; 
 
 PROPOSED INDIAN POLICY 
 
staten 
 acldre 
 
BMJCKOFT 
 
 PROPOSED INDIAN POLICY. 
 
 It is intended in this paper to briefly consider the Indian ques 
 tion under three principal heads. 
 
 The first will concisely review the past conduct of the 
 
 Federal Government toward the Indians. 
 The second will indicate what its policy should be in the 
 
 future. 
 
 The third will point out the means necessary to be used 
 to compel the Government to adopt and maintain such 
 a policy. 
 
 ABSORPTION OR EXTERMINATION. 
 
 The only alternative which civilization offers to the Indians 
 is gradual absorption or extermination. There is no middle 
 ground between these two extremes. But before they can be 
 absorbed they must be led to civilization and citizenship. After 
 that they will in time gradually assimilate with the general 
 population and thus cease to be a separate and distinct race. 
 
 FAIR PLAY. 
 
 The first great essential is that the Indians should have fair 
 play. This the frontiermen will never give them, and the dis 
 grace of its denial falls not on them alone, but upon the whole 
 Nation, which must make reparation for the wrongs it has per 
 mitted the border settlers to perpetrate. 
 1 
 
2 THE FEDERAL POLICY. 
 
 THE TRIBAL RELATION. 
 
 The separate existence of the Indians in tribes invites attack 
 and is in this respect an element of weakness, yet, nevertheless, 
 it -is absolutely necessary to preserve them in that condition un 
 til they are sufficiently civilized to be made citizens in fact, 
 not merely in name and thus become able to take their chances 
 with other men in the battle of life. 
 
 A writer in the Friends' Review says, that in 1870, Pleasant 
 Porter, a leading Creek, said to him : 
 
 "If our country be placed under a territorial government and 
 whites come in upon us, the few of us, who are educated so as 
 to avail ourselves of the sale of lands, will become rich. But 
 the mass of the people will soon lose their all and become vag 
 abonds and fugitives. For untold generations, your people 
 have held property in severalty and have had hereditary habits 
 of acquiring and holding possession and of looking to the fu 
 ture. For untold generations our people have held property in 
 common, have learned only to supply our present wants and 
 to care nothing for the future, and when we are brought into 
 contact you eat us up. Do all you can then to help us hold 
 this territory intact until by the slow process of education, we 
 can train our people to bear competition with yours." 
 
 In order to clearly understand the Indian question and to in 
 dicate what course should be pursued by the Nation in its 
 relations with this race, it is necessary that the history of the past 
 be first considered. 
 
 Let the Federal policy of the past be briefly reviewed both as 
 to its acts and the instigators of them. 
 
 
THE PAST FEDERAL POLICY. 
 
 THE PAST FEDERAL POLICY. 
 
 The Federal policy in the past has been weak, shuffling and 
 perfidious to the last degree. Let the reader for a moment ask 
 himself what element has inaugurated this policy. It will be 
 seen that the Jiumanity, the enterprise, the public spirit, and the 
 culture of the Nation have silently looked on unconcerned 
 whilst the lawless passions and greed of a handful of frontier- 
 men and refugees have forced their ideas upon the Govern 
 ment. These are the refuse of the great cities, the failures 
 of civilization, the men whose natures are restive under the 
 restraints of law in other words, the practical men who affect 
 to sneer at what they term the sentimentality of the East. This 
 class nourishes in all its native rankness in that political 
 fungus the glory of the immature commonwealths of the 
 border the mining town, and it is from this source that 
 the Federal policy has drawn its inspiration. And yet the 
 civilized millions of the Nation have, for generations, per 
 mitted a few thousand border ruffians to attitudinize on the 
 political stage as the " pioneers of civilization." 
 
 These men with fierce bluster and swagger have been allowed 
 to force their barbaric demands upon the Federal Government 
 which always talks well and acts ill. 
 
 The Nation has proclaimed that " all men are created equal 
 and that they are endowed by their creator with certain in 
 alienable rights." 
 
 But according to these frontier statesmen, this means that "all 
 men, except Indiam, are created equal." In the broad benevo 
 lent minds of the representatives of the political annex of 
 mining, banking and railroad companies yclept the State, 
 the redman's "inalienable rights" are to be scalped, to be 
 hunted like game, to be driven from his home, to have the 
 property of his tribe destroyed without hope of redress. And 
 all this for the benefit of those heroic souls who are wont to 
 remind the world with no uncertain sound that they are " carry- 
 
4 THE RESULT. 
 
 ing westward the frontier of civilization." God preserve us 
 from such civilizers. 
 
 THE RESULT 
 
 is one long story of never ending shame, of promises broken 
 and repeated and broken again, of merciless wars, of wanton, un 
 punished massacres both by troops and citizens, of unblushing 
 treachery, of assassination and stealthy murders and rapine not 
 merely permitted, but ordered, with all the ghastly details of 
 military etiquette, and of effusive praise by general officers of 
 the regular army for the more than savage barbarism of troops 
 under the command of subordinates, who knew what would be 
 commended, and were more than willing to carry out the exter 
 mination theories of their superior officers. 
 
 To all this active evil must be added the neglect of every duty 
 and the failure to perform every promise found inconvenient or 
 unpopular. These are hard words, but the history that evokes 
 them has been written in blood and tears drawn from the hearts 
 and eyes of countless thousands of both races by the wanton en 
 croachments of the frontier settlers and the alternate cruelty, 
 weakness and perfidy of the Federal Government. 
 
 Bishop Whipple (1880) wrote : " Pledges solemnly made have 
 been shamelessly violated. The Indian has had no redress ex 
 cept war. In these wars ten white men have been killed to one 
 Indian, and the Indians who were killed have cost the Govern 
 ment 100,000 each. Then came a new treaty, more violated 
 faith and another war until we have not a hundred miles be 
 tween the Atlantic and Pacific which has not been the scene of 
 an Indian massacre." * 
 
 Major General Stanley (1870) writing from Dakota, said that 
 he was " ashamed longer to appear in the presence of the chiefs 
 of the different tribes of the Sioux, who inquire why we do not 
 do as we promised, and in their vigorous language, aver that we 
 have lied." 
 
 Sitting Bull, who had declined to treat with the Government, 
 
 * Preface to " Century of Dishonor," 1881. 
 
A CONTRAST. 5 
 
 sent his refusal to Assistant Secretary Cowen, in these words : 
 " Whenever you have found a white man who will tell the 
 truth, you may return and I shall be glad to see you." 
 
 It is utterly useless to argue with the border element. The 
 humanity of the Nation must have a well-defined and aggres 
 sive policy of its own, and force its adoption on the Government. 
 It must move on these so-called civilizers of the frontier and 
 wipe out the wrongs they have done and are still doing, and 
 with them the dishonor which now rests on the whole people, 
 the responsibility for which they cannot avoid. 
 
 When history comes to pass upon this Nation, it will expose 
 to posterity a people claiming to be just and free and brave, to 
 be enlightened and humane, to be foremost in the race of life, 
 yet for generations, without ceasing, committing on a brave, but 
 weak and defenceless race, cruelties without name and perfidies 
 without number. Only prompt and ample reparation can avert 
 the lasting stain of a severe but righteous judgment. 
 
 A CONTRAST. 
 
 Is a contrast needed ? It is at hand. 
 
 In Canada, since the American Revolution, there have been 
 no Indian wars, no massacres, no ruined settlements. The In 
 dians are loyal to the Crown. Why is this? 
 
 The Canadian Government fulfils its plighted faith, gives the 
 Indian personal rights, protects him by wise laws, and its Indian 
 service is not the spoil of partisanship. Its agents are fitted for 
 their work, they hold office practically during good behavior, 
 and the result has- been peace and prosperity, both to the Indians 
 and the settlers.* 
 
 THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE. 
 In order to remedy that accumulation of cruelty and wrong 
 
 * Canada has, relatively, more room, more game and fewer Indians than the United 
 States. The problem there is now simpler. But, when the United States was in the con 
 dition in which Canada now is, the Indians were treated no better than they are at 
 present. 
 
 
6 THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE. 
 
 called the Federal Indian policy, the public conscience must be 
 awakened. For a century it has slept, for generations it has 
 known these evils and moved not. Within a few years there 
 has been a change for the better. The atrocious wrongs of 
 the past are becoming generally known and deplored. But the 
 public conscience has not yet been quickened into action. It 
 has not yet even determined that anything can be done much 
 less attempted to do it. The greatest obstacle to be overcome 
 and the cause of the greatest difficulty in solving the Indian 
 problem will be found in what may be called the vis inertia of 
 society. The evil is aggressive, restless, untiring, the good is 
 the reverse. 
 
 All unite in condemning the shameless, vacillating " policy " of 
 the Federal Government, but in the same breath nearly all 
 exclaim of the Indians, nothing can be done for them ! They 
 are a doomed race ! Certainly that is the way to doom them. 
 
 The well-meaning, indolent, average respectable citizen is 
 sure that it is all very bad and should be changed, but he never 
 dreams that the way to change is to change, and that it is his 
 duty to help to bring about that change. It never occurs to 
 him that he individually is to blame, but nevertheless he is. Why 
 he should be called upon to exert himself in favor of this re 
 form will never, unaided, strike his mind until he is moved from 
 without. The invariable " why should we do this," or " let the 
 Government attend to it," must be answered. That is the 
 object of this paper. The individual citizen must be made 
 to understand his personal duty, his responsibility must be 
 brought home to him that he may be active for good, and 
 thus help to force the Government to do right. There is only 
 one way to bring about this result. The public must know 
 the truth and its conscience must be thoroughly aroused. 
 
 In 1861, Secretary Stanton well said: "If you came to 
 Washington to tell us that our Indian system is a sink of iniquity 
 and a disgrace to the nation, we all know it. This govern 
 ment never reforms an evil until the people demand it. When 
 the hearts of the people are touched these evils will be reformed 
 and the Indians will be saved." 
 
POPULAR ERRORS. 
 
 POPULAR ERRORS. 
 
 Before proceeding further in the subject, it is important to 
 refute certain popular errors which must be eradicated, in order 
 to properly understand and appreciate the Indian situation. 
 
 INDIAN POPULATION. 
 
 There are over two hundred and seventy-five thousand In 
 dians in the United States exclusive of those in Alaska. They 
 are not dying out nor are they decreasing in numbers, and the 
 tribes which are most civilized are steadily increasing in popu 
 lation and wealth. On this point all the best recent authorities 
 agree. Bancroft (chap. XXII, vol , 3), in his history of the United 
 States, estimates that the maximum Indian population east of 
 the Mississippi and south of the St. Lawrence and the Great 
 Lakes was, in the early part of the 17th Century, not over 
 180,000. Prof. Seelye, of Amherst College, has lately written : * 
 " The present number of Indians in the United States does not 
 exceed three hundred thousand, but is possibly as large now as 
 when the Europeans began the settlement of the North Amer 
 ican Continent. Different tribes then existing have dwindled 
 and some have become extinct, but there is reason to believe 
 that the vast territory, now occupied by the United States, if 
 not a howling wilderness, was largely an unpeopled soli 
 tude." 
 
 Col. Garrick Mallery, in a recent paper, has considered this 
 question much in detail, f On the general question of Indian 
 population, he says : " The conclusions submitted are that the 
 native population of the territory occupied by the United States 
 at its discovery has been wildly over-estimated, that while many 
 
 * Preface to " Century of Dishonor" 1881. 
 
 f " Former and Present Number of Our Indians," published in proceedings of 
 " American Association for Advancement of Science." Nashville Meeting, 18.7, 
 voL xxvi, p. 340-66. 
 
8 POPULAR ERRORS POPULATION. 
 
 of its component bodies have diminished or been destroyed by 
 oppression and violence, their loss has been in large part com 
 pensated by gain among others, that the ' blight' and ' with 
 ering/ or ferae naturae theory, is proved absolutely false, and 
 that though some temporary retrogradation must always be ex 
 pected amongst individual tribes at the crises of their transition 
 from savagery or barbarism to more civilized habits ; yet now 
 the number of our Indians is on the increase and will naturally 
 so continue unless repressed by causes not attributable to civili 
 zation, but to criminal mis-government, until their final absorp 
 tion into the wondrous amalgam of all earth's peoples which the 
 destiny of this country may possibly effect." 
 
 Col. Mallery treats the subject in considerable detail and 
 gives the most reliable statistics by way of comparison with 
 the wild over-estimates by various writers of the population of 
 a number of the principal tribes. Some of the estimates may 
 be useful here. 
 
 SEMINOLES. 
 
 Take the case of the Semiiioles. In 1822, Sprague estimated 
 them at 3899. In 1834, a Committee of Congress reported 
 their numbers at 5000. In 1835, President Jackson calculated 
 the number of warriors at 400. This would make the popula 
 tion 2000. In the same year the Secretary of War stated the 
 number of warriors to be 750, or 3500 souls in all. 
 
 Now, whatever their numbers may have been, it is a very 
 striking and impressive commentary on Indian affairs to reflect 
 that this tribe for seven years defied, in Florida, the whole 
 force of the Federal Government. Nearly every regular regi 
 ment was at one time or another engaged in this war, besides 
 marines and sailors. In addition to all this, it seems almost in 
 credible, yet is nevertheless true, that nearly 50,000 volunteers 
 at different times and for different terms of service, took part 
 in the struggle. During its continuance, in a Congressional de 
 bate on the authority of a General officer, their warriors were 
 said to be 2000, making a total population of 10,000. Doubt- 
 
I 
 
 POPULAR EEEOES POPULATION. 9 
 
 less, this was to counter-balance the unpalatable facts, that 
 $30,000,000 were expended and 3000 lives lost in this contest. 
 
 In 1876 the Seminole population was as follows : 
 In Indian Territory, 2,553 
 
 Everglades, 475 
 
 On reservations, 2,000 
 
 Total, 5,028 
 
 Besides many others emigrated to Mexico. 
 
 Col. Mallery considers President Jackson's estimate about 
 right and adds : " With all the losses of two wars, those re 
 maining in the United States have, in forty years, more than 
 doubled in numbers." 
 
 THE Sioux. 
 
 In 1736, the French estimated the Dakota Sioux at 12,000. 
 In 1766, Captain Carver thought them not so numerous. In 
 the year 1847, Schoolcraft considered the population to be 
 21,000. 
 
 In 1876, on the authority of the Indian Commission, the 
 Dominion Bureau and the reports of army officers, Col. Mal 
 lery says : " The actual strength of the Sioux Confederacy in 
 the United States and Canada, cannot be less than 50,000. If 
 the French were right in 1736, this body has quadrupled in 
 140 years. Without, however, relying on 
 
 any comparison of estimates, it is enough to quote the report 
 of the missionaries, who have lived continuously for the last 
 half century among the Sioux, that they have increased one- 
 third during that time." 
 
 IROQUOIS. 
 
 The Iroquois first called the "Five" and afterwards the 
 " Six" nations a representative body of Indians, according to 
 Dr. Lewis H. Morgan,* numbered in 1650, not less than 25,000. 
 Yet the same author afterwards f expressed the opinion, that the 
 
 * " League of the Iroquois.' 
 t " Ancient Society." 
 
10 A)PULAR ERRORS POPULATION. v 
 
 entire Indian population of New York, did not, at any time, 
 exceed that number. In the year 1677, Wcntworth Green- 
 halgh made a kind of census of the Iroquois and found them 
 to number 2150 warriors, or 10,750 souls in all. 
 
 In 1763, Sir William Johnson estimated them at 2330 war 
 riors, or 11,650 all told. According to the United States offi 
 cial reports for the year 1877, they numbered 6715, while for 
 1876, the Canada reports show 6953, making a total in the 
 United States and Canada of 13,668, thus showing a small in 
 crease in numbers. 
 
 CHEROKEES. 
 
 Of this tribe, it is said, that no accurate census was ever 
 made until 1809, when they were found to number 12,395. 
 The Indian Bureau reports showed their population in 1876 to 
 be 21,072, notwithstanding their great losses during the rebel 
 lion. 
 
 CONFUSING NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 Colonel Mallery suggests, that the exaggerated population 
 theory both as to original numbers and subsequent decrease 
 is, to a great extent, due to the numerous aliases of some tribes. 
 On this point he says : " Besides the name by which each tribe 
 called itself, its several neighbors on all sides gave it one wholly 
 different, and as met by the Spanish, French and English, a new 
 title was either independently coined, or one of those first en 
 countered, adopted or translated with ever- vary ing pronuncia 
 tion and orthography, so as soon to defy the recognition of 
 etymologists." He then gives the following examples : 
 
 The Mohawks were called also, Anies, Agniers, Agnierrhon- 
 ons, Sankhicans, Conungas, Mauguawogs, Makwaes and Gan- 
 eagaonhoh. 
 
 The Oneidas were also known as, Oneotas, Onoyats, Anoy- 
 ints, Onneiouts, O-na-yote-ka-o-no and Onorochrhonous. 
 
 The Senacas were also named Sinnikes, Chennissies, Genes- 
 sees, Chenendoanes, Tsonnontouans, lenontowanos and Nun- 
 dawaronoh. 
 
' POPULAR ERRORS HOSTILES vs. CRIMINALS. \\ 
 
 Doubtless the reader is now satisfied that the Indian race is 
 not dying out. 
 
 THE PROPORTION OF MARAUDING INDIANS. 
 
 Since the inauguration by General Grant,, of the " Peace 
 Policy," the number of Indians marauding has at no time 
 exceeded a few hundred, and sometimes has been reduced to 
 a very inconsiderable number. It will doubtless startle most 
 readers to know that, taking the average of the last ten .years, 
 the percentage of marauding Indians to the entire Indian pop 
 ulation has been less than the percentage of the criminal classes 
 in prisons, reformatories and houses of correction to the entire 
 population in municipalities both here and abroad. 
 
 It is difficult to obtain exact statistics, particularly in the 
 n the United States, in an accessible form, but notwithstanding 
 all the influences of Church and State, and all the civilizing 
 agencies of these great centres of population, it is very clear- 
 that in lawlessness the odds are greatly in favor of the Indians. 
 
 During the period mentioned the average of marauding In 
 dians has been less than one out of every thousand ! 
 
 Compare this with civilization's criminal statistics. 
 
 Take Philadelphia, for instance. 
 
 Its population is under 900,000. If it had no greater ratio 
 of criminals than the Indians have of marauders, the number 
 would not exceed 900. 
 
 But what are the facts ? 
 
 On September 30th, 1880, Philadelphia had nearly 2,400 
 criminals young and old, great and small in actual confine 
 ment ! * 
 
 Who can estimate the number at larg-e ? 
 
 * Eastern Penitentiary (from Philadelphia County), about - 500 
 
 County Prison (convicts and awaiting trial) ----- 584 
 
 House of Correction -_..------ 887 
 
 House of Refuge 398 
 
 Total, 2,369 
 
12 POPULAR ERRORS HOSTILES vs. CRIMINALS. 
 
 The police of that city compose a force of 1,277 men, and they 
 are kept busy watching those criminals who are not incarcer 
 ated. 
 
 If there be only two criminals at large for each policeman 
 or to state it in another way, if there be only oue criminal out 
 for each one mjail the number would exceed 4,800, or more than 
 Jive in every thousand who are marauding against society as far 
 as they are able, taking into consideration the respective oppor 
 tunities of the Indians and of the civilized criminals. For this 
 difference must be borne in mind. When ah Indian tribe be 
 comes hostile, it finds itself in most cases almost in a state of 
 nature with no serious barrier to excesses. The municipal 
 criminal, however, is so hedged in by the endless guards which 
 society has erected for protection, that his opportunities are very 
 limited in comparison with the almost absolute freedom in which 
 a hostile Indian at first finds himself. 
 
 In New York, and some other places, the criminal population 
 is greater than in Philadelphia. 
 
 On this question an English writer gives some curious details 
 of crime in nine municipalities. * In most of these places it 
 will be observed that the proportion of criminals is much 
 greater than in Philadelphia. Viewed in the light of these facts, 
 how inexcusable it is (even for those who are totally devoid of 
 moral sense) to advocate the extermination of the Indians on 
 account of the insignificant number on the war-path ! 
 
 This subject is referred to by Secretary Schurz, in his report 
 for 1879, page 4. In it he uses this language : " It is believed 
 
 *In the "History of Crime in England," by L. Owen Pike, p. 672 (1876), the following 
 curious table is given : 
 
 "Order of criminality in nine representative towns [1871-3) as illustrated by indictable 
 offenses, giving the number of inhabitants to each indictable offence." 
 
 1. Manchester, one to each 84 of the population. 
 
 2. Liverpool, " " 128 " 
 
 3. Birmingham, " " 196 " 
 
 4. Durham' " " 208 
 
 5. New Castle on Tyne, one to each 263 of he population. 
 
 6. Metropolis, (P. D.) " 292 
 
 7. Wolverhampton, " 325 
 
 8. Sheffield, " 363 
 
 9. Bristol, " 645 
 
PROPORTION OF MARAUDING INDIANS. 13 
 
 by many that the normal condition of the Indians is turbulence 
 and hostility to the whites ; that the principal object of an In 
 dian policy is to keep the Indians quiet ; and that they can be 
 kept quiet only by the constant presence and pressure of force." 
 This is an error. " Of the seventy-one Indian agencies there are 
 only eleven which have military posts in their immediate vicinity 
 and fourteen with a military force within one to three days 
 march." 
 
 " Of the 252,000 Indians in the United States there have been 
 since the pacification of the Sioux, at no time, more than a few 
 hundred in hostile conflict with the Whites. Neither does it 
 appear that such partial disturbances have been provoked by the 
 absence, or prevented by the presence of a military force. Of 
 the four disturbances which have occurred within the last two 
 years, three broke out in the immediate presence of such mili 
 tary force, and only one without it. At this moment (1879) 
 a band of less than 800 Utes and another of 150 Indian 
 marauders in New Mexico, in all less than 1,000 in an Indian 
 population of a quarter of a million, are causing serious 
 trouble." 
 
 " In fact, the number of white desperadoes who were within the 
 past twelve months banded together in New Mexico for murder 
 and rapine was larger than that of the Indians recently on the 
 war-path in the southern part of the Territory. While I am 
 by no means disposed to belittle the deplorable nature of the 
 Indian disturbances or the great value of a military force in 
 suppressing them, it is but just to the Indians to point out 
 the important fact that disturbance and hostility is the except 
 ion, and peaceable conduct the rule; that a very large majority 
 of Indian reservations are in a condition of uninterrupted quiet 
 without the presence of coercing force, and the equally signifi 
 cant experience that the more civilized an Indian tribe becomes 
 the more certainly can its peaceable and orderly conduct be 
 depended upon. The progress of civilization and the mainte 
 nance of peace among the Indians have always gone hand in 
 hand." 
 
 In this connection it may be well to consider the last report 
 
14 POPULAR ERRORS INDIAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 of the Judge Advocate General of the Army wherein it appears 
 that in a force, all told of under 25,000 men, no less than 
 2,182 offenders were convicted by Courts Martial. This would 
 make a ratio of over eight in a thousand. Yet the Army pro 
 poses to civilize the Indians ! Later on, will be seen what the 
 Army has done in this direction. 
 
 INDIANS CAPABLE OF CIVILIZATION AND SELF- 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Not only do accomplished facts show that the Indians are 
 capable of civilization and self-government, but the whole 
 history of the human race refutes the idea that any body of 
 men can be so wild and intractable as to be incapable of sub 
 jection, civilization and, finally, of some form of self-government. 
 This point needs no elaboration. History is full of instances 
 of people, as savage and more so than any Indians now on the 
 plains, who yet have been civilized. The fault is not with the 
 Indians, but with the Whites. 
 
 INDIANS COMPARED WITH THE GERMANS AND HUNS. 
 The condition of the Indians of this generation presents no 
 greater obstacles to civilization than did the state of the ancient 
 Germans in the time of Caesar and Tacitus.* With the Ger 
 mans society was very rude. They lived by hunting and pas 
 turage, and subsisted upon flesh, milk and cheese. Agriculture 
 was despised by these people. The Goths and Huns entertained 
 similar ideas and lived in the same way. What little authority 
 was possessed by any one was vested in the Chief of each dis 
 trict. Their functions were very vague and depended more on 
 their personal character and weight than on the customs of their 
 people.f Their power did not extend to great matters, which 
 were settled by an assembly of the whole people. In war-like 
 expeditions none were compelled to engage, they being composed 
 wholly of volunteers ; but having engaged in the undertaking it 
 was considered infamous to fail in its support. The power of 
 the Chiefs depended on their ability to attract, and afterwards 
 
 * Csesar, lib. vi., c. 21, 22, 23. Tacitus, Mor. Germ., c. 14, 15, 28. 
 , f See this comparison pursued in some detail in Robertson's Charles V. note 6. 
 
POPULAR ERRORS INDIAN CIVILIZATION. 15 
 
 retain the assistance of war-like adherents. They had no crim 
 inal jurisdiction, as this would have interfered with the dearest 
 of barbarian rights, that of private revenge. Each free man 
 avenged the wrongs of his family or frie'nds, according to his 
 own desires. Hereditary feuds were common, yet in the case of 
 the highest crimes against the person even murder the wrath 
 of the injured party might be appeased by gifts. 
 
 In every one of these particulars it must be admitted that the 
 coincidences of condition between the Germans and Huns and 
 the American Indians are very striking. 
 
 THE Six NATIONS. 
 
 At a very early period the Confederacy of the Six Nations 
 had established a system of government well suited to their 
 wants. Each Nation had its own Council for the enactment of 
 laws for the Government of its tribes, and in addition there was 
 constituted a general Council or Congress of all the Nations, 
 which passed laws and regulated the affairs of the entire Con 
 federacy. This body was composed of representatives of the 
 different Nations and unanimous consent was necessary to secure 
 the adoption of any proposed measure surely a remarkably 
 conservative provision. 
 
 INDIAN CHARACTER. 
 
