the
Apache, but Sioux who knew how to
reason about their wrongs and their
loss as well rs put up q horrid war
fare. And there are thousands Of
persons descended from those early
settlers. inewhose very Instincts. is a
very proper terror OF that massacre,
to whom i6 is scarce less of d fearful
memory than it is to those who IN New
U1m and Mankato and st. Peter, and
up the Minnesota river to the Yellow
Medicine agency, waited Or fled from
the uprising And added to these per-
sons there are thousands of others
who surely have the good name and
the good history OF the state too much
at heart to risk q revival of not only
@he most terrible event in our history,
iont review of all the causes leading
CUP to it, and the hanging ana exile of
she perpetrators.
= "'Sham" battles may be all we'll
enough. They have drawn tremend-
.oqs crowds to the fair grounds. But
a massacre is too terrible to bear a
"'sham'' reproduction. We doubt if
Massachusetts would consider a re-
production OF DeerGeld in 17O4, and
yet they are two hundred years remote
from the event. Would massacre of
st. Bartholomew be the proper COM
smemoration of the bloody strife be-
'Sween Huguenots and Catholics in
Paris? Will the Little Big Horn ex-
terminatioE be reproduced in 1925?
Yet to those WHO passed through it,
the New Ulm massacre was as terrible,
and it u only awaits the verdict of
History for the general attitude of
gterr0r. 49,. ,>.- :" - ~
The massacre Of 1862 had nothing to
do with our initiation into statehood
III any eveat. Coming four years
Eater, it yet harked back to primeval
shines, and was typical, not of the COM
snonwealth's entry among states, hut
of the strife which goes on when primi-
siEe man is called upon by civilized to
surrender the domain which is his
right, but which cannot continue as
his right. We might better recall
beasts from the jungle and have a
Spanish bull fight metamorphosed in
TO Minnesota massacre. And, as
the opposite pole to the objection on
account Of savagery, such repre-
sentation would be an insult to every
Indian yet remaining in the United
States Paul Dispatch.
Says DR.. Lyman Abbot, the famous
New York2preacher: II think it is a
great mistake In liquor questions for
the people of one section of the state
TO control the police regulations and
habits of another section of the state.
1t is fundamental principle that each
locality should determine the things
which concern the people of that To-
scality."