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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5a441a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #50560 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50560) diff --git a/old/50560-0.txt b/old/50560-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e57fe8e..0000000 --- a/old/50560-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,19668 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Century of Dishonor, by Helen Hunt Jackson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: A Century of Dishonor - A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with - some of the Indian Tribes - -Author: Helen Hunt Jackson - -Release Date: November 27, 2015 [EBook #50560] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CENTURY OF DISHONOR *** - - - - -Produced by readbueno, Jan-Fabian Humann and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - A CENTURY OF DISHONOR - - - A SKETCH - - - OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT'S DEALINGS - - - WITH SOME OF THE INDIAN TRIBES - - - BY HELEN JACKSON (H. H.), - - AUTHOR OF "RAMONA," "VERSES," "BITS OF TRAVEL," - "BITS OF TRAVEL AT HOME," "BITS OF TALK ABOUT HOME MATTERS," - "BITS OF TALK FOR YOUNG FOLKS," "NELLY'S SILVER MINE," - H. H.'S CAT STORIES, ETC. - - "_Every human being born upon our continent, or who comes here - from any quarter of the world, whether savage or civilized, can go - to our courts for protection—except those who belong to the tribes - who once owned this country. The cannibal from the islands of the - Pacific, the worst criminals from Europe, Asia, or Africa, can appeal - to the law and courts for their rights of person and property—all, - save our native Indians, who, above all, should be protected from - wrong._" GOV. HORATIO SEYMOUR - - NEW EDITION, ENLARGED BY THE ADDITION OF THE REPORT OF - THE NEEDS OF THE MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA - - - BOSTON - - ROBERTS BROTHERS - - 1889 - - - - - _Copyright, 1885_, - BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. - - - University Press: - JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - PREFACE, BY BISHOP WHIPPLE v - - INTRODUCTION, BY PRESIDENT JULIUS H. - SEELYE 1 - - - CHAPTER I. - - INTRODUCTORY 9 - - CHAPTER II. - - THE DELAWARES 32 - - CHAPTER III. - - THE CHEYENNES 66 - - CHAPTER IV. - - THE NEZ PERCÉS 103 - - CHAPTER V. - - THE SIOUX 136 - - CHAPTER VI. - - THE PONCAS 186 - - CHAPTER VII. - - THE WINNEBAGOES 218 - - CHAPTER VIII. - - THE CHEROKEES 257 - - - CHAPTER IX. - - MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES 298 - - I. The Conestoga Massacre 298 - - II. The Gnadenhütten Massacre 317 - - III. Massacres of Apaches 324 - - CHAPTER X. - - CONCLUSION 336 - - -APPENDIX. - - I. THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE 343 - - II. THE PONCA CASE 359 - - III. TESTIMONIES TO INDIAN CHARACTER 374 - - IV. OUTRAGES COMMITTED ON INDIANS BY WHITES 381 - - V. EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE - COMMISSION SENT TO TREAT WITH THE SIOUX - CHIEF SITTING BULL, IN CANADA 386 - - VI. ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE OLD GRIEVANCES OF - THE SIOUX 389 - - VII. LETTER FROM SARAH WINNEMUCCA, AN - EDUCATED PAH-UTE WOMAN 395 - - VIII. LAWS OF THE DELAWARE NATION OF INDIANS 396 - - IX. ACCOUNT OF THE CHEROKEE WHO INVENTED THE - CHEROKEE ALPHABET 404 - - X. PRICES PAID BY WHITE MEN FOR SCALPS 405 - - XI. EXTRACT FROM TREATY WITH CHEYENNES IN - 1865 406 - - XII. WOOD-CUTTING BY INDIANS IN DAKOTA 407 - - XIII. SEQUEL TO THE WALLA WALLA MASSACRE 407 - - XIV. AN ACCOUNT OF THE NUMBERS, LOCATION, AND - SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CONDITION OF EACH - IMPORTANT TRIBE AND BAND OF INDIANS - WITHIN THE UNITED STATES 411 - - XV. REPORT ON THE CONDITION AND NEEDS OF THE - MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA 458 - - - - - PREFACE. - - -I have been requested to write a preface to this sad story of "A Century -of Dishonor." I cannot refuse the request of one whose woman's heart has -pleaded so eloquently for the poor Red men. The materials for her book -have been taken from official documents. The sad revelation of broken -faith, of violated treaties, and of inhuman deeds of violence will bring -a flush of shame to the cheeks of those who love their country. They -will wonder how our rulers have dared to so trifle with justice, and -provoke the anger of God. Many of the stories will be new to the reader. -The Indian owns no telegraph, employs no press reporter, and his side of -the story is unknown to the people. - -Nations, like individuals, reap exactly what they sow; they who sow -robbery reap robbery. The seed-sowing of iniquity replies in a harvest -of blood. The American people have accepted as truth the teaching that -the Indians were a degraded, brutal race of savages, whom it was the -will of God should perish at the approach of civilization. If they do -not say with our Puritan fathers that these are the Hittites who are to -be driven out before the saints of the Lord, they do accept the teaching -that manifest destiny will drive the Indians from the earth. The -inexorable has no tears or pity at the cries of anguish of the doomed -race. Ahab never speaks kindly of Naboth, whom he has robbed of his -vineyard. It soothes conscience to cast mud on the character of the one -whom we have wronged. - -The people have laid the causes of Indian wars at the door of the Indian -trader, the people on the border, the Indian agents, the army, and the -Department of the Interior. None of these are responsible for the Indian -wars, which have cost the United States five hundred millions of dollars -and tens of thousands of valuable lives. In the olden time the Indian -trader was the Indian's friend. The relation was one of mutual -dependence. If the trader oppressed the Indian he was in danger of -losing his debt; if the Indian refused to pay his debts, the trader must -leave the country. The factors and agents of the old fur companies tell -us that their goods were as safe in the unguarded trading-post as in the -civilized village. The pioneer settlers have had too much at stake to -excite an Indian massacre, which would overwhelm their loved ones in -ruin. The army are not responsible for Indian wars; they are "men under -authority," who go where they are sent. The men who represent the honor -of the nation have a tradition that lying is a disgrace, and that theft -forfeits character. General Crook expressed the feeling of the army when -he replied to a friend who said, "It is hard to go on such a campaign." -"Yes, it is hard; but, sir, the hardest thing is to go and fight those -whom you know are in the right." The Indian Bureau is often unable to -fulfil the treaties, because Congress has failed to make the -appropriations. If its agents are not men of the highest character, it -is largely due to the fact that we send a man to execute this difficult -trust at a remote agency, and expect him to support himself and family -on $1500 a year. The Indian Bureau represents a system which is a -blunder and a crime. - -The Indian is the only human being within our territory who has no -individual right in the soil. He is not amenable to or protected by law. -The executive, the legislative, and judicial departments of the -Government recognize that he has a possessory right in the soil; but his -title is merged in the tribe—the man has no standing before the law. A -Chinese or a Hottentot would have, but the native American is left -pitiably helpless. This system grew out of our relations at the first -settlement of the country. The isolated settlements along the Atlantic -coast could not ask the Indians, who outnumbered them ten to one, to -accept the position of wards. No wise policy was adopted, with altered -circumstances, to train the Indians for citizenship. Treaties were made -of the same binding force of the constitution; but these treaties were -unfilled. It may be doubted whether one single treaty has ever been -fulfilled as it would have been if it had been made with a foreign -power. The treaty has been made as between two independent sovereigns. -Sometimes each party has been ignorant of the wishes of the other; for -the heads of both parties to the treaty have been on the interpreter's -shoulders, and he was the owned creature of corrupt men, who desired to -use the Indians as a key to unlock the nation's treasury. Pledges, -solemnly made, have been shamelessly violated. The Indian has had no -redress but war. In these wars ten white men were killed to one Indian, -and the Indians who were killed have cost the Government a hundred -thousand dollars each. Then came a new treaty, more violated faith, -another war, until we have not a hundred miles between the Atlantic and -Pacific which has not been the scene of an Indian massacre. - -All this while Canada has had no Indian wars. Our Government has -expended for the Indians a hundred dollars to their one. They recognize, -as we do, that the Indian has a possessory right to the soil. They -purchase this right, as we do, by treaty; but their treaties are made -with _the Indian subjects_ of Her Majesty. They set apart a _permanent_ -reservation for them; they seldom remove Indians; they select agents of -high character, who receive their appointments for life; they make fewer -promises, but they fulfil them; they give the Indians Christian -missions, which have the hearty support of Christian people, and all -their efforts are toward self-help and civilization. An incident will -illustrate the two systems. The officer of the United States Army who -was sent to receive Alaska from the Russian Government stopped in -British Columbia. Governor Douglas had heard that an Indian had been -murdered by another Indian. He visited the Indian tribe; he explained to -them that the murdered man was a subject of Her Majesty; he demanded the -culprit. The murderer was surrendered, was tried, was found guilty, and -was hanged. On reaching Alaska the officer happened to enter the Greek -church, and saw on the altar a beautiful copy of the Gospels in a costly -binding studded with jewels. He called upon the Greek bishop, and said, -"Your Grace, I called to say you had better remove that copy of the -Gospels from the church, for it may be stolen." The bishop replied, "Why -should I remove it? It was the gift of the mother of the emperor, and -has lain on the altar seventy years." The officer blushed, and said, -"There is no law in the Indian country, and I was afraid it might be -stolen." The bishop said, "The book is in God's house, and it is His -book, and I shall not take it away." The book remained. The country -became ours, and the next day the Gospel was stolen. - -Our Indian wars are needless and wicked. 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 joy to die for his people. 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 the finest type of wild -men he had ever seen. Old traders say that it used to be the boast of -the Sioux that they had never taken the life of a white man. Lewis and -Clarke, Governor Stevens, and Colonel Steptoe bore testimony to the -devoted friendship of the Nez Percés for the white man. Colonel Boone, -Colonel Bent, General Harney, and others speak in the highest praise of -the Cheyennes. The Navahoes were a semi-civilized people. - -Our best friends have suffered more deeply from our neglect and violated -faith than our most bitter foes. Peaceable Indians often say, "You leave -us to suffer; if we killed your people, then you would take care of us." - -Our Indian wars have not come wholly from violated faith. In time of -peace it has been our policy to establish "almshouses" to train and -educate savage paupers. We have purchased paint, beads, scalping-knives, -to deck warriors, and have fed them in idleness at the agency. Around -this agency and along the border were gathered influences to degrade the -savage, and sink him to a depth his fathers had never known. It has only -needed a real or a fancied wrong to have this pauperized savagery break -out in deeds of blood. Under President Grant a new departure was taken. -The peace policy was little more than a name. No change was made in the -Indian system; no rights of property were given; no laws were passed to -protect the Indians. The President did take the nomination of Indian -agents from politicians, who had made the office a reward for political -service. He gave the nomination of Indian agents to the executive -committees of the missionary societies of the different churches. Where -these Christian bodies established schools and missions, and the -Government cast its influence on the side of labor, it was a success. -More has been done to civilize the Indians in the past twelve years than -in any period of our history. The Indian Ring has fought the new policy -at every step; and yet, notwithstanding our Indian wars, our violated -treaties, and our wretched system, thousands of Indians, who were poor, -degraded savages, are now living as Christian, civilized men. There was -a time when it seemed impossible to secure the attention of the -Government to any wrongs done to the Indians: it is not so to-day. The -Government does listen to the friends of the Indians, and many of the -grosser forms of robbery are stopped. No permanent reform can be secured -until the heart of the people is touched. In 1862 I visited Washington, -to lay before the Administration the causes which had desolated our fair -State with the blood of those slain by Indian massacre. After pleading -in vain, and finding no redress, Secretary Stanton said to a friend, -"What does the Bishop want? If he came here to tell us that our Indian -system is a sink of iniquity, tell him we all know it. Tell him the -United States never cures a wrong until the people demand it; and when -the hearts of the people are reached the Indian will be saved." In this -book the reader will find the sad story of a century—no, not the whole -story, but the fragmentary story of isolated tribes. The author will -have her reward if it shall aid in securing justice to a noble and a -wronged race. Even with the sad experiences of the past we have not -learned justice. The Cherokees and other tribes received the Indian -Territory as a compensation and atonement for one of the darkest crimes -ever committed by a Christian nation. That territory was conveyed to -them by legislation as strong as the wit of statesmen could devise. The -fathers who conveyed this territory to the Cherokees are dead. Greedy -eyes covet the land. The plans are laid to wrest it from its rightful -owners. If this great iniquity is consummated, these Indians declare -that all hope in our justice will die out of their hearts, and that they -will defend their country with their lives. - -The work of reform is a difficult one; it will cost us time, effort, and -money; it will demand the best thoughts of the best men in the country. -We shall have to regain the confidence of our Indian wards by honest -dealing and the fulfilment of our promises. Now the name of a white man -is to the Indians a synonyme for "liar." Red Cloud recently paid a visit -to the Black Hills, and was hospitably entertained by his white friends. -In bidding them good-bye he expressed the hope that, if they did not -meet again on earth, they might meet beyond the grave "in a land where -white men ceased to be liars." - -Dark as the history is, there is a brighter side. No missions to the -heathen have been more blessed than those among the Indians. Thousands, -who were once wild, painted savages, finding their greatest joy in deeds -of war, are now the disciples of the Prince of Peace. There are Indian -churches with Indian congregations, in which Indian clergy are telling -the story of God's love in Jesus Christ our Saviour. Where once was only -heard the medicine-drum and the song of the scalp-dance, there is now -the bell calling Christians to prayer, and songs of praise and words of -prayer go up to heaven. The Christian home, though only a log-cabin, has -taken the place of the wigwam; and the poor, degraded Indian woman has -been changed to the Christian wife and mother. With justice, personal -rights, and the protection of law, the Gospel will do for our Red -brothers what it has done for other races—give to them homes, manhood -and freedom. - - H. B. WHIPPLE, _Bishop of Minnesota_. - -NEW YORK, _November 11th, 1880_. - - - - - INTRODUCTION. - - -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 American 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 then a howling wilderness, was largely an unpeopled -solitude. The roaming wild men who met the new discoverers were, -however, numerous enough to make the Indian problem at the outset a -serious one, while neither its gravity nor its difficulty yet shows -signs of diminution. - -The difficulty is not because the Indians are wild and savage men, for -such men have in the past history of the human race been subdued and -civilized in unnumbered instances, while the changes which in our time -have been wrought among the cannibals of the South Sea and the -barbarians of South Africa, and among the wildest and most savage of the -North American Indians themselves, show abundantly that the agencies of -civilization, ready to our hand are neither wanting nor weak. - -The great difficulty with the Indian problem is not with the Indian, but -with the Government and people of the United States. Instead of a -liberal and far-sighted policy looking to the education and civilization -and possible citizenship of the Indian tribes, we have suffered these -people to remain as savages, for whose future we have had no adequate -care, and to the consideration of whose present state the Government has -only been moved when pressed by some present danger. We have encroached -upon their means of subsistence without furnishing them any proper -return; we have shut them up on reservations often notoriously unfit for -them, or, if fit, we have not hesitated to drive them off for our -profit, without regard to theirs; we have treated them sometimes as -foreign nations, with whom we have had treaties; sometimes as wards, who -are entitled to no voice in the management of their affairs; and -sometimes as subjects, from whom we have required obedience, but to whom -we have recognized no obligations. That the Government of the United -States, which has often plighted its faith to the Indian, and has broken -it as often, and, while punishing him for his crimes, has given him no -status in the courts except as a criminal, has been sadly derelict in -its duty toward him, and has reaped the whirlwind only because it has -sown the wind, is set forth in no exaggerated terms in the following -pages, and ought to be acknowledged with shame by every American -citizen. - -It will be admitted now on every hand that the only solution of the -Indian problem involves the entire change of these people from a savage -to a civilized life. They are not likely to be exterminated. Unless we -ourselves withdraw from all contact with them, and leave them to roam -untrammeled over their wilds, or until the power of a Christian -civilization shall make them consciously one with us, they will not -cease to vex us. - -But how shall they become civilized? Civilization is in a most important -sense a gift rather than an acquisition. Men do not gain it for -themselves, except as stimulated thereto by some incitement from above -themselves. The savage does not labor for the gratifications of -civilized life, since he does not desire these. His labors and his -desires are both dependent upon some spiritual gift, which, having -kindled him, quickens his desires and calls forth his toil. Unless he -has some help from without, some light and life from above to illumine -and inspire him, the savage remains a savage, and without this all the -blandishments of the civilization with which he might be brought into -contact could no more win him into a better state than could all the -light and warmth of the sun woo a desert into a fruitful field. When -English missionaries went to the Indians in Canada, they took with them -skilled laborers who should teach the Indians how to labor, and who, by -providing them at first with comfortable houses, and clothing, and food, -should awaken their desires and evoke their efforts to perpetuate and -increase these comforts. But the Indian would not work, and preferred -his wigwam, and skins, and raw flesh, and filth to the cleanliness and -conveniences of a civilized home; and it was only as Christian -influences taught him his inner need, and how this could be supplied, -that he was led to wish and work for the improvement of his outer -condition and habits of life. The same is true everywhere. Civilization -does not reproduce itself. It must first be kindled, and can then only -be kept alive by a power genuinely Christian. - -But it is idle to attempt to carry Christian influences to any one -unless we are Christian. The first step, therefore, toward the desired -transformation of the Indian is a transformed treatment of him by -ourselves. In sober earnest, our Government needs, first of all, to be -Christian, and to treat the Indian question as Christian principles -require. This means at the outset that we should be honest, and not talk -about maintaining our rights until we are willing to fulfil our -obligations. It means that we should be kind, and quite as eager to give -the Indian what is ours as to get what is his. It means that we should -be wise, and patient, and persevering, abandoning all makeshifts and -temporary expedients, and setting it before us as our fixed aim to act -toward him as a brother, until he shall act as a brother toward us. -There is no use to attempt to teach Christian duty to him in words till -he has first seen it exemplified in our own deeds. - -The true Christian principle of self-forgetful honesty and kindness, -clearly and continuously exhibited, is the first requisite of true -statesmanship in the treatment of the Indian question. This would not -require, however, the immediate entrance of the Indian upon all the -privileges of citizenship and self-direction. Christianized though he -might be, he would need for a longer or shorter time guardianship like a -child. A wise care for his own interests could not be expected of him at -the outset, and the Government should care for him with wise -forethought. Obedience to the law should be required of him, and the -protection of the law afforded him. The jurisdiction of the courts and -the presence of the Government should be felt in the Indian Territory -and upon every Indian reservation as powerfully as in the most -enlightened portions of the land. The court should go as early as the -school, if not before, and is itself an educational agency of -incalculable importance. - -When the Indian, through wise and Christian treatment, becomes invested -with all the rights and duties of citizenship, his special tribal -relations will become extinct. This will not be easily nor rapidly done; -but all our policy should be shaped toward the gradual loosening of the -tribal bond, and the gradual absorption of the Indian families among the -masses of our people. This would involve the bringing to an end of the -whole system of Indian reservations, and would forbid the continued -isolation of the Indian Territory. It is not wise statesmanship to -create impassable barriers between any parts of our country or any -portions of our people. - -Very difficult questions demanding very careful treatment arise in -reference to just this point. Certain Indian tribes now own certain -Indian reservations and the Indian Territory, and this right of property -ought to be most sacredly guarded. But it does not, therefore, follow -that these Indians, in their present state, ought to control the present -use of this property. They may need a long training before they are wise -enough to manage rightfully what is nevertheless rightfully their own. -This training, to which their property might fairly contribute means, -should assiduously be given in established schools with required -attendance. - -If the results thus indicated shall gradually come to pass, the property -now owned by the tribes should be ultimately divided and held in -severalty by the individual members of the tribes. Such a division -should not be immediately made, and, when made, it should be with great -care and faithfulness; but the Indian himself should, as soon as may be, -feel both the incentives and the restraints which an individual -ownership of property is fitted to excite, and the Government, which is -his guardian, having educated him for this ownership, should endow him -with it. But until the Indian becomes as able as is the average white -man to manage his property for himself, the Government should manage it -for him, no matter whether he be willing or unwilling to have this done. - -A difficulty arises in the cases—of which there are many—where treaties -have been made by the Government of the United States with different -Indian tribes, wherein the two parties have agreed to certain definitely -named stipulations. Such treaties have proceeded upon the false -view—false in principle, and equally false in fact—that an Indian tribe, -roaming in the wilderness and living by hunting and plunder, is a -nation. In order to be a nation, there must be a people with a code of -laws which they practise, and a government which they maintain. No vague -sense of some unwritten law, to which human nature, in its lowest -stages, doubtless feels some obligation, and no regulations -instinctively adopted for common defence, which the rudest people herded -together will always follow, are enough to constitute a nation. These -Indian tribes are not a nation, and nothing either in their history or -their condition could properly invest them with a treaty-making power. - -And yet when exigencies have seemed to require, we have treated them as -nations, and have pledged our own national faith in solemn covenant with -them. It were the baldest truism to say that this faith and covenant -should be fulfilled. Of course it should be fulfilled. It is to our own -unspeakable disgrace that we have so often failed therein. But it -becomes us wisely and honestly to inquire whether the spirit of these -agreements might not be falsified by their letter, and whether, in order -to give the Indian his real rights, it may not be necessary to set aside -prerogatives to which he might technically and formally lay claim. If -the Indian Territory and the Indian reservations have been given to -certain tribes as their possession forever, the sacredness of this -guarantee should not shut our eyes to the sacredness also of the real -interests of the people in whose behalf the guarantee was given. We -ought not to lose the substance in our efforts to retain the shadow; we -ought not to insist upon the _summum jus_, when this would become the -_summa injuria_. - -Of course the utmost caution is needed in the application of such a -principle. To admit that a treaty with the Indians may be set aside -without the consent of the Indians themselves, is to open the door again -to the same frauds and falsehoods which have so darkly branded a -"Century of Dishonor." But our great trouble has been that we have -sought to exact justice from the Indian while exhibiting no justice to -him; and when we shall manifest that all our procedure toward him is in -truth and uprightness, we need have no fear but that both his conscience -and his judgment will in the end approve. - - JULIUS H. SEELYE. - -AMHERST COLLEGE, _December 10, 1880_. - - - - - AUTHOR'S NOTE. - - -All the quotations in this book, where the name of the authority is not -cited, are from Official Reports of the War Department or the Department -of the Interior. - -The book gives, as its title indicates, only a sketch, and not a -history. - -To write in full the history of any one of these Indian communities, of -its forced migrations, wars, and miseries, would fill a volume by -itself. - -The history of the missionary labors of the different churches among the -Indians would make another volume. It is the one bright spot on the dark -record. - -All this I have been forced to leave untouched, in strict adherence to -my object, which has been simply to show our causes for national shame -in the matter of our treatment of the Indians. It is a shame which the -American nation ought not to lie under, for the American people, as a -people, are not at heart unjust. - -If there be one thing which they believe in more than any other, and -mean that every man on this continent shall have, it is "fair play." And -as soon as they fairly understand how cruelly it has been denied to the -Indian, they will rise up and demand it for him. - - H. H. - - - - - A CENTURY OF DISHONOR. - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - INTRODUCTORY. - - -The question of the honorableness of the United States' dealings with -the Indians turns largely on a much disputed and little understood -point. What was the nature of the Indians' right to the country in which -they were living when the continent of North America was discovered? -Between the theory of some sentimentalists that the Indians were the -real owners of the soil, and the theory of some politicians that they -had no right of ownership whatever in it, there are innumerable grades -and confusions of opinion. The only authority on the point must be the -view and usage as accepted by the great discovering Powers at the time -of discovery, and afterward in their disposition of the lands -discovered. - -Fortunately, an honest examination of these points leaves no doubt on -the matter. - -England, France, Spain, little Portugal—all quarrelling fiercely, and -fighting with each other for the biggest share in the new continent—each -claiming "sovereignty of the soil" by right of priority of discovery—all -recognized the Indians' "right of occupancy" as a right; a right -alienable in but two ways, either by purchase or by conquest. - -All their discussions as to boundaries, from 1603 down to 1776, -recognized this right and this principle. They reiterated, firstly, that -discoverers had the right of sovereignty—a right in so far absolute that -the discoverer was empowered by it not only to take possession of, but -to grant, sell, and convey lands still occupied by Indians—and that for -any nation to attempt to take possession of, grant, sell, or convey any -such Indian-occupied lands while said lands were claimed by other -nations under the right of discovery, was an infringement of rights, and -just occasion of war; secondly, that all this granting, selling, -conveying was to be understood to be "subject to the Indians' right of -occupancy," which remained to be extinguished either through further -purchase or through conquest by the grantee or purchaser. - -Peters, in his preface to the seventh volume of the "United States -Statutes at Large," says, "The history of America, from its discovery to -the present day, proves the universal recognition of these principles." - -Each discovering Power might regulate the relations between herself and -the Indians; but as to the existence of the Indians' "right of -occupancy," there was absolute unanimity among them. That there should -have been unanimity regarding any one thing between them, is remarkable. -It is impossible for us to realize what a sudden invitation to greed and -discord lay in this fair, beautiful, unclaimed continent—eight millions -of square miles of land—more than twice the size of all Europe itself. -What a lure to-day would such another new continent prove! The fighting -over it would be as fierce now as the fighting was then, and the "right -of occupancy" of the natives would stand small chance of such unanimous -recognition as the four Great Powers then justly gave it. - -Of the fairness of holding that ultimate sovereignty belonged to the -civilized discoverer, as against the savage barbarian, there is no -manner nor ground of doubt. To question this is feeble sentimentalism. -But to affirm and uphold this is not in any wise to overlook the lesser -right which remained; as good, of its kind, and to its extent, as was -the greater right to which, in the just nature of things, it was bound -to give way. - -It being clear, then, that the Indians' "right of occupancy" was a right -recognized by all the great discovering Powers, acted upon by them in -all their dispositions of lands here discovered, it remains next to -inquire whether the United States Government, on taking its place among -the nations, also recognized or accepted this Indian "right of -occupancy" as an actual right. Upon this point, also, there is no doubt. - -"By the treaty which concluded the War of our Revolution, Great Britain -relinquished all claims not only to the government, but to the -proprietary and territorial rights of the United States whose boundaries -were fixed in the second Article. By this treaty the powers of the -government and the right to soil which had previously been in Great -Britain passed definitely to these States. We had before taken -possession of them by declaring independence, but neither the -declaration of independence nor the treaty confirming it could give us -more than that which we before possessed, or to which Great Britain was -before entitled. It has never been doubted that either the United States -or the several States had a clear title to all the lands within the -boundary-lines described in the treaty, subject only to the Indian right -of occupancy, and that the exclusive right to extinguish that right was -vested in that government which might constitutionally exercise it."[1] - -Footnote 1: - - Peters, United States Statutes at Large, vol. vii. - -"Subject to the Indian right of occupancy." It is noticeable how -perpetually this phrase reappears. In their desire to define, assert, -and enforce the greater right, the "right of sovereignty," the makers, -interpreters, and recorders of law did not realize, probably, how -clearly and equally they were defining, asserting, and enforcing the -lesser right, the "right of occupancy." - -Probably they did not so much as dream that a time would come when even -this lesser right—this least of all rights, it would seem, which could -be claimed by, or conceded to, an aboriginal inhabitant of a country, -however savage—would be practically denied to our Indians. But if they -had foreseen such a time, they could hardly have left more explicit -testimony to meet the exigency. - -"The United States have unequivocally acceded to that great and broad -rule by which its civilized inhabitants now hold this country. They hold -and assert in themselves the title by which it was acquired. They -maintain, as all others have maintained, that discovery gave an -exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title of occupancy, either by -purchase or conquest, and gave also a right to such a degree of -sovereignty as the circumstances of the people would allow them to -exercise. - -"The power now possessed by the United States to grant lands resided, -while we were colonies, in the Crown or its grantees. The validity of -the titles given by either has never been questioned in our courts. It -has been exercised uniformly over territories in possession of the -Indians. The existence of this power must negative the existence of any -right which may conflict with and control it. An absolute title to lands -cannot exist at the same time in different persons or in different -governments. An absolute must be an exclusive title, or at least a title -which excludes all others not compatible with it. All our institutions -recognize the absolute title of the Crown, subject only to the Indian -right of occupancy, and recognize the absolute title of the Crown to -extinguish the right. This is incompatible with an absolute and complete -title in the Indians."[2] - -Footnote 2: - - Peters. - -Certainly. But it is also "incompatible with an absolute and perfect -title" in the white man! Here again, in their desire to define and -enforce the greater right, by making it so clear that it included the -lesser one, they equally define and enforce the lesser right as a thing -to be included. The word "subject" is a strong participle when it is -used legally. Provisions are made in wills, "subject to" a widow's right -of dower, for instance, and the provisions cannot be carried out without -the consent of the person to whom they are thus declared to be -"subject." A title which is pronounced to be "subject to" anything or -anybody cannot be said to be absolute till that subjection is removed. - -There have been some definitions and limitations by high legal authority -of the methods in which this Indian "right of occupancy" might be -extinguished even by conquest. - -"The title by conquest is acquired and maintained by force. The -conqueror prescribes its limits. Humanity, however, acting on public -opinion, has established as a general rule that the conquered shall not -be wantonly oppressed, and that their condition shall remain as eligible -as is compatible with the objects of the conquest. Usually they are -incorporated with the victorious nation, and become subjects or citizens -of the government with which they are connected. *** When this -incorporation is practicable, humanity demands, and a wise policy -requires, that the rights of the conquered to property should remain -unimpaired; that the new subjects should be governed as equitably as the -old. *** When the conquest is complete, and the conquered inhabitants -can be blended with the conquerors, or safely governed as a distinct -people, public opinion, which not even the conqueror can disregard, -imposes these restraints upon him, and he cannot neglect them without -injury to his fame, and hazard to his power."[3] - -Footnote 3: - - Peters, United States Statutes at Large, vol. vii. - -In the sadly famous case of the removal of the Cherokee tribe from -Georgia, it is recorded as the opinion of our Supreme Court that "the -Indians are acknowledged to have an unquestionable, and heretofore -unquestioned, right to the lands they occupy until that right shall be -extinguished by a voluntary cession to the Government." *** "The Indian -nations have always been considered as distinct independent political -communities, retaining their original natural rights as the undisputed -possessors of the soil, from time immemorial, with the single exception -of that imposed by irresistible power, which excluded them from -intercourse with any other European potentate than the first discoverer -of the coast of the particular region claimed; and this was a -restriction which those European potentates imposed on themselves as -well as on the Indians. The very term 'nation,' so generally applied to -them, means 'a people distinct from others.' The Constitution, by -declaring treaties already made, as well as those to be made, to be the -supreme law of the land, has adopted and sanctioned the previous -treaties with the Indian nations, and consequently admits their rank -among those powers who are capable of making treaties. The words -'treaty' and 'nation' are words of our own language, selected in our -diplomatic and legislative proceedings by ourselves, having each a -definite and well understood meaning. We have applied them to Indians as -we have applied them to other nations of the earth. They are applied to -all in the same sense."[4] - -Footnote 4: - - Worcester _vs._ State of Georgia, 6 Peters, 515. - -In another decision of the Supreme Court we find still greater emphasis -put upon the Indian right of occupancy, by stating it as a right, the -observance of which was stipulated for in treaties between the United -States and other nations. - -"When the United States acquired and took possession of the Floridas, -the treaties which had been made with the Indian tribes before the -acquisition of the territory by Spain and Great Britain remained in -force over all the ceded territory, as the law which regulated the -relations with all the Indians who were parties to them, and were -binding on the United States by the obligation they had assumed by the -Louisiana treaty as a supreme law of the land. - -"The treaties with Spain and England before the acquisition of Florida -by the United States, which guaranteed to the Seminole Indians their -lands, according to the right of property with which they possessed -them, were adopted by the United States, who thus became the protectors -of all the rights they (the Indians) had previously enjoyed, or could of -right enjoy, under Great Britain or Spain, as individuals or nations, by -any treaty to which the United States thus became parties in 1803. *** - -"The Indian right to the lands as property was not merely of possession; -that of alienation was concomitant; both were equally secured, -protected, and guaranteed by Great Britain and Spain, subject only to -ratification and confirmation by the license, charter, or deed from the -government representing the king." *** - -The laws made it necessary, when the Indians sold their lands, to have -the deeds presented to the governor for confirmation. The sales by the -Indians transferred the kind of right which they possessed; the -ratification of the sale by the governor must be regarded as a -relinquishment of the title of the Crown to the purchaser, and no -instance is known of refusal of permission to sell, or of the rejection -of an Indian sale.[5] - -Footnote 5: - - United States _vs._ Clark, 9 Peters, 168. - -"The colonial charters, a great portion of the individual grants by the -proprietary and royal governments, and a still greater portion by the -States of the Union after the Revolution, were made for lands within the -Indian hunting-grounds. North Carolina and Virginia, to a great extent, -paid their officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary War by such -grants, and extinguished the arrears due the army by similar means. It -was one of the great resources which sustained the war, not only by -those States but by other States. The ultimate fee, encumbered with the -right of occupancy, was in the Crown previous to the Revolution, and in -the States afterward, and subject to grant. This right of occupancy was -protected by the political power, and respected by the courts until -extinguished." *** "So the Supreme Court and the State courts have -uniformly held."[6] - -Footnote 6: - - Clark _vs._ Smith, 13 Peters. - -President Adams, in his Message of 1828, thus describes the policy of -the United States toward the Indians at that time: - -"At the establishment of the Federal Government the principle was -adopted of considering them as foreign and independent powers, and also -as proprietors of lands. As independent powers, we negotiated with them -by treaties; as proprietors, we purchased of them all the land which we -could prevail on them to sell; as brethren of the human race, rude and -ignorant, we endeavored to bring them to the knowledge of religion and -letters." - -Kent says: "The European nations which, respectively, established -colonies in America, assumed the ultimate dominion to be in themselves, -and claimed the exclusive right to grant a title to the soil, subject -only to the Indian right of occupancy. The natives were admitted to be -the rightful occupants of the soil, with a _legal_ as well as just claim -to retain possession of it, and to use it according to their own -discretion, though not to dispose of the soil at their own will, except -to the government claiming the right of pre-emption." *** "The United -States adopted the same principle; and their exclusive right to -extinguish the Indian title by purchase or conquest, and to grant the -soil and exercise such a degree of sovereignty as circumstances -required, has never been judicially questioned." - -Kent also says, after giving the Supreme Court decision in the case of -Johnson _vs._ M'Intosh: "The same court has since been repeatedly called -upon to discuss and decide great questions concerning Indian rights and -title, and the subject has of late become exceedingly grave and -momentous, affecting the faith and the character, if not the -tranquillity and safety, of the Government of the United States." - -In Gardner's "Institutes of International Law" the respective rights to -land of the Indians and the whites are thus summed up: "In our Union the -aborigines had only a possessory title, and in the original thirteen -States each owned in fee, _subject to the Indian right_, all ungranted -lands within their respective limits; and beyond the States the residue -of the ungranted lands were vested in fee in the United States, _subject -to the Indian possessory_ right, to the extent of the national limits." - -Dr. Walker, in his "American Law," makes a still briefer summary: "The -American doctrine on the subject of Indian title is briefly this: The -Indians have no fee in the lands they occupy. The fee is in the -Government. They cannot, of course, aliene them either to nations or -individuals, the exclusive right of pre-emption being in the Government. -Yet they have a qualified right of occupancy which can only be -_extinguished by treaty, and upon fair compensation_; until which they -are entitled to be protected in their possession." - -"Abbott's Digest," one of the very latest authorities, reiterates the -same principle: "The right of occupancy has been recognized in countless -ways, among others by many decisions of courts and opinions of -attorney-generals." - -It being thus established that the Indian's "right of occupancy" in his -lands was a right recognized by all the Great Powers discovering this -continent, and accepted by them as a right necessary to be extinguished -either by purchase or conquest, and that the United States, as a nation, -has also from the beginning recognized, accepted, and acted upon this -theory, it is next in order to inquire whether the United States has -dealt honorably or dishonorably by the Indians in this matter of their -recognized "right of occupancy." - -In regard to the actions of individuals there is rarely much room for -discussion whether they be honorable or dishonorable, the standard of -honor in men's conduct being, among the civilized, uniform, well -understood, and undisputed. Stealing, for instance, is everywhere held -to be dishonorable, as well as impolitic; lying, also, in all its forms; -breaking of promises and betrayals of trust are scorned even among the -most ignorant people. But when it comes to the discussion of the acts of -nations, there seems to be less clearness of conception, less uniformity -of standard of right and wrong, honor and dishonor. It is necessary, -therefore, in charging a government or nation with dishonorable conduct, -to show that its moral standard ought in nowise to differ from the moral -standard of an individual; that what is cowardly, cruel, base in a man, -is cowardly, cruel, base in a government or nation. To do this, it is -only needful to look into the history of the accepted "Law of Nations," -from the days of the Emperor Justinian until now. - -The Roman jurisconsults employed as synonymous, says Wheaton, "the two -expressions, 'jus gentium,' that law which is found among all the known -nations of the earth, and 'jus naturale,' founded on the general nature -of mankind; nevertheless, of these two forms of the same idea, the first -ought to be considered as predominant, since it as well as the 'jus -civile' was a positive law, the origin and development of which must be -sought for in history." - -Nations being simply, as Vattel defines them, "societies of men united -together," it is plain that, if there be such a thing as the "law of -nature," which men as individuals are bound to obey, that law is also -obligatory on the "societies" made up of men thus "united." - -Hobbes divides the law of nature into that of man and that of States, -saying, "The maxims of each of these laws are precisely the same; but as -States, once established, assume personal properties, that which is -termed the natural law when we speak of the duties of individuals is -called the law of nations when applied to whole nations or States." The -Emperor Justinian said, "The law of nations is common to the whole human -race." - -Grotius draws the distinction between the law of nature and the law of -nations thus: "When several persons at different times and in various -places maintain the same thing as certain, such coincidence of sentiment -must be attributed to some general cause. Now, in the questions before -us, that cause must necessarily be one or the other of these two—either -a just consequence drawn from natural principles, or a universal -consent; the former discovers to us the law of nature, and the latter -the law of nations." - -Vattel defines the "necessary law of nations" to be the "application of -the law of nature to nations." He says: "It is 'necessary,' because -nations are absolutely bound to observe it. This law contains the -precepts prescribed by the law of nature to States, on whom that law is -not less obligatory than on individuals; since States are composed of -men, their resolutions are taken by men, and the law of nations is -binding on all men, under whatever relation they act. This is the law -which Grotius, and those who follow him, call the Internal Law of -Nations, on account of its being obligatory on nations in the point of -conscience." - -Vattel says again: "Nations being composed of men naturally free and -independent, and who before the establishment of civil societies lived -together in the state of nature, nations or sovereign States are to be -considered as so many free persons living together in the state of -nature." - -And again: "Since men are naturally equal, and a perfect equality -prevails in their right and obligations as equally proceeding from -nature, nations composed of men, and considered as so many free persons -living together in the state of nature, are naturally equal, and inherit -from nature the same obligations and rights. Power or weakness does not -in this respect produce any difference. A dwarf is as much a man as a -giant; a small republic no less a sovereign State than the most powerful -kingdom." - -In these two last sentences is touched the key-note of the true law of -nations, as well as of the true law for individuals—justice. There is -among some of the later writers on jurisprudence a certain fashion of -condescending speech in their quotations from Vattel. As years have gone -on, and States have grown more powerful, and their relations more -complicated by reason of selfishness and riches, less and less has been -said about the law of nature as a component and unalterable part of the -law of nations. Fine subtleties of definition, of limitation have been -attempted. Hundreds of pages are full of apparently learned -discriminations between the parts of that law which are based on the law -of nature and the parts which are based on the consent and usage of -nations. But the two cannot be separated. No amount of legality of -phrase can do away with the inalienable truth underlying it. Wheaton and -President Woolsey to-day say, in effect, the same thing which Grotius -said in 1615, and Vattel in 1758. - -Says Wheaton: "International law, as understood among civilized nations, -may be defined as consisting of those rules of conduct which reason -deduces as consonant to justice from the nature of the society existing -among independent nations." - -President Woolsey says: "International law, in a wide and abstract -sense, would embrace those rules of intercourse between nations which -are deduced from their rights and moral claims; or, in other words, it -is the expression of the jural and moral relations of States to one -another. - -"If international law were not made up of rules for which reasons could -be given satisfactory to man's intellectual and moral nature, if it were -not built on principles of right, it would be even less of a science -than is the code which governs the actions of polite society." - -It is evident, therefore, that the one fundamental right, of which the -"law of nations" is at once the expression and the guardian, is the -right of every nation to just treatment from other nations, the right of -even the smallest republic equally with "the most powerful kingdom." -Just as the one fundamental right, of which civil law is the expression -and guardian, is the right of each individual to just treatment from -every other individual: a right indefeasible, inalienable, in nowise -lessened by weakness or strengthened by power—as majestic in the person -of "the dwarf" as in that of "the giant." - -Of justice, Vattel says: "Justice is the basis of all society, the sure -bond of all commerce. *** - -"All nations are under a strict obligation to cultivate justice toward -each other, to observe it scrupulously and carefully, to abstain from -anything that may violate it. *** - -"The right of refusing to submit to injustice, of resisting injustice by -force if necessary, is part of the law of nature, and as such recognized -by the law of nations. - -"In vain would Nature give us a right to refuse submitting to injustice, -in vain would she oblige others to be just in their dealings with us, if -we could not lawfully make use of force when they refused to discharge -this duty. The just would lie at the mercy of avarice and injustice, and -all their rights would soon become useless. From the foregoing right -arise, as two distinct branches, first, the right of a just defence, -which belongs to every nation, or the right of making war against -whoever attacks her and her rights; and this is the foundation of -defensive war. Secondly, the right to obtain justice by force, if we -cannot obtain it otherwise, or to pursue our right by force of arms. -This is the foundation of offensive war." - -Justice is pledged by men to each other by means of promises or -contracts; what promises and contracts are between men, treaties are -between nations. - -President Woolsey says: "A contract is one of the highest acts of human -free-will: it is the will binding itself in regard to the future, and -surrendering its right to change a certain expressed intention, so that -it becomes, morally and jurally, a wrong to act otherwise. - -"National contracts are even more solemn and sacred than private ones, -on account of the great interests involved; of the deliberateness with -which the obligations are assumed; of the permanence and generality of -the obligations, measured by the national life, and including thousands -of particular cases; and of each nation's calling, under God, to be a -teacher of right to all, within and without its borders." - -Vattel says: "It is a settled point in natural law that he who has made -a promise to any one has conferred upon him a real right to require the -thing promised; and, consequently, that the breach of a perfect promise -is a violation of another person's right, and as evidently an act of -injustice as it would be to rob a man of his property. *** - -"There would no longer be any security, no longer any commerce between -mankind, if they did not think themselves obliged to keep faith with -each other, and to perform their promises." - -It is evident that the whole weight of the recognized and accepted law -of nations is thrown on the side of justice between nation and nation, -and is the recognized and accepted standard of the obligation involved -in compacts between nation and nation. - -We must look, then, among the accepted declarations of the law of -nations for the just and incontrovertible measure of the shame of -breaking national compacts, and of the wickedness of the nations that -dare to do it. - -We shall go back to the earliest days of the world, and find no dissent -from, no qualification of the verdict of the infamy of such acts. Livy -says of leagues: "Leagues are such agreements as are made by the command -of the supreme power, and whereby the whole nation is made liable to the -wrath of God if they infringe it." - -Grotius opens his "Admonition," in conclusion of the third book of his -famous "Rights of War and Peace," as follows: "'For it is by faith,' -saith Cicero, 'that not commonwealths only, but that grand society of -nations is maintained.' 'Take away this,' saith Aristotle, 'and all -human commerce fails.' It is, therefore, an execrable thing to break -faith on which so many lives depend. 'It is,' saith Seneca, 'the best -ornament wherewith God hath beautified the rational soul; the strongest -support of human society, which ought so much the more inviolably to be -kept by sovereign princes by how much they may sin with greater license -and impunity than other men. Wherefore take away faith, and men are more -fierce and cruel than savage beasts, whose rage all men do horribly -dread. Justice, indeed, in all other of her parts hath something that is -obscure; but that whereunto we engage our faith is of itself clear and -evident; yea, and to this very end do men pawn their faith, that in -their negotiations one with another all doubts may be taken away, and -every scruple removed. How much more, then, doth it concern kings to -keep their faith inviolate, as well for conscience' sake as in regard to -their honor and reputation, wherein consists the authority of a -kingdom.'" - -Vattel says: "Treaties are no better than empty words, if nations do not -consider them as respectable engagements, as rules which are to be -inviolably observed by sovereigns, and held sacred throughout the whole -earth. - -"The faith of treaties—that firm and sincere resolution, that invariable -constancy in fulfilling our engagements, of which we make profession in -a treaty—is therefore to be held sacred and inviolable between the -nations of the earth, whose safety and repose it secures; and if mankind -be not wilfully deficient in their duty to themselves, infamy must ever -be the portion of him who violates his faith. *** - -"He who violates his treaties, violates at the same time the law of -nations, for he disregards the faith of treaties, that faith which the -law of nations declares sacred; and, so far as dependent on him, he -renders it vain and ineffectual. Doubly guilty, he does an injury to his -ally, and he does an injury to all nations, and inflicts a wound on the -great society of mankind. *** - -"On the observance and execution of treaties," said a respectable -sovereign, "depends all the security which princes and States have with -respect to each other, and no dependence could henceforward be placed in -future conventions if the existing ones were not to be observed." - -It is sometimes said, by those seeking to defend, or at least palliate, -the United States Government's repeated disregard of its treaties with -the Indians, that no Congress can be held responsible for the acts of -the Congress preceding it, or can bind the Congress following it; or, in -other words, that each Congress may, if it chooses, undo all that has -been done by previous Congresses. However true this may be of some -legislative acts, it is clearly not true, according to the principles of -international law, of treaties. - -On this point Vattel says: "Since public treaties, even those of a -personal nature, concluded by a king, or by another sovereign who is -invested with sufficient power, are treaties of State, and obligatory on -the whole nation, real treaties, which were intended to subsist -independently of the person who has concluded them, are undoubtedly -binding on his successors; and the obligation which such treaties impose -on the State passes successively to all her rulers as soon as they -assume the public authority. The case is the same with respect to the -rights acquired by those treaties. They are acquired for the State, and -successively pass to her conductors." - -Von Martens says: "Treaties, properly so called, are either personal or -real. They are personal when their continuation in force depends on the -person of the sovereign or his family, with whom they have been -contracted. They are real when their duration depends on the State, -independently of the person who contracts. Consequently, all treaties -between republics must be real. All treaties made for a time specified -or forever are real. *** - -"This division is of the greatest importance, because real treaties -never cease to be obligatory, except in cases where all treaties become -invalid. Every successor to the sovereignty, in virtue of whatever title -he may succeed, is obliged to observe them without their being renewed -at his accession." - -Wheaton says: "They (treaties) continue to bind the State, whatever -intervening changes may take place in its internal constitution or in -the persons of its rulers. The State continues the same, notwithstanding -such change, and consequently the treaty relating to national objects -remains in force so long as the nation exists as an independent State." - -There is no disagreement among authorities on this point. It is also -said by some, seeking to defend or palliate the United States -Government's continuous violations of its treaties with the Indians, -that the practice of all nations has been and is to abrogate a treaty -whenever it saw good reason for doing so. This is true; but the treaties -have been done away with in one of two ways, either by a mutual and -peaceful agreement to that effect between the parties who had made -it—the treaty being considered in force until the consent of both -parties to its abrogation had been given—or by a distinct avowal on the -part of one nation of its intention no longer to abide by it, and to -take, therefore, its chances of being made war upon in consequence. -Neither of these courses has been pursued by the United States -Government in its treaty-breaking with the Indians. - -Vattel says, on the dissolution of treaties: "Treaties may be dissolved -by mutual consent at the free-will of the contracting powers." - -Grotius says: "If either party violate the League, the other party is -freed; because each Article of the League hath the form and virtue of a -condition." - -Kent says: "The violation of any one article of a treaty is a violation -of the whole treaty. *** - -"It is a principle of universal jurisprudence that a compact cannot be -rescinded by one party only, if the other party does not consent to -rescind it, and does no act to destroy it. *** - -"To recommence a war by breach of the articles of peace, is deemed much -more odious than to provoke a war by some new demand or aggression; for -the latter is simply injustice, but in the former case the party is -guilty both of perfidy and injustice." - -It is also said, with unanswerable irrelevancy, by some who seek to -defend or palliate the United States Government's continuous violation -of its treaties with the Indians, that it was, in the first place, -absurd to make treaties with them at all, to consider them in any sense -as treaty-making powers or nations. The logic of this assertion, made as -a justification for the breaking of several hundred treaties, concluded -at different times during the last hundred years, and broken as fast as -concluded, seems almost equal to that of the celebrated defence in the -case of the kettle, which was cracked when it was lent, whole when -returned, and, in fact, was never borrowed at all. It would be a waste -of words to reason with minds that can see in this position any shelter -for the United States Government against the accusation of perfidy in -its treaty relations with the Indians. - -The statement is undoubtedly a true one, that the Indians, having been -placed in the anomalous position as tribes, of "domestic dependent -nations," and as individuals, in the still more anomalous position of -adult "wards," have not legally possessed the treaty-making power. Our -right to put them, or to consider them to be in those anomalous -positions, might be successfully disputed; but they, helpless, having -accepted such positions, did, no doubt, thereby lose their right to be -treated with as nations. Nevertheless, that is neither here nor there -now: as soon as our Government was established, it proceeded to treat -with them as nations by name and designation, and with precisely the -same forms and ratifications that it used in treating with other -nations; and it continued to treat with them as nations by name and -designation, and with continually increasing solemnity of asseveration -of good intent and good faith, for nearly a century. The robbery, the -cruelty which were done under the cloak of this hundred years of -treaty-making and treaty-breaking, are greater than can be told. Neither -mountains nor deserts stayed them; it took two seas to set their bounds. - -In 1871, Congress, either ashamed of making treaties only to break them, -or grudging the time, money, and paper it wasted, passed an act to the -effect that no Indian tribe should hereafter be considered as a foreign -nation with whom the United States might contract by treaty. There seems -to have been at the time, in the minds of the men who passed this act, a -certain shadowy sense of some obligation being involved in treaties; for -they added to the act a proviso that it should not be construed as -invalidating any treaties already made. But this sense of obligation -must have been as short-lived as shadowy, and could have had no element -of shame in it, since they forthwith proceeded, unabashed, to negotiate -still more treaties with Indians, and break them; for instance, the -so-called "Brunot Treaty" with the Ute Indians in Colorado, and one with -the Crow Indians in Montana—both made in the summer of 1873. They were -called at the time "conventions" or "agreements," and not "treaties;" -but the difference is only in name. - -They stated, in a succession of numbered articles, promises of payment -of moneys, and surrenders and cessions of land, by both parties; were to -be ratified by Congress before taking effect; and were understood by the -Indians agreeing to them to be as binding as if they had been called -treaties. The fact that no man's sense of justice openly revolted -against such subterfuges, under the name of agreements, is only to be -explained by the deterioration of the sense of honor in the nation. In -the days of Grotius there were men who failed to see dishonor in a trick -if profit came of it, and of such he wrote in words whose truth might -sting to-day as, no doubt, it stung then: - -"Whereas there are many that think it superfluous to require that -justice from a free people or their governors which they exact daily -from private men, the ground of this error is this: because these men -respect nothing in the law but the profit that ariseth from it, which in -private persons, being single and unable to defend themselves, is plain -and evident; but for great cities, that seem to have within themselves -all things necessary for their own well-being, it doth not so plainly -appear that they have any need of that virtue called justice which -respects strangers." - -These extracts from unquestioned authorities on international law prove -that we may hold nations to standards of justice and good faith as we -hold men; that the standards are the same in each case; and that a -nation that steals and lies and breaks promises, will no more be -respected or unpunished than a man who steals and lies and breaks -promises. It is possible to go still farther than this, and to show that -a nation habitually guilty of such conduct might properly be dealt with -therefore by other nations, by nations in no wise suffering on account -of her bad faith, except as all nations suffer when the interests of -human society are injured. - -"The interest of human society," says Vattel, "would authorize all the -other nations to form a confederacy, in order to humble and chastise the -delinquent." *** When a nation "regards no right as sacred, the safety -of the human race requires that she should be repressed. To form and -support an unjust pretension is not only doing an injury to the party -whose interests are affected by that pretension; but to despise justice -in general is doing an injury to all nations." - -The history of the United States Government's repeated violations of -faith with the Indians thus convicts us, as a nation, not only of having -outraged the principles of justice, which are the basis of international -law; and of having laid ourselves open to the accusation of both cruelty -and perfidy; but of having made ourselves liable to all punishments -which follow upon such sins—to arbitrary punishment at the hands of any -civilized nation who might see fit to call us to account, and to that -more certain natural punishment which, sooner or later, as surely comes -from evil-doing as harvests come from sown seed. - -To prove all this it is only necessary to study the history of any one -of the Indian tribes. I propose to give in the following chapters merely -outline sketches of the history of a few of them, not entering more into -details than is necessary to show the repeated broken faith of the -United States Government toward them. A full history of the wrongs they -have suffered at the hands of the authorities, military and civil, and -also of the citizens of this country, it would take years to write and -volumes to hold. - -There is but one hope of righting this wrong. It lies in appeal to the -heart and the conscience of the American people. What the people demand, -Congress will do. It has been—to our shame be it spoken—at the demand of -part of the people that all these wrongs have been committed, these -treaties broken, these robberies done, by the Government. - -So long as there remains on our frontier one square mile of land -occupied by a weak and helpless owner, there will be a strong and -unscrupulous frontiersman ready to seize it, and a weak and unscrupulous -politician, who can be hired for a vote or for money, to back him. - -The only thing that can stay this is a mighty outspoken sentiment and -purpose of the great body of the people. Right sentiment and right -purpose in a Senator here and there, and a Representative here and -there, are little more than straws which make momentary eddies, but do -not obstruct the tide. The precedents of a century's unhindered and -profitable robbery have mounted up into a very Gibraltar of defence and -shelter to those who care for nothing but safety and gain. That such -precedents should be held, and openly avowed as standards, is only one -more infamy added to the list. Were such logic employed in the case of -an individual man, how quick would all men see its enormity. Suppose -that a man had had the misfortune to be born into a family whose name -had been blackened by generations of criminals; that his father, his -grandfather, and his great-grandfather before them had lived in prisons, -and died on scaffolds, should that man say in his soul, "Go to! What is -the use? I also will commit robbery and murder, and get the same gain by -it which my family must have done?" Or shall he say in his soul, "God -help me! I will do what may be within the power of one man, and the -compass of one generation, to atone for the wickedness, and to make -clean the name of my dishonored house!" - -What an opportunity for the Congress of 1880 to cover itself with a -lustre of glory, as the first to cut short our nation's record of -cruelties and perjuries! the first to attempt to redeem the name of the -United States from the stain of a century of dishonor! - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - THE DELAWARES. - - -When Hendrik Hudson anchored his ship, the _Half Moon_, off New York -Island in 1609, the Delawares stood in great numbers on the shore to -receive him, exclaiming, in their innocence, "Behold! the gods have come -to visit us!" - -More than a hundred years later, the traditions of this event were still -current in the tribe. The aged Moravian missionary, Heckewelder, writing -in 1818, says: - -"I at one time, in April, 1787, was astonished when I heard one of their -orators, a great chief of the Delawares, Pachgants-chilias by name, go -over this ground, recapitulating the most extraordinary events which had -before happened, and concluding in these words: 'I admit that there are -good white men, but they bear no proportion to the bad; the bad must be -the strongest, for they rule. They do what they please. They enslave -those who are not of their color, although created by the same Great -Spirit who created them. They would make slaves of us if they could; but -as they cannot do it, they kill us. There is no faith to be placed in -their words. They are not like the Indians, who are only enemies while -at war, and are friends in peace. They will say to an Indian, "My -friend; my brother!" They will take him by the hand, and, at the same -moment, destroy him. And so you' (he was addressing himself to the -Christian Indians at Gnadenhütten, Pennsylvania) 'will also be treated -by them before long. Remember that this day I have warned you to beware -of such friends as these. I know the Long-knives. They are not to be -trusted.'" - -The original name of the Delawares was Lenni Lenape, or "original -people." They were also called by the Western tribes Wapenachki, "people -at the rising of the sun." When the name "Delawares" was given to them -by the whites, they at first resented it; but being told that they, and -also one of their rivers, were thus named after a great English -brave—Lord De la Warre—they were much pleased, and willingly took the -name. Their lands stretched from the Hudson River to the Potomac. They -were a noble-spirited but gentle people; much under the control of the -arrogant and all-powerful Iroquois, who had put upon them the -degradation of being called "women," and being forced to make war or -give up land at the pleasure of their masters. - -During William Penn's humane administration of the affairs of -Pennsylvania, the Delawares were his most devoted friends. They called -him Mignon, or Elder Brother. - -"From his first arrival in their country," says Heckewelder, "a -friendship was formed between them, which was to last as long as the sun -should shine, and the rivers flow with water. That friendship would -undoubtedly have continued to the end of time, had their good brother -always remained among them." - -In the French and Indian war of 1755 many of them fought on the side of -the French against the English; and in the beginning of our -Revolutionary war the majority of them sided with the English against -us. - -Most of the memorable Indian massacres which happened during this period -were the result of either French or English influence. Neither nation -was high-minded enough to scorn availing herself of savage allies to do -bloody work which she would not have dared to risk national reputation -by doing herself. This fact is too much overlooked in the habitual -estimates of the barbarous ferocity of the Indian character as shown by -those early massacres.[7] - -Footnote 7: - - See Appendix, Art. X. - -The United States' first treaty with the Delawares was made in 1778, at -Fort Pitt. The parties to it were said to be "the United States and the -Delaware Nation." It stipulates that there shall be peace, and that the -troops of the United States may pass "through the country of the -Delaware Nation," upon paying the full value of any supplies they may -use. It further says that, "Whereas the enemies of the United States -have endeavored by every artifice to possess the Indians with an opinion -that it is our design to extirpate them, and take possession of their -country; to obviate such false suggestions, the United States guarantee -to said nation of Delawares, and their heirs, all their territorial -rights in the fullest and most ample manner as bounded by former -treaties." - -The treaty also provides that, "should it for the future be found -conducive for the mutual interest of both parties to invite any other -tribes who have been friends to the interests of the United States to -join the present confederation and form a State, whereof the Delaware -Nation shall be the head," it shall be done; and the Delawares shall be -entitled to send a representative to Congress.[8] - -Footnote 8: - - It is superfluous to say that these provisions were never carried out. - -The Delawares agreed to send all the warriors they could spare to fight -for us, and that there should be peace and perpetual friendship. - -At this time the rest of the Ohio tribes, most of the New York tribes, -and a large part of the Delawares were in arms on the British side. When -the war of the Revolution was concluded, they were all forced to make -peace as best they could with us; and in our first treaty we provided -for the reinstating in the Delaware Nation of the chiefs and headmen who -had made that old alliance with us; they having lost caste in their -tribe for having fought on our side. - -"It is agreed," says the final Article of the treaty, "that the Delaware -chiefs, Kelelamand, or Lieut.