 Indeed so far from the North American Indians presenting any 
 peculiar obstacles more than other savages to their success 
 ful civilization they, on the contrary, have many qualities that 
 tend to lighten the task. Bishop Whipple who has given so 
 many years of his life to their welfare, thus describes them : * 
 " The North American Indian is the noblest type of a heathen 
 man on the earth. He recognizes a Great Spirit, he believes in 
 immortality, he has a quick intellect, he is a clear thinker, he is 
 brave and fearless, and, until betrayed, he is true to his 
 plighted faith ; he has a passionate love for his children and 
 counts it a joy to die for his people, but our most terrible wars have 
 been with the noblest types of the Indians and with men who 
 had been the white man's friend. Nicolet said the Sioux were 
 
 * Preface to " Century of Dishonor." 
 
16 POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 
 
 the finest type of wild men he had ever seen. Old traders used 
 to say that it was the boast of the Sioux that they had never 
 taken the life of a white man." 
 
 Colonel Mallery speaking of the Cherokees says : * 
 " The Cherokee Legislature would be a good school in deco 
 rum and common sense for our House of Kepresentatives ; and 
 some of the reservations for observance of law, interest in 
 education, and ^success in useful industries, compare favorably 
 with our white frontier population. There is nothing excep 
 tional in the character of the Cherokee or Iroquois to account 
 for his emerging from the perishing class to assumed prosperity. 
 Portions of the fierce Dakotas and the haughty Sahaptims have 
 shown the same adaptability. If they can, so all can. At any 
 points where the race is now degraded and diminishing, it is not 
 from an irrepressible conflict with civilization, but with civiliza 
 tion's local and Washington representatives." 
 
 " Neither from views of their physiological, religious or 
 psychological characteristics, should they be regarded as an ex 
 ceptional or abnormal part of the human race or so treated in 
 our national policy. Only those legislators and officials who are 
 prepared to encourage downright murder, can neglect their duty 
 under the Satanic consolation of the convenient extinction 
 doctrine. With continued injustice, more Sitting Bulls and 
 Chief Josephs driven into the last refuge of despair, will re 
 quire expenditure of blood and treasure which simple truth 
 and honesty would not only prevent, but would preserve, re 
 claim and elevate a race entrusted to our national honor which 
 may readily and with no long delay become a valuable element 
 in our motley community." 
 
 CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 
 
 In considering the progress which has already been made by 
 tho Aborigines whether the five civilized tribes or the reser- 
 
 *"FOKMEK AND PRESENT NUMBER OP OUR INDIANS. 
 
 (From, proce edings of American Association for Advancement of Science, 
 Nashville Meeting, August, 1877) vol. xxvi. p. 340-66. Printed at the Salem Press, 
 July, 1878.) page 365. 
 
POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 
 
 17 
 
 vation Indians are taken for examples all alike, though in dif 
 ferent degrees, demonstrate Indian civilization and self-govern 
 ment to be but a questions of time and opportunity. It is not in_ 
 tended here to go into any great detail of statistics, but simply to 
 touch on the salient points. 
 
 Taking the entire Indian population in the Territory and on 
 reservations it will startle most readers to know 
 
 That more than half the entire number now wear citizens' 
 clothes. 
 
 That there is one house for every ten Indians. 
 
 That they have sixty boarding-schools. 
 
 That they have one school for every 850 of population. 
 
 That nearly one-fourth of the children go to school. 
 
 That about one-sixth can read. 
 
 That nearly $400,000 per annum of their own money is spent 
 by the Indians for school purposes. 
 
 Some details of production (for 1878) may be useful here.* 
 
 A remarkable instance of Indian capacity was presented by 
 Sequoyah, a Cherokee, who in 1820, invented an alphabet for 
 
 * FIVE CIVILIZED TEIBES. 
 
 Acres cultivated, - - 245,000 
 
 Bushels Wheat, - - - 494,000 
 
 Corn, - - 2,642,000 
 
 " Oats & Barley, - 201,000 
 
 " Vegetables, - - 320,000 
 
 Tons of Hay, - - - 116,500 
 
 Horses, 
 Mules, 
 Cattle, 
 Hogs, 
 Sheep, - 
 
 - 40,000 
 
 4,750 
 
 - 236,000 
 173,000 
 
 - 25,000 
 
 OTHER TRIBES. 
 
 Acres cultivated, - 
 
 " new land broken, 
 Bushels Wheat, - 
 Corn, - 
 
 Oats & Barley, 
 " Vegetables, - 
 Tons of Hay, 
 " Melons, - 
 " Pumpkins, - 
 Fencing (rods), 
 Allotments of land to full 
 
 blooded Indians, 
 Horses, ... 
 
 Mules, - 
 
 22,319 
 266,100 
 971,303 
 172,697 
 315,585 
 36,943 
 - 193 
 697 
 124,056 
 
 2,351 
 176,766 
 4,479 
 
 Hogs, .... 27,671 
 Sheep, .... 510,674 
 Lumber sawed (feet), - 8,100,630 
 Cords of wood cut, - - 132,888 
 Shingles, ... - 200,600 
 Maple Sugar (Ibs.) - - 387,000 
 Wild Eice gathered (Ibs) - 146,000 
 Woolen Blankets and Shawls 
 made, - 17,000 
 Willow Baskets, - - - 2,530 
 Cords of Hemlock Bark peeled, 3,800 
 Wool sold (Ibs.) - - - 211,000 
 Fish sold (bbls.) - - 3,600 
 
18 POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 
 
 his native tongue. It is composed of 86 letters, or rather syl 
 lables. That number of sounds in endless transposition com 
 prise the language. It is said that it may be learned in an in 
 credibly short time. 
 
 WORK. 
 
 The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his annual report in 
 1879, writes : " It is no longer a question whether Indians will 
 work; they are steadily asking for opportunities to do so, and 
 the Indians who to day are willing and anxious to engage in 
 civilized labor are largely in the majority. There is an almost 
 universal call for lands in severalty, and it is remarkable that 
 this request should come from nearly every tribe except the five 
 civilized tribes in the Indian Territory. There is also a growing 
 desire among Indians to live in houses, and more houses have 
 been built and are now in the course of erection than have been 
 put up during any previous year. The demand for agricultural 
 implements and appliances, and for wagons and harness for 
 farming and freighting purposes, is constantly increasing, and an 
 unusual readiness to wear citizens' clothing is also manifested." 
 
 In a speech delivered in Brooklyn, March 15th, 1881, 
 ex-Secretary Schurz said: "Two thousand freighting wag 
 ons are now being run by Indians. They are honest, faithful 
 and efficient. On the plains of Dakota these Indian freighters 
 have often suffered from hunger but never opened a cracker-box." 
 In the same speech he mentioned the case of an Indian inaptly 
 named Don't-know-how who started a store in 1878 with $25, 
 and is now worth 2,000. The Secretary added that since his 
 accession of wealth this late Aborigine calls himself "D. K. 
 How!" 
 
 EESERVATION INDIANS. 
 
 The voluminous testimony taken before the Joint Congres 
 sional Committee of 1879 presents a very full accouut of the 
 actual condition of the various tribes at the present time. Al 
 though the inquiry was principally directed to the consideration 
 of the propriety of transferring or rather re-transferring 
 the Indian Bureau to the War Department, the whole subject of 
 
POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 19 
 
 Indian affairs was more or less inquired into. The evidence 
 shows a most remarkable advance in civilization in the past few 
 years. Some details will be found instructive. 
 
 YAKIMA AGENCY. 
 
 An interesting account of the progress of these Indians in 
 civilization is given by Agent Wilbur. They were taken 
 from the war-path in 1856 and gathered upon the Agency 
 in 1864. They were then very poor. Agent Wilbur 
 went amongst them in 1866 as Superintendent of In 
 struction. They had never plowed or sowed, and " there was 
 no working amongst them." They were in the habit of getting 
 rations without work. He altered this and made work 
 practically compulsory. As he expressed it : " My prac 
 tice has been to have the Indians work if they wanted food, 
 and if they were unwilling to work to let them go hungry. 
 When they would work, however, they would commence very 
 awkwardly, and make a man's bones ache to see them shovel 
 and hoe, or hold the plow, yet they would go to work and do 
 what they could to get into the habit of work and to become 
 more experienced, and they got paid for it. We have been in 
 the habit for years of making them work for everything they 
 got, food and clothing, and so on. We issue nothing unless it 
 be to the sick and needy of the Agency." The contrast in these 
 Indians between 1856 and 1879 is emphasized by statistics as 
 given by the agent. * 
 
 * The Indians number 3700. Their property is as follows : 
 
 4,000 head of cattle, worth $60,000 
 
 7,000 horses worth 255,000 
 
 10,000 acres of land, under fence, worth - - - 80,000 
 6,000 " " with horses and barns and other 
 
 improvements, worth ------ 48,000 
 
 50 wagons, worth ------- 3,000 
 
 100 sets of harness, worth 1,500 
 
 They raised last year : 
 
 42,000 bushels of grain, worth - 21,000 
 
 500 tons of hay, worth ------- 2,500 
 
 300,000 feet of lumber, worth 7,500 
 
 8 houses, built during season, worth ... - 2,400 
 
 1 barn " " at station - - - 1,000 
 
 I story add6d to boarding-school, ----- 1,000 
 
 300 cords of wood, cut and hauled, .... 900 
 
 Total, 6434,800 
 
20 POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 
 
 The Indians here built a steam saw-mill without any Gov 
 ernment aid, with money received by them from stock-men for 
 grazing cattle for them. The Indians hauled this machinery 
 sixty-five mlies. "This mill will cut 1,000 feet per hour of fine 
 lumber, plane 8,000 feet of lumber, and make 15,000 shingles 
 a day. The whole work was done by the Indians with the help 
 of only two white men. They have a boarding-school and have 
 houses that are worth from $100 to $500, quite a number of 
 which are painted outside, and in, with tables, clocks and other 
 furniture, and so in fact they are living like white people." 
 
 The most important fact in cannection with these Indians in that 
 no troops have been at this Agency for sixteen years, and none 
 now (1879) are within 150 miles of it. 
 
 COMPARATIVE CONDITIONS. 
 
 Before the same Committee, Barclay White, (for several years 
 an Indian superintendent and special agent for the Society of 
 Friends,) read a remarkable paper, showing the advance in 
 civilization made in ten years by several tribes. The details 
 are given in parallel columns, so that the contrast may be 
 more readily seen. 
 
 SANTEE SIOUX in 1868. SANTEE SIOUX in 1878. 
 
 Acres of land cultivated, 340 Members of tribe naturalized as 
 
 Log houses occupied, 65 citizens, 364. All these Indians wear 
 
 Corn raised (bushels), 6,000 citizens' dress. They have an in- 
 
 No wheat. dustrial boarding-school, good stone 
 
 No school of their own. water-power flouring mill. All the 
 
 No mill. Indian children attend school part of 
 
 No Indian mechanics. tlie 7 ear - Have an elective Govern 
 
 ment instead of hereditary Chiefs. 
 Enough crops raised to feed entire 
 number. The Agency clerk, miller^ 
 blacksmith, teamster and herders are 
 all Indians. Nearly all belong to 
 some Church. 300 read English. 
 1,000 acres of land cultivated. Lands 
 allotted in severalty by certificate of 
 occupancy. 5 frame houses. 119 
 log houses. Generally use chairs, 
 tables, plates, knives and forks. 
 
POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 
 
 21 
 
 WINNEBAGOES in 1868. 
 Then this tribe was governed by 14 
 hereditary Chiefs and (except 50 per 
 sons) the entire tribe lived in the 
 timber on four square miles of land. 
 10 acres of wheat and 300 acres of 
 corn, producing 6,000 bushels, were 
 all they cultivated. Food rations were 
 weekly issued to them, costing over 
 $25,000. None were taught trades. 
 They had two schools, with but one 
 teacher. 
 
 WINNEBAGOES in 1878. 
 Now the tribe elects 12 Chiefs an 
 nually. The tribe is self-supporting. 
 No rations except a small amount of 
 flour to induce school attendance. 
 They have an industrial school and 
 three day schools ; 15 brick buildings; 
 25 brick and frame buildings. Their 
 lands are allotted in severalty. They 
 raised crops as follows : 
 
 8,000 bushels of wheat, 
 30,000 " corn, 
 1,000 " " oats, 
 5,000 " " potatoes. 
 They nearly all wear citizens' clothes 
 The engineer, blacksmith, carpenter 
 and shoemaker at the Agency are all 
 Indians and they have numerous 
 skilled mechanics. 175 read English. 
 
 OMAHAS in 1868. 
 Governed by hereditary Chiefs. 
 Subsisted on corn-meal, semi-annual 
 buffalo hunts and cash annuities. 
 They cultivated 900 acres of land, pro 
 ducing 100 bushels of wheat, 20,000 
 bushels of corn and 500 bushels of po 
 tatoes. They had twenty frame and 
 thirty log houses. 
 
 OMAHAS in 1878. 
 The population has increased each 
 year ; lands allotted in severalty ; buf 
 falo hunts abolished. 
 
 2200 acres cultivated, 
 17,000 bushels of wheat, 
 32,000 " " corn, 
 1,200 " " oats, 
 
 6,000 
 
 potatoes. 
 
 More produced than the people re 
 quired. Two day-schools filled with 
 scholars. No furs sold. 15 frame, 
 and 80 log houses. 135 read English. 
 
 PAWNEES (Nebraska) 1868. 
 The tribe lived principally on semi 
 annual buffalo hunts. 900 bushels of 
 wheat grown for them by the Govern 
 ment. No farms excepting squaw 
 patches. 65 children reported in 
 school. 8 frame, and 3 log houses, 
 nearly all occupied by white em 
 ployees. 
 
 PAWNEES (Indian T'y.) 1878. 
 
 They have one stone industrial 
 boarding-school for 80 pupils ; 2 day 
 schools with 103 scholars; 2 frame 
 and 24 log houses, occupied by In 
 dians. 960 acres cultivated by the 
 Indians, produciug 8,000 bushels of 
 corn, 400 bushels of oats. The change 
 of climate caused a loss of one-third 
 of their tribe. 120 read English. 
 
22 
 
 POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 
 
 OTTOES and MISSOURIAS, 1868. 
 
 No school. 
 
 No grain raised. 
 
 The tribe lived by semi-annual 
 buffalo hunts and cash annuities. 
 
 IOWAS, 1868. 
 
 They had one day-school. The 
 teacher reported : " It is impossible to 
 advance the children in the rudiments 
 even of an English education, to any 
 satisfactory extent, when neither tea 
 cher nor pupil can make themselves 
 understood except it be through the 
 medium of an interpreter." 
 
 They had seven frame and sixteen 
 log houses, occupied by Indians. No 
 wheat, 3,000 bushels of corn and 600 
 bushels of potatoes. 
 
 SACS and FOXES of Missouri, 1868. 
 They had no school and cultivated 
 no crops, except on a limited number 
 of squaw patches. Their subsistence 
 was principally derived from the 
 chase and proceeds of semi-annual 
 payments of cash by the Government. 
 
 OTTOES and MISSOURIAS, 1878. 
 One industrial boarding-school with 
 43 scholars. 500 acres cultivated by 
 Indians; produced 1,700 bushels of 
 wheat, 6,000 bushels of corn, 900 
 bushels of oats, 800 bushels of pota 
 toes. They raise cattle instead of 
 depending on hunting. 
 
 IOWAS, 1878. 
 
 One industrial boarding-school. 
 Every child of school age except 
 one attended some time during the 
 year. 750 acres cultivated by them 
 selves. Many families have fenced 
 farms. They have 1,600 fruit trees, 
 300 grape vines, 1,441 bushels of 
 wheat, 3,200 bushels of corn, 300 
 bushels of potatoes. 
 
 SACS and FOXES of Missouri, 1878. 
 They have an industrial boarding- 
 school. Majority of children of school 
 age attend school. 453 acres culti 
 vated by tribe. Produce 399 bushels 
 of wheat, 8,000 bushels of corn, 446 
 bushels of potatoes. 
 
 YANKTON Sioux,* 1880. 
 
 " We have no jail, no law except the treaty and the agent's 
 word, yet we have no quarrels, no fighting, and, with one or two 
 exceptions, not a single case of drunkenness during the year. 
 This I consider remarkable when we take into consideration the 
 fact that the reservation is surrounded by ranches where liquors 
 of all kinds can be obtained." 
 
 Surely no unbiassed reader can doubt the future of these 
 tribes, but when the history of the five civilized tribes in the 
 
 *Extract from Report quoted in " Century of Dishonor.' 
 
POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 23 
 
 Indian Territory is considered, it will be shown even more 
 clearly that the Indians' capacity for civilization and self-gov 
 ernment is a demonstrated fact. 
 
 RECENT CANADIAN STATISTICS. 
 
 In this connection some extracts from the report of the 
 Dominion Minister of the Interior 1877, will be found of 
 interest. He says, p 1 1 : " The moral and material con 
 dition of the Indians in the North-West has been stead 
 ily and surely progressing since the North- West Territories 
 were included in the Dominion. The Liquor Law and the 
 Mounted Police Force have together succeeded in stamping out 
 almost entirely the vice of drunkenness. Crime is compara 
 tively rare. The irritation and distrust which existed in certain 
 localities or among particular bands of Indians have been re 
 placed by an almost universal feeling of contentment and grat 
 itude to the government for its liberality and benevolence." 
 
 Then follows an " instruction " the adoption of which would 
 have saved many wars in the Territories. 
 
 " The Commissioners were moreover warned against making 
 any attempt to cause any violent or sudden change in the habits 
 of the Indians, or to divert them from any legitimate pursuits 
 and occupations in which they might be profitably engaged, but 
 rather to encourage them in any branch of industry in which 
 they were so employed" (p. 16 same report). 
 
 " The traditional policy of Canada towards the Indians has 
 been ever such as to secure the good will of the Indian popu 
 lation." P. 17. Speaking of the successful conclusion of 
 a treaty with the Blackfoot and Piegan Indians he says : 
 (t The conclusion of this treaty with these warlike and intract 
 able tribes, at a time when the Indian tribes immediately across 
 the border were engaged in open hostilities with the United 
 States troops, is certainly a conclusive proof of the just policy 
 of the Government -of Canada toward the aboriginal population. 
 
24 POPULAR ERRORS-CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 
 
 It is known that many persons in the North- West entertained 
 grave doubts about the issue of the negotiations, and on the 
 other side of the International boundary the newspapers did not 
 hesitate to predict the utter failure of the attempt." 
 
 Speaking of the Sioux he writes: "Upon the whole they 
 (Manitoba Sioux,) appear to have made fair progress in culti 
 vating the land, and their prospects for the future, had they the 
 advice and assistance of some good farmer for a few years, would 
 be encouraging. Indeed, the Sioux generally, who are resident 
 in Canada, appear to be more intelligent, industrious and self- 
 reliant than the other Indian Bands in the North-West. They 
 are accustomed to rely too much upon the Government for as 
 sistance and direction and too little upon their own industry." 
 P. 19, speaking of the Fraser Indians, he reports: "Should 
 they continue to progress as they are now doing, the Super 
 intendent states that he has reason to expect that in the course of a 
 few years they will be completely self-sustaining and independent.' 
 Page 21 : " As an evidence of the industry of the Indian popu 
 lation generally, it is mentioned that of the furs, oils and cran 
 berries annually exported from British Columbia, amounting in 
 the aggregate to nearly a quarter of a million of dollars, almost 
 the whole amount is due to Indian labor." 
 
 A letter of Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, Joint Commissioner^ 
 (printed in Interior Department Report, 1877, p. Ixxv.,) speak 
 ing of the Indians generally, and their relations with the 
 Whites, says : " The Commissioners have very earnestly and 
 patiently endeavored to solve the Indian problem, starting from 
 the basis of things as they are, and they have done this not as 
 philanthropists or as legal pedants, but as practical men with 
 broad sympathies and firm common sense. They have tried to 
 calm the minds of the Indians, and to give them enough but not 
 too much land in a country in which both White settlers and In 
 dians have to find a living by industry and civilized pursuits. 
 Where questions have arisen, the laws of the land, modified 
 reasonably in their application by tender regard to rural customs, 
 have been their guide. Any other principle of action, though 
 leading perhaps to a temporary personal popularity, would dis- 
 
POPULAR ERRORS-CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 25 
 
 appoint the public. It is to the credit of the Province that what 
 adverse critics might call deliberate aggressions by white men upon 
 Indian lands have been rare, Indian encroachments upon the lands 
 of white men have been more common, but the occurrence of these 
 must be viewed in the light of existing circumstances. There 
 have been some mistakes and small encroachments, both by In 
 dians and White men ; but in these cases generally, it has been 
 sufficient to point out the facts and the laws by which the parties 
 must be guided." 
 
 On May 1, 1880, the Canadian Indians were removed from 
 the control of the Department of the Interior and placed under 
 the new Department of Indian Affairs the same minister, how 
 ever, being at the head of the new department. It was organ 
 ized under an Act passed in 1880. * 
 
 The total Canadian Indian population is 105,690, in the 
 neighborhood of one-third of the number in the United States. 
 
 * The following statistics (1880) are very encouraging : 
 Indian population on reserves, 
 
 Acres of land cultivated, - - - 73,789 
 
 New land made tillable in 1879-80, acres, 1,893 
 
 Houses or huts owned by Indians, - 7,032 
 
 Barns or stables, .... 2,688 
 
 Ploughs, -.- - . 2,092 
 
 Harrows, - 1,582 
 
 Wagons, - 1,386 
 
 Fanning mills, - - 347 
 
 Threshing mills, ... 43 
 
 Other implements, - 11,677 
 
 Horses, 12,855 
 
 Cows, 7,227 
 
 Sheep, 2.081 
 
 Pigs, - 7,711 
 
 Oxen, 1,230 
 
 Young stock, ........ 3^50 
 
 Corn raised, bushels, ------- 62,528 
 
 Wheat, - 65,689 
 
 Oafs, 85,346 
 
 Peas, - 26,882 
 
 Barley, - 17,796 
 
 Rye, 5,546 
 
 Buckwheat, - 5,046 
 
 Potatoes, - - 152,577 
 
 Hay, tons, - - 12.907 
 
 Value of fish caught, ... - $137.282 
 
 Furs sold, - - . - - $ 95,120 
 
 Other industries, "... $372,075 
 
26 POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 
 
 Considerable progress was reported in various tribes in agricul 
 ture, the Government having sent farm instructors to the 
 Northwest -Territories. The Indians are relieved and helped 
 but all able bodied men are compelled to work for the food given 
 to them and their families. Habits of industry and self-support 
 are thus forcibly inculcated. Notwithstanding the popular belief 
 that an Indian could not be turned into a farmer, the farm in 
 structors met with gratifying success. At Bud's Tail Creek, 
 Assiniboin Sioux Reserve, nearly every family has a house and 
 lives on the reserve all the year, having raised crops sufficient 
 for their support. Cutting timber, and building houses and 
 fences engages much Indian labor. The Government proposes 
 using Indian labor in the construction of a portion of the Ca 
 nadian Pacific Railway ! 
 
 The educational statistics show that during the year 1880-81, 
 3474 Indians attended school. The salaries paid to teachers 
 were very low, varying generally from $100 to $400 per annum. 
 Reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, geography, 
 history and Scripture are taught. In some cases also instruc 
 tion is given in music, singing and drawing. The children are 
 irregular in attending the schools, owing in part to the absence 
 of families from the reserves on fishing and hunting expeditions. 
 On this subject the Superintendant General says : " The In 
 dian youth, to enable him to cope successfully with his brother 
 of white origin, must be dis-sociated from the prejudicial influ 
 ences by which he is surrounded on the reserve of his band. 
 And the necessity for the establishment more generally of insti 
 tutions, whereat Indian children, besides being instructed in the 
 usual branches of education, will be lodged, fed, clothed, kept 
 separate from home influences, taught trades and instructed in 
 agriculture, is becoming every year more apparent." The re 
 port expressing the following views on tribal government : 
 "Convinced of the desirability of introducing, as soon as In 
 dian bands are prepared for it, a better system for manag 
 ing their local affairs than the one which at present prevails 
 among them, under which the chiefs (who in many cases are 
 hereditary, and therefore may or may not fairly represent the 
 
POPULAR ERRORS CIVILIZATION STATISTICS. 27 
 
 intelligence of the band) control such matters, the department 
 despatched a circular to the various Indian superintendents and 
 agents, calling upon them to report whether the bands under 
 their supervision were sufficiently enlightened to justify the con 
 clusion that the inauguration of a simple form of municipal 
 government among them would be attended with success. From 
 the majority of its officers who have replied to the circular the 
 reports received lead to the conclusion that the Indian bands 
 within their respective districts are not sufficiently advanced in 
 intelligence for the change. An attempt will, however, be made 
 at an early date to obtain the consent of the more advanced bands 
 to the establishment of some such system. It is thought that a 
 council, proportionate in number to the population of the band, 
 elected by the male members thereof, of twenty-one years and 
 over, and presided over by a functionary similar to the reeve of 
 a township, might answer the purpose ; or, in its initiatory stage, 
 the council might be presided over with better results by the 
 local Indian superintendent or agent. The matters upon which 
 this elective body should pass by-laws, subject to confirmation by 
 Your Excellency in council, should embrace the making of line 
 fences, ditches and roads, the prevention of trespass by cattle, the 
 preservation of order on the reserve, the repression of vice, etc." 
 Owing to the prevalence of small-pox, a general vaccination 
 will be enforced by the government. In the matter of the de 
 crease of buffalo and increase of whiskey, the Dominion Govern 
 ment feels, in a measure, the same evils with which the United 
 States has to cope. 
 
28 THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES 
 
 THE FIVE CIVILIZED TEIBES. 
 
 They are the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws 
 and Seminoles, who live in the Indian Territory. 
 Their title to the territory and their absolute 
 rights therein will first be considered, and then some sta 
 tistics will be given, showing them to be now civilized and in 
 the present absolute enjoyment of life, liberty and property, 
 under their own government, without any assistance therein 
 from either the civil or military agents of the United States. 
 
