The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-09-11

by Packenham as unworthy of ths
rules of war. His own life was for
1 felt TO his continental views.
The best of our American SHARP
shooters, or snipers, were developed
in our own conflicts with the Indian
The fame of the scouts of our west
ern plains has long appealed to Ihe
! heart Of youth and TO the Imagination
of all ages; but they learned their
art OF reconnaissance from our ma
tive Americans Of copper hue. As
war Is a game of wits, rather than
of force, there has scarcely been a
great military leader of the army Of
the United States who has not de.
yeioped much in his profession In the
hard school of the plains or forest
when the Red Men were making bad
medicine against them Sheridan,
Miles and Custer are names which
have g high place in our history and
all of them suggest the pursuit Of
the resoureeful Indian. General John
j. Pershing first learned what war
meant and how brain must be match
ed against brain when he became an
officer IN our famous Black Tenth
cavalry, whose deeds have been cele-
brated both in verse and on canvas.
Many Of the Indian youths have
been trained at Carlisle n our books
and in our manual OF arms. We have
drilled them according to our ideas.
and yet if war is considered as an
art not SO much bound by the letter
of the rule as the keenneSs of the
mind, perhaps there is many an old
chief who could impart more about
real fighting than can be taught from
the printed page.
One can hardly think of Geronimo
the willy. were he intrusted with an
attack in force, directing the beating
of tomtoms, the fling OF guns and
general uproar by way of giving
notice that he intended to advance.
And yet until recently il had become
the accepted thing for barrage 70
be duly begun IS a signal 10 the
enemy that the attack of infantry
was about to start The idea of going
forward with tanks and without
notice, is more in accordance with
what the white man has learned from
his copper hued foe of the plains.
We may call the Indian untutored
If We will; but his mind is not over
grown with the rubbish of precedent.
He thinks quickly in an emergency
Of fight and acts for himself. There
can be no doubt that the contact Of
the best military minds of the coun-
try with him has done much to add
to the resourcefulness of American
strategy Although there Is SO much
in the fighting on the other side of
the Atlantic which is novel, its de-
tails are influenced considerably By
practices traced to our own civil war,
the digging in and the
trench and shell crater warfare,
which were developed at that period.
And here again our generals have
learned much from the experiences
which they had had with the Indians
In long series of Instructions.
The presence OF large numbers OF
North American tribesmen with our
forces abroad, their work IN scouting
and in valiant attack, should cause US
10 give him due credit for all that ;
he Indian has done for US We have
beaten him and he has hayed US and !
scalped us, but there are many things
which he has taught us which too
ong we have permitted to be ac-
septed as entirely our own This Is !
only one phase. too. of the potent in
iuence which he has had on our life
and character as a nation