-colonel Henry, Henque Pushees, or the Big -Cat, and Wicocalind, or Captain White Eyes, who took up the hatchet for -the United States, and their families, shall be received into the -Delaware Nation in the same situation and rank as before the war, and -enjoy their due portions of the lands given to the Wyandotte and -Delaware nations in this treaty, as fully as if they had not taken part -with America, or as any other person or persons in the said nations." - -This Captain White Eyes had adhered to our cause in spite of great -opposition from the hostile part of the tribe. At one time he was -threatened with a violent death if he should dare to say one word for -the American cause; but by spirited harangues he succeeded in keeping -the enthusiasm of his own party centred around himself, and finally -carrying them over to the side of the United States. Some of his -speeches are on record, and are worthy to be remembered: - -"If you will go out in this war," he said to them at one time, when the -band were inclined to join the British, "you shall not go without me. I -have taken peace measures, it is true, with the view of saving my tribe -from destruction; but if you think me in the wrong, if you give more -credit to runaway vagabonds than to your own friends—to a man, to a -warrior, to a Delaware—if you insist on fighting the Americans—go! and I -will go with you. And I will not go like the bear-hunter, who sets his -dogs on the animal to be beaten about with his paws, while he keeps -himself at a safe distance. No; I will lead you on; I will place myself -in the front; I will fall with the first of you! You can do as you -choose; but as for me, I will not survive my nation. I will not live to -bewail the miserable destruction of a brave people, who deserved, as you -do, a better fate." - -Were there many speeches made by commanders to their troops in those -revolutionary days with which these words do not compare favorably? - -This treaty, by which our faithful ally, Wicocalind, was reinstated in -his tribal rank, was made at Fort M'Intosh in 1785. The Wyandottes, -Chippewas, and Ottawas, as well as the Delawares, joined in it. They -acknowledged themselves and all their tribes to be "under the protection -of the United States, and of no other sovereign whatsoever." The United -States Government reserved "the post of Detroit" and an outlying -district around it; also, the post at Michilimackinac, with a -surrounding district of twelve miles square, and some other reserves for -trading-posts. - -The Indians' lands were comprised within lines partly indicated by the -Cuyahoga, Big Miami, and Ohio rivers and their branches; it fronted on -Lake Erie; and if "any citizen of the United States," or "any other -person not an Indian," attempted "to settle on any of the lands allotted -to the Delaware and Wyandotte nations in this treaty"—the fifth Article -of the treaty said—"the Indians may punish him as they please." - -Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, all are largely made up of the -lands which were by this first treaty given to the Indians. - -Five years later, by another treaty at Fort Harmar, the provisions of -this treaty were reiterated, the boundaries somewhat changed and more -accurately defined. The privilege of hunting on all the lands reserved -to the United States was promised to the Indians "without hinderance or -molestation, so long as they behaved themselves peaceably;" and "that -nothing may interrupt the peace and harmony now established between the -United States and the aforesaid nations," it was promised in one of the -articles that white men committing offences or murders on Indians should -be punished in the same way as Indians committing such offences. - -The year before this treaty Congress had resolved that "the sum of -$20,000, in addition to the $14,000 already appropriated, be -appropriated for defraying the expenses of the treaties which have been -ordered, or which may be ordered to be held, in the present year, with -the several Indian tribes in the Northern Department; and for -extinguishing the Indian claims, the whole of the said $20,000, together -with $6,000 of the said $14,000, to be applied solely to the purpose of -extinguishing Indian claims to the lands they have already ceded to the -United States by obtaining regular conveyances for the same, and for -extending a purchase beyond the limits hitherto fixed by treaty." - -Here is one of the earliest records of the principle and method on which -the United States Government first began its dealings with Indians. -"Regular conveyances," "extinguishing claims" by "extending purchase." -These are all the strictest of legal terms, and admit of no double -interpretations. - -The Indians had been much dissatisfied ever since the first treaties -were made. They claimed that they had been made by a few only, -representing a part of the tribe; and, in 1786, they had held a great -council on the banks of the Detroit River, and sent a message to -Congress, of which the following extracts will show the spirit. - -They said: "It is now more than three years since peace was made between -the King of Great Britain and you; but we, the Indians, were -disappointed, finding ourselves not included in that peace according to -our expectations, for we thought that its conclusion would have promoted -a friendship between the United States and the Indians, and that we -might enjoy that happiness that formerly subsisted between us and our -Elder Brethren. We have received two very agreeable messages from the -Thirteen United States. We also received a message from the king, whose -war we were engaged in, desiring us to remain quiet, which we -accordingly complied with. During this time of tranquillity we were -deliberating the best method we could to form a lasting reconciliation -with the Thirteen United States. *** We are still of the same opinion as -to the means which may tend to reconcile us to each other; and we are -sorry to find, although we had the best thoughts in our minds during the -before-mentioned period, mischief has nevertheless happened between you -and us. We are still anxious of putting our plan of accommodation into -execution, and we shall briefly inform you of the means that seem most -probable to us of effecting a firm and lasting peace and reconciliation, -the first step toward which should, in our opinion, be that all treaties -carried on with the United States on our parts should be with the -general will of the whole confederacy, and carried on in the most open -manner, without any restraint on either side; and especially as landed -matters are often the subject of our councils with you—a matter of the -greatest importance and of general concern to us—in this case we hold it -indisputably necessary that any cession of our lands should be made in -the most public manner, and by the united voice of the confederacy, -holding all partial treaties as void and of no effect. *** We say, let -us meet half-way, and let us pursue such steps as become upright and -honest men. We beg that you will prevent your surveyors and other people -from coming upon our side of the Ohio River." - -These are touching words, when we remember that only the year before the -United States had expressly told these Indians that if any white -citizens attempted to settle on their lands they might "punish them as -they pleased." - -"We have told you before we wished to pursue just steps, and we are -determined they shall appear just and reasonable in the eyes of the -world. This is the determination of all the chiefs of our confederacy -now assembled here, notwithstanding the accidents that have happened in -our villages, even when in council, where several innocent chiefs were -killed when absolutely engaged in promoting a peace with you, the -Thirteen United States." - -The next year the President instructed the governor of the territory -northwest of the Ohio to "examine carefully into the real temper of the -Indian tribes" in his department, and says: "The treaties which have -been made may be examined, but must not be departed from, unless a -change of boundary beneficial to the United States can be obtained." He -says also: "You will not neglect any opportunity that may offer of -extinguishing the Indian rights to the westward, _as far as the -Mississippi_." - -Beyond that river even the wildest dream of greed did not at that time -look. - -The President adds, moreover: "You may stipulate that any white persons -going over the said boundaries without a license from the proper -officers of the United States may be treated in such manner as the -Indians may see fit." - -I have not yet seen, in any accounts of the Indian hostilities on the -North-western frontier during this period, any reference to those -repeated permissions given by the United States to the Indians, to -defend their lands as they saw fit. Probably the greater number of the -pioneer settlers were as ignorant of these provisions in Indian treaties -as are the greater number of American citizens to-day, who are honestly -unaware—and being unaware, are therefore incredulous—that the Indians -had either provocation or right to kill intruders on their lands. - -At this time separate treaties were made with the Six Nations, and the -governor says that these treaties were made separately because of the -jealousy and hostility existing between them and the Delawares, -Wyandottes, etc., which he is "not willing to lessen," because it -weakens their power. "Indeed," he frankly adds, "it would not be very -difficult, if circumstances required it, to set them at deadly -variance." - -Thus early in our history was the ingenious plan evolved of first -maddening the Indians into war, and then falling upon them with -exterminating punishment. The gentleman who has left on the official -records of his country his claim to the first suggestion and -recommendation of this method is "Arthur St. Clair, governor of the -territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River, and -commissioner plenipotentiary of the United States of America for -removing all causes of controversy, regulating trade, and settling -boundaries with the Indian nations in the Northern Department." - -Under all these conditions, it is not a matter of wonder that the -frontier was a scene of perpetual devastation and bloodshed; and that, -year by year, there grew stronger in the minds of the whites a terror -and hatred of Indians; and in the minds of the Indians a stronger and -stronger distrust and hatred of the whites. - -The Delawares were, through the earlier part of these troubled times, -friendly. In 1791 we find the Secretary of War recommending the -commissioners sent to treat with the hostile Miamis and Wabash Indians -to stop by the way with the friendly Delawares, and take some of their -leading chiefs with them as allies. He says, "these tribes are our -friends," and, as far as is known, "the treaties have been well observed -by them." - -But in 1792 we find them mentioned among the hostile tribes to whom was -sent a message from the United States Government, containing the -following extraordinary paragraphs: - -"Brethren: The President of the United States entertains the opinion -that the war which exists is an error and mistake on your parts. That -you believe the United States want to deprive you of your lands, and -drive you out of the country. _Be assured that this is not so_; on the -contrary, that we should be greatly gratified with the opportunity of -imparting to you all the blessings of civilized life; of teaching you to -cultivate the earth, and raise corn; to raise oxen, sheep, and other -domestic animals; to build comfortable houses; and to educate your -children so as ever to dwell upon the land. - -"Consult, therefore, upon the great object of peace; call in your -parties, and enjoin a cessation of all further depredations; and as many -of the principal chiefs as shall choose repair to Philadelphia, the seat -of the Great Government, and there make a peace founded on the -principles of justice and humanity. _Remember that no additional lands -will be required of you, or any other tribe, to those that have been -ceded by former treaties._" - -It was in this same year, also, that General Putnam said to them, in a -speech at Post Vincennes: "The United States don't mean to wrong you out -of your lands. They don't want to take away your lands by force. They -want to do you justice." And the venerable missionary, Heckewelder, who -had journeyed all the way from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to try to help -bring about peace, said to them, "The great chief who has spoken to you -is a good man. He loves you, and will always speak the truth to you. I -wish you to listen to his words, and do as he desires you." - -In 1793 a great council was held, to which came the chiefs and headmen -of the Delawares, and of twelve other tribes, to meet commissioners of -the United States, for one last effort to settle the vexed boundary -question. The records of this council are profoundly touching. The -Indians reiterated over and over the provisions of the old treaties -which had established the Ohio River as one of their boundaries. Their -words were not the words of ignorant barbarians, clumsily and doggedly -holding to a point; they were the words of clear-headed, statesman-like -rulers, insisting on the rights of their nations. As the days went on, -and it became more and more clear that the United States commissioners -would not agree to the establishment of the boundary for which the -Indians contended, the speeches of the chiefs grow sadder and sadder. -Finally, in desperation, as a last hope, they propose to the -commissioners that all the money which the United States offers to pay -to them for their lands shall be given to the white settlers to induce -them to move away. They say: - -"Money to us is of no value, and to most of us unknown; and as no -consideration whatever can induce us to sell the lands on which we get -sustenance for our women and children, we hope we may be allowed to -point out a mode by which your settlers may be easily removed, and peace -thereby obtained. - -"We know that these settlers are poor, or they would never have ventured -to live in a country which has been in continual trouble ever since they -crossed the Ohio. Divide, therefore, this large sum of money which you -have offered us among these people; give to each, also, a proportion of -what you say you would give to us annually, over and above this very -large sum of money, and we are persuaded they would most readily accept -of it in lieu of the lands you sold them. If you add, also, the great -sums you must expend in raising and paying armies with a view to force -us to yield you our country, you will certainly have more than -sufficient for the purpose of repaying these settlers for all their -labor and their improvements. - -"You have talked to us about concessions. It appears strange that you -should expect any from us, who have only been defending our just rights -against your invasions. We want peace. Restore to us our country, and we -shall be enemies no longer. - -"*** We desire you to consider, brothers, that our only demand is the -peaceable possession of a small part of our once great country. Look -back and review the lands from whence we have been driven to this spot. -We can retreat no farther, because the country behind hardly affords -food for its present inhabitants, and we have therefore resolved to -leave our bones in this small space to which we are now confined." - -The commissioners replied that to make the Ohio River the boundary was -now impossible; that they sincerely regretted that peace could not be -made; but, "knowing the upright and liberal views of the United States," -they trust that "impartial judges will not attribute the continuance of -the war to them." - -Notice was sent to the governor that the Indians "refused to make -peace;" and General Anthony Wayne, a few weeks later, wrote to the -Secretary of War, "The safety of the Western frontiers, the reputation -of the legion, the dignity and interest of the nation—all forbid a -retrograde manœuvre, or giving up one inch of ground we now possess, -till the enemy are compelled to sue for peace." - -The history of the campaigns that followed is to be found in many -volumes treating of the pioneer life of Ohio and other North-western -States. One letter of General Wayne's to the Secretary of War, in -August, 1794, contains a paragraph which is interesting, as showing the -habits and method of life of the people whom we at this time, by force -of arms, drove out from their homes—homes which we had only a few years -before solemnly guaranteed to them, even giving them permission to -punish any white intruders there as they saw fit. By a feint of -approaching Grand Glaize through the Miami villages, General Wayne -surprised the settlement, and the Indians, being warned by a deserter, -had barely time to flee for their lives. What General Wayne had intended -to do may be inferred from this sentence in his letter: "I have good -grounds to conclude that the defection of this villain prevented the -enemy from receiving a fatal blow at this place when least expected." - -However, he consoles himself by the fact that he has "gained possession -of the grand emporium of the hostile Indians of the West without loss of -blood. The very extensive and highly cultivated fields and gardens show -the work of many hands. The margins of those beautiful rivers—the -Miamis, of the Lake, and Au Glaize—appear like one continued village for -a number of miles, both above and below this place; nor have I ever -before beheld such immense fields of corn in any part of America, from -Canada to Florida." - -All these villages were burnt, and all these cornfields destroyed; the -Indians were followed up and defeated in a sharp fight. The British -agents did their best to keep them hostile, and no inconsiderable aid -was furnished to them from Canada. But after a winter of suffering and -hunger, and great vacillations of purpose, they finally decided to yield -to the inevitable, and in the summer of 1795 they are to be found once -more assembled in council, for the purpose of making a treaty; once more -to be told by the representatives of the United States Government that -"the heart of General Washington, the Great Chief of America, wishes for -nothing so much as peace and brotherly love;" that "such is the justice -and liberality of the United States," that they will now a third time -pay for lands; and that they are "acting the part of a tender father to -them and their children in thus providing for them not only at present, -but forever." - -Eleven hundred and thirty Indians (eleven tribes, besides the Delawares, -being represented) were parties to this treaty. By this treaty nearly -two-thirds of the present State of Ohio were ceded to the United States; -and, in consideration of these "cessions and relinquishments, and to -manifest the liberality of the United States as the great means of -rendering this peace strong and perpetual," the United States -relinquished all claims "to all other Indian lands northward of the -River Ohio, eastward of the Mississippi, and westward and southward of -the Great Lakes and the waters uniting them, according to the boundary -line agreed upon by the United States and the King of Great Britain, in -the treaty of peace made between them in the year 1783," with the -exception of four tracts of land. But it was stated to the Indians that -these reservations were not made "to annoy or impose the smallest degree -of restraint on them in the quiet enjoyment and full possession of their -lands," but simply to "connect the settlements of the people of the -United States," and "to prove convenient and advantageous to the -different tribes of Indians residing and hunting in their vicinity." - -The fifth Article of the treaty is: "To prevent any misunderstanding -about the Indian lands now relinquished by the United States, it is -explicitly declared that the meaning of that relinquishment is this: -that the Indian tribes who have a right to those lands are quietly to -enjoy them—hunting, planting, and dwelling thereon _so long as they -please_ without any molestation from the United States; but when those -tribes, or any of them, shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any -part of them, they are to be sold only to the United States; and until -such sale the United States will protect all the said Indian tribes in -the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens of the United -States, and against all other white persons who intrude on the same." - -The sixth Article reiterates the old pledge, proved by the last three -years to be so worthless—that, "If any citizen of the United States, or -any other white person or persons, shall presume to settle upon the -lands now relinquished by the United States, such citizen or other -person shall be out of the protection of the United States; and the -Indian tribe on whose land the settlement may be made may drive off the -settler, or punish him in such manner as they shall think fit." - -The seventh Article gives the Indians the liberty "to hunt within the -territory and lands which they have now ceded to the United States, -without hinderance or molestation, so long as they demean themselves -peaceably." - -The United States agreed to pay to the Indians twenty thousand dollars' -worth of goods at once; and "henceforward, every year, forever, useful -goods to the value of nine thousand five hundred dollars." Peace was -declared to be "established" and "perpetual." - -General Wayne told the Indians that they might believe him, for he had -never, "in a public capacity, told a lie;" and one of the Indians said, -with much more dignity, "The Great Spirit above hears us, and I trust we -shall not endeavor to deceive each other." - -In 1813, by a treaty at Vincennes, the bounds of the reservation of the -Post of St. Vincennes were defined, and the Indians, "as a mark of their -regard and attachment to the United States, relinquished to the United -States the great salt spring on the Saline Creek." - -In less than a year we made still another treaty with them for the -extinguishment of their title to a tract of land between the Ohio and -the Wabash rivers (which they sold to us for a ten years' annuity of -three hundred dollars, which was to be "exclusively appropriated to -ameliorating their condition and promoting their civilization"); and in -one year more still another treaty, in which a still further cession of -land was made for a permanent annuity of one thousand dollars. - -In August of this year General Harrison writes to the Secretary of War -that there are great dissensions between the Delawares and Miamis in -regard to some of the ceded lands, the Miamis claiming that they had -never consented to give them up. General Harrison observes the most -exact neutrality in this matter, but says, "A knowledge of the value of -land is fast gaining ground among the Indians," and negotiations are -becoming in consequence much more difficult. In the course of this -controversy, "one of the chiefs has said that he knew a great part of -the land was worth six dollars an acre." - -It is only ten years since one of the chiefs of these same tribes had -said, "Money is to us of no value." However, they must be yet very far -from having reached any true estimate of real values, as General -Harrison adds: "From the best calculation I have been able to make, the -tract now ceded contains at least two millions of acres, and embraces -some of the finest lands in the Western country." - -Cheap at one thousand dollars a year!—even with the negro man thrown in, -which General Harrison tells the Secretary he has ordered Captain Wells -to purchase, and present to the chief, The Turtle, and to draw on the -United States Treasury for the amount paid for him. - -Four years later (1809) General Harrison is instructed by the President -"to take advantage of the most favorable moment for extinguishing the -Indian title to the lands lying east of the Wabash, and adjoining -south;" and the title was extinguished by the treaty of Fort Wayne—a -little more money paid, and a great deal of land given up. - -In 1814 we made a treaty, simply of peace and friendship, with the -Delawares and several other tribes: they agreeing to fight faithfully on -our side against the English, and we agreeing to "confirm and establish -all the boundaries" as they had existed before the war. - -In 1817 it was deemed advisable to make an effort to "extinguish the -Indian title to all the lands claimed by them within the limits of the -State of Ohio". Two commissioners were appointed, with great -discretionary powers; and a treaty was concluded early in the autumn, by -which there was ceded to the United States nearly all the land to which -the Indians had claim in Ohio, a part of Indiana, and a part of -Michigan. This treaty was said by the Secretary of War to be "the most -important of any hitherto made with the Indians." "The extent of the -cession far exceeded" his most sanguine expectations, and he had the -honesty to admit that "there can be no real or well-founded objection to -the amount of the compensation given for it, except that it is not an -adequate one." - -The commissioners who negotiated the treaty were apprehensive that they -would be accused of having made too liberal terms with the Indians, and -in their report to the department they enumerate apologetically the -reasons which made it impossible for them to get the land cheaper. Mr. -Cass says of the terms: "Under any circumstances, they will fall -infinitely short of the pecuniary and political value of the country -obtained." - -The Indians, parties to this treaty, surrendered by it almost the last -of their hunting-grounds, and would soon be driven to depending wholly -upon the cultivation of the soil. - -In 1818 the Delawares again ceded land to the United States—ceded all to -which they laid claim in the State of Indiana—and the United States -promised to provide for them "a country to reside in on the west side of -the Mississippi," and "to guarantee to them the peaceable possession" of -the same. They were to have four thousand dollars a year in addition to -all the sums promised by previous treaties, and they were to be allowed -to remain three years longer by sufferance in their present homes. The -Government also agreed to pay them for their improvements on their -lands, to give them a hundred and twenty horses, and a "sufficient -number of pirogues to aid in transporting them to the west side of the -Mississippi;" also provisions for the journey. - -In 1829 a supplementary Article was added to this treaty. The United -States Government began to show traces of compunction and pity. The -Article says, "Whereas the Delaware Nation are now willing to remove," -it is agreed upon that the country in the fork of the Kansas and -Missouri rivers, selected for their home, "shall be conveyed and forever -secured by the United States to the said Delaware Nation, as their -permanent residence; and the United States hereby pledges the faith of -the Government to guarantee to the said Delaware Nation, forever, the -quiet and peaceable and undisturbed enjoyment of the same against the -claims and assaults of all and every other people whatever." - -An additional permanent annuity of one thousand dollars is promised; -forty horses, "and the use of six wagons and ox-teams to assist in -removing heavy articles," provisions for the journey, and one year's -subsistence after they reach their new home; also the erection of a -grist and saw mill within two years. - -In 1833 the Secretary of War congratulated the country on the fact that -"the country north of the Ohio, east of the Mississippi, including the -States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the Territory of Michigan as far -as the Fox and Wisconsin rivers," has been practically "cleared of the -embarrassments of Indian relations," as there are not more than five -thousand Indians, all told, left in this whole region. - -The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the same year says that it is -"grateful to notice" how much the Indians' condition is "ameliorated -under the policy of removal." He says that they, "protected by the -strong arm of the Government, and dwelling on lands _distinctly_ and -permanently established as their own, enjoying a delightful climate and -a fertile soil, turn their attention to the cultivation of the earth, -and abandon the chase for the surer supply of domestic animals." - -This commissioner apparently does not remember, perhaps never read, the -records of the great fields of corn which the Delawares had on the Miami -River in 1795, and how they returned twice that summer and replanted -them, after General Wayne had cut down and burnt the young crops. They -had "turned their attention to the cultivation of the soil" forty years -ago, and that was what came of it. We shall see how much better worth -while it may be for them to plant corn in their new "permanent home," -than it was in their last one. - -The printed records of Indian Affairs for the first forty years of this -century are meagre and unsatisfactory. Had the practice prevailed then, -as at the present time, of printing full annual reports for the -different tribes, it would be possible to know much which is now forever -locked up in the traditions and the memories of the Indians themselves. -For ten years after the making of this last quoted treaty, there is -little official mention of the Delawares by name, beyond the mention in -the fiscal reports of the sums paid to them as annuities and for -education. In 1833 the commissioner says, "The agent for the Delawares -and Shawnees states that he was shown cloth that was spun and wove, and -shirts and other clothing made by the Indian girls." - -In 1838 the Delawares are reported as cultivating one thousand five -hundred acres of land in grain and vegetables, and raising a great many -hogs, cattle, and horses. "They are a brave, enterprising people," and -"at peace with all neighboring Indians." - -Parties of them frequently make excursions into the Rocky Mountains -after beaver, and return with a rich reward, sometimes as much as one -thousand dollars to an individual; but their money is soon spent, -chiefly for ardent spirits. The agent says: "The only hinderance now in -the way of the Delawares, Shawnees, and Kickapoos is ardent spirits. *** -These whiskey traffickers, who seem void of all conscience, rob and -murder many of these Indians; I say rob—they will get them drunk, and -then take their horses, guns, or blankets off their backs, regardless of -how quick they may freeze to death; I say they murder—if not directly, -indirectly, they furnish the weapon—they make them drunk, and, when -drunk, they kill their fellow-beings. Some freeze to death when drunk; -several drunken Indians have been drowned in the Missouri River this -season, aiming to cross when drunk." - -In 1844 the chiefs of the Delawares met together, and prepared a -remarkable document, which was forwarded to the Secretary of War. In -this paper they requested that all the school funds to which they were -entitled by treaty provisions might be paid to the Indian Manual Labor -School near the Fort Leavenworth Agency; might be pledged to that school -for ten years to come, and that they might therefor be guaranteed the -education and subsistence of Delaware children, not exceeding fifty at -any one time. It came out, in course of this negotiation, that two -thousand dollars were due them on arrearages of their school fund. - -The Secretary acceded to this request, but imposed five conditions upon -it, of which the fourth seems worth chronicling, as an indication of the -helplessness of the Delawares in the matter of the disposition of their -own money: "The interest to be paid annually when it may suit the -Treasury; and this ratification to be subject to withdrawal, and the -agreement itself to rescission, and to be annulled at the pleasure of -the Department." - -In 1845 the Delawares "raise a sufficiency to subsist on. The women do a -large portion of the work on the farms. In many families, however, the -women do not work on the farm. They raise corn, pumpkins, beans, pease, -cabbages, potatoes, and many kinds of garden vegetables. Some few raise -wheat and oats. They have lately had built, out of their own means, a -good saw and grist mill, with two run of stones, one for corn and the -other for wheat. There is a constant stream, called the Stranger, in -their country that affords excellent water privileges. On this stream -their mills are built." - -At this time they are waiting with much anxiety to see if their "Great -Father" will punish the Sioux, who have at two different times attacked -them, and murdered in all some thirty men. "They say they do not wish to -offend and disobey their Great Father, and before they attempt to -revenge themselves they will wait and see if their Great Father will -compel the Sioux to make reparation." - -In 1848 "almost every family is well supplied with farming-stock; and -they have raised abundance of corn, some wheat, potatoes, oats, and -garden vegetables; have made butter and cheese; and raised fruit, etc., -etc. They dwell in good log-cabins, and some have extremely neat houses, -well furnished. They have their outhouses, stables, well-fenced lots, -and some have good barns." There are seventy scholars in one school -alone that are taught by the Friends; and the teacher reports: "It is -truly astonishing to see the rapidity with which they acquire knowledge. -The boys work on the farm part of the time, and soon learn how to do -what they are set at. The girls spend a part of their time in doing -housework, sewing, etc. Many of them do the sewing of their own, and -some of the clothes of the other children." - -In 1853 the Delawares are recorded as being "among the most remarkable -of our colonized tribes. By their intrepidity and varied enterprise they -are distinguished in a high degree. Besides being industrious farmers -and herdsmen, they hunt and trade all over the interior of the -continent, carrying their traffic beyond the Great Salt Lake, and -exposing themselves to a thousand perils." - -Their agent gives, in his report for this year, a graphic account of an -incident such as has only too often occurred on our frontier. "A small -party of Delawares, consisting of a man, his squaw, and a lad about -eighteen years of age, recently returning from the mountains, with the -avails and profits of a successful hunt and traffic, after they had -commenced their journey homeward the second day the man sickened and -died. Before he died he directed his squaw and the young man to hasten -home with their horses and mules—thirteen in number—their money (four -hundred and forty-five dollars), besides many other articles of value. -After a few days' travel, near some of the forts on the Arkansas, they -were overtaken by four white men, deserters from the United States -Army—three on foot, and one riding a mule. The squaw and young man -loaned each of the men on foot a horse or mule to ride, and furnished -them with provisions. They all travelled on friendly together for some -six or seven days, till they arrived at Cottonwood Creek, thirty-five or -forty miles west of Council Grove. One evening, while resting, the young -man was killed by these men; and the squaw was also supposed by these -wretches to be dead, having had her throat cut badly and her head -fractured. The two were then dragged off in the grass, supposed to be -dead. The men gathered the mules, horses, money, guns, blankets—all that -they supposed of value—and made for Jackson County, Missouri, where they -disposed of the stock as best they could, and three of them took steamer -for St. Louis. The squaw, on the day after, resuscitated; and soon -discovering that her companion had been killed, and everything they -possessed had disappeared, she, in her feeble and dangerous condition, -took the road to Council Grove. The fifth day, she says, she was -overtaken by a Kaw Indian, and brought into Council Grove, where the -traders had every attention paid her, and sent a runner to the Delaware -traders and myself, and we soon succeeded in capturing one of the men in -Liberty, Clay County, Missouri, where he confessed the whole tragedy—the -murder, robbing, etc. The three others had left for St. Louis. A -telegraphic despatch to St. Louis, however, had the desired effect, and -the three men were taken and brought back to Liberty, where, on trial -before two justices of the peace, they were committed for trial in the -District Court of the United States for the State of Missouri. As feeble -as the squaw was, I was under the necessity of having her taken to -Liberty as a witness. She readily recognized and pointed out in a large -crowd of persons three of the prisoners. I have caused four of the -recovered mules and horses to be turned over to the unfortunate squaw. I -expect to recover two or three more; the balance, I am of opinion, will -never be obtained." - -In the report of the Indian Commissioner for this year there is also a -paragraph which should not be omitted from this sketch: "The present -seems to be an appropriate occasion for calling the attention of -Congress to certain treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes which -the Government, for a number of years, has failed to execute. In -consideration of the cession of their lands to the United States"—by -some nine tribes of the Mississippi and Missouri regions, among whom -were the Delawares—"it was stipulated on the part of the Government that -certain sums should be paid to said tribes, amounting in the aggregate -to $2,396,600, and that the same should be invested in safe and -profitable stocks, yielding an interest of not less than five per cent. -per annum. - -"Owing, however, to the embarrassed condition of the Treasury, it was -deemed advisable by Congress, in lieu of making the investments, to -appropriate from year to year a sum equal to the annual interest at five -per cent. on the several amounts required to be invested. On this amount -the Government has already paid from its treasury $1,742,240—a sum which -is now equal to two-thirds of the principal, and will in a few years be -equal to the whole, if the practice of appropriating the interest be -continued. As there is no limitation to the period of these payments, -such a policy indefinitely continued would prove a most costly one to -the Government. At the end of every twenty years it will have paid from -the public treasury by way of interest the full amount of the stipulated -investments. *** The public finances are in a prosperous condition. -Instead of fiscal embarrassment, there is now a redundancy of money, and -one of the vexed questions of the day is, What shall be done with the -surplus in the Treasury? Considering the premises, it seems to be quite -clear that so much thereof as may be necessary for the purpose should be -promptly applied to the fulfilment of our treaty obligations." - -In 1854 the influx of white settlers into Kansas was so great, it became -evident that the Indian reservations there could not be kept intact; and -the Delawares made a large cession of their lands back to the United -States, to be restored to the public domain. For this they were to -receive ten thousand dollars. The sixth Article of this treaty provided -for the giving of annuities to their chiefs. "The Delawares feel now, as -heretofore, grateful to their old chiefs for their long and faithful -services. In former treaties, when their means were scanty, they -provided by small life annuities for the wants of the chiefs, some of -whom are now receiving them. These chiefs are poor, and the Delawares -believe it their duty to keep them from want in their old age." The sum -of ten thousand dollars, therefore, was to be paid to their five -chiefs—two hundred and fifty dollars a year each. - -Article second provided that the President should cause the land now -reserved for their permanent home to be surveyed at any time when they -desired it, in the same manner as the ceded country was being surveyed -for the white settlers. - -In the following year their agent writes thus of the results which have -followed the opening of this large tract to white settlers: "The Indians -have experienced enough to shake their confidence in the laws which -govern the white race. The irruptions of intruders on their trust lands, -their bloody dissensions among themselves, outbreaks of party, etc., -must necessarily, to these unsophisticated people, have presented our -system of government in an unfavorable light. - -"Numerous wrongs have been perpetrated on many parts of the reserve; the -white men have wasted their most valuable timber with an unsparing hand; -the trust lands have been greatly injured in consequence of the -settlements made thereon. The Indians have complained, but to no -purpose. I have found it useless to threaten legal proceedings. *** The -Government is bound in good faith to protect this people. *** The -agricultural portion of this tribe have done well this season; abundant -crops of corn promise them a supply of food for the ensuing year." - -The simple-minded trustingness of these people is astonishing. Even now -they assent to an Article in this treaty which says that, as the means -arising from the sale of all this land they had given up would be more -than they could use, the remainder should be "from time to time invested -by the President of the United States in safe and profitable stocks; the -principal to remain unimpaired, and the interest to be applied annually -for the civilization, education, and religious culture of the Delaware -people, and such other objects of a beneficial character as in his -judgment are proper and necessary." Another Article stipulates that, if -any of the Delawares are worthless or idle, the President can withhold -their share of the moneys. - -Article fifteenth says, gravely, "The primary object of this instrument -being to advance the interests and welfare of the Delaware people, it is -agreed that, if it prove insufficient to effect these ends from causes -which cannot now be foreseen, Congress may hereafter make such farther -provision, by law not inconsistent herewith, as experience may prove to -be necessary to promote the interests, peace, and happiness of the -Delaware people." - -In 1860 the United States made its next treaty with the Delawares, in -which they consented to give the Leavenworth, Pawnee, and Western -Railroad Company right of way and certain lands in their reserve. In -1861 another treaty, in which, as the railway company had not paid, and -was not able to pay, the $286,742 which it had promised to pay the -Delawares, the President authorized the Commissioners of Indian Affairs -to take the bonds of said railroad for that amount, and a mortgage on -one hundred thousand acres of the land which the Indians had sold to the -railway company. - -There was another very curious bit of legislation in regard to the -Delawares this year, viz., an Act of Congress authorizing the Secretary -of the Treasury to enter on his books $423,990.26 to the credit of the -Delawares; being the amount of bonds which the United States had -invested for the Delawares in State bonds of Missouri, Tennessee, and -North Carolina, and which had been stolen while in the custody of Jacob -Thompson, late Secretary of the Interior, in whose department they had -been deposited for safe-keeping. (At the same time there were stolen -$66,735 belonging to the Iowas, and $169,686.75 belonging to the -confederated bands of Kaskaskias, Peorias, Piankeshaws, and Keas.) - -In this year the Commissioner of Indian Affairs visited the Delawares, -and reported them well advanced in civilization, in possession of -comfortable dwellings and farms, with personal property averaging one -thousand dollars to an individual. Many of them were traders, and -travelled even to the boundaries of California. - -In 1862 two regiments of Delawares and Osages enlisted as soldiers in an -expedition to the Indian Territory, under Colonel Weer, who says of -them: "The Indian soldiers have far exceeded the most sanguine -expectations. They bore the brunt of the fighting done by the -expedition, and, had they been properly sustained, would have -effectually ended the sway of the rebels in the Indian Territory." - -There was during this year a terrible condition of affairs in Kansas and -the Indian Territory. The Indians were largely on the side of the -rebels; yet, as the Indian Commissioner said in his report for this -year—a paragraph which is certainly a species of Irish bull—"While the -rebelling of a large portion of most of the tribes abrogates treaty -obligations, and places them at our mercy, the very important fact -should not be forgotten that the Government first wholly failed to keep -its treaty stipulations with them in protecting them." "By withdrawing -all the troops from the forts in the Indian Territory," it left them "at -the mercy of the rebels." That is, we first broke the treaty; and then -their subsequent failure to observe it "placed them at our mercy!" - -"It is," he says, "a well-known fact that in many instances -self-preservation compelled them to make the best terms they could with -the rebels; and that this is the case has been proved by a large number -of them joining our army as soon as a sufficient force had penetrated -their country to make it safe for them to do so." - -The Delawares enlisted, in 1862, one hundred and seventy men in the -Union army, and this out of a population of only two hundred males -between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. There was probably no -instance in the whole country of such a ratio of volunteers as this. -They were reported as being in the army "tractable, sober, watchful, and -obedient to the commands of their superiors." They officered their own -companies, and the use of spirituous liquors was strictly prohibited -among them—a fact the more remarkable, as drunkenness was one of their -chief vices at home. - -Already, however, the "interests" of the white settlers in Kansas were -beginning to be clearly in opposition to the interests of the Indians. -"Circumscribed as they are, and closely surrounded by white settlements, -I can see nothing in the future for them but destruction," says the -commissioner. "I think it is for the interest of the Indians that they -be removed to some other locality as soon as possible." - -"Several of them have from fifty to one hundred acres of land in -cultivation, with comfortable dwellings, barns, and out-houses. *** All -the families are domiciled in houses. *** Their crops of corn will yield -largely. Nearly every family will have a sufficiency for their own -consumption, and many of the larger farmers a surplus. *** There are but -few Delaware children of the age of twelve or fourteen that cannot -read." - -Here is a community of a thousand people, larger than many of the -farming villages in New England, for instance, "the average of personal -property amounting to one thousand dollars;" all living in their own -houses, cultivating from fifty to one hundred acres of land, nearly all -the children in schools, and yet it is for their "interest to be moved!" -The last sentence of the following paragraph tells the story: - -"When peace is restored to our country, a removal of all the Indians in -Kansas will certainly be advantageous to them as well as to the State." - -In 1863 their agent writes: "Since the question of the removal of the -Indians from Kansas has been agitated, improvements have been much -retarded among the Delawares and other Indians in Kansas. - -"I think they are sufficiently prepared to make new treaties with the -Government, *** having in view settlement in the Southern country of -those who elect to emigrate, compensation for the homes they relinquish, -and a permission to remain in their present homes for all who are -opposed to leaving Kansas." - -At this time, "one-half the adult population are in the volunteer -service of the United States. They make the best of soldiers, and are -highly valued by their officers. *** No State in the Union has furnished -so many men for our armies, from the same ratio of population, as has -the Delaware tribe. *** The tribe has 3900 acres of land under -cultivation, in corn, wheat, oats, and potatoes." (And yet one-half the -adult men are away!) - -In this year the Delawares, being "sufficiently prepared" to make new -treaties looking to their removal out of the way of the white settlers -in Kansas, petitioned the United States Government to permit them to -take eight hundred dollars of their annuity funds to pay the expense of -sending a delegation of their chiefs to the Rocky Mountains, to see if -they could find there a country which would answer for their new home. -The commissioner advises that they should not be allowed to go there, -but to the Indian Territory, of which he says, "The geographical -situation is such that its occupation by lawless whites can be more -easily prevented than any other portion of the country." "By common -consent, this appears to be recognized as the Indian country, and I have -strong hopes that it will eventually prove for them a prosperous and -happy home." - -In 1864 their agent writes that the greater part of the personal -property owned by the Delawares is in stock, "which is constantly being -preyed upon by the whites, until it has become so reduced that it is -difficult to obtain a good animal in the nation." He says he is unable, -for the want of proper information, to determine what amount they had at -the beginning of the year, but believes, from observation, "that it has -undergone a depletion to the extent of twenty thousand dollars in the -past year." - -What a picture of a distressed community! The men away at war, old men, -women, and children working the farms, and twenty thousand dollars of -stock stolen from them in one year! - -In 1865 a large proportion of those who had enlisted in the United -States Army were mustered out, and returned home. The agent says: "It -affords me great pleasure to chronicle the continued loyalty of this -tribe during the past four years; and, as events tend westward, they -evince every disposition to aid the Government by contributing their -knowledge of the country to the officers of the army, and rendering such -services thereto as they are qualified to perform." - -They "have distinguished themselves in many instances in the conflicts -on the borders;" nevertheless, in this same year, these discharged -soldiers were prohibited by the Government from carrying revolvers. When -the commissioner instructed the agent to disarm them, the agent very -properly replied, stating the difficulties in the case: "Firstly, what -disposition is to be made of weapons taken forcibly from these Indians? -Secondly, many of these Indians are intelligent, only using weapons when -any well-disposed white person would have done so; and if one class is -disarmed, all must be;" on which the commissioner so modified his order -as to say that "peaceably disposed Indians" might keep the usual weapons -used by them in hunting; but whenever they visited agencies or towns -they must deliver up all weapons to the agent, who would receipt for -them, and return them "at proper times." This order is to be enforced, -if possible, by an "appeal to their better judgment." - -There are no records of the practical working of this order. Very -possibly it fell at once, by its own weight, into the already large -category of dead-letter laws in regard to Indians. It is impossible to -imagine an Indian who had served four years as an officer in the army -(for the Delawares officered their own companies) submitting to be -disarmed by an agent on any day when he might need to go to Atchison on -business. Probably even that "appeal to his better judgment" which the -commissioner recommends, would only draw from him a very forcible -statement to the effect that any man who went about in Kansas at that -time unarmed was a fool. - -In 1866 the Indian Commissioner reports that "the State of Kansas is -fast being filled by an energetic population who appreciate good land; -and as the Indian reservations were selected as being the best in the -State, but _one result can be expected to follow_. - -"Most of the Indians are anxious to move to the Indian country south of -Kansas, where white settlers cannot interfere with them. - -"Intermingled as the Kansas reservations are with the public lands, and -surrounded in most cases by white settlers who too often act on the -principle that an Indian has no rights that a white man is bound to -respect, they are injured and annoyed in many ways. Their stock are -stolen, their fences broken down, their timber destroyed, their young -men plied with whiskey, their women debauched; so that, while the -uncivilized are kept in a worse than savage state, having the crimes of -civilization forced upon them, those farther advanced, and disposed to -honest industry, are discouraged beyond endurance." - -In spite of all this the Delawares raised, in 1866, 72,000 bushels of -grain, 13,000 bushels of potatoes, and owned 5000 head of cattle. - -In July of this year a treaty was made with them, providing for the -removal to the Indian Territory of all who should not decide to become -citizens of Kansas, and the sale of their lands. The superintendent of -the Fort Leavenworth Agency writes at this time: "The running of the -Union Pacific Railroad through the Delawares' diminished reserve has -been a source of grievous annoyance and damage to the Delawares, as has -also an organization styled the Delaware Lumber Company. Out of these -two companies grew much complaint and investigation, resulting in the -appointment of a special agent to sell to the railroad the timber -required for the construction of the road, and no more. The Delaware -Lumber Company being thus restricted" (_i.e._, being prevented from -helping themselves to the Indians' timber), immediately "gave up their -business, and stopped their mills," but not before they had damaged the -Indians' property to the amount of twenty-eight thousand dollars. - -Twenty thousand dollars' worth of stock and twenty-eight thousand -dollars' worth of timber having been stolen in two years from this -little village of farmers, no wonder they are "sufficiently prepared to -move." Other causes have conspired also to render them in haste to be -gone. The perpetual expectation of being obliged to remove had unsettled -the whole community, and made them indifferent to effort and -improvement. The return of their young men from the war had also had a -demoralizing effect. Drunken frays were not uncommon, in which deadly -weapons were used, spite of the Department's regulations for disarming -all Indians. - -In July of this year the Delaware chiefs, distressed by this state of -affairs, drew up for their nation a code of laws which compare favorably -with the laws of so-called civilized States.[9] - -Footnote 9: - - See Appendix, Art. 8. - -In 1867 the Delawares are said to be "very impatient to be gone from -their reserve, in order to build houses this autumn for winter use, and -to be fencing fields for the ensuing year at their new reserve." The -annuities due them in April of this year have not been paid till autumn, -and this has delayed their movements. Many of the young men are still -away, acting as scouts and guides in the army. In the course of this -year and the next the whole tribe moved by detachments to their new -home. "Those who removed during the winter went to work in a laudable -manner, and made their improvements—many building comfortable houses and -raising respectable crops" the first season. They are said to be now in -a fair way to be better off than ever before. They have "given up their -tribal organization and become Cherokee citizens. They report that they -are well pleased with their new homes; and, being separated from the -many temptations by which they were surrounded in their old reservation, -are learning to appreciate the many benefits to be derived from leading -a temperate, industrious, and consequently a prosperous and happy life." - -In 1869 it is said that, "as soon as the final arrangement relative to -their funds is perfected, they will lose their nationality and become -identified with the Cherokees." - -In 1870 we find nearly all the Delawares in Indian Territory; but it -seems that, owing to a carelessly surveyed boundary, some three hundred -of them had settled down on lands which were outside the Cherokee -Reservation, and had been assigned by the Government to the Osages. This -unfortunate three hundred, therefore, are removed again; this time to -the lands of the Peorias, where they ask permission to establish -themselves. But in the mean time, as they had made previous arrangements -with the Cherokees, and all their funds had been transferred to the -Cherokee Nation, it is thought to be "very unfortunate that they should -be thus obliged to seek a new home;" and it is said to be "quite -desirable that the parties in interest should reconcile their unsettled -affairs to mutual advantage." - -We are too much inclined to read these records carelessly, without -trying to picture to ourselves the condition of affairs which they -represent. It has come to be such an accepted thing in the history and -fate of the Indian that he is to be always pushed on, always in advance -of what is called the march of civilization, that to the average mind -statements of these repeated removals come with no startling force, and -suggest no vivid picture of details, only a sort of reassertion of an -abstract general principle. But pausing to consider for a moment what -such statements actually mean and involve; imagining such processes -applied to some particular town or village that we happen to be -intimately acquainted with, we can soon come to a new realization of the -full bearing and import of them; such uprooting, such perplexity, such -loss, such confusion and uncertainty, inflicted once on any community of -white people anywhere in our land, would be considered quite enough to -destroy its energies and blight its prospects for years. It may very -well be questioned whether any of our small communities would have -recovered from such successive shocks, changes, and forced migrations, -as soon and as well as have many of these Indian tribes. It is very -certain that they would not have submitted to them as patiently. - -After this we find in the Official Reports no distinctive mention of the -Delawares by name, except of a few who had been for some time living in -the Indian Territory, and were not included in the treaty provisions at -the time of the removal from Kansas. This little handful—eighty-one in -number—is all that now remain to bear the name of that strong and -friendly people to whom, a little more than one hundred years ago, we -promised that they should be our brothers forever, and be entitled to a -representation in our Congress. - -This band of Delawares is associated with six other dwindled remnants of -tribes—the Caddoes, Ionies, Wichitas, Towaconies, Wacoes, Keechies, and -Comanches—on the Wichita Agency, in Indian Territory. - -They are all reported as being "peaceable, well disposed," and "actively -engaged in agricultural pursuits." - -Of the Delawares it is said, in 1878, that they were not able to -cultivate so much land as they had intended to during that year, "on -account of loss of stock by horse-thieves." - -Even here, it seems, in that "Indian country south of Kansas, where" (as -they were told) "white settlers could not interfere with them," enemies -lie in wait for them, as of old, to rob and destroy; even here the -Government is, as before, unable to protect them; and in all -probability, the tragedies of 1866 and 1867 will before long be -re-enacted with still sadder results. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - THE CHEYENNES. - - -Our first treaty with the Cheyennes was made in 1825, at the mouth of -the Teton River. It was merely a treaty of amity and friendship, and -acknowledgment on the part of the Cheyennes of the "supremacy" of the -United States. Two years before this, President Monroe reported the -"Chayenes" to be "a tribe of three thousand two hundred and fifty souls, -dwelling and hunting on a river of the same name, a western tributary of -the Missouri, a little above the Great Bend." Ten years later, Catlin, -the famous painter of Indians, met a "Shienne" chief and squaw among the -Sioux, and painted their portraits. He says, "The Shiennes are a small -tribe of about three thousand in number, living neighbors to the Sioux -on the west of them, between the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains. -There is no finer race of men than these in North America, and none -superior in stature, except the Osages: scarcely a man in the tribe full -grown who is less than six feet in height." They are "the richest in -horses of any tribe on the continent; living where the greatest herds of -wild horses are grazing on the prairies, which they catch in great -numbers, and sell to the Sioux, Mandans, and other tribes, as well as to -the fur-traders. - -"These people are the most desperate set of warriors and horsemen, -having carried on almost unceasing wars with the Pawnees and Blackfeet. -The chief was clothed in a handsome dress of deer-skins, very neatly -garnished with broad bands of porcupine-quill work down the sleeves of -his shirt and leggings. The woman was comely, and beautifully dressed. -Her dress of the mountain-sheepskin tastefully ornamented with quills -and beads, and her hair plaited in large braids that hung down on her -breast." - -In 1837 the agent for the "Sioux, Cheyennes, and Poncas" reports that -"all these Indians live exclusively by the chase;" and that seems to be -the sum and substance of his information about them. He adds, also, that -these remote wandering tribes have a great fear of the border tribes, -and wish to avoid them. In 1838 the Cheyennes are reported as carrying -on trade at a post on the Arkansas River near the Santa Fe road, but -still depending on the chase. - -In 1842 they are spoken of as a "wandering tribe on the Platte;" and in -the same year, Mr. D. D. Mitchell, Supt. of Indian Affairs, with his -head-quarters at St. Louis, writes: "Generations will pass away before -this territory" [the territory in which the wild tribes of the Upper -Mississippi were then wandering] "becomes much more circumscribed; for -if we draw a line running north and south, so as to cross the Missouri -about the mouth of the Vermilion River, we shall designate the limits -beyond which civilized men are never likely to settle. At this point the -Creator seems to have said to the tides of emigration that are annually -rolling toward the West, 'Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.' At -all events, if they go beyond this, they will never stop on the east -side of the Rocky Mountains. The utter destitution of timber, the -sterility of sandy soil, together with the coldness and dryness of the -climate, furnish obstacles which not even Yankee enterprise is likely to -overcome. A beneficent Creator seems to have intended this dreary region -as an asylum for the Indians, when the force of circumstances shall have -driven them from the last acre of the fertile soil which they once -possessed. Here no inducements are offered to the ever-restless Saxon -breed to erect their huts. *** The time may arrive when the whole of the -Western Indians will be forced to seek a resting-place in this Great -American Desert; and this, in all probability, will form a new era in -the history of this singular and ill-fated race. They will remain a -wandering, half civilized, though happy people. 'Their flocks and herds -will cover a thousand hills,' and will furnish beef and mutton for a -portion of the dense population of whites that will swarm in the more -fertile sections of the great valley of the Mississippi." - -This line, recommended by Mr. Mitchell, runs just east of Dakota, -through the extreme eastern portion of Nebraska, a little to the east of -the middle of Kansas, through the middle of Indian Territory and Texas, -to the Gulf of Mexico. Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico, all lie -west of it. - -The records of the War Department for 1846 contain an interesting -account of a visit made to all the wild tribes of the Upper Missouri -Agency—the Yankton Sioux, the Arrikarees, Mandans, Assinaboines, -Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and others. In reply to the agent's remonstrances -with one of the Sioux chiefs in regard to their perpetual warring with -each other, the chief "was very laconic and decided, remarking 'that if -their great-grandfather desired them to cease to war with their enemies, -why did he not send each of them a petticoat, and make squaws of them at -once?'" This same chief refused to allow the boys of his tribe to go to -the Choctaw schools, saying, "They would return, as the few did who went -to St. Louis, drunkards, or die on the way." - -The Cheyennes and other Indians living on the Platte complained bitterly -of the passage of the emigrants through their country. They said they -ought to be compensated for the right of way, and that the emigrants -should be restricted by law and the presence of a military force from -burning the grass, and from unnecessary destruction of game. They were -systematically plundered and demoralized by traders. Whiskey was to be -had without difficulty; sugar and coffee were sold at one dollar a -pound; ten-cent calico at one dollar a yard; corn at seventy-five cents -a gallon, and higher. - -In 1847 a law was passed by Congress forbidding the introduction of -whiskey into the Indian country, and even the partial enforcement of -this law had a most happy effect. Foremost among those to acknowledge -the benefits of it were the traders themselves, who said that the -Indians' demand for substantial articles of trade was augmented two -hundred per cent.: "They enjoy much better health, look much better, and -are better people. *** You now rarely ever hear of a murder committed, -whereas when whiskey was plenty in that country murder was a daily -occurrence." These Indians themselves were said to be "opposed to the -introduction of ardent spirits into their country; *** but, like almost -all other Indians, will use it if you give it to them, and when under -its influence are dangerous and troublesome." There were at this time -nearly forty-six thousand of these Upper Missouri Indians. Five bands of -them—"the Sioux, Cheyennes, Gros Ventres, Mandans, and Poncas"—were -"excellent Indians, devotedly attached to the white man," living "in -peace and friendship with our Government," and "entitled to the special -favor and good opinion of the Department for their uniform good conduct -and pacific relations." - -In 1848 it was estimated from the returns made by traders that the trade -of this agency amounted to $400,000. Among the items were 25,000 buffalo -tongues. In consequence of this prosperity on the part of the Indians, -there was a partial cessation of hostilities on the whites; but it was -still a perilous journey to cross the plains, and in 1849 the necessity -for making some sort of treaty stipulations with all these wild tribes -begins to be forced emphatically upon the attention of the United States -Government. A safe highway across the continent must be opened. It is a -noticeable thing, however, that, even as late as this in the history of -our diplomatic relations with the Indian, his right to a certain control -as well as occupancy of the soil was instinctively recognized. The -Secretary of the Interior, in his report for 1849, says: "The wild -tribes of Indians who have their hunting-grounds in the great prairie -through which our emigrants to California pass, have, during the year, -been more than usually pacific. They have suffered our people to pass -through their country with little interruption, though they travelled in -great numbers, and consumed on their route much grass and game. For -these the Indians expect compensation, and their claim is just." - -The Secretary, therefore, concurs in the recommendation of the -Commissioner of Indian Affairs that treaties be negotiated with these -tribes, stipulating for the right of way through their country, and the -use of grass and game, paying them therefor small annuities in useful -articles of merchandise, and agricultural implements, and instruction. -"The right of way"—"through their country." A great deal is conceded, -covered, and conveyed by such phrases as these. If they mean anything, -they mean all that the Indians ever claimed. - -The Indians were supposed to be influenced to this peaceableness and -good-will more by a hope of rewards and gifts than by a wholesome fear -of the power of the Government; and it was proposed to take a delegation -of chiefs to Washington, "in order that they may acquire some knowledge -of our greatness and strength, which will make a salutary impression on -them, and through them on their brethren," and "will tend to influence -them to continue peaceful relations." - -It begins to dawn upon the Government's perception that peace is cheaper -as well as kinder than war. "We never can whip them into friendship," -says one of the superintendents of the Upper Missouri Agency. A treaty -"can do no harm, and the expense would be less than that of a six -months' war. *** Justice as well as policy requires that we should make -some remuneration for the damages these Indians sustain in consequence -of the destruction of their game, timber, etc., by the whites passing -through their country." - -"Their game, timber," "their country," again. The perpetual recurrence -of this possessive pronoun, and of such phrases as these in all that the -Government has said about the Indians, and in all that it has said to -them, is very significant. - -In 1850 the Indian Commission writes that "it is much to be regretted -that no appropriation was made at the last session of Congress for -negotiating treaties with the wild tribes of the plains. These Indians -have long held undisputed possession of this extensive region; and, -regarding it as their own, they consider themselves entitled to -compensation not only for the right of way through their territory, but -for the great and injurious destruction of game, grass, and timber -committed by our troops and emigrants." - -The bill providing for the negotiation of these treaties was passed -unanimously by the Senate, but "the unhappy difficulties existing on the -subject of slavery" delayed it in the House until it was too late to be -carried into effect. - -All the tribes had been informed of this pending bill, and were looking -forward to it with great interest and anxiety. In 1849 they had all -expressed themselves as "very anxious to be instructed in agriculture -and the civilized arts." Already the buffalo herds were thinning and -disappearing. From time immemorial the buffalo had furnished them food, -clothing, and shelter; with its disappearance, starvation stared them in -the face, and they knew it. There can be no doubt that at this time all -the wild tribes of the Upper Missouri region—the Sioux, Cheyennes, -Arapahoes—were ready and anxious to establish friendly relations with -the United States Government, and to enter into some arrangement by -which some means of future subsistence, and some certainty of lands -enough to live on, could be secured to them. Meantime they hunted with -greater diligence than ever; and in this one year alone had sold to the -fur-traders within the limits of one agency $330,000 worth of -buffalo-robes, and "furs, peltries, and miscellaneous goods to the -amount of $60,000. What they thus receive for their furs, robes, etc., -would be ample for their support," says Hatton, "were it not that they -have to give such exorbitant prices for what they purchase from the -whites." - -In the winter and spring of 1850 all these tribes were visited by an -agent of the Government. He reported them as "friendly disposed," but -very impatient to come to some understanding about the right of way. -"This is what the Indians want, and what they are anxious about; having -been told long since, and so often repeated by travellers passing (who -care little about the consequences of promises so they slip through -safely and unmolested themselves), that their 'Great Father' would soon -reward them liberally for the right of way, the destruction of timber, -game, etc., as well as for any kindness shown Americans passing through -their country." - -In the summer of 1851 this much desired treaty was made. Seven of the -prairie and mountain tribes gathered in great force at Fort Laramie. The -report of this council contains some interesting and noticeable points. - -"We were eighteen days encamped together, during which time the Indians -conducted themselves in a manner that excited the admiration and -surprise of every one. The different tribes, although hereditary -enemies, interchanged daily visits, both in their individual and -national capacities; smoked and feasted together; exchanged presents; -adopted each other's children, according to their own customs; and did -all that was held sacred or solemn in the eyes of these Indians to prove -the sincerity of their peaceful and friendly intentions, both among -themselves and with the citizens of the United States lawfully residing -among them or passing through the country." - -By this treaty the Indians formally conceded to the United States the -right to establish roads, military or otherwise, throughout the Indian -country, "so far as they claim or exercise ownership over it." - -They agreed "to maintain peaceful relations among themselves, and to -abstain from all depredations upon whites passing through their country, -and to make restitution for any damages or loss that a white man shall -sustain by the acts of their people." - -For all the damages which they had suffered up to that time in -consequence of the passing of the whites through their country, they -accepted the presents then received as payment in full. - -An annuity of $50,000 a year for fifty years to come was promised to -them. This was the price of the "right of way." - -"Fifty thousand dollars for a limited period of years is a small amount -to be distributed among at least fifty thousand Indians, especially when -we consider that we have taken away, or are rapidly taking away from -them all means of support," says one of the makers of this treaty. There -would probably be no dissent from this opinion. A dollar a year, even -assured to one for fifty years, seems hardly an adequate compensation -for the surrender of all other "means of support." - -The report continues: "Viewing the treaty in all its provisions, I am -clearly of opinion that it is the best that could have been made for -both parties. I am, moreover, of the opinion that it will be observed -and carried out in as good faith on the part of the Indians as it will -on the part of the United States and the white people thereof. There was -an earnest solemnity and a deep conviction of the necessity of adopting -some such measures evident in the conduct and manners of the Indians -throughout the whole council. On leaving for their respective homes, and -bidding each other adieu, they gave the strongest possible evidence of -their friendly intentions for the future, and the mutual confidence and -good faith which they had in each other. Invitations were freely given -and as freely accepted by each of the tribes to interchange visits, -talk, and smoke together like brothers, upon ground where they had never -before met except for the purpose of scalping each other. This, to my -mind, was conclusive evidence of the sincerity of the Indians, and -nothing but bad management or some untoward misfortune ever can break -it." - -The Secretary of the Interior, in his report for this year, speaks with -satisfaction of the treaties negotiated with Indians during the year, -and says: "It cannot be denied that most of the depredations committed -by the Indians on our frontiers are the offspring of dire necessity. The -advance of our population compels them to relinquish their fertile -lands, and seek refuge in sterile regions which furnish neither corn nor -game: impelled by hunger, they seize the horses, mules, and cattle of -the pioneers, to relieve their wants and satisfy the cravings of nature. -They are immediately pursued, and, when overtaken, severely punished. -This creates a feeling of revenge on their part, which seeks its -gratification in outrages on the persons and property of peaceable -inhabitants. The whole country then becomes excited, and a desolating -war, attended with a vast sacrifice of blood and treasure, ensues. This, -it is believed, is a true history of the origin of most of our Indian -hostilities. - -"All history admonishes us of the difficulty of civilizing a wandering -race who live mainly upon game. To tame a savage you must tie him down -to the soil. You must make him understand the value of property, and the -benefits of its separate ownership. You must appeal to those selfish -principles implanted by Divine Providence in the nature of man for the -wisest purposes, and make them minister to civilization and refinement. -You must encourage the appropriation of lands by individuals; attach -them to their homes by the ties of interest; teach them the uses of -agriculture and the arts of peace; *** and they should be taught to look -forward to the day when they may be elevated to the dignity of American -citizenship. - -"By means like these we shall soon reap our reward in the suppression of -Indian depredations; in the diminution of the expenses of the Department -of War; in a valuable addition to our productive population; in the -increase of our agriculture and commerce; and in the proud consciousness -that we have removed from our national escutcheon the stain left on it -by our acknowledged injustice to the Indian race." - -We find the Cheyennes, therefore, in 1851, pledged to peace and -good-will toward their Indian