 THE INDIAN TERRITORY. 
 
 HISTORICAL REVIEW THE INDIAN TITLE TO LANDS AND 
 ABSOLUTE RIGHT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. 
 
 In 1830 Congress set apart the Indian Territory as a perma 
 nent home for such tribes as might be induced to leave the 
 States and live there. The Territory thus begun now contains 
 the five civilized tribes viz: Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, 
 Chickasaws and Seminoles, numbering over sixty thousand 
 people, and some twenty other tribes and bands with a popula 
 tion of eighteen thousand, the total population thus equalling 
 seventy-eight thousand. 
 
 The lands occupied by the five civilized tribes in the In 
 dian Territory are not the gift of the Federal Government. 
 They were bought and paid for by these Indians partly for 
 cash, and partly by exchange for other lands in Georgia, North 
 Carolina and other States. For their lands in the Indian Ter 
 ritory, the tribes received patents in fee-simple from the United 
 States which are recorded in the Department of the Interior. 
 They were urged to make this exchange and thus purchase 
 their new home, both by the persuasion of the General Gov 
 ernment and by the ruder and more aggressive measures pur 
 sued in Georgia and the other States, within which they were 
 then living. 
 
INDIAN TERRITORY SELF-GOVERNMENT. 29 
 
 The greatest inducement of all held out to them was that 
 they should be forever free from the jurisdiction of any 
 State or Territory and should forever have the right of self- 
 government. The United States engaged to protect them in 
 all these rights forever. 
 
 THE CHOCTAWAS AND CHICKASAWS. 
 
 The treaty of 1830 with the Choctaw nation provides that the 
 Federal Government shall " cause to be conveyed to the Choc- 
 taw nation, a tract of country west of the Mississippi river in 
 fee-simple to them and their descendants, to inure to them while 
 they shall exist and live on it." It was also provided that 
 " the government and people of the United States are hereby 
 obliged to secure to the Choctaw nation of red people the 
 jurisdiction and government of all the persons and property 
 that may be within their limits, so that no Territory or State 
 shall have a right to pass laws for the government of the Choc 
 taw nation, of red people and their descendants, and that no 
 part of the land granted them shall ever be embraced in any 
 State or Territory." 
 
 In 1855 a treaty was made with the Choctaws and Chicka- 
 saws which provided that, "the Choctaws and Chickasaws 
 shall be secured in the unrestricted right of self-government 
 and full jurisdiction over persons and property within their 
 respective limits." Similar provisions will be found in other 
 treaties with the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws and 
 Seminoles. These treaties have frequently been passed upon by 
 the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 
 CHEBOKEE NATION. 
 
 In the treaty of 1835 with the Cherokee nation is the 
 following provision : " The United States hereby cove 
 nant and agree that the lands, ceded to the Cherokee nation in 
 the foregoing article, shall in no future time, without their con 
 sent, be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of 
 any State or Territory. But they shall secure to the Cherokee 
 
30 INDIAN TERRITORY SELF-GOVERNMENT. 
 
 i: ut ion the right, by their national councils, to make and carry 
 into effect all such laws as they may deem necessary for the 
 government and protection of the persons within their own 
 country, belonging to their people or such persons as have con 
 nected themselves with them." 
 
 CREEKS AND SEMINOLES. 
 
 In the treaty of August, 1856, between the United States 
 and the Creeks and Semiuoles, this provision is contained: 
 " The United States do hereby solemnly agree and bind them 
 selves that no State or Territory shall ever pass laws for the 
 government of the Creek or Seminole tribes of Indians, and 
 that no portion of either of the tracts of country defined in the 
 first and second articles of this agreement, shall ever be em 
 braced or included within or annexed to any Territory or State, 
 nor shall either or any part of either be erected into a Territory 
 without the full and free consent of the legislative authority of 
 the tribe owning the same." 
 
 SUPREME COURT DECISIONS. 
 
 In the case of Cherokee Nation vs. the State of Georgia (5 
 Peters 1), the Supreme Court held that the "acts of the govern 
 ment plainly recognized the Cherokee nation as a State, and 
 courts are bound by these acts." 
 
 Again, in the case of Worcester vs. State of Georgia (6 Peters, 
 p. 515), that court held that "the Indian tribes are distinct in 
 dependent political communities." 
 
 SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. 
 
 As late as December 14, 1870, the Judiciary Committee of 
 the United States Senate made a report, in which they use 
 the following language : 
 
 " Volumes of treaties, Acts of Congress almost without num 
 ber, solemn adjudications of the highest tribunal of the Republic 
 and the universal opinion of our statesmen and people have 
 united to exempt the Indian being the member of a tribe re- 
 
INDIAN TEREITOEY SELF-GOVERNMENT. 31 
 
 cognized by and having treaty relations with the United States 
 from the operation of our laws and the jurisdiction of our courts. 
 Whenever we have dealt with them, it has been in their collec 
 tive capacity as a State and not with their individual members, 
 except when such members were separated from the tribe to 
 which they belonged, and we have asserted such jurisdiction as 
 every nation exercises over the subjects of another independent 
 sovereign nation entering its territory and violating its laws." 
 
 OKLAHAMA BILL. 
 
 During the rebellion a great portion of the civilized Indians 
 entered the Confederate service. After the war new treaties 
 were made. The rebels and the loyal Indians were treated alike 
 all were declared to have forfeited the protection of the United 
 States and the right of self-government. A determined effort 
 was then made to establish a territorial form of government for 
 Indian Territory. This was strenuously opposed by all the five 
 tribes. Finally in 1866 new treaties were made by which the 
 United States again recognized these five tribes as separate and 
 distinct political communities. The conclusions arrived at be 
 tween the United States and these tribes were formulated in 
 Article XII. of Cherokee treaty ; Article VIII. of Choctaw 
 and Chickasaw treaty ; Article X. of Creek treaty and Article 
 VII. of the Seminole treaty ; and by them the political relations 
 between the United States and these five tribes remained sub 
 stantially unchanged. A General Council of the Territory was 
 provided for, and the Indians agreed to form a Confederation 
 amongst themselves with a General Council composed of rep 
 resentatives of all the confederated tribes, and no organic 
 changes w r ere to be made without the consent of the tribes to be 
 affected. 
 
 The Cherokee treaty points out the method (See Art. XII, Sec. 
 3, treaty of 1866). "Nor shall said General Council legislate 
 upon matters other than those above indicated. Provided, 
 however, that the legislative power of such General Council 
 may be enlarged by the consent of the National Council of 
 
32 INDIAN TERRITORY OKLAHAMA BILL. 
 
 each nation or tribe assenting to its establishment with the 
 approval of the President of the United States." 
 
 In September 1870 the General Council, to avoid confusion, 
 passed a resolution adopting the Cherokee treaty as its organic 
 law. Since then more than twenty tribes have joined the con 
 federation. 
 
 Finally in 1879 the House Committee on Indian Affairs 
 after reviewing 'the legal status of the Indian Territory, 
 reported against a bill to establish therein a territorial govern 
 ment. They use the following language : " After a careful, 
 thorough and impartial consideration of the subject, we find, in 
 view of the peculiar relations to the Government sustained by 
 the people therein, no authority which will justify but, on the 
 contrary, we find much, in the many treaties with the Indians 
 occupying and owning that Territory, in acts of Congress vest 
 ing and guaranteeing certain rights and immunities to them and 
 in opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States inter 
 preting, defining and sustaining the same, which expresssly for 
 bids, the legislation proposed." 
 
 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES. 
 
 A consideration of the actual condition of these people will 
 present some astonishing facts to the reader and will thoroughly 
 convince him that Indian civilization is a demonstrated fact. 
 
 All of these Indians dress like the whites. 
 
 They all live in houses. 
 
 The number of houses exceeds sixteen thousand, being more 
 than one house to every four inhabitants. 
 
 In 1879 they built twenty-seven hundred houses, or about one 
 to every twenty-two of the population. 
 
 They have nearly two hundred schools supported by their 
 own money and without pecuniary aid from the Federal Gov 
 ernment. 
 
 Twelve of these are boarding-schools. 
 
 The capacity of the schools is for eight thousand children. 
 
 Over six thousand do actually attend school. 
 
INDIAN TERRITORYFIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES. 33 
 
 It may be said that their schools afford accommodation 
 for all children of school age. Both in accommodation 
 and attendance, these figures compare very favorably with 
 New York and Philadelphia. In neither of these cities 
 can it be said that the public school accommodation is 
 equal to the whole number of children of school age, and 
 in neither does the actual public school attendance equal six- 
 eighths of the entire number as in the case of the five civilized 
 tribes. In 1879 they spent $156,000 for educational purposes 
 and the only contribution of the United States was $3,500 for 
 schools for freedmen. In this connection, it may be well to 
 mention that the five tribes were extensive slave owners. They 
 not only eventually emancipated all their slaves, but also gave 
 them ample lands for their support. Of the whole number of 
 Indians in these five tribes, more than one-half are able to read. 
 They have also one hundred and thirty-one churches. 
 
 LOCAL SELF-GOVEENMENT. 
 
 Each of the civilized tribes enjoys complete autonomy. Their 
 political situation in so far as protection to life and property at 
 the smallest cost and least encroachment on individual rights and 
 prejudices is concerned will compare very favorably with that 
 of any State in the Union. Their institutions are suitable to 
 their condition, and congenial to their ideas and habits. They 
 differ in detail, but in the main features resemble the Gov 
 ernments of the States. The Executive, Legislative and Ju 
 dicial functions are separate and distinct, and answer very well 
 the objects of their institution. Some details concerning the Gov 
 ernment of the Cherokee Nation will be interesting and will 
 give a general notion of the Government of the civilized tribes. 
 They cannot fail to impress the reader very vividly with the 
 reality of Indian civilization. 
 3 
 
34 INDIA* TERRITORY CHEROKEE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 THE CHEROKEE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 This tribe has a written constitution. 
 
 EXECUTIVE. 
 
 The Executive power is vested in a " Principal Chief." He 
 approves the laws, nominates delegates to Washington,* sheriffs 
 and other officials (subject to confirmation by the Senate), and 
 in many other respects his functions are very like those of a 
 State Governor. There is also an Executive Council to assist 
 the Principal Chief. The Executive may also prefer charges of 
 impeachment, which are tried by the Council. Pending trial 
 the Executive may suspend the official. f 
 
 The " National Solicitors of the several Districts" the same 
 as " District Attorneys" are from time to .time instructed and 
 directed in their duties and their conduct supervised by official 
 orders, directly emenating from the Principal Chief. It would be 
 well if State Governors exercised similar functions. The duties 
 of these officers are pointed out in carefully drawn statutes. 
 Bids for public work and supplies are advertised for and con 
 tracts made with the lowest responsible bidder. 
 
 *The following communication announces the confirmation of an appointment: 
 
 No, 4. SENATE CHAMBER, TALEQUAH, C. N., Nov. 15th, 1879. 
 Hon. D. W.Bushyhead, Principal Chief, C. N.: 
 
 I have the honor to inform you that your nomination of R. M. French, for the office 
 of High Sheriff, was confirmed by the Senate. I have the honor to be your obedient 
 servant, S. H. BENGE, President of Senate, pro tem. 
 
 J. L. SPKINGTON, Clerk of Senate. 
 
 fFinding of the Council in an Impeachment case. It will be noticed that official eti 
 quette is strictly observed in the relations between the different Departments of the Gov 
 ernment. 
 
 No. 3. COUNCIL CHAMBER, Nov. 14th, 1879. 
 Hon. D. W. Bushyhead, Principal Chitf, C. X. : 
 
 SIR: I have the honor to report you for the information of your Department that the 
 charges against the Hon. J. L. Adair transmitted from your Department to the Council 
 Branch of the National Council, charging the said John L. Adair with malpractice in 
 office, for which he was suspended from office (as member and Secretary of the Board 
 of Education) by Ex-Chief Charles Thompson, I would state that the charges have been 
 fully and carefully examined by the Council, and that we have failed to find evidence to 
 implicate the Hon. John L. Adair with malpractice in office as charged. Therefore by a 
 majority vote of Council Branch of the National Council, said charges have not been 
 sustained, and the Hon. John L. Adair acquitted of the charges preferred. 
 
 I have the honor to be very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 D. R. HICKS, Clerk of Council. OSIE HAIB, Speaker of Council. 
 
INDIAN TERRITORY CHEROKEE GOVERNMENT. 35 
 LEGISLATURE. 
 
 The Legislature is called the " National Council/' and is di 
 vided into two bodies. One is called the " Senate/ 7 and is pre 
 sided over by an officer styled a " President ; " the other branch 
 is called the " Council ; " and has a " Speaker." Both bodies have 
 " clerks/' and the entire legislative machinery is the same as in 
 the States. 
 
 The laws are published " by authority " in the official news 
 paper, called " The Cherokee Advocate," printed at Tahlequah, 
 the capital of the Cherokee Nation. This paper is published 
 weekly in English and Cherokee, and is free to all who read 
 only the Cherokee tongue. 
 
 The National Council has general legislative powers. When 
 an act is passed by the Council it is messaged to the Senate (or 
 vice versa)-, either body concurs or lion-concurs or amends, as the 
 case may be, and communicates its action to the other body 
 through formal written messages by their respective clerks.* The 
 National Council elects in Joint Convention the Supreme Judge, 
 National Treasurer, Executive Council, Auditor of Accounts, etc. 
 
 Amongst the statutes passed by the National Council will be 
 found penal laws which accurately define criminal offences and 
 provide for their punishment. Also laws regulating the different 
 branches of the Government and the rights and duties of citizens 
 towards each other and the Cherokee Nation. Numerous permit 
 and license laws are passed and generally all the usual legislation 
 of the States. Private laws are enacted conferring citizenship 
 or giving other privileges to the persons named therein. The 
 
 * RETURN OF JOINT CONVENTION. 
 
 No. 1, SENATE CHAMBER, 
 
 TAHLEQUAH, C. N. 
 November lith, 1879. 
 Hon. D, W. Bushyhead, Principal Chief C. N. : 
 
 SIR : 1 have the honor to inform you that the following named persons were 
 duly elected in joint session of the National Council, to fill th6 different offices, 
 which appointments vest in the National Council, to wit : John Landrum, Su 
 preme Judge ; D. W. Lipe, National Treasurer ; Johnson Spade, Daniel Red Bird, 
 Chas. H. Armstrong, Executive Council; E. C. Boudinot, Editor of Advocate, Cor 
 nell Bodgers, Auditor of Accounts. 
 
 I am very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 S. H. BENGE, President Senate, pro ten 
 J. L. SPRINGSTON, Clerk Senate. 
 
36 INDIAN TERRITORY CHEROKEE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 National Council also provides for the ordinary expenses of the 
 Government by regular appropriation bills. 
 
 JUDICIARY. 
 
 There is a Supreme Court and also local Circuit or District 
 Courts, which have civil and criminal jurisdiction, with an appeal 
 to the Supreme Court. 
 
 The National Cherokee Government is represented by Dis 
 trict Solicitors, and individual suitors by attorneys admitted to 
 practice. The decrees of the Courts are executed and some other 
 local administrative functions are performed by the Sheriffs, 
 whose advertisements of " Sales at the Court House" and other 
 official matters, must be quite lucrative to the Government 
 f< organ." 
 
 The local Courts issue letters testamentary and of adminis 
 tration, appoint guardians and generally have the functions usu 
 ally appertaining to Courts of Probate. 
 
 Coroners inquire into sudden and violent deaths and Grand 
 Juries- make presentments and prefer bills of indictment against 
 criminals, who are confined in the national jail. 
 
 ELECTIONS AND CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 The elections are held under carefully prepared laws, which 
 also define the powers of the persons to be elected.* 
 
 * PROCLAMATION. 
 
 SPECIAL ELECTION. 
 
 WHEREAS, Official notice of the death of J. Walker Daniels, member of the Senate 
 branch of the National Council from Delaware District. C. N., and Ross T. Carey, Clerk 
 of Delaware District, C. N., has been received, THEREFORE, 
 
 Be it known to all whom it may concern that I, D. W. Bushyhead, Principal chief of 
 the Cherokee Nation, by virtue of the authority in me vested by law, do hereby, in the 
 name and by the authority of the Cherokee Nation issue this my proclamation, ordering 
 that a Special Election be held in Delaware District, C. N., on the second Monday (10th 
 day) in the month of May, 1880, for the purpose of electing one member to the Senate 
 branch of the National Council, to fill the vacancy in that office, caused by the decease 
 of the late Hon. J. Walker Daniels, and the term of which office will expire on the first 
 Monday in November 1881. 
 
 As also for the purpose of electing one clerk for Delaware District, C. N., to fill the 
 vacancy in that office, caused by the decease of the late Ross T. Carey, clerk, etc., and 
 the term of which office will expire on the third Monday irr November, 1881. And di 
 recting the present temporary clerk of said Delaware District to give such notice 
 thereof as the law requires, in accordance with chapter VIII, art. I, revised code of laws, 
 
INDIAN TERRITORY CHEROKEE GOVERNMENT. 37 
 
 Citizenship is sometimes conferred by special act of the 
 legislature. In other cases the applicant must first have his 
 claims examined by the Commissioners on Citizenship, who are 
 nominated and appointed by the Principal Chief subject to the 
 confirmation of the Senate. The care thus shown by the 
 Cherokees in the matter of citizenship, presents a marked con 
 trast to the loose methods prevalent in the States. 
 
 Under the Constitution a decennial census is taken. 
 
 SCHOOLS MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 The schools are governed by a Board of Education which 
 appoints teachers. They keep regular books, minutes of pro 
 ceedings, regulate text-books, and all other matters connected 
 with the administration of the schools. There are primary 
 and high schools or advanced seminaries for boys and girls. 
 There are one hundred and two schools and two high schools, 
 and an Indian University school, also Sunday schools and 
 singing schools. There is an orphan asylum, and one for blind 
 and insane persons, aged, infirm and unfortunate generally. 
 These are supported from regular appropriations made by the 
 National Council. 
 
 MEDICAL BOARD. 
 
 A Medical Examining Board, appointed by the Principal 
 Chief, meets at the Capitol, Tahlequah, on the second and 
 fourth Wednesday of each month. There are many places in 
 the East where such a Board would be a great public boon. 
 
 and the said district clerk is hereby notified, and required, to do such things as the iaw 
 directs for the holding of such an election : Herein Jail Not. 
 
 In testimony whereof, 1 have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the 
 Cherokee Nation to be affixed at Tahlequah, C. N., on this 16th day of April, A. D., 1880. 
 [Seal.] D. W. BUSHYHEAD, 
 
 Principal Chief. 
 By the Principal Chief. 
 WM. F. RASMUS, Ass't Exec. Sec'y, C. N. 
 
38 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD THE SIOUX. 
 
 SHAMEFUL RECORD OF THE FEDERAL 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Gen. Harney once testified before a Congressional Committee : 
 " I have lived on this frontier fifty years, and I have never 
 known an instance in which war broke out between us and 
 these tribes that these tribes were not in the right." Indeed it 
 cannot be denied that, for bold, unblushing fraud, for a total 
 disregard of repeated promises, for alternate weakness, cruelty 
 and treachery, the Federal Indian record beggars description. 
 The coarse moral fibre of the government officials has only 
 beensurpassed by a lack of the remotest trace of moral per 
 ceptions on the part of the border settlers, and to this must be 
 added long years of total indifference in the whole nation. The 
 record is shameless to the last degree. Even some of the gen 
 eral officers of the regular army have covered themselves and 
 their country with infamy by their active participation in (or 
 effusive laudation of) some of the most cold-blooded, treach 
 erous and cowardly massacres, which disgrace the annals of the 
 nation. History will pillory their names. 
 
 If the reader is indisposed to credit this statement, let him 
 read the details which will now be given, showing some of the 
 salient points in the Indian record of the last thirty years. 
 
 Sioux WAR, 1852-3 -4. 
 
 It seems incredible, yet it is nevertheless a perfectly well 
 authenticated fact, that this war was brought about through 
 the loss of a cow by a Mormon emigrant. An emigrant train 
 was going through the Sioux country to Utah. A cow be 
 longing to these people was lost and found by the Indians, who 
 killed and ate it. These Indians were living in perfect peace 
 and no trouble whatever existed concerning them. When the 
 Mormons discovered what had become of the cow, they preferred 
 a formal complaint to the officer in command at Fort Laramie, 
 A lieutenant and a few men were sent to demand a return of 
 
SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD THE SIOUX. 39 
 
 the cow. These Indians offered to pay for it, but the indiscreet 
 officer refused to accept this fair proposal and demanded the 
 surrender of the one who had taken the cow. This demand 
 the Indians professed not to be able to comply with. It seems 
 almost impossible to believe it, yet, without further parley or 
 other provocation, the word was given to fire and the chief 
 was killed. The troops were immediately surrounded, and 
 every man instantly slain. This began a war which lasted 
 nearly three years, and cost hundreds of soldiers' lives. The 
 government spent $40,000,000 in this disgraceful conflict, and 
 when it was over its relations with the Indians were more un 
 favorable than when it was begun. 
 
 LATER Sioux HISTORY. 
 
 The subsequent history of the Sioux is best given in the 
 Keports of Peace Commissions, 1868-76. "In 1851,* the 
 vast emigration to California across the Indian Territory 
 made a new treaty necessary. This was made at Fort Lar- 
 amie in September, 1851, between the United States and 
 Sioux or Dakotas, the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Crows, As- 
 sinaboines, Gros Ventres, Mandans and Arickarees, residing 
 south of the Missouri River and east of the Rocky Moun 
 tains, and north of the boundary lines of Texas and New Mex 
 ico. This treaty establishes and confirms peaceful relations; the 
 Indians agree to abstain from all hostilities against each other. 
 They concede to the United States the right to make military or 
 other roads across their territory, and they agree to make full 
 restitution for any wrongs committed by them upon the citizens 
 of the United States while passing through their territories. 
 The Government agrees to pay to these Indians the annual sum of 
 $50,000 for fifty years. TJie Senate amended the appropria 
 tion by limiting it to ten years. This amendment was never 
 submitted to the Indians! They believed that the original 
 treaty was in force. * * It is believed that 
 
 this was the cause of the Powder River war." 
 
 * Report of the Sioux Commission, 1876, in appendix to Report of Commissioner of 
 Indian Affairs for 187G, p. 334-347. 
 
40 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD THE SIOUX. 
 
 The conflicts growing out of the bad faith shown in this 
 matter, led to the formation of a Government Commission com 
 posed of Generals Sherman, Harney, Terry, and Augur, and 
 .several civilians. They reported that the government was the 
 cause of the war. 
 
 They say : " If the lands of the white man are taken, civi 
 lization justifies him in resisting the invader. Civilization 
 does more than this it brands him as a coward and a slave if 
 he submits to the wrong. Here civilization made its own com 
 pact and guaranteed the rights of the weaker party. It did not 
 stand by the guarantee. The treaty was broken, but not by 
 the savage. If the savage resists, civilization, with the Ten 
 Commandments in one hand and the sword in the other, de 
 mands his immediate extermination. That he goes to war is 
 not astonishing. He is often compelled to do so. Wrongs are 
 borne by him in silence that never fail to drive civilized men 
 to deeds of violence. Among civilized men war usually springs 
 from a sense of injustice. The best possible way, therefore, to 
 avoid war is to do no act of injustice. When we learn that the 
 same rule holds good with the Indians, the chief difficulty is re 
 moved. But it is said that our wars with them have been al 
 most constant. Have we been uniformly unjust ? We answer 
 unhesitatingly, ( yes.' r ' 
 
 This commission, after full consultation with the Indians and 
 the government, made another " new treaty." It guaranteed 
 the right of the Indians to hunt in the Powder River country, 
 pledged aid to the nomadic Indians, and also made provision 
 for those who remained on reservations, to help them to become 
 self-supporting. This treaty, after full discussion, was ratified 
 by the Senate and approved by the President. 
 
 In November, 1868, General Haruey, a member of the 
 Commission which made this treaty, then in charge of the 
 Sioux Indians, reported : " I am perfectly satisfied with the 
 success which has attended the commencement of this work, 
 and can unhesitatingly declare, that, to secure perpetual peace 
 with the Sioux Indians, it is only necessary to fulfill the terms 
 of the treaty made by the peace commission." 
 
SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD THE SIOUX. 4J 
 
 Notwithstanding this favorable report of General Harney, 
 the following unjust and arbitrary order was issued on June 29, 
 1869, by General Sheridan: "All Indians, when on their 
 proper reservations, are tinder the exclusive control and juris 
 diction of their agents ; they will not be interfered with in any 
 manner by the military authority except upon requisition of the 
 special agent resident with them, his superintendent, or the 
 Bureau of Jndian Affairs at Washington. Outside the well- 
 defined limits of the reservation, they are under the original 
 and exclusive jurisdiction of the military authority, and as a 
 rule will be considered hostile." 
 
