Year: 1876

Now that the troops have failed to find,
not to speak of whipping, the hostile Sioux,
with the exception of the band scattered,
rather than severely punished, by Colonel
Miles, of Crooks command, we must turn
to the work of the Peace Commission. The
various chiefs who signed the treaty at the
Red Cloud Agency the other day, relinquish-
ing the right of the tribe to the Black Hills.
have done SO because there was nothing left
for them but to submit or to go on the war
path with the winter closing in upon them.
So they have agreed to go to the Missouri
River or to the Indian Territory in case
their young men who have gone to spy out
the country report the latter as desirable


The movement of these Indians to the
Missouri River would not, we feel assured,
be productive of any good. Like most of
the moves in our Indian policy. it is only
the merest makeshift, and certain, if carried
out, to be the forerunner of broils and costly
wars. 1t is exceedingly painful to note,
from the speeches of the chiefs. how little
they have been taught their true position by
the agents of our government who have
come in contact with them. Extravagant
demands and childish requests are mingled
with pathetic remonstrances against what
they see is the inevitable. Young Man
Afraid-of- His-Horses does not want to
leave the land where he was born !;
it will take him long time to learn to labor.
He expects the Great Father to support him
for one hundred years Little Wound, who
signed away his patrimony, asked for bacon
until next spring. Their whole thought is
to object to leave and to get as much tobacco
and sugar as possible for the moment.
There is about all this something hide
ously farcical. We do not believe that
there was good faith on either side.
Cajolery and feasting on the part of
the Commissioners and an exhibition
of that Indian mixture of blarney and
childish artfulness on the part of the
redskins have had another treaty for their
offspring, which the whites will only respect
as long as it suits them and the Indians as
long as they must. But one of the Indians
American Horse--who signed gave utterance
to a thought that seems rs if he understood
what he was doing Fire Thunder, who
wrapped his head in blanket and '.went it
blind" on signing the paper, was the only
one whose act confessed the sham Of the
whole affair, while Crow With-a- Good Voice,
who refused to sign at all, expressed the
true sentiment of the Sioux. There should
be no treaties with Indians. If the
Indian will not toll as his white
brother does he must go over the edge.
The hostile bands with Sitting Bull
are the admiration Of every Indian
who draws measly pork and rotten -four
from the agencies. Such treaty as the
scalping knife makes is what every Sioux
believes in for the summer, and anything to
get government beef in the winter. We all
know this cannot last. There should be no
compromise made or weakness shown by the
government. Let the Sioux we have be
sent to the Indian Territory, and the Sioux
we have not when we can catch them
There, some really humane and intelligent
plan could be put in practice for their ad-
vancement, if they can be made to advance
at ALL At any rate it can be attempted with
less danger to the settlers and less expense
to the country