neighbors, and to the white emigrants -pouring through their country. For this conceded right of way they are -to have a dollar a year apiece, in "goods and animals;" and it is -supposed that they will be able to eke out this support by hunting -buffaloes, which are still not extinct. - -In 1852 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs writes: "Notwithstanding the -mountain and prairie Indians continue to suffer from the vast number of -emigrants who pass through their country, destroying their means of -support, and scattering disease and death among them, yet those who were -parties to the treaty concluded at Fort Laramie, in the fall of 1851, -have been true to their obligations, and have remained at peace among -themselves and with the whites." - -And the superintendent writes: "Congress made a very liberal -appropriation of $100,000 to make a treaty with the prairie and mountain -tribes. A very satisfactory treaty was made with them last fall at Fort -Laramie, the conditions of which, on their part, have been faithfully -observed—no depredations having been committed during the past season by -any of the tribes parties to the Fort Laramie treaty. The Senate amended -the treaty, substituting _fifteen_ instead of _fifty_ years as the -period for which they were to have received an annual supply of goods, -animals, etc., at the discretion of the President. This modification of -the treaty I think very proper, as the condition of these wandering -hordes will be entirely changed during the next fifteen years. The -treaty, however, should have been sent back to the Indians for the -purpose of obtaining their sanction to the modification, as was done in -the case of the Sioux treaty negotiated by Commissioners Ramsey and Lea. -It is hoped this oversight will be corrected as early as practicable -next spring, otherwise the large amounts already expended will have been -uselessly wasted, and the Indians far more dissatisfied than ever." - -To comment on the bad faith of this action on the part of Congress would -be a waste of words; but its impolicy is so glaring that one's -astonishment cannot keep silent—its impolicy and also its incredible -niggardliness. A dollar apiece a year, "in goods, animals," etc., those -Indians had been promised that they should have for fifty years. It must -have been patent to the meanest intellect that this was little to pay -each year to any one man from whom we were taking away, as the -commissioner said, "his means of support." But, unluckily for the -Indians, there were fifty thousand of them. It entered into some thrifty -Congressman's head to multiply fifty by fifty, and the aggregate -terrified everybody. This was much more likely to have been the cause of -the amendment than the cause assigned by the superintendent, viz., the -probable change of localities of all the "wandering hordes" in the next -fifteen years. No doubt it would be troublesome to the last degree to -distribute fifty thousand dollars, "in goods, animals," etc., to fifty -thousand Indians wandering over the entire Upper Missouri region; but no -more troublesome, surely, in the sixteenth year than in the fifteenth. -The sophistry is too transparent; it does not in the least gloss over -the fact that, within the first year after the making of our first -treaty of any moment with these tribes—while they to a man, the whole -fifty thousand of them, kept their faith with us—we broke ours with them -in the meanest of ways—robbing them of more than two-thirds of the money -we had promised to pay. - -All the tribes "promptly" assented to this amendment, however; so says -the Annual Report of the Indian Commissioner for 1853; and adds that, -with a single exception, they have maintained friendly relations among -themselves, and "manifested an increasing confidence in and kindness -toward the whites." - -Some of them have begun to raise corn, beans, pumpkins, etc., but depend -chiefly on the hunt for their support. But the agent who was sent to -distribute to them their annuities, and to secure their assent to the -amendment to the treaty, reports: "The Cheyennes and the Arapahoes, and -many of the Sioux, are actually in a starving state. They are in abject -want of food half the year, and their reliance for that scanty supply, -in the rapid decrease of the buffalo, is fast disappearing. The travel -upon the roads drives them off, or else confines them to a narrow path -during the period of emigration, and the different tribes are forced to -contend with hostile nations in seeking support for their villages. -Their women are pinched with want, and their children constantly crying -with hunger. Their arms, moreover, are unfitted to the pursuit of -smaller game, and thus the lapse of a few years presents only the -prospect of a gradual famine." And in spite of such suffering, these -Indians commit no depredations, and show increasing confidence in and -kindness toward the whites. - -This agent, who has passed many years among the Indians, speaks with -great feeling of the sad prospect staring them in the face. He says: -"But one course remains which promises any permanent relief to them, or -any lasting benefit to the country in which they dwell; that is, simply -to make such modifications in the 'intercourse' laws as will invite the -residence of traders among them, and open the whole Indian Territory for -settlement. Trade is the only civilizer of the Indian. It has been the -precursor of all civilization heretofore, and it will be of all -hereafter. It teaches the Indian the value of other things besides the -spoils of the chase, and offers to him other pursuits and excitements -than those of war. All obstructions to its freedom, therefore, only -operate injuriously. *** The Indians would soon lose their nomadic -character, and forget the relations of tribes. *** And this, while it -would avoid the cruel necessity of our present policy—to wit, -extinction—would make them an element in the population, and sharer in -the prosperity of the country." He says of the "system of removals, and -congregating tribes in small parcels of territory," that it has -"eventuated injuriously on those who have been subjected to it. It is -the legalized murder of a whole nation. It is expensive, vicious, and -inhuman, and producing these consequences, and these alone. The custom, -being judged by its fruits, should not be persisted in." - -It is in the face of such statements, such protests as these, that the -United States Government has gone steadily on with its policy, so -called, in regard to the treatment of the Indian. - -In 1854 the report from the Upper Missouri region is still of peace and -fidelity on the part of all the Indians who joined in the Fort Laramie -treaty. "Not a single instance of murder, robbery, or other depredation -has been committed by them, either on the neighboring tribes parties to -the treaty or on whites. This is the more remarkable, as before the -treaty they were foremost in the van of thieves and robbers—always at -war, pillaging whoever they met, and annoying their own traders in their -own forts." - -In the summer of this year the Cheyennes began to be dissatisfied and -impertinent. At a gathering of the northern band at Fort Laramie, one of -the chiefs demanded that the travel over the Platte road should be -stopped. He also, if the interpreter was to be relied on, said that next -year the Government must send them out one thousand white women for -wives. The Southern Cheyennes had given up to their agent some Mexican -prisoners whom they had taken in the spring, and this act, it was -supposed, had seemed to the northern band a needless interference on the -part of the United States. Moreover, it was a matter constantly open to -the observation of all friendly Indians that the hostiles, who were -continually plundering and attacking emigrant trains, made, on the -whole, more profit out of war than they made out of peace. On the North -Platte road during this year the Pawnees alone had stolen several -thousands of dollars' worth of goods; and, in addition to this, there -was the pressure of public sentiment—a thing which is as powerful among -Indians as among whites. It was popular to be on the war-path: the -whites were invaders; it was brave and creditable to slay them. Taking -all these things into account, it was only to be wondered at that these -Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Sioux kept to the provisions of their treaty -at all. Nevertheless, the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and some bands of the -Sioux continued peaceable and friendly; and in 1855 they begged to be -supplied with a farmer to teach them how to farm; also with a -blacksmith. Their agent strongly recommends that this be done, saying -that there is not "in the whole Indian country a more favorable location -for a farm for grazing stock and game than the South Platte. In a very -short period of time the Arapahoes and Cheyennes would become fixed and -settled, and a part of each tribe—the old women and men—would become -agriculturists; rude, it is true, yet sufficiently skilful to raise -corn, potatoes, and beans, and dwell in cabins or fixed habitations." - -In the summer of 1856 the Cheyennes were, by a disastrous accident, -forced into the position of hostiles. A small war-band went out to -attack the Pawnees; they were in camp near the North Platte road: as the -mail-wagon was passing, two of the Cheyennes ran toward it to beg -tobacco. The mail-carrier, terrified, fired on them, and the Indians -fired back, wounding him; the chiefs rushed out, stopped the firing, -explained the matter, and then severely flogged the Indians who had -returned the mail-carrier's fire. But the mischief had been done. - -The mail-carrier reported his having been fired at by a Cheyenne Indian, -and the next day troops from Fort Kearny attacked the Indians and killed -six of the war-party. The rest refused to fight, and ran away, leaving -their camp and all it contained. The war-party, thoroughly exasperated, -attacked an emigrant train, killed two men and a child, and took one -woman captive. The next day they killed her, because she could not ride -on horseback and keep up with them. Within a short time two more small -war-parties had left the band, attacked trains, and killed two men, two -women, and a child. The chiefs at first could not restrain them, but in -September they sent a delegation to the agency to ask their agent's -assistance and advice. They said that the war-party was now completely -under their control, and they wished to know what they could do. They -implored the Great Father not to be angry with them, "for they could not -control the war-party when they saw their friends killed by soldiers -after they had thrown down their bows and arrows and begged for life." - -In October the agent reported that the Cheyennes were "perfectly quiet -and peaceable, and entirely within control, and obedient to authority." -The chiefs had organized a sort of police, whose duty was to kill any -war-parties that might attempt to leave the camp. - -Through the winter the Cheyennes remained in the south and south-eastern -parts of the agency, and strictly observed the conditions which their -agent had imposed upon them. In the following August, however, a -military force under General Sumner was sent out "to demand from the -tribe the perpetrators of their late outrages on the whites, and ample -security for their good conduct." The Cheyennes were reported by General -Sumner as showing no disposition to yield to these demands; he therefore -attacked them, burnt their village to the ground, and destroyed their -winter supplies—some fifteen or twenty thousand pounds of buffalo meat. - -Of how they lived, and where, during the winter following this fight, -there is little record. In the next year's reports the Cheyennes are -said to be very anxious for a new treaty, which will assign to them a -country in which they can dwell safely. "They said they had learned a -lesson last summer in their fight with General Sumner—that it was -useless to contend with the white man, who would soon with his villages -occupy the whole prairie. They wanted peace; and as the buffalo—their -principal dependence for food and clothing (which even now they were -compelled to seek many miles from home, where their natural enemies, the -Pawnee and Osage, roamed), would soon disappear entirely, they hoped -their Great Father, the white chief at Washington, would listen to them, -and give them a home where they might be provided for and protected -against the encroachments of their white brothers, until at least they -had been taught to cultivate the soil and other arts of civilized life. -They have often desired ploughs and hoes, and to be taught their use." - -The next year's records show the Government itself aware that some -measures must be taken to provide for these troublesome wild tribes of -the prairie: almost more perplexing in time of peace than in time of war -is the problem of the disposition to be made of them. Agents and -superintendents alike are pressing on the Government's attention the -facts and the bearing of the rapid settling of the Indian lands by the -whites; the precariousness of peaceful relations; the dangers of Indian -wars. The Indians themselves are deeply anxious and disturbed. - -"They have heard that all of the Indian tribes to the eastward of them -have ceded their lands to the United States, except small reservations; -and hence, by an Indian's reasoning, in a few years these tribes will -emigrate farther west, and, as a matter of necessity, occupy the -hunting-grounds of the wild tribes." - -When the agent of the Upper Platte Agency tried to reason on this -subject with one of the Sioux chiefs, the chief said: "When I was a -young man, and I am not yet fifty, I travelled with my people through -the country of the Sac and Fox tribe, to the great water Minne Toukah -(Mississippi), where I saw corn growing, but no white people; continuing -eastward, we came to the Rock River valley, and saw the Winnebagoes, but -no white people. We then came to the Fox River valley, and thence to the -Great Lake (Lake Michigan), where we found a few white people in the -Pottawattomie country. Thence we returned to the Sioux country at the -Great Falls of Irara (St. Anthony), and had a feast of green corn with -our relations, who resided there. Afterward we visited the pipe-clay -quarry in the country of the Yankton Sioux, and made a feast to the -'Great Medicine,' and danced the 'sun dance,' and then returned to our -hunting-grounds on the prairie. And now our Father tells us the white -man will never settle on our lands, and kill our game; but see! the -whites cover all of those lands I have just described, and also the -lands of the Poncas, Omahas, and Pawnees. On the South Platte the white -people are finding gold, and the Cheyennes and Arapahoes have no longer -any hunting-grounds. Our country has become very small, and before our -children are grown up we shall have no game." - -In the autumn of this year (1859) an agent was sent to hold a council -with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and tell them of the wish of the -Government that they should "assume a fixed residence, and occupy -themselves in agriculture. This they at once received with favor, and -declared with great unanimity to be acceptable to them. They expected -and asked that the Department shall supply them with what is necessary -to establish themselves permanently. *** Both these tribes had -scrupulously maintained peaceful relations with the whites, and with -other Indian tribes, notwithstanding the many causes of irritation -growing out of the occupation of the gold region, and the emigration to -it through their hunting-grounds, which are no longer reliable as a -certain source of food to them." - -It was estimated that during the summer of 1859 over sixty thousand -emigrants crossed these plains in their central belt. The trains of -vehicles and cattle were frequent and valuable in proportion; and post -lines and private expresses were in constant motion. - -In 1860 a commissioner was sent out to hold a council with the Cheyennes -and Arapahoes at Bent's Fort, on the Upper Arkansas, and make a treaty -with them. The Arapahoes were fully represented; but there were present -only two prominent chiefs of the Cheyennes—Black Kettle and White -Antelope. (White Antelope was one of the chiefs brutally murdered five -years later in the Chivington massacre in Colorado.) As it was -impossible for the rest of the Cheyennes to reach the Fort in less than -twenty days, and the commissioner could not wait so long, Black Kettle -and White Antelope wished it to be distinctly understood that they -pledged only themselves and their own bands. - -The commissioner says: "I informed them as to the object of my visit, -and gave them to understand that their Great Father had heard with -delight of their peaceful disposition, although they were almost in the -midst of the hostile tribes. They expressed great pleasure on learning -that their Great Father had heard of their good conduct, and requested -me to say, in return, that they intended in every respect to conform to -the wishes of the Government. I then presented to them a diagram of the -country assigned them, by their treaty of 1851, as their -hunting-grounds, which they seemed to understand perfectly, and were -enabled without difficulty to give each initial point. In fact, they -exhibited a degree of intelligence seldom to be found among tribes where -no effort has been made to civilize them. I stated to them that it was -the intention of their Great Father to reduce the area of their present -reservation, and that they should settle down and betake themselves to -agriculture, and eventually abandon the chase as a means of support. -They informed me that such was their wish; and that they had been aware -for some time that they would be compelled to do so: that game was -growing more scarce every year, and that they had also noticed the -approach of whites, and felt that they must soon, in a great measure, -conform to their habits. *** It has not fallen to my lot to visit any -Indians who seem more disposed to yield to the wishes of the Government -than the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Notwithstanding they are fully aware -of the rich mines discovered in their country, they are disposed to -yield up their claims without any reluctance. They certainly deserve the -fostering hand of the Government, and should be liberally encouraged in -their new sphere of life." - -This treaty was concluded in February of the next year, at Fort Wise. -The chiefs of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes there "ceded and relinquished" -all the lands to which they had any claim, "wherever situated," except a -certain tract whose boundaries were defined. The land relinquished -included lands in Kansas and Nebraska, and all of that part of Colorado -which is north of the Arkansas, and east of the Rocky Mountains. - -The Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in "consideration of their kind treatment -by the citizens of Denver and the adjoining towns," "respectfully -requested," in the eleventh Article of this treaty, that the United -States would permit the proprietors of these towns to enter their lands -at the minimum price of one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. This -Article was struck out by the Senate, and the Indians consented to the -amendment; but the proof of their good-will and gratitude remained on -record, nevertheless. - -The desire of the Government to make farmers of these Indians was -reiterated in this treaty, and evidenced by pledges of purchase of -stock, agricultural implements, etc.; mills, also, and mechanic shops -they were to have, and an annuity of $30,000 a year for fifteen years. -There was this clause, however, in an article of the treaty, "Their -annuities may, at the discretion of the President of the United States, -be discontinued entirely should said Indians fail to make reasonable and -satisfactory efforts to improve and advance their condition; in which -case such other provision shall be made for them as the President and -Congress may judge to be suitable or proper." Could there be a more -complete signing away than this of all benefits provided for by the -treaty? - -Lands were to be assigned to them "in severalty," and certificates were -to be issued by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, specifying the names -of individuals; and that the "said tracts were set apart for the -exclusive use and benefit of the assignees and their heirs." Each Indian -was to have forty acres of land, "to include in every case, as far as -practicable, a reasonable portion of timber and water." - -The tenth Article of the treaty provided that the annuities now paid to -the Arapahoes and Cheyennes should be continued to them until the -stipulations of such treaties or articles of agreement should be -fulfilled; and the seventh Article provided that the President, with the -assent of Congress, should have power to modify or change any "of the -provisions of former treaties" "in such manner and to whatever extent" -he might judge it to be necessary and expedient for their best -interests. - -Could a community of people be delivered up more completely bound and at -the mercy of a government? Some of the bands of the Cheyennes who were -not represented at this council were much dissatisfied with the treaty, -as evidently they had great reason to be. And as time went on, all the -bands became dissatisfied. Two years later we find that, instead of -their being settled on those farms "in severalty," the survey of their -lands has been just completed, and that "a contract will soon be made -for the construction of a ditch for the purpose of irrigating their -arable land." "It is to be hoped," the Superintendent of the Colorado -Agency writes, that "when suitable preparations for their subsistence by -agriculture and grazing are made, these tribes will gradually cease -their roaming, and become permanently settled." It would seem highly -probable that under those conditions the half-starved creatures would be -only too glad to cease to roam. It is now ten years since they were -reported to be in a condition of miserable starvation every winter, -trying to raise a little corn here and there, and begging to have a -farmer and a blacksmith sent out to them. They are now divided and -subdivided into small bands, hunting the buffalo wherever they can find -him, and going in small parties because there are no longer large herds -of buffaloes to be found anywhere. The Governor of Colorado says, in his -report for 1863, that "these extensive subdivisions of the tribes caused -great difficulty in ascertaining the really guilty parties in the -commission of offences." Depredations and hostilities are being -frequently committed, but it is manifestly unjust to hold the whole -tribe responsible for the acts of a few. - -Things grew rapidly worse in Colorado. Those "preparations for their -subsistence by agriculture and grazing"—which it took so much room to -tell in the treaty—not having been made; the farmer, and the blacksmith, -and the grist-mill not having arrived; the contract not having been even -let for the irrigating-ditch, without which no man can raise any crops -in Colorado, not even on arable lands—many of the Cheyennes and -Arapahoes took to a system of pilfering reprisals from emigrant trains, -and in the fights resulting from this effort to steal they committed -many terrible murders. All the tribes on the plains were more or less -engaged in these outrages; and it was evident, before midsummer of 1864, -that the Government must interfere with a strong hand to protect the -emigrants and Western settlers—to protect them from the consequences of -its own bad faith with the Indians. The Governor of Colorado called for -military aid, and for authority to make a campaign against the Indians, -which was given him. But as there was no doubt that many of the Indians -were still peaceable and loyal, and he desired to avoid every -possibility of their sharing in the punishment of the guilty, he issued -a proclamation in June, requesting all who were friendly to come to -places which he designated, where they were to be assured of safety and -protection. This proclamation was sent to all the Indians of the plains. -In consequence of it, several bands of friendly Arapahoes and Cheyennes -came to Fort Lyon, and were there received by the officer in charge, -rationed, and assured of safety. Here there occurred, on the 29th of -November, one of the foulest massacres which the world has seen. This -camp of friendly Indians was surprised at daybreak, and men, women, and -children were butchered in cold blood. Most of those who escaped fled to -the north, and, joining other bands of the tribe, proceeded at once to -take most fearful, and, it must be said, natural revenge. A terrible war -followed. Some of them confederated with the Sioux, and waged relentless -war on all the emigrant routes across the plains. These hostilities were -bitter in proportion to the bitterness of resentment felt by the -refugees from this massacre. "It will be long before faith in the honor -and humanity of the whites can be re-established in the minds of these -barbarians," says an official report, "and the last Indian who escaped -from the brutal scene at Sand Creek will probably have died before its -effects will have disappeared."[10] - -Footnote 10: - - See Appendix, Arts. I. and XI. - -In October of the next year some of the bands, having first had their -safety assured by an old and tried friend, I. H. Leavenworth, Indian -Agent for the Upper Arkansas, gathered together to hold a council with -United States Commissioners on the Little Arkansas. The commissioners -were empowered by the President to restore to the survivors of the Sand -Creek massacre full value for all the property then destroyed; "to make -reparation," so far as possible. To each woman who had lost a husband -there they gave one hundred and sixty acres of land; to each child who -had lost a parent, the same. Probably even an Indian woman would -consider one hundred and sixty acres of land a poor equivalent for a -murdered husband; but the offers were accepted in good part by the -tribe, and there is nothing in all the history of this patient race more -pathetic than the calm and reasonable language employed by some of these -Cheyenne and Arapahoe chiefs at this council. Said Black Kettle, the -chief over whose lodge the American flag, with a white flag tied below, -was floating at the time of the massacre, "I once thought that I was the -only man that persevered to be the friend of the white man; but since -they have come and cleaned out our lodges, horses, and everything else, -it is hard for me to believe white men any more. *** All my friends, the -Indians that are holding back, they are afraid to come in; are afraid -that they will be betrayed as I have been. I am not afraid of white men, -but come and take you by the hand." Elsewhere, Black Kettle spoke of -Colonel Chivington's troops as "that fool-band of soldiers that cleared -out our lodges, and killed our women and children. This is hard on us." -With a magnanimity and common-sense which white men would have done well -to imitate in their judgments of the Indians, he recognized that it -would be absurd, as well as unjust, to hold all white men in distrust on -account of the acts of that "fool-band of soldiers."[11] - -Footnote 11: - - Gen. Harney, on being asked by Bishop Whipple if Black Kettle were a - hostile Indian, replied, laying his hand on his heart, "I have worn - this uniform fifty-five years. He was as true a friend of the white - man as I am." - -By the terms of this treaty, a new reservation was to be set apart for -the Cheyennes and Arapahoes; hostile acts on either side were to be -settled by arbitration; no whites were to be allowed on the reservation; -a large tract of country was to be "relinquished" by the Indians, but -they were "expressly permitted to reside upon and range at pleasure -throughout the unsettled portions of that part of the country they claim -as originally theirs." The United States reserved the right to build -roads and establish forts in the reservation, and pledged itself to pay -"annually, for the period of forty years," certain sums of money to each -person in the tribe: twenty dollars a head till they were settled on -their reservation; after that, forty dollars a head. To this end an -accurate annual census of the Indians was promised at the time of the -annuity payment in the spring. - -The Indians went away from this council full of hope and satisfaction. -Their oldest friends, Colonel Bent and Kit Carson, were among the -commissioners, and they felt that at last they had a treaty they could -trust. Their old reservation in Colorado (to which they probably could -never have been induced to return) was restored to the public domain of -that territory, and they hoped in their new home for greater safety and -peace. The Apaches, who had heretofore been allied with the Kiowas and -Comanches, were now allied with them, and to have the benefits of the -new treaty. A small portion of the tribe—chiefly young men of a -turbulent nature—still held aloof, and refused to come under the treaty -provisions. One riotous band, called the Dog Soldiers, were especially -refractory; but, before the end of the next year, they also decided to -go southward and join the rest of the tribe on the new reservation. -Occasional hostilities took place in the course of the winter, one of -which it is worth while to relate, the incident is so typical a one. - -On the 21st of February a son of one Mr. Boggs was killed and scalped by -a party of four Cheyenne Indians about six miles east of Fort Dodge, on -the Arkansas River. On investigation, it appeared that Mr. Boggs had -gone to the Indian camp without any authority, and had there traded off -eleven one-dollar bills for ten-dollar bills. The Indian on whom this -trick had been played found Mr. Boggs out, went to him, and demanded -reparation; and, in the altercation and fight which ensued, Mr. Boggs's -son was killed. This story is given in the official report of -Lieutenant-colonel Gordon, U.S.A., and Colonel Gordon adds, "I think -this case needs no further comment." - -The Cheyennes did not long remain at peace; in the summer the Senate had -added to this last treaty an amendment requiring their new reservation -to be entirely "outside the State of Kansas, and not within any Indian -territory, except on consent of the tribes interested." As the -reservation had been partly in Kansas, and partly on the lands of the -Cherokees, this amendment left them literally without any home whatever. -Under these circumstances, the young men of the tribe soon began to join -again with other hostile Indians in committing depredations and -hostilities along the great mail-routes on the plains. Again they were -visited with summary and apparently deserved vengeance by the United -States troops, and in the summer of 1867 a Cheyenne village numbering -three hundred lodges was burnt by United States soldiers under General -Hancock. Fortunately the women and children had all fled on the first -news of the approach of the army. Soon after this another council was -held with them, and once more the precarious peace was confirmed by -treaty; but was almost immediately broken again in consequence of the -failure of the Government to comply with the treaty provisions. That -some members of these tribes had also failed to keep to the treaty -provisions is undoubtedly true, but by far the greater part of them were -loyal and peaceable. "The substantial cause of this war," however, was -acknowledged by the Indian Bureau itself to be "the fact that the -Department, for want of appropriations, was compelled to stop their -supplies, and to permit them to recur to the chase for subsistence." - -In 1868 "the country bounded east by the State of Arkansas, south by -Texas, north by Kansas, and west by the hundredth meridian of longitude, -was set apart for the exclusive use of the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, -and Comanches, and such other bands as might be located there by proper -authority;" and the whole was declared to constitute "a military -district," under command of Major-general Hazen, U.S.A. In October of -the same year Major Wynkoop, who had been the faithful friend of the -Cheyennes and Arapahoes ever since the days of Sand Creek, published his -last protest in their behalf, in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian -Affairs. He says that the failure of the Government to fulfil treaty -provisions in the matter of supplies forced them to resort to hunting -again; and then the refusal of the Government to give them the arms and -ammunition promised in the treaty, left them without any means of -securing the game; hence the depredations. The chiefs had promised to -deliver up the guilty ones to Major Wynkoop, "but before sufficient time -had elapsed for them to fulfil their promises the troops were in the -field, and the Indians in flight. *** Even after the majority of the -Cheyennes had been forced to take the war-path, in consequence of the -bad acts of some of their nation, several bands of the Cheyennes, and -the whole Arapahoe tribe, could have been kept at peace had proper -action been taken at the time; but now all the Indians of the Upper -Arkansas are engaged in the struggle."[12] - -Footnote 12: - - On October 27th of this year Black Kettle and his entire band were - killed by Gen. Custer's command at Antelope Hills, on the Wichita - River. - -In 1869 many Arapahoes and Cheyennes had made their way to Montana, and -were living with the Gros Ventres; most of those who remained at the -south were quiet, and seemed to be disposed to observe the provisions of -the treaty, but were earnestly imploring to be moved farther to the -north, where they might hunt buffalo. - -In 1870, under the care of an agent of the Society of Friends, the -improvement of the Southern Cheyennes was remarkable. Buildings were put -up, land was broken and planted, and the agent reports that, "with -proper care on the part of the Government," there will not be any -"serious trouble" with the tribe, although there are still some -"restless spirits" among them. - -In 1872 the Cheyennes and Arapahoes are reported as "allied to the -Government in the maintenance of peace on the border. Very strong -inducements have been made by the raiding bands of Kiowas, at critical -times in the past two years, to join them in hostile alliance in raids -against the whites; but all such appeals have been rejected, and, as a -tribe, they have remained loyal and peaceful." - -Thirty lodges of the Northern Cheyennes returned this year and joined -their tribe, but many of them were still roaming among the Northern -Sioux. In 1874 there were said to be over three thousand of these -Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes at the Red Cloud Agency. The Government -refused any longer to permit them to stay there; and, after repeated -protests, and expressions of unwillingness to move, they at last -consented to go to the Indian Territory. But their removal was deferred, -on account of the unsettled state of the Southern Cheyennes. Early in -the spring troubles had broken out among them, in consequence of a raid -of horse-thieves on their reservation. The chief, Little Robe, lost -forty-three head of valuable ponies. These ponies were offered for sale -in Dodge City, Kansas, where Little Robe's son, with a small band of -young men, made an unsuccessful effort to reclaim them. Failing in this, -the band, on their way back, stole the first stock they came to; were -pursued by the Kansas farmers, the stock recaptured, and Little Robe's -son badly wounded. This was sufficient to bring on a general war against -white men in the whole region; and the history of the next few months -was a history of murders and outrages by Cheyennes, Kiowas, Osages, and -Comanches. Sixty lodges of the Cheyennes took refuge under the -protection of the United States troops at the agency, and the old -problem returned again, how to punish the guilty without harming the -innocent. A vigorous military campaign was carried on under General -Miles against the hostiles until, in the spring of 1875, the main body -surrendered. Wretched, half starved, more than half naked, without -lodges, ponies—a more pitiable sight was never seen than this band of -Indians. It was inconceivable how they had so long held out; nothing but -a well-nigh indomitable pride and inextinguishable hatred of the whites -and sense of wrongs could have supported them. It was decided that -thirty-three of the most desperate ones should be sent as prisoners to -St. Augustine, Florida; but before the selection was completed a general -stampede among the surrendered braves took place, resulting in the final -escape of some four hundred. They held their ground from two P.M. until -dark against three companies of cavalry and two Gatling guns, and, -"under cover of an extremely dark and stormy night, escaped, leaving -only three dead on the field." It is impossible not to admire such -bravery as this. The Report of the Indian Bureau for 1875 says of the -condition of affairs at this agency at this time: "The friendly -Cheyennes have had their loyalty put to the severest test by comparing -their own condition with that of the full-fed and warmly-housed captives -of the War Department. Notwithstanding all privations, they have been -unswerving in their friendship, and ever ready to assist the agent in -maintaining order, and compelling the Northern Cheyennes who have -visited the agency to submit to a count." In consequence of the -hostilities, they were obliged to remain close to the agency in camp—a -hardship that could hardly be endured, and resulted in serious -suffering. Their rations were not enough to subsist them, and yet, being -cut off from hunting, they were entirely dependent on them. And even -these inadequate rations did not arrive when they were due. Their agent -writes, in 1875: "On last year's flour contract not a single pound was -received until the fourteenth day of First Month, 1875, when six months -of cold weather and many privations had passed, notwithstanding the many -protestations and urgent appeals from the agent." - -The now thoroughly subjugated Cheyennes went to work with a will. In one -short year they are reported as so anxious to cultivate the ground that, -when they could not secure the use of a plough or hoe, they used "axes, -sticks of wood, and their hands, in preparing the ground, planting and -cultivating their garden spots." - -The Northern Cheyennes are still on the Red Cloud Agency, and are -reported as restless and troublesome. - -In 1877 they were all removed to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Agency, in -Indian Territory. The Reports of the Department say that they asked to -be taken there. The winter of 1866 and the summer of 1867 were seasons -of great activity and interest at this agency. In the autumn they went -off on a grand buffalo hunt, accompanied by a small detail of troops -from Fort Reno. Early in the winter white horse-thieves began to make -raids on their ponies, and stole so many that many of the Indians were -obliged to depend on their friends' ponies to help them return home. Two -hundred and sixty in all were stolen—carried, as usual, to Dodge City -and sold. A few were recovered; but the loss to the Indians was -estimated at two thousand nine hundred dollars. "Such losses are very -discouraging to the Indians," writes their agent, and are "but a -repetition of the old story that brought on the war of 1874." - -In midsummer of this year the "Cheyenne and Arapahoe Transportation -Company" was formed: forty wagons were sent out, with harness, by the -Government; the Indians furnished the horses; and on the 19th of July -the Indians set out in their new _rôle_ of "freighters" of their own -supplies. They went to Wichita, Kansas—one hundred and sixty-five -miles—in six days, with their ponies; loaded sixty-five thousand pounds -of supplies into the wagons, and made the return trip in two weeks, all -things being delivered in good condition. - -This experiment was thoroughly tested; and its results are notable among -the many unheeded refutations of the constantly repeated assertion that -Indians will not work. The agent of the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes, -testifying before a Senate Committee in 1879, says: "We have run a wagon -train, driven by Indians, to Wichita, for three years and over, and have -never had a drunken Indian yet." - -"Do they waste their money, or bring it home?" - -"They almost invariably spend it for saddles or clothing, or something -of use to them that is not furnished by the Government. *** They have -never stolen an ounce of sugar, coffee, or anything else: they have been -careful not to injure or waste anything, and have delivered everything -in good faith." - -The agent reports not a single case of drunkenness during the year. The -manual labor and boarding-school has one hundred and thirteen scholars -in it, "all it can accommodate." The children earned four hundred -dollars in the year by work of one sort and another, and have "expended -the money as judiciously as would white children of their ages." They -bought calico, cotton cloth, shoes, hats, several head of cattle, and -one horse. They also "bought many delicacies for their friends in camp -who were sick and in need." - -"One Cheyenne woman tanned robes, traded them for twenty-five -two-year-old heifers, and gave them to her daughter in the school. *** -The boys have one hundred and twenty acres of corn under cultivation, -ten acres of potatoes, broom-corn, sugar-cane, peanuts, melons, and a -good variety of vegetables. They are entitled to one-half the crop for -cultivating it." - -This is a marvellous report of the change wrought in a people in only -two years' time. It proves that the misdemeanors, the hostilities of -1874 and 1875, had been largely forced on them by circumstances. - -The winter of 1877 and summer of 1878 were terrible seasons for the -Cheyennes. Their fall hunt had proved unsuccessful. Indians from other -reservations had hunted the ground over before them, and driven the -buffalo off; and the Cheyennes made their way home again in straggling -parties, destitute and hungry. Their agent reports that the result of -this hunt has clearly proved that "in the future the Indian must rely on -tilling the ground as the principal means of support; and if this -conviction can be firmly established, the greatest obstacle to -advancement in agriculture will be overcome. With the buffalo gone, and -their pony herds being constantly decimated by the inroads of -horse-thieves, they must soon adopt, in all its varieties, the way of -the white man. *** The usual amount of horse-stealing has prevailed, and -the few cases of successful pursuit have only increased the boldness of -the thieves and the number of the thefts. Until some other system of law -is introduced we cannot hope for a cessation of this grievance." - -The ration allowed to these Indians is reported as being "reduced and -insufficient," and the small sums they have been able to earn by selling -buffalo-hides are said to have been "of material assistance" to them in -"supplementing" this ration. But in this year there have been sold only -$657 worth of skins by the Cheyennes and Arapahoes together. In 1876 -they sold $17,600 worth. Here is a falling off enough to cause very -great suffering in a little community of five thousand people. But this -was only the beginning of their troubles. The summer proved one of -unusual heat. Extreme heat, chills and fever, and "a reduced and -insufficient ration," all combined, resulted in an amount of sickness -heart-rending to read of. "It is no exaggerated estimate," says the -agent, "to place the number of sick people on the reservation at two -thousand. Many deaths occurred which might have been obviated had there -been a proper supply of anti-malarial remedies at hand. *** Hundreds -applying for treatment have been refused medicine." - -The Northern Cheyennes grew more and more restless and unhappy. "In -council and elsewhere they profess an intense desire to be sent North, -where they say they will settle down as the others have done," says the -report; adding, with an obtuseness which is inexplicable, that "no -difference has been made in the treatment of the Indians," but that the -"compliance" of these Northern Cheyennes has been "of an entirely -different nature from that of the other Indians," and that it may be -"necessary in the future to compel what so far we have been unable to -effect by kindness and appeal to their better natures." - -If it is "an appeal to men's better natures" to remove them by force -from a healthful Northern climate, which they love and thrive in, to a -malarial Southern one, where they are struck down by chills and -fever—refuse them medicine which can combat chills and fever, and -finally starve them—then, indeed, might be said to have been most -forcible appeals made to the "better natures" of these Northern -Cheyennes. What might have been predicted followed. - -Early in the autumn, after this terrible summer, a band of some three -hundred of these Northern Cheyennes took the desperate step of running -off and attempting to make their way back to Dakota. They were pursued, -fought desperately, but were finally overpowered, and surrendered. They -surrendered, however, only on the condition that they should be taken to -Dakota. They were unanimous in declaring that they would rather die than -go back to the Indian Territory. This was nothing more, in fact, than -saying that they would rather die by bullets than of chills and fever -and starvation. - -These Indians were taken to Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Here they were -confined as prisoners of war, and held subject to the orders of the -Department of the Interior. The department was informed of the Indians' -determination never to be taken back alive to Indian Territory. The army -officers in charge reiterated these statements, and implored the -department to permit them to remain at the North; but it was of no -avail. Orders came—explicit, repeated, finally stern—insisting on the -return of these Indians to their agency. The commanding officer at Fort -Robinson has been censured severely for the course he pursued in his -effort to carry out those orders. It is difficult to see what else he -could have done, except to have resigned his post. He could not take -three hundred Indians by sheer brute force and carry them hundreds of -miles, especially when they were so desperate that they had broken up -the iron stoves in their quarters, and wrought and twisted them into -weapons with which to resist. He thought perhaps he could starve them -into submission. He stopped the issue of food; he also stopped the issue -of fuel to them. It was midwinter; the mercury froze in that month at -Fort Robinson. At the end of two days he asked the Indians to let their -women and children come out that he might feed them. Not a woman would -come out. On the night of the fourth day—or, according to some accounts, -the sixth—these starving, freezing Indians broke prison, overpowered the -guards, and fled, carrying their women and children with them. They held -the pursuing troops at bay for several days; finally made a last stand -in a deep ravine, and were shot down—men, women, and children together. -Out of the whole band there were left alive some fifty women and -children and seven men, who, having been confined in another part of the -fort, had not had the good fortune to share in this outbreak and meet -their death in the ravine. These, with their wives and children, were -sent to Fort Leavenworth, to be put in prison; the men to be tried for -murders committed in their skirmishes in Kansas on their way to the -north. Red Cloud, a Sioux chief, came to Fort Robinson immediately after -this massacre, and entreated to be allowed to take the Cheyenne widows -and orphans into his tribe to be cared for. The Government, therefore, -kindly permitted twenty-two Cheyenne widows and thirty-two Cheyenne -children—many of them orphans—to be received into the band of the -Ogallalla Sioux. - -An attempt was made by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in his Report -for 1879, to show by tables and figures that these Indians were not -starving at the time of their flight from Indian Territory. The attempt -only redounded to his own disgrace; it being proved, by the testimony -given by a former clerk of the Indian Bureau before the Senate committee -appointed to investigate the case of the Northern Cheyennes, that the -commissioner had been guilty of absolute dishonesty in his estimates, -and that the quantity of beef actually issued to the Cheyenne Agency was -hundreds of pounds less than he had reported it, and that the Indians -were actually, as they had claimed, "starving." - -The testimony given before this committee by some of the Cheyenne -prisoners themselves is heart-rending. One must have a callous heart who -can read it unmoved. - -When asked by Senator Morgan, "Did you ever really suffer from hunger?" -one of the chiefs replied, "We were _always_ hungry; we _never_ had -enough. When they that were sick once in awhile felt as though they -could eat something, we had nothing to give them." - -"Did you not go out on the plains sometimes and hunt buffalo, with the -consent of the agent?" - -"We went out on a buffalo-hunt, and nearly starved while out; we could -not find any buffalo hardly; we could hardly get back with our ponies; -we had to kill a good many of our ponies to eat, to save ourselves from -starving." - -"How many children got sick and died?" - -"Between the fall of 1877 and 1878 we lost fifty children. A great many -of our finest young men died, as well as many women." - -"Old Crow," a chief who served faithfully as Indian scout and ally under -General Crook for years, said: "I did not feel like doing anything for -awhile, because I had no heart. I did not want to be in this country. I -was all the time wanting to get back to the better country where I was -born, and where my children are buried, and where my mother and sister -yet live. So I have laid in my lodge most of the time with nothing to -think about but that, and the affair up north at Fort Robinson, and my -relatives and friends who were killed there. But now I feel as though, -if I had a wagon and a horse or two, and some land, I would try to work. -If I had something, so that I could do something, I might not think so -much about these other things. As it is now, I feel as though I would -just as soon be asleep with the rest." - -The wife of one of the chiefs confined at Fort Leavenworth testified -before the committee as follows: "The main thing I complained of was -that we didn't get enough to eat; my children nearly starved to death; -then sickness came, and there was nothing good for them to eat; for a -long time the most they had to eat was corn-meal and salt. Three or four -children died every day for awhile, and that frightened us." - -(This testimony was taken at Fort Reno, in Indian Territory.) - -When asked if there were anything she would like to say to the -committee, the poor woman replied: "I wish you would do what you can to -get my husband released. I am very poor here, and do not know what is to -become of me. If he were released he would come down here, and we would -live together quietly, and do no harm to anybody, and make no trouble. -But I should never get over my desire to get back north; I should always -want to get back where my children were born, and died, and were buried. -That country is better than this in every respect. *** There is plenty -of good, cool water there—pure water—while here the water is not good. -It is not hot there, nor so sickly. Are you going where my husband is? -Can you tell when he is likely to be released?" - -The Senators were obliged to reply to her that they were not going where -her husband was, and they could not tell when he would be released. - -In view of the accounts of the sickness and suffering of these Indians -in 1877 and 1878, the reports made in 1879 of the industry and progress -at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Agency are almost incredible. The school -children have, by their earnings, bought one hundred head of cattle; -451,000 pounds of freight have been transported by the Indians during -the year; they have also worked at making brick, chopping wood, making -hay, hauling wood, and splitting and hauling rails; and have earned -thereby $7,121.25. Two of the girls of the school have been promoted to -the position of assistant teachers; and the United States mail -contractor between this agency and Fort Elliott, in Texas—a distance of -one hundred and sixty-five miles—has operated almost exclusively with -full-blooded Indians: "there has been no report of breach of trust on -the part of any Indians connected with this trust, and the contractor -expresses his entire approval of their conduct." - -It is stated also that there was not sufficient clothing to furnish each -Indian with a warm suit of clothing, "as promised by the treaty," and -that, "by reference to official correspondence, the fact is established -that the Cheyennes and Arapahoes are judged as having no legal rights to -any lands, having forfeited their treaty reservation by a failure to -settle thereon," and their "present reservation not having been, as yet, -confirmed by Congress. Inasmuch as the Indians fully understood, and -were assured that this reservation was given to them in lieu of their -treaty reservation, and have commenced farming in the belief that there -was no uncertainty about the matter, it is but common justice that -definite action be had at an early day, securing to them what is their -right." - -It would seem that there could be found nowhere in the melancholy record -of the experiences of our Indians a more glaring instance of confused -multiplication of injustices than this. The Cheyennes were pursued and -slain for venturing to leave this very reservation, which, it appears, -is not their reservation at all, and they have no legal right to it. Are -there any words to fitly characterize such treatment as this from a -great, powerful, rich nation, to a handful of helpless people? - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - THE NEZ PERCÉS. - - -Bounded on the north, south, and east by snow-topped mountains, and on -the west by shining waters; holding in its rocky passes the sources of -six great rivers; bearing on its slopes and plains measureless forests -of pine and cedar and spruce; its meadows gardens of summer bloom and -fruit, and treasure-houses of fertility,—lies Oregon: wide, healthful, -beautiful, abundant, and inviting, no wonder it was coveted and fought -for. - -When Lewis and Clarke visited it, eighty years ago, they found living -there many tribes of Indians, numbering in all, at the lowest estimates, -between twenty and thirty thousand; of all these tribes the Nez Percés -were the richest, noblest, and most gentle. - -To the Cayuses, one of the most warlike of these tribes, Messrs. Lewis -and Clarke presented an American flag, telling them it was an emblem of -peace. The gay coloring and beauty of the flag, allied to this -significance, made a deep impression on the poetic minds of these -savages. They set the flag up in a beautiful valley called the Grande -Ronde—a fertile basin some twenty-five miles in diameter, surrounded by -high walls of basaltic rock, and watered by a branch of the Snake River: -around this flag they met their old enemies the Shoshones, and swore to -keep perpetual peace with them; and the spot became consecrated to an -annual meeting of the tribes—a sort of fair, where the Cayuse, Nez -Percé, and Walla Walla Indians came every summer and traded their roots, -skins, elk and buffalo meats, for salmon and horses, with the Shoshones. -It was a beautiful spot, nearly circular, luxuriantly covered with -grass, the hill wall around it thick grown with evergreen trees, chiefly -larch. The Indians called it Karpkarp, which being translated is "Balm -of Gilead." - -The life of these Indians was a peculiar one. Most of them had several -homes, and as they lived only a part of the year in each, were -frequently spoken of by travellers as nomadic tribes, while in fact they -were as wedded to their homes as any civilized inhabitants of the world; -and their wanderings were as systematic as the removals of wealthy city -people from town homes to country places. If a man were rich enough, and -fond enough of change, to have a winter house in New York, a house for -the summer in Newport, and one for autumn in the White Mountains, nobody -would think of calling him a nomad; still less if he made these -successive changes annually, with perfect regularity, owing to -opportunities which were offered him at regularly recurring intervals in -these different places to earn his living; which was the case with the -Oregon Indians. - -As soon as the snow disappears in the spring there is in certain -localities, ready for gathering, the "pohpoh"—a small bulb, like an -onion. This is succeeded by the "spatlam," and the "spatlam" by the -"cammass" or "ithwa," a root like a parsnip, which they make into fine -meal. In midsummer come the salmon in countless shoals up the rivers. -August is the month for berries, of which they dry great quantities for -winter use. In September salmon again—coming down stream now, exhausted -and ready to die, but in sufficiently good condition to be dried for the -winter. In October comes the "mesani," another root of importance in the -Indian larder. After this they must depend on deer, bears, small game, -and wild-fowl. When all these resources fail, there is a kind of lichen -growing on the trees, of which they can eat enough to keep themselves -from starving, though its nutritive qualities are very small. Thus each -season had its duty and its appointed place of abode, and year after -year the same month found them in the same spot. - -In 1833 a delegation from these Oregon Indians went to St. Louis, and -through Mr. Catlin, the artist, made known their object, which was "to -inquire for the truth of a representation which they said some white -men had made among them, that our religion was better than theirs, and -that they would all be lost if they did not embrace it." Two members -of this delegation were Nez Percés—"Hee-oh'ks-te-kin" and -"H'co-a-h'co-a-h'cotes-min," or "Rabbit-skin Leggings," and "No Horns -on his Head." Their portraits are to be found in "Catlin's American -Indians." One of these died on his way home; but the other journeyed -his thousands of miles safely back, and bore to his tribe the news -"that the report which they had heard was well founded, and that good -and religious men would soon come among them to teach this religion, -so that they could all understand and have the benefits of it." - -Two years later the Methodist Episcopal Society and the American Board -both sent missionaries to Oregon. Before this the religion of the -fur-traders was the only white man's religion that the Indians had had -the opportunity of observing. Eleven different companies and -expeditions, besides the Hudson's Bay and the North-west Companies, had -been established in their country, and the Indians had become only too -familiar with their standards and methods. It was not many years after -the arrival of the missionaries in Oregon that a traveller there gave -the following account of his experience with a Nez Percé guide: - -"Creekie (so he was named) was a very kind man; he turned my worn-out -animals loose, and loaded my packs on his own; gave me a splendid horse -to ride, and intimated by significant gestures that we would go a short -distance that afternoon. I gave my assent, and we were soon on our way; -having ridden about ten miles, we camped for the night. I noticed, -during the ride, a degree of forbearance toward each other which I had -never before observed in that race. When we halted for the night the two -boys were behind; they had been frolicking with their horses, and, as -the darkness came on, lost the trail. It was a half-hour before they -made their appearance, and during this time the parents manifested the -most anxious solicitude for them. One of them was but three years old, -and was lashed to the horse he rode; the other only seven years of -age—young pilots in the wilderness at night. But the elder, true to the -sagacity of his race, had taken his course, and struck the brook on -which we were encamped within three hundred yards of us. The pride of -the parents at this feat, and their ardent attachment to the children, -were perceptible in the pleasure with which they received them at their -evening fire, and heard the relation of their childish adventures. The -weather was so pleasant that no tent was spread. The willows were bent, -and the buffalo-robes spread over them. Underneath were laid other -robes, on which my Indian host seated himself, with his wife and -children on one side and myself on the other. A fire burnt brightly in -front. Water was brought, and the evening ablutions having been -performed, the wife presented a dish of meat to her husband and one to -myself. There was a pause. The woman seated herself between her -children. The Indian then bowed his head and prayed to God. A wandering -savage in Oregon, calling on Jehovah in the name of Jesus Christ! After -the prayer he gave meat to his children and passed the dish to his wife. -While eating, the frequent repetition of the words Jehovah and Jesus -Christ, in the most reverential manner, led me to suppose that they were -conversing on religious topics, and thus they passed an hour. Meanwhile -the exceeding weariness of a long day's travel admonished me to seek -rest. I had slumbered I know not how long, when a strain of music awoke -me. The Indian family was engaged in its evening devotions. They were -singing a hymn in the Nez Percés language. Having finished, they all -knelt and bowed their faces on the buffalo-robe, and Creekie prayed long -and fervently. Afterward they sung another hymn, and retired. To -hospitality, family affection, and devotion, Creekie added honesty and -cleanliness to a great degree, manifesting by these fruits, so contrary -to the nature and habits of his race, the beautiful influence of the -work of grace on the heart." - -The earliest mention of the Nez Percés in the official records of the -Indian Bureau is in the year 1843. In that year an agent was sent out to -investigate the condition of the Oregon tribes, and he reports as -follows: "The only tribes from which much is to be hoped, or anything to -be feared in this part of Oregon, are the Walla Wallas, Cayuses, and Nez -Percés, inhabiting a district on the Columbia and its tributaries, -commencing two hundred and forty miles from its mouth, and stretching -four hundred and eighty miles in the interior." - -The Nez Percés, living farther inland, "inhabit a beautiful grazing -district, not surpassed by any I have seen for verdure, water -privileges, climate, or health. This tribe forms an honorable exception -to the general Indian character—being more noble, industrious, sensible, -and better disposed toward the whites and their improvements in the arts -and sciences; and though brave as Cæsar, the whites have nothing to -dread at their hands in case of their dealing out to them what they -conceive to be right and equitable." - -When this agent arrived at the missionary station among the Nez Percés, -he was met there by a large body of the Indians with twenty-two of their -chiefs. The missionaries received him "with joyful countenances and glad -hearts;" the Indians, "with civility, gravity, and dignified reserve." - -He addressed them at length, explaining to them the kind intentions of -the Government toward them. They listened with "gravity, fixed -attention, and decorum." Finally an aged chief, ninety years of age, -arose and said: "I speak to-day; perhaps to-morrow I die. I am the -oldest chief of the tribe. I was the high chief when your great -brothers, Lewis and Clarke, visited this country. They visited me, and -honored me with their friendship and counsel. I showed them my numerous -wounds, received in bloody battle with the Snakes. They told me it was -not good; it was better to be at peace; gave me a flag of truce; I held -it up high. We met, and talked, but never fought again. Clarke pointed -to this day—to you and this occasion. We have long waited in -expectation; sent three of our sons to Red River school to prepare for -it; two of them sleep with their fathers; the other is here, and can be -ears, mouth, and pen for us. I can say no more; I am quickly tired; my -voice and limbs tremble. I am glad I live to see you and this day; but I -shall soon be still and quiet in death." - -At this council the Nez Percés elected a head chief named Ellis, and -adopted the following Code of Laws: - - _Art. 1._ Whoever wilfully takes life shall be hung. - - _Art. 2._ Whoever burns a dwelling-house shall be hung. - - _Art. 3._ Whoever burns an out-building shall be imprisoned six - months, receive fifty lashes, and pay all damages. - - _Art. 4._ Whoever carelessly burns a house or any property shall - pay damages. - - _Art. 5._ If any one enter a dwelling without permission of the - occupant, the chiefs shall punish him as they think proper. - Public rooms are excepted. - - _Art. 6._ If any one steal, he shall pay back twofold; and if it - be the value of a beaver-skin or less, he shall receive - twenty-five lashes; and if the value is over a beaver-skin, he - shall pay back twofold, and receive fifty lashes. - - _Art. 7._ If any one take a horse and ride it, without - permission, or take any article and use it, without liberty, he - shall pay for the use of it, and receive from twenty to fifty - lashes, as the chief shall direct. - - _Art. 8._ If any one enter a field and injure the crops, or - throw down the fence, so that cattle or horses go in and do - damage, he shall pay all damages, and receive twenty-five lashes - for every offence. - - _Art. 9._ Those only may keep dogs who travel or live among the - game. If a dog kill a lamb, calf, or any domestic animal, the - owner shall pay the damage, and kill the dog. - - _Art. 10._ If an Indian raise a gun or other weapon against a - white man, it shall be reported to the chiefs, and they shall - punish him. If a white man do the same to an Indian, it shall be - reported to Dr. White, and he shall punish or redress it. - - _Art. 11._ If an Indian break these laws, he shall be punished - by his chiefs; if a white man break them, he shall be reported - to the agent, and punished at his instance. - -These laws, the agent says, he "proposed one by one, leaving them as -free to reject as to accept. They were greatly pleased with all -proposed, but wished a heavier penalty to some, and suggested the -dog-law, which was annexed." - -In a history of Oregon written by one W. H. Gray, of Astoria, we find -this Indian agent spoken of as a "notorious blockhead." Mr. Gray's -methods of mention of all persons toward whom he has antagonism or -dislike are violent and undignified, and do not redound either to his -credit as a writer or his credibility as a witness. But it is impossible -to avoid the impression that in this instance he was not far from the -truth. Surely one cannot read, without mingled horror and incredulity, -this programme of the whipping-post, offered as one of the first -instalments of the United States Government's "kind intentions" toward -these Indians; one of the first practical illustrations given them of -the kind of civilization the United States Government would recommend -and introduce. - -We are not surprised to read in another narrative of affairs in Oregon, -a little later, that "the Indians want pay for being whipped, the same -as they did for praying—to please the missionaries—during the great -revival of 1839. *** Some of the influential men in the tribe desired to -know of what benefit this whipping-system was going to be to them. They -said they were willing it should continue, provided they were to receive -shirts and pants and blankets as a reward for being whipped. They had -been whipped a good many times, and had got nothing for it, and it had -done them no good. If this state of things was to continue, it was all -good for nothing, and they would throw it away." - -The Secretary of War does not appear to have seen this aspect of his -agent's original efforts in the line of jurisprudence. He says of the -report which includes this astounding code, merely that "it furnishes -some deeply interesting and curious details respecting certain of the -Indian tribes in that remote part of our territories," and that the -conduct of the Nez Percés on the occasion of this important meeting -"impresses one most agreeably." - -A report submitted at the same time by the Rev. Mr. Spaulding, who had -lived six years as missionary among the Nez Percés, is much pleasanter -reading. He says that "nearly all the principal men and chiefs are -members of the school; that they are as industrious in their schools as -on their farms. They cultivate their lands with much skill and to good -advantage, and many more would do so if they had the means. About one -hundred are printing their own books with the pen. This keeps up a deep -interest, as they daily have new lessons to print; and what they print -must be committed to memory as soon as possible. A good number are now -so far advanced in reading and printing as to render much assistance in -teaching. Their books are taken home at night, and every lodge becomes a -school-room. Their lessons are Scripture lessons; no others (except the -laws) seem to interest them." - -Even this missionary seems to have fallen under some strange glamour on -the subject of the whipping-code; for he adds: "The laws which you so -happily prepared, and which were unanimously adopted by the people, I -have printed in the form of a small school-book. A great number of the -school now read them fluently." - -In the next year's report of the Secretary of War we read that "the Nez -Percé tribe have adopted a few simple and plain laws as their code, -which will teach them self-restraint, and is the beginning of government -on their part." The Secretary also thinks it "very remarkable that there -should so soon be several well supported, well attended, and well -conducted schools in Oregon." (Not at all remarkable, considering that -the Congregationalists, the Methodist Episcopalians, and the Roman -Catholics have all had missionaries at work there for eight years.) - -In 1846, the Nez Percés, with the rest of the Oregon tribes, disappear -from the official records of the Indian Bureau. "It will be necessary to -make some provision for conducting our relations with the Indian tribes -west of the Rocky Mountains," it is said; but, "the whole subject having -been laid before Congress, it was not deemed advisable to continue a -service that was circumscribed in its objects, and originally designed -to be temporary." The founder of the whipping-post in Oregon was -therefore relieved from his duties, and it is to be hoped his laws -speedily fell into disuse. The next year all the Protestant missions in -Oregon were abandoned, in consequence of the frightful massacre by the -Cayuses of the missionary families living among them.