 This wanton and brutal order of Gen. Sheridan was in direct 
 violation of the terms of the treaty, which recognized theright^ **, 
 of these Indians to hunt on the unceded territory, and Con- 
 gress"had, in the session immediately prior to the issuing of this 
 order, appropriated $200,000, to be used, in part, for the pay-^ ^ ^ 
 
 rnent of the seventh of thirty instalments "for Indians roam- 
 
 in s ! " 
 
 CUSTER, BLACK HILLS, (1874.) **** 
 
 In 1874 followed the Custer expedition in the Black Hills. 
 This onslaught was in direct, open and inexcusable violation of 
 the very plainest provisions of the treaty. But gold had been 
 discovered in the Black Hills, and the Government not only 
 made no effort to keep faith with the Indians, but its own 
 officers and men were conspicuous in their flagrant violation of 
 the national engagements. Speaking of the subsequent hostili 
 ties, the " Report of the Sioux Commissioners" continues 
 (page 342): "Of the results of this year's war, we have 
 no wish to speak. It is a heart-rending record of the 
 slaughter of many of the bravest of our army. It has not 
 only carried desolation and woe to hundreds of our own 
 hearth-stones, but it has added to the cup of anguish which 
 we have pressed to the lips of the Indian. We fear that 
 when others shall examine it in the light of history, they 
 will repeat the words of the officers who penned the re- 
 
42 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD THE SIOUX. 
 
 port of 1868 : 'The results of the year's campaign satisfied 
 all reasonable men that the war was useless and expensive. To 
 those who reflected on the subject, knowing the facts, the war 
 was something more than useless and expensive ; it was dis 
 honorable to the nation and disgraceful to those who originated 
 it.'" The Commissioners add their own judgment: "We 
 hardly know how to frame in words the feelings of shame and 
 sorrow which fill our hearts as we recall the long record of 
 broken faith of our Government." (page 343). " It is an 
 eternal law of the government of God, that whatsoever a nation 
 sows, that, and nothing but that, shall it reap. If we sow 
 broken faith, injustice and wrong, we shall reap in the future as 
 we have reaped in the past, a harvest of sorrow and blood" 
 (page 346). * * " We are aware that many of our people think, 
 that the only solution of the Indian problem is in their exter 
 mination. We would remind such persons that there is only 
 One who can exterminate. There arc too many graves within 
 our borders, over which the grass has hardly grown, for us to 
 forget that God is just. The Indian is a savage, but he is also 
 a man. He is one of the few savage men who clearly recog 
 nize the existence of a Great Spirit. He believes in the im 
 mortality of the soul. He has a passionate love for his children. 
 He loves his country. He will gladly die for his tribe. Un 
 less we deny all revealed religion, we must admit that he has 
 the right to share in all the benefits of divine revelation. " He 
 is capable of civilization. Amidst all the obstacles, the wrongs 
 and evils of our Indian policy, there are no missions which 
 show richer rewards. Thousands of this poor race, who were 
 once as poor and degraded as the wild Sioux, are to-day civil 
 ized men, living by the cultivation of the soil, and sharing 
 with us in those blessings which give to men home, country and 
 freedom. There is no reason why these men may not also be 
 led out of darkness into light." 
 
SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECOEDTHE MESCALAROS. 43 
 
 THE MESCALAROS. 
 GENERAL CARLETO^'s RECORD. 
 
 In January, 186-7, a Joint Congressional Committee on In 
 dian Affairs, after a long investigation, reported unanimously 
 against transferring the Indian Bureau to the War Depart 
 ment. In pursuing their inquiries, they requested information 
 and suggestions from many persons, amongst others, one James 
 H. Carleton, Brigadier General, commanding department, 
 [STew Mexico. The inquiries addressed to this person embraced 
 the whole field of Indian affairs. His reply is lengthy, but the 
 following sentiment is characteristic. After giving several 
 other causes why, in his opinion, the Indians were dying out, he 
 adds by way of climax " the causes which the Almighty 
 originates, when in their appointed time, He wills that one 
 race of men as in races of lower animals shall disappear off 
 the face of the earth, and give place to another race and so on 
 in the great cycle traced out by Himself, which may be seen, 
 but has reasons too deep to be fathomed by us. The races of 
 the mammoths and mastodons and the great sloths came and 
 passed away. The red man of America is passing away !" 
 
 This same person * also unearthed for the benefit of the com 
 mittee, his own " record," consisting of his correspondence in 
 " relation to- Indians, Indian wars, etc., etc., within my official 
 jurisdiction and controlled by myself." He adds : " I point 
 to this record of over three years of anxiety and toil, mostly 
 on their (Indians,) account, as one of which I do not feel 
 ashamed !" This correspondence might have remained buried 
 in the tons of wasting matter in the War Department, but their 
 author being a victim of moral obliquity and having a morbid 
 desire to exhibit himself in print, managed to induce the com 
 mittee to spread this "record" of his over more than two 
 hundred pages of their report ! From the extracts which will 
 here be given, it will be seen what this person was doing in 
 a small way, to help Providence, in order that the red man 
 might be quicker in " passing away." The dates are of orders 
 
 * Appendix to Doolittle Report, p. 432-3. 
 
44 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD THE MESCALAROS. 
 
 to subordinate officers, operating against Indians at different 
 places, and show a deliberate plan to exterminate this tribe. 
 
 "Oct. 11, 1862. * Confidential' letter to Colonel J. R. West. 
 " There is to be no council held with the Indians, nor any talks. 
 TJie men are to be slain whenever and wherever found." 
 
 Oct. 12, 1862, to Col. Carson. " You will make war upon 
 the Mescalaro and all other Indians you may find in the Mes- 
 calaro country until further orders. All Indian men are to 
 be killed whenever and wherever you can find them. * * * 
 If the Indians send a flag of truce and desire to sue for peace, 
 say to them, you have no power to make peace, that you are there 
 to kill them wherever you can find them." 
 
 April 10, 1863, he instructed the commanding officer at Fort 
 Stanton, that he " be sure to have slain every Mescalaro who may 
 be met with at large in the vicinity of his post." 
 
 May 13, 1863, he wrote to Gen. Halleck, General-in-Chief 
 at Washington, in relation his (Carleton's) efforts to open up the 
 country to farmers and miners by an "effort to brush back the 
 Indians." He then adds ; " If I had one more good regiment 
 of California infantry, composed as that infantry is of practical 
 miners, I would place it in the Gila country. While it would exter 
 minate the Indians, who are a scourge to New Mexico, it would 
 protect people who might wish to go there to open up the 
 country." 
 
 July 5, 1863, he directs Col. West, " to proceed with great 
 caution, without noise of trumpets or drums, or loud talking, 
 or the firing of guns, except in battle, to march silently, mostly 
 by night, to build fires of dry twigs, that no smoke may arise 
 from them, to have no fires by night, to kill every Indian man 
 they can find." 
 
 August 16, 1863, to Col. Riggs. " The troops must be kept 
 after the Indians, not in big bodies, with military noises and 
 smokes, and the gleam of arms by day, and fires and talk, and 
 comfortable sleeps by night; but in small parties, moving 
 stealthily to their haunts and laying patiently in wait for them ; 
 or by following their tracks day after day, with a fixedness of 
 purpose that never gives up * * If a hunter 
 
THE CHIVINGTON MASSACRE. 45 
 
 goes after deer, he tries all sorts of wiles to get within gun shot. 
 An Indian is more watchful and wary animal than a deer." 
 Sept. 13, 1863, he wrote to Postmaster General Blair, and 
 Sept. 20, 1863, he wrote a long letter to Secretary Chase. After 
 lamenting that the California column " have not had the good 
 fortune to strike good hard honest blows for the old flag, they 
 have, at least, been instrumental in helping to find gold to pay 
 the gallant men who have had the honor." He followed this 
 up by inviting miners to come into the country under a promise 
 e>f military protection, although he well knew, that so far from 
 inviting them, it was his duty to expel them as trespassers. 
 
 THE CHIVINGTON MASSACRE. 
 
 This was the subject of a very extended investigation by a 
 Congressional Committee, and in the official report and accom 
 panying testimony the ghastly story is told in sickening detail, 
 
 In the summer of 1864 the Governor of Colorado (being ex- 
 officio Indian Superintendent) issued a proclamation against 
 hostile Indians, inviting all friendly Indians to avoid the 
 former, and repair to certain posts for protection and food. 
 This language was used : " Friendly Arapahoes and Chey- 
 ennes belonging to the Arkansas river, will go to Major Col- 
 ley, United States Indian agent at Fort Lyon, who will 
 give them provisions and show them a place of safety." In 
 pursuance of this invitation, some six hundred Cheyennes re 
 ported to Major Colley at Fort Lyon, and remained there until 
 November 2Stb. During the interval there were no outrages, 
 and the Indians behaved so quietly that Major Anthony, who 
 was sent with orders to attack them, on reaching Fort Lyon de 
 clined to fight them and directed them to remain at Sand Creek 
 until he could communicate with Gen. Curtis. Whilst the In 
 dians were at Sand Creek, one J. M. Chivington, who had been 
 Colonel of 3rd regiment of Colorado Cavalry, started upon an ex 
 pedition against the Indians with one thousand men. He arrived 
 at Fort Lyon Nov. 28th. It became immediately known that 
 he and his command had hostile designs on the Indians camped 
 at Sand Creek. At this time most of the braves were absent, 
 and there were in camp about six hundred Indians, the majority 
 
46 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 being squaws and old men and children. As soon as Chiv- 
 iugston's intention was ascertained, every one at FortLyon, sol 
 dier and civilian, openly denounced it. Cliivington knew that 
 these Indians had come to Fort Lyon under the Governor's in 
 vitation (an'd was present at a council preparatory to their com 
 ing,) he also knew that they had been for months living upon the 
 most friendly terms with the whites, and that it would 
 be an inexcusable atrocity to attack them. Notwithstanding 
 all these considerations this inhuman wretch, that same 
 night attacked these defenceless old men, women and child 
 ren, and cruelly massacred about seventy of their number, 
 of whom two-thirds were women and children. Unheard 
 of cruelties were perpetrated and the dead bodies were 
 mutilated with nameless barbarity. Individual instances are 
 attested by numerous witnesses, the details of which seem 
 absolutely incredible, and are unfit to print. These cru 
 elties were directly caused by Chivington. Major Wynkoop 
 testified to his inciting his troops thereto previous to the 
 slaughter. " Commencing, he addressed his command, arous 
 ing in them by his language, all their worst passions, urging 
 them on to the work of committing all these diabolical outrages, 
 knowing himself all the circumstances of these Indians resting 
 on the assurances of protection from the Government, given 
 them by myself and Major S. J. Anthony, he kept his command 
 in entire ignorance of it. Col. Chivington 
 
 is not my superior officer, but a citizen mustered out of the 
 United States Service, and at the time this inhuman monster 
 committed this unprecedented atrocity, he was a citizen by reason 
 of his term having expired, he having lost his regulation com 
 mand some months previously." 
 
 Another witness testified that he was present "and that during 
 the massacre he saw three squaws and five children prisoners, in 
 charge of some soldiers ; that while they were being conducted 
 along, they were approached by Lieut. Harry Richmond, of 3rd 
 Colorado Cavalry; that Lieut. Richmond thereupon immedi 
 ately killed and scalped the three women and five children while 
 they (the prisoners) were screaming for mercy, while the soldiers, 
 
THE CIIIVINGTON MASSACRE. 47 
 
 in whose charge they were, shrank back apparently aghast." 
 The mutilation of the remains of the dead women and men, 
 and all the facts here given are established by numerous wit 
 nesses. Most of the dead were scalped, and some had their 
 fingers cut off for the rings that were on them. It was testified 
 that Major Say re, of 3rd (Chivington's) regiment, " scalped an 
 Indian for the scalp-lock, ornamented by silver ornaments; 
 he cut off the skin with it. He stood by and saw his men cut 
 ting fingers from dead bodies."* 
 
 Another witness swore :f " Next morning after the battle, I 
 saw a little boy covered up among the Indians in a trench, still 
 alive. I saw a Major in the 3rd regiment take out his pistol and 
 blow off the top of his head." Another witnessj details the at 
 tack by Chivington upon the Indians as they were gathered 
 around an American flag and a white flag of truce within fifty 
 yards of him. When fired on the Indians ran. "After the firing 
 the warriors put the squaws and children together and surrounded 
 them to protect them. I saw five squaws under a bank for pro 
 tection. When the troops came up they ran out and. begged for 
 mercy, but the soldiers shot them all. I saw one squaw whose 
 leg had been broken by a shell ; a soldier came up with a drawn 
 sabre ; she raised her arm to<3protect herself, when he struck^ 
 breaking her arm. Then she rolled over and raised her other 
 arm, when he struck, breaking that, and then left her without 
 killing her. There seemed to be an indiscriminate slaughter of 
 men, women and children. There were some thirty or forty 
 squaws, collected in a hole for protection ; they sent out a little 
 girl, about six years old, with a white flag on a stick ; she had 
 only proceeded a few steps when she was shot and killed. All 
 the squaws in that hole were afterwards killed, and four or five 
 bucks outside. The squaws offered no resistance. Every one I 
 saw dead was scalped. * * * I saw a little girl 
 about 5 years of age who had been hid in the sand ; two soldiers 
 
 *Lucien Palmer's testimony, ibid, p. 74. 
 fAmos C. Miksch's (corporal) testimony, p. 74. 
 :Jlobert Bent, p. 96. 
 
48 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 discovered her, drew their pistols and shot her, and then pulled 
 her out of the sand by the arm. I saw quite a number of infants 
 in arms, killed with their mothers." 
 
 After all these horrible details were officially reported to 
 Congress, what did the Federal Executive do ? Nothing ! 
 
 What did Congress do ? Congress, in its own peculiar way, 
 did much. It appointed a Committee. The Committee appoint 
 ed a Sub-Committee. It appointed clerks. It appointed steno 
 graphers. It travelled. It subpoenaed numerous witnesses. It 
 paid mileage, witness fees and hotel bills, and numerous incidental 
 expenses. It took enormous masses of testimony. Then the 
 Government printer appeared, and printed endless copies of a 
 large volume, containing the report and testimony which 
 recited these deeds in all their naked deformity. Then the 
 members of Congress scattered it broadcast over the land to 
 feed the paper mills, along with the Agricultural and Patent 
 Office Reports. All this was a careful, methodical, expensive 
 preparation for nothing ! Finally, Congress adjourned. And 
 this was the end of the chapter. To this day this foul wrong is 
 unavenged. No man, not even Chivingtoii or Richmond, was 
 ever punished ! 
 
 The results of this unpunished massacre were told these 
 words, in a speech in Congress, in 1876, by Prof. Seelye of 
 Amherst College : "The Cheyennes and Kiowas and Comanches 
 were all inflamed, and conflagration, death and pillage reigned 
 along our borders. It took two years to stop this terror, during 
 which time (besides the immense loss to private individuals of 
 property and life), it cost the Government $35,000,000 and 
 many lives of soldiers, while, leaving out the Sand Creek mas 
 sacre, only twenty Indians all [told were slain. In 1865 a 
 treaty of peace was made, but in 1867 war broke out again 
 among the Cheyennes." 
 
 HANCOCK'S ATTACK. 
 
 How hostilities broke out again is told in a communication 
 from the Indian Bureau to the House of Representatives, in 
 
SLACK KETTLE MASSACRE. 49 
 
 July, 1867. The whole shameful story is told m one para 
 graph : 
 
 " In April, 1867, the Cheyennes, who had been at peace since 
 the treaty of 1865, were quietly occupying their village on the 
 grounds assigned to them by that treaty, when a military com 
 mand, under Maj. Gen. Hancock, without any known provoca 
 tion, burned down the homes of 300 lodges, including about 
 100 lodges of friendly Sioux, and all their provisions, clothing, 
 utensils, and property of every description, property being de 
 stroyed to the value of $100,000. The result of this was 
 another war for nearly two years, the loss of the lives of over 
 three hundred soldiers, and a cost of nearly $40,000,000." 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF BLACK KETTLE'S VILLAGE. 
 
 This achievement is called by Generals Sherman, Sheridan 
 and Ouster by the more euphonious name of the " Battle of 
 the Washita," and is another instance showing to what military 
 haste and want of judgment lead. In the fall of 1868, Gen. 
 Sheridan set out to punish the hostiles who had committed out 
 rages on the Saline and Solomon Rivers in Kansas, in the pre 
 ceding summer. Instead of punishing the guilty ones, Gen. 
 Custer was sent forward, and attacked unawares the nearest 
 Indians, being Black Kettle's village of friendly Indians. He had 
 volunteers from Kansas and Indian allies. The attack was un 
 expected, and was a wanton butchery of friendly Indians. 
 
 THE FACTS. 
 
 Col. Wynkoop, late agent for Cheyennes and Arapahoes, 
 wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Jan., 1869, as 
 follows : " I am perfectly satisfied that the position of Black 
 Kettle at the time of the attack upon his village, was not a 
 hostile one. I know that he had proceeded to the point at 
 which he was killed with the understanding that it was the 
 locality where those Indians who were friendly disposed should 
 assemble. I know that such information had been conveyed 
 to Black Kettle, as the orders of the military authorities, and 
 4 
 
50 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 that he was also instructed that Fort Cobb was the point that 
 the friendly Indians would receive subsistence at. 
 In regard to the charge that Black Kettle was engaged in the 
 depredations committed on the Saline and Solomon, during the 
 summer of 1868, I know the same to be utterly false, as Black 
 Kettle, at that time, was camped near my agency on the Pawnee 
 fork." This view is confirmed by Superintendent Murphey, 
 who wrote December 4th, 1868 to the Commissioner of 
 Indian Affairs, as follows : " I found in the public journals 
 Gen. Sheridan's report of what he calls 'the opening of the 
 campaign against the hostile Indians/ the perusal of which 
 makes one sick at heart. Had these Indians been hostile, or 
 had they been the warriors who committed the outrages on 
 the Solomon and Saline rivers in August last, or those who 
 subsequently fought Forsyth and his scouts, no one would re 
 joice over this victory more than myself. But who were the 
 parties thus attacked and slaughtered by Gen. Ouster and his 
 command ? It was Black Kettle's band of Cheyennes. Black 
 Kettle, one of the best and truest friends the whites ever had 
 among the Indians of the plains." Months later this view 
 was corroborated,, in July, 1869, by Gen. Augur. This 
 officer, in reporting to Gen. Sheridan the operations of Gen. 
 Carr against a camp of u Dog Soldiers and Cheyennes," says : 
 " The prisoners report it to be the only body of Indians 
 known on the Republican. It is the same that fought Forsyth 
 and all other parties on the Republican last year." 
 Now let us examine the 
 
 SHERIDAN-OUSTER VERSION. 
 
 of what they saw fit to call the "Battle of the 
 Washita." Take Gen. Sheridan's report to Gen. Sherman : 
 " I have the honor to report for the information of the 
 Lieutenant General, the following operations of Gen. Ouster's 
 command. On 23d of November, I ordered Gen. Custer to 
 proceed with eleven companies of his regiment of seventh 
 cavalry in a southerly direction toward the Antelope Hills, 
 
BLACK KETTLE MASSACRE. 51 
 
 in search of hostile Indians. On 26th, he struck the trail of 
 a war party of Black Kettle's band returning from the north. 
 
 He at once abandoned his wagons and fol 
 lowed in pursuit over the head- waters of the Washita, and 
 thence down that stream, and on the morning of the 27th, 
 surprised the camp of Black Kettle, and after a desperate 
 fight, in which Black Kettle was assisted by the Arapahoes 
 under Little Raven, and the Kiowas under Satanta, captured 
 the entire camp, killing the Chief, Black Kettle, and one hun 
 dred and three warriors, whose bodies were left on the field, 
 all their stock, amunition, arms, lodges, robes, and fifty-three 
 women and three children." Gen. Ouster's own report states 
 some further particulars : " There never was a more com 
 plete surprise. My men charged the village, and reached the 
 lodges before the Indians were aware of their presence. The 
 moment the charge was ordered, the band struck up " Garry 
 Owen/ and with cheers that strongly reminded me of scenes 
 during the war, every trooper, led by his officer, rushed to 
 ward the village. The Indians were caught napping for once. 
 The warriors rushed from their lodges and posted themselves 
 behind the trees and in the deep ravines, from which they 
 began a most determined defence. The lodges and all their 
 contents were in our possession within ten minutes after the 
 charge was ordered ; but the real fighting such as has rarely 
 been equaled in Indian warfare began when attempting to 
 clear out, or kill the warriors posted in ravines or underbrush." 
 
 " The Indians left on the ground and in 
 our possession 103 of their warriors, including Black Kettle 
 himself, whose scalp is now in the possession of one of our Osage 
 guides. We captured 875 horses, ponies and mules. 
 (Here numerous stores, clothing, etc., are mentioned.) " In ad 
 dition, we captured all their winter supply of buffalo meat, all 
 their meal, flour, and other provisions, and in fact everything 
 they possessed, even driving their warriors from the village 
 -with little or no clothing. We destroyed everything of value 
 to the Indians, and have now in our possession as prisoners of 
 
52 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 war (?) fifty-three squaws and their children /"* Noble achieve 
 ment! Women and children killed, and others prisoners of 
 war ! Not one warrior prisoner ! All were killed. 
 
 A New York Herald reporter gives an account of the re 
 turn of Gen. Ouster to headquarters with his savage allies : 
 " In advance were the Osage trailers. Their faces 
 
 were painted in the most fantastic and hideous designs. * * 
 About their persons were dangling the trophies which they had 
 captured in the battle. Spears, upon which were fastened the 
 scalps of their fallen foes. Even the animals 
 
 the Osages bestrode were decorated with scalps, and strips of 
 red and blue blankets. * Conspicuous in this 
 
 party was the young Osage warrior Koom-la-Manche, (Trotter.) 
 It was he who, under the impulse of the highest ambition of 
 Indian valor, singled out the great Chief, Black Kettle, the 
 terror of all the Osages, as his victim. After a severe conflict, 
 he reached the crowning point of his efforts, and bore away the 
 ghastly scalp of the terrible Chief as the trophy attaching to 
 his success. With a mark of special attention, this scalp was 
 carefully and fantastically decorated, and hung prominently 
 among the most sacred possessions of the young warrior." 
 
 " Newt came Gen. Ouster riding alone. Next 
 
 followed the living evidences of the victory over fifty squaws 
 and their children ! That night the Osage 
 
 allies gave a scalp dance. The scene was one of 
 
 savage effect. The burning logs in the centre, the Indians 
 painted and attired in war costume, * performed their 
 
 mysterious contortions of the body, and whooped wildly as if 
 about to engage their foe. Many of our officers and soldiers, 
 among the former, Generals Sheridan and Ouster, witnessed this 
 scene, and remained until a late hour." 
 
 THE PIEGAN MASSACEE BY COL. BAKER, MONTANA (1869). 
 
 Hostilities in Montana were begun by Acting-Governor 
 Meagher, without authority of any kind, enlisting 1,000 men 
 
 * "In the excitement of the fight, as well as in self-defence (?), it so happened, that some 
 of the squaws and a few of the children " were killed and wounded." 
 
PIEGANWAJSSACEK ' 53 
 
 for a general raiding expedition on the Indians, the soldiers (!) 
 being promised whatever plunder they got and a liberal scalp 
 reward. The Bloods and Blackfeet were friendly, as were the 
 Piegans, except the band of Mountain Chief, which had retal 
 iated on Meagher's brigands, and had since moved north into 
 Canada, in the summer and fall of 1869. This was shown con 
 clusively by the official reports of Gen. Sully (then Supt. of In 
 dian Affairs in Montana), of Lieut. Pease (the then agent of the 
 Blackfeet), and of Gen..DeTrobriand.* After these reports were 
 in, General Sheridan, on Oct. 21, 1869, asked permission to send 
 an expedition against Mountain Chief's band of Piegans. Ho 
 named January 15th, 1870, as the time, giving as a reason that 
 they would then " be very helpless, and if where they live is not 
 too far from Shaw or Ellis, we might be able to give them a 
 good hard blow." On Nov. 9th. 1869, General Sherman ap 
 proved of this, and on Nov. 15th, 1869, General Sheridan so ad 
 vised Gen. Hancock, and of his own motion added, " any of the 
 Blackfeet who may have been engaged in the murders and rob 
 ber ries lately perpetrated in Montana." Sheridan named Col. 
 Baker as the proper man to take command of the expedition, 
 and adds: "I spoke to him on the subject as he passed through 
 Chicago." 
 
 Gen. DeTrobriand had, from the spot, reported officially on 
 these matters, and Col. Baker knew nothing but what was told 
 him. On Jan. 16th, 1870, Sheridan advised Gen. Hardie: " If 
 the lives and property of the citizens of Montana can best be 
 protected by striking Mountain Chief's band of Piegan In 
 dians, I want them struck. Tell Baker to strike hard." In 
 reply Hardie said : " I think chastisement necessary. In this 
 Col. Baker concurs. He knows the General's wishes. * 
 Col. Baker may be relied on to do all the General wished." 
 
 At this time Mountain Chief's Piegans were in Canada ! But 
 
 *This officer gives the outrages'in detail, viz: the killing of two whites and four In 
 dians and " the murder of Mr. Clark and attempted murder of his son by Piegans, under 
 Peter, an Indian brother-in-law of Mr. Clark, the sons of Mountain Chief, Bear Chief, 
 and others unknown." This he declares to have been a "family quarrel." He further re. 
 ported that the Blackfeet, Pend d'Orilles, Bloods, and even part of the Piegans "have 
 nothing to. do with the attacks on persons and property of whites ; that they want 
 no war, but peace, and that they are ready to come and stay on whatever reservation 
 may be assigned to them." 
 
54 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 a victim was needed and at hand, and, in lieu of them, the nearest 
 Indians, a friendly village of Bear Chief and Red Horn, (then 
 suffering terribly from small-pox, and wholly ignorant of their 
 danger,) was surprised, their lodges burned, one hundred and 
 seventy-three men, women and children butchered by the 
 troops, arid one hundred prisoners (women and children) 
 some having the small-pox, were turned loose to freeze upon 
 the open prairies, the thermometer being below zero ! Colonel 
 Baker knew perfectly well that these were not Mountain Chief's 
 Indians, because in his report he adds that afterwards, "I 
 marched after the camp of Mountain Chief, who, I understood, 
 was camped four miles below. After marching sixteen miles I 
 found a camp of seven lodges that had been abandoned in great 
 haste, leaving everything. * 
 
 The result of the expedition is, 173 Indians killed, 100 prisoners, 
 women and children, (these were allowed to go free, as it was as 
 certained some of them had the small-pox), 44 lodges with all 
 their supplies and stores destroyed, and 300 horses captured/' 
 
 It will be remembered that the permission from headquarters 
 was to attack Mountain Chief's band of Piegans. Notwith 
 standing this, Gen. Sheridan, Jan. 29th, 1870, in forwarding 
 Col. Baker's report, treats it as "a compliance with your (Sher 
 man's) permission of Nov. 4th, 1869, to punish Piegan Indians." 
 Col. Baker's leaving 100 women and children (some sick 
 with small-pox,) to freeze to death on the prairies was too much 
 even for Gen. Sheridan ; so in a further despatch to Gen. Sher 
 man, dated Jan. 31st, 1870, he volunteered to cover up this 
 brutal transaction by reporting that " Col. Baker had to turn 
 loose over one hundred squaws. He had no transportation to 
 get them in."* Gen. Sherman replied in effusive commen 
 dations. 
 
