Year: 1876

The ST. Paul Press prints an admirable
article on the Indian question aptly en-
titled "Cautionary Signals" The Press
shows that it is natural that appre-
tensions as to Indian outrages should
exist all along the frontier, notwithstanding
the assurances of military commanders
1t recalls the ''bloodthirsty insanity which
seized on the Sioux of the Upper Minnesota
Valley i'll 1862, when, without any cause or
provocation, they made Golgotha of our
frontier settlements" Although the Da-
kota Indians have shown no unfriendliness
as yet, still there is no knowing what inhu-
ence the success of Sitting Bull over Custer
may have upon the Indian mind We hear
from Minnesota that there is panic in the
border counties. One journal reports ''set-
tiers from Murray and the adjoining coun-
ties flocking into Worthington from fear of
Indians" despatch has been received in
Washington from Bismarck to the effect that
Indians have menaced that town. This news
lacks confirmation by our own correspond
ents, and SO many dispatches from Washing
ton about Indian affairs are in the interest of
the Indian Ring that we receive all such in
formation coming in that direction with re-
serve. But two results have followed the
Custer massacre. The first is the conviction
in the minds of the Indians that the time has
come for them to rise and drive the white
men from the soil. The other, that we have
underrated the strength of the Indians and
overrated our power to deal with them.


There has really been no peace in the
Northwest since 1862. 1t was then that
Sitting Bull, commanding band of Sioux
made war upon our frontier settlements
For fourteen years this chief, at the head of
the most powerful and intelligent tribe of
Indians on the continent, has been at enmity
with the whites They have given their lives
to robbery, murder and pillage. Whenever
they could find an emigrant party, or for
lorn steamboat insuffciently guarded, or
railway surveying party on the Northern
Pacific they have fallen upon them. When
ever they captured prisoners it was death.
We read of wars in the East and Bashi- -Bazouk
massacres in Turkey, but there is no war so
terrible and merciless as war with the Indians
There is no quarter with them. The men and
children they always kill in battle or by slow
torture. The women they reserve for fate
compared with which death would he
blessing. Fourteen years of this strife have
made Sitting Bull kind of Sioux Napoleon.
The fact that he has conquered and killed
the great white chief Custer adds to his fame.
Other tribes, and especially the young men,
will join him. Red Cloud, Spotted Tail and
n few chiefs, who have been East and know
of the strength of the whites, may attempt to
arrest this enthusiasm, but it is not in
human nature, in Sioux human nature at all
events, that they should succeed When an
Indian youth sets out in life and seeks sue
cess in love or authority he sees that
he can only have consideration accord
ing to the number of scalps he captures.
Murder, therefore, is his first duty, and war
his supreme pleasure because of the op-
portunity of murder. There is not an In
dian lodge N oil this vast region of the yell
lowstone where the story of Clusters fall
and Sitting Bulls victory will not awaken
the Indian mind to an enthusiasm like that
in France after Marengo. 1t would not sur
prise us if it extended into Canada. The
force which few years ago was little more
than few desperadoes will become rising
of the nations Nor can it be said that we
have failed in our efforts to avoid this result
by peaceful methods. In 1867 we made
treaty with the Sioux, but Sitting Bull re-
fused to respect it and continued his work
Of pillage and murder. The plain fact is
that we have before us the whole Indian
problem and that we must confront in mar
tial array the most powerful Indian tribes
on the continent.


All the evidence shows that we have failed,
all fus, to comprehend this Indian question.
General Sheridan was of the opinion that
the Seventh cavalry was a match for the
whole Indian nations. General Sherman
thought that Custer could only be destroyed
by throwing himself away. General Terry,
who first regarded the massacre as Clusters
fault, which he had expiated with his life,
now wants to give the whole business MP to
Crook and take orders from a subordinate.
Crook. famous as he is, has already had one
repulse, and takes it so coolly that we hear
of him in hunting parties. In fact, our mill
tary authorities have regarded this whole
business as kind of picnic. Our soldiers
have come to regard Indian hunting as they
would buffalo hunting We question if
there was one soul in that daring band
which gayly followed Custer on that last
march who did not feel that the regiment
was in about much danger from heavens
thunderbolts as from the Sioux. And vet
the danger came, rs swift as thunderbolt,
and as fcrrible Even now our rulers do
not understand it.. We read in Sherdnn's
dispatches his confidence that q couple of
thousand men can whip all the Sioux. And
yet every despatch from the Plains shows
that we have a powerful brave and in some