[13] But the Nez -Percés, though deprived of their teaching, did not give up the faith and -the practice they had taught them. Six years later General Benjamin -Alvord bore the following testimony to their religious character: - -Footnote 13: - - See Appendix, Art. XIII. - -"In the spring of 1853 a white man, who had passed the previous winter -in the country of the Nez Percés, came to the military post at the -Dalles, and on being questioned as to the manners and customs of the -tribe, he said that he wintered with a band of several hundred in -number, and that the whole party assembled every evening and morning for -prayer, the exercises being conducted by one of themselves in their own -language. He stated that on Sunday they assembled for exhortation and -worship." - -In 1851 a superintendent and three agents were appointed for Indian -service in Oregon. Treaties were negotiated with some of the tribes, but -they were not ratified, and in 1853 there was, in consequence, a -wide-spread dissatisfaction among all the Indians in the region. "They -have become distrustful of all promises made them by the United States," -says the Oregon superintendent, "and believe the design of the -Government is to defer doing anything for them till they have wasted -away. The settlement of the whites on the tracts which they regarded as -secured to them by solemn treaty stipulations, results in frequent -misunderstandings between them and the settlers, and occasions and -augments bitter animosities and resentments. I am in almost daily -receipt of complaints and petitions for a redress of wrongs from both -parties." - -Governor Stevens, of Washington Territory, in charge of the Northern -Pacific Railroad Explorations and Survey, wrote, this year, "These -hitherto neglected tribes, whose progress from the wild wanderers of the -plains to kind and hospitable neighbors is personally known to you, are -entitled, by every consideration of justice and humanity, to the -fatherly care of the Government." - -In Governor Stevens's report is to be found a comprehensive and -intelligible account of all the Indian tribes in Oregon and Washington -Territory. The greater part of the Nez Percés' country was now within -the limits of Washington Territory, only a few bands remaining in -Oregon. They were estimated to number at least eighteen hundred, and -were said to be a "rich and powerful tribe, owning many horses." Every -year they crossed the mountains to hunt buffalo on the plains of the -Missouri. - -In 1855 there was a general outbreak of hostilities on the part of the -Oregon Indians. Tribe after tribe, even among those who had been -considered friendly, fell into the ranks of the hostiles, and some base -acts of treachery were committed. The Oregon settlers, menaced with -danger on all sides, became naturally so excited and terrified that -their actions were hasty and ill-advised. "They are without discipline, -without order, and similar to madmen," says one official report. "Every -day they run off the horses and the cattle of the friendly Indians. I -will soon no longer be able to restrain the friendly Indians. They are -indignant at conduct so unworthy of the whites, who have made so many -promises to respect and protect them if they remain faithful friends. I -am very sure, if the volunteers are not arrested in their brigand -actions, our Indians will save themselves by flying to the homes of -their relations, the Nez Percés, who have promised them help; and then -all these Indians of Oregon would join in the common defence until they -be entirely exterminated." - -It is difficult to do full justice to the moral courage which is shown -by Indians who remain friendly to whites under such circumstances as -these. The traditions of their race, the powerful influence of public -sentiment among their relatives and friends, and, in addition, terror -for their own lives—all combine in times of such outbreaks to draw even -the friendliest tribes into sympathy and co-operation with those who are -making war on whites. - -At this time the hostile Indians in Oregon sent word to the Nez Percés, -"Join us in the war against the whites, or we will wipe you out." They -said, "We have made the whites run out of the country, and we will now -make the friendly Indians do the same." - -"What can the friendly Indians do?" wrote the colonel of a company of -Washington Territory Volunteers; "they have no ammunition, and the -whites will give them none; and the hostiles say to them, 'We have -plenty; come and join us, and save your lives.' The Nez Percés are very -much alarmed; they say, 'We have no ammunition to defend ourselves with -if we are attacked.'" - -The Oregon superintendent writes to General Wool (in command at this -time of the Department of the Pacific), imploring him to send troops to -Oregon to protect both friendly Indians and white settlers, and to -enable this department to maintain guarantees secured to these Indians -by treaty stipulations. He says that the friendly Indians are "willing -to submit to almost any sacrifice to obtain peace, but there may be a -point beyond which they could not be induced to go without a struggle." - -This outbreak terminated after some sharp fighting, and about equal -losses on both sides, in what the Oregon superintendent calls "a sort of -armistice," which left the Indians "much emboldened," with the -impression on their minds that they have the "ability to contend -successfully against the entire white race." - -Moreover, "the non-ratification of the treaties heretofore made to -extinguish their title to the lands necessary for the occupancy and use -of our citizens, seems to have produced no little disappointment; and -the continued extension of our settlements into their territory, without -any compensation being made to them, is a constant source of -dissatisfaction and hostile feeling. - -"It cannot be expected that Indians situated like those in Oregon and -Washington Territory, occupying extensive sections of country where, -from the game and otherwise, they derive a comfortable support, will -quietly and peaceably submit, without any equivalent, to be deprived of -their homes and possessions, and to be driven off to some other locality -where they cannot find their usual means of subsistence. Such a -proceeding is not only contrary to our policy hitherto, but is repugnant -alike to the dictates of humanity and the principles of natural justice. - -"The principle of recognizing and respecting the usufruct right of the -Indians to the lands occupied by them has not been so strictly adhered -to in the case of the tribes in the Territories of Oregon and -Washington. When a territorial government was first provided for -Oregon—which then embraced the present Territory of Washington—strong -inducements were held out to our people to emigrate and settle there -without the usual arrangements being made in advance for the -extinguishment of the title of the Indians who occupied and claimed the -lands. Intruded upon, ousted of their homes and possessions without any -compensation, and deprived in most cases of their accustomed means of -support, without any arrangement having been made to enable them to -establish and maintain themselves in other locations, it is not a matter -of surprise that they have committed many depredations upon our -citizens, and been exasperated to frequent acts of hostility." - -As was to be expected, the armistice proved of no avail; and in 1858 the -unfortunate Territories had another Indian war on their hands. In this -war we find the Nez Percés fighting on the side of the United States -against the hostile Indians. One of the detachments of United States -troops was saved from destruction only by taking refuge with them. -Nearly destitute of ammunition, and surrounded by hundreds of hostile -Indians, the little company escaped by night; and "after a ride of -ninety miles mostly at a gallop, and without a rest, reached Snake -River," where they were met by this friendly tribe, who "received them -with open arms, succored the wounded men, and crossed in safety the -whole command over the difficult and dangerous river." - -The officer in command of the Nez Percé band writes as follows, in his -report to the Indian Commissioner: - -"Allow me, my dear sir, while this general war is going on, to point you -to at least a few green spots where the ravages of war do not as yet -extend, and which thus far are untainted and unaffected, with a view of -so retaining them that we may hereafter point to them as oases in this -desert of war. These green spots are the Nez Percés, the Flat-heads, and -Pend d'Oreilles. In this connection I refer with grateful pride to an -act of Colonel Wright, which embodies views and motives which, endorsed -and carried out by the Government, must redound to his credit and -praise, and be the means of building up, at no distant day, a bold, -brave, warlike, and numerous people. - -"Before leaving Walla-Walla, Colonel Wright assembled the Nez Percé -people, told them his object was to war with and punish our enemies; but -as this great people were and ever had been our friends, he wanted their -friendship to be as enduring as the mountains around which they lived; -and in order that no difference of views or difficulty might arise, that -their mutual promises should be recorded." - -With this view he there made a treaty of friendship with them, and -thirty of the bravest warriors and chiefs at once marshalled themselves -to accompany him against the enemy. - -When Colonel Wright asked these Indians what they wanted, "their reply -was worthy of a noble race—'Peace, ploughs, and schools.'" At this time -they had no agent appointed to attend to their welfare; they were -raising wheat, corn, and vegetables with the rude means at their -command, and still preserved the faith and many of the practices taught -them by the missionaries thirteen years before. - -In 1859 peace was again established in Oregon, and the Indians -"considered as conquered." The treaties of 1855 were ratified by the -Senate, and this fact went far to restore tranquillity in the -territories. Congress was implored by the superintendents to realize -"the importance of making the appropriations for fulfilling those treaty -stipulations at the earliest practicable moment;" that it may "prevent -the recurrence of another savage war, necessarily bloody and devastating -to our settlements, extended under the authority and sanction of our -Government." With marvellous self-restraint, the superintendents do not -enforce their appeals by a reference to the fact that, if the treaties -had been fulfilled in the outset, all the hostilities of the last four -years might probably have been avoided. - -The reservation secured to the Nez Percés was a fine tract of country, -one hundred miles long and sixty in width—well watered, timbered, and of -great natural resources. Already the Indians had begun to practice -irrigation in their fields; had large herds of horses, and were -beginning to give attention to improving the breed. Some of them could -read and write their own language, and many of them professed -Christianity, and were exemplary in their conduct—a most remarkable -fact, proving the depth of the impression the missionary teachings must -have made. The majority of them wore the American costume, and showed -"their progress in civilization by attaching little value to the gewgaws -and trinkets which so generally captivate the savage." - -In less than two years the peace of this noble tribe was again invaded; -this time by a deadly foe—the greed of gold. In 1861 there were said to -be no less than ten thousand miners in the Nez Percé country prospecting -for gold. Now arose the question, What will the Government do? Will it -protect the rights of the Indians or not? - -"To attempt to restrain miners would be like attempting to restrain the -whirlwind," writes the superintendent of Washington Territory; and he -confesses that, "seeing the utter impossibility of preventing miners -from going to the mines," he has refrained from taking any steps which, -by a certain want of success, would tend to weaken the force of the law. - -For the next few years the Nez Percés saw with dismay the steady stream -of settlers pouring into their country. That they did not resist it by -force is marvellous, and can only be explained by the power of a truly -Christian spirit. - -"Their reservation was overrun by the enterprising miners; treaty -stipulations were disregarded and trampled under foot; towns were -established thereon, and all the means that cupidity could invent or -disloyalty achieve were resorted to to shake their confidence in the -Government. They were disturbed in the peaceable possession of what they -regarded as their vested rights, sacredly secured by treaty. They were -informed that the Government was destroyed, and that whatever treaties -were made would never be carried out. All resistance on their part -proved unavailing, and inquietude and discontent predominated among -them," says the Governor of Idaho, in 1865. Shortly after, by the -organization of that new Territory, the Nez Percés' reservation had been -removed from the jurisdiction of Washington Territory to that of Idaho. - -A powerful party was organized in the tribe, advocating the forming of a -league with the Crows and Blackfeet against the whites. The non-arrival -of promised supplies; the non-payment of promised moneys; the unchecked -influx of miners throughout the reservation, put strong weapons into the -hands of these disaffected ones. But the chiefs "remained firm and -unwavering in their devotion to the Government and the laws. They are -intelligent—their head chief, Sawyer, particularly so—and tell their -people to still wait patiently." And yet, at this very time, there was -due from the United States Government to this chief Sawyer six hundred -and twenty-five dollars! He had for six months been suffering for the -commonest necessaries of life, and had been driven to disposing of his -vouchers at fifty cents on the dollar to purchase necessaries. The -warriors also, who fought for us so well in 1856, were still unpaid; -although in the seventh article of the treaty of 1863 it had been agreed -that "the claims of certain members of the Nez Percé tribe against the -Government, for services rendered and horses furnished by them to the -Oregon Mounted Volunteers, as appears by certificates issued by W. H. -Fauntleroy, Acting Regimental Quartermaster, and commanding Oregon -Volunteers, on the 6th of March, 1856, at Camp Cornelius, and amounting -to $4665, shall be paid to them in full in gold coin." - -How many communities of white men would remain peaceable, loyal, and -friendly under such a strain as this? - -In 1866 the Indian Bureau report of the state of our diplomatic -relations with the Nez Percés is that the treaty concluded with them in -1863 was ratified by the Senate, "with an amendment which awaited the -action of the Indians. The ratification of this treaty has been delayed -for several years for various reasons, partly arising from successive -changes in the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Idaho, whose varying -opinions on the subject of the treaty have caused doubts in the minds of -senators. A later treaty had been made, but, on careful consideration of -the subject, it was deemed advisable to carry into effect that of 1863. -The Nez Percés claimed title to a very large district of country -comprised in what are now organized as Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, -but principally within the latter Territory; and already a large white -population is pressing upon them in the search for gold. They are -peaceable, industrious, and friendly, and altogether one of the most -promising of the tribes west of the Rocky Mountains, having profited -largely by the labors of missionaries among them." - -By the treaty ratified in this year they give up "all their lands except -a reservation defined by certain natural boundaries, and agree to remove -to this reservation within one year. Where they have improvements on -lands outside of it, such improvements are to be appraised and paid for. -The tillable lands are to be surveyed into tracts of twenty acres each, -and allotted to such Indians as desire to hold lands in severalty. The -Government is to continue the annuities due under former treaties, and, -in addition, pay the tribe, or expend for them for certain specific -purposes having their improvement in view, the sum of $262,500, and a -moderate sum is devoted to homes and salaries for chiefs. The right of -way is secured through the reservation, and the Government undertakes to -reserve all important springs and watering-places for public use." - -In this same year the Governor of Idaho writes, in his annual report to -the Department of the Interior: "Prominent among the tribes of Northern -Idaho stand the Nez Percés, a majority of whom boast that they have ever -been the faithful friends of the white man. But a few over half of the -entire tribe of the Nez Percés are under treaty. The fidelity of those -under treaty, even under the most discouraging circumstances, must -commend itself to the favorable consideration of the Department. The -non-payment of their annuities has had its natural effect on the minds -of some of those under treaty; but their confiding head chief, Sawyer, -remains unmoved, and on all occasions is found the faithful apologist -for any failure of the Government. Could this tribe have been kept aloof -from the contaminating vices of white men, and had it been in the power -of the Government promptly to comply with the stipulations of the treaty -of 1855, there can be no doubt but that their condition at this time -would have been a most prosperous one, and that the whole of the Nez -Percé nation would by this time have been willing to come under treaty, -and settle on the reservation with those already there." - -In 1867 the patience of the Nez Percés is beginning to show signs of -wearing out. The Governor of Idaho writes: "This disaffection is great, -and serious trouble is imminent. It could all be settled by prompt -payment by the Government of their just dues; but if delayed too long I -greatly fear open hostilities. They have been patient, but promises and -explanations are losing force with them now. *** Their grievances are -urged with such earnestness that even Sawyer, who has always been our -apologist, has in a measure abandoned his pacific policy, and asks -boldly that we do them justice. *** Even now it may not be too late; -but, if neglected, war may be reasonably expected. Should the Nez Percés -strike a blow, all over our Territory and around our boundaries will -blaze the signal-fires and gleam the tomahawks of the savages—Kootenays, -Pen d'Oreilles, Cœur d'Alenes, Blackfeet, Flat-heads, Spokanes, -Pelouses, Bannocks, and Shoshones will be involved." - -This disaffection, says the agent, "began to show itself soon after the -visit of George C. Haigh, Esq., special agent, last December, to obtain -their assent to the amendments to the treaty of June 9th, 1863—the -non-ratification of that treaty had gone on so long, and promises made -them by Governor Lyon that it would not be ratified, and that he was -authorized to make a new treaty with them by which they would retain all -of their country, as given them under the treaty of 1851, except the -site of the town of Lewiston. They had also been informed in March, -1866, that Governor Lyon would be here in the June following, to pay -them back-annuities due under the treaty of 1855. The failure to carry -out these promises, and the idea they have that the stipulations of the -treaty of 1863 will be carried out in the same manner, is one of the -causes of their bad feeling. It showed itself plainly at the council -lately held, and is on the increase. If there is the same delay in -carrying out the stipulations of the treaty of 1863 that there has been -in that of 1855, some of the chiefs with their bands will join the -hostile Indians. There are many things it is impossible to explain to -them. They cannot understand why the $1185 that was promised by Governor -Lyon to the Indian laborers on the church is not paid. He told them when -the walls were up they should receive their pay. These laborers were -poor men, and such inducements were held out to them that they commenced -the work in good faith, with the full expectation of receiving their pay -when their labors ceased." - -The head chief Sawyer's pay is still in arrears. For the last quarter of -1863, and the first and second of 1864, he has received no pay. No -wonder he has ceased to be the "apologist" of the Government, which four -years ago promised him an annuity of $500 a year. - -Spite of this increasing disaffection the Nez Percés are industrious and -prosperous. They raised in this year 15,000 bushels of wheat. "Many of -them carried their wheat to be ground to the mills, while many sold the -grain to packers for feed, while much of it is boiled whole for food. -Some few of the better class have had their wheat ground, and sold the -flour in the mining-camps at lower prices than packers could lay it down -in the camps. Some have small pack-trains running through the summer; -one in particular, Cru-cru-lu-ye, runs some fifteen animals; he -sometimes packs for whites, and again runs on his own account. A -Clearwater Station merchant a short time ago informed me of his buying -some oats of Cru-cru-lu-ye last fall. After the grain had been weighed, -and emptied out of the sacks, the Indian brought the empty sacks to the -scales to have them weighed, and the tare deducted, saying he only -wanted pay for the oats. Their sales of melons, tomatoes, corn, -potatoes, squashes, green pease, etc., during the summer, in the -different towns and mining-camps, bring in some $2000 to $3000. Their -stock of horses and cattle is increasing fast, and with the benefits to -be derived from good American stallions, and good bulls and cows, to be -distributed to them under the stipulations of the treaty of 1863, they -will rapidly increase in wealth." - -In 1869 their reservation is still unsurveyed, and when the Indians -claim that white settlers are establishing themselves inside the lines -there is no way of proving it, and the agent says all he can do is to -promise that "the white man's heart shall be better;" and thus the -matter will rest until another disturbance arises, when the same -complaints are made, and the same answers given as before—that "the -white man's heart shall be better, and the boundary-line shall be -surveyed." - -Other treaty stipulations are still unfulfilled; and the non-treaty -party, while entirely peaceable, is very strong, and immovably opposed -to treaties. - -In 1870, seven years after it was promised, the long deferred survey of -the reservation was made. The superintendent and the agent both -remonstrated, but in vain, against the manner in which it was done; and -three years later a Board of Special Commissioners, appointed to inquire -into the condition of the Indians in Idaho, examined the fence put up at -that time, and reported that it was "a most scandalous fraud. It is a -post-and-board fence. The posts are not well set. Much of the lumber is -deficient in width and length. The posts are not dressed. The lumber -laps at any joint where it may chance to meet, whether on the posts or -between them, and the boards are not jointed on the posts where they -meet; they are lapped and fastened generally with one nail, so that they -are falling down rapidly. The lumber was cut on the reservation. The -contract price of the fence was very high; the fencing done in places of -no value to any one, for the reason that water cannot be had for -irrigation. The Government cannot be a party to such frauds on the -people who intrust it with their property." - -In this year a commission was sent to Oregon to hold council with the -band of Nez Percés occupying Wallowa Valley, in Oregon, "with a view to -their removal, if practicable, to the Nez Percé Reservation in Idaho. -They reported this removal to be impracticable, and the Wallowa Valley -has been withdrawn from sale, and set apart for their use and occupation -by Executive order."[14] - -Footnote 14: - - Report of the Secretary of the Interior for 1873. - -This commission report that one of the most troublesome questions in the -way of the Government's control of Indian affairs in Idaho is the -contest between the Catholic and Protestant churches. This strife is a -great detriment to the Indians. To illustrate this, they quote Chief -Joseph's reason for not wishing schools on his reservation. He was the -chief of the non-treaty band of Nez Percés occupying the Wallowa Valley, -in Oregon: - -"Do you want schools and school-houses on the Wallowa Reservation?" -asked the commissioners. - -_Joseph._ "No, we do not want schools or school-houses on the Wallowa -Reservation." - -_Com._ "Why do you not want schools?" - -_Joseph._ "They will teach us to have churches." - -_Com._ "Do you not want churches?" - -_Joseph._ "No, we do not want churches." - -_Com._ "Why do you not want churches?" - -_Joseph._ "They will teach us to quarrel about God, as the Catholics and -Protestants do on the Nez Percé Reservation, and at other places. We do -not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things -on this earth, but we never quarrel about God. We do not want to learn -that." - -Great excitement prevailed among the settlers in Oregon at the cession -of the Wallowa Valley to the Indians. The presence of United States -soldiers prevented any outbreak; but the resentment of the whites was -very strong, and threats were openly made that the Indians should not be -permitted to occupy it; and in 1875 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs -writes: - -"The settlements made in the Wallowa Valley, which has for years been -the pasture-ground of the large herds of horses owned by Joseph's band, -will occasion more or less trouble between this band and the whites, -until Joseph is induced or compelled to settle on his reservation." - -It is only two years since this valley was set apart by Executive order -for the use and occupation of these Indians; already the Department is -contemplating "compelling" them to leave it and go to the reservation in -Idaho. There were stormy scenes there also during this year. Suits were -brought against all the employés of the Lapwai Agency, and a claim set -up for all the lands of the agency, and for many of the Indian farms, by -one Langford, representing the old claim of the missionaries, to whom a -large tract of ground had been ceded some thirty years before. He -attempted to take forcible possession of the place, and was ejected -finally by military force, after the decision of the Attorney-general -had been given that his claim was invalid. - -The Indian Bureau recommended a revocation of the executive order giving -the Wallowa Valley to Joseph and his band. In June of this year -President Grant revoked the order, and in the autumn a commission was -sent out "to visit these Indians, with a view to secure their permanent -settlement on the reservation, their early entrance on a civilized life, -and to adjust the difficulties then existing between them and the -settlers." - -It is worth while to study with some care the reasons which this -commission gave to Chief Joseph why the Wallowa Valley, which had been -given to him by Executive order in 1873, must be taken away from him by -Executive order in 1875: - -"Owing to the coldness of the climate, it is not a suitable location for -an Indian reservation. *** It is now in part settled by white squatters -for grazing purposes. *** The President claimed that he extinguished the -Indian title to it by the treaty of 1863. *** It is embraced within the -limits of the State of Oregon. *** The State of Oregon could not -probably be induced to cede the jurisdiction of the valley to the United -States for an Indian reservation. *** In the conflicts which might arise -in the future, as in the past, between him and the whites, the President -might not be able to justify or defend him. *** A part of the valley had -already been surveyed and opened to settlement: *** if, by some -arrangement, the white settlers in the valley could be induced to leave -it, others would come." - -To all these statements Joseph replied that he "asked nothing of the -President. He was able to take care of himself. He did not desire -Wallowa Valley as a reservation, for that would subject him and his band -to the will of, and dependence on, another, and to laws not of their own -making. He was disposed to live peaceably. He and his band had suffered -wrong rather than do wrong. One of their number was wickedly slain by a -white man during the last summer, but he would not avenge his death." - -"The serious and feeling manner in which he uttered these sentiments was -impressive," the commissioners say, and they proceeded to reply to him -"that the President was not disposed to deprive him of any just right, -or govern him by his individual will, but merely subject him to the same -just and equal laws by which he himself as well as all his people were -ruled." - -What does it mean when commissioners sent by the President to induce a -band of Indians to go on a reservation to live, tell them that they -shall be subjected on that reservation "merely to the same just and -equal laws" by which the President and "all his people are ruled?" And -still more, what is the explanation of their being so apparently unaware -of the enormity of the lie that they leave it on official record, signed -by their names in full? It is only explained, as thousands of other -things in the history of our dealings with the Indians are only to be -explained, by the habitual indifference, carelessness, and inattention -with which questions relative to Indian affairs and legislation thereon -are handled and disposed of, in whatever way seems easiest and shortest -for the time being. The members of this commission knew perfectly well -that the instant Joseph and his band moved on to the reservation they -became subject to laws totally different from those by which the -President and "all his people were ruled," and neither "just" nor -"equal:" laws forbidding them to go beyond certain bounds without a pass -from the agent; laws making them really just as much prisoners as -convicts in a prison—the only difference being that the reservation is -an unwalled out-of-door prison; laws giving that agent power to summon -military power at any moment, to enforce any command he might choose to -lay on them, and to shoot them if they refused to obey.[15] "The same -just and equal laws by which the President himself and all his people -are ruled!" Truly it is a psychological phenomenon that four men should -be found willing to leave it on record under their own signatures that -they said this thing. - -Footnote 15: - - Witness the murder of Big Snake on the Ponca Reservation, Indian - Territory, in the summer of 1879. - -Farther on in the same report there is an enumeration of some of the -experiences which the Nez Percés who are on the Idaho Reservation have -had of the advantages of living there, and of the manner in which the -Government has fulfilled its promises by which it induced them to go -there; undoubtedly these were all as well known to Chief Joseph as to -the commissioners. For twenty-two years he had had an opportunity to -study the workings of the reservation policy. They say: - -"During an interview held with the agent and the treaty Indians, for the -purpose of ascertaining whether there were sufficient unoccupied -tillable lands for Joseph's band on the reservation, and for the further -purpose of securing their co-operation to aid us in inducing Joseph to -come upon the reservation, facts were brought to our attention of a -failure on the part of the Government to fulfil its treaty stipulations -with these Indians. The commission therefore deem it their duty to call -the attention of the Government to this subject. - -"1st. Article second of the treaty of June 9th, 1863, provides that no -white man—excepting such as may be employed by the Indian -Department—shall be permitted to reside upon the reservation without -permission of the tribe, and the superintendent and the agent. -Nevertheless, four white men are occupying or claiming large tracts on -the reservation. - -"It is clearly the duty of the Government to adjust and quiet these -claims, and remove the parties from the reservation. Each day's delay to -fulfil this treaty stipulation adds to the distrust of the Indians in -the good faith of the Government. - -"2d. Article third of the same treaty of 1863 provides for the survey of -the land suitable for cultivation into lots of twenty acres each; while -a survey is reported to have been early made, no measures were then, or -have been since, taken to adjust farm limits to the lines of the -surveyed lots. - -"3d. Rules and regulations for continuing the possession of these lots -and the improvements thereon in the families of deceased Indians, have -not been prescribed, as required by the treaty. - -"4th. It is also provided that certificates or deeds for such tracts -shall be issued to individual Indians. - -"The failure of the Government to comply with this important provision -of the treaty causes much uneasiness among the Indians, who are little -inclined to spend their labor and means in improving ground held by the -uncertain tenure of the pleasure of an agent. - -"5th. Article seventh of the treaty provides for a payment of four -thousand six hundred and sixty-five dollars in gold coin to them for -services and horses furnished the Oregon Mounted Volunteers in 1856. It -is asserted by the Indians that this provision of the treaty has -hitherto been disregarded by the Government." - -The commissioners say that "every consideration of justice and equity, -as well as expediency, demands from the Government a faithful and -literal compliance with all its treaty obligations toward the Indians. A -failure to do this is looked upon as bad faith, and can be productive of -only bad results." - -At last Chief Joseph consented to remove from the Wallowa Valley with -his band, and go to the Lapwai Reservation. The incidents of the council -in which this consent was finally wrung from him, are left on record in -Chief Joseph's own words, in an article written by him (through an -interpreter) and published in the _North American Review_ in 1874. It is -a remarkable contribution to Indian history. - -It drew out a reply from General O. O. Howard, who called his paper "The -true History of the Wallowa Campaign:" published in the _North American -Review_ two months after Chief Joseph's paper. - -Between the accounts given by General Howard and by Chief Joseph of the -events preceding the Nez Percé war, there are noticeable discrepancies. - -General Howard says that he listened to the "oft-repeated dreamer -nonsense of the chief, 'Too-hool-hool-suit,' with no impatience, but -finally said to him: 'Twenty times over I hear that the earth is your -mother, and about the chieftainship of the earth. I want to hear it no -more.'" - -Chief Joseph says: "General Howard lost his temper, and said 'Shut up! I -don't want to hear any more of such talk.' - -"Too-hool-hool-suit answered, 'Who are you, that you ask us to talk, and -then tell me I sha'n't talk? Are you the Great Spirit? Did you make the -world?'" - -General Howard, quoting from his record at the time, says: "The rough -old fellow, in his most provoking tone, says something in a short -sentence, looking fiercely at me. The interpreter quickly says: 'He -demands what person pretends to divide this land, and put me on it?' In -the most decided voice I said, 'I am the man. I stand here for the -President, and there is no spirit, bad or good, that will hinder me. My -orders are plain, and will be executed.'" - -Chief Joseph says: "General Howard replied, 'You are an impudent fellow, -and I will put you in the guard-house,' and then ordered a soldier to -arrest him." - -General Howard says: "After telling the Indians that this bad advice -would be their ruin, I asked the chiefs to go with me to look at their -land. 'The old man (Too-hool-hool-suit) shall not go. I will leave him -with Colonel Perry.' He says, 'Do you want to scare me with reference to -my body?' I said, 'I will leave your body with Colonel Perry.' I then -arose and led him out of the council, and gave him into the charge of -Colonel Perry." - -Chief Joseph says: "Too-hool-hool-suit made no resistance. He asked -General Howard, 'Is that your order? I don't care. I have expressed my -heart to you. I have nothing to take back. I have spoken for my country. -You can arrest me, but you cannot change me, or make me take back what I -have said.' The soldiers came forward and seized my friend, and took him -to the guard—house. My men whispered among themselves whether they -should let this thing be done. I counselled them to submit. *** -Too-hool-hool-suit was prisoner for five days before he was released." - -General Howard, it will be observed, does not use the word "arrested," -but as he says, later, "Too-hool-hool-suit was released on the pledge of -Looking-glass and White Bird, and on his own earnest promise to behave -better," it is plain that Chief Joseph did not misstate the facts. This -Indian chief, therefore, was put under military arrest, and confined for -five days, for uttering what General Howard calls a "tirade" in a -council to which the Indians had been asked to come for the purpose of -consultation and expression of sentiment. - -Does not Chief Joseph speak common-sense, as well as natural feeling, in -saying, "I turned to my people and said, 'The arrest of -Too-hool-hool-suit was wrong, but we will not resent the insult. We were -invited to this council to express our hearts, and we have done so.'" - -If such and so swift penalty as this, for "tirades" in council, were the -law of our land, especially in the District of Columbia, it would be "no -just cause of complaint" when Indians suffer it. But considering the -frequency, length, and safety of "tirades" in all parts of America, it -seems unjust not to permit Indians to deliver them. However, they do -come under the head of "spontaneous productions of the soil;" and an -Indian on a reservation is "invested with no such proprietorship" in -anything which comes under that head.[16] - -Footnote 16: - - Annual Report of the Indian Commissioner for 1878, p. 69. - -Chief Joseph and his band consented to move. Chief Joseph says: "I said -in my heart that, rather than have war, I would give up my country. I -would give up my father's grave. I would give up everything rather than -have the blood of white men upon the hands of my people." - -It was not easy for Joseph to bring his people to consent to move. The -young men wished to fight. It has been told that, at this time, Chief -Joseph rode one day through his village, with a revolver in each hand, -saying he would shoot the first one of his warriors that resisted the -Government. Finally, they gathered all the stock they could find, and -began the move. A storm came, and raised the river so high that some of -the cattle could not be taken across. Indian guards were put in charge -of the cattle left behind. White men attacked these guards and took the -cattle. After this Joseph could no longer restrain his men, and the -warfare began, which lasted over two months. It was a masterly campaign -on the part of the Indians. They were followed by General Howard; they -had General Crook on their right, and General Miles in front, but they -were not once hemmed in; and, at last, when they surrendered at Bear Paw -Mountain, in the Montana Hills, it was not because they were beaten, but -because, as Joseph says, "I could not bear to see my wounded men and -women suffer any longer; we had lost enough already. *** We could have -escaped from Bear Paw Mountain if we had left our wounded, old women and -children, behind. We were unwilling to do this. We had never heard of a -wounded Indian recovering while in the hands of white men. *** I -believed General Miles, or I never would have surrendered. I have heard -that he has been censured for making the promise to return us to Lapwai. -He could not have made any other terms with me at that time. I could -have held him in check until my friends came to my assistance, and then -neither of the generals nor their soldiers would ever have left Bear Paw -Mountain alive. On the fifth day I went to General Miles and gave up my -gun, and said, 'From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more.' My -people needed rest; we wanted peace." - -The terms of this surrender were shamefully violated. Joseph and his -band were taken first to Fort Leavenworth and then to the Indian -Territory. At Leavenworth they were placed in the river bottom, with no -water but the river water to drink. - -"Many of my people sickened and died, and we buried them in this strange -land," says Joseph. "I cannot tell how much my heart suffered for my -people while at Leavenworth. The Great Spirit Chief who rules above -seemed to be looking some other way, and did not see what was being done -to my people." - -Yet with a marvellous magnanimity, and a clear-headed sense of justice -of which few men would be capable under the circumstances, Joseph says: -"I believe General Miles would have kept his word if he could have done -so. I do not blame him for what we have suffered since the surrender. I -do not know who is to blame. We gave up all our horses, over eleven -hundred, and all our saddles, over one hundred, and we have not heard -from them since. Somebody has got our horses." - -This narrative of Chief Joseph's is profoundly touching; a very Iliad of -tragedy, of dignified and hopeless sorrow; and it stands supported by -the official records of the Indian Bureau. - -"After the arrival of Joseph and his band in Indian Territory, the bad -effect of their location at Fort Leavenworth manifested itself in the -prostration by sickness at one time of two hundred and sixty out of the -four hundred and ten; and 'within a few months' in the death of 'more -than one-quarter of the entire number.'"[17] - -Footnote 17: - - Annual Report of the Indian Commissioner for 1878, p. 33. - -"It will be borne in mind that Joseph has never made a treaty with the -United States, and that he has never surrendered to the Government the -lands he claimed to own in Idaho. *** Joseph and his followers have -shown themselves to be brave men and skilful soldiers, who, with one -exception, have observed the rules of civilized warfare. *** These -Indians were encroached upon by white settlers, on soil they believed to -be their own, and when these encroachments became intolerable, they were -compelled in their own estimation to take up arms."[18] - -Footnote 18: - - Same Report, p. 34. - -Chief Joseph and a remnant of his band are still in Indian Territory, -waiting anxiously the result of the movement now being made by the Ponca -chief, Standing Bear, and his friends and legal advisers, to obtain from -the Supreme Court a decision which will extend the protection of the -civil law to every Indian in the country. - -Of the remainder of the Nez Percés (those who are on the Lapwai -Reservation), the report of the Indian Bureau for 1879 is that they -"support themselves entirely without subsistence from the Government; -procure of their own accord, and at their own expense, wagons, harness, -and other farming implements beyond the amount furnished by the -Government under their treaty," and that "as many again as were taught -were turned away from school for lack of room." - -The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions has contributed during this -year $1750 for missionary work among them, and the Indians themselves -have raised $125. - -Their reservation is thus described: "The majority of land comprising -the reservation is a vast rolling prairie, affording luxuriant pasturage -for thousands of their cattle and horses. The Clearwater River, flowing -as it does directly through the reserve, branching out in the North, -Middle, and South Forks, greatly benefits their locations that they have -taken in the valleys lying between such river and the bluffs of the -higher land, forming in one instance—at Kaimaih—one of the most -picturesque locations to be found in the whole North-west. Situated in a -valley on either side of the South Fork, in length about six miles, -varying in width from one-half to two miles; in form like a vast -amphitheatre, surrounded on all sides by nearly perpendicular bluffs -rising two thousand feet in height, it forms one of the prettiest -valleys one can imagine. A view from the bluff reveals a living -panorama, as one sees the vast fields of waving grain surrounding -well-built and tasty cottages adorned with porches, and many of the -conveniences found among industrious whites. The sight would lead a -stranger, not knowing of its inhabitance by Indians, to inquire what -prosperous white settlement was located here. It is by far the most -advanced in the ways of civilization and progress of any in the -Territory, if not on the coast." - -How long will the white men of Idaho permit Indians to occupy so fair a -domain as this? The small cloud, no larger than a man's hand, already -looms on their horizon. The closing paragraph of this (the last) report -from the Nez Percés is: - -"Some uneasiness is manifest about stories set afloat by renegade -whites, in relation to their treatment at the expiration of their treaty -next July, but I have talked the matter over, and they will wait -patiently to see the action on the part of the Government. They are well -civilized; but one mistake on the part of the Government at this time -would destroy the effects of the past thirty years' teachings. Give them -time and attention; they will astonish their most zealous friends in -their progress toward civilization." - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - THE SIOUX. - - -The word Sioux is a contraction from the old French word "Nadouessioux," -or "Enemies," the name given by the French traders to this most powerful -and warlike of all the North-western tribes. They called themselves -"Dakota," or "many in one," because so many bands under different names -were joined together. At the time of Captain Carver's travels among the -North American Indians there were twelve known bands of these -"Nadouwessies." They entertained the captain most hospitably for seven -months during the winter of 1766-'7; adopted him as one of their chiefs; -and when the time came for him to depart, three hundred of them -accompanied him for a distance on his journey, and took leave with -expressions of friendship for him, and good-will toward the Great -Father, the English king, of whom he had told them. The chiefs wished -him to say to the king "how much we desire that traders may be sent to -abide among us with such things as we need, that the hearts of our young -men, our wives, and children may be made glad. And may peace subsist -between us so long as the sun, the moon, the earth, and the waters shall -endure;" and "acquaint the Great King how much the Nadouwessies wish to -be counted among his good children." - -Nothing in all the history of the earliest intercourse between the -friendly tribes of North American Indians and the Europeans coming among -them is more pathetic than the accounts of their simple hospitality, -their unstinted invitations, and their guileless expressions of desire -for a greater knowledge of the white men's ways. - -When that saintly old bigot, Father Hennepin, sailed up the Illinois -River, in 1680, carrying his "portable chapel," chalice, and chasuble, -and a few holy wafers "in a steel box, shut very close," going to teach -the savages "the knowledge of the Captain of Heaven and Earth, and to -use fire-arms, and several other things relating to their advantage," -the Illinois were so terrified that, although they were several thousand -strong, they took to flight "with horrid cries and howlings." On being -reassured by signs and words of friendliness, they slowly returned—some, -however, not until three or four days had passed. Then they listened to -the good man's discourses with "great attention; afterward gave a great -shout for joy," and "expressed a great gratitude;" and, the missionaries -being footsore from long travel, the kindly creatures fell to rubbing -their legs and feet "with oil of bears, and grease of wild oxen, which -after much travel is an incomparable refreshment; and presented us some -flesh to eat, putting the three first morsels into our mouths with great -ceremonies." - -It was a pity that Father Hennepin had no more tangible benefit than the -doctrine of the "efficacy of the Sacraments" to communicate to the -hospitable Illinois in return for their healing ointments. Naturally -they did not appreciate this, and he proceeded on his way disheartened -by their "brutish stupidity," but consoling himself, however, with the -thought of the infants he had baptized. Hearing of the death of one of -them, he says he is "glad it had pleased God to take this little -Christian out of the world," and he attributed his own "preservation -amidst the greatest dangers" afterward to "the care he took for its -baptism." Those dangers were, indeed, by no means inconsiderable, as he -and his party were taken prisoners by a roaming party of these Indians, -called in the Father's quaint old book "Nadouwessians." He was forced to -accompany them on their expeditions, and was in daily danger of being -murdered by the more riotous and hostile members of the band. He found -these savages on the whole "good-natured men, affable, civil, and -obliging," and he was indebted for his life to the good-will of one of -the chiefs, who protected him again and again at no inconsiderable -danger to himself. The only evidence of religion among the Nadouwessies -which he mentions is that they never began to smoke without first -holding the pipe up to the sun, saying, "Smoke, sun!" They also offered -to the sun the best part of every beast they killed, carrying it -afterward to the cabin of their chief; from which Father Hennepin -concluded that they had "a religious veneration for the sun." - -The diplomatic relations between the United States Government and the -Sioux began in the year 1815. In that year and the year following we -made sixteen "treaties" of peace and friendship with different tribes of -Indians—treaties demanding no cessions of land beyond the original -grants which had been made by these tribes to the English, French, or -Spanish governments, but confirming those to the United States; -promising "perpetual peace," and declaring that "every injury or act of -hostility committed by one or other of the contracting parties shall be -mutually forgiven and forgot." Three of these treaties were made with -bands of the Sioux—one of them with "the Sioux of the Leaf, the Sioux of -the Broad Leaf, and the Sioux who shoot in the Pine-tops." - -In 1825 four more treaties were made with separate Sioux bands. By one -of those treaties—that of Prairie du Chien—boundaries were defined -between the Chippewas and the Sioux, and it was hoped that their -incessant feuds might be brought to an end. This hostility had continued -unabated from the time of the earliest travellers in the country, and -the Sioux had been slowly but steadily driven south and west by the -victorious Chippewas. A treaty could not avail very much toward keeping -peace between such ancient enemies as these. Fighting went on as before; -and white traders, being exposed to the attacks of all war-parties, -suffered almost more than the Indians themselves. The Government -consoled itself for this spectacle of bloody war, which it was powerless -to prevent, by the thought that the Indians would "probably fight on -until some one or other of the tribes shall become too reduced and -feeble to carry on the war, when it will be lost as a separate power"—an -equivocal bit of philosophizing which was unequivocally stated in these -precise words in one of the annual reports of the War Department. - -In the third Article of the next treaty, also at Prairie du Chien, in -1830, began the trouble which has been from that day to this a source of -never ending misunderstanding and of many fierce outbreaks on the part -of the Sioux. Four of the bands by this article ceded and relinquished -to the United States "forever" a certain tract of country between the -Mississippi and the Des Moines River. In this, and in a still further -cession, two other bands of Sioux, who were not fully represented at the -council, must join; also, some four or five other tribes. Landed and -"undivided" estate, owned in common by dozens of families, would be a -very difficult thing to parcel out and transfer among white men to-day, -with the best that fair intentions and legal skill combined could do; -how much more so in those days of unsurveyed forests, unexplored rivers, -owned and occupied in common by dozens of bands of wild and ignorant -Indians, to be communicated with only by interpreters. Misconstructions -and disputes about boundaries would have been inevitable, even if there -had been all possible fairmindedness and good-will on both sides; but in -this case there was only unfairmindedness on one side, and unwillingness -on the other. All the early makers of treaties with the Indians -congratulated themselves and the United States on the getting of acres -of valuable land by the million for next to nothing, and, as years went -on, openly lamented that "the Indians were beginning to find out what -lands were worth;" while the Indians, anxious, alarmed, hostile at -heart, seeing themselves harder and harder pressed on all sides, driven -"to provide other sources for supplying their wants besides those of -hunting, which must soon entirely fail them,"[19] yielded mile after -mile with increasing sense of loss, which they were powerless to -prevent, and of resentment which it would have been worse than impolitic -for them to show. - -Footnote 19: - - Treaty of Prairie du Chien. - -The first annuities promised to the Sioux were promised by this -treaty—$3000 annually for ten years to the Yankton and Santee bands; to -the other four, $2000. The Yankton and Santee bands were to pay out of -their annuity $100 yearly to the Otoes, because part of some land which -was reserved for the half-breeds of the tribe had originally belonged to -the Otoes. "A blacksmith, at the expense of the United States; also, -instruments for agricultural purposes; and iron and steel to the amount -of $700 annually for ten years to some of the bands, and to the amount -of $400 to the others; also, $3000 a year 'for educational purposes,' -and $3000 in presents distributed at the time," were promised them. - -It was soon after these treaties that the artist Catlin made his famous -journeys among the North American Indians, and gave to the world an -invaluable contribution to their history, perpetuating in his pictures -the distinctive traits of their faces and their dress, and leaving on -record many pages of unassailable testimony as to their characteristics -in their native state. He spent several weeks among the Sioux, and says -of them: "There is no tribe on the continent of finer looking men, and -few tribes who are better and more comfortably clad and supplied with -the necessaries of life. *** I have travelled several years already -among these people, and I have not had my scalp taken, nor a blow struck -me, nor had occasion to raise my hand against an Indian; nor has my -property been stolen as yet to my knowledge to the value of a shilling, -and that in a country where no man is punishable by law for the crime of -stealing. *** That the Indians in their native state are drunken, is -false, for they are the only temperance people, literally speaking, that -ever I saw in my travels, or expect to see. If the civilized world are -startled at this, it is the fact that they must battle with, not with -me. These people manufacture no spirituous liquor themselves, and know -nothing of it until it is brought into their country, and tendered to -them by Christians. - -"That these people are naked, is equally untrue, and as easily disproved -with the paintings I have made, and with their beautiful costumes which -I shall bring home. I shall be able to establish the fact that many of -these people dress not only with clothes comfortable for any latitude, -but that they dress also with some considerable taste and elegance. *** -Nor am I quite sure that they are entitled to the name of 'poor' who -live in a country of boundless green fields, with good horses to ride; -where they are all joint tenants of the soil together; where the Great -Spirit has supplied them with an abundance of food to eat." - -Catlin found six hundred families of the Sioux camped at one time around -Fort Pierre, at the mouth of the Teton River, on the west bank of the -Missouri. There were some twenty bands, each with their chief, over whom -was one superior chief, called Ha-won-je-tah (the One Horn), whose -portrait is one of the finest in Catlin's book. This chief took his -name, "One Horn," from a little shell which he wore always on his neck. -This shell had descended to him from his father, and he said "he valued -it more than anything which he possessed:" affording a striking instance -of the living affection which these people often cherish for the dead, -inasmuch as he chose to carry this name through life in preference to -many others and more honorable ones he had a right to have taken from -different battles and exploits of his extraordinary life. He was the -fleetest man in the tribe; "could run down a buffalo, which he had often -done on his own legs, and drive his arrow to the heart." - -This chief came to his death, several years later, in a tragic way. He -had been in some way the accidental cause of the death of his only son—a -very fine youth—and so great was the anguish of his mind at times that -he became insane. In one of these moods he mounted his favorite -war-horse, with his bow and arrows in his hand, and dashed off at full -speed upon the prairies, repeating the most solemn oath that he would -slay the first living thing that fell in his way, be it man or beast, -friend or foe. No one dared follow him, and after he had been absent an -hour or two his horse came back to the village with two arrows in its -body covered with blood. Fears of the most serious kind were now -entertained for the fate of the chief, and a party of warriors -immediately mounted their horses and retraced the animal's tracks to the -place of the tragedy, where they found the body of their chief horribly -mangled and gored by a buffalo-bull, whose carcass was stretched by the -side of him. - -A close examination of the ground was then made by the Indians, who -ascertained by the tracks that their unfortunate chief, under his -unlucky resolve, had met a buffalo-bull in the season when they are very -stubborn, and unwilling to run from any one, and had incensed the animal -by shooting a number of arrows into him, which had brought him into -furious combat. The chief had then dismounted and turned his horse -loose, having given it a couple of arrows from his bow, which sent it -home at full speed, and then had thrown away his bow and quiver, -encountering the infuriated animal with his knife alone, and the -desperate battle had resulted in the death of both. Many of the bones of -the chief were broken, and his huge antagonist lay dead by his side, -weltering in blood from a hundred wounds made by the chief's long and -two-edged knife. - -Had the provisions of these first treaties been fairly and promptly -carried out, there would have been living to-day among the citizens of -Minnesota thousands of Sioux families, good and prosperous farmers and -mechanics, whose civilization would have dated back to the treaty of -Prairie du Chien. - -In looking through the records of the expenditures of the Indian Bureau -for the six years following this treaty, we find no mention of any -specific provisions for the Sioux in the matter of education. The $3000 -annually which the treaty promised should be spent "on account of the -children of the said tribes and bands," is set down as expended on the -"Choctaw Academy," which was in Kentucky. A very well endowed -institution that must have been, if we may trust to the fiscal reports -of the Indian Bureau. In the year 1836 there were set down as expended -on this academy: On account of the Miamis, $2000; the Pottawattomies, -$5000; the Sacs, Foxes, and others, $3000; the Choctaws, $10,000; the -Creeks, east, $3000; the Cherokees, west, $2000; the Florida Indians, -$1000; the Quapaws, $1000; the Chickasaws, $3000; the Creeks, $1000: -being a total of $31,000. - -There were in this year one hundred and fifty-six pupils at the Choctaw -Academy, sixteen of them being from the Sacs, Foxes, Sioux, and others -represented in the Treaty of Prairie du Chien of 1830. For the education -of these sixteen children, therefore, these tribes paid $3000 a year. -The Miamis paid more in proportion, having but four youths at school, -and $2000 a year charged to them. The Pottawattomies, on a treaty -provision of $5000, educated twenty. - -In 1836 Congress appropriated $2000 "for the purpose of extinguishing -the Indian title between the State of Missouri and the Missouri River. -The land owned here by the Indians was a long, narrow belt of country, -separated from the rest of the Indian country by the Missouri River. The -importance of it to the State of Missouri was evident—an "obvious -convenience and necessity." The citizens of Missouri made -representations to this effect; and though the President is said to have -been "unwilling to assent, as it would be in disregard of the guarantee -given to the Indians in the Treaty of Prairie du Chien, and might be -considered by them as the first step in a series of efforts to obtain -possession of their new country," he nevertheless consented that the -question of such a cession should be submitted to them. Accordingly, -negotiations were opened, and nearly all the Indians who had rights in -these lands, "seeing that from their local position they could never be -made available for Indian purposes," relinquished them.[20] - -Footnote 20: - - For this relinquishment the Government gave to the Lower Sioux - presents to the amount of $400, and to the upper bands $530 in goods. - -In 1837 the Government invited deputations of chiefs from many of the -principal tribes to come to Washington. It was "believed to be important -to exhibit" to them "the strength of the nation they would have to -contend with" if they ventured to attack our borders, "and at the same -time to impress upon them the advantages which flow from civilization." -Among these chiefs came thirty chiefs and headmen of the Sioux; and, -being duly "impressed," as was most natural, concluded treaties by which -they ceded to the United States "all their land east of the Mississippi -River, and all their islands in the same." These chiefs all belonged to -the Medawakanton band, "community of the Mysterious Lakes." - -The price of this cession was $300,000, to be invested for them, and the -interest upon this sum, at five per cent., to be paid to them "annually -forever;" $110,000 to be distributed among the persons of mixed blood in -the tribe; $90,000 to be devoted to paying the just debts of the tribe; -$8230 to be expended annually for twenty years in stock, implements, on -physicians, farmers, blacksmiths, etc.; $10,000 worth of tools, cattle, -etc., to be given to them immediately, "to enable them to break up and -improve their lands;" $5300 to be expended annually for twenty years in -food for them, "to be delivered at the expense of the United States;" -$6000 worth of goods to be given to them on their arrival at St. Louis. - -In 1838 the Indian Bureau reports that all the stipulations of this -treaty have been complied with, "except those which appropriate $8230 to -be expended annually in the purchase of medicines, agricultural -implements, and stock; and for the support of a physician, farmers, and -blacksmiths," and "bind the United States to supply these Sioux as soon -as practicable with agricultural implements, tools, cattle, and such -other articles as may be useful to them, to an amount not exceeding -$10,000, to enable them to break up and improve their lands." The -fulfilment or non-fulfilment of these stipulations has been left to the -discretion of the agent; and the agent writes that it "must be obvious -to any one that a general personal intercourse" on his part "is -impracticable," and that "his interviews with many of the tribes must -result from casualty and accident." This was undoubtedly true; but it -did not, in all probability, occur to the Indians that it was a good and -sufficient reason for their not receiving the $18,000 worth of goods -promised. - -Five thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine dollars were expended the -next year under this provision of the treaty, and a few Indians, who -"all labored with the hoe," raised their own crops without assistance. -Six thousand bushels of corn in all were housed for the winter; but the -experiment of turning hunters into farmers in one year was thought not -to be, on the whole, an encouraging one. The "peculiar habits of -indolence, and total disregard and want of knowledge of the value and -uses of time and property," the agent says, "almost forbid hope." A more -reasonable view of the situation would have seen in it very great hope. -That out of five hundred warriors a few score should have been already -found willing to work was most reassuring, and promised well for the -future of the tribe. - -For the next ten years affairs went on badly with the Sioux; they were -continually attacked by the Chippewas, Ottawas, and others, and -continually retaliated. The authorities took a sensible view of this -state of things, as being the easiest way of securing the safety of the -whites. "So long as they (the Indians) are at war with each other they -will not feel a disposition to disturb the peace and safety of our -exposed frontier settlements," wrote Governor Dodge, in 1840. - -Whiskey traders flocked faster and faster into the neighborhood; fur -traders, also, found it much more for their interest to trade with -drunken Indians than with sober ones, and the Sioux grew rapidly -demoralized. Their annuities were in arrears; yet this almost seemed -less a misfortune than a blessing, since both money, goods, and -provisions were so soon squandered for whiskey. - -In 1842 several of the bands were reduced to a state of semi-starvation -by the failure of corn crops, and also by the failure of the Senate to -ratify a treaty they had made with Governor Doty in 1841.[21] Depending -on the annuities promised in this treaty, they had neglected to make -their usual provisions for the winter. Frosts, which came in June, and -drought, which followed in July, combined to ruin their crops. For -several years the water had been rapidly decreasing in all the lakes and -streams north-west of Traverse de Sioux: the musk-rat ponds, from which -the Indians used to derive considerable revenue, had dried up, and the -musk-rats had gone, nobody knew where; the beaver, otter, and other -furry creatures had been hunted down till they were hard to find; the -buffalo had long since been driven to new fields, far distant. Many of -the Indians were too poor to own horses on which to hunt. They were two -hundred miles from the nearest place where corn could be obtained, even -if they had money to pay for it. Except for some assistance from the -Government, they would have died by hundreds in the winter of this year. - -Footnote 21: - - Never ratified. - -In 1849 the "needs" of the white settlers on the east side of the -Mississippi made it imperative that the Sioux should be again removed -from their lands. "The desirable portions of Minnesota east of the -Mississippi were already so occupied by a white population as to seem to -render it absolutely necessary to obtain without delay a cession from -the Indians on the west side of the river, for the accommodation of our -citizens emigrating to that quarter, a large portion of whom would -probably be compelled to precipitate themselves on that side of the -Mississippi." - -Commissioners were accordingly sent to treat with the Indians owning -these desired lands. In the instructions given to these commissioners -there are some notable sentences: "Though the proposed purchase is -estimated to contain some twenty millions of acres, and some of it no -doubt of excellent quality," there are "sound reasons why it is -comparatively valueless to the Indians, and a large price should not be -paid for it." Alive to the apparent absurdity of the statement that -lands which are "absolutely necessary" for white farmers are -"comparatively valueless" to Indians whom the Government is -theoretically making every effort to train into farmers, and who have -for the last ten years made appreciable progress in that direction, the -commissioner adds, "With respect to its being valuable to the United -States, it is more so for the purpose of making room for our emigrating -citizens than for any other; and only a small part of it is now actually -necessary for that object. *** The extent of the proposed cession should -be no criterion of the amount that should be paid for it. On a full -consideration of the whole matter, it is the opinion of this office that -from two to two and a half cents an acre would be an ample equivalent -for it." Some discretion is left to the commissioners as to giving more -than this if the Indians are "not satisfied;" but any such increase of -price must be "based on such evidence and information as shall fully -satisfy the President and Senate."[22] - -Footnote 22: - - "Chrysostom was of opinion, and not without reason, that, in - contracts, as often as we strive earnestly to buy anything for less - than it is worth, or to have more than our just measure or weight, - there was in that fact a kind of theft."—GROTIUS _on Contracts_. - -Reading farther on in these instructions, we come at last to the real -secret of this apparent niggardliness on the part of the Government. It -is not selfishness at all; it is the purest of philanthropy. The -Government has all along been suffering in mind from two conflicting -desires—"the desire to give these Indians an equivalent for their -possessions," and, on the other hand, "the well-ascertained fact that no -greater curse can be inflicted on a tribe so little civilized as the -Sioux than to have large sums of money coming to them as annuities." *** -On the whole, the commissioner says that we are called on, "as a matter -of humanity and duty toward this helpless race, to make every exertion -in our power not to place much money at their discretion." The -Government is beginning very well in this direction, it must be -admitted, when it proposes to pay for Mississippi Valley lands in -Minnesota only two and a half cents per acre. "Humanity and duty" allied -could hardly do more at one stroke than that. - -We cannot ascribe to the same philanthropy, however, the withholding -from 1837 to 1850 the $3000 a year which the treaty of 1837 provided -should be expended "annually" as the President might direct, and which -was not expended at all, because President after President directed that -it should be applied to educational purposes; and there being no evident -and easy way of expending it in that manner, it was allowed to -accumulate, until in 1850 it amounted, according to the report of -Governor Ramsey, of Minnesota, to $50,000. The governor also thinks -better than the United States Government does of the country to be -relinquished this year by the Sioux. He says that it will be "settled -with great rapidity, possessing as it does from its situation -considerable prospective commercial as well as agricultural advantages." -It was evidently very cheap at two and a half cents an acre. - -In this same code of instructions by the Indian Bureau there is a record -of another instance of the Government's disregard of treaty -stipulations. At the time of the treaty of Prairie du Chien, in 1850, -the Sioux chiefs had requested that a certain tract be set apart and -bestowed upon the half-breeds of their nation. This was provided for in -the ninth Article of that treaty; but the Government refused to give to -the half-breeds any title to this land, except "in the same manner as -other Indian titles are held." It was agreed, however, that the -President might "assign to any of said half-breeds, to be held by him or -them in fee-simple, any portion of said tract not exceeding a section of -six hundred and forty acres to an individual." This tract of land was -known as the "Half-breed Reservation on Lake Tepin." - -The half-breeds had made almost unintermitting efforts to have these -assignments made, but the Government had as constantly refused to do it. -The Indian Bureau now assigns two reasons why this treaty stipulation -was never fulfilled: 1st, that "the half-breeds, or most of them, would -be speculated upon by designing persons, and cheated out of their -reservations;" 2d, that, "on account of the quality of the lands, some -would necessarily have much better reservations than others, which would -engender dissatisfaction and heart-burning among themselves as well as -against the United States." The Bureau felicitates itself that "the only -title they now have to this land, therefore, is that by which other -Indians hold their lands, viz., the occupant or usufruct right, and this -they enjoy by the permission of the United States." Such being the case, -and as the Government would probably never find it expedient and -advisable to make the assignment referred to, this tract, whatever may -be the character of the land, must be and would continue comparatively -worthless to them. - -Nevertheless, it appears that in 1841 one of the three treaties made -with the Sioux, but not ratified, was with these very half-breeds for -this same "valueless" tract of 384,000 acres of land; that they were to -be paid $200,000 for it, and also to be paid for all the improvements -they had made on it; and that the treaty commissioners are still -instructed "to allow them for it now whatever sum the commissioners deem -it to be" fairly worth; "under no circumstances," however, "to exceed -the sum stipulated in 1841." Putting this all into plain English, it -simply means that in 1830 the Government promised to let a band of men -take out tracts of land in fee-simple, and settle down like other men on -their homesteads; that for ten years the men begged to do so, and were -refused; that at the end of ten years, thinking there was no hope of -anything better, they agreed to sell the whole tract back to the -Government for $200,000; that this bargain, also, the Government did not -fulfil (the treaties never being ratified), and nine years later was -found congratulating itself on the fact that, by reason of all these -unfulfilled agreements, the land was still "held only in the same manner -as other Indian titles are held"—_i.e._, not "held" at all—only used on -sufferance of the Government, and could be taken possession of at any -time at the Government's pleasure. (This matter was supposed to be -finally settled in 1854 by a law of Congress; but in 1856 the thing -appears to have been still unsettled. A commission had been sent out to -investigate it, and the report was that "the subject has been one of -some difficulty and intricacy; but the final report of the commissioners -has just been received, and steps will be taken at once to cause the -scrip to issue to the parties entitled thereto.") - -A little farther on in this same notable document is a mention of -another tract, of which it is now "desirable to extinguish the title." -This was set apart by the tenth Article of that same old treaty for the -half-breeds of the Omahas, Otoes, Iowas, and Yankton and Santee Sioux. -This contains about 143,000 acres, but is "supposed to be of much less -value than that on Lake Tepin much less value than 'valueless;'" but the -"amount to be paid for it is left to the discretion" of the -commissioners. - -At this time the bands of the Medewakanton Sioux were occupying a tract -of over two hundred miles along the west shore of the Mississippi, -reaching also some twenty-five miles up the St. Peter's. The Yanktons, -Santees, and other bands lived high up the St. Peter's, reaching over -into the lands west of the Missouri, out of reach of ordinary facilities -of intercourse. These bands were often in great distress for food, owing -to the failure of the buffalo. They never lost an occasion to send -imploring messages to the Great Father, urging him to help them. They -particularly ask for hoes, that they may plant corn. In his report for -1850 the superintendent of the territory embracing these Indians says: -"The views of most of those who have lived the longest among the Indians -agree in one respect—that is, that no great or beneficial change can -take place in their condition until the General Government has made them -amenable to local laws—laws which will punish the evil-disposed, and -secure the industrious in their property and individual rights." - -Superintendents, agents, commissioners, secretaries, all reiteratedly -recommending this one simple and necessary step toward civilization—the -Indians themselves by hundreds imploring for titles to their farms, or -at least "hoes"—why did the United States Government keep on and on in -its obstinate way, feeding the Indian in gross and reckless improvidence -with one hand, plundering him with the other, and holding him steadily -down at the level of his own barbarism? Nay, forcing him below it by the -newly added vices of gambling and drunkenness, and yet all the while -boasting of its desire to enlighten, instruct, and civilize him. It is -as inexplicable as it is infamous: a phenomenal thing in the history of -the world. - -In the summer of 1851 the desired treaties were made, the upper and -lower bands of Sioux being treated with separately at Traverse de Sioux -and at Mendota. The upper bands were soon disposed of, though "some few -of them, having been taught to read," had become impressed with the idea -that their country was of immense value, and at first demanded six -million dollars for the lands to be ceded. The treaty with the lower -bands—the Medawakantons and Wahpacootas—was "exceedingly difficult of -attainment" on account of, firstly, "their proximity to the flourishing -settlements on the east side of the Mississippi producing necessarily -frequent contact with the whites, whose ideas of the great value of the -country had been imparted to these Indians; secondly, their great -experience in Indian diplomacy, being in the enjoyment already of -liberal annuities under former stipulations"—all these things rendered -them as "indifferent to the making of another treaty at present as the -whites on their borders were anxious that their lands should be -acquired." In consequence of this indomitable common-sense on the part -of the Indians the sessions of the commissioners were tedious and long; -not until a month had passed did they prevail on these Indians to sign -away the coveted lands, "the garden-spot of the Mississippi Valley," and -they were obliged to more than treble the number of cents per acre which -they had been instructed to pay. For thirty-five millions of acres of -land they agreed to pay nominally $3,075,000, which would be between -eight and nine cents an acre. But as $2,500,000 was to be held in trust, -and only the interest at five per cent, to be paid to the Indians, and -this only for the term of fifty years, at which time the principal was -to revert to the Government, it will be easily reckoned that the Indians -would receive, all told, only about six and one-quarter cents an acre. -And taking into account the great value of the relinquished lands, and -the price the Government would undoubtedly obtain for them, it will be -readily conceded that Governor Ramsey was not too sanguine when he -stated, in his report to the Interior Department, that the "actual cost -to the Government of this magnificent purchase is only the sum paid in -hand" ($575,000). - -The governor says that it was "by no means the purpose" of the -commission "to act other than justly and generously toward the Indians;" -that "a continuation of the payment of large sums of interest annually -would do them no further good "after fifty years had expired, and would -be "inconsistent with sound governmental policy." He says that the -Dakota nation, although warlike, is "friendly to the whites," and that -it may be reasonably expected that, "by a judicious expenditure of the -civilization and improvement funds provided for in these treaties," they -will soon take the lead "in agriculture and other industrial pursuits." - -One of the provisions of this treaty forbade the introduction of ardent -spirits into the new reservation. This was put in in accordance with the -"earnest desire" of the chiefs, who requested that "some stringent -measures should be taken by the Government to exclude all kinds of -liquors from their new home." - -By this treaty the four great bands of Minnesota Sioux were all to be -"consolidated together on one reservation in the upper part of the -Mississippi Valley." This region was thought to be "sufficiently remote -to guarantee" them against any pressure from the white population for -many years to come. Farms were to be opened for them, mills and schools -to be established, and dwelling-houses erected. They were to have now a -chance to own "that domestic country called home, with all the living -sympathies and all the future hopes and projects which people it." From -this time "a new era was to be dated in the history of the Dakotas: an -era full of brilliant promise." The tract of territory relinquished by -them was "larger than the State of New York, fertile and beautiful -beyond description," far the best part of Minnesota. It is "so far -diversified in natural advantages that its productive powers may be -considered almost inexhaustible. *** Probably no tract on the surface of -the globe is equally well watered. *** A large part is rich arable land; -portions are of unsurpassed fertility, and eminently adapted to the -production in incalculable quantities of the cereal grains. The -boundless plains present inexhaustible fields of pasturage, and the -river bottoms are richer than the banks of the Nile. In the bowels of -the earth there is every indication of extensive mineral fields." - -It would seem that the assertion made only a few lines before this -glowing paragraph—"to the Indians themselves the broad regions which -have been ceded are of inconsiderable value"—could not be true. It would -seem that for eight thousand people, who, according to this same writer, -"have outlived in a great degree the means of subsistence of the hunter -state," and must very soon "resort to the pursuits of agriculture," -nothing could have been more fortunate than to have owned and occupied -thirty-five millions of acres of just such land as this. - -They appear to be giving already some evidence of a disposition to turn -this land to account. The reports from the different farms and schools -show progress in farming industry and also in study. The farming is -carried on with difficulty, because there are only a few carts and -ploughs, which must be used in turn by the