 THE FACTS. 
 
 Soon, however, the truth came out, arid with it all the ghastly 
 details of this cowardly butchery of friendly, unsuspecting, and 
 
 * Colonel Baker, at the time and on the spot, did not make any such excuse. 
 This was an after-thought, resulting from the merciless castigation of the civil 
 ized Press. If these women and children had been left under their own shelter 
 they would have wanted no transportation. 
 
PIEGAN MASSACRE. 55 
 
 innocent sick men, women and children. Col. Baker reported 
 173 Indians killed. The public were meant to be deceived into 
 believing that they were all warriors, but Lieut. Pease, in an of 
 ficial report to Gen. Sully, gives the facts: "The 173 Indians 
 killed were classified thus : 
 
 Thirty-three men, viz : 
 
 15 men between 15 and 37 years of age. 
 10 " " 37 and 60 " " 
 
 8 " " 60 and 70 " " 
 
 Ninety women, viz : 
 
 35 women, between 12 and 37 years of age. 
 55 " " 37 and 70 " " 
 
 Fifty-five children under 1 2 years of age. 
 
 " At the time of the attack this camp was suffering severely 
 with small-pox, having had it among them for two months." 
 When the details of this shameful butchery became known the 
 Press resounded with denunciations ; but no word of reproach 
 ever came from Gen. Sheridan, or from Gen. Sherman, or from 
 any one else, from the President down. Indeed, Gen. Sherman 
 was as exaggerated as ever in his praises, and Gen. Sheridan re 
 iterated his approval. The former affected not to believe the mas 
 sacre stories ; but eventually the truth had to be admitted, and 
 still no sign of retribution came from either Sherman or Sher 
 idan ; on the contrary they both abused Gen. Sully and Lieut. 
 Pease for telling the truth the horrid, naked, startling truth of 
 this villainous and knowing butchery of sick and friendly Indians. 
 Both of these officers furnish an explanation in their own words: 
 Said Gen. Sheridan (March 18th, 1870), to Gen. Sherman : " I 
 have to select the season when I can catch the fiends, and if a 
 village is attacked, and women and children killed, the respon 
 sibility is not with the soldiers, but with the people whose crimes 
 necessitate the attack." Gen. Sherman's "Indian Views" had 
 already been succinctly stated in 1866, as follows : "We must act 
 with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their ex 
 termination, men, women and children. Nothing less will reach 
 the root of the case." 
 
56 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD GEN. ORD. 
 
 Commenting on these fearful massacres, Prof. Seelye, of Am- 
 herst, (in Congress), well said, speaking of Generals Sherman 
 and Sheridan and the others : " And what shall be said of the 
 Piegan massacre and the massacre at Washita and Powder 
 Creek, or of the Lieutenant-General and Major-General and 
 Brigadier-General and Colonel by whom these deeds were 
 done? I never heard any of these men called Methodist 
 preachers, ministers, or any other than officers of the regular 
 army, regularly bred. These deeds are only equalled in 
 horror, and some of them are hardly surpassed by that at Sand 
 Creek [Chivington], and are a blot of damning infamy, not only 
 on the guilty perpetrators, but upon the War Department which 
 still sustains the men who did them." 
 
 GENERAL ORD'S RECORD (1869). 
 
 In September, 1869, in his annual report, Gen. Ord, in sub 
 stance stated, that he had 2200 men under him, in Arizona, 
 at an annual cost to the Government of $3,000,000. He adds 
 significantly : "Almost the only paying business in the co.untry 
 is supplying the troops. * * And I am in 
 
 formed in every quarter that if the quartermasters and pay 
 masters of the army were to stop payment in Arizona, a great 
 majority of the white settlers would be compelled to quit. JTos- 
 tilitiea are therefore kept up with a view to supporting inhabitants, 
 most of whom are supported by the hostilities. Of course their 
 support being derived from the presence of troops, they are con 
 tinually asking for more. There was in Arizona, January 1st, 
 1869, according to the Army Register, not a single army post or 
 soldier, and there was then more travel across the Southern por 
 tion of the Territory than now, more need of troops there, and 
 more Indians." With these facts staring him in the face he still 
 went on with the extermination policy, and (emulating Gen. 
 Carleton) himself reports : " I have encouraged the troops to 
 capture and root out the Apaches by every means in my power, 
 and to hunt them as they would wild animals. This, they have 
 done with unrelenting vigor. Since my last report over two 
 
CAMP GRANT MASSACRE. 57 
 
 hundred have been killed, generally by parties who have trailed 
 them for days and weeks, into the mountain recesses, over snows, 
 among gorges and precipices, lying in wait for them by day and 
 following them by night. Many villages have been burned. 
 * Many of the border men, especially those who 
 
 have lost friends or relations by them, regard all Indians as ver 
 min to be killed wherever met. * * The Apaches have 
 but few friends, and, I believe, no agent. Even the officers, 
 when applied to by them for information, cannot tell them what 
 to do. There seems to be no settled policy, but a general idea to 
 kill them, wherever found. I am a believer in that if we go for 
 extermination." 
 
 Here is a " Christian Soldier," who reports in effect that no 
 troops are needed, and that hostilities are kept up so as to sup 
 port the white population, yet encourages his troops in cowardly 
 and stealthy murder of Indians, though his own officers, when 
 applied to, cannot tell them what to do. Was there ever a more 
 damnable and infamous verdict penned by a man on him 
 self and the War Department, than this cold-blooded report ? 
 
 APACHE MASSACRE AT CAMP GRANT. 
 
 At Camp Grant, in Arizona, early in 1871, a small Indian 
 settlement was established. At first it consisted of twenty-five 
 Apaches, under a young chief who came to Lieutenant Whit 
 man, in command, stated that his band desired peace, that they had 
 no homes and could make none, because wherever they located 
 they were in constant fear of molestation. This officer advised 
 them to go to the White Mountains, but the young chief replied 
 that his people had never lived there, had never been connected 
 with the Indians in those mountains. They were Aravapa 
 Apaches, wanted to live in the home of their fathers and raise 
 corn and mescal. Lieut. Whitman permitted this band to re 
 main near his post, provisionally promising to protect them 
 while he communicated with his superior officer. In pursu 
 ance of this arrangement, runners were sent out, and about 
 March 1st, three hundred Indians were gathered at Camp 
 
58 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 Grant. Lieut. Whitman made a detailed report of the condi 
 tion of affairs, which he sent by express to the department 
 commander, and asked for specific instructions. He waited 
 six weeks, when his report was sent back to him without 
 one word of instructions, or any notice whatever of the In 
 dians, because it was not properly briefed! The printed ac 
 counts of this wretched affair do not give the name of the 
 officer whose preposterous idea of what lie thought to be his 
 official importance was slighted by his subordinate's mode of 
 stating the case. This man of red tape and sealing wax 
 had not enough human blood in his veins to forget for a 
 moment his insignificant self, notwithstanding the responsi 
 bility which was upon him. Nevertheless, as no objection 
 had been made at department headquarters, more Indians 
 came in, until at last about five hundred were gathered at 
 this point. They were employed by the military in bringing 
 in hay, carrying on their backs to camp about two hundred 
 thousand pounds. They also gathered mescal. By leave of 
 the commanding officer, they moved their camp higher up the 
 Aravapa, to a place where water was plentiful. Soon after 
 Capt. Stan wood took command. He investigated the condi 
 tion of affairs, and was so well satisfied with the Indians that, 
 on April 24, 1871, he took most of his troops on a scouting 
 expedition in the lower part of the territory. The white set 
 tlers in the immediate neighborhood were satisfied with these 
 Indians, and had promised Lieut. Whitman to give them work 
 in season at gathering barley. 
 
 The rest of the story can best be told in that officer's own 
 language : " I had come to feel respect for men who, igno 
 rant and naked, were still ashamed to lie or steal, and for women 
 who would cheerfully work like slaves to clothe themselves 
 and children, but untaught held their virtue above price. 
 
 I had ceased to have any fears of their leaving, and only 
 dreaded for them that they might, at any time, be ordered to do 
 so. They frequently expressed anxiety to hear from the Gen 
 eral that they might have confidence to build for themselves bet- 
 
CAMP GRANT MASSACRE. 59 
 
 ter houses, but would always say : ' You know what we want, 
 and if you cannot see him, you can write/ On the morning of 
 April 30, I was at breakfast at 7.30 o'clock, when a despatch 
 was brought to me by a sergeant of Company P, 21st Infantry, 
 from Capt. Penn, commanding Camp Lowell, informing me 
 that a large party had left Tucson on the 28th, with the avowed 
 purpose of killing all the Indians at this post. I immediately 
 sent two interpreters mounted to the Indian camp, with orders 
 to tell the Chiefs the exact state of things, and for them to 
 bring the entire party inside the fort. As I had no cavalry, 
 and but fifty infantry, all recruits, and no other officer, I could 
 not leave the fort to go to their defence. My messengers re 
 turned in an hour with the intelligence, that they could find no 
 living Indians. The camp was burning and the ground strewed 
 with their dead and mutilated women and children. I imme 
 diately mounted a party of about twenty soldiers and citizens, 
 and went with them, and the post surgeon with a wagon to 
 bring in the wounded, if any could be found. The party re 
 turned in the afternoon, having found no wounded, and without 
 being able to communicate with any of the survivors. Early 
 the next morning I took a small party with spades and shovels, 
 and went out and buried all the dead in and about the camp. 
 I thought the act of caring for their dead would be an evidence 
 to them of our sympathy, at least, and the conjecture proved 
 correct, for while at work, many of them came to the spot and 
 indulged in their expressions of grief, too wild and terrible to 
 be described. That evening they came in singly, and in small 
 parties, from all directions, so changed in forty-eight hours as to 
 be hardly recognizable, during which time they had neither 
 eaten nor slept. Many of the men, whose families had been 
 killed when I spoke to them, and expressed my sympathy for 
 them, were obliged to turn away, unable to speak, and too 
 proud to show their grief. The women, whose children had 
 been killed or stolen, were convulsed with grief, and looked to 
 me appealingly, as though I was their last hope on earth. 
 Children who, two days before, had been full of fun and frolic, 
 
60 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 kept at a distance, expressing wondering horror. 
 Their camp was surrounded and attacked at day-break. So 
 sudden and unexpected was it, that no one was awake to 
 give the alarm, and I found quite a number of women who 
 were shot while they were asleep beside their bundles of hay, 
 which they had collected to bring in on that morning. The 
 women who were unable to get away, had their brains beaten 
 out with clubs or stones. * * The bodies were all stripped 
 What they (Indians) do not understand is that, 
 while they are at peace, and conscious of no wrong intent, 
 they should be murdered. One of the 
 
 Chiefs said, 'I no longer want to live; my women and child 
 ren have been killed before my face, and I have been unable 
 to defend them. Most Indians in my place would take a 
 knife and cut his throat, but I will live to show these people 
 that all they have done, and all they can do, shall not make 
 me break faith with you, so long as you will stand by us and 
 defend us, in a language we know nothing of, to a great gov 
 ernor we never have, nor ever shall see.' About their cap 
 tives they say : ' Get them back for us, our little boys will 
 grow up slaves, and our girls worse. * 
 
 * Our women work hard, and are good women, and they 
 and our children have no diseases. Our dead you cannot bring 
 to life, but those that are living, we give to you, who can write 
 and talk, and have soldiers to get them back/ I can assure 
 you it is difficult to convince them of my zeal, when they see so 
 little being done." 
 
 What was the sequel to all this ? Was any one punished ? 
 Oh no. But Lieut. Whitman was soon relieved! In April, 
 1872, Gen. Howard visited the scene. The Indians told their 
 story, and asked for Whitman. But there was much feeling 
 against him for his out-spoken denunciation of these border 
 butchers. The mob opposed his return, and Gen. Howard 
 was too weak to withstand it, and so Whitman was not re-in 
 stated, and thus ends another shameful chapter. 
 
NORTHERN CHEYENNES. 61 
 
 NORTHERN CHEYENNES, CRAZY HORSE, DULL KNIFE. 
 
 The Northern Cheyennes, in 1867-8, relinquished all their 
 territory, reserving the right to roam for game, and receive an 
 nuities, like nomad Sioux, As a permanent home they were 
 given choice of the following places : 
 
 1. The reservation of the Cheyennes or Arapahoes, (South) or 
 
 2. Crow reservation, or 
 
 3. Sioux reservation. 
 
 The Government, at this time, further promised these Indians 
 school houses, teachers, houses, mills ; also mechanics, a farmer, 
 etc. They continued roaming until 1876, having no fixed home 
 at any of the places above indicated. Notwithstanding their 
 treaty right to roam, on June 29th, 1869, a military order was 
 issued, proclaiming that all roaming Indians would be regarded 
 as hostile ! In 1873, the Indian Bureau endeavored unsuccess 
 fully to induce them to join the Southern Cheyennes and Ara 
 pahoes. In 1874 Congress prohibited supplies being issued to 
 them, until they should join the Southern Indians. In 1875 
 this was again done. In the same year, after the Sioux had re 
 fused to cede the Black Hills, the Indian Office decided to re 
 move the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and requested 
 military aid, which at that time was opposed by Gen. Sheridan. 
 In March, 1876, Gen. Reynolds struck the village of Crazy 
 Horse. In August, 1876, Congress again made appropriations, 
 dependent on their removal South. In September, 1876, the 
 Sioux Commission incorporated these Cheyennes with the Sioux, 
 both they and the Sioux being willing. This was in accordance 
 with the treaty of 1868. 
 
 MASSACRE OF VILLAGE OF CRAZY HORSE. 
 
 In November, 1876, an attack was made on the village of 
 Crazy Horse by United States troops, under (General) Mc- 
 Kenzie. Gen. Crook was his superior officer. In this 
 the troops were aided by Indian allies, who were friends and 
 relatives of these Cheyennes, but who were tricked into joining 
 this expedition, by its being represented that they were desired 
 
62 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 to join in an attack upon the " Northern Indians." The attack 
 was made before day-break, and so the Indian allies had no 
 means of discovering their mistake ! These Indians of Crazy 
 Horse had not recently been on the war-path and were living in 
 a very secluded village. They had laid in their supplies for the 
 winter, and were preparing hides for market. They were de 
 prived of any annuities. They had no fixed home on any re 
 servation, and by treaty they had a right to roam in the very ter 
 ritory in which was their village. It is true that two months be 
 fore they had been incorporated with the Sioux, but this treaty 
 had not yet been ratified by Congress and it was not ratified 
 till February, 1877, and then with new conditions, not contained 
 in the treaty so that at this time there was really nothing left 
 to them but the hunting right, guaranteed them by the treaty of 
 May 10th, 1868. Indeed, in the agreement made with these In 
 dians, in September, 1876 only two months before the faith 
 of the Government was pledged that the Northern Cheyennes, 
 Arapahoes, and Sioux should be " protected in their rights of 
 property, person, and life," and this pledge Congress did not 
 disturb. Gen. Crook knew all this. McKenzie and all the 
 other officers knew this. Nevertheless, it had been determined 
 to hunt out these secluded Indians, in their remote village, and 
 after great hardships on the part of the troops worthy of a 
 better cause and with the aid of the Indian allies, deceived 
 into this hateful work, before break of day, on a bitter winter 
 morning, this village, buried in peaceful slumber, and its people 
 thinking themselves secure from all attack, were surrounded and 
 barbarously butchered in cold blood. The terrified Indians were 
 driven out of their tepees, just as they were startled from their 
 sleep, and were massacred without mercy, and in order to com 
 plete their misery and that the survivors might be entirely des 
 titute, all the winter supplies, all the hides (and everything else of 
 value belonging to these unfortunate people), were wantonly de 
 stroyed. When this brutal and treacherous massacre was reported 
 by McKenzie to Gen, Crook, it was transmitted to Gen. Sheridan, 
 with this encomium : " I cannot commend too highly this bril 
 liant achievement and the gallantry of the troops." 
 
MUEDEE OF CEAZY HOESE. 63 
 
 No department of the Government ever denounced this trans 
 action, and to this day none of the guilty participants have in any 
 way been called to account. 
 
 In Feb. 1877, Congress ratified the agreement with the Sioux, 
 Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, with the fourth article, 
 guaranteeing them essential rights, left out! This of course 
 without the consent of the Indians ! The removal of the Sioux 
 to the Indian Territory was prohibited. All these Indians were 
 therefore to remain on the then Sioux reservation, and, under 
 Article 3, to receive subsistence and supplies on " said reservation 
 and in the vicinity of the Missouri River." The removal of the 
 Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes was not prohibited, but they 
 were not relieved from the necessity of receiving supplies as 
 above provided. Although Congress had thus partially ratified 
 the work of the Sioux (Commission, the Appropriation bill, 
 passed March 3rd, 1877 for the fiscal year, ending June 30th, 
 1878) did not appropriate one dollar of the amount stipulated 
 to be paid the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, nor was any 
 provision made for the rations agreed upon, except for clothing 
 and for pay of a physician, teacher, carpenter, miller, farmer, 
 blacksmith and engineer ! 
 
 A SOLDIER UNPUNISHED MURDERS THE PRISONER CRAZY 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 In September, 1877, Crazy Horse was arrested on the 6th. 
 General Crook telegraphed the intelligence to General Sheri 
 dan, and added that " he had ordered Bradley to send him off 
 where he would be out of harm's way. 77 
 
 The result showed how literally these instructions were car 
 ried out. 
 
 Crazy Horse was made a prisoner September 4th, at Spotted 
 Tail Agency. 
 
 On the evening of the 5th, he arrived as a prisoner at Camp 
 Robinson, and while being disarmed at the guard-house, he was 
 stabbed with a bayonet by one of the soldiers, and died in a few 
 hours. 
 
 He was surely " out of harm's way" then, and the United 
 
64 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 States officers were doubtless well satisfied, as the soldier was 
 never punished, and the government, which first wantonly de 
 stroyed this chief's village and its inhabitants, and then allowed 
 him to be murdered, never thought the matter worthy of even a 
 formal inquiry, much less of condemnation and condign punish 
 ment. 
 
 MASSACRE OF DULL KNIFE'S BAND. 
 
 A fitting sequel to all this perfidy and treachery by the Fed 
 eral Government, was the butchery of Dull Knife's Band of 
 Northern Cheyennes. 
 
 These Indians had been removed South, and were dissatisfied 
 with their new home. 
 
 They made no concealment whatever of their intention to re 
 turn North. 
 
 On September 5th, 1878, the agent so informed the command 
 ing officer at Fort Reno. On September 9th, the band started 
 North. The whole number was about 300, of whom 87 were 
 warriors. 
 
 The agent was informed of their departure by one of the In 
 dian Police. 
 
 The Indians had been eight hours on the march before the 
 troops " watching them" knew it. They were then pursued, 
 but had travelled 120 miles before the troops came up with 
 them. No outrages had been committed by them until after 
 they had been struck by the troops. Then they committed 
 numerous atrocities. In Northern Nebraska they surrendered 
 to the troops. Meanwhile both sides had sustained losses. 
 
 Dull Knife's Band claimed that they had been promised not 
 to be returned to the Indian Territory. 
 
 Their story is corroborated by the Editor of the Telegraph, of 
 Sidney, Nebraska, in an account published January 25, 1879. 
 
 He visited Fort Robinson for the express purpose of obtain 
 ing information on this and other matters connected with this 
 raid. For two months the prisoners were kept confined at Fort 
 Robinson. Meanwhile the subject of their disposition was be 
 ing considered by the Federal Government. 
 
DULL KNIFE MASSACRE. 65 
 
 It was finally determined, that the Indians be returned South, 
 and the murderers be identified and tried as demanded by the 
 State Governor. 
 
 Dull Knife's Band earnestly protested that this was in viola 
 tion of the promise claimed, and as appears rightfully claimed, 
 to have been made to them when they surrendered. They 
 avowed that sooner than go back to the South, they would pre 
 fer to die where they were. 
 
 Instead of inquiring into their claim, or at least treating them 
 decently until he could represent matters fully at Washington, 
 and receive definite instructions, some official (it does not appear 
 who he was), undertook to starve and freeze these prisoners into 
 submission. It was then mid-winter, and was terribly cold. 
 
 This inhuman wretch of his own authority, and as an experi 
 ment in cruelty which would do honor to Alva, actually for five 
 days deprived these miserable creatures, men, women and child 
 ren, of proper food, clothing and fuel ! * 
 
 This to make them submissive ! But this ingenuity of cruelty 
 failed utterly. The Indians were not frozen out, but only made 
 more desperate. 
 
 Within a stone's throw of these cold and hungry prisoners 
 were several companies of United States troops. They were 
 well clad, well fed and well armed, and perfectly able to main 
 tain the authority of the Government without having recourse 
 to the disgraceful attempt to starve and freeze the Indians. 
 While things were in this condition, an interpreter informed the 
 officers that an outbreak was meditated. W^hat followed is fear 
 fully significant. 
 
 On January 9th, in the evening, all the stretchers were over 
 hauled and made ready for use. The attendants were forbid 
 den to retire. The troops did not turn in. The windows of 
 the prison were left open. 
 
 Why all this ? Mark the result. 
 
 That same night at eleven o'clock, Dull Knife gave the signal. 
 Every warrior leaped out of the windows, left open for their es- 
 
 * See Manypenny's account in " Indian Wards." 
 
 5 
 
66 SHAMEFUL FEDERAL RECORD. 
 
 cape, followed by their women and children. Although two 
 months prisoners, they had concealed some revolvers. With 
 these they fired on the guards to make good their escape, and 
 wounded four of them. 
 
 . But the stretchers were ready, the attendants had not retired, 
 the troops had not turned in. 
 
 As soon as the firing began, the main guard rushed after the 
 flying Indians and shot and killed forty of them. 
 
 Then 160 cavalry started on a wild chase after the remains of 
 the unhappy band of men, women and children, poorly clad, 
 half-starved and frozen, yet flying for protection into the biting 
 cold of that terrible January midnight ! They made for the 
 bluffs, three miles off, the mounted troops firing in all directions 
 at the fugitives. 
 
 On the next day a dispatch from Fort Robinson announced 
 that not a single Indian would escape. 
 
 The troops separated into small squads, the more easily to 
 track and pursue them. This was kept up until the 22d. 
 
 After a few days the pursuit relaxed, from cold and weari 
 ness. But General Crook ordered its continuance ! 
 
 On January 16, Captain Wessels set out with four fresh 
 companies of cavalry. They were rationed for six days. 
 
 On the 22d the butchery was over, or, as the butchers would 
 have it, " the campaign closed " ! 
 
 On that day, at a point 50 miles from where they started, the 
 remnant of Dull Knife's band was surrounded. 
 
 They had started on this terrible journey after five days' 
 freezing and starving. They had followed it up with nearly 
 two weeks more of cold, hunger and wild terror men, women 
 and children. 
 
 Here they are drawn ,up together and surrounded. A deadly 
 fight ensued. The Indians, having no ammunition, rushed out 
 with their knives ! JFutile effort ! One volley, and all were dead 
 before they even reached the troops ! 
 
 Twenty-four Indians lay -dead on the ravine. Of these, five 
 were squaws, and two papooses. Only nine remained alive : 
 One buck, five wounded squaws, three squaws unhurt. 
 
DULL KNIFE MASSACRE. 67 
 
 Captain Wessels' despatch to General Crook reported : 
 
 " The Cheyennes fought with extraordinary courage and firm 
 ness, and refused (!) all terms but death ! " None were offered 
 them. The dead were buried in one common grave. 
 
 An observer wrote of them : 
 
 " Let us see the dead and wounded brought into the Fort. 
 The soldiers drag out of the army wagons twenty-six frozen 
 bodies. They fall upon the frozen ground like so many frozen 
 hogs. These bodies are pierced by from three to ten bullets 
 each. They are stacked up in piles like cord- wood, the scanty 
 clothing of the women being, in some instances, thrown over their 
 heads. They are a ghastly pile of God's poor, despised children. 
 Their heads have been scalped, and every indignity heaped upon 
 them that more than Indian brutality can invent. The officers 
 account for so many shots being fired into the bodies by say 
 ing that whenever the wind stirred a blanket the soldiers fired 
 again to make sure the Indian was dead ! They deny that the 
 soldiers scalped the dead, but it is not shown that other Indians 
 were there. " * 
 
 Of Dull Knife's band of 320, but 75 survived. Of these, 
 only seven were men ; the rest were women and children, some 
 of whom were sent to the Ogallalla Sioux, their relatives. 
 
 But it is useless to continue this shameful record further. The 
 facts need no comment. The deeds here related stand out in all 
 their naked deformity, unrighted and unavenged. 
 
 r-' 
 
 * See Manypenny's account in " Indian Wards." 
 
68 PROPOSED INDIAN POLICY. 
 
 THE PEOPOSED INDIAN POLICY. 
 
 Having passed over these ghastly details of Federal barbar 
 ism, it will be a relief now to consider what practical plan can 
 be adopted to remedy the wrongs of the past and prepare the 
 Indians for civilization and eventual absorption into the mass 
 of the population of the Nation. 
 
 The plan here proposed (the adoption of which will be advo 
 cated in the manner hereinafter indicated) is given in the shape 
 of a platform or short declaration of principles, in order that it 
 may more readily be understood, and that those who favor it 
 may be able, in a few words, to say exactly what they want. 
 
