Year: 1875

Gen. Sheridan, in his annual report
to the secretary Of war, recommends
that some immediate action he taken
"that will settle this Black Hills ques-
ton, and relieve us from an exceed
ingly disagreable and embarrassing
duty. feel quite satisfied that all
the country south Of the Yellowstone
river, from the Black Hills Of the
Cheyenne as far west as Big Horn
Valley, and perhaps as far west as
Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone, is
gold bearing, but as to the amount of
the gold deposit cannot say 1t may
be great; it may be small" Gen.
Sheridan discusses the Indian policy of
the past and present, and says:


"The observation Of many years in
my own command and throughout
most of the Indian country for the last
twenty years, has left the impression
that the present system of civilizing
the wild portion of our Indian inhabi-
tants has not met with the success that
gives fair equivalent for the expense,
trouble and bloodshed which have at
tended it. l believe there is true
humanity in making the reservations
reasonably small, dividing them into
tracts for the heads of families, making
labor gradually compulsory, and com
pelling children TO go to school. To
accomplish this purpose, to civilize,
make self-supporting and save many
more of these poor people than other
wise can be saved, ] believe il best to
transfer the Indian Bureau to the mill
tary, and let it be taken under the
gradual administration of the army,
governed and controlled in response
bility of account. in accordance with
our present system. The Indians would
thus be humanely and justly and hon
estly dealt with; and l believe if this
had always been the case, there would
have been but few of the troubles and
bloody records which have character
lied the civilization of the Indians in
the many years gone by.


"Thc troops stationed along the Rio
Grande river have had the humiliating
duty of attempting to protect our citi-
zens and their property from raids by
the people of u foreign country, who
come over the boundary in armed
parties to steal cattle, and do not hest
tate to attack and kill our citizens when
necessary to accomplish their purpose.
The low stage of water in the Rio
Grande, and its great length, twelve or
fifteen hundred miles, makes the duty
of protecting it difficult in fact, almost
impossible, with the few troops availa-
BILE for this purpose. In speaking of
this duty as a humiliating one, do
not mean that it is not perfectly legiti-
mate-for any duty is such which has
for its object the projection of the lives
and property of the people on an in
ternational boundary line; but when
it is considered that these armed parties,
as soon as they are pursued, take ref
uge on the opposite bank of the river,
and there, in sight of our troops, who
dare not cross, Craze and slaughter the
stolen cattle with impunity, the sight is
very mortifying to those engaged in the
protection of that frontier. This con-
dition of affairs has been going on for
the last twenty years.


"In the department of the gulf
everything seems to be getting along
quietly. Last winter, when the de-
partment came under my jurisdiction,
| thought it best to call a halt in a
forcible way on much lawlessness from
armed bands, which action brought the
attention ofsthe government and the
law-abiding and good people of the
country to a growing and inhuman
evil. Peace has been the result, and
prosperity | hope will follow