different farmers, and -therefore must come to some quite too late to be of use, and there is -much quarrelling among them owing to this trouble. Nevertheless, these -bands have raised over four thousand bushels of corn in the year. There -is also a great opposition to the schools, because the Indians have been -told that the accumulated fifty thousand dollars which is due to them -would be paid to them in cash if it were not for the schools. -Nevertheless, education is slowly progressing; in this year fifty copies -of a little missionary paper called _The Dakota Friend_ were subscribed -for in the one mission station of Lac qui Parle, and sixty scholars were -enrolled at the school. The blacksmith at St. Peter's reports that he -has made during the year 2506 pieces of one sort and another for the -Indians, and repaired 1430 more. Evidently a community keeping -blacksmiths so busy as this are by no means wholly idle themselves. - -It is worth while to dwell upon these seemingly trivial details at this -point in the history of the Minnesota Sioux, because they are all -significant to mark the point in civilization they had already reached, -and the disposition they had already shown toward industry before they -were obliged to submit to their first great removal. Their condition at -the end of two years from the ratification of these treaties is curtly -told in the official reports of the Indian Bureau: - -"The present situation of that portion of the Sioux Indians parties to -the treaties of July 23d and August 5th, 1851, is peculiar, unfortunate, -and to them must prove extremely injurious. By these treaties they -reluctantly parted with a very large extent of valuable country, which -it was of the greatest importance to the Government to acquire. An -insignificant portion of it near its western boundary, not deemed -necessary or desirable for a white population for many years, if at all, -was agreed to be reserved and assigned to them for their future -residence. The Senate amended the treaties, striking out this provision, -allowing ten cents an acre in lieu of the reservations, and requiring -the President, with the assent of the Indians, if they agreed to the -amendments, to assign them such tracts of country, beyond the limits of -that ceded, as might be satisfactory for their future home. To the -amendments was appended a proviso 'that the President may, by the -consent of the Indians, vary the conditions aforesaid, if deemed -expedient.' The Indians were induced to agree to the amendments; -'confiding in the justice, liberality, and humanity of the President and -the Congress of the United States, that such tracts of country will be -set apart for their future occupancy and home as will be to them -acceptable and satisfactory.' Thus, not only was the assent of the -Indians made necessary to a country being assigned to them without the -limits of that ceded, but, by the authority given to the President to -vary the conditions of the amendments to the treaties, he was empowered, -with the consent of the Indians, to place them upon the designated -reservations, or upon any other portion of the ceded territory, 'if -deemed expedient.' - -"To avoid collisions and difficulties between the Indians and the white -population which rapidly commenced pouring into the ceded country, it -became necessary that the former should vacate at least a large portion -of it without delay, while there was neither the time nor the means to -make the requisite explorations to find a suitable location for them -beyond the limits of the cession. - -"Under these pressing and embarrassing circumstances the late President -determined to permit them to remain five years on the designated -reservations, if they were willing to accept this alternative. They -assented, and many of them have been already removed. However -unavoidable this arrangement, it is a most unfortunate one. The Indians -are fully aware of its temporary character, and of the uncertainty as to -their future position, and will consequently be disinclined and deterred -from any efforts to make themselves comfortable and improve their -condition. The inevitable result must be that, at the end of the time -limited, they will be in a far worse condition than now, and the efforts -and expenditures of years to infuse into them a spirit of improvement -will all have been in vain. - -"The large investments in mills, farms, mechanic shops, and other -improvements required by the treaties to be made for their benefit, will -be entirely wasted if the Indians are to remain on their reservations -only during the prescribed five years. At the very period when they -would begin to reap the full advantage of these beneficial provisions -they would have to remove. Another unfortunate feature of this -arrangement, if temporary, is that the Indians will have expended the -considerable sums set apart in the treaties for the expenses of their -removal to a permanent home, and for subsistence until they could -otherwise provide it, leaving nothing for these important and necessary -purposes in the event of another emigration. In view of these facts and -considerations, no time should be lost in determining upon some final -and permanent arrangement in regard to them." - -The Governor of Minnesota also writes at this time: "The doubtful tenure -by which this tribe hold their supposed reservation is well understood -by their chiefs and headmen, and is beginning to give deep -dissatisfaction, and throwing daily more and more obstacles in the way -of their removal. This reservation will not be wanted for white men for -many years. - -"There is not wood, or timber, or coal sufficient for the purposes of -civilization, except immediately on the St. Peter's and its tributaries. -From near the vicinity of the new agency there commences a vast prairie -of more than one hundred miles in extent, entirely destitute of timber, -and I feel confident that we never shall be able to keep any very large -number of them at their new agency, or near there. - -"Already the fund set apart for the removal and subsistence the first -year of the Sissetons and Wah-pa-tons has been expended, and all their -provisions eaten up. Seventeen thousand dollars and upward have been -expended by Governor Ramsey, and one year in advance of the time fixed -by the treaty for their removal. This expenditure was made while he was -getting them to sign the Senate amendments to the treaty of 1851, which -they were very reluctant to do, and which not more than half the chiefs -have signed. These Indians want the Government to confirm this -reservation to them. I would recommend that this be done as the only -means to satisfy them, and humanity demands it." - -Here is a picture of a helpless people! Forced to give up the -"garden-spot of the State," and accept in its stead an "insignificant -tract, on the greater part of which there is not wood, or timber, or -coal sufficient for civilization;" and then, before the ink of this -treaty is dry, told that even from this insignificant tract they must -promise to move at the end of five years. What words could characterize -such a transaction between man and man? There is not a country, a -people, a community in which it would be even attempted! Was it less -base, or more, being between a strong government and a feeble race? - -From the infamy of accomplishing this purpose the United States was -saved. Remonstrances, and still more the resistance of the Indians, -prevailed, and in 1854 we find the poor creatures expressing "much -satisfaction" that the President has decreed that they are to remain -permanently on their "insignificant tract." - -The Upper Missouri Sioux are still suffering and destitute; a few of -them cultivating little patches of ground, depending chiefly on the -chase, and on roots and wild berries; when these resources fail there is -nothing left for them but to starve, or to commit depredations on white -settlers. Some of the bands, nevertheless, have scrupulously observed -the stipulations of the Fort Laramie treaty in 1851, show a "strong -desire for improvement," and are on the most friendly terms with the -whites. These peaceable and friendly bands are much distressed, as well -they may be, at the reckless course pursued by others of their tribe. -They welcome the presence of the soldiers sent to chastise the -offenders, and gladly render all the service to them they can, even -against their relatives and friends. - -In 1855 it is stated that "various causes have combined to prevent the -Minnesota Sioux from deriving, heretofore, much substantial benefit from -the very liberal provisions of the treaties of 1851. Until after the -reservations were permanently assured to the Indians (1854) it would -have been highly improper to have made the expenditures for permanent -improvements, and since then the affairs of the agency have not been -free from confusion." - -"Large sums of money have been expended for these Sioux, but they have -been indolent, extravagant, intemperate, and have wasted their means -without improving, or seeming to desire to improve their condition." - -Both these statements are made in grave good faith; certainly without -any consciousness of their bearing on each other. It is not stated, -however, what specific means the Sioux could have employed "to improve -their condition," had they "desired" to do so. - -The summer of 1857 was one which will long be remembered by the citizens -of Minnesota. It was opened by terrible massacres, which were all the -work of a strolling outcast band of Sioux, not more than fifteen in -number. They had been driven out of their tribe some sixteen years -previous, and had been ever since then leading a wandering and marauding -life. The beginning of the trouble was a trivial difficulty between one -of the white settlers on Rock River and an Indian. The settler's dog bit -the Indian, and the Indian shot the dog. For this the white settlers -beat the Indian severely, and then went to the camp and by force took -away all the guns of the band. This was at a season of the year when to -be without guns meant simply to be without food, and the Indians were -reduced at once to a condition of great suffering. By some means they -either repossessed themselves of their guns or procured others, and, -attacking the settlement, killed all the inhabitants except four women, -whom they carried away with them, and treated with the utmost barbarity. -The inevitable results of such horrors followed. The thousands of -peaceable Indians in Minnesota, who did not even know of this outrage, -were all held in one common terror and hatred by the general public; -only the very great firmness and discretion of the military officers -sent to deal with the outbreak saved Minnesota from a general uprising -and attack from all the Sioux bands, who were already in a state of -smouldering discontent by reason of the non-payment of their annuities. -However, they obeyed the demands of the Government that they themselves -should pursue this offending band, and either capture or exterminate it. -They killed four, and took three prisoners, and then returned "much -jaded and worn," and said they could do no more without the help of -United States soldiers; and that they thought they had now done enough -to show their loyalty, and to deserve the payment of their annuities. -One of the chiefs said: "The man who killed white people did not belong -to us, and we did not expect to be called to account for the people of -another band. We have always tried to do as our Great Father tells us." -Another said: "I am going to speak of the treaty. For fifty years we -were to be paid $50,000 per annum. We were also promised $300,000 that -we have not seen. I wish to say to my Great Father we were promised -these things, but have not seen them yet. Why does not the Great Father -do as he promised?" - -These hostilities were speedily brought to an end, yet the situation was -by no means reassuring for the Indians. But one sentiment seemed to -inspire the whole white population, and this was the desire to -exterminate the entire Indian race. - -"For the present," writes the superintendent, "it is equally important -to protect the Indians from the whites as the whites from the Indians -and this in spite of the fact that all the leading bands of the treaty -Sioux had contributed warriors to go in pursuit of the murderers, had -killed or captured all they could find, and stood ready to go again -after the remaining eight, if the United States troops would go also and -assist them. Spite of the exertions of one of the chiefs of the Lower -Sioux, "Little Crow," who, the superintendent says, labored with him -"night and day in organizing the party, riding continually between the -lower and upper agencies," so that they "scarcely slept" till the -war-party had set out on the track of the murderers; spite of the fact -that the whole body of the Sioux, without exception, "received the -intelligence with as much indignation and disapprobation as the whites -themselves, and did their best to stand clear of any suspicion of or -connection with the affair—spite of all this, they were in continual -danger of being shot at sight by the terrified and unreasoning settlers. -One band, under the chief Sleepy Eyes, were returning to their homes -from a hunt; and while they were "wondering what the panic among the -whites meant" (they having heard nothing of the massacre), were fired -into by some of the militia volunteers. - -The next day a white settler was found killed near that spot—presumably -by some member of Sleepy Eyes' band. This excitement slowly abated, and -for the next four years a steady improvement was visible in the -Minnesota Sioux. Hundreds of them threw aside the blanket—the -distinctive badge of their wild state; schools were well attended, and -farms were well tilled. That there was great hostility to this -civilization, on the part of the majority of the tribe, cannot be -denied; but that was only natural—the inevitable protest of a -high-spirited and proud race against abandoning all its race -distinctions. When we see the men of Lorraine, or of Montenegro, ready -to die for the sake merely of being called by the name of one power -rather than by that of another, we find it heroic, and give them our -sympathies; but when the North American Indian is ready to die rather -than wear the clothes and follow the ways of the white man, we feel for -him only unqualified contempt, and see in his instinct nothing more than -a barbarian's incapacity to appreciate civilization. Is this just? - -In 1861 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, visiting these Sioux, -reports: "I was much surprised to find so many of the Sioux Indians -wearing the garb of civilization, many of them living in frame or brick -houses, some of them with stables or out-houses, and their fields -indicating considerable knowledge of agriculture. Their condition," he -says, "affords abundant evidence of what may be accomplished among the -Sioux Indians by steadily adhering to a uniform, undeviating policy. - -"The number that live by agricultural pursuits is yet small compared -with the whole; but their condition is so much better than that of the -wild Indian, that they, too, are becoming convinced that it is the -better way to live; and many are coming in, asking to have their hair -cut, and for a suit of clothes, and to be located on a piece of land -where they can build a house and fence in their fields." - -Many more of them would have entered on the agricultural life had the -Government provided ways and means for them to do so. In this same -report is a mention of one settlement of two thousand Indians at Big -Stone Lake, who "have been hitherto almost entirely neglected. These -people complain that they have lived upon promises for the last ten -years, and are really of opinion that white men never perform what they -promise. Many of them would go to work if they had any reasonable -encouragement." - -The annuities are still in arrears. Every branch of the industries and -improvements attempted suffers for want of the promised funds, and from -delays in payments expected. The worst result, however, of these delays -in the fulfilment of treaty stipulations was the effect on the Indians. -A sense of wrong in the past and distrust for the future was ever -deepening in their minds, and preparing them to be suddenly thrown by -any small provocation into an antagonism and hostility grossly -disproportionate to the apparent cause. This was the condition of the -Minnesota Sioux in the summer of 1862.[23] - -Footnote 23: - - See Appendix, Art. VI. - -The record of the massacres of that summer is scarcely equalled in the -history of Indian wars. Early in August some bands of the Upper Sioux, -who had been waiting at their agency nearly two months for their annuity -payments, and had been suffering greatly for food during that time—so -much so that "they dug up roots to appease their hunger, and when corn -was turned out to them they devoured it uncooked, like wild -animals"—became desperate, broke into the Government warehouse, and took -some of the provisions stored there. This was the real beginning of the -outbreak, although the first massacre was not till the 18th. When that -began, the friendly Indians were powerless to resist—in fact, they were -threatened with their lives if they did not join. Nevertheless, some of -them rescued whole families, and carried them to places of safety; -others sheltered and fed women and children in their own lodges; many -fled, leaving all their possessions behind—as much victims of the -outbreak as the Minnesota people themselves. For three days the hostile -bands, continually re-enforced, went from settlement to settlement, -killing and plundering. A belt of country nearly two hundred miles in -length and about fifty in width was entirely abandoned by the -population, who flocked in panic to the towns and forts. Nearly a -thousand were killed—men, women, and children—and nameless outrages were -committed on many. Millions of dollars' worth of property were -destroyed. The outbreak was quickly quelled by military force, and a -large number of Indians captured. Many voluntarily surrendered, bringing -with them over two hundred whites that they had taken prisoners. A -military commission tried these Indians, and sentenced over three -hundred to be hung. All but thirty-nine were reprieved and put into -prison. The remainder were moved to Dakota, to a barren desert, where -for three years they endured sufferings far worse than death. The -remainder escaped to the Upper Missouri region or to Canada.[24] - -Footnote 24: - - All the Winnebagoes were removed from Minnesota at the same time. - -Minnesota, at a terrible cost to herself and to the United States -Government, was at last free from the presence of Indians within her -borders—Indians who were her enemies only because they had been treated -with injustice and bad faith. - -During this time the bands of Sioux in the Upper Missouri region had -been more or less hostile, and military force in continual requisition -to subdue them. Re-enforced by the Minnesota refugees, they became more -hostile still, and in the summer of 1863 were in almost incessant -conflict. In 1864 the Governor of Dakota Territory writes to the -Department that the war is spreading into Nebraska and Kansas, and that -if provision is not made for the loyal treaty Indians in that region -before long, they also will join the hostiles. One band of the Sioux—the -Yanktons—has been persistently loyal, and rendered great service through -all the troubles. Fifty of these Yankton Sioux had been organized by -General Sibley into a company of scouts, and had proved "more effective -than twice the number of white soldiers." The only cost to the -Government "of this service on the part of the Yanktons had been fifty -suits of condemned artillery uniforms, arms, and rations in part to the -scouts themselves." - -In 1865 the Government, having spent about $40,000,000 on these -campaigns, began to cast about for cheaper, if not more humane methods, -and, partly at the instance of the Governor of Dakota, who knew very -well that the Indians desired peace, sent out a commission to treat with -them. There were now, all told, some 14,000 Sioux in this region, nearly -2000 being the refugees from Minnesota. - -The report of this commission is full of significant statements. There -seems to be no doubt that the great majority of the Indians are anxious -for peace; but they are afraid to meet the agents of the Government, -lest they be in some way betrayed. Such bands as are represented, -however, gladly assent to a treaty of peace and good-will. The -commissioners speak with great feeling of the condition of the loyal -Yanktons. "No improvements have been made on their lands, and the -commissioners were obliged to issue provisions to them to keep them from -starving. *** No crops met the eye, nor is there the semblance of a -school-house." - -Yet by Article four of the treaty with the Yankton Sioux the United -States Government had agreed to expend $10,000 in erecting a suitable -building or buildings, and to establish and maintain one or more normal -labor schools; and it is to be read in the United States Statutes at -Large that in each of the years 1860, 1861, 1862, and 1863, Congress -appropriated $65,000, as per treaty, for the benefit of the Yankton -Sioux. - -"With the exception of a few miserable huts, a saw-mill, and a small -amount of land enclosed, there are few vestiges of improvement. *** They -are reduced to the necessity of hunting for a living, and, unless soon -reassured and encouraged, they will be driven to despair, and the great -discontent existing among them will culminate in another formidable -Indian war." - -Nine treaties were concluded by this commission with as many different -bands of Sioux, the Indians pledging themselves to abstain from all -hostilities with each other and with the whites, and the Government -agreeing to pay to the Indians fifteen dollars a head per annum, and to -all who will settle down to farming twenty-five dollars a head. - -In the winter following these treaties all these Indians faithfully kept -their promises, in spite of terrible sufferings from cold and from lack -of food. Some of them were at the old Crow Creek Reservation in Dakota, -where they were "kept from absolute starvation only by the issue to them -of such scanty supplies as could be spared from the stores at Fort -Sully, and from the agency." It is much to the credit of these Indians -that, in spite of their manifold sufferings, scarcely a case of stealing -occurred among them, they being determined to keep their faith to the -Government. - -"They will run like chickens to gather the offal from the slop buckets -that are carried from the garrison kitchens; while they pass a pile of -corn and hundreds of loose cattle without touching a thing, except when -told they may gather up the grains of corn from the ground where the -rats in their depredations have let it fall from the sacks," says the -report of one of the commissioners. - -In the summer of 1865 still further treaties were concluded with the -Indians of the plains, and all the Sioux, with the exception of those in -the British possessions, were now pledged to peace. This summer also saw -the first recognition on the part of the Government of its flagrant -injustice toward the friendly Minnesota Sioux who were moved to Crow -Creek, Dakota, at the time of the massacre. There were nearly one -thousand of these—mostly old men, women, and children—many of them the -widows and children of those who had been hung or were in prison at -Davenport. For three years they had been "quiet and patient in their -sufferings." - -The two hundred prisoners in Davenport had also shown "an excellent -disposition and entire submission," although many of them were known and -proved to have been "absolutely guiltless of any acts of hostility; and -not only this, but deserving of reward for the rescue of white -captives." Certificates, petitions, and letters showing these facts were -forwarded from Iowa to the Department, but the commissioner says, in his -report for 1866, that "they have been mislaid in their passage through -the various departments, and cannot be found!" - -There was still another class of these Indians deserving of help from -the Government—some two hundred and fifty friendly farmer Indians, who -were living in 1862 quietly on their farms, "who have acted as scouts -for the Government; who never committed any acts of hostility, nor fled -with those who did commit them," and have still remained friendly -through these four years, "while compelled to a vagabond life by the -indiscriminate confiscation of all their land and property." - -"The crops belonging to these farmer Indians were valued at $125,000, -and they had large herds of stock of all kinds, fine farms, and -improvements. The United States troops engaged in suppressing the -massacre, also the prisoners taken by them—in all, some 3500 men—lived -for fifty days on this property." - -Strong efforts were made by Bishop Whipple and others to obtain from the -Government some aid for these friendly Indians, and the sum of $7500 was -appropriated by Congress for that purpose. The letter of Bishop Whipple, -who was requested to report on the division of this sum, is so eloquent -a summing up of the case of these Indians, that it ought to be placed on -permanent record in the history of our country. He writes: - -"There is positive injustice in the appropriation of so miserable a -pittance. *** A much larger sum would not pay the amount which we -honestly owe these men. The Government was the trustee of the Upper and -Lower Sioux. It held several millions of dollars for their benefit—the -joint property of the tribes. These friendly Sioux had abandoned their -wild life, and adopted the dress, habits, and customs of civilization; -and in doing this, which placed them in open opposition to the -traditions of their tribes, they were pledged the protection of the -Government. By a mistaken policy, by positive neglect to provide a -government, by the perversion of funds due them for the sale of one-half -their reservations, by withholding their annuities until two months -after they were due (which was caused by the use of a part of these -funds for claims), by permitting other causes of dissatisfaction to go -on unheeded, we provoked the hostility of the wild Indians, and it went -on until it ripened in massacre. These farmer Indians had been pledged a -patent for their farms: unless we violated our solemn pledge, these -lands were theirs by a title as valid as any title could be. They had -large crops, sufficient to support General Sibley's army for a number of -weeks. They lost all they had—crops, stock, clothing, furniture. In -addition to this, they were deprived of their share in these annuities, -and for four years have lived in very great suffering. You can judge -whether $5000 shall be deemed a just reward[25] for the bravery and -fidelity of men who, at the risk of their own lives, were instrumental -in saving white captives, and maintained their friendship to the whites. - -Footnote 25: - - Two thousand five hundred of the seven thousand five hundred dollars - had been especially set aside by the Government (unjust in its rewards - as in its punishments) for Chief Other Day, who was really less - deserving than many others. - -"I submit to you, sir, and through you hope to reach all who fear God -and love justice, whether the very least we can do for all the friendly -Sioux is not to fulfil the pledges we made years ago, and give to each -of them a patent of eighty acres of land, build them a house, and -provide them cattle, seeds, and implements of husbandry?" - -In 1866 all these Sioux were removed, and, in spite of the protestations -of the Nebraska citizens, settled on reservations on the Niobrara River, -in Northern Nebraska. It soon became evident that this place was -undesirable for a reservation, both on account of its previous occupancy -by the whites and scarcity of timber. - -In the fall they removed again to the mouth of Bazile Creek. Temporary -buildings were again erected, and here they spent the winters of 1866 -and 1867. In February they were cheered by the invitation sent their -chiefs and headmen to visit Washington. They went, feeling sure that -they should get a home for themselves and people. "All they got was a -promise that a commission should be sent out to visit them the next -year." They were told, however, to move to Breckenridge, on the west -bank of the Missouri, plant crops there, and were promised that, if they -liked the place, they should have it "secured to them as a permanent -home." Accordingly, the "agency buildings" were once more removed, and -two hundred acres of land were planted. Before the crops were harvested -the commission arrived, and urged the Indians to move farther up the -Missouri. The Indians being averse to this, however, they were allowed -to remain, and told that if they would cultivate the soil like white -men—take lands in severalty—the Government would assist them. The -Indians gladly consented to this, and signed a treaty to that effect. -But in 1868 their agent writes: "That treaty is not yet ratified, and, -instead of assistance to open farms, their appropriation has been cut -down one half. After paying for supplies purchased on credit last year, -it is entirely insufficient for clothing and subsistence, and leaves -nothing for opening farms, procuring cattle," etc. These Indians, only -five years previous, had been living on good farms, and had $125,000 -worth of stock, implements, etc. No wonder their agent writes: "Leave -them without a home a few years longer, and you offer strong inducements -for them to become idle and worthless." - -It is an intricate and perplexing task to attempt now to follow the -history of the different bands of the Sioux tribe through all their -changes of location and affiliation—some in Dakota, some in Nebraska, -and some on the Upper Arkansas with the hostile Cheyennes and -Arapahoes—signing treaties one summer, and on the war-path the -next—promised a home in spring, and ordered off it before harvest—all -the time more and more hemmed in by white settlers, and more and more -driven out of their buffalo ranges by emigrations—liable at any time to -have bodies of United States soldiers swoop down on them and punish -whole bands for depredations committed by a handful of men, perhaps of a -totally distinct band—the wonder is not that some of them were hostile -and vindictive, but that any of them remained peaceable and friendly. -Bandied about from civil authorities to military—the War Department -recommending "that all Indians not on fixed reservations be considered -at war," and proceeded against accordingly, and the Interior Department -neglecting to provide them with "fixed reservations," or to define or -enforce the boundaries of even their temporary reservations—tricked, -cheated on all sides—starving half the time—there is not a tribe of all -the persecuted tribes of Indians that has a more piteous record than the -Sioux. Nevertheless, we find many of the bands, in 1870, advancing in -civilization. In the Yankton band nearly one hundred children are in -school, and eight hundred acres of land are under cultivation. The Lower -Yanktons are peaceful and quiet, although they are near the Brulés, who -are always roving and hostile. The Sissetons and Wahpetons, who were by -a treaty of 1867 placed on reservations in Dakota, are "industrious, and -fast advancing in agricultural pursuits." Four schools are in operation -among them. The Yanktons are "anxious to farm, and state that the -Government has promised to assist and teach them to farm; that they are -and have been ready for some time, but as yet the agent has not received -any instructions or funds to permit of their accomplishing their -desire." - -Two events, important in the history of the Sioux tribe, happened in -1869 and 1870. One was the visit of a delegation of chiefs and headmen -from several of the bands, under the leadership of the chief Red Cloud, -to Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. They had thus an opportunity -of relating all their grievances, and of receiving the Government's -declarations of good intentions toward them. Red Cloud, after his return -home, became an ardent and determined advocate of peace and loyalty. The -other was the withdrawal of a portion of the Santee Sioux from their -band, for the purpose of taking up farms under the Homestead Act, and -becoming independent citizens. The story of this experiment, and the -manner in which it was met by the United States Government, is best told -in the words of Dr. Williamson, a missionary, who had lived thirty-five -years among them, and who pleaded thus warmly for them in a letter -addressed to the Department in the summer of 1870: "Several -considerations have influenced the Dakotas in going to the Big Sioux -River: 1st. The soil and climate are more similar to that to which they -have been accustomed in Minnesota, their former home, than is that of -their reservation on the Missouri; 2d. Feeling that they were men -capable of sustaining themselves if a fair opportunity is afforded them, -they felt that it was degrading to live as sinecures and pensioners -dependent on Government for food and clothing; 3d. And chiefly a desire -to make homes for their families where they could be subjected to, and -protected by, the laws of the United States, the same as all other men -are. This they thought could not be the case on their reservation. - -"These Sioux were parties to the treaties made in 1851, by which they -and other bands ceded to the United States all the best settled parts of -Minnesota west of the Mississippi for less than one-hundredth part of -its present value, and much less than the lands were worth to them as -hunting-grounds. And while as hunters they needed no protection of the -law, they knew that as agriculturists they could not live without it; -and they positively refused to sell their hunting-grounds till the -Commissioner of the United States promised that they should be protected -in their persons and property the same as white men. Government never -accorded to them this protection, which, in the view of the Indians, was -a very important consideration in selling the lands. This neglect on the -part of the Government led to yearly complaints, and the massacres of -1862. *** These Sioux were most of them previous to the war living in -comfortable homes, with well-cultivated farms and teams," and were -receiving by annuity provisions, either in money or the equivalent, -about $50 a head annually, from interest on their money invested in the -bonds of the Government. These Indians, in taking up their new -homesteads, were required by the Department to renounce, on oath, all -claims on the United States for annuities. Without doubt, citizenship of -the United States, the protection of our laws, is worth a great sum; but -is it wise or right in our Government to require these natives of the -country to purchase, at a price of several thousands of dollars, that -which is given without money or price to every immigrant from Asia, -Europe, or Africa that asks for it? - -"Besides their annuities, there is due them from the Government the -proceeds of the sale of their old reservation on the Minnesota River, -which is more than forty miles long and ten wide; which, after paying -expenses of survey and sale, are, according to a law of the United -States, to be expended in assisting them to make homes elsewhere; and as -these lands were valued at $1.25 an acre and upward, and are rapidly -selling, the portion which will be due each of the Indians cannot be -less than $200 or $300—or $1000 for each family. The oath required of -them is supposed to bar them from any claim to this also. Now, I cannot -see how this decision of the Indian Department is consistent either with -justice or good policy, and it is certainly inconsistent with both the -spirit and letter of Articles six and ten of a treaty between the United -States of America and different bands of Sioux Indians, concluded in -1868, and ratified and proclaimed February, 1869. *** What I ask for -them is that our Government restore to them a part of what we took from -them, and give them the same chance to live and thrive which we give to -all the other inhabitants of our country, whether white or black. *** -That some aid is very necessary must be obvious to you, who know how -difficult it is for even white men, trained to work, and with several -hundred dollars in property, to open a new farm in this Western -wilderness. Their number is probably greater than you are aware of. When -I administered the Lord's Supper there on the first Sabbath of this -month, there were present seventy-seven communicants of our church, -besides quite a number of other persons. *** It is owing to the Santee -Sioux—partly to those on the Big Sioux River, chiefly to those near Fort -Wadsworth—that in the last five years not a single white inhabitant of -Minnesota or Iowa has been murdered by the wild Indians, while many have -been cut off in every frontier State and Territory south-west of the -Missouri. So long as the Christian Sioux can be kept on the frontier, -the white settlements are safe. *** In conclusion, I wish again to call -your attention to the fact that these Indians on the Big Sioux purchase -citizenship at a very great sum, and to entreat you to do all in your -power to secure for them that protection of person or property for which -they bargain, and without which nothing our Government can do will make -them prosperous or happy." - -No attention was paid to this appeal; and the next year the -indefatigable missionary sent a still stronger one, setting forth that -this colony now numbered fifty families; had been under the instruction -of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for many -years; had a church of one hundred members; a native preacher, partly -supported by them; had built log-cabins on their claims, and planted -farms, "many of them digging up the ground with hoes and spades." - -Dr. Williamson reiterates the treaty provisions under which he claims -that these Indians are entitled to aid. The sixth Article of the treaty -of 1868 closes as follows: "Any Indian or Indians receiving a patent for -land under the foregoing provisions, shall thereby and henceforth become -and be a citizen of the United States, and be entitled to all the -privileges and immunities of such citizenship, and shall at the same -time retain all his rights and benefits accruing to Indians under this -treaty." - -This treaty goes on to provide most liberally for all Indians adopting -the civilized mode of life. Article eighth specially provides for -supplying them with seed and agricultural implements, and this is what -they most of all need. - -The encouragement held forth in this treaty was one great motive in -leading these people to break tribal influences, so deleterious to -improvement, and adopt our democratic civilization. Is it not base -tyranny to disappoint them? They are the first Sioux, if not the first -Indians in the United States to adopt the spirit and life of our -American civilization. They have of their own accord done just what the -Government has been for generations trying to get the Indians to do. And -now will the Government refuse this helping hand? To our shame, it has -for two years refused. And why? Because the Indians said, "If we become -civilized, it is necessary for us to break up tribal relations, and -settle down like white men." - -In 1873 the Government at last yielded to this request, and sent out -oxen, wagons, ploughs, etc., enough to stock thirty farms. In 1874, Dr. -Williamson, having been appointed a special agent for them, reports -their progress: "They all live in log-houses and wear citizens' dress. -*** One hundred and nineteen can read their own language fluently. They -all go to church regularly. They have broken one hundred and -seventy-seven acres of new prairie. Twenty new houses have been built. -*** They have cut and hauled two hundred cords of wood, hauling some of -it forty miles to market. *** They have done considerable freighting -with their teams, going sometimes a hundred miles away. They have earned -thirty-five hundred dollars, catching small furs. *** One Indian has the -contract for carrying the mail through Flandreau, for which he receives -one thousand dollars a year. *** It is but a few miles from Flandreau to -the far-famed pipe-stone quarry, and these Indians make many little sums -by selling pipes, rings, ink-glasses, etc., made of this beautiful red -stone. *** They are anxious to be taught how to make baskets, mats, -cloth; and the young men ask to be taught the blacksmith and carpenter -trades." - -This is a community that only five years before had pushed out into an -unbroken wilderness without a dollar of money, without a plough, to open -farms. "Without ploughs, they had to dig the sod with their hoes, and at -the same time make their living by hunting. They suffered severe -hardships, and a number of their best men perished in snow-storms. -Believing they were carrying out the wishes of the Great Father, as -expressed in the treaty of 1868, to which they were parties, they were -disappointed when for three years no notice was taken of them." There is -something pathetic in the gratitude they are said now to feel for the -niggardly gift of a few oxen, wagons, and ploughs. They have apparently -given over all hope of ever obtaining any of the money due them on -account of their lands sold in Minnesota. No further allusion is made to -it by Dr. Williamson. - -From the Yankton Sioux this year comes a remarkable report: "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." Is there another -village of two thousand inhabitants in the United States of which this -can be said? - -In this year a commission was sent to treat with some of the wilder -bands of Sioux for the relinquishment of their right to hunt and roam -over a large part of their unneeded territory in Kansas and Nebraska. -Some of the chiefs consented. Red Cloud's band refused at first; "but on -being told that the right would soon be taken from them," after a delay -of two days they "agreed to accept," merely stipulating that their share -of the twenty-five thousand dollars promised should be paid in horses -and guns. They insisted, however, on this proviso: "That we do not -surrender any right of occupation of the country situated in Nebraska -north of the divide, which is south of and near to the Niobrara River -and west of the one hundredth meridian." - -It was a significant fact that, when these Sioux gave up this hunting -privilege, "they requested that nearly all the $25,000 they received in -compensation for this relinquishment should be expended in cows, horses, -harness, and wagons," says the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1875. - -There are still some thousand or more of hostile Sioux roaming about -under the famous chief Sitting Bull—living by the chase when they can, -and by depredations when they must; occasionally, also, appearing at -agencies, and drawing rations among the other Indians unsuspected. The -remainder of the bands are steadily working their way on toward -civilization. The Santees are a Christian community; they have their -industrial-schools, Sabbath-schools, and night-schools; they publish a -monthly paper in the Dakota tongue, which prints twelve hundred copies. -The Yanktons have learned to weave, and have made cloth enough to give -every Indian woman in the tribe one good dress. The Flandreau citizen -Sioux have a Presbyterian church of one hundred and thirty-five members, -and pay half the salary of the native preacher. On the occasion of an -anniversary meeting of the Dakota missionaries there, these people -raised one hundred dollars to pay for their entertainment. These three -bands are far the most advanced, but all the others are making steady -progress. - -In 1876 the news from the Sioux on the agencies is that, owing to the -failure of appropriations, the Indian Bureau had been unable to send the -regular supplies, and the Indians, being in "almost a starving -condition," had been induced, by the "apparent purpose of the Government -to abandon them to starvation," to go north in large numbers, and join -the hostile camps of Sitting Bull. This was in the spring; again in -midsummer the same thing happened, and many of the Indians, growing -still more anxious and suspicious, left their agencies to join in the -war. - -Congress would probably have paid little attention at this time to the -reading of this extract from "Kent's Commentaries:" "Treaties of peace, -when made by the competent power, are obligatory on the whole nation. If -the treaty requires the payment of money to carry it into effect, and -the money cannot be raised but by an act of the legislature, the treaty -is morally obligatory upon the legislature to pass the law; and to -repeal it would be a breach of the public faith." - -A disturbed and unsettled condition of things prevailed at all the Sioux -agencies, consequent on this state of things. Companies of troops were -stationed at all of them to guard against outbreaks. Owing to lack of -funds, the Yanktons were obliged to give up their weaving and -basket-making. At the Standing Rock Agency, after the Indians had -planted eight hundred and seventy-two dollars' worth of seeds—of corn, -potatoes, and other vegetables—the grasshoppers came and devoured them. -"Many of these Indians, with their whole families, stood all day in -their fields fighting these enemies, and in several places succeeded so -far as to save a considerable part of their crops." The Santees were -made very anxious and unhappy by fresh rumors of their probable removal. -Public sentiment at the East, knowing no difference between different -tribes of Sioux, regarded it as maudlin sentimentalism to claim for the -Santees any more rights than for the hostiles that had murdered General -Custer. One of the agents in Dakota writes: - -"The recent troubles in the Indian country, and the existing uncertainty -as to the future intentions of the Government toward the Indians, -occasion considerable uneasiness among them. *** Reports are circulated -that no further assistance will be rendered by the Government, as the -Great Council in Washington refuses to furnish money unless the Indians -are turned over to the War Department. Every inducement is held out to -encourage secession from the agencies, and strengthen the forces of the -hostile camp. It is not surprising that, in view of the non-arrival of -supplies, and the recent order of the War Department to arrest parties -leaving and arriving, that people less credulous than Indians would feel -undecided and uneasy. *** It must be remembered that the whole Sioux -nation is related, and that there is hardly a man, woman, or child in -the hostile camp who has not blood relations at one or the other of the -agencies." - -Contrast the condition into which all these friendly Indians are -suddenly plunged now, with their condition only two years previous: -martial law now in force on all their reservations; themselves in danger -of starvation, and constantly exposed to the influence of emissaries -from their friends and relations, urging them to join in fighting this -treacherous government that had kept faith with nobody—neither with -friend nor with foe; that made no discriminations in its warfare between -friends and foes; burning villages occupied only by women and children; -butchering bands of Indians living peacefully under protection of its -flag, as at Sand Creek, in Colorado—no wonder that one of the military -commander's official reports says, "The hostile body was largely -re-enforced by accessions from the various agencies, where the -malcontents were, doubtless, in many cases, driven to desperation by -starvation and the heartless frauds perpetrated on them;" and that the -Interior Department is obliged to confess that, "Such desertions were -largely due to the uneasiness which the Indians had long felt on account -of the infraction of treaty stipulations by the white invasion of the -Black Hills, seriously aggravated at the most critical period by -irregular and insufficient issues of rations, necessitated by inadequate -and delayed appropriations." - -It was at this time that Sitting Bull made his famous reply: "Tell them -at Washington if they have one man who speaks the truth to send him to -me, and I will listen to what he has to say." - -The story of the military campaign against these hostile Sioux in 1876 -and 1877 is to be read in the official records of the War Department, so -far as statistics can tell it. Another history, which can never be read, -is written in the hearts of widowed women in the Sioux nation and in the -nation of the United States. - -Before midsummer the Sioux war was over. The indomitable Sitting Bull -had escaped to Canada—that sanctuary of refuge for the Indian as well as -for the slave. Here he was visited in the autumn by a commission from -the United States, empowered by the President to invite him with his -people to return, and be "assigned to agencies," and treated "in as -friendly a spirit as other Indians had been who had surrendered." It was -explained to him that every one of the Indians who had surrendered had -"been treated in the same manner as those of your nation who, during all -the past troubles, remained peaceably at their agencies." As a great -part of those who had fled from these same agencies to join Sitting Bull -had done so because they were starving, and the Government knew this -(had printed the record of the fact in the reports of two of its -Departments), this was certainly a strange phraseology of invitation for -it to address to Sitting Bull. His replies and those of his chiefs were -full of scathing sarcasm. Secure on British soil, they had for once safe -freedom of speech as well as of action, and they gave the United States -Commissioners very conclusive reasons why they chose to remain in -Canada, where they could "trade with the traders and make a living," and -where their women had "time to raise their children."[26] - -Footnote 26: - - See Appendix, Art. V. - -The commissioners returned from their bootless errand, and the Interior -Department simply entered on its records the statement that "Sitting -Bull and his adherents are no longer considered wards of the -Government." It also enters on the same record the statement that "in -the months of September and October, 1876, the various Sioux agencies -were visited by a commission appointed under the Act of Congress, August -15th of that year, to negotiate with the Sioux for an agreement to -surrender that portion of the Sioux Reservation which included the Black -Hills, and certain hunting privileges outside that reserve, guaranteed -by the treaty of 1868; to grant a right of way across their reserve; and -to provide for the removal of the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail bands to -new agencies on the Missouri River. The commission were also authorized -to take steps to gain the consent of the Sioux to their removal to the -Indian Territory. *** The commission were successful in all the -negotiations with which they were charged, and the Indians made every -concession that was desired by the Government, although we were engaged -at that very time in fighting their relatives and friends." The only -comment needed on this last paragraph is to suggest that a proper list -of errata for that page should contain: "For 'although' read 'because!'" -"On behalf of the United States the agreement thus entered into provided -for subsisting the Sioux on a stated ration until they should become -self-supporting; for furnishing schools, and all necessary aid and -instruction in agriculture and the mechanical arts, and for the -allotment of lands in severalty." - -In accordance with this act, a commission was sent to select a location -on the Missouri River for the two new Sioux agencies (the Red Cloud and -Spotted Tail). - -"For the former the site chosen is the junction of Yellow Medicine and -Missouri rivers, and at that point agency buildings have just been -erected," says the Report of the Indian Bureau for 1877. "For the latter -the old Ponca Reserve was decided on, where the agency buildings, -storehouses, one hundred and fifty Indian houses, and five hundred acres -of cultivated fields, left vacant by the Poncas, offer special -advantages for present quarters." - -The commissioner says: "The removal of fourteen thousand Sioux Indians -at this season of the year, a distance of three hundred miles from their -old agencies in Nebraska to their new quarters near the Missouri River, -is not a pleasant matter to contemplate. Neither the present Secretary -of the Interior nor the present Commissioner of Indian Affairs is -responsible for the movement, but they have carried out the law -faithfully though reluctantly. The removal is being made in accordance -with the Act of August 15th, 1876. It is proper to say here that I -cannot but look on the necessity thus imposed by law on the executive -branch of the Government as an unfortunate one, and the consequences -ought to be remedied as speedily as possible. - -"Let us for a moment consider that the Spotted Tail Agency was in 1871 -on the west bank of the Missouri River, where the whites became -exceedingly troublesome, and the river afforded abundant facilities for -the introduction of intoxicating liquors. In 1874 the Red Cloud and -Spotted Tail agencies were removed to what a subsequent survey proved to -be the State of Nebraska—the former agency one hundred and sixty-five -miles from Cheyenne, and the latter one hundred and eight miles from -Sidney, the nearest points on the Union Pacific Railroad. Here the usual -ill-fortune attending the removal of these Indians was again exemplified -in placing the agencies on absolutely barren land, where there was no -possibility of cultivating the soil, no hope of their being enabled to -become self-supporting, and where they have of necessity been kept in -the hopeless condition of paupers." - -In the hope of placing these Indians upon arable land, where they might -become civilized and self-supporting, the determination was hastily -taken to remove them back to the Missouri River. This step was taken -without a proper examination of other points on their reservation, where -it is stated that "a sufficient quantity of excellent wheat lands can be -found on either bank of the White River, and where there is also timber -sufficient in quantity and quality for all practical purposes. *** The -Indian chiefs, in their interview with the President in September last, -begged that they might not be sent to the Missouri River, as -whiskey-drinking and other demoralization would be the consequence. This -was the judgment of the best men of the tribe; but the necessity was one -that the President could not control. The provisions and supplies for -the ensuing winter had been placed, according to law, on the Missouri, -and, owing to the lateness of the season, it was impossible to remove -them to the old agencies. Accordingly, the necessities of the case -compelled the removal of these Indians in the midst of the snows and -storms of early winter, which have already set in." - -If there were absolutely no other record written of the management of -Indian affairs by the Interior Department than this one page of the -history of these two bands of the Sioux tribe, this alone would be -enough to show the urgent need of an entirely new system. So many and -such hasty, ill-considered, uninformed, capricious, and cruel decisions -of arbitrary power could hardly be found in a seven years' record of any -known tyrant; and there is no tyrant whose throne would not have been -rocked, if not upset, by the revolutions which would have followed on -such oppressions. - -There is a sequel to this story of the removal of the Red Cloud and -Spotted Tail bands—a sequel not recorded in the official reports of the -Department, but familiar to many men in the Western country. Accounts of -it—some humorous, some severe—were for some time floating about in -Western newspapers. - -The Red Cloud and Spotted Tail bands of Sioux consented to go to the old -Ponca Reserve only after being told that all their supplies had been -sent to a certain point on the Missouri River with a view to this move; -and it being too late to take all this freight northward again, they -would starve if they stayed where they were. Being assured that they -would be allowed to go back in the spring, and having a written pledge -from General Crook (in whose word they had implicit faith) that the -Government would fulfil this promise, they at last very reluctantly -consented to go to the Ponca Reserve for the winter. In the spring no -orders came for the removal. March passed, April passed—no orders. The -chiefs sent word to their friend, General Crook, who replied to them -with messages sent by a swift runner, begging them not to break away, -but to wait a little longer. Finally, in May, the Commissioner of Indian -Affairs went himself to hold a council with them. When he rose to speak, -the chief Spotted Tail sprung up, walked toward him, waving in his hand -the paper containing the promise of the Government to return them to -White Clay Creek, and exclaimed, "All the men who come from Washington -are liars, and the bald-headed ones are the worst of all! I don't want -to hear one word from you—you are a bald-headed old liar! You have but -one thing to do here, and that is to give an order for us to return to -White Clay Creek. Here are your written words; and if you don't give -this order, and everything here is not on wheels inside of ten days, -I'll order my young men to tear down and burn everything in this part of -the country! I don't want to hear anything more from you, and I've got -nothing more to say to you:" and he turned his back on the commissioner -and walked away. Such language as this would not have been borne from -unarmed and helpless Indians; but when it came from a chief with four -thousand armed warriors at his back, it was another affair altogether. -The order was written. In less than ten days everything was "on wheels," -and the whole body of these Sioux on the move to the country they had -indicated; and the Secretary of the Interior says, naïvely, in his -Report for 1868, "The Indians were found to be quite determined to move -westward, and the promise of the Government in that respect was -faithfully kept." - -The reports from all the bands of Sioux for the past two years have been -full of indications of their rapid and encouraging improvement. "The -most decided advance in civilization has been made by the Ogallalla and -Brulé Sioux," says the Report of the Indian Bureau for 1879. "Their -progress during the last year and a half has been simply marvellous." - -And yet this one band of Ogallalla Sioux has been moved, since 1863, -eight times. Is it not a wonder that they have any heart to work, any -hope of anything in the future? - -"It is no longer a question," says this same report, "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; *** there is a growing desire to live in houses; the -demand for agricultural implements and appliances, and for wagons and -harness for farming and freighting purposes, is constantly increasing." - -That all this should be true of these wild, warlike Sioux, after so many -years of hardships and forced wanderings and removals, is -incontrovertible proof that there is in them a native strength of -character, power of endurance, and indomitable courage, which will make -of them ultimately a noble and superior race of people, if civilization -will only give them time to become civilized, and Christians will leave -them time and peace to learn Christianity. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - THE PONCAS. - - -In 1803 Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Clarke, of the First United States -Infantry, were commissioned by Congress to explore the river Missouri -from its mouth to its source, to "seek the best water communication from -thence to the Pacific Ocean," and to enter into conference with all the -Indian tribes on their route, with a view to the establishment of -commerce with them. They report the "Poncars" as "the remnant of a -nation once respectable in point of numbers; they formerly resided on a -branch of the Red River of Lake Winnipeg; being oppressed by Sioux, they -removed to the west side of the Missouri, on Poncar River, where they -built and fortified a village, and remained some years; but, being -pursued by their ancient enemies, the Sioux, and reduced by continual -wars, they have joined and now live with the Mahas (Omahas), whose -language they speak." Their numbers are estimated by Lewis and Clarke as -being only about two hundred, all told; but this small estimate is -probably to be explained by the fact that at this time the tribe was -away on its annual buffalo-hunt, and their village had been so long -empty and quiet that a buffalo was found grazing there. A few years -later the tribe is reckoned at four hundred: in a census of the Indian -tribes, taken by General Porter in 1829, they are set down at six -hundred. The artist Catlin, who visited them a few years later, rated -them a little less. He gives an interesting account of the chief of the -tribe, named Shoo-de-ga-cha (Smoke), and his young and pretty wife, -Hee-la'h-dee (the Pure Fountain), whose portraits he painted. He says: -"The chief, who was wrapped in a buffalo-robe, is a noble specimen of -native dignity and philosophy. I conversed much with him, and from his -dignified manners, as well as from the soundness of his reasoning; I -became fully convinced that he deserved to be the sachem of a more -numerous and prosperous tribe. He related to me with great coolness and -frankness the poverty and distress of his nation—and with the method of -a philosopher predicted the certain and rapid extinction of his tribe, -which he had not the power to avert. Poor, noble chief, who was equal to -and worthy of a greater empire! He sat on the deck of the steamer, -overlooking the little cluster of his wigwams mingled among the trees, -and, like Caius Marius weeping over the ruins of Carthage, shed tears as -he was descanting on the poverty of his ill-fated little community, -which he told me had 'once been powerful and happy; that the buffaloes -which the Great Spirit had given them for food, and which formerly -spread all over their green prairies, had all been killed or driven out -by the approach of white men, who wanted their skins; that their country -was now entirely destitute of game, and even of roots for food, as it -was one continuous prairie; and that his young men, penetrating the -countries of their enemies for buffaloes, which they were obliged to do, -were cut to pieces and destroyed in great numbers. That his people had -foolishly become fond of fire-water, and had given away everything in -their country for it; that it had destroyed many of his warriors, and -would soon destroy the rest; that his tribe was too small and his -warriors too few to go to war with the tribes around them; that they -were met and killed by the Sioux on the north, by the Pawnees on the -west, by the Osages and Konzas on the south, and still more alarmed from -the constant advance of the pale faces—their enemies from the east—with -whiskey and small-pox, which already had destroyed four-fifths of his -tribe, and would soon impoverish and at last destroy the remainder of -them.' In this way did this shrewd philosopher lament over the unlucky -destiny of his tribe, and I pitied him with all my heart." - -The day before Catlin arrived at this village this old chief's son—the -young Hongs-kay-de—had created a great sensation in the community by -accomplishing a most startling amount of bigamy in a single day. Being -the chief's son, and having just been presented by his father with a -handsome wigwam and nine horses, he had no difficulty whatever in -ingratiating himself with the fathers of marriageable daughters, and -had, with ingenious slyness, offered himself to and been accepted by -four successive fathers-in-law, promising to each of them two -horses—enjoining on them profound secrecy until a certain hour, when he -would announce to the whole tribe that he was to be married. At the time -appointed he appeared, followed by some of his young friends leading -eight horses. Addressing the prospective father-in-law who stood nearest -him, with his daughter by his side, he said, "You promised me your -daughter: here are the two horses." A great hubbub immediately arose; -the three others all springing forward, angry and perplexed, claiming -his promises made to them. The triumphant young Turk exclaimed, "You -have all now acknowledged your engagements to me, and must fulfil them. -Here are your horses." There was nothing more to be said. The horses -were delivered, and Hongs-kay-de, leading two brides in each hand, -walked off with great dignity to his wigwam. - -This was an affair totally unprecedented in the annals of the tribe, and -produced an impression as profound as it could have done in a civilized -community, though of a different character—redounding to the young -prince's credit rather than to his shame—marking him out as one daring -and original enough to be a "Big Medicine." Mr. Catlin says that he -visited the bridal wigwam soon afterward, and saw the "four modest -little wives seated around the fire, seeming to harmonize very well." Of -the prettiest one—"Mong-shong-shaw" (the Bending Willow)—he took a -portrait, and a very sweet-faced young woman she is too, wrapped in a -beautifully ornamented fur robe, much handsomer and more graceful than -the fur-lined circulars worn by civilized women. - -The United States' first treaty with this handful of gentle and -peaceable Indians was made in 1817. It was simply a treaty of peace and -friendship. - -In 1825 another was made, in which the Poncas admit that "they reside -within the territorial limits of the United States, acknowledge their -supremacy, and claim their protection." They also admit "the right of -the United States to regulate all trade and intercourse with them." The -United States, on their part, "agree to receive the Poncar tribe of -Indians into their friendship and under their protection, and to extend -to them from time to time such benefits and acts of kindness as may be -convenient, and seem just and proper to the President of the United -States." - -After this there is little mention, in the official records of the -Government, of the Poncas for some thirty years. Other tribes in the -Upper Missouri region were so troublesome and aggressive that the -peaceable Poncas were left to shift for themselves as they best could -amidst all the warring and warring interests by which they were -surrounded. In 1856 the agent of the Upper Platte mentions incidentally -that their lands were being fast intruded upon by squatters; and in 1857 -another agent reports having met on the banks of the Missouri a large -band of Poncas, who made complaint that all the Indians on the river -were receiving presents and they were overlooked; that the men from the -steamboats cut their trees down, and that white settlers were taking -away all their land. In 1858 the Commissioner for Indian Affairs writes: -"Treaties were entered into in March and April last with the Poncas and -Yankton Sioux, who reside west of Iowa, for the purpose of extinguishing -their title to all the lands occupied and claimed by them, except small -portions on which to colonize and domesticate them. This proceeding was -deemed necessary in order to obtain such control over these Indians as -to prevent their interference with our settlements, which are rapidly -extending in that direction. These treaties were duly laid before the -Senate at its last regular session, but were not, it is understood, -finally acted on by that body. - -"Relying on the ratification of their treaty, and the adoption of timely -measures to carry out its provisions in their favor the Poncas proceeded -in good faith to comply with its stipulations by abandoning their -settlements and hunting-grounds, and withdrawing to the small tract -reserved for their future home. Being without a crop to rely upon, and -having been unsuccessful in their usual summer hunt, they were reduced -to a state of desperation and destitution. As nothing had been done for -them under the treaty, they concluded it was void, and threatened to -fall back upon their former settlements, some of the most important of -which had, in the mean time, been taken possession of by numerous white -persons." - -The Poncas never heard of Grotius or Vattel; but, in assuming that the -treaty was void because it was not fulfilled, they only acted on the -natural principles of the law of nations and of treaties, as laid down -by all authorities. Thucydides said: "They are not the first breakers of -a league who, being deserted, seek for aid to others, but they that -perform not by their deeds what they have promised to do upon their -oaths." - -In consequence of this delay to fulfil the treaty provisions, the -Government was forced to step in at the last moment and "incur a heavy -expense" in furnishing the Poncas with food enough to keep them from -starving; and in 1859, under this pressure, the Senate ratified the -treaty. By it the Poncas ceded and relinquished to the United States all -the lands they had ever owned or claimed, "wherever situate," except a -small tract between the Ponca and Niobrara rivers. In consideration of -this cession, the United States Government agreed "to protect the Poncas -in the possession of this tract of land, and their persons and property -thereon, during good behavior on their part; to pay them annuities -annually for thirty years—$12,000 for the first five years, then $10,000 -for ten years, then $8000 for fifteen years; to expend $20,000 for their -subsistence during the first year, for building houses, etc.; to -establish schools, and to build mills, mechanics' shops, etc.; to give -$20,000 for the payment of the existing obligations of the tribe." - -Two years later the agent newly appointed to take charge of the Poncas -reports to the Department the amount of improvements made on the -reservation: "One saw and grist-mill; two agency houses—story and a half -houses—without inside lining or plastering, 16 by 26 and 18 by 32 feet -in size; six small round log-houses (three with a small shed for a -stable), a light log-corral for cattle, and a canvas shed for storing -under; and about sixty acres of ground, broken, comprised all the -improvements." - -Evidently a very small part of the $20,000 had been spent as yet. He did -not find an Indian on the reservation. From fear of the Sioux (who in -1860 had stolen from them more than half the horses they owned) they had -moved down the Niobrara River, some twenty miles nearer the Missouri. It -was with the greatest difficulty that the agent induced them to return; -and after they did so, they huddled their tents close about the agency -buildings, and could not be induced to go half a mile away unless -accompanied by some of the white employés. - -As the agent had no food to feed them with, and no money to buy any -(spite of the appropriation of $20,000 for subsistence and -house-building), he induced them to go off on a hunt; but in less than a -month they came straggling back, "begging for provisions for their women -and children, whom they had left on the plains half-starved, having been -unable to find any game, or any food except wild-turnips. Some of them -went to visit the Omahas, others the Pawnees, where they remained until -the little corn they had planted produced roasting-ears. In the mean -time those who were here subsisted mainly on wild-cherries and plums and -the wild-turnip, and traded away most of their blankets and annuity -goods for provisions." - -In 1863 the reports are still more pitiful. "They started on their -summer hunt toward the last of May, immediately after the first hoeing -of their corn. At first they were successful and found buffaloes; but -afterward, the ground being occupied by the Yanktons, who were sent -south of the Niobrara by the general commanding the district, and who -were about double the number, and with four times as many horses, they -soon consumed what meat they had cured, and were compelled to abandon -the chase. They commenced to return in the latter part of July. They -went away with very high hopes, and reasonably so, of a large crop, but -returned to see it all withered and dried up. In the mean time the -plains had been burnt over, so that they could not discover the roots -they are in the habit of digging. Even the wild-plums, which grow on -bushes down in ravines and gullies, are withered and dried on the limbs. -The building I occupy was constantly surrounded by a hungry crowd -begging for food. *** I am warned by military authority to keep the -Poncas within the limits of the reservation; but this is an -impossibility. There is nothing within its limits, nor can anything be -obtained in sufficient quantity, or brought here soon enough to keep -them from starving. *** The Poncas have behaved well—quite as well, if -not better than, under like circumstances, the same number of whites -would have done. I have known whole families to live for days together -on nothing but half-dried corn-stalks, and this when there were cattle -and sheep in their sight." - -At this time martial law was in force on many of the Indian -reservations, owing to the presence of roving bands of hostile Sioux, -driven from Minnesota after their outbreak there. - -The Poncas through all these troubles remained loyal and peaceable, and -were "unwavering in their fidelity to their treaty," says the Indian -Commissioner. - -In December of this year what the governmental reports call "a very -unfortunate occurrence" took place in Nebraska. A party of Poncas, -consisting of four men, six women, three boys, and two girls, returning -from a visit to the Omahas, had camped for the night about twelve miles -from their own reservation. In the night a party of soldiers from a -military post on the Niobrara River came to their camp, and began to -insult the squaws, "offering money with one hand, and presenting a -revolver with the other." The Indians, alarmed, pulled up their lodge, -and escaped to a copse of willows near by. The soldiers fired at them as -they ran away, and then proceeded to destroy all their effects. They cut -the lodge covers to pieces, burnt the saddles and blankets, cut open -sacks of beans, corn, and dried pumpkin, and strewed their contents on -the ground, and went away, taking with them a skin lodge-covering, -beaver-skins, buffalo-robes, blankets, guns, and all the small articles. -The Indians' ponies were hid in the willows. Early in the morning they -returned with these, picked up all the corn which had not been -destroyed, and such other articles as they could find, packed their -ponies as best they might, and set off barefooted for home. After they -had gone a few miles they stopped and built a fire to parch some corn to -eat. Some of the women and children went to look for wild-beans, leaving -three women and a child at the camp. Here the soldiers came on them -again. As soon as the Indians saw them coming they fled. The soldiers -fired on them, wounding one woman by a ball through her thigh; another, -with a child on her back, by two balls through the child's thighs, one -of which passed through the mother's side. These women were fired on as -they were crossing the river on the ice. The soldiers then took -possession of the six ponies and all the articles at the camp, and left. -The squaws and children who were looking for beans were half a mile -below; a little dog belonging to them barked and revealed their -hiding-place in the willows. The soldiers immediately turned on them, -dismounted, and, making up to them, deliberately shot them dead as they -huddled helplessly together—three women and a little girl! - -One of the boys, a youth, ran for the river, pursued by the soldiers. On -reaching the river he dived into the water through a hole in the ice; as -often as he lifted his head they fired at him. After they went away he -crawled out and escaped to the agency. One of the murdered women, the -mother of this boy, had three balls in her head and cheek, her throat -cut, and her head half-severed by a sabre-thrust; another, the youngest -woman, had her cloth skirt taken off and carried away, and all her other -clothes torn from her body, leaving it naked! - -The men who did this deed belonged to Company B of the Seventh Iowa -Cavalry. - -The outrage was promptly reported to the Department, and the general -commanding the Nebraska District detailed an officer to examine into it. -There was some correspondence between the military authorities relative -to it, but with no result; and in the report of the next year the Indian -Commissioner says: "Attention was called last year to the fact that the -murderers of several of this loyal and friendly tribe had not been -discovered and punished. I trust that, as there seems to be no -probability that this will be done, a special appropriation may be made -for presents to the relatives of the deceased." - -In 1865 a supplementary treaty was made with the Poncas, extending their -reservation down the Niobrara to the Missouri River; and the Government -agreed