 It is not claimed that the platform is new, either in whole or 
 in part. 
 
 On the contrary, nearly every thing advocated therein has, at 
 one time or another, been recommended to Congress, without 
 the slightest possible impression having been "produced upon 
 that body. 
 
 It is in view of this fact that the only novel part of this 
 plan, viz. : the mode of forcing its adoption, is hereafter ex 
 plained in detail, and will continue to occupy the writer's at 
 tention until it is made a success. 
 
 PLATFORM OF PRINCIPLES. 
 
 GOOD FAITH. 
 
 Never break faith with the Indians. 
 
 INDIAN TERRITORY. 
 
 Keep all intruders out of the Territory. 
 
 Continue the self-government of the civilized tribes. 
 
 Let them regulate their own land tenure. 
 
 LAW. 
 
 Enact suitable laws to protect life and property on reser 
 vations. 
 
PLATFORM. 69 
 
 LAW Continued. 
 
 Make them flexible in detail. 
 
 Administer them through Department orders approved 
 by the President. 
 
 Promptly and rigidly enforce them. 
 
 Individualize the punishment of crime. Never hold 
 the tribe liable for the crimes of its members. 
 
 Organize an efficient Indian police force on every res 
 ervation. 
 
 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Create a separate Indian Department under a civilian 
 Secretary. 
 
 Grant plenary emergency powers to the President. 
 
 Have all agencies frequently inspected by appointees of 
 the President, well paid and unconnected with the 
 Indian Department. 
 
 Carefully regulate the powers and duties of Indian 
 Agents. 
 
 Give them permanent positions and liberal salaries. 
 Keep them free from political influence. Let their 
 subordinates be appointed by the Department. 
 
 All questions of general policy and treatment to be set 
 tled by the Department. No individual experi 
 ments by theoretical agents to be permitted. 
 
 Abolish all privileged traderships. Absolutely destroy 
 all traffic in liquors. Control the sale of arms and 
 amunition. In all else let there be free trade. 
 
 Let all military posts be maintained separate and apart 
 from the Indian villages and preserve absolute non- 
 * intercourse between the soldiers and the Indians. 
 
 NO REMOVALS. 
 
 Remove no more tribes, except where the soil and cli 
 mate require it, and the change is voluntary. 
 Civilize the Indians where they are. 
 
70 PROPOSED INDIAN POLICY. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 Educate the entire Indian reservation population. Teach 
 
 the children in boarding manual-labor schools on 
 
 the reservations. 
 
 Make them farmers and graziers. 
 Give all the bands an abundance of cattle. 
 Teach them trades. 
 Instruct them in the laws of health. 
 Show them how to live. 
 Neutralize the influence of the medicine men. 
 Make work compulsory. 
 
 LANDS IN SEVERALTY. 
 
 ON RESERVATIONS divide lands in severalty as soon as 
 Indians can farm them. Make them inalienable 
 and non-taxable for a time. Sell the surplus lands 
 for the benefit of the tribe. 
 
 ELSEWHERE grant government lands in severalty (on 
 same terms) to all Indians who can cultivate them. 
 
 CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 Give citizenship to all self-supporting Indians who ask it. 
 
 The foregoing platform embraces the principal points of the 
 proposed plan for the gradual civilization and ultimate absorp 
 tion of the Indians, and it is condensed into a few generaliza 
 tions in order that it may be read .and comprehended without 
 the necessity of reading this paper. 
 
 For those who care to consider the matter somewhat more in 
 detail and yet, merely by way of suggestion, rather than argu 
 ment or elaboration the different points will be referred to in 
 the order in which they occur in the platform of principles. 
 
 GOOD FAITH. 
 
 This first point embraces all the others. Its observance would 
 produce that radical change which is imperatively required of 
 the Federal Government that it keep its plighted faith, so that 
 
INDIAN TERRITORY. 71 
 
 the promises made to the Indians to last " while water runs " 
 and " grass grows " shall be fulfilled. 
 
 This Nation must first learn to be honest itself, before it can 
 hope to civilize the savage. 
 
 And not only must the Government's promises be kept, but 
 they must be fulfilled promptly and at the time agreed on. 
 
 Much blood and treasure has been lost through the inexcusa 
 ble delays in Congressional appropriations, and often by that 
 body entirely failing for a time, or permanently to pay sums 
 required by the National engagements. 
 
 As to all fixed liabilities of the Government to the Indians, 
 this difficulty could, for the future, be avoided by a general 
 statute, making all such sums permanent appropriations, and 
 payable out of the Treasury, at the stipulated times without 
 further legislation. 
 
 INDIAN TERRITORY. 
 
 The title of the Indians to the Indian Territory, and the 
 condition of the civilized tribes have already been considered in 
 detail. 
 
 In concisely explaining the principles enunciated in the pro 
 posed platform, it only remains to touch briefly on the impor 
 tance of the following injunctions, viz : 
 
 To keep all intruders out of the Territory. 
 
 To continue the self-government of the civilized tribes, and 
 to let them regulate their own tenure. 
 
 The first proposition is self-evident, and the Government has 
 shown a firm determination to adhere to it. Nevertheless those 
 seeking to open the Territory, are untiring in their efforts, and 
 whether it takes the rude shape of a band of desperadoes openly 
 trespassing, or the more insidious form of helping to civi 
 lize (?) the Indians by means of railroad enterprises, or Okla- 
 hama bills, a never-ending struggle is going on, the object of 
 which is to rob the Indians of the remains of their once great 
 heritage. 
 
 No less important is it to continue the self-government of the 
 
72 PROPOSED INDIAN POLICY. 
 
 civilized tribes. "What this self-government really is, the reader 
 has seen. Any attacks upon their autonomy would be as disas 
 trous to them as similar encroachments would be on white 
 citizens, were they made in the States of the Union. 
 
 In regard to land tenure, the condition of the aborigines in 
 the Indian Territory is widely different from that in which they 
 are found on reservations. Of course everywhere tenure in 
 severalty must be inculcated, urged and effected at the earliest 
 moment. But in the Territory all the details of time and man 
 ner of making this radical change, should be left to the Indians 
 themselves. Their views are well expressed by Pleasant Por 
 ter on page 2 of this paper. 
 
 LAW. 
 
 On the reservations there is practically no law. This state of 
 things has been brought about by Congress, and the continuance 
 thereof with its full knowledge notwithstanding the repeated 
 admonitions of successive Executives shows how impervious 
 that body is to the claims of humanity, except where they can 
 be made a pretext for partizanship, or where an overwhelming 
 pressure from without compels it to remedy an evil. 
 
 On the reservations the Federal Government has practically 
 broken up the tribal relation in so far as it can be successfully 
 used for the protection of life and property and yet has sub 
 stituted nothing in its place. 
 
 It seems incredible, yet is nevertheless true, that Congress, 
 well knowing the fact, leaves these people year after year with 
 out the restraints and coercions of law, and then wonders that 
 peace and order do not prevail. 
 
 What would be the condition of any civilized State if it were 
 without either courts or police? 
 
 If no offences could be punished, and no contracts be en 
 forced, if in fact the people were as they are on the reservations 
 living in a state of nature ? 
 
 Withdraw the machinery of government for even a short 
 time in any of the large cities, and the result would be appal 
 ling. 
 
LAW. 73 
 
 Bishop Hare has well said : * 
 
 " But much as there is to encourage effort in behalf of the 
 Indians, one evil results from their contact with civilization so 
 malign, that one sometimes questions whether the evil which 
 civilization has brought, is not greater than the good. Civili 
 zation has loosened, in some places broken, the bonds which 
 regulate and hold together Indian society in its wild state, and 
 has failed to give the people law, and officers of justice in their 
 place. This evil still continues unabated. Women are brutally 
 beaten and outraged ; men are murdered in cold blood ; the In 
 dians who are friendly to schools and churches are intimidated, 
 and preyed upon by the evil-disposed ; children are molested on 
 their way to school ; and schools are dispersed by bands of vaga 
 bonds, but there is no redress. This accursed condition of 
 things is an outrage upon the One Law-giver. It is a disgrace 
 to our land. It should make every man who sits in the National 
 Hall of legislation blush. And wish well to the Indians as we 
 may, and do for them what we will, the efforts of civil agents, 
 teachers and missionaries, are like the struggles of drowning 
 men weighted with lead, so long as, by the absence of law, In 
 dian society is left without a base." 
 
 This subject has time after time and year after year been 
 pressed upon the attention of Congress, and that body, as in 
 other cases, has very diligently investigated, and printed, and 
 reported, and has done nothing ! 
 
 It would be wholly impracticable to meet this difficulty by 
 extending the general statutes of the United States over the 
 reservations. This crude idea has been several times urged, but, 
 fortunately, never adopted. 
 
 What is wanted is to confer magisterial powers on the civil 
 agents of the Government to such an extent and under such 
 restrictions as their peculiar situation requires. Their jurisdic 
 tion should be both civil and criminal. Besides this, their 
 administrative functions should be defined and regulated by 
 law. 
 
 Large discretionary powers should be vested in the Secretary 
 
 * Fifth Annual Report. 
 
74 PROPOSED INDIAN POLICY. 
 
 (subject to the President's approval), and the powers and duties 
 of the civil agents be regulated by him to suit the wants of 
 particular reservations. 
 
 It would be well, in such cases as the Secretary might think 
 proper, to establish an advisory native council to assist the civil 
 agents, as in this way the leading natives would gradually be 
 educated in self-government. To some extent their own prim 
 itive notions and their own tribal administration might, perhaps, 
 be utilized. 
 
 But the whole machinery must be very flexible, so that the 
 law, to some extent, and its methods, may be moulded to meet 
 the exigencies of the situation. Only the general outline should 
 be defined by statute ; the administration must be left, un 
 trammelled, to one responsible head. 
 
 INDIVIDUALIZE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 Another thing which the Government must learn, is to dis 
 criminate in punishment. 
 
 Punish individual offenders Indians and whites instead of, 
 as has been the custom, letting things alone until lawlessness cul 
 minates in some great crime, when the whole tribe, guilty and 
 innocent alike, are compelled to suffer terrible wrongs for the 
 misdeeds of a few of their number. 
 
 The custom of making an entire band or tribe responsible for 
 the misdeeds of its individual members, is pernicious to the last 
 degree ; and if the Government would enact suitable laws for 
 the preservation of life and property on the reservations, there 
 would be neither necessity nor excuse for this clumsy mode of 
 enforcing order. 
 
 Aside from the gross injustice of holding the innocent 
 liable for the acts of the guilty, and the discouragement of 
 individual effort in a right direction, this system has been 
 a most lamentable failure. Sometimes the Indians like their 
 white neighbors, have no inclination to give up their guilty 
 brother, but oftener they are unable to do so. 
 
 Much blood has been wasted in fruitless efforts to administer 
 
LAW. 75 
 
 justice in this way. Witness the Sioux war 1851-2-3. This 
 it has been shown, resulted from a refusal to receive compensa 
 tion for a Mormon's cow which had been stolen and eaten. 
 A demand for the surrender of the thief being persisted in and 
 evaded, the Indians were fired on, and thus .began a three 
 years' war, which was not only disgraceful but cost the gov 
 ernment $35,000,000. The maintenance of this system is a 
 great drawback to civilization, and it should cease at once. 
 
 The mistake which the government makes in punishing the 
 tribe for the crimes of its members, is only equalled by another 
 blunder at .the opposite extreme, namely, the forgiveness of an 
 entire tribe without making an example of the offenders. In 
 other words, whether the government punishes or forgives, it is 
 all the same, guilty and innocent are treated exactly alike. 
 
 It is impossible to imagine anything more pernicious, and 
 while this system continues there is absolutely no incentive to 
 good behavior. When there is mischief brewing those who 
 stand aloof, get the ill-will of their fellows without obtaining 
 the good- will of the government.* 
 
 INDIAN POLICE. 
 
 Every reservation should have a native police force. This 
 has already proven to be a very valuable auxiliary in protecting 
 life and property on the reservations. 
 
 It is a novel branch of the Indian service, and has been suc 
 cessfully established, notwithstanding strenuous opposition both 
 from the Indians and whites. The Indians looked upon the 
 service with mingled feelings of suspicion and contempt. The 
 
 *Lieutenant Wood, in a recent paper " Our Indian Question" " Journal of 
 Military Service Institution," vol. II, No. 6, p. 177, says : 
 
 " I suggest that some plan be devised for invariably punishing rebellious 
 Indians. Let the method in which they have conducted the war be considered 
 in mitigation or aggravation. Let them be deprived of the implements of war 
 and hunting. Let them be isolated from their old surroundings and compelled 
 under proper instruction to engage in civilized pursuits as convicts, not as 
 prisoners of course, the mass must be at large. 
 
 "I have seen this theory in practice on a small scale, and it was highly 1 success 
 ful. * * * Somewhere on the 151,000,000 acres of Indian lands place 
 could be founed for the instruction of Indian convicts who had forfeited some of 
 their rights," 
 
76 PROPOSED INDIAN POLICY 
 
 members of the force were considered in the light of domestic 
 spies, and the young men were dissuaded from enlisting. 
 
 Many whites, both civilians and soldiers, were opposed to 
 the idea of training and arming Indians as a very dangerous 
 experiment, of which the Government might soon have cause to 
 repent. 
 
 Happily both sides must now be convinced that they were in 
 the wrong. 
 
 The experiment has proved an entire success, the suspicion of 
 the Indians and the fears of the whites have alike proved to be 
 groundless. 
 
 The service is now popular with the natives. It is fully or 
 ganized at thirty-seven agencies, and numbers nearly eight hun 
 dred men. The captains and lieutenants hold commissions 
 signed by the Secretary and the Indian Commissioners. The 
 sergeants receive warrants of appointment from the Agent. 
 This branch of the service is in the infancy of its usefulness. 
 It is destined to play an important part in the final civilization 
 of the reservation Indians. 
 
 CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATION. 
 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 The bayonet is no civilizer. And yet, in the face of an over 
 whelming array of facts, and notwithstanding the oft- recorded 
 evidence of the incompetency that has characterized military 
 Indian administration, a persistent effort has for years been 
 made to again give the control of Indian affairs to the War 
 Department. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that in advocating civilian Indian 
 administration, it is not pretended that the Interior Department 
 has been conspiciously successful, nor is it thought, for a 
 moment, that the army can be dispensed with. Such is not the 
 case. 
 
 As to troops, there must be at all seasons, and for many years 
 to come, an ample military force, particularly mounted men, so 
 distributed at a few strategic points, that the Government may 
 
INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 77 
 
 be able, at a moment's notice, to immediately enforce its com 
 mands both upon hostile Indians and intruding whites. 
 
 FORMER INDIAN ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 COLONIAL PERIOD. 
 
 In order to determine what ought to be the policy of the 
 future, it is necessary to study the lesson of the past. 
 During the Colonial period each colony acted for itself. 
 
 CONFEDERATION. 
 
 Under the Confederation the general government such as it 
 was managed, or rather, mismanaged, Indian affairs. 
 
 In 1775, Congress created three Departments of Indian Af 
 fairs Northern, Middle, Southern. 
 
 A Board of Commissioners was organized for each Depart 
 ment. 
 
 The object of this was not to help the Indians, but to prevent 
 them joining the English. 
 
 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 In 1785, Congress passed " An ordinance for the regulation 
 of Indian affairs." 
 
 Two districts were provided for Northern and Southern 
 with a Superintendent for each, who was to act in conjunction 
 with the State authorities ! All business was to be transacted 
 at the military posts. 
 
 In 1787, the States were authorized to appoint Commissioners, 
 They, in conjunction with the Federal Superintendents, made 
 treaties. 
 
 These Federal Superintendents were placed under the control 
 of the War Department, so that the military arm governed the 
 Indians as early as 1787. 
 
 After this time, the War Department made treaties and also 
 disbursed the Indian appropriations and annuities. 
 
 In carrying out the duties thus imposed on the War Depart 
 ment, the officers of the regular army were employed by the 
 Department. In some cases, civilians were selected for duty ? 
 
78 PROPOSED INDIAN POLICY. 
 
 but this was only in rare instances. The almost universal rule 
 was to employ the regular army officers and no others. 
 
 After the lapse of more than a generation, let it be seen what 
 the War Department thought of itself as an administrator of 
 Indian affairs. 
 
 THE WAR DEPARTMENT ON ITSELF. 
 
 In 1826, Hon. James Barbour, then Secretary of War, in an 
 official letter to the Chairman of the Indian Committee of the 
 House of Representatives, used the following language : 
 
 "The suggestions of policy or necessity should no longer 
 stifle the claims of justice and humanity. It is now, therefore, 
 that the most solemn question addresses itself to the American 
 people, and whose answer is full of responsibility. Shall we go 
 on quietly in a course which, judging from the past, threatens their 
 (Indians') extinction, while their past sufferings and future pros 
 pects so pathetically appeal to our compassion ? * * It is the 
 province of history to commit to its pages the transactions of 
 nations. * * But she performs her province with impartiality. 
 * * The tyrant and the oppressor see in the character of their 
 prototypes the sentence posterity is preparing for them. Which 
 side of the picture shall ice elect? for the decision is left to our 
 selves. Shall the record transmit the present race to future 
 generations as standing by, insensible to the progress of the deso 
 lation which threatens the remnant of this people ; or shall these 
 unfriendly characters give place to a generous effort which shall 
 have been made to save them from destruction ? While de 
 liberating on this solemn question, I would appeal to that High 
 Providence, whose delight is justice and mercy, and take counsel 
 from the records of His will, revealed to man in His terrible 
 denunciation against the oppressor." 
 
 In another part of this report, the Secretary said : 
 
 " The history of the past presents but little on which the 
 recollection lingers with satisfaction." 
 
 And again: 
 
 " The future is not more cheering, unless resort be speedily 
 had to other counsels than those by which we have heretofore 
 been governed." 
 
REMOVALS. 79 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT REMOVALS. 
 
 But Georgia and other States continued an unrelenting perse 
 cution of the Indians, and finally May 30, 1830 Congress 
 passed an Act providing for a general removal of Indians be 
 yond the Mississippi. The War Department had full charge of 
 the removals. 
 
 For gross incompetency, for glaring abuses, for cruel and un 
 necessary sufferings imposed upon these unfortunate exiles by 
 the lack of ability or of desire to mitigate their condition or 
 both displayed by the War Department, the history of the 
 United States is without a parallel. 
 
 For a succession of years the War Department continued to 
 remove the Indians to Missouri and Arkansas. The story of 
 one removal is the story of all. Throughout the entire undertak 
 ing there was the same incompetency in the Department and the 
 same needless sufferings by the Indians. The loss of life was 
 appalling. 
 
 CONGRESS INVESTIGATES THE WAR DEPARTMENT, 1832. 
 
 In consequence of a growing public sentiment, Congress in 
 1832, ordered an investigation to be made into the conduct of 
 Indian Affairs by the War Department. The committee re 
 ported to Congress that the War Department's management of 
 the Indians was "expensive, inefficient and irresponsible." In 
 consequence of this report, Congress in the same year, (1832) 
 created the office of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and in 
 1834 they followed this up by " an act to provide for the organi 
 zation of the Department of Indian Affairs." 
 
 The acts of 1832 and 1834 were passed in view of the gross 
 incompetency of the War Department. The President was 
 thereby vested with the power to prescribe rules and regulations 
 to carry out these statutes. 
 
 On November 8, 1836, President Jackson performed (?) this 
 important duty by referring the subject to the Secretary of War, 
 that official being then directed to " immediately revise the ex 
 isting regulations, and prescribe a new set as to the mode in 
 which business shall be done by the Commissioner adapted to 
 
80 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 the present condition and duties of the office." The War De 
 partment was charged with the task of reforming itself! Then, 
 as now, it frankly admitted its own entire fitness, not only to 
 manage the Indians but also to reform itself. 
 
 In three days the then Secretary of "War solved the problem, 
 (resulting from more than a generation of Locompetency and 
 abuse in the War Department,) issued and immediately put 
 in force the revised regulations. Naturally the new revised reg 
 ulations continued the Indians nominally under the War De 
 partment and the President, but actually under the War De 
 partment alone, the President's supervision being merely perfunc 
 tory. The whole object of the acts of 1832 and 1834 was thus 
 frustrated by the action of President Jackson, under the pre 
 tence of exercising the powers conferred upon him by those acts. 
 
 When one recalls his Indian * record and his coarse, lawless 
 instincts, f nothing else could well have been expected. 
 
 SECOND INVESTIGATION. 
 
 In 1842 a Congressional committee again reported : 
 "The evidence is submitted as to the general management and 
 condition of Indian affairs. It exhibits an almost total want of 
 method and punctuality, equally unjust to the government and 
 the tribes to whom we have voluntarily assumed obligations 
 which we are not at liberty to disregard. It will be seen that 
 the accounts of millions of expenditures have been so loosely kept 
 as scarcely to furnish a trace or explanation of large sums, and 
 that others have been misapplied so as to impose serious losses on 
 the Indians, and heavy responsibility on the government ; that in 
 some books (the only record of these accounts) no entries have been 
 
 *When the Senate Committee made a scathing report on his conduct in the 
 Seminole war, he publicly threatened to cut off the Senators' ears ! 
 
 t Witness his cold-blooded murder of Dickinson in a duel growing out of a 
 projected horse-race. Jackson withheld his shot, then, aiming slowly at his 
 helpless victim, pulled the trigger. It stopped at half-cock. He paused again, 
 slowly aimed, and shot Dickinson through the bowels. He died before his young 
 wife reached him. Jackson concealed his own wound for the avowed purpose 
 that Dickinson might die unsatisfied. At citizens' request, the local paper going 
 into mourning, Jackson resented it, and demanded the publication of their 
 names. 
 
AEMY MANAGEMENT. 81 
 
 made for a period of several years, and that where entries have 
 been made, the very clerks who kept them, could not state an 
 account .from them." 
 
 And yet Congress made no change ! 
 
 The disbursements continued to be made as before. The 
 money due to a tribe was paid to its Chiefs without any safe 
 guard looking towards its proper distribution, Thus false and 
 unfounded claims were paid, and the Indians grossly cheated 
 out of their dues. Through direct bribery by contractors and 
 others, Chiefs were induced to acknowledge large and unfounded 
 claims against their tribes. It was stated in one of the reports 
 by the Congressional Committee of 1879, referring to the War 
 Department's management at this period : " The money annui 
 ties were frequently paid to parties holding national obligations 
 against the tribe, which consisted of evidences of indebtedness 
 obtained from the Chiefs by traders and other enterprising per 
 sons, and frequently in such large sums as to absorb the whole 
 amount due the tribe." 
 
 But at last Congress again took up what it had attempted to 
 do in 1832-4. It effectually reorganized the Indian Bureau, 
 and, mindful of the result of leaving important duties to be car 
 ried out by the President in his own way, in 1849 Congress 
 placed the Indians under the control of the Secretary of the In 
 terior. 
 
 RECENT CONGRESSIONAL, ACTION, 1867-1879. 
 
 This question was fully considered in 1867 by a joint com 
 mittee of Congress. 
 
 In their report after stating the arguments for and against the 
 transfer, very fairly, they say : " Weighing this matter and all 
 the arguments for and against the proposed change, your com 
 mittee are unanimously of the opinion that the Indian Bureau 
 should remain where it is." 
 
 And again in 1868, the Sioux Commission reported against 
 transferring the Indian Bureau to the War Department. 
 
 In 1879 another effort was made, and the joint committee 
 submitted two reports, one against the transfer, and the other 
 favoring it. It is proposed to consider the 1879 reports in some 
 detail. 6 
 
82 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 For the military view, the testimony oi General Sherman may 
 be taken. 
 
 It is important to understand General Sherman personally as 
 well as his views. The latter are expressed in a letter to the 
 committee, and in his oral examination. 
 
 The reader, on learning General Sherman's views, will be 
 struck with the peculiar earnestness with which he advocates 
 turning the Indians over to the army, although he at the same 
 time avows his dislike to the Indian service. It is a sense of 
 duty moves him. He candidly admits his own ability. This 
 self-abnegation in General Sherman is as striking as the im 
 personality which marks his letter and testimony. It naturally 
 recalls his recent unselfish utterances when, in view of the pro 
 posed creation of a Captain-Generalcy for General Grant, 
 General Sherman wrote a communication to the public (called a 
 letter to some private friend), in which he pronounced the army 
 to be top-heavy. At the same time the General admitted the 
 propriety of keeping himself at the top of the top-heavy 
 body, and avowed his willingness to continue to sacrifice him 
 self in this way for his country. Thus, in his opinion, it 
 was unnecessary to provide for General Grant. 
 
 Now, let General Sherman .speak and let the facts and his 
 own words answer him. 
 
 The reader who remembers the disgraceful treatment of the 
 Piecrans and of Black Kettle's bands and other similar atroci- 
 
 o 
 
 ties, need not be told what was General Sherman's animus 
 towards the Indians, particularly the Sioux. His first expres 
 sion of opinion at this time (1879) is contained in a letter 
 addressed to the committee, through its chairman, who had 
 called at the army headquarters to see General Sherman. 
 
 There are some marked peculiarities in this letter. The com- 
 mitteehad been months taking testimony, and were in no danger 
 of closing suddenly. But General Sherman mentions in this 
 letter that he was obliged to go that same day to Baltimore 
 and would return to Washington the next day, and could be ex 
 amined later, "meantime, /submit this letter." 
 
THE ARMY. 83 
 
 General Sherman's peculiar constitution is such that in the 
 few moments remaining until train time he undertook to give 
 his views on Indian affairs to a Congressional committee Most 
 men would have preferred not to write a letter, but would rather 
 have expressed themselves orally. 
 
