Year: 1872

war blight of your olive branch permanent for
evil to the nation2


ized Indians-Lessons from the Tala-


quah Tragedy.


The bloody afray in the Indian Territory, of
which an outline was published on Sunday,
will be found fully described in another column
in our special dispatches from Little Rock. It
will be found to give startling confirmation
to our remarks upon the state of things
which has been allowed to grow up
under the hybrid government, half savage
and half-civilized, which exists by the sanction
of Congress in the immense tract known as the
Indian Territory. Possessing forms Of law
over which the United States government has.
no real control, these tribal organizations of
red men offer the greatest possible induce
ments to the same desperate scum of white
men, which, when it finds itself in the wild,
becomes savage again, with all the vices of
civilization superadded to the worst instincts
of barbarism.


The ''border rufian" is not an animal in
digenous to the line between the State Of
Arkansas and the Indian Territory. During
the building of the Pacific Railroad he was
found as deadly, as brutal and as desperate
where the rails were disputing with
the wilderness and its red guardians
for the advance Of civilization. He
aourishes between the opposing lines, and will
fight 81 either side There IS much Of the
bulldog in him, good assl Of the cur, and
none Of the hero. He is an absconded fofger,
thief or murderer. His present condition is
no criterion Of his past. He may have been
delicately reared in home of luxury or
kicked into manhood on canal boat.
It makes scarcely any difference in the rufian,
except, perhaps, that the better the early rails
ing the more monstrous the aftergrowth.
Against anything that represents the law they
are at daggers drawn. Further north, where
the Northern Pacific Railroad is about to
stretch out its iron arms, there is
ample evidence that Unless strong precau-
tions be taken the history Of the Union
Pacific will be repeated-the Indian fights, the
barroom slaughters, the resistance to authori-
ties who endeavor to make arrests, the indis-
criminate murder of oil who in these times
stand up for the cause Of order. This is worth
thinking of.


The Indian nations located in the Indian
Territory have been the pets Of our philanthro-
pists and it is true that certain degree of
progress has been attained; and it is scarcely
necessary to refer to the Talaquah atrocity to
indicate how one-sided it has been. The Cher
okees and Choctaws chief among these tribes,
have learned farming to a moderate extent,
possess schools and churches but in their
proud isolation, while learning of civilization,
have forgotten nothing of barbarism. Then,
too, while missionaries have been labor
ing assiduously among these, teaching
them the beauties of self-denial and
goodness and a future happy state,
the sinister apostles of viciousness
have been supplementing the Bible with the
whiskey bottle and the spelling book with
greasy pack of cards. The preaching in the
meeting house, Of obedience to the higher
powers, has been supplanted in the In
dams heart and his savage imagina-
ton fred more with the stories of fights
and escapes than the lessons of love.
From this base of existence it is easy to see
how the officials of the government have been
regarded with increasing distrust until
chance spark ignited the combustible materi-
OILS, resulting in q tragedy whose final lines Of
blood may yet cover many hideous page


The steadfastness of the brave Deputy Mar
shals Peavey and vannoy is deserving of
special recognition, and it is to be hoped that
the presence of the troops despatched to Fort
Gibson will have the effect of restraining
further outbreak and of bringing the
murderers to justice. The band of
armed citizens who started to relieve the be-
leaguered marshals report the assailants,
s'ruffians" and Indians to have fled, carrying
off their wounded, and pursuit, under the cir
cumstances, they rightly deemed useless. The
whole story, from the murder Of the woman
Kesterson the trial of the prisoner (2) Proc
tor, armed with Spencer rifle and two
revolvers, jury armed to the teeth,
reconnotre, the onslaught and the terrible de-
tails of the fierce slaughter, as described else
where, point q moral, which Is that the
attempt to civilizo the Indian under plan of