to pay them $15,000, for the purpose of indemnifying them for the -loss they had sustained in this outrage and in others. For the -ratification of this treaty also they waited two years; and in 1867 the -Superintendent of the Dakota Territory says: "Schools would have been in -operation at the Ponca Agency before this time but for the long delay in -ratifying the supplementary treaty of 1865; and now that this measure -has fortunately been accomplished, there can be no further necessity for -delay, and it is confidently believed another year will witness the -foundation and rapid progress of an English school at this agency." - -This superintendent, having been in office only one year, was probably -not familiar with the provisions of the treaty of 1859 with the Poncas, -in which, by Article three, the United States Government had promised -"to establish and maintain for ten years, at an annual expense not to -exceed $5,000, one or more manual labor schools for the education and -training of the Ponca youth in letters, agriculture, mechanics, and -housewifery." - -This educational annuity has but one more year to run, whatever may have -been done with it up to this time, it really is now being spent on -schools, and it seems a great pity that it should soon cease. The -Governor of Dakota, in 1868, evidently thinks so too, for he writes to -the Department, in the autumn of 1868: "A school has been in successful -operation at this agency (the Ponca) for the past nine months, with an -average attendance of about fifty scholars, and with every evidence of -advancement in the primary department of an English education. But just -at this interesting period of its existence we are notified by the agent -that with this fiscal year all funds for school as well as for -agricultural purposes cease, agreeably to the terms and conditions of -their original treaty. This will be a serious and irreparable calamity -if not remedied by the most generous action of the Government. If funds -for this purpose cannot be otherwise procured, the Poncas are willing -and anxious to transfer their old reservation to the Government for a -moderate extension of these important and indispensable benefits." - -The governor also says that in the past year the Poncas have paid out of -their annuity money for all the improvements which had been made on -lands occupied by certain white settlers, who were ejected from their -new reservation by the terms of the last treaty. - -In the report for 1869 we read that the Ponca school has been -"discontinued for want of funds." The Department earnestly recommends an -appropriation of $25,000 to put it in operation again. The new Governor -of Dakota seconds the recommendation, and regrets to say that, "for the -enlightenment of the 35,000 Indians embraced in the Dakota -Superintendency, there is not one school in operation." - -In 1870 an appropriation of $5,000 was made by the Department from a -general educational fund, for the purpose of resuming this school. The -condition of the Poncas now is, on the whole, encouraging; they are "not -only willing, but extremely anxious to learn the arts by which they may -become self-supporting, and conform to the usages of white men. With the -comparatively small advantages that have been afforded them, their -advancement has been very great." - -In the summer of 1869 they built for themselves sixteen very comfortable -log-houses; in the summer of 1870 they built forty-four more; with their -annuity money they bought cookstoves, cows, and useful implements of -labor. They worked most assiduously in putting in their crops, but lost -them all by drought, and are in real danger of starvation if the -Government does not assist them. All this while they see herds of cattle -driven across their reservation to feed the lately hostile Sioux—flour, -coffee, sugar, tobacco, by the wagon-load, distributed to them—while -their own always peaceable, always loyal, long-suffering tribe is -digging wild roots to eat, and in actual danger of starvation. -Nevertheless they are not discouraged, knowing that but for the drought -they would have had ample food from their farms, and they make no -attempts to retaliate on the Sioux for raiding off their horses and -stock, because they hope "that the Government will keep its faith with -them," and that suitable remuneration for these losses will be made -them, according to the treaty stipulations. - -For the next two years they worked industriously and well; three schools -were established; a chapel was built by the Episcopal mission; the -village began to assume the appearance of permanence and thrift; but -misfortune had not yet parted company with the Poncas. In the summer of -1873 the Missouri River suddenly overflowed, washed away its banks -hundreds of yards back, and entirely ruined the Ponca village. By -working night and day for two weeks the Indians saved most of the -buildings, carrying them half a mile inland to be sure of safety. The -site of their village became the bed of the main channel of the river; -their cornfields were ruined, and the lands for miles in every direction -washed and torn up by the floods. - -"For nearly two weeks," the agent writes, "the work of salvage from the -ever-threatening destruction occupied our whole available force night -and day. We succeeded in carrying from the river bank to near half a -mile inland the whole of the agency buildings, mechanics' houses, -stabling, and sheds—more than twenty houses—nearly every panel of -fencing. The Poncas worked well and long, often through the night; and -the fact that the disaster did not cost us ten dollars of actual loss is -to be attributed to their labor, continuous and persevering—working -sometimes over the swiftly-flowing waters, terrible and turbid, on the -edge of the newly-formed current but a few inches below them, and into -which a fall would have been certain death, even for an Indian." - -In one year after this disaster they had recovered themselves -marvellously; built twenty new houses; owned over a hundred head of -cattle and fifty wagons, and put three hundred acres of land under -cultivation (about three acres to each male in the tribe). But this year -was not to close without a disaster. First came a drought; then three -visitations of locusts, one after the other, which so completely -stripped the fields that "nothing was left but a few prematurely dry -stalks and straw." One hundred young trees which had been set -out—box-elder, soft maple, and others—withered and died. - -In 1875 the locusts came again, destroyed the corn and oats, but left -the wheat. Much of this crop, however, was lost, as there was only one -reaping-machine on the agency, and it could not do all of the work. Many -of the Indians saved a part of their crop by cutting it with large -butcher-knives; but this was slow, and much of the wheat dried up and -perished before it could be harvested by this tedious process. - -This year was also marked by a flagrant instance of the helplessness of -Indians in the courts. Two Poncas were waylaid by a party of Santees, -one of the Poncas murdered, and the other seriously wounded. This -occurred at the Yankton Agency, where both parties were visiting. When -the case was brought up before the courts, a motion was made to quash -the indictment for want of jurisdiction, and the judge was obliged to -sustain the motion, there being under the present laws no jurisdiction -whatever "over crimes committed by one Indian on the person or property -of another Indian in the Indian country." - -In 1876 the project of consolidating all the Indians in the United -States upon a few reservations began to be discussed and urged. If this -plan were carried out, it would be the destiny of the Poncas to go to -the Indian Territory. It was very gratuitously assumed that, as they had -been anxious to be allowed to remove to Nebraska and join the Omahas, -they would be equally ready to remove to Indian Territory—a process of -reasoning whose absurdity would be very plainly seen if it were -attempted to apply it in the case of white men. - -After a series of negotiations, protestations, delays, and -bewilderments, the tribe at last gave what the United States Government -chose to call a "consent" to the removal. The story of the influences, -deceits, coercions brought to bear on these unfortunate creatures before -this was brought about, is one of the most harrowing among the harrowing -records of our dealings with the Indians. A party of chiefs were -induced, in the first place, to go, in company with a United States -inspector—Kemble by name—to the Indian Territory, to see whether the -country would suit them. It was distinctly promised to them that, if it -did not suit them, they should then be permitted to go to Washington and -consult with the President as to some further plan for their -establishment. - -The story of this journey and of its results is best told in the words -of one of the Ponca chiefs, Standing Bear. No official document, no -other man's narrative—no, not if a second Homer should arise to sing -it—could tell the story so well as he tells it: - -"We lived on our land as long as we can remember. No one knows how long -ago we came there. The land was owned by our tribe as far back as memory -of men goes. - -"We were living quietly on our farms. All of a sudden one white man -came. We had no idea what for. This was the inspector. He came to our -tribe with Rev. Mr. Hinman. These two, with the agent, James Lawrence, -they made our trouble. - -"They said the President told us to pack up—that we must move to the -Indian Territory. - -"The inspector said to us: 'The President says you must sell this land. -He will buy it and pay you the money, and give you new land in the -Indian Territory.' - -"We said to him: 'We do not know your authority. You have no right to -move us till we have had council with the President.' - -"We said to him: 'When two persons wish to make a bargain, they can talk -together and find out what each wants, and then make their agreement.' - -"We said to him: 'We do not wish to go. When a man owns anything, he -does not let it go till he has received payment for it.' - -"We said to him: 'We will see the President first.' - -"He said to us: 'I will take you to see the new land. If you like it, -then you can see the President, and tell him so. If not, then you can -see him and tell him so.' And he took all ten of our chiefs down. I -went, and Bright Eyes' uncle went. He took us to look at three different -pieces of land. He said we must take one of the three pieces, so the -President said. After he took us down there he said: 'No pay for the -land you left.' - -"We said to him: 'You have forgotten what you said before we started. -You said we should have pay for our land. Now you say not. You told us -then you were speaking truth.' All these three men took us down there. -The man got very angry. He tried to compel us to take one of the three -pieces of land. He told us to be brave. He said to us: 'If you do not -accept these, I will leave you here alone. You are one thousand miles -from home. You have no money. You have no interpreter, and you cannot -speak the language.' And he went out and slammed the door. The man -talked to us from long before sundown till it was nine o'clock at night. - -"We said to him: 'We do not like this land. We could not support -ourselves. The water is bad. How send us to Washington, to tell the -President, as you promised.' - -"He said to us: 'The President did not tell me to take you to -Washington; neither did he tell me to take you home.' - -"We said to him: 'You have the Indian money you took to bring us down -here. That money belongs to us. We would like to have some of it. People -do not give away food for nothing. We must have money to buy food on the -road.' - -"He said to us: 'I will not give you a cent.' - -"We said to him: 'We are in a strange country. We cannot find our way -home. Give us a pass, that people may show us our way.' - -"He said: 'I will not give you any.' - -"We said to him: 'This interpreter is ours. We pay him. Let him go with -us.' - -"He said: 'You shall not have the interpreter. He is mine, and not -yours.' - -"We said to him: 'Take us at least to the railroad; show us the way to -that.' - -"And he would not. He left us right there. It was winter. We started for -home on foot. At night we slept in hay-stacks. We barely lived till -morning, it was so cold. We had nothing but our blankets. We took the -ears of corn that had dried in the fields; we ate it raw. The soles of -our moccasins wore out. We were barefoot in the snow. We were nearly -dead when we reached the Otoe Reserve. It had been fifty days. We stayed -there ten days to strengthen up, and the Otoes gave each of us a pony. -The agent of the Otoes told us he had received a telegram from the -inspector, saying that the Indian chiefs had run away; not to give us -food or shelter, or help in any way. The agent said: 'I would like to -understand. Tell me all that has happened. Tell me the truth.'" - -(This Otoe agent afterward said that when the chiefs entered his room -they left the prints of their feet in blood on the floor as they came -in.) - -"Then we told our story to the agent and to the Otoe chiefs—how we had -been left down there to find our way. - -"The agent said: 'I can hardly believe it possible that any one could -have treated you so. That inspector was a poor man to have done this. If -I had taken chiefs in this way, I would have brought them home; I could -not have left them there.' - -"In seven days we reached the Omaha Reservation. Then we sent a telegram -to the President: asked him if he had authorized this thing. We waited -three days for the answer. No answer came. - -"In four days we reached our own home. We found the inspector there. -While we were gone, he had come to our people and told them to move. - -"Our people said: 'Where are our chiefs? What have you done with them? -Why have you not brought them back? We will not move till our chiefs -come back.' - -"Then the inspector told them: 'To-morrow you must be ready to move. If -you are not ready you will be shot.' Then the soldiers came to the doors -with their bayonets, and ten families were frightened. The soldiers -brought wagons; they put their things in and were carried away. The rest -of the tribe would not move. - -"When we got there, we asked the inspector why he had done this thing, -and he got very angry. - -"Then we said to him: 'We did not think we would see your face again, -after what has passed. We thought never to see your face any more. But -here you are.' - -"We said to him: 'This land is ours. It belongs to us. You have no right -to take it from us. The land is crowded with people, and only this is -left to us.' - -"We said to him: 'Let us alone. Go away from us. If you want money, take -all the money which the President is to pay us for twelve years to come. -You may have it all, if you will go and leave us our lands.' - -"Then, when he found that we would not go, he wrote for more soldiers to -come. - -"Then the soldiers came, and we locked our doors, and the women and -children hid in the woods. Then the soldiers drove all the people the -other side of the river, all but my brother Big Snake and I. We did not -go; and the soldiers took us and carried us away to a fort and put us in -jail. There were eight officers who held council with us after we got -there. The commanding officer said: 'I have received four messages -telling me to send my soldiers after you. Now, what have you done?' - -"Then we told him the whole story. Then the officer said: 'You have done -no wrong. The land is yours; they had no right to take it from you. Your -title is good. I am here to protect the weak, and I have no right to -take you; but I am a soldier, and I have to obey orders.' - -"He said: 'I will telegraph to the President, and ask him what I shall -do. We do not think these three men had any authority to treat you as -they have done. When we own a piece of land, it belongs to us till we -sell it and pocket the money.' - -"Then he brought a telegram, and said he had received answer from the -President. The President said he knew nothing about it. - -"They kept us in jail ten days. Then they carried us back to our home. -The soldiers collected all the women and children together; then they -called all the chiefs together in council; and then they took wagons and -went round and broke open the houses. When we came back from the council -we found the women and children surrounded by a guard of soldiers. - -"They took our reapers, mowers, hay-rakes, spades, ploughs, bedsteads, -stoves, cupboards, everything we had on our farms, and put them in one -large building. Then they put into the wagons such things as they could -carry. We told them that we would rather die than leave our lands; but -we could not help ourselves. They took us down. Many died on the road. -Two of my children died. After we reached the new land, all my horses -died. The water was very bad. All our cattle died; not one was left. I -stayed till one hundred and fifty-eight of my people had died. Then I -ran away with thirty of my people, men and women and children. Some of -the children were orphans. We were three months on the road. We were -weak and sick and starved. When we reached the Omaha Reserve the Omahas -gave us a piece of land, and we were in a hurry to plough it and put in -wheat. While we were working the soldiers came and arrested us. Half of -us were sick. We would rather have died than have been carried back; but -we could not help ourselves." - -Nevertheless they were helped. The news of their arrest, and the -intention of the Government to take them back by force to Indian -Territory, roused excitement in Omaha. An Omaha editor and two Omaha -lawyers determined to test the question whether the Government had a -legal right to do it. It seemed a bold thing, almost a hopeless thing, -to undertake. It has passed into a proverb that Providence is on the -side of the heaviest battalions: the oppressed and enslaved in all ages -have felt this. But there are times when a simple writ of habeas corpus -is stronger than cannon or blood-hounds; and this was one of these -times. Brought into the District Court of the United States for the -District of Nebraska, these Poncas were set free by the judge of that -court. Will not the name of Judge Dundy stand side by side with that of -Abraham Lincoln in the matter of Emancipation Acts? - -The Government attorney, the Hon. G. M. Lambertson, made an argument -five hours long, said to have been both "ingenious and eloquent," to -prove that an Indian was not entitled to the protection of the writ of -habeas corpus, "_not_ being a person or citizen under the law." - -Judge Dundy took several days to consider the case, and gave a decision -which strikes straight to the root of the whole matter—a decision which, -when it is enforced throughout our land, will take the ground out from -under the feet of the horde of unscrupulous thieves who have been -robbing, oppressing, and maddening the Indians for so long, that to try -to unmask and expose their processes, or to make clean their methods, is -a task before which hundreds of good men—nay, whole denominations of -good men—disheartened, baffled, and worn-out, have given up. - -When Standing Bear found that by the decision of Judge Dundy he was -really a free man, and could go where he pleased, he made a speech which -should never be forgotten or left out in the history of the dealings of -the United States Government with the Indians. - -After a touching expression of gratitude to the lawyers who had pleaded -his cause, he said: "Hitherto, when we have been wronged, we went to war -to assert our rights and avenge our wrongs. We took the tomahawk. We had -no law to punish those who did wrong, so we took our tomahawks and went -to kill. If they had guns and could kill us first, it was the fate of -war. But you have found a better way. You have gone into the court for -us, and I find that our wrongs can be righted there. Now I have no more -use for the tomahawk. I want to lay it down forever." - -Uttering these words with eloquent impressiveness, the old chief, -stooping down, placed the tomahawk on the floor at his feet; then, -standing erect, he folded his arms with native dignity, and continued: -"I lay it down. I have no more use for it. I have found a better way." - -Stooping again and taking up the weapon, he placed it in Mr. Webster's -hands, and said: "I present it to you as a token of my gratitude. I want -you to keep it in remembrance of this great victory which you have -gained. I have no further use for it. I can now seek the ways of peace." - -The first use that Standing Bear made of his freedom was to endeavor to -procure the freedom of his tribe, and establish their legal right to -their old home in Dakota. Accompanied by a young and well-educated Omaha -girl and her brother as interpreters, and by Mr. Tibbles, the champion -and friend to whom he owed his freedom, he went to the Eastern States, -and told the story of the sufferings and wrongs of his tribe to large -audiences in many of the larger cities and towns. Money was generously -subscribed everywhere for the purpose of bringing suits to test the -question of the Poncas' legal right to the lands which the United States -Government had by treaty ceded to them in specified "townships," thus -giving to them the same sort of title which would be given to any -corporation or individual. - -Very soon this movement of Standing Bear and his companions began to -produce on the community a strong effect, shown by the interest in their -public meetings, and by expressions of strong feeling in the newspapers. -This attracted the attention of the authorities at Washington. Letters -were published contradicting many of Standing Bear's assertions; -statements were circulated injurious to the reputation of all members of -the party. A careful observer of the whole course of the Department of -the Interior in this matter could not fail to come to the conclusion -that for some mysterious, unexplained, and unexplainable reason the -Department did not wish—in fact, was unwilling—that the Ponca tribe -should be reinstated on its lands. Discussions on the matter grew warm. -The inspector who had been concerned in their removal published long -letters reflecting equally on the veracity of Standing Bear and of the -Secretary of the Interior. Standing Bear replied in a few pithy words, -which were conclusive in their proving of the falsity of some of the -inspector's statements. The Secretary, also, did not think it beneath -his dignity to reply in successive newspaper articles to the inspector's -reflections upon him; but the only thing that was made clear by this -means was that either the Secretary or the inspector, or both, said what -was not true. - -In Boston the interest in the Ponca case reached such a height that a -committee was appointed to represent the case in Washington, and to -secure legislation upon it. Standing Bear and his party went to -Washington, and, in spite of the secret hostility of the Interior -Department, produced a powerful impression upon Congress. Senator Dawes, -of Massachusetts, and Senator Morgan, of Alabama, both became warm -advocates of their cause. The subject once started, case after case came -up for investigation; and the Congressional committees called for -evidence in regard to several of the more striking instances of -injustice to Indians. - -White Eagle, one of the Ponca chiefs, who had lost his wife and four -children, and who was himself fast sinking under disease developed by -the malarial Indian Territory, came to Washington and gave eloquent -testimony in behalf of his tribe. The physicians there predicted that he -had not three months to live. A bill was introduced into Congress for -restoring to the Poncas their old reservation in Dakota, and putting -their houses, farms, etc., in the same good condition they were at the -time of their removal. - -The story of that removal was written out in full at the time by the -agent who superintended it. That he should forward this report to the -Department of the Interior was natural; but that the Department of the -Interior should have been willing to publish it to the country, to have -it on the official record of its management of Indian affairs for the -year 1877, is strange. It will make a fitting conclusion to this sketch -of the history of the Ponca tribe. The name of this agent was E. A. -Howard. He calls the report "Journal of the March." - -"_May 21st._ Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to Crayton, a -distance of thirteen miles. Roads very heavy. The child that died -yesterday was here buried by the Indians, they preferring to bury it -than to have it buried by the white people. - -"_May 22d._ Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to Neligh, a -distance of about twenty-five miles. The day was cool, and, the road -being high and comparatively good, the travel was made without much -inconvenience. - -"_May 23d._ The morning opened with light rain; but at eight o'clock a -terrific thunder-storm occurred of two hours' duration, which was -followed by steady rain throughout the day, in consequence of which we -remained in camp. During the day a child died, and several women and -children were reported sick, and medical attendance and medicine were -procured for them. - -"_May 24th._ Buried the child that died yesterday in the cemetery at -Neligh, giving it a Christian burial. Broke camp at ten o'clock and -marched about eight miles, crossing the Elk-horn River about two miles -below Oakdale Village. Were unable to cross at Neligh, the road being -about two feet under water and the bridges being washed away. The road -was fearfully bad, and much time and labor were expended in making the -road and bridges at all passable over the Elk-horn flats, where the -crossing was effected. - -"_May 25th._ Broke camp at six o'clock and marched twenty miles, to a -point on Shell Creek. No wood at this place, and none to be had except -what little had been picked up and brought in by the trains. Weather -cold, damp, and dreary. The Indians during the day behaved well, and -marched splendidly. - -"_May 26th._ The morning opened with a heavy continuous rain, which -prevailed until ten o'clock. Broke camp at eleven o'clock and marched -eight miles farther down Shell Creek, when it again commenced raining, -and we went into camp. The evening set in cold and rainy, and no wood to -be had except what was purchased of a settler. - -"_May 27th._ The morning opened cold, with a misty rain. Rain ceased at -half-past seven o'clock, and we broke camp at eight and marched eight -miles farther down Shell Creek, when, a heavy thunder-storm coming on, -we again went into camp. Several of the Indians were here found to be -quite sick, and having no physician, and none being attainable, they -gave us much anxiety and no little trouble. The daughter of Standing -Bear, one of the chiefs, was very low of consumption, and moving her -with any degree of comfort was almost impossible, and the same trouble -existed in transporting all the sick. - -"_May 28th._ Last evening I gave orders to break camp at five o'clock -this morning, intending, if practicable, to reach Columbus before night; -but a heavy thunder-storm prevailed at that time. Broke camp at seven -o'clock. Marched seven miles, when we came to a slough confluent to -Shell Creek, which was only made passable after two hours of active work -in cutting willow-brush and bringing a large quantity of wheat straw -from a distance of thirty rods, with which we covered the road thickly. -After crossing the slough we marched to a point on Shell Creek and -camped, having made about fourteen miles during the day. - -"_May 29th._ Broke camp at seven o'clock and crossed Shell Creek. For -about five miles the road led over a divide, and was quite good; but in -coming down on the flats, which extended for five miles between the -Bluffs and Columbus, we found the roads for the entire distance almost -impassable, owing to the many deep, miry sloughs which cross the road, -and the generally flooded and yielding condition of the soil aside from -the sloughs. Teams had to be frequently doubled, in order to get the -wagons through. The difficulties were finally overcome, and the train -marched into Columbus at two o'clock, and went into camp at Soap Fork, -having made a march of about ten miles, the march of five miles across -the flats occupying about seven hours. Major Walker, who had accompanied -us from the Niobrara River to this place with twenty-five soldiers, -under orders from the War Department, took leave of us, and returned to -Dakota." - -It was asserted again and again by the Secretary of the Interior, and by -the inspector, E. C. Kemble, that these Indians were not removed by -force—that they consented to go. - -In another part of this same report this agent says: - -"On the 15th" (six days before the "march" began) "I held another -council, which was largely attended by the chiefs, headmen, and soldiers -of the tribe, and which was of more than four hours' duration. At this -council the Indians maintained that the Government had no right to move -them from the reservation, and demanded, as an inducement or equivalent -for them to give up the reservation and move to the Indian -Territory—first, the payment to them by the Government of the sum of -$3,000,000; and, second, that, before starting, I should show to them -the sum of $40,000 which they had been told had been appropriated by the -Government for their removal. To all of which I replied positively in -the negative, telling them that I would not accede to nor consider any -demands that they might make; but that I would take under my -consideration reasonable requests that they might submit touching their -removal, and, as their agent, do what I could for them in promoting -their welfare; that I demanded that they should at all times listen to -my words; that they should go with me to their new home; and that _they -should without delay give me their final answer whether they would go -peaceably or by force_. The Indians refused to give answer at this time; -the council closed without definite results; and the Indians dispersed -with a sullen look and determined expression." - -This evidently was not the "consent" of which we have heard. We come to -it presently. - -"On the following morning, however, May 16th, they sent word to me, at -an early hour, that they had considered my words, and had concluded to -go with me, and that they wanted assistance in getting the old and -infirm, together with their property, over the Niobrara River, which was -much swollen by the rains and at a low temperature." - -What a night must these helpless creatures have passed before this -"consent" was given! Seven hundred people, _more than half of them women -and children_; a farming people, not armed with rifles, as the Ogallalla -Sioux were, when, one year later, on this same ground, the Chief Spotted -Tail told Commissioner Hayt that, if he did not give an order to have -his tribe on the way back to White Clay Creek in ten days, his young men -would go on the war-path at once; and the much-terrified commissioner -wrote the order then and there, and the Sioux were allowed to go where -they had chosen to go. Behold the difference between the way our -Government treats the powerful and treats the weak! What could these -Ponca farmers do? They must, "without delay," give their "final answer -whether they would go peaceably or _by force_." What did "_by force_" -mean? It was "_by force_" that the Government undertook to compel the -Cheyennes to go to Indian Territory; and in that Cheyenne massacre the -Cheyenne men, women, children, and babies were all shot down together! - -What could these Ponca farmers do? What would any father, brother, -husband have done under the circumstances? He would have "consented" to -go. - -The agent, as was wise, took them at their word, quickly, and that very -day, "at five o'clock P.M., had the entire tribe, with their effects, -across the river, off the reservation, and in camp in Nebraska." - -The agent should have said, "with part of their effects," for it was -only a part, and a very small part, that this helpless _consenting_ -party were allowed to take with them. All their agricultural implements -and most of their furniture were left behind. - -"It was a hard day's work," the getting the tribe and their "effects" -across the river, the agent says; "the river being about forty rods -wide, and the current so swift that it was found impossible to move the -goods across in any other way than by packing them on the shoulders of -the men, the quicksand bottom rendering it unsafe to trust them on the -backs of animals; even the wagons having to be drawn across by hand." - -Let us dwell for a moment on this picture. Seven hundred helpless, -heart-broken people beginning their sad journey by having to ford this -icy stream with quicksands at bottom. The infirm, the sick, the old, the -infants, all carried "by packing them on the shoulders of the men!" What -a scene! The Honorable Secretary of the Interior said, in one of the -letters in his newspaper controversy with the inspector in regard to the -accounts of this removal, that "the highly-colored stories which are -told about the brutal military force employed in compelling their [the -Poncas'] removal from Dakota to the Indian Territory are sensational -fabrications; at least, the official record, which is very full, and -goes into minute details, does not in the least bear them out." - -There was never any accusation brought against the "military force" of -"brutality" in this removal. The brutality was on the part of the -Government. The simple presence of the "military force" was brutal. It -meant but one thing. The Indians understood it, and the Government -intended that they should understand it; and when the agent of the -Government said to these Indians that they must give him their "final -answer whether they would go peaceably or by force," he intended that -they should understand it. Has anybody any doubt what were the orders -under which that "military force" was there? any doubt what it would -have been the military duty of Major Walker to have done in case the -Poncas had refused to "consent" to go? - -And now let us return to the "Official Record," which is, indeed, as the -Honorable Secretary of the Interior says, "very full,"and" goes into -minute details," and let us see in how much it will "bear us out;" and -when we have done with this "Official Record," let us ask ourselves if -any imagination could have invented so "highly-colored" a "story" as it -tells. - -"_June 2d._ Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched seventeen miles, -going into camp near Ulysses. Roads in bad condition. - -"_June 3d._ Had some trouble in getting started. Broke camp at eleven -o'clock and marched eight miles. Went into camp on Blue River. Many -people sick, one of whom was reported in a dying condition. Had bad -roads. Rained during afternoon. - -"_June 4th._ Broke camp at six o'clock. Marched fifteen miles, and went -into camp on Lincoln Creek, near Seward. - -"_June 5th._ Broke camp at seven o'clock. Marched fourteen miles, and -went into camp near Milford. Daughter of Standing Bear, Ponca chief, -died at two o'clock, of consumption. - -"_June 6th._ Remained in camp all day, for the purpose of obtaining -supplies. Prairie Flower, wife of Shines White and daughter of Standing -Bear, who died yesterday, was here given Christian burial, her remains -being deposited in the cemetery at Milford, Nebraska, a small village on -Blue River. - -"In this connection I wish to take official knowledge and recognition of -the noble action performed by the ladies of Milford, in preparing and -decorating the body of the deceased Indian woman for burial in a style -becoming the highest civilization. In this act of Christian kindness -they did more to ameliorate the grief of the husband and father than -they could have done by adopting the usual course of this untutored -people and presenting to each a dozen ponies. It was here that, looking -on the form of his dead daughter thus arrayed for the tomb, Standing -Bear was led to forget the burial-service of his tribe, and say to those -around him that he was desirous of leaving off the ways of the Indian -and adopting those of the white men. - -"_June 7th._ Quite a heavy rain during the afternoon. The storm, most -disastrous of any that occurred during the removal of the Poncas under -my charge, came suddenly upon us while in camp on the evening of this -day. It was a storm such as I never before experienced, and of which I -am unable to give an adequate description. The wind blew a fearful -tornado, demolishing every tent in camp, and rending many of them into -shreds, overturning wagons, and hurling wagon-boxes, camp-equipages, -etc., through the air in every direction like straws. Some of the people -were taken up by the wind and carried as much as three hundred yards. -Several of the Indians were quite seriously hurt, and one child died the -next day from injuries received, and was given Christian burial. The -storm caused a delay until the 8th for repairs, and for medical -attendance upon the injured. - -"_June 8th._ Broke camp at Milford and marched seven miles. Roads very -bad. Child died during the day. - -"_June 9th._ Put the child that died yesterday in the coffin and sent it -back to Milford, to be buried in the same grave with its aunt, Prairie -Flower. Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to within three miles of -Crete. - -"_June 10th._ Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched one mile beyond De -Witt, where I employed a physician to visit camp and prescribe for the -sick. A woman had a thumb accidentally cut off, which caused further -commotion in the camp. - -"_June 12th._ Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to within two -miles of Otoe Agency. Crossed Wolf Creek with a part of the train, the -crossing being very difficult; but the Indians worked splendidly." - -"The Indians worked splendidly!" Is not this a well-nigh incredible -record of patience and long-suffering? These poor creatures, marching -from ten to twenty-five miles a day, for twenty-two days, through muddy -sloughs, swollen rivers, in tempests and floods and dreary cold, leaving -their wives and their children dead by the way—dead of the sufferings of -the march—are yet docile, obedient, and "work splendidly!" - -"_June 13th._ After considerable time we succeeded in building a bridge -over Wolf Creek out of drift-timber, and succeeded in crossing the -balance of the train. Broke camp and marched three miles, and went into -camp again near Otoe Agency. - -"_June 14th._ Water-bound, and had to remain in camp all day waiting for -creek to run down. The Otoe Indians came out to see the Poncas, and gave -them ten ponies. - -"_June 15th._ Still water-bound. Remained in camp all day. - -"_June 16th._ Broke camp at seven o'clock and reached Marysville, -Kansas, where we went into camp. During the march a wagon tipped over, -injuring a woman quite severely. Indians out of rations, and feeling -hostile." - -What wonder that the Indians felt hostile? Hunger added to all the rest -of their direful misery! - -"_June 18th._ Broke camp at seven o'clock. Marched nine miles and went -into camp at Elm Creek. Little Cottonwood died. Four families determined -to return to Dakota. I was obliged to ride nine miles on horseback to -overtake them, to restore harmony, and settle difficulty in camp. Had -coffin made for dead Indian, which was brought to camp at twelve o'clock -at night from Blue Rapids. A fearful thunder-storm during the night, -flooding the camp-equipage." - -This is a "highly-colored" story, indeed! The darkness; the camp flooded -by the driving rain; thunder and lightning; a messenger arriving at -midnight with a coffin; the four families of desperate fugitives setting -out to flee back to their homes! What "sensational fabrication" could -compete with this? - -"_June 19th._ The storm of last night left the roads in an impassable -condition, and, in consequence, was obliged to remain in camp all day. -Buried Little Cottonwood in a cemetery about five miles from camp. *** - -"_June 25th._ Broke camp at six o'clock. Marched to a point about -fifteen miles farther up Deep Creek. Two old women died during the day. -*** - -"_June 30th._ Broke camp at six o'clock. Passed through Hartford, and -camped about six miles above Burlington. A child of Buffalo Chief died -during the day. *** - -"_July 2d._ Broke camp at six o'clock. Made a long march of fifteen -miles for Noon Camp, for reason that no water could be got nearer. An -Indian became hostile, and made a desperate attempt to kill White Eagle, -head chief of the tribe. For a time every male in camp was on the -war-path, and for about two hours the most intense excitement prevailed, -heightened by continued loud crying by all the women and children." - -This Indian, who is reported here as having "become hostile," no doubt, -tried to kill White Eagle for having allowed the tribe to be brought -into all this trouble. It is the general feeling among the less -intelligent members of a tribe that their chiefs are bound, under all -circumstances, to see that they come to no harm. - -"_July 9th._ Broke camp at six o'clock, passing through Baxter Springs -at about one o'clock. Just after passing Baxter Springs a terrible -thunder-storm struck us. The wind blew a heavy gale and the rain fell in -torrents, so that it was impossible to see more than four or five rods -distant, thoroughly drenching every person and every article in the -train, making a fitting end to a journey commenced by wading a river and -thereafter encountering innumerable storms. - -"During the last few days of the journey the weather was exceedingly -hot, and the teams terribly annoyed and bitten by green-head flies, -which attacked them in great numbers. Many of the teams were nearly -exhausted, and, had the distance been but little farther, they must have -given out. The people were all nearly worn out from the fatigue of the -march, and were heartily glad that the long, tedious journey was at an -end, that they might take that rest so much required for the -recuperation of their physical natures." Now let us see what provision -the Government had made for that "rest" and "recuperation," surely "much -required" and fairly earned. Not one dollar had been appropriated for -establishing them in their new home; not one building had been put up. -This people was set down in a wilderness without one provision of any -kind for their shelter. - -"It is a matter of astonishment to me," says Agent Howard (p. 100 of -this "Report"), "that the Government should have ordered the removal of -the Ponca Indians from Dakota to the Indian Territory without having -first made some provision for their settlement and comfort. Before their -removal was carried into effect an appropriation should have been made -by Congress sufficient to have located them in their new home, by -building a comfortable home for the occupancy of every family of the -tribe. As the case now is, no appropriation has been made by Congress -except of a sum little more than sufficient to remove them; and the -result is that these people have been placed on an uncultivated -reservation, to live in their tents as best they may, and await further -legislative action." - -This journal of Mr. Howard's is the best record that can ever be written -of the sufferings of the Poncas in their removal from their homes. It is -"highly colored;" but no one, however much it may be for his interest to -do so, can call it "a sensational fabrication," or can discredit it in -the smallest particular, for it is an "official record," authorized and -endorsed by being published in the "Annual Report" of the Secretary of -the Interior. - -The remainder of the Ponca tribe is still in Indian Territory, awaiting -anxiously the result of the efforts to restore to them their old homes, -and to establish the fact of their indisputable legal right to them.[27] - -Footnote 27: - - See Appendix, Art. II., for later facts in the history of the Poncas. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - THE WINNEBAGOES. - - -The Winnebagoes belonged to the Dakota family, but, so far as can be -known, were naturally a peace-loving people, and had no sympathy with -the more warlike tribes of their race. The Algonquins gave them the name -of Winnebagoes, or "people of the salt-water;" and as the Algonquin word -for salt-water and stinking-water was the same, the French called them -"Les Puants," or "Stinkards." The Sioux gave them a more melodious and -pleasing name, "O-ton-kah," which signified "The large, strong people." - -Bancroft, in his account of the North American tribes, says: "One little -community of the Dakota (Sioux) family had penetrated the territories of -the Algonquins: the Winnebagoes dwelling between Green Bay and the lake -that bears their name preferred to be environed by Algonquins than to -stay in the dangerous vicinity of their own kindred." - -One of the earliest mentions that is found of this tribe, in the -diplomatic history of our country, is in the reports given of a council -held in July, 1815, at "Portage des Sioux," in Missouri, after the -treaty of Ghent. To this council the Winnebagoes refused to send -delegates; and their refusal was evidently considered a matter of some -moment. The commissioners "appointed to treat with the North-western -Indians" at this time reported that they found "the Indians much divided -among themselves in regard to peace with the United States." Some of -them "spoke without disguise of their opposition to military -establishments on the Mississippi," and many of them, "among whom were -the Winnebagoes, utterly refused to send deputies to the council." This -disaffection was thought by the commissioners to be largely due to the -influence of British traders, who plied the Indians with gifts, and -assured them that war would soon break out again between the United -States and Great Britain. It is probable, however, that the Winnebagoes -held themselves aloof from these negotiations more from a general -distrust of white men than from any partisan or selfish leaning to the -side of Great Britain; for when Dr. Jedediah Morse visited them, only -seven years later, he wrote: "There is no other tribe which seems to -possess so much jealousy of the whites, and such reluctance to have -intercourse with them, as this." - -Spite of this reluctance they made, in 1816, a treaty "of peace and -friendship with the United States," agreeing "to remain distinct and -separate from the rest of their nation or tribe, giving them no -assistance whatever until peace shall be concluded between the United -States and their tribe or nation." They agreed also to confirm and -observe all the lines of British, French, or Spanish cessions of land to -the United States. - -In 1825 the United States Government, unable to endure the spectacle of -Indians warring among themselves, and massacring each other, appears in -the North-western country as an unselfish pacificator, and compels the -Sacs, Foxes, Chippewas, and Sioux, including the Winnebagoes, to make a -treaty of peace and friendship with each other and with the United -States. The negotiations for this treaty occupied one month; which does -not seem a long time when one considers that the boundaries of all the -lands to be occupied by these respective tribes were to be defined, and -that in those days and regions definitions of distance were stated in -such phrases as "a half day's march," "a long day's march," "about a -day's paddle in a canoe," "to a point where the woods come out into the -meadows," "to a point on Buffalo River, half way between its source and -its mouth." These were surely precarious terms for peace to rest upon, -especially as it was understood by all parties that "no tribe shall hunt -within the actual limits of any other without their consent." - -At the close of this treaty there occurred a curious incident, which -Schoolcraft calls "an experiment on the moral sense of the Indians with -regard to intoxicating liquors." "It had been said by the tribes that -the true reason for the Commissioners of the United States speaking -against the use of ardent spirits by the Indians, and refusing to give -it to them, was the fear of expense, and not a sense of its bad effects. -To show them that the Government was above such a petty motive, the -commissioners had a long row of tin camp-kettles, holding several -gallons each, placed on the grass; and then, after some suitable -remarks, each kettle was spilled out in their presence. The thing was -ill-relished by the Indians, who loved the whiskey better than the -joke." - -At this time the lands of the Winnebagoes lay between the Rock and the -Wisconsin rivers, along the shore of Winnebago Lake, and the Indians -claimed that the whole lake belonged to them. It was here that President -Morse had found them living in 1822. He gives the following graphic -picture of their pleasant home: "They have five villages on the Lake, -and fourteen on Rock River. The country has abundance of springs, small -lakes, ponds, and rivers; a rich soil, producing corn and all sorts of -grain. The lakes abound with fine-flavored, firm fish." Of the Indians -themselves, he says: "They are industrious, frugal, and temperate. They -cultivate corn, potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, and beans, and are -remarkably provident. They numbered five hundred and eighty souls." - -In 1827 a third treaty was signed by the Winnebagoes, Chippewas, and -Menomonies with the United States and with each other. This treaty -completed the system of boundaries of their lands, which had been only -partially defined by the two previous treaties. Of these three treaties -Schoolcraft says: "These three conferences embody a new course and -policy for keeping the tribes in peace, and are founded on the most -enlarged consideration of the aboriginal right of fee-simple to the -soil. They have been held exclusively at the charge and expense of the -United States, and contain no cession of territory." - -They were the last treaties of their kind. In 1828 the people of -Northern Illinois were beginning to covet and trespass on some of the -Indian lands, and commissioners were sent to treat with the Indians for -the surrender of such lands. The Indians demurred, and the treaty was -deferred; the United States in the mean time agreeing to pay to the four -tribes $20,000, "in full compensation for all the injuries and damages -sustained by them in consequence of the occupation of any part of the -mining country." - -In 1829 a benevolent scheme for the rescue of these hard-pressed tribes -of the North-western territory was proposed by Mr. J. D. Stevens, a -missionary at Mackinaw. He suggested the formation of a colony of them -in the Lake Superior region. He says—and his words are as true to-day, -in 1879, as they were fifty years ago: "The Indian is in every view -entitled to sympathy. The misfortune of the race is that, seated on the -skirts of the domain of a popular government, they have no vote to give. -They are politically a nonentity. *** The whole Indian race is not worth -one white man's vote. If the Indian were raised to the right of giving -his suffrage, a plenty of politicians on the frontiers would enter into -plans to better him; whereas now the subject drags along like an incubus -in Congress." - -It did, indeed. Appropriations were sadly behindhand. The promises made -to the Indians could not be fulfilled, simply because there was no money -to fulfil them with. In 1829 a Washington correspondent writes to Mr. -Schoolcraft: "There is a screw loose in the public machinery somewhere. -In 1827 we were promised $48,000 for the Indian service, and got -$30,000; in 1828 $40,000, and got $25,000." A little later the Secretary -of War himself writes: "Our annual appropriation has not yet passed; and -when it will, I am sure I cannot tell." - -In 1830 the all-engrossing topic of Congress is said to be "the removal -of the Indians. It occupies the public mind throughout the Union, and -petitions and remonstrances are pouring in without number." - -Meantime the Indians were warring among themselves, and also retaliating -on the white settlers who encroached upon their lands. The inevitable -conflict had begun in earnest, and in September of 1832 the Winnebagoes -were compelled to make their first great cession of territory to the -United States. In exchange for it they accepted a tract west of the -Mississippi, and before the 1st of June, 1833, most of those who were -living on the ceded lands had crossed the river to their new homes. -Their title to this new country was not so good as they probably -supposed, for the treaty expressly stated that it was granted to them -"to be held as other Indian lands are held." - -Article three of this treaty said, "As the country hereby ceded by the -Winnebagoes is more extensive and valuable than that given by the United -States in exchange," the United States would pay to the Winnebagoes -$10,000 annually in specie for twenty-seven years. The Government also -promised to put up buildings for them, send teachers, make various -allowances for stock, implements, tobacco, etc., and to furnish them -with a doctor. - -The Winnebagoes agreed to deliver up some of their number who had -murdered white settlers. Lands were granted by patent to four -Winnebagoes by name—two men and two women; for what reason, does not -appear in the treaty. - -Five years later the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States all their -lands east of the Mississippi, and also relinquished the right to -occupy, "except for hunting," a portion of that which they owned on the -west side. For this cession and relinquishment they were to receive -$200,000; part of this sum to be expended in paying their debts, the -expense of their removal and establishment in their new homes, and the -rest to be invested by the United States Government for their benefit. - -In 1846 the Winnebagoes were forced to make another treaty, by which -they finally ceded and sold to the United States "all right, title, -interest, claim, and privilege to all lands heretofore occupied by -them;" and accepted as their home, "to be held as other Indian lands are -held," a tract of 800,000 acres north of St. Peter's, and west of the -Mississippi. For this third removal they were to be paid -$190,000—$150,000 for the lands they gave up, and $40,000 for -relinquishing the hunting privilege on lands adjacent to their own. Part -of this was to be expended in removing them, and the balance was to be -"left in trust" with the Government at five per cent. interest. - -This reservation proved unsuited to them. The tribe were restless and -discontented; large numbers of them were continually roaming back to -their old homes in Iowa and Wisconsin, and in 1855 they gladly made -another treaty with the Government, by which they ceded back to the -United States all the land which the treaty of 1846 had given them, and -took in exchange for it a tract eighteen miles square on the Blue Earth -River. The improved lands on which they had been living, their mills and -other buildings, were to be appraised and sold to the highest bidder, -and the amount expended in removing them, subsisting them, and making -them comfortable in their new home. This reservation, the treaty said, -should be their "permanent home;" and as this phrase had never before -been used in any of their treaties, it is to be presumed that the -Winnebagoes took heart at hearing it. They are said to have "settled -down quietly and contentedly," and have gone to work immediately, -"ploughing, planting, and building." - -The citizens of Minnesota did not take kindly to their new neighbors. -"An indignation meeting was held; a petition to the President signed; -and movements made, the object of all which was to oust these Indians -from their dearly-purchased homes," says the Report of the Indian -Commissioner for 1855. - -Such movements, and such a public sentiment on the part of the -population surrounding them, certainly did not tend to encourage the -Winnebagoes to industry, or to give them any very sanguine hopes of -being long permitted to remain in their "permanent home." Nevertheless -they worked on, doing better and better every year, keeping good faith -with the whites and with the Government, and trusting in the -Government's purpose and power to keep faith with them. The only serious -faults with which they could be charged were drunkenness and gambling, -and both of these they had learned of the white settlers. In the latter -they had proved to be apt scholars, often beating professional gamblers -at their own game. - -They showed the bad effects of their repeated removals, also, in being -disposed to wander back to their old homes. Sometimes several hundred of -them would be roaming about in Wisconsin. But the tribe, as a whole, -were industrious, quiet, always peaceable and loyal, and steadily -improving. They took hold in earnest of the hard work of farming; some -of them who could not get either horses or ploughs actually breaking up -new land with hoes, and getting fair crops out of it. Very soon they -began to entreat to have their farms settled on them individually, and -guaranteed to them for their own; and the Government, taking advantage -of this desire on their part, made a treaty with them in 1859, by which -part of their lands were to be "allotted" to individuals in "severalty," -as they had requested, and the rest were to be sold, the proceeds to be -partly expended in improvements on their farms, and partly to be "left -in trust" with the Government. This measure threw open hundreds of -thousands of acres of land to white settlers, and drew the belt of -greedy civilization much tighter around the Indians. Similar treaties to -this had been already made with some of the Sioux tribes and with -others. It was evident that "the surplus land occupied by the Indians -was required for the use of the increasing white population," and that -it was "necessary to reduce the reservations." - -There is in this treaty of 1859 one extraordinary provision: "In order -to render unnecessary any further treaty engagements or arrangements -with the United States, it is hereby agreed and stipulated that the -President, with the assent of Congress, shall have full power to modify -or change any of the provisions of former treaties with the Winnebagoes, -in such manner and to whatever extent he may judge to be necessary and -expedient for their welfare and best interest." - -It is impossible to avoid having a doubt whether the chiefs and headmen -of the Winnebago tribe who signed this treaty ever heard that proviso. -It is incredible that they could have been so simple and trustful as to -have assented to it. - -Prospects now brightened for the Winnebagoes. With their farms given to -them for their own, and a sufficient sum of money realized by the sale -of surplus lands to enable them to thoroughly improve the remainder, -their way seemed open to prosperity and comfort. They "entered upon -farming with a zeal and energy which gave promise of a prosperous and -creditable future." - -"Every family in the tribe has more or less ground under cultivation," -says their agent. He reports, also, the minutes of a council held by the -chiefs, which tell their own story: - -"When we were at Washington last winter, we asked our Great Father to -take $300,000 out of the $1,100,000, so that we could commence our next -spring's work. We do not want all of the $1,100,000, only sufficient to -carry on our improvements. This money we ask for we request only as a -loan; and when our treaty is ratified, we want it replaced. We want to -buy cattle, horses, ploughs, and wagons; and this money can be replaced -when our lands are sold. We hope you will get this money: we want good -farms and good houses. Many have already put on white man's clothes, and -more of us will when our treaty is ratified. - -"Father, we do not want to make you tired of talk, but hope you will -make a strong paper, and urgent request of our Great Father in respect -to our wishes." - -In 1860 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs writes: "The Winnebagoes -continue steadily on the march of improvement. *** The progress of the -Winnebagoes in agricultural growths is particularly marked with success. -There have been raised by individuals as high as sixty acres of wheat on -a single farm. *** The agent's efforts have been directed to giving to -each Indian his own allotment of land. *** Wigwams are becoming as -scarce as houses were two years ago. *** All Indians who had horses -ploughed and farmed their own lands. *** The Indians were promised that -new and comfortable houses should be built for them. The treaty not yet -being ratified, I have no funds in my hands that could be made -applicable to this purpose. *** The greater part of the Indians have -entreated me to carry out the meaning of the commissioner on his visit -here, and the reasons for my not doing so do not seem comprehensible to -them. *** The school is in a flourishing condition." - -In 1861 the commissioner writes that the allotment of lands in severalty -to the Winnebagoes has been "substantially accomplished;" but that the -sales of the remaining lands have not yet been made, owing to the -unsettled condition of the country, and therefore the funds on which the -Indians were depending for the improvements of their farms have not been -paid to them. They complain bitterly that the provisions of the treaty -of 1859 have not been fulfilled. "It has been two years and a half since -this treaty was concluded," says the agent, "and the Indians have been -told from one season to another that something would be done under it -for their benefit, and as often disappointed, till the best of them -begin to doubt whether anything will be done. *** The Indians who have -had their allotments made are 'clamoring for their certificates.'" - -Drunkenness is becoming one of the serious vices of the tribe. They are -surrounded on all sides by white men who traffic in whiskey, and who -are, moreover, anxious to reduce the Indians to as degraded a state as -possible. "There are some circumstances connected with the location of -this tribe which make it more difficult to protect them from the ravages -of liquor-selling than any other tribe. They are closely surrounded by a -numerous white population, and these people feel very indignant because -the Indians are settled in their midst, and are disposed to make it as -uncomfortable for them to remain here as they can, hoping at some future -time they may be able to cause their removal." - -The time was not far distant. In 1862 we find the Winnebagoes in trouble -indeed. A ferocious massacre of white settlers by the Sioux had so -exasperated the citizens of Minnesota, that they demanded the removal of -all Indians from the State. The people were so excited that not an -Indian could step outside the limits of the reservation without the risk -of being shot at sight. The Winnebagoes had utterly refused to join the -Sioux in their attack on the whites, and had been threatened by them -with extermination in consequence of this loyalty. Thus they were -equally in danger from both whites and Indians: their position was truly -pitiable. - -In the Annual Report of the Interior Department for 1862 the condition -of things is thus described: "While it may be true that a few of the -Winnebagoes were engaged in the atrocities of the Sioux, the tribe, as -such, is no more justly responsible for their acts than our Government -would be for a pirate who happened to have been born on our territory. -Notwithstanding this, the exasperation of the people of Minnesota -appears to be nearly as great toward the Winnebagoes as toward the -Sioux. They demand that the Winnebagoes as well as the Sioux shall be -removed from the limits of the State. The Winnebagoes are unwilling to -move. Yet the Minnesota people are so excited that not a Winnebago can -leave his reservation without risk of being shot; and as they have never -received their promised implements of agriculture, and the game on their -reservation is exhausted, and their arms have been taken from them, they -are starving." - -Their agent writes: "These Indians have been remaining here in a -continuous state of suspense, waiting for the Government to cause the -stipulations of the treaty of 1859 to be carried into operation: such -has been their condition for three years and a half, and they do not -understand why it is so. *** The fact that a very few of the Winnebagoes -were present and witnessed, if they did not take part in, the massacre -at the Lower Sioux Agency, has caused the Winnebagoes themselves to be -universally suspected of disloyalty. *** The hostile feelings of the -white people are so intense, that I am necessitated to use extra efforts -to keep the Indians upon their own lands. I have been notified by the -whites that the Indians will be massacred if they go out of their own -country; and it is but a few days since an Indian was killed while -crossing the Mississippi River, for no other reason than that he was an -Indian, and such is the state of public opinion that the murderer goes -unpunished." - -As to the loyalty of the tribe, the agent says: "There is no tribe of -Indians more so." There is "no doubt of their loyalty as a tribe. *** In -consequence of a threat made by the Sioux, immediately upon their -outbreak, that they (the Sioux) would exterminate the Winnebagoes unless -they joined them in a raid against the white people, the Winnebagoes -have lived in fear of an attack from the Sioux, and have almost daily -implored me for protection. *** To further assure them, I requested of -the Governor of the State that two companies of United States infantry -be stationed here in their midst, which has allayed their fears. *** -Notwithstanding the nearness of the belligerent Sioux, and the -unfriendly feelings of the white people, and other unfortunate -circumstances, I am confident that my Indians will remain loyal to the -last. *** They have been informed that, notwithstanding their fidelity -to the Government and the people, the people of this State are -memorializing Congress to remove them out of the State—which they -consider very unjust under the circumstances, for they have become -attached to this location and would not leave it willingly, and think -their fidelity ought to entitle them to respect and kind treatment." - -The "popular demand" of the people of Minnesota triumphed. In February, -1863, Congress passed an act authorizing the "peaceful and quiet removal -of the Winnebago Indians from the State of Minnesota, and the settling -of them on a new reserve." It was determined to locate them "on the -Missouri River somewhere within a hundred miles of Fort Randall, where -it is not doubted they will be secure from any danger of intrusion from -whites." All their guns, rifles, and pistols were to be taken from them, -"securely boxed up," labelled "with the names of their respective -owners." The Department impressed it on the agent in charge of the -removal that it was "absolutely necessary that no time should be lost in -the emigrating of these Indians." The hostile Sioux were to be removed -at the same time, and to a reservation adjoining the reservation of the -Winnebagoes. The reports of the Indian Bureau for 1863 tell the story of -this removal.[28] - -Footnote 28: - - See Appendix, Art. VI. - -The commissioner says: "The case of the Winnebagoes is one of peculiar -hardship. I am still of the opinion that this tribe was in no manner -implicated in or responsible for the cruel and wanton outbreak on the -part of the Sioux; but its consequences to the tribe have been as -disastrous as unmerited. In obedience to the Act of Congress, and the -popular demand of the people of Minnesota, they have been removed to a -new location upon the Missouri River, adjoining that selected for the -Sioux. Contrasting the happy homes, and the abundant supply for all -their wants which they have left behind them, with the extreme -desolation which prevails throughout the country, including their -present location, and their almost defenceless state, as against the -hostile savages in their vicinity, their present condition is truly -pitiable; and it is not surprising that they have become to some extent -discouraged, and are dissatisfied with their new homes. It cannot be -disguised that their removal, although nominally peaceable and with -their consent, was the result of the overwhelming pressure of the public -sentiment of the community in which they resided; and it is to be feared -that it will be many years before their confidence in the good faith of -our Government, in its professed desire to ameliorate and improve their -condition, will be restored. Their misfortunes and good conduct deserve -our sympathy." - -The Act of Congress above mentioned provides for the peaceable removal -of the Indians. In its execution some of the members of the tribe were -found unwilling to leave their homes; and as there was neither the -disposition nor the power to compel them to accompany their brethren, -they remained upon their old reservation. The most of them are -represented as having entirely abandoned the Indian habits and customs, -and as being fully qualified by good conduct and otherwise for civilized -life. Many of them are enlisted in the military service, and all are -desirous of retaining possession of the homes allotted to them under the -provisions of their treaty. - -"The trust lands belonging to the tribe have been placed in the market, -and from the amount already sold has been realized $82,537.62. An -appraisement has also been had of the lands of the diminished reserve, -and the same will soon be placed in the market." - -In the Report of the Superintendent of the North-west Territory for the -same year is the following summing up of their case: "The case of these -Winnebago Indians is one of peculiar hardship. Hurried from their -comfortable homes in Minnesota, in 1863, almost without previous notice, -huddled together on steamboats with poor accommodations, and transported -to the Crow Creek Agency in Dakota Territory at an expense to themselves -of more than $50,000, they were left, after a very imperfect and hasty -preparation of their new agency for their reception, upon a sandy beach -on the west bank of the Missouri River, in a country remarkable only for -the rigors of its winter climate and the sterility of its soil, to -subsist themselves where the most industrious and frugal white man would -fail, five years out of six, to raise enough grain upon which to subsist -a family. The stern alternative was presented to this unfortunate -people, thus deprived of comfortable homes (on account of no crime or -misdemeanor of their own), of abandoning this agency, or encountering -death from cold or starvation. They wisely chose the former; and after -encountering hardships and sufferings too terrible to relate, and the -loss of several hundred of their tribe by starvation and freezing, they -arrived at their present place of residence [the Omaha Agency] in a -condition which excited the active sympathy of all who became acquainted -with the story of their wrongs. There they have remained, trusting that -the Government would redeem its solemn promise to place them in a -position west of the Missouri which should be as comfortable as the one -which they occupied in Minnesota. - -"This tribe is characterized by frugality, thrift, and industry to an -extent unequalled by any other tribe of Indians in the North-west. Loyal -to the Government, and peaceable toward their neighbors, they are -entitled to the fostering care of the General Government. The -improvement of the homes which they have voluntarily selected for their -future residence will place them in a short time beyond the reach of -want, and take from the Government the burden of supplying their wants -at an actual expense of $100,000." - -It was in May, 1863, that the Winnebagoes gathered at Fort Snelling, -ready for their journey. The chiefs are said to have "acquiesced in the -move as a matter of necessity, for the protection of their people," but -some of them "actually shed tears on taking leave." Colonel Mix, who was -in charge of this removal, wrote to Washington, urgently entreating that -tents at least might be provided for them on their arrival at their new -homes in the wilderness. He also suggests that it is a question whether -they ought to be settled so near the hostile Sioux, especially as just -before leaving Minnesota some of the tribe had "scalped three Sioux -Indians, thinking it would propitiate them in the kind regards of their -Great Father at Washington, and, as a consequence, they would perhaps be -permitted to remain in Minnesota." - -The removal was accomplished in May and June. There were, all told, 1945 -of the Winnebagoes. They arrived to find themselves in an almost barren -wilderness—a dry, hard soil, "too strong for ploughs;" so much so, that -it was "difficult to get a plough to run a whole day without breaking." -A drought had parched the grass, so that in many places where the -previous year several tons of good hay to an acre had been raised there -was not now "pasturage for a horse." The cottonwood timber, all which -could be procured, was "crooked, difficult to handle, full of -wind-shakes, rots, etc." The channel of the Missouri River here was so -"changeable," and the banks so low, that it was "dangerous to get too -near." They were obliged therefore to settle half a mile away from the -river. No wonder that on July 1st the Winnebagoes are reported as "not -pleased with their location, and anxious to return to Minnesota, or to -some other place among the whites." They gathered together in council, -and requested Superintendent Thompson to write to their Great Father for -permission "to move among the whites again. *** They have lived so long -among the whites that they are more afraid of wild Indians than the -whites are." The superintendent hopes, however, they will be more -contented as soon as he can get them comfortable buildings. But on July -16th we find Brigadier-general Sulley, commander of the North-western -expedition against Indians, writing to the Department in behalf of these -unfortunate creatures. General Sulley having been detained in camp near -Crow Creek on account of the low water, the chiefs had gone to him with -their tale of misery. "They stated that nothing would grow here. They -dare not go out to hunt for fear of other tribes, and they would all -starve to death. This I believe to be true, without the Government -intends to ration them all the time. The land is sandy, dry, and parched -up. *** The land is poor; a low, sandy soil. I don't think you can -depend on a crop of corn even once in five years, as it seldom rains -here in the summer. *** I find them hard at work making canoes, with the -intention of quitting the agency and going to join the Omahas or some -other tribe down the river. They said they had been promised to be -settled on the Big Sioux River. *** I told them they must stay here till -they get permission from Washington to move; that, if they attempted it, -they would be fired on by my troops stationed down the river." - -This is a graphic picture of the condition of a band of two thousand -human beings, for whose "benefit" $82,537.62 had just been realized from -sale of their lands by the Government, to say nothing of the property -they owned in lands yet unsold, and in annuity provisions of previous -treaties to the amount of over $1,000,000 capital! Is not their long -suffering, their patience, well-nigh incredible? - -Spite of the dread of being fired on by the United States troops, they -continued to make canoes and escape in them from this "new home" in the -desert, and in October the Department of the Interior began to receive -letters containing paragraphs like this: "I have also to report that -small detachments of Winnebagoes are constantly arriving in canoes, -locating on our reserve, and begging for food to keep them from -starving."