 This letter covers one page and a half of printed matter. In 
 this authoritative, condensed synopsis of Indian history and 
 policy of one and a half pages, three paragraphs are personal, 
 viz., the first and last referring to General Sherman's contem 
 plated trip to Baltimore and return, and the second paragraph 
 which discloses to the Committee the important admission that 
 there is no personal antagonism between Mr. Schurz and Gen 
 eral Sherman, and patronizingly gives the Secretary and Com 
 missioner the benefit of General Sherman's belief in their good 
 intentions. 
 
 A considerable portion of what remains is devoted to the 
 personal pronoun " I," " me/' " my," together, occur twenty- 
 seven times in the page and a half. 
 
 What is left is devoted to the Indians generally, to the 
 demonstration of the necessity of turning them over to the War 
 Department ; to a candid admission of the army's qualifications, 
 and its willingness to sacrifice itself to the Indian service ; to lau 
 dation of the army, and to a fling at the "cant" of the civilians. 
 
 Understanding the War Department's principal witness, his 
 impartiality and impersonality, let the reader consider the 
 grounds urged by him in favor of a transfer. 
 
 SHERMAN VS. SHERMAN. 
 
 Now, this 1879 letter of General Sherman advocates turning 
 the Indians over to the War Department. Yet, in 1868, the 
 Sioux Commission, of which General Sherman was a member, 
 with his knowledge and consent, reported against the War 
 Department. The following extract is given from their report : 
 
 "This brings us to consider the much mooted question 
 whether the Bureau should belong to the civil or military de 
 partment of the Government. To determine this properly, we 
 must first know what is to be the future treatment of the 
 
84 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Indians. If we intend to have war with them the Bureau 
 should go to the Secretary of War. If we intend to have 
 peace it should be in the civil department. 
 
 " Under the plan we have suggested, the chief duties of the 
 Bureau will be to educate and instruct in the peaceful arts, in 
 other words, to civilize, the Indians. The military arm of the 
 Government is not the most admirably adapted to discharge 
 duties of this character. We have the highest possible appre 
 ciation of the officers of the army and fully recognize their 
 proverbial integrity and honor, but we are satisfied that not one 
 in a thousand would like to teach Indian children to read and 
 write, or Indian men to sow and reap. These are emphatically 
 civil and not military occupations." 
 
 Nothing could be better said. But General Sherman is on 
 record on both sides of this question, and he may be considered 
 as at a sort of stand-off with himself. 
 
 Again in this 1879 letter General Sherman writes : 
 
 " Now, to me it is matter of demonstration that at the present 
 time, and for years to come, the Indian Bureau of itself, with 
 out the help of the army, cannot maintain in peace the large 
 tribes of Indians." 
 
 Of course, the army is necessary in case of actual outbreaks, 
 but it is begging the question to assume from this that the army 
 must manage the Indians in time of peace. 
 
 SECRETARY SCHURZ's ANSWER. 
 
 The actual relation of the army to the Indians, at the very 
 time of General Sherman's letter, is stated by Secretary Schurz 
 in his testimony before this committee, heretofore quoted, and 
 in his contemporaneous report as Secretary of the Interior, as 
 appears from the following quotation : 
 
 " It is believed by many that the normal condition of the 
 Indians is turbulence and hostility to the whites ; that the 
 principal object of an Indian policy must be to keep the Indians 
 quiet, and that they can be kept quiet only by the constant 
 presence and pressure of force. This is an error. Of the 
 seventy-one Indian agencies, there are only eleven which have 
 
THE ARMY. 85 
 
 military posts in their immediate vicinity, ana lourteen with a 
 military force within one to three days' march. Of the 252,000 
 Indians in the United States, there have been, since the pacifi 
 cation of the Sioux, at no time more than a few hundred in 
 hostile conflict with the whites. Neither does it appear that 
 such partial disturbances have been provoked by the absence or 
 prevented by the presence of a military force. Of the four dis 
 turbances which have occurred within the last two years, three 
 broke out in the immediate presence of such a military force 
 and only one without it. At this moment, a band of less than 
 eight hundred Utes and another of about one hundred and 
 fifty Indian maurauders in New Mexico, in all less than one 
 thousand of an Indian population of a quarter of a million, 
 are causing serious trouble. In fact, the number of white 
 desperadoes who were, within the last twelve months, banded 
 together in New Mexico for murder and rapine, was larger than 
 that of the Indians recently on the war-path near the southern 
 part of the territory/' He adds : 
 
 " A very large majority of the Indian reservations are in a 
 condition of uninterrupted quiet without the presence of a 
 coercing force ; and experience with equal significance shows that 
 the more civilized an Indian tribe becomes, the more certainly 
 can its peaceable and orderly conduct be depended on. The pro 
 gress of civilization and the maintenance of peace among the 
 Indians have always gone hand in hand." 
 
 General Sherman further tells the .committee : 
 
 " With the lawful right to supervise these various tribes on 
 their allotted reservations and to control the issues of moneys 
 and provisions provided liberally by Congress, jTam sure the 
 army can prevent the annual recurrence of these Indian wars, 
 which have exhausted the patience of Generals Sheridan, Pope, 
 Crook, etc." Again he writes : 
 
 "My judgment is, that we (the army) would, in most in 
 stances, foresee the cause of war and nip it in the bud ; and, 
 therefore, Indian wars would be very rare, if not at an end, on 
 anything like a large scale." And again : 
 
 " Without the army the Indian Bureau cannot manage these 
 
86 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Indians ; and in preference to being called on in season and out 
 of season, nearly always too late to prevent trouble, or even 
 understand the cause, but after war is actually begun, we prefer 
 to take the whole labor and drudgery of the offices of Indian 
 agents and superintendents, without one cent of additional 
 compensation." 
 
 General Sherman aiso assures tne committt. 
 
 " There will be less cant with the military agents than with 
 the civil." And again : 
 
 " It (transfer) ought to be a question of national economy and 
 efficiency, instead of one of mere patronage." 
 
 Another reason General Sherman gives the committee for a 
 transfer of the Indians to the War Department is, that the In 
 dians themselves desire it ! 
 
 " For wherever / have been, * * and I have seen a good 
 deal of these Indians, they have begged me to put an army offi 
 cer in charge of their interests." 
 
 Now consider these allegations a little in detail. 
 
 Without stopping to calculate how important a factor in the 
 Indian question may be the " exhausted patience of General 
 Sheridan," or how long it takes this unknown quantity to get 
 exhausted, it will be seen that General Sherman ignores several 
 important facts. 
 
 It has been shown that prior to 1849, for more than half a 
 century, the War Department practically did " supervise these 
 Indians," and did " control the issues of moneys and provi 
 sions," and although supposing there was " less cant" under the 
 military agents, yet nevertheless, the army did not " prevent 
 the annual recurrence of these Indian wars," and besides the 
 army did not wholly or partially civilize any tribe, or any con 
 siderable part thereof, and the army did not in any way improve 
 either the condition of the Indians, or the relations of the Gov 
 ernment with them. 
 
 Nor was the War Department management a conspicuous 
 example of " national economy." General Sherman also ignores 
 
THE ARMY. 87 
 
 the fact that it was because the War Department nad been re 
 peatedly condemned as lacking all the qualities he now claims 
 for it, after a half-century of disgraceful administration 
 pronounced by Congress, as early as 1832, "expensive, ineffi 
 cient and irresponsible," that finally in 1849, its duties were 
 transferred to the Department of the Interior. 
 
 Again General Sherman's argument (!) : that because when war 
 actually comes the army does the fighting, therefore they should 
 govern the Indians in time of peace, is simply preposterous. 
 
 The proposition would apply with like force to the other de 
 partments, and in all governments. 
 
 Because Von Moltke would have to do the fighting, should 
 Bismarck resign the Chancellorship to him ? 
 
 To reach an anti-climax. In Western Pennsylvania, the 
 Treasury was unable to collect the whiskey tax. There were 
 whiskey-tax riots and the army had to restore order. 
 
 Would anyone thence argue that the army should become tax 
 collectors, and the Treasury be made a bureau of the War De 
 partment ? 
 
 It is the same with the Judiciary. If the Marshal were to 
 fail in enforcing a decree of the Federal courts, and troops were 
 employed, would it thence be contended that their commander 
 should frame decrees instead of the Judge ? 
 
 But the argument of General Sherman is puerile, and need 
 not be pursued farther. 
 
 As to the Indians wishing the transfer, it is almost impossible 
 to understand how even General Sherman could believe this, 
 yet he seems to entertain no doubt on the subject. 
 
 He admits this fondness of the Indians for the army as 
 frankly as he does the entire fitness of the War Department to 
 manage them. 
 
 What are the facts ? 
 
 WHAT THE INDIANS THINK. 
 
 At the very time General Sherman was writing this letter, the 
 Government was in possession of returns from the Indians on 
 the question of transfer, from which it appears that 96 per cent. 
 
88 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 of the entire Indian population was utterly opposed to being 
 put again under the War Department. 
 
 Read what some of the tribes then said, as contained in the 
 vidence reported by the Congressional Committee (1879). 
 
 Their expressions of opinion against the attempted transfer 
 are very bitter. A few extracts will convey a general idea of 
 their views : 
 
 "If the military were again likely to have control and pos 
 session of San Carlos Agency, the Indians would take their 
 children in their arms and go to the mountains." 
 
 The Pend d'Oreilles said: "Instead of soldiers we want 
 plows, wagons, harness, hoes, rakes and cradles. By good ad 
 vice we avoided trouble last summer, when war was almost in 
 our camp, * * but force begets trouble, and a soldier would 
 rather force his views with a gun than talk them with his 
 mouth." 
 
 The Indians at Fort Peck said : " Our young men are im 
 prudent, and often violent and reckless and the presence of sol 
 diers, alwa3 r s results in violence, and broils among the young 
 men, for which they are treated, or punished harshly by military 
 authority, leaving a feeling of bitterness which frequently re 
 sults years afterwards, in some violent transaction on their part 
 in revenge of real or fancied wrong, inflicted on them in this 
 way." 
 
 The Winnebagoes say : " The army has been the cause of 
 leading into warfare against the whites, and they [the Indians], 
 fear if transferred [to the War Department], it would again lead 
 many from the road of peace they have fully adopted. They 
 believe their own advancement and future prosperity, the virtue 
 of their women, and the education and training of their child 
 ren will be best secured under the present management." 
 
 The Creeks (or Muskogees) embodied their views in the follow 
 ing telegraphic communication to the Joint Committee : 
 
 MUSKOGEE, INDIAN TERRITORY, \ 
 September 25, 1878. / 
 
 SIR: Our National Council passed the following preamble and resolution 
 to-day : 
 
THE ARMY. 89 
 
 WHEREAS, Strenuous exertions are being made by the enemies and mis 
 taken friends of the Indians to transfer the Indian Bureau to the War Depart 
 ment; and 
 
 WHEREAS, Our condition as a people has always improved under the peace 
 policy, and has always retrograded under a war policy, and 
 
 WHEREAS, The idea of being forced to have communication with the 
 United States only through a department whose name is suggestive of subju 
 gation, is repugnant to the Indian race. Therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved by the National Council of the Muskoyee Nation, That in the name of 
 the Creek people we most emphatically protest against such transfer. 
 
 (Signed) WARD COACHMAN, 
 
 Principal Chief. 
 To HON. S. W. MARSTON, 
 
 Lindell Hotel, St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 The reports from the other tribes are in the same strain. 
 
 But it is needless to pursue this subject longer. General 
 Sherman's prejudices, to use a mild phrase, are all against the 
 Indians. He never was known to denounce any barbarity 
 practiced on them, but on the contrary was loud in praise of 
 more than one causeless butchery. Witness the brutal mas 
 sacre " by mistake" of Black Kettle's band, called by the mili 
 tary the battle of the Washita. It has been shown how he 
 commended this heartless and disgraceful act. 
 
 Turn to the Piegan massacre by Colonel Baker, and there is 
 'jbund nothing but laudation for this wanton and treacherous at 
 tack on a village stricken with small-pox ; an act, too, attended 
 with circumstances of cold blooded cruelty not excelled in the 
 national annals. 
 
 The only persons condemned in this affair by General Sher 
 man, were those officers who made the atrocities known to the 
 public without communicating their information through him ! 
 
 They had forsooth offended his ideas of military etiquette. 
 But the whole subject, so far as General Sherman's capacity of 
 judgment is concerned, may be tested by his views of the Sioux. 
 
 Nicolet, whose researches were commended by Humboldt, wrote 
 of them that they were "the finest type of wild men he had 
 ever seen." 
 
 And of the Sioux in 1880, Bishop Whipple wrote : "Our 
 most terrible wars have been with the noblest types of the In- 
 
90 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 and with men who had been the white man's friend. 
 * Old traders used to say that it was the boast of the 
 Sioux that they had never taken the life of a white man." 
 
 For this same race, General Sherman, from out of the 
 depths of his generous heart, can only propose to the Nation this 
 damning sentiment : 
 
 " We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, 
 even to their extermination, men, women and children. Noth 
 ing less will reach the root of the case." 
 
 ISOLATE THE SOLDIERS. 
 
 In this connection a few words may be said in a matter ap 
 parently of detail, yet of the very gravest importance. The 
 soldiers at the army posts stationed in the Indian country, 
 should be kept strictly isolated from the Indians. 
 
 Doubtless this point need not be elaborated. The evil effects 
 to both Indians and soldiers, particularly the former of a dif 
 ferent policy, have been many times deplored in reports 
 by Federal officials, the details of which will convince the 
 most skeptical of the absolute necessity of strict isolation 
 
 INDIAN,, DEPARTMENT. 
 
 The Indians should not merely be under civilian administra 
 tion, but a separate Indian Department, presided over by a 
 Cabinet officer, having no other duties, should be created. 
 
 Very ample powers should be conferred upon the head of 
 this Department. 
 
 The Secretary should be given ample power to absolutely de 
 stroy all traffic in liquors and to control vigorously the sale of 
 arms and amunition. 
 
 All privileged traderships should be abolished ; and, subject to 
 such regulations for their protection as the Secretary may devise, 
 the Indians should be permitted to buy and sell from whom 
 they please and when and how they see fit. 
 
 PRESIDENT'S EMERGENCY POWERS. 
 
 Plenary emergency powers should be granted to the Presi 
 dent, so that in case of unexpected complications of any kind, 
 he may have such authority as will enable him to remove the 
 
INSPECTIONS. 91 
 
 cause of just complaint, and do whatever ~-his judgment may 
 dictate for the preservation alike of Indians and settlers, 
 being responsible to Congress for the abuse of such exceptional 
 powers. 
 
 INSPECTIONS. 
 
 The importance of frequent, unexpected, and independent in 
 spections of the agencies, and, indeed, of all branches of the 
 Indian service, cannot be over-estimated. 
 
 These inspections must be frequent, in order to break up any 
 growing abuse before it has had time to fortify itself by corrupt 
 combinations. 
 
 They must be wholly unexpected, so that the inspectors may 
 find things as they really are, and not as the agents would want 
 them to appear to be. 
 
 Usually, an inspection, if not actually heralded in advance, i s 
 at least well known long enough to frustrate its main object 
 where there is anything to conceal. This unexpectedness can 
 not be obtained as long as the inspectors are a part of the 
 Department staff. 
 
 Another indispensable requisite of all inspections is that they 
 be wholly impartial, thoroughly independent, and rigidly 
 efficient. 
 
 Ic is too plain for argument, that none of these results can be 
 obtained if the inspectors and the inspected all belong to the 
 same official family and are all subject to the same influences, 
 both good and bad. 
 
 Only the direct appointees of the President, well paid, and 
 selected wholly upon their merits, and because of their peculiar 
 fitness for the position, can efficiently inspect this branch of the 
 public service. 
 
 AGENTS. 
 
 The powers and duties of Indian agents should be carefully 
 regulated by the Secretary. 
 
 All questions of policy should be settled by him, and all 
 general rules and regulations for the conduct of agents and their 
 management of the Indians, should come from the same re 
 sponsible head. 
 
92 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Whenever the peculiar situation of any tribe seems to require 
 some departure from the general rules regulating the agents' 
 powers and duties, the want should be made known to the 
 Secretary, and no change be permitted which has not his 
 previous sanction. 
 
 In other words, no individual experiments by theoretical 
 agents should be tolerated. 
 
 The agent, to this extent, must sink his individuality. 
 
 On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that a competent 
 Indian agent should have qualities, both of head and heart, 
 which are not commonly found in Government employees. 
 
 The agents should practically hold office as long as they are 
 efficient. They should be paid liberal salaries, varying accord 
 ing to the importance, the difficulties, and the requirements of 
 the respective agencies, and above all else they should be abso 
 lutely free from political or other influences. 
 
 The subordinate agency appointments should be made by the 
 Secretary and not by the agent himself. 
 
 In this way favoritism will be more readily avoided, the 
 various employees will be a check on the agent as he will be on 
 them. 
 
 NO MORE REMOVALS. 
 
 Remove no more tribes, except where the soil and climate 
 absolutely require it, and the change is voluntary. Civilize the 
 Indians where they are. 
 
 In the case of some reservations, the best interests of the 
 Indians may be subserved (when they are ripe for it), by giving 
 them lands in severally, sufficient in quality and quantity, to 
 meet not only their present wants, but also the requirements of 
 their prospective increase for two or more generations, and then 
 selling the rest of their lands for their own benefit. The money 
 thus raised could be used as a fund for the purposes of their 
 civilization. Of course, this proposition has no reference what 
 ever to the Indian territory. 
 
 In considering the question of reservations, it must be borne 
 in mind that a great part of many of the immense reservations 
 
NO REMOVALS. 93 
 
 consists of land not suitable for agriculture, and much of it is 
 positively arid. 
 
 Indeed, it is well known that this fact accounts for the 
 apparently illimitable generosity of the Government. 
 
 In some cases Federal officials, in submitting reports of pro 
 posed reservations, have given as a reason for some large grants, 
 that the land was valueless and no one would want it ! 
 
 The absolute necessity of civilizing the Indians where they 
 are is demonstrated not only by considerations apparent to the 
 most superficial observer, but is confirmed by experience. 
 
 Only when the Indian is, or thinks he is, permanently settled, 
 does he begin to make any considerable advance in civilization. 
 
 And this is the history of all men in all times and all places. 
 
 Of course, where individuals or families, or parts of tribes, 
 desire to take up Government lands, and are able to cultivate 
 them, such removals are to be encouraged. 
 
 But forced removals to accommodate miners and settlers 
 should be absolutely prohibited. 
 
 Whites should be excluded from the reservations and a sum 
 mary mode should be provided for the expulsion of all 
 intruders, to be carried out at once on the spot, without waiting 
 for orders from Washington. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 It is not necessary or profitable at this time to indulge in 
 speculations as to the ultimate higher education of the Indians. 
 
 Consider rather the immediate pressing necessities of the hour. 
 
 What is now needed, and what is being done to supply the 
 want ? 
 
 In a single sentence, the Federal Government educates one 
 per centum of the Indian children, it should educate them all. 
 
 This estimate of course, does not include those children 
 (whether in the five civilized tribes or on reservations), who are 
 being partially educated by the expenditure of their own funds. 
 
 Lieutenant Wood, in his recent paper, " Our Indian Ques 
 tion/' says : 
 
 " How different is the actual state of the case. For a total 
 
94 INDIAN DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Indian population of 400,000, an estimate is made of 30,000 
 school children, exclusive of those belonging to the civilized 
 tribes of the Indian territory. For these 30,000 children, 121 
 schools are provided, of these 45 are boarding schools, some let 
 out on contract education to the lowest bidder and 76 are day- 
 schools. Some of these schools, if not most of them, are supported 
 oid of funds held by the government in trust for the Indians. 
 The maximum aggregate accommodation of the boarding schools 
 is 2,009 pupils per annum, of the day-schools 4,682; total 
 6,691 Indian children, receiving a daubing of civilization to be 
 wiped off by the other 23,309 little barbarians." 
 
 Among the five civilized tribes the question is settling itself, 
 and the schools at Carlisle and Hampton show what can be done 
 and done quickly, for Indian children. 
 
 Captain Pratt and General Armstrong have met with great 
 and deserved success, in giving them a practical industrial edu 
 cation. 
 
 By education must not be understood simbly, or even princi 
 pally letters. 
 
 The notion that the Indian question can be solved by a whole 
 sale irruption of pedagogues on the reservations is a mistaken one. 
 
 It is important for them to know how to read and write, but 
 it is absolutely necessary for them to be taught how to support 
 themselves by manual labor. 
 
 To think that the blanket Indians can be led towards civili 
 zation by catching a few half-naked boys, giving them a colle 
 giate education, and then turning them loose in their tribes " to 
 grow" is puerile in the extreme. 
 
 On this point General Armstrong has recently well said : 
 "We must beware of over-education.* It would be a blunder, 
 if not, a crime, to send the young Indians back to their homes 
 with new tastes they could not gratify." 
 
 Before schools, other than for manual labor, become really 
 effective with the mass of the reservation Indians, the greatest 
 difficulties in the way of their civilization will have been over 
 come. 
 
 If by some freak of nature all Indians instantly and simul- 
 
EDUCATION. 95 
 
 taneously became able to " read, write and cipher," the race 
 would be no nearer to civilization, and no nearer to supplying 
 itself Avith food, clothing and lodging, and no nearer to self- 
 government, than now. 
 
 No people were ever taught how to support and govern them 
 selves by learning to read and write, and none ever will be. 
 
 The mass of humanity has passed away well satisfied, and 
 happy enough, without knowing what it lost in this direction. 
 
 Men, profoundly ignorant of letters, have built cities, ex 
 celled in diplomacy, created empires, and founded dynasties. 
 
 Teaching an Indian to read will no more civilize him than 
 giving him a quarter section of land will make him a farmer. 
 
 What the average reservation Indian wants now, is not so 
 much the education of books, as the education of ideas. Of 
 course it is highly important to teach him to read and write 
 English, but this must be subordinated to his being instructed 
 how to earn a living, how to live according to sanitary laws, 
 what to eat and how to cook it, what to wear and how to make 
 it, and most of all how to get it. 
 
 The Indians now need cattle and plows more than pot-hooks, 
 and trades more than book learning. 
 
 They want to be made to understand the advantages which 
 result from such a mode of life as is incompatible with tepees 
 and blankets. When they comprehend this, tepees and blank 
 ets will disappear. Houses and clothes will follow. 
 
 When they reach that point and have become self-sup 
 porting, they will become capable of self-government, and then 
 they will already be civilized. 
 
 To this end let the Federal Government establish on every 
 reservation boarding manual-labor schools, capable of instruct 
 ing all of the Indian children. 
 
 Inaugurate this system on the most thorough and compre 
 hensive basis. Spare neither money nor pains. 
 
 With the adults persuasive means must be used, for the child 
 ren heroic treatment is required. Compel every Indian child- 
 to attend the manual-labor schools. In other words grow no 
 more wild Indians. In one generation the work is done. Give 
 them trades of all kinds, whether they want them or not. Show 
 
96 PROPOSED POLICY. 
 
 them how to be graziers and farmers, whether they appreciate it 
 or not. Instruct the girls in housewifery, whether they ask it 
 or not. 
 
 A most important point is to raise the condition of the In 
 dian women. Teach the boys and men to consider the women 
 their companions and equals, not their drudges. 
 
 Above all things make work compulsory. Familiarize the 
 Indians with the social ideas of civilization. Instil into them 
 the notion of individual ownership. Incline them to look to 
 the law for redress of injuries and not to themselves. Discour 
 age the use of the native tongue. In all these things wherever 
 possible employ Indians, only use whites when absolutely ne 
 cessary. This is the kind of education the Indians want now. 
 Secondary to these pressing essentials, teach the young In 
 dians all they can learn as rapidly as they can be benefited 
 thereby. 
 
 THE MEDICINE MEN. 
 
 The influence of the Medicine Man is pernicious in the extreme 
 He is supposed to possess supernatural gifts, and cunningly works 
 on the superstitions of the people. He knows, as well as the 
 chiefs, that with civilization his power as well as theirs will 
 disappear. Both, therefore, are indisposed to improvement. 
 The medicine man, too, has another mode of bringing the 
 chiefs to his assistance in the war against progress. Until 
 he pronounces the "medicine good," no expedition can be 
 undertaken. He thus obtains a casting vote, and generally uses 
 it in such a way as to benefit himself. 
 
 The Government, where possible, should endeavour to obtain 
 his aid this will be very seldom failing that, he must be 
 crushed, as the incarnation of all that is baleful in Indian 
 politics. 
 
 LANDS IN SEVERALTY. 
 
 Savagery is a state complete in itself. Even in its most ad 
 vanced form it is not, in any sense, an imperfect civilization. 
 It is not even in the direction of civilization, nor does it lead 
 
LANDS IN SEVERALTY. 97 
 
 to it. The wild Indian cannot be " developed " into a citizen, 
 he has to be " born again." All his traditions and his most 
 cherished religious feelings antagonize the change. This must be 
 borne in mind in estimating the difficulties in the way of im 
 proving the condition of the Indians. 
 
 The Indian, by nature, is a thorough communist. The passion 
 for the ownership of land, so strong in civilized races, is wholly 
 unknown to him. This sentiment is eliminated from his nature. 
 Hence, one of the great obstacles to inducing the Indians to own 
 and cultivate lands in severalty. 
 
 Another objection springs from an entirely different source, 
 viz., the fear that they will be overcome in detail if their com 
 munity of interest is weakened, almost destroyed, by means of 
 the sub-division of their lands.* 
 
 The Indians, in their natural state, were implicitly obedient 
 to a few simple laws which were ample for their condition. 
 These laws and traditions recognized individual ownership only 
 in strictly personal effects, such as clothing, ornaments and 
 weapons ; the separate ownership of land was wholly unknown. 
 Even the products of the chase belonged to the clan, to a group 
 of relatives, sometimes on the male side, sometimes on the 
 female. 
 
 Children never inherited from their parents, but the effects of 
 a dead Indian fell to the clan or gens in common. This wholly 
 prevented the growth of the desire for individual ownership. 
 Indeed, so far from separate ownership being encouraged, it was 
 severely reprobated ; in fact, it was not tolerated. 
 
 The attempt to secure to an individual what belonged to the 
 gens in common, was a crime universally abhorred. Such trans 
 gressors were considered to be peculiarly offensive to the gods, f 
 It is true that this feeling is dying out, and as to personal 
 property, it is no longer of any moment ; but the prejudice still 
 exists as to land. 
 
 As has been said, giving a man a farm will not make him a 
 farmer, and giving him implements will not enable him to use 
 them. 
 
 *See Pleasant Porter's remarks, page 2. fMaj. Powell 45th Cong. Mis.Doc. 5, p. 26. 
 
98 PROPOSED POLICY. 
 
 Lands should only be given in severalty when a tribe has 
 made a considerable advance towards civilization, so that they 
 may in a very short time become self-supporting and entirely 
 free from Government aid or control. To give lands in severalty 
 before reaching this condition, would be a great injury both to 
 the Indians and to the Government. 
 
 In the Indian Territory, this entire subject should be left to 
 the Indians themselves. 
 
 Urge and educate them up to the idea, accustom them to the 
 notion, that they must meet the question in the near future, but 
 leave the details of time and manner to themselves. 
 
 Until such time as a majority of the Indians on any particu 
 lar reservation voluntarily consent to divide their own lands, 
 the grants in severalty should be made by the Government on 
 its own land to individual Indians. 
 
 Lands thus granted should be made inalienable and free from 
 taxes for a fixed period less than two generations would, 
 probably, be too short a time. 
 
 In that interval the new farmer and grazier* will have become 
 sufficiently advanced to take care of himself, and hold his own 
 against land sharks. 
 
 All agreements or contrivances to secure the lands to a pur 
 chaser upon the Indian's title becoming absolute, should be held 
 void 
 
 CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 As soon as an Indian is thoroughly self-supporting, and de 
 sires the privilege, make him a citizen and leave the rest to time. 
 The Government, as such, can do no more for him then, than it 
 can for any other citizen. 
 
 This right, however, should not be conferred upon any tribe, 
 or body of Indians which continues to hold lauds in common. 
 
 Individuality must precede citizenship. 
 
 Hon. Mr. Laird, Dominion Superintendent General (1875), 
 p. xiii of report, writes : 
 
 * See Gen. Gibbon, "Our Indian Question" (1881), on making Indians graziers.; 
 
CITIZENSHIP. 99 
 
 " Our Indian Legislation generally rests upon the principle, 
 that the aborigines are to be kept in a condition of tutelage, and 
 treated as wards or children of the State. The soundness of 
 the principle I cannot admit. On the contrary, I am firmly 
 persuaded that the true interests of the aborigines and of the State 
 alike, require that every effort should be made to aid the red 
 man in lifting himself out of his condition of tutelage, and de 
 pendence, and that it is clearly our wisdom and our duty, through 
 education and every other means, to prepare him for a higher 
 civilization by encouraging him to assume the privileges and 
 responsibilities of full citizenship." 
 
100 THE EVIL. 
 
 THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY. 
 
 THE CULPRIT. 
 
 In the national crime called the Federal Indian policy, the 
 real culprit is the whole people of the United States. 
 
 You, reader, have your share to bear in the common disgrace, 
 and you must do your part in its reparation. 
 
 But the immediate present actual active culprit, is the Con 
 gress of the United States, which through its persistent and 
 long-continued sins of omission, as well as commission, has per 
 mitted the administration of Indian affairs to exhibit such dis 
 graceful alternations of weakness and cruelty, of perfidy and 
 fraud. It must be borne in mind too, that Congress, in all 
 these years has sinned against the light. 
 
 It has not been in ignorance of the facts, but has lacked both 
 the power and the will to develop a policy that would do justice 
 to the Indians, and honor to the country. 
 
 Congress in this has been afflicted with that worst of evils, 
 spiritual blindness, and that body has never shown itself capa 
 ble in the remotest degree of appreciating the enormity of this 
 wrong, much less of remedying it. 
 
 The Executive has for years made more of an effort than 
 Congress to help the Indians, and has been the avowed friend 
 of the race. 
 
 But, as a rule (owing to the want of honest co-operation by 
 Congress, :and to its own diversity of functions), the time of the 
 Interior Department has nevertheless, been principally occupied 
 in making, breaking and remaking, and rebreaking "perpetual" 
 treaties -of peace. 
 
 A treaty is made, a " perpetual" reservation is set aside and 
 certain annuities guaranteed. 
 
 Presently, that heterogeneous mass of refugees, miners, and 
 gamblers, which, on .the frontier, affects to call itself the " ad- 
 
CONGRESS. 101 
 
 vance of civilization," seizes part of the reservation, the pay 
 ments due come late, or not at all, the hungry and cheated sav 
 ages rebel, much blood and treasure is spent in teaching them 
 that the white man's " forever" means " never," a Commission 
 is sent to make more promises to be broken like the last, and so 
 on to the end of the shameful chapter. 
 
 So notorious is all this, that it is difficult to induce competent 
 men to serve on Indian Commissions. 
 
 Nevertheless, the remedies must be worked out through Con 
 gress. 
 
 That body is inert or active only for evil. The true Indian 
 policy must be framed from without, and must be forced on the 
 sluggish sensibilities of the Federal Legislature by persistent and 
 unremitting demand. It will never deal with the subject in the 
 proper spirit as long as it can be put off. 
 
 No great moral reform ever originated in Congress, and it is 
 safe to predict that none ever will. 
 
 Its slavery record is full of meaning. That question was 
 agitated for many long years before Congress took any notice of 
 it, and then the first great struggle was begun, not with an 
 effort to remedy the wrong, but in a vain attempt to smother 
 the national conscience by trying to suppress the right of 
 petition. All through this momentous question, Congress was 
 the sluggard. At the end, the finishing blow was given by the 
 Executive, and not by Congress. 
 
 It is true that Congress has ordered numerous " Indian in 
 vestigations," and has printed many thousand pages of testimony 
 and reports. 
 
 Also (as before mentioned in the Chivington case), many 
 members and witnesses have drawn much mileage on such 
 occasions, and the committees have spent great sums for 
 " expenses," and favorites have earned pay as stenographers and 
 clerks, thus helping to pay the members' political debts. 
 
 These committees have generally done one good thing 
 mercilessly condemned the Federal Government yet the two 
 Houses have never responded, or appeared sufficiently interested 
 to make an earnest effort to respond, on any occasion with a fair, 
 
102 THE EVIL. 
 
 well-defined, carefully prepared, and honestly kept policy for 
 Indian affairs. 
 
 Not only have they failed to meet the question with a broad, 
 statesmanlike policy, but they have time and again neglected to 
 provide means for the fulfilment of the most solemn treaties; 
 and, frequently, in the case of ordinary annual appropriations, 
 have been so dilatory as to cause great distress, sometimes actual 
 and prolonged suffering, for want of food. 
 
 In the case of the Sioux and others, it has been shown that 
 Congress (having fraudulently altered a treaty requiring fifty 
 annual payments of $50,000 by inserting ten annual payments, 
 without the knowledge or consent of the Indians) caused a dis 
 graceful and bloody war by refusing to continue the stipulated 
 annual payments, whereby many lives were lost and over thirty 
 millions wasted. 
 
 In other words, Congress deliberately endeavored to cheat 
 these Indians out of $2,000,000, and squandered over fifteen 
 times that sum in the scandalous attempt ! 
 
 When Congress passes from the position of criminal neglect, 
 its acts are often worse than its omissions. Its ill-judged, ill- 
 timed parsimony, and its piddling penuriousness, have, on other 
 occasions, directly or indirectly, resulted in wasteful expenditure 
 of blood and treasure. It has been successful only in accumu 
 lating a record without parallel in modern civilization for its 
 heartless infamy. 
 
 Most of the session of Congress is spent in the merest details 
 of necessary current legislation and partisan manoeuvres, and 
 the little time which is left, is generally consumed in dull itera 
 tion of inane platitudes about finances, or the tariff, or some 
 other subject upon which the speakers are equally uninformed.. 
 
 During the last four years the principal sign of Congressional 
 activity has been in a persistent effort to pass the Oklahama Ter 
 ritory Bill, and the attempt to turn the Indians over to the War 
 Department on the extermination theory. These are twin mea 
 sures intended to open the Indian territory to railroads, and 
 generally, to the civilizing influences of frontier life. 
 
 Both schemes are unanimously opposed by the 60,000 self- 
 
THE ROUTINE CONGRESSMAN. 103 
 
 governing, civilized Indians, who inhabit the territory, and 
 would be crowning infamies. 
 
 The most notable men in Congress have their time full of 
 their own aspirations and the exactions of party leadership, and 
 when one comes to consider the "routine Congressman" it will 
 be seen what an immense propulsion from without it will take 
 to enforce an honest, as well as a live, Indian policy. 
 
 THE ROUTINE CONGRESSMAN. 
 
 He is, in many respects, unique. 
 
 As a political molecule, he is sui generis. 
 
 His like has never existed anywhere else, either in ancient or 
 modern times. 
 
 No other representative Government, past or present, has 
 produced his counterpart. 
 
 In knowing this he need not feel proud, nor need his constit 
 uents. 
 
 His peculiar constitution is owing to himself and to his sur 
 roundings. 
 
 Of himself, consider what he is not as well as what he is. 
 
 He is not positively bad ; indeed, he is positively nothing. 
 
 His points are mainly negations. 
 
 Fortunately, he is not rash. 
 
 His worst enemy will freely acquit him of this imputation. 
 
 His professional training, such as it is, has had this effect, 
 that, be he never so radical on a party question, he is essen 
 tially timid about changes in the Constitution and the laws. 
 
 Thus, the country has escaped the wild schemes of the 
 doctrinaires. 
 
 This is owing to the education of the common law, for this 
 same class 'of lawyers in France having no such conservative 
 influence and being carried away by the crudities of the " Con- 
 trat Social" became the most pestiferous element in the French 
 Revolution. 
 
 This routine representative is disposed to consider whatever 
 is, is right. Many other things he is not. 
 
 What he is, makes it important to consider him here. 
 
104 THE EVIL. 
 
 The great role of the " routine member," in fact his princi 
 pal employment, is to maintain a political " intelligence bureau" 
 for the benefit of such of his " workers" as desire to live with 
 out work. 
 
 The number and variety of " strong letters" he can write, 
 urging the peculiar fitness of A, B or C, for this, that or the 
 other post, are equally a pleasant surprise to the happy candi 
 dates, and a terror to their official recipient. 
 
 As a guide for visiting constituents, he is also a success. 
 
 The members of other representative bodies have no patron 
 age, and as a rule no individual schemes. 
 
 They simply vote on drafts of laws prepared and submitted 
 by the ministry. 
 
 But the routine Congressman occupies no such limited sphere. 
 
 Although most of his legislative hours are passed in consid 
 ering appropriations, investigations and other current matters, 
 with occasional partisan bills, he is in his happiest mood when 
 he is rid of all this, and when he is indeed a legislator. Then, free 
 from the prejudices of the dead past (often knowing nothing of 
 it), and, having caught the Speaker's eye, he calls up his 
 u measure." 
 
 He never proposes a bill or an act, it is always a " measure" 
 or a " project." 
 
 Every man is his own premier, frames his own laws, rides 
 his own legislative hobbies, and ventilates his crammings from 
 encyclopaedias and newspaper clippings. 
 
 By and by this " effort" appears in the member's district 
 under his frank. 
 
 This is his " record." 
 
 There is one encouraging feature about him. 
 
 It is this outside of partizanship and law he has no very 
 strong convictions, and will take kindly to yours, reader, if you 
 sufficiently impress him with your earnestness. 
 
 This is the key of the situation. 
 
 It will not be so much aggressive opposition, as quiet indif 
 ference, or a dogged unreasoning belief that nothing can be 
 done for the Indian race, that will have to be contended with. 
 
ITS REMEDY. 105 
 
 The question is how can a public sentiment be developed in 
 favor of the proposed policy, and be made to impress itself 
 forcibly and successfully on Congress ? 
 
 The immediate objective point is this to have Congress form 
 ally, by resolution, adopt a declaration of principles for the fu 
 ture government of Indian affairs, embracing the views here ad 
 vocated. 
 
 These once declared by an overwhelming voice to be the fixed 
 unalterable policy of the Government, current legislation would 
 from year to year be in harmony therewith. 
 
106 AGITATION. 
 
 AGITATION. 
 
 Having discussed the proposed plan, it remains to be consid 
 ered what must be done to secure its adoption, development and 
 enforcement by the Government. 
 
 This can only be accomplished by systematic agitation. 
 
 Concert of action is essential. 
 
 This requires unity of interest to a sufficient degree to pre 
 serve organization, and produce aggressive movement. 
 
 For this reason local Indian Peace Societies could not, at least 
 now, be made effective. 
 
 The interest in the subject is too slight, too merely passive or 
 assenting. The difficulty of association is so great, the evil so 
 remote and unseen, and the purpose so wholly foreign to the 
 concerns of every-day life, that such societies now would be in 
 efficient. 
 
 MACHINERY. 
 
 To overcome this difficulty, comprehensive machinery of agi 
 tation is required. What shall it be, and how shall it be 
 managed ? 
 
 For the rapid propagation of any plan of moral improve 
 ment, machinery is quite as necessary as it is in politics. As to 
 politics, a great deal of unmeaning twaddle is indulged in by 
 inconsequential dreamers about the " political machine." 
 
 But the fact remains, that it is indispensable. 
 
 There is nothing wrong about the machine per se, the trouble 
 is with the men who control it. The political machine proper 
 is identical in both parties, and in all parts of the Union. 
 
 Having National and State organizations, and the latter being 
 sub-divided into county, township, ward and division commit 
 tees, the machine is admirably adapted to the purpose for 
 which it was brought into existence, viz : to marshal political 
 thought into concerted aggressive action. 
 
 Those who affect to denounce political machines, invariably 
 
MACHINERY. 107 
 
 show their disbelief in their own invectives by establishing rival 
 ones of their own. The political machine is not the creation of 
 one mind, or of one generation of minds. Indeed it never was 
 created, it grew spontaneously. 
 
 It is practically unrecognized by the law, it is imperium in im- 
 periOj yet in all crises gives the almost direct initiative to Gov 
 ernment. 
 
 It must be observed too, that, (except in purely local organiza 
 tions, dealing with the merest details,) this machine has no writ 
 ten code, but is governed exclusively by a sort of common law 
 of its own which is practically identical everywhere. This po 
 litical common law is the outgrowth of a century of popular 
 
 Sovereignty. a^oFT U.BKARY 
 
 Three generations of public men, all over the country, having 
 by general consent, become convinced, not only that a machine 
 is necessary, but also that it must be constructed in a particular 
 way, the conclusion forces itself on the mind, that their convic 
 tion and consequent action must have been caused by the inhe 
 rent necessities of the situation. 
 
 To suppose that the machine as an entirety, owes its origin to 
 ,11 corrupt desire of politicians to enjoy the Government patron 
 age, is puerile in the extreme. 
 
 The reason why this political machinery springs everywhere 
 spontaneously into being, and is found in no other country in 
 such perfection of growth, is self-evident. 
 
 The United States is the only great Nation governed, almost 
 unrestrictedly, by universal suffrage. 
 
 In aristocratic and autocratic countries the governing class is 
 comparatively small, is bound together by many ties, and has 
 ready and constant facilities for inter-communication. There is 
 an esprit du corps which animates the entire mass. 
 
 Through class distinctions and hereditary governing functions 
 both those recognized by the laws and those by custom and 
 the force of things the prevailing idea makes itself felt with 
 ease, and thus shapes government action. 
 
 Even in that political organism which calls itself the French 
 Republic, the same thing may be noticed, though in a modified 
 degree. 
 
108 AGITATION. 
 
 That Government is mainly what might be termed a recog 
 nition throughout of the status quo. 
 
 With a standing army, a peculiarly constructed Senate, a 
 Church powerful, though barely tolerated by atheism, an aris 
 tocracy which, though without functional activity, wields great 
 power; in a word, it presents the spectacle of the traditions of 
 absolutism working under the tri-color; all interests and 
 classes are in some degree either recognized by law or in fact. 
 
 In a Government, however, conducted by universal suffrage, 
 and as near a pure democracy as possible, immediate, spon 
 taneous, popular concert of action on either moral or political 
 causes occurs only in great crises. 
 
 The interests and classes which elsewhere thus effect Dolitical 
 results, either do not exist here, or have no ready cohesion or 
 inter-commu n ication . 
 
 Every political unit moves, but, without the usual political 
 machinery, concert of action cannot be attained. 
 
 Hence, the machine has been found to be a necessity. 
 
 If the machine, in carrying out the object of its existence, 
 incidentally makes or mars the fortunes of its engineers (who use 
 it for their own corrupt ends), that is a good reason for changing 
 the engineers, but not for discarding the machine. 
 
 SOCIAL FOKCES. 
 
 A machinery, therefore, being requisite, and the establishment 
 of one purely devoted to Indian affairs being now impracticable, 
 the question recurs : How shall it be constructed, and how 
 operated ? 
 
 The projected Indian agitation is not a movement which will 
 excite the interest of the average voter, nor is it important that 
 it should. 
 
 The attempt will not be made. 
 
 The entire agitation is intended to influence the individual 
 members of Congress through representative men, representative 
 bodies, and representative classes in their districts. 
 
 For this reason, public meetings and other similar general 
 appeals would not be lastingly effective. 
 
SOCIAL FORCES. 109 
 
 But how bring these representative influences to bear upon 
 Congressmen ? 
 
 Only one practicable plan suggests itself. 
 
 It is proposed to utilize the entire machinery of society, as it now 
 exists, and use it as a means for promoting the requisite public 
 agitation. 
 
 The agencies through which society carries on its manifold 
 operations religious, political, social, economic bear the same 
 relation to the body politic that the veins, muscles, and nerves 
 do to the human frame. 
 
 Here it is the political organism the Government which 
 fails to perform its functions. 
 
 The other organisms must be constrained to act upon this 
 one to compel it to do its work. 
 
 THE PRESS. 
 
 Throughout the Union the Press, with few exceptions, has 
 shown its appreciation of the enormities of the Federal Indian 
 history, and may be looked to for very potential service in re 
 forming the abuses of the past and advocating any measures 
 designed to give the Indians fair play in the future. 
 
 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 With a systematic and comprehensive system of correspon 
 dence, the churches can, through their Bishops, or other dig 
 nitaries, act upon the local clergy and, through them, upon the 
 church societies and leading parishioners, who in their turn will 
 deal directly and personally with their members of Congress. 
 
 THE STATE. 
 
 In the State, through the Executive, the scheme may receive 
 the favorable attention of the Legislature, and thus that of the 
 Executives and Legislatures of the other States. 
 
 MUNICIPALITIES. 
 
 In like manner, through the Mayors of cities, the plan will 
 be brought before the municipal bodies for endorsement. 
 
 PARTY ORGANIZATIONS. 
 
 The various party organizations can, in a similar way, act upon 
 kindred bodies throughout the country. 
 
110 AGITATION. 
 
 THE SCHOOLS. 
 
 In the same way, the universities, colleges, learned societies 
 of every kind, and the entire public school system through- 
 the Union, can be made to work as a unit to secure a successful 
 issue of the agitation. 
 
 THE BOARDS OF TRADE 
 
 can also very effectively aid in the proposed agitation. Chari 
 table and other societies will be invited to join in the movement. 
 
 As has been intimated, it is not intended to attempt to act 
 directly on the mass of the voting population, but it is designed 
 to make each individual Congressman a separate "field of 
 action," in order to secure his hearty co-operation in the pro 
 posed Indian policy, by using directly and immediately upon 
 him in his district, all the forces of society just detailed. 
 
 Sometimes, having in view the peculiar characteristics and 
 antecedents, and capabilities of a particular member, a special 
 pressure will be brought to bear upon him, both in his district 
 and from without, through that distinct interest most likely to 
 impress him favorably. 
 
 It is intended to secure systematic and periodical reports of 
 the condition of the agitation in each Congressional district. 
 Thus its progress can be noted, and in all weak, halting or hos 
 tile districts redoubled and continued efforts will be persisted in 
 until the member pledges his support. 
 
 In the case of Senators, the only difference will be, that in 
 stead of depending on district influence recourse will be had, 
 principally to State organisms. 
 
 INITIAL MOVEMENT. 
 
 To set all these forces religious, political, social economic in 
 motion, and when started to keep them moving as a unit, and 
 pressing forward agressively in the cause, two things are neces 
 sary : 
 
 An initial movement in some one locality. 
 
 A thorough system of correspondence between that centre and 
 each Congressional district. 
 
INITIAL MOVEMENT. HI 
 
 The initial movement must be by individual effort in that 
 place, so as to make it the headquarters of the agitation. 
 
 In other words the entire social organism of that place y must r 
 by individual action, be thoroughly interested in the cause, so 
 that in all its ramifications, it may be used to influence like 
 organisms in every Congressional district. 
 
 From explanations of this plan of Indian policy made to 
 dignitaries of the various churches (and active spirits in their 
 societies), to leading men in official and political life, to repre 
 sentatives of the press, of science, arts and commerce, the writer 
 is enabled to say that assurances of hearty co-operation have 
 already been received. 
 
 The writer proposes, with their assistance, to undertake to 
 create in Philadelphia, as a centre of agitation, the necessary 
 sentiment through representative agencies in favor of the pro 
 jected Indian policy, and to use that sentiment in securing the 
 active support of similar forces in the various districts,, whereby 
 the aid of the member of Congress must be obtained. 
 
 To make this local interest effective throughout the Union, it 
 is requisite that there be established a very thorough and com 
 prehensive system of correspondence between Philadelphia, as 
 a headquarters, and each Congressional district. 
 
 This must be continued until its object shall have been ac 
 complished. 
 
 This system of correspondence the writer will establish and 
 maintain. This paper is published in order to explain the 
 plan, and its proposed means of enforcement, to those whose 
 active individual aid will be sought, and to> such others as may 
 feel interested therein. 
 
 DETAILS. 
 
 The details of agitation are important to secure efficiency, and 
 a result corresponding with the effort. 
 
 The method proposed for the churches will serve as an exam 
 ple. The various denominations have for many years been en 
 gaged in active and untiring missionary work amongst the In 
 dians for their individual improvement. 
 
112 DETAILS. 
 
 The agitation here proposed, however, concerning the entire 
 race in its relations with the Federal Government, will not in 
 any way conflict therewith. 
 
 The hierarchy is admirably adapted for the systematic 
 propagation of the plan. 
 
 In each denomination it is designed that the Philadelphia 
 Bishop, or other authority, write circular letters, which will be 
 mailed to all the other Bishops, or corresponding authorities, 
 throughout the United States. 
 
 The recipients of these letters will be requested to issue pas 
 torals to the local clergy, which will briefly refer to the pro 
 posed Indian policy set forth in the platform (designed to ac 
 company the same), and they will be desired to address their 
 congregations in advocacy thereof. 
 
 They will be furnished with petitions, which they will be 
 asked to invite their parishioners to sign immediately after the 
 service. 
 
 They will also be urged to appoint a committee of their 
 most active and influential members, who will communicate with 
 the member of Congress from their district, and have a time 
 fixed for a personal interview with him. 
 
 At this interview it is particularly desired that the entire com 
 mittee, with the pastor, attend, give the member the petitions to 
 be presented by him in Congress, and then and there call upon 
 him for his support, and insist upon having it. 
 
 Finally the results of this interview, and any views and sug 
 gestions which occur to the committee, are to be reported at once 
 to Philadelphia. 
 
 This is of the utmost importance. 
 
 In like manner all the various organizations connected with 
 the church will be invited to take formal action and make 
 known their wishes to the member of Congress. 
 
 In this way, the entire force of each church in the district will 
 be brought to bear directly upon him. 
 
 The plan proposed here for the churches is designed to be em 
 ployed, mutatis mutandis, with every social, political, and econ 
 omic organism in his district. 
 
.CONCLUSION. . 113 
 
 No member of Congress can resist all these influences. 
 
 The majority will have no inclination to resist. When they 
 feel what is expected of them, they will do it. 
 
 Under persistent and continued agitation, gradually, wide 
 spread indifference, or aimless interest, will be succeeded here and 
 there by an aggressive spirit which will spread and grow, and 
 when once fairly aroused will never rest until the blot upon 
 the Nation its past Indian record shall have been wiped 
 out by deeds of ample justice. 
 
 It was so with that other great national evil of slavery, which 
 cried out to heaven for vengeance, through the tears of many 
 generations, in vain. It was only in the last that the spirit 
 quickened and bore fruit in deeds. 
 
 How like the growing of a mighty tempest, the elements 
 of that strife gathered themselves together ! When the right, 
 ceasing merely to mutter, had become aggressive, how the storm 
 spread and enveloped all things ! The antagonistic forces, right 
 and wrong, tiring of delay, at last, in the terrible earnestness 
 of a great moral revolution, resolved themselves into physical 
 force ; and then the right, sweeping over the land, wiped out 
 this accursed thing and carried with it every obstacle which 
 stood in the way. 
 
 So it will be here. But far speedier results may be looked for, 
 and through moral agencies alone. 
 
 Neither official sanction nor public opinion can soon remedy 
 the evils caused by generations of moral obliquity. 
 
 But a general acceptance of the proposed policy, its formal 
 and irrevocable adoption by the Federal Government as its fixed 
 basis of action, and the existence of a public opinion determined 
 to enforce it, will give an impetus to the work, which will, by 
 many years, abridge the time required to make the Indians 
 civilized and wholly able to take care of themselves. 
 
 This point reached, the Nation and its Government, being 
 so resolved, one generation of honest, persistent effort will 
 make the entire Indian population fit for absorption into the 
 great mass of the Nation. 
 
 JAMES W. M. NEWLIN. 
 
 Philadelphia, November, 1881.