—_Agent for Omaha Agency._ - -These are the men who only one year before had been living in -comfortable homes, with several hundred acres of good ground under -cultivation, and "clamoring for certificates" of their "allotted" -farms—now shelterless, worse than homeless, escaping by canoe-loads, -under fire of United States soldiers, from a barren desert, and -"clamoring" for food at Indian agencies! - -The Department of the Interior promptly reports to the Superintendent of -Indian Affairs in Minnesota this "information," and calls it -"astounding." The Department had "presumed that Agent Balcombe would -adopt such measures as would induce the Winnebagoes to remain upon their -reservation," and had "understood that ample arrangements had been made -for their subsistence." It, however, ordered the Omaha agent to feed the -starving refugees till spring, and it sent word to those still remaining -on the reservation that they must not "undertake to remove without the -consent of their Great Father, as it is his determination that a home -that shall be healthy, pleasant, and fertile, shall be furnished to them -at the earliest practicable moment." - -This was in the autumn of 1863. In one year no less than 1222 of the -destitute Winnebagoes had escaped and made their way to the Omaha -Reservation in Nebraska. Here the Superintendent of the Northern -Superintendency held a council with them. - -"They expressed," he says, "a strong desire to have some arrangement -made by which they would be allowed to occupy a portion of that -reservation. It was represented that the Omahas wished it also. *** I -found that I could not gain their consent to go back to their -reservation, and I had no means within my reach of forcing them back, -even if I had deemed it proper to do so." The superintendent -recommended, therefore, that they be subsisted where they were "until -some arrangement be made for their satisfaction, or some concert of -action agreed upon between the War Department and the Interior -Department by which they can be kept on their reservation after they -shall have been moved there." - -In September of this same year the agent for the Winnebago Reserve wrote -that the absence of a protecting force had been one of the reasons of -the Indians leaving in such numbers. "Both the Winnebagoes and Sioux who -have stayed here have lived in fear and trembling close to the stockade, -and have refused to separate and live upon separate tracts of land." - -He gives some further details as to the soil and climate. "The region -has been subject, as a general rule, to droughts, and the destructive -visits of grasshoppers and other insects. The soil has a great quantity -of alkali in it; it is an excessively dry climate; it very seldom rains, -and dews are almost unknown here: almost destitute of timber. *** It is -generally supposed that game is plenty about here. This is an erroneous -impression. There are but a very few small streams, an entire absence of -lakes, and an almost entire destitution of timber—the whole country -being one wilderness of dry prairie for hundreds of miles around; hence -there is but a very little small game, fish, or wild fruit to be found. -In former times the buffalo roamed over this country, but they have -receded, and very seldom come here in any numbers. *** The Indians must -have horses to hunt them: horses they have not. The Winnebagoes had some -when they first arrived, but they were soon stolen by the hostile -Sioux." - -Agent Balcombe must have led a hard life on this reservation. Exposed to -all the inconveniences of a remote frontier, three hundred miles from -any food-raising country; receiving letters from the Interior Department -expressing itself "astounded" that he does not "induce the Indians in -his charge to remain on their reservation;" and letters from citizens, -and petitions from towns in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska, -imploring him to "gather up" all the wandering Winnebagoes who have been -left behind; unprovided with any proper military protection, and -surrounded by hostile Indians—no wonder that he recommends to the -Government "to remove and consolidate" the different tribes of Indians -into "one territory" as soon as possible. - -The effects of this sojourn in the wilderness upon the Winnebagoes were -terrible. Not only were they rendered spiritless and desperate by -sufferings, they were demoralized by being brought again into conflict -with the wild Sioux. They had more than one skirmish with them, and, it -is said, relapsed so far into the old methods of their barbaric life -that at one of their dances they actually roasted and ate the heart of a -Sioux prisoner! Yet in less than a year after they were gathered -together once more on the Omaha Reservation, and began again to have -hopes of a "permanent home," we find their chiefs and headmen sending -the following petition to Washington: - -"OUR GREAT FATHER AT WASHINGTON, ALL GREETING,—From the chiefs, braves, -and headmen of your dutiful children the Winnebagoes. - -"Father, we cannot see you. You are far away from us. We cannot speak to -you. We will write to you; and, Father, we hope you will read our letter -and answer us. - -"Father: Some years ago, when we had our homes on Turkey River, we had a -school for our children, where many of them learned to read and write -and work like white people, and we were happy. - -"Father: Many years have passed away since our school was broken up; we -have no such schools among us, and our children are growing up in -ignorance of those things that should render them industrious, -prosperous, and happy, and we are sorry. Father: It is our earnest wish -to be so situated no longer. It is our sincere desire to have again -established among us such a school as we see in operation among your -Omaha children. Father: As soon as you find a permanent home for us, -will you not do this for us? And, Father, as we would like our children -taught the Christian religion, as before, we would like our school -placed under the care of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. And -last, Father, to show you our sincerity, we desire to have set apart for -its establishment, erection, and support, all of our school-funds and -whatever more is necessary. - -"Father: This is our prayer. Will not you open your ears and heart to -us, and write to us?" - -This letter was signed by thirty-eight of the chiefs and headmen of the -Winnebagoes. - -In March, 1865, a new treaty was made between the United States and this -long-suffering tribe of Indians, by which, in consideration of their -"ceding, selling, and conveying" to the United States all their right in -the Dakota Reserve, the United States agreed "to set apart for the -occupation and future home of the Winnebago Indians forever" a certain -tract of 128,000 acres in Nebraska—a part of the Omaha Reservation which -the Omahas were willing to sell. The United States also agreed to erect -mills, break land, furnish certain amounts of seeds, tools, guns, and -horses, oxen and wagons, and to subsist the tribe for one year, as some -small reparation for the terrible losses and sufferings they had -experienced. From this word "forever" the Winnebagoes perhaps took -courage. - -At the time of their removal from Minnesota, among the fugitives who -fled back to Wisconsin was the chief De Carry. He died there, two years -later, in great poverty. He was very old, but remarkably intelligent; he -was the grandson of Ho-po-ko-e-kaw, or "Glory of the Morning," who was -the queen of the Winnebagoes in 1776, when Captain Carver visited the -tribe. There is nothing in Carver's quaint and fascinating old story -more interesting than his account of the Winnebago country. He stayed -with them four days, and was entertained by them "in a very -distinguished manner." Indeed, if we may depend upon Captain Carver's -story, all the North-western tribes were, in their own country, a -gracious and hospitable people. He says: "I received from every tribe of -them the most hospitable and courteous treatment, and am convinced that, -till they are contaminated by the example and spirituous liquors of -their more refined neighbors, they will retain this friendly and -inoffensive conduct toward strangers." - -He speaks with great gusto of the bread that the Winnebago women made -from the wild maize. The soft young kernels, while full of milk, are -kneaded into a paste, the cakes wrapped in bass-wood leaves, and baked -in the ashes. "Better flavored bread I never ate in any country," says -the honest captain. - -He found the Winnebagoes' home truly delightful. The shores of the lake -were wooded with hickory, oak, and hazel. Grapes, plums, and other -fruits grew in abundance. The lake abounded in fish; and in the fall of -the year with geese, ducks, and teal, the latter much better flavored -than those found nearer the sea, as they "acquire their excessive -fatness by feeding on the wild rice which grows so plentifully in these -parts." - -How can we bear to contrast the picture of this peace, plenty, and -gracious hospitality among the ancient Winnebagoes with the picture of -their descendants—only two generations later—hunted, driven, starved? -And how can we bear to contrast the picture of the drunken, gambling -Winnebago of Minnesota with this picture which Captain Carver gives of a -young Winnebago chief with whom he journeyed for a few days? - -Captain Carver, after a four days' visit with the Winnebagoes, and -"having made some presents to the good old queen, and received her -blessing," went on his way. Two months later, as he was travelling to -the Falls of St. Anthony, he encountered a young Winnebago chief going -on an embassy to some of the bands of the "Nadouwessies" (Sioux). This -young chief, finding that Captain Carver was about to visit the Falls, -agreed to accompany him, "his curiosity having been often excited by the -accounts he had received from some of his chiefs. He accordingly left -his family (for the Indians never travel without their households) at -this place under charge of my Mohawk servant, and we proceeded together -by land, attended only by my Frenchman, to this celebrated place. We -could distinctly hear the noise of the water full fifty miles before we -reached the Falls; and I was greatly pleased and surprised when I -approached this astonishing work of nature; but I was not long at -liberty to indulge these emotions, my attention being called off by the -behavior of my companion. The prince had no sooner gained the point that -overlooks this wonderful cascade than he began with an audible voice to -address the Great Spirit, one of whose places of residence he imagined -this to be. He told him that he had come a long way to pay his -adorations to him, and now would make him the best offerings in his -power. He accordingly threw his pipe into the stream; then the roll that -contained his tobacco; after these the bracelets he wore on his arms and -wrists; next an ornament that encircled his neck, composed of beads and -wires; and at last the ear-rings from his ears; in short, he presented -to his god every part of his dress that was valuable. During this he -frequently smote his breast with great violence, threw his arms about, -and appeared to be much agitated. All this while he continued his -adorations, and at length concluded them with fervent petitions that the -Great Spirit would constantly afford us his protection on our travels, -giving us a bright sun, a blue sky, and clear, untroubled waters; nor -would he leave the place till we had smoked together with my pipe in -honor of the Great Spirit. - -"I was greatly surprised at beholding an instance of such elevated -devotion in so young an Indian. *** Indeed, the whole conduct of this -young prince at once charmed and amazed me. During the few days we were -together his attention seemed to be totally employed in yielding me -every assistance in his power, and even in so short a time he gave me -innumerable proofs of the most generous and disinterested friendship, so -that on our return I parted from him with the greatest reluctance." - -In 1866 the report from the Winnebagoes is that they are "improving;" -manifest "a good degree of industry;" that the health of the tribe is -generally poor, but "as good as can be expected when we remember their -exposures and sufferings during the last three years." The tribe has -"diminished some four or five hundred since they left Minnesota." One -hundred soldiers have returned, "who have served with credit to -themselves and to their tribe in the defence of their country." No -school has yet been established on the agency, and this is said to be -"their greatest want." - -The superintendent writes: "The appropriations under the late treaty -have all been made, and the work of fitting up the reservation is -progressing. It affords me the highest personal satisfaction to assure -the Department that this deeply-wronged and much-abused tribe will soon -be in all respects comfortable and self-sustaining. They entered upon -their new reservation late last May, and during the present year they -have raised at least twenty thousand bushels of corn." - -In 1867 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs says: "The Winnebagoes have a -just claim against the Government on account of their removal from -Minnesota, the expenses of which _were borne out of their own tribal -funds_. The Government is clearly bound in all honor to refund to them -moneys thus expended." - -It would seem that there could have been no question in the beginning as -to who should pay the costs of such a removal as that. It should not -even have been a tax on the general Government, but on the State of -Minnesota, which demanded it—especially as there was no shadow of doubt -that the demand was made—not because the citizens of Minnesota had any -real fear of the peaceable and kindly Winnebagoes (who were as much in -terror of the Sioux as they were themselves), but because they "coveted -the splendid country the Winnebagoes were occupying, and the Sioux -difficulties furnished the pretext to get rid of them with the aid of -Congressional legislation." - -Some members of the tribe who remained in Minnesota still claimed their -"allotted" lands; "their share of all moneys payable to the Winnebagoes -under treaty stipulations, and that their share of the funds of the -tribe be capitalized and paid to them in bulk; their peculiar relations -as Indians be dissolved, and they left to merge themselves in the -community where they have cast their lot." The commissioner urges upon -the Government compliance with these requests. - -In 1868 a school was opened on the Winnebago Agency, and had a daily -attendance of one hundred and fifty scholars. The tribe adopted a code -of laws for their government, and the year was one of peace and -quietness, with the exception of some dissatisfaction on the part of the -Indians in regard to three hundred cows, which, having been sent to the -agency in fulfilment of one of the provisions of the treaty, were -nevertheless ordered by the Indian Bureau to be "kept as Department -stock." The Indians very naturally held that they had a right to these -cows; nevertheless, they continued peaceable and contented, in the -feeling that they had "at last found a home," where they might "hope to -remain and cultivate the soil with the feeling that it is theirs, and -that their children will not in a few days be driven from their -well-tilled and productive lands." They are, however, "growing -exceedingly anxious for the allotment of their lands in severalty." - -In 1869 "preparations" were "being made for allotting the lands to heads -of families." - -In 1870 "the allotment of land in severalty to the Indians has been -nearly completed, each head of a family receiving eighty acres. *** The -Indians anxiously look for the patents to these, as many have already -commenced making improvements. *** At least thirty have broken four -acres of prairie apiece, and several have built houses. *** Three -schools are in operation, and four hundred acres of ground under -cultivation." - -In this year comes also an interesting report from the stray Winnebagoes -left behind in Wisconsin. They and the stray Pottawattomies? who are in -the same neighborhood are "remarkably quiet and inoffensive, giving no -cause of complaint; on the contrary, the towns and villages where they -trade their berries, maple-sugar, etc., are deriving considerable -benefit from them: a number have been employed in lumbering, harvesting, -and hop-picking. A number of mill-owners and lumbermen have informed me -that the Indians they have employed in their business have been steady, -good hands. *** There are nearly one thousand of these Winnebagoes. Some -of them have bought land; others are renting it; and all express an -anxiety that the 'Great Father' should give them a reservation in this -region, and allow them to remain." - -In 1871 the Nebraska Winnebagoes deposed their old chiefs, and elected -twelve new ones, to serve one year; these were mainly from the younger -members of the tribe who were in favor of civilization and progress. -This was an important step toward breaking up the old style of tribal -relations. - -In 1872 we hear again from the "strays" in Wisconsin. The whites having -complained of them, Congress has appropriated funds to move them to -their respective tribes "west of the Mississippi;" but the removal has -not been undertaken "for various reasons," and the commissioner doubts -"whether it can be accomplished without additional and severe -legislation on the part of Congress, as the Indians are attached to the -country, and express great repugnance to their contemplated removal from -it." - -The poor creatures are not wanted anywhere. Spite of their being -"steady, good hands" for hired labor, and useful to towns and villages -in furnishing fruits and fish, the Wisconsin people do not want them in -their State. And the agent of the Winnebago Reservation writes, -earnestly protesting against their being brought there. He thinks they -are in moral tone far below the Indians under his charge. Moreover, he -says "the prejudice in the surrounding country is such" that he believes -it would be bad policy to remove any "more Indians" there. Nebraska does -not like Indians any better than Wisconsin does, or Minnesota did. He -adds also that his Indians "would be greatly stimulated to improve their -claims if they could secure the titles for them. They have waited three -years since the first allotments were made. It is difficult to make them -believe that it requires so long a time to prepare the patents, and they -are beginning to fear that they are not coming." - -In 1873 the Winnebagoes are cited as a "striking example of what can be -accomplished in a comparatively short time in the way of civilizing and -Christianizing Indians. *** Their beautiful tract of country is dotted -over with substantially-built cottages; the farmers own their wagons, -horses, harness, furniture of their houses—dress in civilized costume, -raise crops—and several hundred Winnebago men assisted the farmers in -adjoining counties during the late harvest in gathering their grain -crop, and proved themselves efficient and satisfactory workmen." - -In the winter of 1874 the Wisconsin "strays" were moved down to the -Nebraska Reservation. They were discontented, fomented dissatisfaction -in the tribe, and in less than a year more than half of them had -wandered back to Wisconsin again; a striking instance of the differences -in the Government's methods of handling different bands of Indians. The -thirty Poncas who ran away from Indian Territory were pursued and -arrested, as if they had been thieves escaping with stolen property; but -more than five hundred Winnebagoes, in less than one year, stroll away -from their reserve, make their way back to Wisconsin, and nothing is -done about it. - -In 1875 there are only two hundred and four of the Wisconsin "strays" -left on the Nebraska Reservation. All the others are "back in their old -haunts, where a few seem to be making a sincere effort to take care of -themselves by taking land under the Homestead Act." - -The Nebraska Winnebagoes are reported as being "nearly civilized;" all -are engaged in civilized pursuits, "the men working with their own -hands, and digging out of the ground three-fourths of their -subsistence." They have raised in this year 20,000 bushels of corn, 5800 -bushels of wheat, and 6000 bushels of oats and vegetables. They have -broken 800 acres of new land, and have built 3000 rods of fencing. -Nearly one-sixth of the entire tribe is in attendance at schools. The -system of electing chiefs annually works well; the chiefs, in their -turn, select twelve Indians to serve for the year as policemen, and they -prove efficient in maintaining order. - -What an advance in six years! Six years ago there were but twenty-three -homes and only 300 acres of land under cultivation on the whole -reservation; the people were huddled together in ravines and -bottom-lands, and were dying of disease and exposure. - -In 1876 the Winnebagoes are reported again as "fast emerging from a -condition of dependence upon their annual appropriations. *** Each head -of a family has a patent for eighty acres of land. Many have fine farms, -and are wholly supporting themselves and families by their own industry. -*** The issue of rations has been discontinued, except to the Wisconsin -branch of the tribe and to the sick-list." - -In what does this report differ from the report which would be rendered -from any small farming village in the United States? The large majority -"wholly supporting themselves and their families by their own industry;" -a small minority of worthless or disabled people being fed by -charity—_i.e._, being fed on food bought, at least in part, by interest -money due on capital made by sales of land in which they had a certain -reckonable share of ownership. Every one of the United States has in -nearly every county an almshouse, in which just such a class of -worthless and disabled persons will be found; and so crowded are these -almshouses, and so appreciable a burden is their support on the -tax-payers of State and county, that there are perpetual disputes going -on between the authorities of neighboring districts as to the ownership -and responsibility of individual paupers: for the paupers in civilized -almshouses are never persons who have had proceeds of land sales -"invested" for their benefit, the interest to be paid to them "annually -forever." It is for nobody's interest to keep them paupers, or to take -care of them as such. - -We now find the Winnebagoes once more quietly established in comfortable -homes—as they were, in their own primitive fashion, in 1822, when Dr. -Morse visited them on the shores of their beautiful lake; as they were, -after our civilized fashion, in 1862, on the healthful and fertile -up-lands of Minnesota. In their present home they seem to have reason, -at last, to feel secure, to anticipate permanence, safety, and success. -Their lands have been allotted to them in severalty: each head of a -family has his patent for eighty acres. They are, in the main, -self-supporting. - -How does the United States Government welcome this success, this heroic -triumph of a patient people over disheartening obstacles and sufferings? - -In the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior for 1876 the -Secretary says: "As a matter of economy, the greatest saving could be -made by uniting all the Indians upon a few reservations; the fewer, the -better." He says that there is land enough in the Indian Territory to -give every Indian—man, woman, and child—in the country seventy-five -acres apiece. He says, "The arguments are all in favor of the -consolidation." He then goes on to enumerate those arguments: "Expensive -agencies would be abolished; the Indians themselves can be more easily -watched over and controlled; evil-designing men be the better kept away -from them, and illicit trade and barter in arms and ammunition and -whiskey prevented. Goods could be supplied at a greater saving; the -military service relieved; the Indians better taught, and friendly -rivalry established among them—those most civilized hastening the -progress of those below them; and _most of the land now occupied as -reserves reverting to the General Government, would be open to entry and -sale_." - -Here are nine reasons given for removing all Indians to Indian -Territory. Five of these reasons ostensibly point to benefits likely to -accrue from this removal to the Indians. The other four point to -benefits likely to accrue to the Government; the first three of these -last are, simply, "saving;" the fourth is the significant one, -"gain"—"most of the land reverting to the General Government would be -open to entry and sale." - -It was before this necessity of opening Indian lands "to entry and sale" -that the Winnebagoes had been fleeing, from 1815 to 1863. It seems they -are no safer now. There is evidently as much reason for moving them out -of Nebraska as there was for moving them out of Wisconsin and Minnesota. - -The Secretary goes on to say: "As soon as the Indian is taught to toil -for his daily bread, and realize the sense of proprietorship in the -results of his labor, it cannot but be further to his advantage to be -able to appreciate that his labor is expended upon his individual -possessions and for his personal benefit. *** The Indian must be made to -see the practical advantage to himself of his work, and feel that he -reaps the full benefit of it. Everything should teach him that he has a -home; *** a hearth-stone of his own, around which he can gather his -family, and in its possession be entirely secure and independent." - -The logical relation of these paragraphs to the preceding one is -striking, and the bearing of the two together on the case of the -Winnebagoes is still more striking. - -In the same report the Commissioner for Indian Affairs says: "If -legislation were secured giving the President authority to remove any -tribe or band, or any portion of a tribe or band, whenever in his -judgment it was practicable, to any one of the reservations named, and -if Congress would appropriate from year to year a sum sufficient to -enable him to take advantage of every favorable opportunity to make such -removals, I am confident that a few years' trial would conclusively -demonstrate the entire feasibility of the plan. I believe that all the -Indians in Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota, and a part at least of those in -Wyoming and Montana, could be induced to remove to the Indian -Territory." - -He adds "that the Indian sentiment is opposed to such removal is true," -but he thinks that, "with a fair degree of persistence," the removal -"can be secured." No doubt it can. - -Later in the same report, under the head of "Allotments in Severalty," -he says: "It is doubtful whether any high degree of civilization is -possible without individual ownership of land. The records of the past, -and the experience of the present, testify that the soil should be made -secure to the individual by all the guarantees which law can devise, and -that nothing less will induce men to put forth their best exertions. It -is essential that each individual should feel that his home is his own; -*** that he has a direct personal interest in the soil on which he -lives, and that that interest will be faithfully protected for him and -for his children by the Government." - -The commissioner and the secretary who wrote these clear statements of -evident truths, and these eloquent pleas for the Indians' rights, both -knew perfectly well that hundreds of Indians had had lands "allotted to -them" in precisely this way, and had gone to work on the lands so -allotted, trusting "that that interest would be faithfully protected by -the Government;" and that these "allotments," and the "certificates" of -them, had proved to be good for nothing as soon as the citizens of a -State united in a "demand" that the Indians should be moved. The -commissioner and the secretary knew perfectly well, at the time they -wrote these paragraphs, that in this one Winnebago tribe in Nebraska, -for instance, "every head of a family owned eighty acres of land," and -was hard at work on it—industrious, self-supporting, trying to establish -that "hearth-stone" around which, as the secretary says, he must "gather -his family, and in its possession be entirely secure and independent." -And yet the secretary and the commissioner advise the moving of this -Winnebago tribe to Indian Territory with the rest: "all the Indians in -Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota" could probably be "induced to move," they -say. - -These quotations from this report of the Interior Department are but a -fair specimen of the velvet glove of high-sounding phrase of -philanthropic and humane care for the Indian, by which has been most -effectually hid from the sight of the American people the iron hand of -injustice and cruelty which has held him for a hundred years helpless in -its grasp. - -In this same year an agent on one of the Nebraska agencies writes -feelingly and sensibly: - -"Nothing has tended to retard the progress of this tribe in the line of -opening farms for themselves so much as the unsettlement occasioned by a -continued agitation of the subject of selling their reservation and the -removal of the tribe. *** The improvement that has been made at this -agency during the past three years in the direction of developing among -the Indians the means of self-support, seems to have caused an -uneasiness that has been prolific of a great deal of annoyance, inasmuch -as it has alarmed this speculative element around us with the fear that -the same (continued) will eventually plant the Indians on their present -fertile land so firmly that they cannot be removed, and thus they be -deprived of the benefits of manipulating the sale of their reservation." - -Nevertheless, the Winnebagoes keep on in their work—building houses, -school-buildings, many of them of brick made on the ground. - -In this year (1876) they experienced a great injustice in the passing of -an Act of Congress fixing the total amount to be expended for pay of -employés at any one agency at not more than $10,000. This necessitated -the closing of the fine building they had built at a cost of $20,000 for -the purpose of an industrial boarding-school. - -In this year's report their agent gives a resumé of the financial -condition of the tribe: "By treaty proclaimed June 16th, 1838, the -Winnebagoes ceded to the United States all their land east of the -Mississippi, in consideration of which they were to receive $1,100,000. -The balance of this, after making certain payments, was to be invested -for their benefit, on which the United States guaranteed to pay them an -annual interest of not less than five per cent. - -"The Winnebagoes receive no support from the Government, other than from -the interest appropriated annually on what remains of these funds. This -in 1870 amounted to over $50,000. Since then the half-breeds, numbering -one hundred and sixty persons, members of the tribe remaining in -Minnesota at the time of the removal of the Indians from that State in -1863, have, in accordance with the provisions of the act making -appropriations for the Indian service, approved March 3d, 1871, been -paid their proportion of the principal of all Winnebago funds, as shown -on the books of the Treasury at that time, including the proportion of -$85,000, on which but five more instalments of interest were to be paid, -per fourth Article treaty October 13th, 1846. In computing this -proportion, the whole number of the tribe considered as being entitled -to participate in the benefits of the tribal funds was 1531; which -number included only those located on the Winnebago reservation in -Nebraska at that time, in addition to the one hundred and sixty already -spoken of. By this Act of Congress the Nebraska Winnebagoes, who -comprise only that portion of the tribe which has complied with treaty -stipulations, and quietly acquiesced in the demands of the Government, -were deprived of nearly one-eighth part of their accustomed support. - -"Other reductions were afterward made for the purchase of a reservation -adjoining the old one in this State, and for removing to it the -wandering bands of Winnebagoes in Wisconsin. These were supposed to have -numbered in all nearly one thousand persons. They had not been in the -habit of receiving any attention or acknowledgment from the Government -since they, as a tribal organization, had declined to treat with it. -Nearly all of them objected to removing from Wisconsin to their new -reservation in Nebraska, and, as a natural consequence, soon returned -after being compelled to do so. At the present time there are probably -less than one hundred of the number remaining here. For the past three -years the sum to which the Wisconsin Winnebagoes would have been -entitled had they remained on their reservation, amounting in all to -$48,521 07, has been set apart, awaiting such act of Congress as will -give relief in the premises; thus reducing the total amount received per -annum by that portion of the tribe living on the reservation to but -little more than one-half of what it was seven years ago. It seems -needless to say that they are very much dissatisfied at this, and that -when they refer to the subject I have some difficulty in satisfying them -as to the justice of the governmental policy in setting apart funds (to -be expended at some future time) for the benefit of certain individuals -who persist in absenting themselves from their reservation, while -others, who are absent but a few months, are deprived of all advantages -from issues of supplies or payments that may have been made during their -absence." - -This case is a good illustration of the working of the trustee relation -between the United States Government and its wards. - -In 1877 we find the Secretary of the Interior still recommending that -the Indians be "gradually gathered together on smaller reservations," to -the end that "greater facilities be afforded for civilization." He -reiterates that "the enjoyment and pride of individual ownership of -property is one of the most effective civilizing agencies," and -recommends that "allotments of small tracts of land should be made to -the heads of families on all reservations, to be held in severalty under -proper restrictions, so that they may have fixed homes." - -The commissioner also recommends "a steady concentration of the smaller -bands of Indians on the larger reservations." He calls attention again -to the fact that there are 58,000 square miles in the Indian Territory -"set apart for the use of Indians, and that there they can be fed and -clothed at a greatly diminished expense; and, better than all, can be -kept in obedience, and taught to become civilized and self-supporting." - -In 1878 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs reports that a bill has been -drawn "providing for the removal and consolidation of certain Indians in -the States of Oregon, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and -Minnesota, and the Territories of Washington and Dakota. *** A reduction -of twenty-five reservations and eleven agencies will thus be effected. -*** There will be restored to the public domain 17,642,455 acres of -land." He says that "further consolidations of like character are not -only possible, but expedient and advisable. *** There is a vast area of -land in the Indian Territory not yet occupied." - -With the same ludicrous, complacent logic as before, he proceeds to give -as the reason for uprooting all these Indians from the homes where they -are beginning to thrive and take root, and moving them again—for the -third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh time, as it may be—the fact -that, "among the most radical defects of the policy formerly pursued -with the Indians, has been the frequent changes in their location which -have been made. *** Permanent homes, sufficient aid to enable them to -build houses, cultivate the soil, and to subsist them until they have -harvested their first crops, will wean them entirely from their old -methods of life, and in the course of a few years enable them to become -entirely self-supporting. *** Among the more forcible arguments which -can be presented in connection with this subject is the fact that the -expenses attending the removal and consolidation of the Indians, as -herein proposed, _will be more than met from the sale of lands vacated_. -*** Much of the land now owned by these Indians is valuable only for its -timber, and may be sold at an appraised value for an amount far in -excess of the price fixed by law, and yet leave a large margin of profit -to the purchaser into whose hands the lands will fall. *** I can see no -reason why the Government should not avail itself of these facts, and in -effecting the consolidation of the Indians, and the opening of the lands -for settlement, sell the same for an amount sufficient to support the -Indians in their new locations, without any actual drain on the Treasury -in the future. *** The lands belong to the Indians, and they are clearly -entitled to receive the full value of the same when sold." - -In this sentence we reach the high-water mark of the sophistry and -dishonesty of the Department's position. "The lands belong to the -Indians," but we will compel them to "restore to the public domain" -(_i.e._, to give up to white settlers) 17,642,455 acres of them. The -Indians "are clearly entitled to receive the full value of the same when -sold," but we will compel them to expend that "full value" in removing -to a place where they do not want to go, opening new lands, building new -houses, buying new utensils, implements, furniture and stock, and -generally establishing themselves, "without any actual drain on the -Treasury" of the United States: and the Department of the Interior "can -see no reason why the Government should not avail itself of these -facts." - -All this is proposed with a view to the benefit of the Indians. The -report goes on to reiterate the same old story that the Indians must -have "a perfect title to their lands;" that they have come to feel that -they are at any time liable to be moved, "whenever the pressure of white -settlers upon them may create a demand for their lands," and that they -"decline to make any improvements on their lands, even after an -allotment in severalty has been made, until they have received their -patents for the same," and that even "after the issue of patents the -difficulties surrounding them do not cease." Evidently not, since, as we -have seen, it is now several years since every head of a family among -these Winnebagoes, whose "removal" the commissioner now recommends, -secured his "patent" for eighty acres of land. - -Finally, the commissioner says: "Every means that human ingenuity can -devise, legal or illegal, has been resorted to for the purpose of -obtaining possession of Indian lands." Of this there would seem to be -left no doubt in the mind of any intelligent person, after reading the -above quotations. - -It is not to be wondered that when the news of such schemes as these -reaches the Indians on their reservations great alarm and discontent are -the result. We find in the reports from the Nebraska agencies for this -year unmistakable indications of disheartenment and anxiety. The -Winnebagoes are reported to be very anxious to be made citizens. A -majority are in favor of it, "provided the Government will adopt certain -measures which they consider necessary for the care and protection of -their property." - -They have had a striking illustration of the disadvantage of not being -citizens, in an instance of the unpunished murder of one of their number -by a white man. The story is related by the agent tersely and well, and -is one of the notable incidents in the history of the relation between -the United States Government and its wards. - -"Henry Harris, a Winnebago in good standing, an industrious man and a -successful farmer, was employed by Joseph Smith, a white man, to cut -wood on his land in Dakota County, a short distance north of the -reservation. While alone and thus engaged, on the 29th of last January, -Harris was shot through the heart with a rifle-ball. I had his dead body -taken before the coroner of the county, and at the inquest held before -that officer it was shown, to the satisfaction of the jury that rendered -a verdict in accordance therewith, that the Indian came to his death at -the hands of one D. Balinska, who had been for many years leading a -hermit's life on a tract of land that he owned adjoining the -reservation, and who had threatened Harris's life a few months before, -when they quarrelled about damages for corn destroyed by Balinska's -horse. There being snow on the ground at the time of the murder, -Balinska was tracked from his home to the place where, under cover, he -did the shooting; and his shot-pouch, containing a moulded ball of the -same weight as the one cut from the body of the Indian, was found near -by and identified. Notwithstanding this direct evidence, which was laid -before the Grand-jury of Dakota County, that honorable body was -unwilling to find a 'true bill;' for the reason, as I understand, that -it was only an Indian that was killed, and it would not be popular to -incur the expense of bringing the case to trial. This is but another -illustration of the difficulty of punishing a white man for a wrong -committed against an Indian. I need hardly say that the Indians, when -comparing this murder with that of a white man, committed eight years -ago by five of their young men—who, upon less direct evidence, were -sentenced to imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for life—are struck -with the wonderful difference in the application of the same law to -whites and Indians." - -The report from the Winnebago Agency for 1879 tells the story of the -sequel to this unpunished murder of Henry Harris. The agent says: "In my -last report I referred to the murder of one of our best Indian farmers -by a white man, who was afterward arrested and discharged without trial, -though there was no question as to his guilt. As a sequel to this, one -white man is known to have been killed last May by Holly Scott, a nephew -of the murdered Indian; and another white man is supposed to have been -killed by Eddy Priest and Thomas Walker, two young Indians who have left -for Wisconsin. The murdered white men had temporarily stopped with the -Indians. Their antecedents are unknown, and they are supposed to have -belonged to the fraternity of tramps. Holly Scott was arrested by the -Indian police, and turned over to the authorities of Dakota County for -trial, the State Legislature having at its last session extended the -jurisdiction of that county over this reservation, by what authority I -am unable to say. - -"The effect of these murders was to unsettle the Indians, nearly all -industry being suspended for several weeks. They feared that the white -people would do as they did in Minnesota in 1862, after the Sioux -massacre, when the Winnebagoes were driven from their homes in -Minnesota. *** A number of our most quiet and industrious men became -alarmed, and moved their families to Wisconsin, encouraged in so doing -by the hope of receiving from the Government a share of the funds which -have been set apart from the annual appropriations during the past four -years for the benefit of the Wisconsin Winnebagoes, and which they -suppose aggregate a large amount which will soon be paid in cash." - -This brings the story of the Winnebagoes down to the present time. What -its next chapter may be is saddening to think. It is said by those -familiar with the Nebraska Indians that, civilized though they be, they -will all make war to the knife if the attempt is made by the Government -to rob them of their present lands on the plea again of offering them a -"permanent home." That specious pretence has done its last duty in the -United States service. No Indian is left now so imbecile as to believe -it once more. - -Whether the Winnebagoes' "patents" in Nebraska would, in such a case, -prove any stronger than did their "certificates" in Minnesota, and -whether the Winnebagoes themselves, peaceable and civilized though they -be, would side with the United States Government, or with their wronged -and desperate brethren, in such an uprising, it would be hard to -predict. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - THE CHEROKEES. - - -The Cherokees were the Eastern Mountaineers of America. Their country -lay along the Tennessee River, and in the highlands of Georgia, -Carolina, and Alabama—the loveliest region east of the Mississippi -River. Beautiful and grand, with lofty mountains and rich valleys -fragrant with flowers, and forests of magnolia and pine filled with the -singing of birds and the melody of streams, rich in fruits and nuts and -wild grains, it was a country worth loving, worth fighting, worth dying -for, as thousands of its lovers have fought and have died, white men as -well as red, within the last hundred years. - -When Oglethorpe came with his cargo of Madeira wine and respectable -paupers from England in 1733, and lived in tents in midwinter on the -shores of the Savannah River, one of the first conditions of safety for -his colossal almshouse, in shape of a new colony, was that all the -Indians in the region should become its friends and allies. - -The reputation of his goodness and benevolence soon penetrated to the -fastnesses of their homes, and tribe after tribe sent chiefs and headmen -to greet him with gifts and welcome. When the Cherokee chief appeared, -Oglethorpe said to him, "Fear nothing. Speak freely." "I always speak -freely," answered the mountaineer. "Why should I fear? I am now among -friends: I never feared, even among my enemies." - -The principal intention of the English trustees who incorporated the -Georgia colony was to provide a home for worthy persons in England who -were "in decayed circumstances." Among other great ends which they also -avowed was "the civilization of the savages." In one of Oglethorpe's -first reports to the trustees he says: "A little Indian nation—the only -one within fifty miles—is not only in amity, but desirous to be subjects -to his Majesty King George; to have lands given to them among us, and to -breed their children at our schools. Their chief and his beloved man, -who is the second man in the nation, desire to be instructed in the -Christian religion." - -The next year he returned to England, carrying with him eight Indian -chiefs, to show them "so much of Great Britain and her institutions as -might enable them to judge of her power and dignity. *** Nothing was -neglected," we are told, "that was likely to awaken their curiosity or -impress them with a sense of the power and grandeur of the nation." They -were received by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and by the Fellows of -Eton, and for a space of four months were hospitably entertained, and -shown all the great sights of London and its vicinity. - -The tribes at home were much gratified by these attentions paid to their -representatives, and sent out to the trustees a very curious missive, -expressing their thanks and their attachment to General Oglethorpe. This -letter was the production of a young Cherokee chief. It was written in -black and red hieroglyphs on a dressed buffalo-skin. Before it was sent -to England it was exhibited in Savannah, and the meaning of the -hieroglyphs translated by an interpreter in a grand gathering of fifty -Indian chiefs and all the principal people of Savannah. Afterward the -curious document was framed and hung up in the Georgia Office in -Westminster. - -When the Wesleyan missionaries arrived in Georgia, two years later, some -of the chiefs who had made this visit to England went to meet them, -carrying large jars of honey and of milk as gifts, to "represent their -inclinations;" and one of the chiefs said to Mr. Wesley, "I am glad you -are come. When I was in England I desired that some one would speak the -Great Word to me. I will go up and speak to the wise men of our nation, -and I hope they will hear. But we would not be made Christians as the -Spaniards make Christians; we would be taught before we are baptized." - -In those early days Wesley was an intolerant and injudicious enthusiast. -His missionary work in the Georgia Colony was anything but successful in -the outset, either among the whites or the Indians, and there was ample -justification for the reply which this same Indian chief made later when -urged to embrace the doctrines of Christianity. - -"Why, these are Christians at Savannah. Those are Christians at -Frederica. Christians get drunk! Christians beat men! Christians tell -lies! Me no Christian!" On another occasion Wesley asked him what he -thought he was made for. "He that is above," answered the chief, "knows -what he made us for. We know nothing; we are in the dark; but white men -know much. And yet white men build great houses, as if they were to live -forever. But white men cannot live forever. In a little time white men -will be dust as well as I." - -For twenty years Oglethorpe's colony struggled on under great -difficulties and discouragements. Wars with France and with Spain; -tiresome squabbles with and among Methodist missionaries, all combined -to make Oglethorpe's position hard. Again and again England would have -lost her colony except for the unswerving fidelity of the Indian allies; -they gathered by hundreds to fight for Oglethorpe. In one expedition -against the frontier, four hundred Creeks and six hundred Cherokees set -out in one day, under an urgent call for help sent by Indian runners to -their towns. His Indian friends were the only friends Oglethorpe had who -stood by him past everything: nothing could shake their fidelity. - -"He is poor; he can give you nothing," said the St. Augustine Spaniards -to a Creek chief at this time; "it is foolish for you to go to him:" and -they showed to the Indian a fine suit of scarlet clothes, and a sword, -which they were about to give to a chief of the Tennessees who had -become their ally. - -But the Creek answered, "We love him. It is true, he does not give us -silver; but he gives us everything we want that he has. He has given me -the coat off his back, and the blanket from under him." - -At last the trustees of the Georgia Colony lost patience: very bitterly -they had learned that paupers, however worthy, are not good stuff to -build new enterprises of. In eighteen years the colony had not once -furnished a sufficient supply of subsistence for its own consumption: -farms which had been cultivated were going to ruin; and the country was -rapidly degenerating in every respect. Dishonest traders had tampered -with and exasperated the Indians, so that their friendliness could no -longer be implicitly trusted. For everything that went wrong the English -Company was held responsible, and probably there were no happier men in -all England on the 20th of June, 1752, than were the Georgia trustees, -who on that day formally resigned their charter, and washed their hands -of the colony forever. - -The province was now formed into a royal government, and very soon -became the seat of frightful Indian wars. The new authorities neither -understood nor kept faith with the Indians: their old friend Oglethorpe -had left them forever, and the same scenes of treachery and massacre -which were being enacted at the North began to be repeated with -heart-sickening similarity at the South. Indians fighting -Indians—fighting as allies to-day with the French, to-morrow with the -English; treaties made, and broken as soon as made; there was neither -peace nor safety anywhere. - -At last, in 1763, a treaty was concluded with the chiefs and headmen of -five tribes, which seemed to promise better things. The Cherokees and -Creeks granted to the King of England a large tract of land, cleared off -their debts with the sum paid for it, and observed its stipulations -faithfully for several years, until peace was again destroyed, this time -by no fault of the Indians, in consequence of the revolt of the American -Colonies against Great Britain. The English loyalists in Georgia now -availed themselves of the Indians' old habit of allegiance to the Crown. -One of their leading agents took a Cherokee woman as his mistress, -placed her at the head of his table, gave her the richest dress and -equipage that the country could afford, and distributed through her -lavish gifts to all the Indians he could reach. When war actually broke -out he retreated with her into the fastnesses of the Cherokee nation, -where he swayed them at his will. Attempts to capture him were repelled -by the Cherokees with ferocity. Prisoners taken by them at this time -were tortured with great cruelty; one instance is recorded (in a journal -kept by another prisoner, who escaped alive) of a boy about twelve years -of age who was suspended by the arms between two posts, and raised about -three feet from the ground. "The mode of inflicting the torture was by -light-wood splints of about eighteen inches long, made sharp at one end -and fractured at the other, so that the torch might not be extinguished -by throwing it. After these weapons of death were prepared, and a fire -made for the purpose of lighting them, the scene of horror commenced. It -was deemed a mark of dexterity, and accompanied by shouts of applause, -when an Indian threw one of these torches so as to make the sharp end -stick into the body of the suffering youth without extinguishing the -torch. This description of torture was continued for two hours before -the innocent victim was relieved by death." - -These are sickening details, and no doubt will be instinctively set down -by most readers as proof of innate cruelty peculiar to the Indian race. -Let us, therefore, set side by side with them the record that in this -same war white men (British officers) confined white men ("rebels") in -prison-ships, starved, and otherwise maltreated them till they died, -five or six a day, then threw their dead bodies into the nearest marsh, -and had them "_trodden down in the mud_—from whence they were soon -exposed by the washing of the tides, and at low-water the prisoners -beheld the carrion-crows picking the bones of their departed -companions!" Also, that white men (British officers) were known at that -time to have made thumb-screws out of musket-locks, to torture Georgia -women, wives of "rebels," to force them to reveal the places where their -husbands were in hiding. Innate cruelty is not exclusively an Indian -trait. - -The Cherokees had the worst of the fighting on the British side during -the Revolution. Again and again their towns were burnt, their winter -stores destroyed, and whole bands reduced to the verge of starvation. At -one time, when hard pressed by the American forces, they sent to the -Creeks for help; but the shrewd Creeks replied, "You have taken the -thorns out of our feet; you are welcome to them." The Creeks, having -given only limited aid to the British, had suffered much less severely. -That any of the Indians should have joined the "rebel" cause seems -wonderful, as they had evidently nothing to gain by the transfer of -their allegiance to what must have appeared to them for a long time to -be the losing side in the contest. For three years and a half Savannah -was in the possession of the British, and again and again they had -control of the entire State. And to show that they had no compunction -about inciting the Indians to massacres they left many a written -record—such, for instance, as this, which is in a letter written by -General Gage from Boston, June, 1775: "We need not be tender of calling -on the savages to attack the Americans."[29] - -Footnote 29: - - See Appendix, Art. X. - -The first diplomatic relations of the United States Government with the -Cherokees were in the making of the treaty of Hopewell, in 1785. At the -Hopewell council the United States commissioners said: "Congress is now -the sovereign of all our country which we now point out to you on the -map. They want none of your lands, nor anything else which belongs to -you; and as an earnest of their regard for you, we propose to enter into -articles of a treaty perfectly equal and conformable to what we now tell -you. *** This humane and generous act of the United States will no doubt -be received by you with gladness, and held in grateful remembrance; and -the more so, as many of your young men, and the greater number of your -warriors, during the late war, were our enemies, and assisted the King -of Great Britain in his endeavors to conquer our country." - -The chiefs complained bitterly of the encroachments of white settlers -upon lands which had been by old treaties distinctly reserved to the -Cherokees. They demanded that some of these settlers should be removed; -and when the commissioners said that the settlers were too numerous for -the Government to remove, one of the chiefs asked, satirically, "Are -Congress, who conquered the King of Great Britain, unable to remove -those people?" - -Finally, the chiefs agreed to accept payment for the lands which had -been taken. New boundaries were established, and a general feeling of -good-will and confidence was created. One notable feature in this -council was the speech of an Indian woman, called the "war-woman of -Chota." (Chota was the Cherokees' city of refuge. All murderers were -safe so long as they lived in Chota. Even Englishmen had not disdained -to take advantage of its shelter; one English trader who had killed an -Indian, having fled, lived there for many months, his own house being -but a short distance away. After a time he resolved to return home, but -the headmen of the tribe assured him that, though he was entirely safe -there, he would surely be killed if he left the town.) The chief who -brought this "war-woman" to the council introduced her as "one of our -beloved women who has borne and raised up warriors." She proceeded to -say, "I am fond of hearing that there is a peace, and I hope you have -now taken us by the hand in real friendship. I have a pipe and a little -tobacco to give the commissioners to smoke in friendship. I look on you -and the red people as my children. Your having determined on peace is -most pleasing to me, for I have seen much trouble during the late war. I -am old, but I hope yet to bear children who will grow up and people our -nation, as we are now to be under the protection of Congress, and shall -have no disturbance." - -A brief summary of the events which followed on the negotiation of this -treaty may be best given in the words of a report made by the Secretary -of War to the President four years later. In July, 1789, General Knox -writes as follows of the Cherokees: "This nation of Indians, consisting -of separate towns or villages, are seated principally on the head-waters -of the Tennessee, which runs into the Ohio. Their hunting-grounds extend -from the Cumberland River along the frontiers of Virginia, North and -South Carolina, and part of Georgia. - -"The frequent wars they have had with the frontier people of the said -States have greatly diminished their number. The commissioners estimated -them in November, 1785, at 2000 warriors, but they were estimated in -1787 at 2650; yet it is probable they may be lessened since by the -depredations committed on them. - -"The United States concluded a treaty with the Cherokees at Hopewell, on -the Keowee, the 28th of November, 1785, which is entered on the printed -journals of Congress April 17th, 1786. The negotiations of the -commissioners on the part of the United States are hereunto annexed, -marked A. It will appear by the papers marked B. that the State of North -Carolina, by their agent, protested against the said treaty as -infringing and violating the legislative rights of that State. - -"By a variety of evidence which has been submitted to the last Congress, -it has been proved that the said treaty has been entirely disregarded by -the white people inhabiting the frontiers, styling themselves the State -of Franklin. The proceedings of Congress on the 1st of September, 1788, -and the proclamation they then issued on this subject, will show their -sense of the many unprovoked outrages committed against the Cherokees. - -"The information contained in the papers marked C., from Colonel Joseph -Martin, the late agent to the Cherokees, and Richard Winn, Esq., will -further evince the deplorable situation of the Cherokees, and the -indispensable obligation of the United States to vindicate their faith, -justice, and national dignity. - -"The letter of Mr. Winn, the late superintendent, of the 1st of March, -informs that a treaty will be held with the Cherokees on the third -Monday of May, at the Upper War-ford on French Broad River. But it is to -be observed that the time for which both he and Colonel Joseph Martin, -the agent to the Cherokees and Chickasaws, were elected has expired, and -therefore they are not authorized to act on the part of the Union. If -the commissioners appointed by North Carolina, South Carolina, and -Georgia, by virtue of the resolve of Congress of the 26th of October, -1787, should attend the said treaty, their proceedings thereon may soon -be expected. But, as part of the Cherokees have taken refuge within the -limits of the Creeks, it is highly probable they will be under the same -direction; and, therefore, as the fact of the violation of the treaty -cannot be disputed, and as the commissioners have not power to replace -the Cherokees within the limits established in 1785, it is not probable, -even if a treaty should be held, as stated by Mr. Winn, that the result -would be satisfactory." - -This is the summing up of the situation. The details of it are to be -read in copious volumes of the early history of Tennessee, North and -South Carolina, and Georgia—all under the head of "Indian Atrocities." -To very few who read those records does it occur that the Indians who -committed these "atrocities" were simply ejecting by force, and, in the -contests arising from this forcible ejectment, killing men who had -usurped and stolen their lands—lands ceded to them by the United States -Government in a solemn treaty, of which the fifth Article was as -follows: - -"If any citizen of the United States or other person, not being an -Indian, shall attempt to settle on any of the lands westward or -southward of the said boundaries which are hereby allotted to the -Indians for their hunting-grounds, or having already settled and will -not remove from the same within six months after the ratification of -this treaty, such person shall forfeit the protection of the United -States, and the Indians _may punish him or not as they please_." - -It is evident that it is necessary to go back to the days of the first -treaties with our Indians to possess ourselves of the first requisites -for fair judgment of their conduct toward white men. What would a -community of white men, situated precisely as these Cherokees were, have -done? What did these very Southern colonists themselves do to Spaniards -who encroached on their lands? Fought them; killed them; burnt their -houses over their heads, and drove them into the sea! - -In a later communication in the same year to the President, the -Secretary says: "The disgraceful violation of the treaty of Hopewell -with the Cherokees requires the serious consideration of Congress. If so -direct and manifest contempt of the authority of the United States be -suffered with impunity, it will be in vain to attempt to extend the arm -of the Government to the frontiers. The Indian tribes can have no faith -in such imbecile promises, and the lawless whites will ridicule a -government which shall on paper only make Indian treaties and regulate -Indian boundaries." - -The President, thus entreated, addressed himself to the Senate, and -asked their advice. He recapitulated the facts as set forth by General -Knox, "that upward of five hundred families are settled on the Cherokee -lands," and asks, - -"1st. Is it the judgment of the Senate that overtures shall be made to -the Cherokees to arrange a new boundary, so as to embrace the -settlements made by the white people since the treaty of Hopewell in -November, 1785? - -"2d. If so, shall compensation to the amount of $—— annually, or of $—— -in gross, be made to the Cherokees for the land they shall relinquish, -holding the occupiers of the land accountable to the United States for -its value? - -"3d. Shall the United States stipulate solemnly to guarantee the new -boundary which may be arranged?" - -The Senate thereupon resolved that the President should, at his -discretion, cause the Hopewell treaty to be carried out, or make a new -one; but, in case a new one was made, the "Senate do advise and consent -solemnly to guarantee the same." - -Accordingly, in July, 1791, a new treaty—the treaty of Holston—was made -with the Cherokees, new boundaries established, and $1000 a year -promised to the tribe for the lands relinquished. - -By the seventh Article of this treaty the United States "solemnly -guarantee to the Cherokee nation all their lands not hereby ceded:" the -eighth Article reiterates the old permission that if any citizen of the -United States or other person (not an Indian) shall settle on the -Cherokees' lands, the Cherokees may punish him as they please. Article -ninth says that no citizen or inhabitant of the United States shall hunt -or destroy game on the Cherokee lands, or go into the Cherokee country -without a passport from the governor or some other authorized person. - -The next year the Cherokees sent an embassy to Philadelphia to ask for -an increase of $500 in their annuity. One of the chiefs said that he had -told Governor Blunt the year before that he would not consent to selling -the lands for $1000 a year. "It would not buy a breech-clout for each of -my nation;" which was literally true. - -To this additional annuity the Senate consented, and with this the -chiefs said they were "perfectly satisfied." But they begged for the -ploughs, hoes, cattle, etc., which had been promised in the treaty. They -said, "Game is going fast away from among us. We must plant corn and -raise cattle, and we want you to assist us." - -In 1794 it was necessary to make another treaty, chiefly to declare that -the Holston treaty was in "full force and binding." It had not been -"fully carried into execution by reason of misunderstandings," it was -said. This was very true; white settlers had gone where they pleased, as -if it did not exist; Cherokees had murdered them, as they were, by their -treaty, explicitly permitted to do. The whites had retaliated by -unprovoked attacks on friendly Indians, and the Indians had retaliated -again. The exasperated Indians implored Congress to protect them: the -still more exasperated whites demanded of Congress to protect them. The -Secretary of War writes despairingly, that "The desire of too many -frontier white people to seize by force or fraud on the neighboring -Indian lands continues to be an unceasing cause of jealousy and hatred -on the part of the Indians; and it would appear, upon a calm -investigation, that until the Indians can be quieted on this point, and -rely with confidence on the protection of their lands by the United -States, no well-grounded hope of tranquillity can be entertained." - -In this miserable manner, unjust equally to the white men and to the -Indians, affairs went on for several years, until in 1801 it became -absolutely necessary that in some way a definite understanding of -boundaries, and an authoritative enforcement of rights on both sides, -should be brought about; accordingly, commissioners were sent by the -President "to obtain the consent of the Cherokees" to new grants of land -and establishment of boundaries. The instructions given to these -commissioners are remarkable for their reiterated assertion of the -Indians' unquestioned right to do as they please about ceding these -lands. Such phrases as these: "Should the Indians refuse to cede to the -United States any of the above-designated lands," and "you will endeavor -to prevail upon them to cede," and "you will endeavor to procure the -consent of the Indians," are proof of the fulness of the recognition the -United States Government at that time gave of the Indians' "right of -occupancy;" also of the realization on the part of the Government that -these Indian nations were powers whose good-will it was of importance to -conciliate. "It is of importance," the instructions say, "that the -Indian nations generally should be convinced of the certainty in which -they may at all times rely upon the friendship of the United States, and -that the President will never abandon them or their children;" and, "It -will be incumbent on you to introduce the desires of the Government in -such a manner as will permit you to drop them, as you may find them illy -received, without giving the Indians an opportunity to reply with a -decided negative, or raising in them unfriendly and inimical -dispositions. You will state none of them in the tone of demands, but in -the first instance merely mention them as propositions which you are -authorized to make, and their assent to which the Government would -consider as new testimonials of their friendship." - -Nevertheless, the Cherokees did reply with "a decided negative." They -utterly refused to cede any more lands, or to give their consent to the -opening of any more roads through their territory. But it only took four -years to bring them to the point where they were ready to acquiesce in -the wishes of the Government, and to make once more the effort to secure -to themselves an unmolested region, by giving up several large tracts of -land and a right of way on several roads. In 1805 they concluded another -treaty, ceding territory for which the United States thought it worth -while to pay $15,000 immediately, and an annuity of $3000. - -Ten years later (in 1816) they gave up all their lands in South -Carolina, and the United States became surety that South Carolina should -pay to them $5000 for the same. In the autumn of the same year they made -still another cession of lands to the United States Government, for -which they were to have an annuity of $6000 a year for ten years, and -$5000 as compensation for the improvements they surrendered. - -In 1817 an important treaty was concluded, making still further cessions -of lands, and defining the position of a part of the Cherokee nation -which had moved away, with the President's permission, to the Arkansas -River in 1809. The eighth Article of this treaty promises that the -United States will give to every head of an Indian family residing on -the east side of the Mississippi, who may wish to become a citizen, "a -reservation of six hundred and forty acres of land, in which they will -have a life estate, with a reversion in fee-simple to their children." - -What imagination could have foreseen that in less than twenty years the -chiefs of this Cherokee nation would be found piteously pleading to be -allowed to remain undisturbed on these very lands? In the whole history -of our Government's dealings with the Indian tribes, there is no record -so black as the record of its perfidy to this nation. There will come a -time in the remote future when, to the student of American history, it -will seem well-nigh incredible. From the beginning of the century they -had been steadily advancing in civilization. As far back as 1800 they -had begun the manufacture of cotton cloth, and in 1820 there was -scarcely a family in that part of the nation living east of the -Mississippi but what understood the use of the card and spinning-wheel. -Every family had its farm under cultivation. The territory was laid off -into districts, with a council-house, a judge, and a marshal in each -district. A national committee and council were the supreme authority in -the nation. Schools were flourishing in all the villages. -Printing-presses were at work. - -Their territory was larger than the three States of Massachusetts, Rhode -Island, and Connecticut combined. It embraced the North-western part of -Georgia, the North-east of Alabama, a corner of Tennessee and of North -Carolina. They were enthusiastic in their efforts to establish and -perfect their own system of jurisprudence. Missions of several sects -were established in their country, and a large number of them had -professed Christianity, and were living exemplary lives. - -There is no instance in all history of a race of people passing in so -short a space of time from the barbarous stage to the agricultural and -civilized. And it was such a community as this that the State of -Georgia, by one high-handed outrage, made outlaws!—passing on the 19th -of December, 1829, a law "to annul all laws and ordinances made by the -Cherokee nation of Indians;" declaring "all laws, ordinances, orders, -and regulations of any kind whatever, made, passed, or enacted by the -Cherokee Indians, either in general council or in any other way -whatever, or by any authority whatever, null and void, and of no effect, -as if the same had never existed; also, that no Indian, or descendant of -any Indian residing within the Creek or Cherokee nations of Indians, -shall be deemed a competent witness in any court of this State to which -a white man may be a party." - -What had so changed the attitude of Georgia to the Indians within her -borders? Simply the fact that the Indians, finding themselves hemmed in -on all sides by fast thickening white settlements, had taken a firm -stand that they would give up no more land. So long as they would cede -and cede, and grant and grant tract after tract, and had millions of -acres still left to cede and grant, the selfishness of white men took no -alarm; but once consolidated into an empire, with fixed and inalienable -boundaries, powerful, recognized, and determined, the Cherokee nation -would be a thorn in the flesh to her white neighbors. The doom of the -Cherokees was sealed on the day when they declared, once for all, -officially as a nation, that they would not sell another foot of land. -This they did in an interesting and pathetic message to the United -States Senate in 1822. - -Georgia, through her governor and her delegates to Congress, had been -persistently demanding to have the Cherokees compelled to give up their -lands. She insisted that the United States Government should fulfil a -provision, made in an old compact of 1802, to extinguish the Indian -titles within her limits as soon as it could be peaceably done. This she -demanded should be done now, either peaceably or otherwise. - -"We cannot but view the design of those letters," says this message, "as -an attempt bordering on a hostile disposition toward the Cherokee nation -to wrest from them by arbitrary means their just rights and liberties, -the security of which is solemnly guaranteed to them by these United -States. *** We assert under the fullest authority that all the -sentiments expressed in relation to the disposition and determination of -the nation never to cede another foot of land, are positively the -production and voice of the nation. *** There is not a spot out of the -limits of any of the States or Territories thereof, and within the -limits of the United States, that they would ever consent to inhabit; -because they have unequivocally determined never again to pursue the -chase as heretofore, or to engage in wars, unless by the common call of -the Government to defend the common rights of the United States. *** The -Cherokees have turned their attention to the pursuits of the civilized -man: agriculture, manufactures, and the mechanic arts and education are -all in successful operation in the nation at this time; and while the -Cherokees are peacefully endeavoring to enjoy the blessings of -civilization and Christianity on the soil of their rightful inheritance, -and while the exertions and labors of various religious societies of -these United States are successfully engaged in promulgating to them the -words of truth and life from the sacred volume of Holy Writ, and under -the patronage of the General Government, they are threatened with -removal or extinction. *** We appeal to the magnanimity of the American -Congress for justice, and the protection of the rights and liberties and -lives of the Cherokee people. We claim it from the United States by the -strongest obligation which imposes it on them—by treaties: and we expect -it from them under that memorable declaration, 'that all men are created -equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable -rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of -happiness.'" - -The dignified and pathetic remonstrances of the Cherokee chiefs, their -firm reiterations of their resolve not to part with their lands, were -called by the angry Georgian governor "tricks of vulgar cunning," and -"insults from the polluted lips of outcasts and vagabonds;" and he is -not afraid, in an official letter to the Secretary of War, to openly -threaten the President that, if he upholds the Indians in their -rejection of the overtures for removal, the "consequences are -inevitable," and that, in resisting the occupation of the Cherokee lands -by the Georgians, he will be obliged to "make war upon, and shed the -blood of brothers and friends." - -To these Cherokees Mr. Jefferson had written, at one time during his -administration, "I sincerely wish you may succeed in your laudable -endeavors to save the remnant of your nation by adopting industrious -occupations, and a government of regular law. In this you may always -rely on the counsel and assistance of the United States." - -In 1791 he had written to General Knox, defining the United States' -position in the matter of Indian lands: "Government should firmly -maintain this ground, that the Indians have a right to the occupation of -their lands independent of the States within whose chartered lines they -happen to be; that until they cede them by treaty, or other transaction -equivalent to treaty, no act of a State can give a right to such lands. -*** The Government is determined to exert all its energy for the -patronage and protection of the rights of the Indians." - -And the year before General Washington had said to the Six Nations: "In -future you cannot be defrauded of your lands. No State or person can -purchase your lands unless at some public treaty held under the -authority of the United States. The General Government will never -consent to your being defrauded; but it will protect you in all your -just rights. *** You possess the right to sell, and the right of -refusing to sell your lands. *** The United States will be true and -faithful to their engagements." - -What could Cherokee men and women have thought when, only thirty years -later, they found this United States Government upholding the State of -Georgia in her monstrous pretensions of right to the whole of their -country, and in her infamous cruelties of oppression toward them? when -they found this United States Government sending its agents to seduce -and bribe their chiefs to bargain away their country; even stooping to -leave on the public records of official instructions to a commissioner -such phrases as these: "Appeal to the chiefs and influential men—not -together, but apart, at their own houses;" "make offers to them of -extensive reservations in fee-simple, and other rewards, to obtain their -acquiescence;" "the more careful you are to secure from even the chiefs -the official character you bear, the better;" "enlarge on the advantage -of their condition in the West: there the Government would protect -them." This the Secretary of War called "moving on them in the line of -their prejudices." - -In a report submitted to the War Department in 1825 by Thomas L. -McKenney is a glowing description of the Cherokee country and nation at -that time: "The country is well watered; abundant springs of pure water -are found in every part; a range of majestic and lofty mountains stretch -themselves across it. The northern part is hilly and mountainous; in the -southern and western parts there are extensive and fertile plains, -covered partly with tall trees, through which beautiful streams of water -glide. These plains furnish immense pasturage, and numberless herds of -cattle are dispersed over them; horses are plenty; numerous flocks of -sheep, goats, and swine cover the valleys and the hills. On Tennessee, -Ustanula, and Canasagi rivers Cherokee commerce floats. The climate is -delicious and healthy; the winters are mild; the spring clothes the -ground with the richest scenery; flowers of exquisite beauty and -variegated hues meet and fascinate the eye in every direction. In the -plains and valleys the soil is generally rich, producing Indian-corn, -cotton, tobacco, wheat, oats, indigo, and sweet and Irish potatoes. The -natives carry on considerable trade with the adjoining States; some of -them export cotton in boats down the Tennessee to the Mississippi, and -down that river to New Orleans. Apple and peach orchards are quite -common, and gardens are cultivated, and much attention paid to them. -Butter and cheese are seen on Cherokee tables. There are many public -roads in the nation, and houses of entertainment kept by natives. -Numerous and flourishing villages are seen in every section of the -country. Cotton and woollen cloths are manufactured: blankets of various -dimensions, manufactured by Cherokee hands, are very common. Almost -every family in the nation grows cotton for its own consumption. -Industry and commercial enterprise are extending themselves in every -part. Nearly all the merchants in the nation are native Cherokees. -Agricultural pursuits engage the chief attention of the people. -Different branches in mechanics are pursued. The population is rapidly -increasing. *** White men in the nation enjoy all the immunities and -privileges of the Cherokee people, except that they are not eligible to -public offices. *** The Christian religion is the religion of the -nation. Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and Moravians are the most -numerous sects. Some of the most influential characters are members of -the Church, and live consistently with their professions. The whole -nation is penetrated with gratitude for the aid it has received from the -United States Government, and from different religious societies. -Schools are increasing every year; learning is encouraged and rewarded; -the young class acquire the English, and those of mature age the -Cherokee system of learning. *** Our relations with all nations are of -the most friendly character. We are out of debt, and our public revenue -is in a flourishing condition. Besides the amount arising from imports, -perpetual annuity is due from the United States in consideration of -lands ceded in former periods. Our system of government, founded on -republican principles by which justice is equally distributed, secures -the respect of the people. New Town, pleasantly situated in the centre -of the nation, and at the junction of the Canasagi and Gusuwati, two -beautiful streams, is the seat of government. The legislative power is -vested in what is denominated in native dialect Tsalagi Tinilawige, -consisting of a national committee and council. Members of both branches -are chosen by and from the people for a limited period. In New Town a -printing-press is soon to be established; also a national library and -museum. An immense concourse of people frequent the seat of government -when the Tsalagi Tinilawige is in session, which takes place once a -year. - -"The success which has attended the philological researches of one in -the nation whose system of education has met with universal approbation -among the Cherokees certainly entitles him to great consideration, and -to rank with the benefactors of man. His name is Guess, and he is a -native and unlettered Cherokee; but, like Cadmus, he has given to his -people the alphabet of their language. It is composed of eighty-six -characters, by which in a few days the older Indians, who had despaired -of deriving an education by means of the schools, and who are not -included in the existing school system, may read and correspond."[30] - -Footnote 30: - - See Appendix, Art. IX. - -Never did mountaineers cling more desperately to their homes than did -the Cherokees. The State of Georgia put the whole nation in duress, but -still they chose to stay. Year by year high-handed oppressions increased -and multiplied; military law reigned everywhere; Cherokee lands were -surveyed, and put up to be drawn by lottery; missionaries were arrested -and sent to prison for preaching to Cherokees; Cherokees were sentenced -to death by Georgia juries, and hung by Georgia executioners. Appeal -after appeal to the President and to Congress for protection produced -only reiterated confessions of the Government's inability to protect -them—reiterated proposals to them to accept a price for their country -and move away. Nevertheless they clung to it. A few hundreds went, but -the body of the nation still protested and entreated. There is nothing -in history more touching than the cries of this people to the Government -of the United States to fulfil its promises to them. And their cause was -not without eloquent advocates. When the bill for their removal was -before Congress, Frelinghuysen, Sprague, Robbins, Storrs, Ellsworth, -Evans, Huntington, Johns, Bates, Crockett, Everett, Test—all spoke -warmly against it; and, to the credit of Congress be it said, the bill -passed the Senate by only one majority. - -The Rev. Jeremiah Evarts published a series of papers in the _National -Intelligencer_ under the signature of William Penn, in which he gave a -masterly analysis and summing up of the case, recapitulated the sixteen -treaties which the Government had made with the Cherokees, all -guaranteeing to them their lands, and declared that the Government had -"arrived at the bank of the Rubicon," where it must decide if it would -or would not save the country from the charge of bad faith. Many of his -eloquent sentences read in the light of the present time like -prophecies. He says, "in a quarter of a century the pressure upon the -Indians will be much greater from the boundless prairies, which must -ultimately be subdued and inhabited, than it would ever have been from -the borders of the present Cherokee country;" and asks, pertinently, "to -what confidence would such an engagement be entitled, done at the very -moment that treaties with Indians are declared not to be binding, and -for the very reason that existing treaties are not strong enough to bind -the United States." Remonstrances poured in upon Congress, petitions and -memorials from religious societies, from little country villages, all -imploring the Government to keep its faith to these people. - -The Cherokees' own newspaper, _The Phœnix_, was filled at this time with -the records of the nation's suffering and despair. - -"The State of Georgia has taken a strong stand against us, and the -United States must either defend us and our rights or leave us to our -foe. In the latter case she will violate her promise of protection, and -we cannot in future depend upon any guarantee to us, either here or -beyond the Mississippi. - -"If the United States shall withdraw their solemn pledges of protection, -utterly disregard their plighted faith, deprive us of the right of -self-government, and wrest from us our land, then, in the deep anguish -of our misfortunes, we may justly say there is no place of security for -us, no confidence left that the United States will be more just and -faithful toward us in the barren prairies of the West than when we -occupied the soil inherited from the Great Author of our existence." - -As a last resort the Cherokees carried their case before the Supreme -Court, and implored that body to restrain the State of Georgia from her -unjust interference with their rights. The reports of the case of the -Cherokee Nation _vs._ the State of Georgia fill a volume by themselves, -and are of vital importance to the history of Indian affairs. The -majority of the judges decided that an Indian tribe could not be -considered as a foreign nation, and therefore could not bring the suit. -Judge Thompson and Judge Story dissented from this opinion, and held -that the Cherokee tribe did constitute a foreign nation, and that the -State of Georgia ought to be enjoined from execution of its unjust laws. -The opinion of Chancellor Kent coincided with that of Judges Thompson -and Story. Chancellor Kent gave it as his opinion that the cases in -which the Supreme Court had jurisdiction would "reach and embrace every -controversy that can arise between the Cherokees and the State of -Georgia or its officers under the execution of the act of Georgia." - -But all this did not help the Cherokees; neither did the fact of the -manifest sympathy of the whole court with their wrongs. The technical -legal decision had been rendered against them, and this delivered them -over to the tender mercies of Georgia: no power in the land could help -them. Fierce factions now began to be formed in the nation, one for and -one against the surrender of their lands. Many were ready still to -remain and suffer till death rather than give them up; but wiser -counsels prevailed, and in the last days of the year 1835 a treaty was -concluded with the United States by twenty of the Cherokee chiefs and -headmen, who thereby, in behalf of their nation, relinquished all the -lands claimed or possessed by them east of the Mississippi River. - -The preamble of this treaty is full of pathos: "_Whereas_, The Cherokees -are anxious to make some arrangement with the Government of the United -States whereby the difficulties they have experienced by a residence -within the settled parts of the United States under the jurisdiction and -laws of the State governments may be terminated and adjusted; and with a -view to reuniting their people in one body, and securing a permanent -home for themselves and their posterity in the country selected by their -forefathers without the territorial limits of the State sovereignties, -and where they can establish and enjoy a government of their choice, and -perpetuate such a state of society as may be most consonant with their -views, habits, and condition, and as may tend to their individual -comfort and their advancement in civilization." - -By this treaty the Cherokees gave up a country "larger than the three -States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut combined, and -received therefor five millions of dollars and seven millions of acres -of land west of the Mississippi." This the United States "guaranteed, -and secured to be conveyed in patent," and defined it by exact -boundaries; and, "in addition to the seven millions of acres of land -thus provided for and bounded," the United States did "further guarantee -to the Cherokee nation a perpetual outlet west, and a free and -unmolested use of all the country west of the western boundary of said -seven millions of acres, as far west as the sovereignty of the United -States and their rights of soil extend." - -The fifth Article of this treaty is, "The United States hereby covenant -and agree that the lands ceded to the Cherokee nation in the foregoing -article shall in no future time, without their consent, be included -within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or -Territory." - -In the sixth Article is this promise: "The United States agree to -protect the Cherokee nation from domestic strife and foreign enemies, -and against intestine wars between the several tribes." - -Even after this treaty was made a great part of the nation refused to -sanction it, saying that it did not represent their wish; they would -never carry it out; hundreds refused to receive any longer either money -or supplies from the United States agents, lest they should be -considered to have thereby committed themselves to the treaty. - -In 1837 General Wool wrote from the Cherokee country that the people -"uniformly declare that they never made the treaty in question. *** So -determined are they in their opposition that not one of all those who -were present, and voted in the council held but a day or two since at -this place, however poor or destitute, would receive either rations or -clothing from the United States, lest they might compromise themselves -in regard to the treaty. These same people, as well as those in the -mountains of North Carolina, during the summer past preferred living on -the roots and sap of trees rather than receive provisions from the -United States. Thousands, I have been informed, had no other food for -weeks." - -For two years—to the very last moment allowed them by the treaty—they -clung to their lands, and at last were removed only by military force. -In May, 1838, General Scott was ordered to go with a sufficient military -force to compel the removal. His proclamation "to the Cherokee people -remaining in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama" opens -thus: - -"CHEROKEES,—The President of the United States has sent me with a -powerful army to cause you, in obedience to the treaty of 1835, to join -that part of your people who are already established on the other side -of the Mississippi. Unhappily the two years which were allowed for the -purpose you have suffered to pass away without following, and without -making any preparation to follow; and now, or by the time that this -solemn address shall reach your distant settlements, the emigration must -be commenced in haste, but I hope without disorder. I have no power, by -granting a further delay, to correct the error that you have committed. -The full-moon of May is already on the wane, and before another shall -have passed away every Cherokee man, woman, and child in those States -must be in motion to join their brethren in the West." - -The tone of this proclamation, at once firm and kindly, could not fail -to profoundly impress the unfortunate people to whom it was addressed. -"My troops," said the humane and sympathizing general, "already occupy -many positions in the country that you are to abandon, and thousands and -thousands are approaching from every quarter, to render resistance and -escape alike hopeless. All those troops, regular and militia, are your -friends. Receive them and confide in them as such; obey them when they -tell you that you can remain no longer in this country. Soldiers are as -kind-hearted as brave, and the desire of every one of us is to execute -our painful duty in mercy. *** - -"Chiefs, headmen, and warriors, will you then, by resistance, compel us -to resort to arms? God forbid. Or will you by flight seek to hide -yourselves in mountains and forests, and thus oblige us to hunt you -down? Remember that in pursuit it may be impossible to avoid conflicts. -The blood of the white man or the blood of the red man may be spilt; and -if spilt, however accidentally, it may be impossible for the discreet -and humane among you or among us to prevent a general war and carnage. -Think of this, my Cherokee brethren! I am an old warrior, and have been -present at many a scene of slaughter; but spare me, I beseech you, the -horror of witnessing the destruction of the Cherokees. Do not even wait -for the close approach of the troops, but make such preparations for -emigration as you can, and hasten to this place, to Ross's Landing, or -to Guinter's Landing, where you will be received in kindness by officers -selected for the purpose. *** This is the address of a warrior to -warriors. May its entreaties be kindly received, and may the God of both -prosper the Americans and Cherokees, and preserve them long in peace and -friendship with each other." - -The reply of the council of the Cherokee nation to this proclamation is -worthy to be put on record. They make no further protest against going; -they simply ask the privilege of undertaking the whole charge of the -removal themselves. They say: "The present condition of the Cherokee -people is such that all dispute as to the time of emigration is set at -rest. Being already severed from their homes and their property, their -persons being under the absolute control of the commanding general, and -being altogether dependent on the benevolence and humanity of that high -officer for the suspension of their transportation to the West at a -season and under circumstances in which sickness and death were to be -apprehended to an alarming extent, all inducements to prolong their stay -in this country are taken away. And however strong their attachment to -the homes of their fathers may be, their interests and their wishes are -now to depart as early as may be consistent with their safety." - -The council therefore submitted to General Scott several propositions: -1st. "That the Cherokee nation will undertake the whole business of -removing their people to the west of the river Mississippi." Their -estimates of cost, and arrangement as to time, intervals, etc., were -wise and reasonable. To their estimate of $65,880 as the cost for every -thousand persons transported General Scott objected, thinking it high. -He said that he was "confident" that it would be found that out of every -thousand there would be "at least five hundred strong men, women, boys, -and girls not only capable of marching twelve or fifteen miles a day, -but to whom the exercise would be beneficial; and another hundred able -to go on foot half that distance daily." He also objected to the -estimate of the ration at sixteen cents as too high. - -The council replied that they believed the estimate reasonable, "having -the comfortable removal of our people solely in view, and endeavoring to -be governed, as far as that object will allow, by the rates of -expenditure fixed by the officers of the Government. After the necessary -bedding, cooking-utensils, and other indispensable articles of twenty -persons—say, four or five families—are placed in a wagon, with -subsistence for at least two days, the weight already will be enough to -exclude, in our opinion, more than a very few persons being hauled. The -great distance to be travelled, liability to sickness on the way of -grown persons, and the desire of performing the trip in as short a time -as possible, induce us still to think our estimate of that item not -extravagant. *** Whatever may be necessary in the emigration of our -people to their comfort on the way, and as conducive to their health, we -desire to be afforded them; at the same time it is our anxious wish, in -the management of this business, to be free at all times from the -imputation of extravagance." They added that the item of soap had been -forgotten in their first estimate, and must now be included, at the rate -of three pounds to every hundred pounds of rations. - -General Scott replied, "as the Cherokee people are exclusively -interested in the cost as well as the comfort of the removal," he did -not feel himself at liberty to withhold his sanction from these -estimates. In the report of the Indian Commissioner, also, it is stated -that "the cost of removal, according to the Indian estimate, is high;" -but the commissioner adds, "as their own fund pays it, and it was -insisted on by their own confidential agents, it was thought it could -not be rejected." - -Noble liberality! This nation of eighteen thousand industrious, -self-supporting people, compelled at the point of the bayonet to leave -their country and seek new homes in a wilderness, are to be permitted, -as a favor, to spend on their journey to this wilderness as much of -their own money as they think necessary, and have all the soap they -want. - -The record which the United States Government has left in official -papers of its self-congratulations in the matter of this Cherokee -removal has an element in it of the ludicrous, spite of the tragedy and -shame. - -Says the Secretary of War: "The generous and enlightened policy evinced -in the measures adopted by Congress toward that people during the last -session was ably and judiciously carried into effect by the general -appointed to conduct their removal. The reluctance of the Indians to -relinquish the land of their birth in the East, and remove to their new -homes in the West, was entirely overcome by the judicious conduct of -that officer, and they departed with alacrity under the guidance of -their own chiefs. The arrangements for this purpose made by General -Scott, in compliance with his previous instructions, although somewhat -costly to the Indians themselves, met the entire approbation of the -Department, as it was deemed of the last importance that the Cherokees -should remove to the West voluntarily, and that upon their arrival at -the place of their ultimate destination they should recur to the manner -in which they had been treated with kind and grateful feelings. Humanity -no less than good policy dictated this course toward these children of -the forest; and in carrying out in this instance with an unwavering hand -the measures resolved upon by the Government, in the hope of preserving -the Indians and of maintaining the peace and tranquillity of the whites, -it will always be gratifying to reflect that this has been effected not -only without violence, but with every proper regard for the feelings and -interests of that people." - -The Commissioner of Indian Affairs says, in his report: "The case of the -Cherokees is a striking example of the liberality of the Government in -all its branches. *** A retrospect of the last eight months in reference -to this numerous and more than ordinarily enlightened tribe cannot fail -to be refreshing to well-constituted minds." - -A further appropriation had been asked by the Cherokee chiefs to meet -the expense of their removal (they not thinking $5,000,000 a very -munificent payment for a country as large as all Massachusetts, Rhode -Island, and Connecticut together), and Congress had passed a law giving -them $1147.67 more, and the commissioner says of this: "When it is -considered that by the treaty of December, 1835, the sum of $5,000,000 -was stipulated to be paid them as the full value of their lands, after -that amount was declared by the Senate of the United States to be an -ample consideration for them, the spirit of this whole proceeding cannot -be too much admired. By some the measure may be regarded as just; by -others generous: it perhaps partook of both attributes. If it went -farther than naked justice could have demanded, it did not stop short of -what liberality approved. *** If our acts have been generous, they have -not been less wise and politic. A large mass of men have been -conciliated; the hazard of an effusion of human blood has been put by; -good feeling has been preserved, and we have quietly and gently -transported eighteen thousand friends to the west bank of the -Mississippi." - -To dwell on the picture of this removal is needless. The fact by itself -is more eloquent than pages of detail and description could make it. No -imagination so dull, no heart so hard as not to see and to feel, at the -bare mention of such an emigration, what horrors and what anguish it -must have involved. "Eighteen thousand friends!" Only a great -magnanimity of nature, strengthened by true Christian principle, could -have prevented them from being changed into eighteen thousand bitter -enemies. - -For some years after this removal fierce dissensions rent the Cherokee -nation. The party who held that the treaty of 1835 had been unfair, and -that the nation still had an unextinguished right to its old country at -the East, felt, as was natural, a bitter hatred toward the party which, -they claimed, had wrongfully signed away the nation's lands. Several of -the signers of the treaty, influential men of the nation, were murdered. -Party-spirit ran to such a height that the United States Government was -compelled to interfere; and in 1846, after long negotiations and -dissensions, a new treaty was made, by the terms and concessions of -which the anti-treaty party were appeased, a general amnesty provided -for, and comparative harmony restored to the nation. - -The progress of this people in the ten years following this removal is -almost past belief. In 1851 they had twenty-two primary schools, and had -just built two large houses for a male and female seminary, in which the -higher branches of education were to be taught. They had a temperance -society with three thousand members, and an auxiliary society in each of -the eight districts into which the country was divided. They had a Bible -Society and twelve churches; a weekly newspaper, partly in English, -partly in Cherokee; eight district courts, two circuit courts, and a -supreme court. Legislative business was transacted as before by the -national council and committee, elected for four years. Nearly one -thousand boys and girls were in the public schools. - -In 1860 the agitation on the subject of slavery began to be felt, a -strong antislavery party being organized in the nation. There were -stormy scenes also in that part of the country nearest the Kansas line. -For several years white settlers had persisted in taking up farms there, -and the Cherokees had in vain implored the Government to drive them -away. The officer at last sent to enforce the Cherokees' rights and -dislodge the squatters was obliged to burn their cabins over their heads -before they would stir, so persuaded were they of the superior right of -the white man over the Indian. "The only reason the settlers gave for -not heeding the notices was that they had been often notified before to -quit the reservation; and, no steps having been taken to enforce -obedience, they supposed they would be allowed to remain with like -security in this instance." - -"It is surprising," says the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, "to see the -growing disposition on the part of our citizens to wholly disregard our -treaty obligations with Indian tribes within our borders; and it is to -be hoped that in future their rights will be held more sacred, or that -the Government will in every instance promptly see that they are -observed and respected." - -In the first year of the Civil War a large number of the Cherokees took -up arms on the rebel side. That this was not from any love or liking for -the Southern cause, it would seem, must be evident to any one who -believed that they were possessed of memories. The opportunity of -fighting against Georgians could not but have been welcome to the soul -of a Cherokee, even if he bought it at the price of fighting on the side -of the government which had been so perfidious to his nation. Their -defection was no doubt largely due to terror. The forts in their -vicinity were surrendered to the rebels; all United States troops were -withdrawn from that part of the country. They had no prospect of -protection from the Government, and, as if to leave them without one -incentive to loyalty, the Government suspended the payment of their -annuities. - -The Confederate Government stepped in, artfully promising to pay what -the Northern Government refused. It would have taken a rare loyalty, -indeed, to have stood unmoved in such circumstances as these; yet -thousands of the Indians in Indian Territory did remain loyal, and fled -for their lives to avoid being pressed into the rebel service; almost -half of the Creek nation, many Seminoles, Chickasaws, Quapaws, -Cherokees, and half a dozen others—over six thousand in all—fled to -Kansas, where their sufferings in the winter of 1862 were heart-rending. - -That the Cherokees did not lightly abandon their allegiance is on record -in the official history of the Department of the Interior. The Report of -the Indian Bureau for 1863 says: "The Cherokees, prior to the Rebellion, -were the most numerous, intelligent, wealthy, and influential tribe of -this superintendency (the southern). For many months they steadily -resisted the efforts made by the rebels to induce them to abandon their -allegiance to the Federal Government; but being wholly unprotected, and -without the means of resistance, they were finally compelled to enter -into treaty stipulations with the rebel authorities. This connection -was, however, of short duration, for upon the first appearance of United -States forces in their country an entire regiment of Indian troops, -raised ostensibly for service in the rebel army, deserted and came over -to us, and have ever since been under our command, and upon all -occasions have proved themselves faithful and efficient soldiers." In -the course of the next year, however, many more joined the rebels: it -was estimated that between six and seven thousand of the wealthier -portion of the nation co-operated in one way or another with the rebels. -The result was that at the end of the war the Cherokee country was -ruined. - -"In the Cherokee country," says the Report of the Indian Bureau for -1865, "where the contending armies have moved to and fro; where their -foraging parties have gone at will, sparing neither friend nor foe; -where the disloyal Cherokees in the service of the rebel government were -determined that no trace of the homesteads of their loyal brethren -should remain for their return; and where the swindling cattle-thieves -have made their ill-gotten gains for two years past, the scene is one of -utter desolation." - -The party feeling between the loyal and disloyal Cherokees ran as high -as it did between the loyal and disloyal whites, and it looked for a -time as if it would be as impossible to make the two opposing parties in -the Cherokee nation agree to live peaceably side by side with each -other, as it would to make discharged soldiers from Georgia and from -Maine settle down in one village together. But after long and -troublesome negotiations a treaty was concluded in 1866, by which all -the necessary points seemed to be established of a general amnesty and -peace. - -That the Indians were at a great disadvantage in the making of these new -treaties it is unnecessary to state. The peculiarity of the Government's -view of their situation and rights is most näively stated in one of the -reports for 1862. Alluding to the necessity of making at no very distant -time new treaties with all these Southern tribes, one of the Indian -superintendents says: "While the rebelling of a large portion of most of -these tribes abrogates treaty obligations, and places them at our mercy, -the very important fact should not be forgotten that the Government -first wholly failed to keep its treaty stipulations with those people, -and in protecting them, by withdrawing all the troops from the forts in -Indian Territory, and leaving them at the mercy of the rebels. It is a -well-known fact that self-preservation in many instances compelled them -to make the best terms they could with the rebels." - -Nevertheless they are "at our mercy," because their making the "best -terms they could with the rebels abrogates treaty obligations." The -trite old proverb about the poorness of rules that do not work both ways -seems to be applicable here. - -With a recuperative power far in advance of that shown by any of the -small white communities at the South, the Cherokees at once addressed -themselves to rebuilding their homes and reconstructing their national -life. In one year they established fifteen new schools, set all their -old industries going, and in 1869 held a large agricultural fair, which -gave a creditable exhibition of stock and farm produce. Thus a second -time they recovered themselves, after what would seem to be well-nigh -their destruction as a people. But the Indian's fate of perpetual -insecurity, alarm, and unrest does not abandon them. In 1870 they are -said to be "extremely uneasy about the security of their possession of -the lands they occupy." When asked why their high-schools are not -re-established, reforms introduced into the administration of justice, -desirable improvements undertaken, the reply inevitably comes, "We -expect to have our lands taken away: what is the use of all that when -our doom as a nation is sealed?" - -"Distrust is firmly seated in their minds. National apathy depresses -them, and until they realize a feeling of assurance that their title to -their lands will be respected, and that treaties are an inviolable law -for all parties, the Cherokees will not make the efforts for national -progress of which they are capable." - -When their delegates went to Washington, in 1866, to make the new -treaty, they were alarmed by the position taken by the Government that -the nation, as a nation, had forfeited its rights. They were given to -understand that "public opinion held them responsible for complicity in -the Rebellion; and, although they could point to the fact that the only -countenance the rebels received came from less than one-third of the -population, and cite the services of two Cherokee regiments in the Union -cause, it was urged home to them that, before being rehabilitated in -their former rights by a new treaty, they were not in a position to -refuse any conditions imposed. Such language from persons they believed -to possess the power of injuring their people intimidated the Cherokee -delegates. They sold a large tract in South-eastern Kansas at a dollar -an acre to an association of speculators, and it went into the -possession of a railroad company. They also acceded, against the wishes -of the Cherokee people, to a provision in the treaty granting right of -way through the country for two railroads. This excited great uneasiness -among the Indians." - -And well it might. The events of the next few years amply justified this -uneasiness. The rapacity of railroad corporations is as insatiable as -their methods are unscrupulous. The phrase "extinguishing Indian titles" -has become, as it were, a mere technical term in the transfer of lands. -The expression is so common that it has probably been one of the -agencies in fixing in the minds of the people the prevalent impression -that extinction is the ultimate and inevitable fate of the Indian; and -this being the case, methods and times are not, after all, of so much -consequence; they are merely foreordained conditions of the great -foreordained progression of events. This is the only explanation of the -unconscious inhumanity of many good men's modes of thinking and speaking -in regard to the Indians being driven from home after home, and robbed -of tract after tract of their lands. - -In the Report of the Indian Bureau for 1875 is an account of a remnant -of the Cherokee tribe in North Carolina: "They number not far from -seventeen hundred, and there are probably in other parts of North -Carolina, and scattered through Georgia and Tennessee, between three and -four hundred more. These Cherokees have had an eventful history. When -the main portion of the tribe was compelled to remove west of the -Mississippi they fled to the mountains, and have steadily refused to -leave their homes. The proceeds of their lands, which were sold in -accordance with a treaty with the main body of the Cherokees, have been -mainly expended in the purchase of lands, and providing funds for the -Western Cherokees. At various times previous to the year 1861 the agent -for the Eastern Cherokees, at their request, purchased lands with their -funds, upon which they might make their homes. These purchases, though -probably made with good intent, carelessly left the title in their agent -personally, and not in trust. By this neglect, when subsequently the -agent became insolvent, all their lands were seized and sold for his -debts. By special legislation of Congress their case has been brought -before the courts of North Carolina, and their rights to a certain -extent asserted, and they are enabled to maintain possession of their -lands; and, by the use of their own funds in extinguishing liens, are -now in possession of above seventy thousand acres of fair arable, -timber, and grazing lands. They have shown themselves capable of -self-support, and, I believe, have demonstrated the unwisdom of removing -Indians from a country which offers to them a home, and where a white -man could make a living. This is shown by the fact that they are now, -though receiving scarcely any Government aid, in a more hopeful -condition, both as to morals, and industry, and personal property, than -the Cherokees who removed West." - -The Report of the Indian Bureau for 1876 fully bears out this statement. -The North Carolina Cherokees have, indeed, reason to be in a more -hopeful condition, for they have their lands secured to them by patent, -confirmed by a decision of State courts; but this is what the Department -of the Interior has brought itself to say as to the Western Cherokees' -lands, and those of all other civilized tribes in the Indian Territory: -"By treaty the Government has ceded to the so-called civilized -tribes—the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles—a -section of country altogether disproportionate in amount to their needs. -*** The amount susceptible of cultivation must be many-fold greater than -can ever be cultivated by the labor of the Indians. But the Indians -claim, it is understood, that they hold their lands by sanctions so -solemn that it would be a gross breach of faith on the part of the -Government to take away any portion thereof without their consent; and -that consent they apparently propose to withhold." - -Let us set side by side with this last paragraph a quotation from the -treaty by virtue of which "the Indians claim, it is understood, that -they hold" these lands, which they now "apparently propose to withhold." -We will not copy it from the original treaty; we will copy it, and a few -other sentences with it, from an earlier report of this same Department -of the Interior. Only so far back as 1870 we find the Department in a -juster frame of mind toward the Cherokees. "A large part of the Indian -tribes hold lands to which they are only fixed by laws that define the -reservations to which they shall be confined. It cannot be denied that -these are in a great measure dependent on the humanity of the American -people. *** But the Cherokees, and the other civilized Indian nations no -less, hold lands in perpetuity by titles defined by the supreme law of -the land. The United States agreed 'to possess the Cherokees, and to -guarantee it to them forever,' and that guarantee 'was solemnly pledged -of seven million acres of land.' The consideration for this territory -was the same number of acres elsewhere located. The inducement to the -bargain set forth in the treaty was 'the anxious desire of the -Government of the United States to secure to the Cherokee nation of -Indians a permanent home, and which shall, under the most solemn -guarantee of the United States, be and remain theirs forever—a home that -shall never in all future time be embarrassed by having extended around -it the lines or placed over it the jurisdiction of a Territory or State, -or be pressed upon by the extension in any way of the limits of any -existing State.' To assure them of their title, a patent for the -Territory was issued." - -This was the view of the Department of the Interior in 1870. In 1876 the -Department says that affairs in the Indian Territory are "complicated -and embarrassing, and the question is directly raised whether an -extensive section of country is to be allowed to remain for an -indefinite period practically an uncultivated waste, or whether the -Government shall determine to reduce the size of the reservation." - -The phrase "whether the Government shall determine to reduce the size of -the reservation" sounds much better than "whether the Government shall -rob the Indians of a few millions of acres of land;" but the latter -phrase is truth, and the other is the spirit of lying. - -The commissioner says that the question is a difficult one, and should -be "considered with calmness, and a full purpose to do no injustice to -the Indians." He gives his own personal opinion on it "with hesitancy," -but gives it nevertheless, that "public policy will soon require the -disposal of a large portion of these lands to the Government for the -occupancy either of other tribes of Indians or of white people. There is -a very general and growing opinion that observance of the strict letter -of treaties with Indians is in many cases at variance with their own -best interests and with sound public policy." He adds, however, that it -must not be understood from this recommendation that it is "the policy -or purpose of this office to in any way encourage the spirit of rapacity -which demands the throwing open of the Indian Territory to white -settlement." He says, "the true way to secure its perpetual occupancy by -Indians is to fill it up with other Indians, to give them lands in -severalty, and to provide a government strong and intelligent enough to -protect them effectually from any and all encroachments on the part of -the whites." - -Comment on these preposterously contradictory sentences would be idle. -The best comment on them, and the most fitting close to this sketch of -the Cherokee nation, is in a few more quotations from the official -reports of the Indian Bureau. - -Of this people, from whom the Department of the Interior proposes, for -"public policy," to take away "a large portion" of their country, it has -published within the last three years these records: - -"It has been but a few years since the Cherokees assembled in council -under trees or in a rude log-house, with hewed logs for seats. Now the -legislature assembles in a spacious brick council-house, provided with -suitable committee-rooms, senate chamber, representative hall, library, -and executive offices, which cost $22,000. - -"Their citizens occupy neat hewed double log-cabins, frame, brick, or -stone houses, according to the means or taste of the individual, with -ground adorned by ornamental trees, shrubbery, flowers, and nearly every -improvement, including orchards of the choicest fruits. Some of these -orchards have existed for nearly twenty years, and are now in a good, -fruitful condition. Their women are usually good house-keepers, and give -great attention to spinning and weaving yarns, jeans, and linsey, and -make most of the pants and hunter-jackets of the men and boys. The -farmers raise most of their own wool and cotton, and it is not an -uncommon sight, in a well-to-do Cherokee farmer's house, to see a -sewing-machine and a piano. - -"They have ample provision for the education of all their children to a -degree of advancement equal to that furnished by an ordinary college in -the States. They have seventy-five common day-schools, kept open ten -months in the year, in the different settlements. For the higher -education of their young men and women they have two commodious and -well-furnished seminaries, one for each sex; and, in addition to those -already mentioned, they have a manual labor school and an orphan asylum. -The cost of maintaining these schools the past year (1877) was, as -reported by the superintendent of public instruction, $73,441.65, of -which $41,475 was paid as salary to teachers. - -"They have twenty-four stores, twenty-two mills, and sixty-five -smith-shops, owned and conducted by their own citizens. - -"Their constitution and laws are published in book form; and from their -printing-house goes forth among the people in their own language, and -also in English, the _Cherokee Advocate_, a weekly paper, which is -edited with taste and ability. - -"They have (and this is true also of the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, -and Seminoles) a constitutional government, with legislative, judicial, -and executive departments, and conducted upon the same plan as our State -governments, the entire expenses of which are paid out of their own -funds, which are derived from interest on various stocks and bonds—the -invested proceeds of the sale of their lands, and held in trust by the -Government of the United States—which interest is paid the treasurers of -the different nations semi-annually, and by them disbursed on national -warrants issued by the principal chief and secretary, and registered by -the auditors. - -"They are an intelligent, temperate, and industrious people, who live by -the honest fruits of their labor, and seem ambitious to advance both as -to the development of their lands and the conveniences of their homes. -In their council may be found men of learning and ability; and it is -doubtful if their rapid progress from a state of wild barbarism to that -of civilization and enlightenment has any parallel in the history of the -world. What required five hundred years for the Britons to accomplish in -this direction they have accomplished in one hundred years." - -Will the United States Government determine to "reduce the size of the -reservation?" - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES. - - -I.—_The Conestoga Massacre._ - -When the English first entered Pennsylvania messengers from the -Conestoga Indians met them, bidding them welcome, and bringing gifts of -corn and venison and skins. The whole tribe entered into a treaty of -friendship with William Penn, which was to last "as long as the sun -should shine or the waters run into the rivers." - -The records of Pennsylvania history in the beginning of the eighteenth -century contain frequent mention of the tribe. In 1705 the governor sent -the secretary of his council, with a delegation of ten men, to hold an -interview with them at Conestoga, for purposes of mutual understanding -and confidence. And in that same year Thomas Chalkley, a famous Quaker -preacher, while sojourning among the Maryland Quakers, was suddenly -seized with so great a "concern" to visit these Indians that he laid the -matter before the elders at the Nottingham meeting; and, the idea being -"promoted" by the elders, he set off with an interpreter and a party of -fourteen to make the journey. He says: "We travelled through the woods -about fifty miles, carrying our provisions with us; and on the journey -sat down by a river and spread our food on the grass, and refreshed -ourselves and horses, and then went on cheerfully and with good-will and -much love to the poor Indians. And when we came they received us kindly, -treating us civilly in their way. We treated about having a meeting with -them in a religious way; upon which they called a council, in which they -were very grave, and spoke, one after another, without any heat or -jarring. Some of the most esteemed of their women speak in their -councils." - -When asked why they suffered the women to speak, they replied that "some -women were wiser than some men." It was said that they had not for many -years done anything without the advice of a certain aged and grave -woman, who was always present at their councils. The interpreter said -that she was an empress, and that they gave much heed to what she said. -This wise queen of Conestoga looked with great favor on the Quakers, the -interpreter said, because they "did not come to buy or sell, or get -gain;" but came "in love and respect" to them, "and desired their -well-doing, both here and hereafter." Two nations at this time were -represented in this Conestoga band—the Senecas and the Shawanese. - -The next year the governor himself, anxious to preserve their -inalienable good-will, and to prevent their being seduced by emissaries -from the French, went himself to visit them. On this occasion one of the -chiefs made a speech, still preserved in the old records, which contains -this passage: "Father, we love quiet; we suffer the mouse to play; when -the woods are rustled by the wind, we fear not; when the leaves are -disturbed in ambush, we are uneasy; when a cloud obscures your brilliant -sun, our eyes feel dim; but when the rays appear, they give great heat -to the body and joy to the heart. Treachery darkens the chain of -friendship; but truth makes it brighter than ever. This is the peace we -desire." - -A few years later a Swedish missionary visited them, and preached them a -sermon on original sin and the necessity of a mediator. When he had -finished, an Indian chief rose and replied to him; both discourses being -given through an interpreter. The Swede is said to have been so -impressed with the Indian's reasoning that, after returning to Sweden, -he wrote out his own sermon and the Indian's reply in the best Latin at -his command, and dedicated the documents to the University of Upsal, -respectfully requesting them to furnish him with some arguments strong -enough to confute the strong reasonings of this savage. - -"Our forefathers," said the chief, "were under a strong persuasion (as -we are) that those who act well in this life will be rewarded in the -next according to the degrees of their virtues; and, on the other hand, -that those who behave wickedly here will undergo such punishments -hereafter as were proportionate to the crimes they were guilty of. This -has been constantly and invariably received and acknowledged for a truth -through every successive generation of our ancestors. It could not, -then, have taken its rise from fable; for human fiction, however -artfully and plausibly contrived, can never gain credit long among -people where free inquiry is allowed, which was never denied by our -ancestors. *** Now we desire to propose some questions. Does he believe -that our forefathers, men eminent for their piety, constant and warm in -their pursuit of virtue, hoping thereby to merit eternal happiness, were -all damned? Does he think that we who are zealous imitators in good -works, and influenced by the same motives as we are, earnestly -endeavoring with the greatest circumspection to tread the path of -integrity, are in a state of damnation? If that be his sentiment, it is -surely as impious as it is bold and daring. *** Let us suppose that some -heinous crimes were committed by some of our ancestors, like to that we -are told of another race of people. In such a case God would certainly -punish the criminal, but would never involve us that are innocent in the -guilt. Those who think otherwise must make the Almighty a very -whimsical, evil-natured being. *** Once more: are the Christians more -virtuous, or, rather, are they not more vicious than we are? If so, how -came it to pass that they are the objects of God's beneficence, while we -are neglected? Does he daily confer his favors without reason and with -so much partiality? In a word, we find the Christians much more depraved -in their morals than we are; and we judge from their doctrine by the -badness of their lives." - -It is plain that this Indian chief's speech was very much Latinized in -the good Swede's hands; but if the words even approached being a true -presentation of what he said, it is wonderful indeed. - -In 1721 His Excellency Sir William Keith, Bart., Governor of the -Province of Pennsylvania, went with an escort of eighty horsemen to -Conestoga, and spent several days in making a treaty with the -representatives of the Five Nations, "the Indians of Conestoga and their -friends." He was entertained at "Captain Civility's cabin." When he left -them, he desired them to give his "very kind love and the love of all -our people to your kings and to all their people." He invited them to -visit him in Philadelphia, saying, "We can provide better for you and -make you more welcome. People always receive their friends best at their -own homes." He then took out a coronation medal of the King, and -presented it to the Indian in these words: "That our children when we -are dead may not forget these things, but keep this treaty between us in -perpetual remembrance, I here deliver to you a picture in gold, bearing -the image of my great master, the King of all the English. And when you -return home, I charge you to deliver this piece into the hands of the -first man or greatest chief of all the Five Nations, whom you call -Kannygoodk, to be laid up and kept as a token to our children's children -that an entire and lasting friendship is now established forever between -the English in this country and the great Five Nations." - -At this time the village of Conestoga was described as lying "about -seventy miles west of Philadelphia. The land thereabout being exceeding -rich, it is now surrounded with divers fine plantations and farms, where -they raise quantities of wheat, barley, flax, and hemp, without the help -of any dung." - -The next year, also, was marked by a council of great significance at -Conestoga. In the spring of this year an Indian called Saanteenee had -been killed by two white men, brothers, named Cartledge. At this time it -was not only politic but necessary for the English to keep on good terms -with as many Indians as possible. Therefore, the old record says, -"Policy and justice required a rigid inquiry" into this affair, and the -infliction of "exemplary punishment." - -Accordingly, the Cartledges were arrested and confined in Philadelphia, -and the high-sheriff of Chester County went, with two influential men of -the province, to Conestoga, to confer with the Indians as to what should -be done with them. The Indians were unwilling to decide the matter -without advice from the Five Nations, to whom they owed allegiance. A -swift runner (Satcheecho) was, therefore, sent northward with the news -of the occurrence; and the governor, with two of his council, went to -Albany to hear what the Five Nations had to say about it. What an -inconceivable spectacle to us to-day: the governments of Pennsylvania -and New York so fully recognizing an Indian to be a "person," and his -murder a thing to be anxiously and swiftly atoned for if possible! - -Only a little more than a hundred and fifty years lie between this -murder of Saanteenee in Conestoga and the murder of Big Snake on the -Ponca Reservation in 1880. Verily, Policy has kept a large assortment of -spectacles for Justice to look through in a surprising short space of -time. - -On the decision of the king and chiefs of the Five Nations hung the fate -of the murderers. Doubtless the brothers Cartledge made up their minds -to die. The known principles of the Indians in the matter of avenging -injuries certainly left them little room for hope. But no! The Five -Nations took a different view. They "desired that the Cartledges should -not suffer death, and the affair was at length amicably settled," says -the old record. "One life," said the Indian king, "on this occasion, is -enough to be lost. There should not two die." - -This was in 1722. In 1763 there were only twenty of these Conestoga -Indians left—seven men, five women, and eight children. They were still -living in their village on the Shawanee Creek, their lands being assured -to them by manorial gift; but they were miserably poor—earned by making -brooms, baskets, and wooden bowls a part of their living, and begged the -rest. They were wholly peaceable and unoffending, friendly to their -white neighbors, and pitifully clinging and affectionate, naming their -children after whites who were kind to them, and striving in every way -to show their gratitude and good-will. - -Upon this little community a band of white men, said by some of the old -records to be "Presbyterians," from Paxton, made an attack at daybreak -on the 14th of December. They found only six of the Indians at -home—three men, two women, and a boy. The rest were away, either at work -for the white farmers or selling their little wares. "These poor -defenceless creatures were immediately fired upon, stabbed, and -hatcheted to death; the good Shebaes, among the rest, cut to pieces in -his bed. All of them were scalped and otherwise horribly mangled, then -their huts were set on fire, and most of them burnt down." - -"Shebaes was a very old man, having assisted at the second treaty held -with Mr. Penn, in 1701, and ever since continued a faithful friend to -the English. He is said to have been an exceeding good man, considering -his education; being naturally of a most kind, benevolent temper." - -From a manuscript journal kept at this time, and belonging to the -great-granddaughter of Robert Barber, the first settler in Lancaster -County, are gathered the few details known of this massacre. "Some of -the murderers went directly from the scene of their crime to Mr. -Barber's house. They were strangers to him; but, with the hospitality of -those days, he made a fire for them and set refreshments before them. - -"While they warmed themselves they inquired why the Indians were -suffered to live peaceably here. Mr. Barber said they were entirely -inoffensive, living on their own lands and injuring no one. They asked -what would be the consequence if they were all destroyed. Mr. Barber -said he thought they would be as liable to punishment as if they had -destroyed so many white men. They said _they_ were of a different -opinion, and in a few minutes went out. In the mean time two sons of Mr. -Barber's, about ten or twelve years old, went out to look at the -strangers' horses, which were hitched at a little distance from the -house. - -"After the men went the boys came in, and said that they had tomahawks -tied to their saddles which were all bloody, and that they had Christy's -gun. Christy was a little Indian boy about their own age. They were much -attached to him, as he was their playmate, and made bows and arrows for -them." - -While the family were talking over this, and wondering what it could -mean, a messenger came running breathless to inform them of what had -happened. Mr. Barber went at once to the spot, and there he found the -murdered Indians lying in the smouldering ruins of their homes, "like -half-consumed logs." He, "with some trouble, procured their bodies, to -administer to them the rights of sepulture." - -"It was said that at the beginning of the slaughter an Indian mother -placed her little child under a barrel, charging it to make no noise, -and that a shot was fired through the barrel which broke the child's -arm, and still it kept silent." - -The magistrates of Lancaster, shocked, as well they might be, at this -frightful barbarity, sent messengers out immediately, and took the -remaining Indians, wherever they were found, brought them into the town -for protection, and lodged them in the newly-erected workhouse or jail, -which was the strongest building in the place. The Governor of -Pennsylvania issued a proclamation, ordering all judges, sheriffs, and -"all His Majesty's liege subjects in the province," to make every effort -to apprehend the authors and perpetrators of this crime, also their -abettors and accomplices. But the "Paxton Boys" held magistrates and -governor alike in derision. Two weeks later they assembled again, fifty -strong, rode to Lancaster, dismounted, broke open the doors of the jail, -and killed every Indian there. - -"When the poor wretches saw they had no protection nigh, nor could -possibly escape, and being without the least weapon of defence, they -divided their little families, the children clinging to their parents. -They fell on their faces, protested their innocence, declared their love -to the English, and that in their whole lives they had never done them -injury. And in this posture they all received the hatchet. Men, women, -and children were every one inhumanly murdered in cold blood. *** The -barbarous men who committed the atrocious act, in defiance of -government, of all laws, human and divine, and to the eternal disgrace -of their country and color, then mounted their horses, huzzaed in -triumph, as if they had gained a victory, and rode off unmolested. *** -The bodies of the murdered were then brought out and exposed in the -street till a hole could be made in the earth to receive and cover them. -But the wickedness cannot be covered, and the guilt will lie on the -whole land till justice is done on the murderers. The blood of the -innocent will cry to Heaven for vengeance." - -These last extracts are from a pamphlet printed in Philadelphia at the -time of the massacre; printed anonymously, because "so much had fear -seized the minds of the people" that neither the writer nor the printer -dared to give "name or place of abode." - -There are also private letters still preserved which give accounts of -the affair. A part of one from William Henry, of Lancaster, to a friend -in Philadelphia, is given in "Rupp's History of Lancaster County." He -says, "A regiment of Highlanders were at that time quartered at the -barracks in the town, and yet these murderers were permitted to break -open the doors of the city jail and commit the horrid deed. The first -notice I had of the affair was that, while at my father's store near the -court-house, I saw a number of people running down-street toward the -jail, which enticed me and other lads to follow them. At about six or -eight yards from the jail we met from twenty-five to thirty men, well -mounted on horses, and with rifles, tomahawks, and scalping-knives, -equipped for murder. I ran into the prison-yard, and there, oh, what a -horrid sight presented itself to my view! Near the back door of the -prison lay an old Indian and his squaw, particularly well known and -esteemed by the people of the town on account of his placid and friendly -conduct. His name was Will Soc. Around him and his squaw lay two -children, about the age of three years, whose heads were split with the -tomahawk and their scalps taken off. Toward the middle of the jail-yard, -along the west side of the wall, lay a stout Indian, whom I particularly -noticed to have been shot in his breast. His legs were chopped with the -tomahawk, his hands cut off, and finally a rifle-ball discharged in his -mouth, so that his head was blown to atoms, and the brains were splashed -against and yet hanging to the wall for three or four feet around. This -man's hands and feet had been chopped off with a tomahawk. In this -manner lay the whole of them—men, women, and children—spread about the -prison-yard, shot, scalped, hacked, and cut to pieces." - -After this the Governor of Pennsylvania issued a second proclamation, -still more stringent than the first, and offering a reward of $600 for -the apprehension of any three of the ringleaders. - -But the "Paxton Boys" were now like wild beasts that had tasted blood. -They threatened to attack the Quakers and all persons who sympathized -with or protected Indians. They openly mocked and derided the governor -and his proclamations, and set off at once for Philadelphia, announcing -their intention of killing all the Moravian Indians who had been placed -under the protection of the military there. - -Their march through the country was like that of a band of maniacs. In a -private letter written by David Rittenhouse at this time, he says, -"About fifty of these scoundrels marched by my workshop. I have seen -hundreds of Indians travelling the country, and can with truth affirm -that the behavior of these fellows was ten times more savage and brutal -than theirs. Frightening women by running the muzzles of guns through -windows, hallooing and swearing; attacking men without the least -provocation, dragging them by the hair to the ground, and pretending to -scalp them; shooting dogs and fowls: these are some of their exploits." - -It is almost past belief that at this time many people justified these -acts. An Episcopalian clergyman in Lancaster wrote vindicating them, -"bringing Scripture to prove that it was right to destroy the heathen;" -and the "Presbyterians think they have a better justification—nothing -less than the Word of God," says one of the writers on the massacre. - -"With the Scriptures in their hands and mouths, they can set at naught -that express command, 'Thou shalt do no murder,' and justify their -wickedness by the command given to Joshua to destroy the heathen. Horrid -perversion of Scripture and religion, to father the worst of crimes on -the God of Love and Peace!" It is a trite saying that history repeats -itself; but it is impossible to read now these accounts of the massacres -of defenceless and peaceable Indians in the middle of the eighteenth -century, without the reflection that the record of the nineteenth is -blackened by the same stains. What Pennsylvania pioneers did in 1763 to -helpless and peaceable Indians of Conestoga, Colorado pioneers did in -1864 to helpless and peaceable Cheyennes at Sand Creek, and have -threatened to do again to helpless and peaceable Utes in 1880. The word -"extermination" is as ready on the frontiersman's tongue to-day as it -was a hundred years ago; and the threat is more portentous now, seeing -that we are, by a whole century of prosperity, stronger and more -numerous, and the Indians are, by a whole century of suffering and -oppression, fewer and weaker. But our crime is baser and our infamy -deeper in the same proportion. - -Close upon this Conestoga massacre followed a "removal" of friendly -Indians—the earliest on record, and one whose cruelty and cost to the -suffering Indians well entitle it to a place in a narrative of -massacres. - -Everywhere in the provinces fanatics began to renew the old cry that the -Indians were the Canaanites whom God had commanded Joshua to destroy; -and that these wars were a token of God's displeasure with the Europeans -for permitting the "heathen" to live. Soon it became dangerous for a -Moravian Indian to be seen anywhere. In vain did he carry one of the -Pennsylvania governor's passports in his pocket. He was liable to be -shot at sight, with no time to pull his passport out. Even in the -villages there was no safety. The devoted congregations watched and -listened night and day, not knowing at what hour they might hear the -fatal warwhoop of hostile members of their own race, coming to slay -them; or the sudden shots of white settlers, coming to avenge on them -outrages committed by savages hundreds of miles away. - -With every report that arrived of Indian massacres at the North, the -fury of the white people all over the country rose to greater height, -including even Christian Indians in its unreasoning hatred. But, in the -pious language of a narrative written by one of the Moravian -missionaries, "God inclined the hearts of the chief magistrates to -protect them. November 6th an express arrived from Philadelphia, -bringing an order that all the baptized Indians from Nain and -Wechquetank should be brought to Philadelphia, and be protected in that -city, having first delivered up their arms." - -Two days later both these congregations set out on their sad journey, -weeping as they left their homes. They joined forces at Bethlehem, on -the banks of the Lecha, and "entered upon their pilgrimage in the name -of the Lord, the congregation of Bethlehem standing spectators, and, as -they passed, commending them to the grace and protection of God, with -supplication and tears." - -Four of the Moravian missionaries were with them, and some of the -brethren from Bethlehem accompanied them all the way, "the sheriff, Mr. -Jennings, caring for them as a father." - -The aged, the sick, and the little children were carried in wagons. All -the others, women and men, went on foot. The November rains had made the -roads very heavy. As the weary and heart-broken people toiled slowly -along through the mud, they were saluted with curses and abuse on all -sides. As they passed through the streets of Germantown a mob gathered -and followed them, taunting them with violent threats of burning, -hanging, and other tortures. It was said that a party had been organized -to make a serious attack on them, but was deterred by the darkness and -the storm. Four days were consumed in this tedious march, and on the -11th of November they reached Philadelphia. Here, spite of the -governor's positive order, the officers in command at the barracks -refused to allow them to enter. From ten in the forenoon till three in -the afternoon there the helpless creatures stood before the shut -gate—messengers going back and forth between the defiant garrison and -the bewildered and impotent governor; the mob, thickening and growing -more and more riotous hour by hour, pressing the Indians on every side, -jeering them, reviling them, charging them with all manner of outrages, -and threatening to kill them on the spot. The missionaries, bravely -standing beside their flock, in vain tried to stem or turn the torrent -of insult and abuse. All that they accomplished was to draw down the -same insult and abuse on their own heads. - -Nothing but the Indians' marvellous patience and silence saved them from -being murdered by this exasperated mob. To the worst insults they made -no reply, no attempt at retaliation or defence. They afterward said that -they had comforted themselves "by considering what insult and mockery -our Saviour had suffered on their account." - -At last, after five hours of this, the governor, unable to compel the -garrison to open the barracks, sent an order that the Indians should be -taken to Province Island, an island in the Delaware River joined to the -main-land by a dam. Six miles more, every mile in risk of their lives, -the poor creatures walked. As they passed again through the city, -thousands followed them, the old record says, and "with such tumultuous -clamor that they might truly be considered as sheep among wolves." - -Long after dark they reached the island, and were lodged in some unused -buildings, large and comfortless. There they kept their vesper service, -and took heart from the fact that the verse for the day was that verse -of the beautiful thirty-second psalm which has comforted so many -perplexed souls: "I will teach thee in the way thou shalt go." - -Here they settled themselves as best they could. The missionaries had -their usual meetings with them, and humane people from Philadelphia, -"especially some of the people called Quakers," sent them provisions and -fuel, and tried in various ways to "render the inconvenience of their -situation less grievous." - -Before they had been here a month some of the villages they had left -were burnt, and the riotous Paxton mob, which had murdered all the -peaceful Conestoga Indians, announced its intention of marching on -Province Island and killing every Indian there. The Governor of -Pennsylvania launched proclamation after proclamation, forbidding any -one, under severest penalties, to molest the Indians under its -protection, and offering a reward of two hundred pounds for the -apprehension of the ringleaders of the insurgents. But public sentiment -was inflamed to such a degree that the Government was practically -powerless. The known ringleaders and their sympathizers paraded -contemptuously in front of the governor's house, mocking him derisively, -and not even two hundred pounds would tempt any man to attack them. In -many parts of Lancaster County parties were organized with the avowed -intention of marching on Philadelphia and slaughtering all the Indians -under the protection of the Government. Late on the 29th of December -rumors reached Philadelphia that a large party of these rioters were on -the road; and the governor, at daybreak the next day, sent large boats -to Province Island, with orders to the missionaries to put their people -on board as quickly as possible, row to Leek Island, and await further -orders. In confusion and terror the congregations obeyed, and fled to -Leek Island. Later in the day came a second letter from the governor, -telling them that the alarm had proved a false one. They might return to -Province Island, where he would send them a guard; and that they would -better keep the boats, to be ready in case of a similar emergency. - -"They immediately returned with joy to their former habitation," says -the old record, "comforted by the text for the day—'The Lord is my -strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him' (Ps. xxviii., 7)—and -closed this remarkable year with prayer and thanksgiving for all the -proofs of the help of God in so many heavy trials." - -Four days later the missionaries received a second order for instant -departure. The reports of the murderous intentions of the rioters being -confirmed, and the governor seeing only too clearly his own -powerlessness to contend with them, he had resolved to send the Indians -northward, and put them under the protection of the English army, and -especially of Sir William Johnson, agent for the Crown among the -Northern Indians. No time was to be lost in carrying out this plan, for -at any moment the mob might attack Province Island. Accordingly, at -midnight of January 4th, the fugitives set out once more, passed through -Philadelphia, undiscovered, to the meeting-house of the Moravian -Brethren, where a breakfast had been provided for them. Here they were -met by the commissary, Mr. Fox, who had been detailed by the governor to -take charge of their journey. Mr. Fox, heart-stricken at their suffering -appearance, immediately sent out and bought blankets to be distributed -among them, as some protection against the cold. Wagons were brought for -the aged, sick, blind, little children, and the heavy baggage; and again -the pitiful procession took up its march. Again an angry mob gathered -fast on its steps, cursing and reviling in a terrible manner, only -restrained by fear from laying violent hands on them. Except for the -protection of a military escort they would scarcely have escaped -murderous assault. - -At Amboy two sloops lay ready to transport them to New York; but just as -they reached this place, and were preparing to go on shore, a messenger -arrived from the Governor of New York with angry orders that not an -Indian should set foot in that territory. Even the ferry-men were -forbidden, under heavy penalties, to ferry one across the river. - -The commissioner in charge of them, in great perplexity, sent to the -Governor of Pennsylvania for further orders, placing the Indians, -meantime, in the Amboy barracks. Here they held their daily meetings, -singing and praying with great unction, until finally many of their -enemies were won to a hearty respect and sympathy for them; even -soldiers being heard to say, "Would to God all the white people were as -good Christians as these Indians." - -The Pennsylvania governor had nothing left him to do but to order the -Indians back again, and, accordingly, says the record, "The Indian -congregation set out with cheerfulness on their return, in full -confidence that the Lord in his good providence, for wise purposes best -known to himself, had ordained their travelling thus to and fro. This -belief supported them under all the difficulties they met with in their -journeys made in the severest part of winter." - -They made the return journey under a large military escort, one party in -advance and one bringing up the rear. This escort was composed of -soldiers, who, having just come from Niagara, where they had been -engaged in many fights with the North-western savages, were at first -disposed to treat these defenceless Indians with brutal cruelty; but -they were soon disarmed by the Indians' gentle patience, and became -cordial and friendly. - -The return journey was a hard one. The aged and infirm people had become -much weakened by their repeated hardships, and the little children -suffered pitiably. In crossing some of the frozen rivers the feeble ones -were obliged to crawl on their hands and feet on the ice. - -On the 24th of January they reached Philadelphia, and were at once taken -to the barracks, where almost immediately mobs began again to molest and -threaten them. The governor, thoroughly in earnest now, and determined -to sustain his own honor and that of the province, had eight heavy -pieces of cannon mounted and a rampart thrown up in front of the -barracks. The citizens were called to arms, and so great was the -excitement that it is said even Quakers took guns and hurried to the -barracks to defend the Indians; and the governor himself went at -midnight to visit them, and reassure them by promises of protection. - -On February 4th news was received that the rioters in large force were -approaching the city. Hearing of the preparations made to receive them, -they did not venture to enter. On the night of the 5th, however, they -drew near again. The whole city was roused, church-bells rung, bonfires -lighted, cannon fired, the inhabitants waked from their sleep and -ordered to the town-house, where arms were given to all. Four more -cannon were mounted at the barracks, and all that day was spent in -hourly expectation of the rebels. But their brave boasts were not -followed up by action. Seeing that the city was in arms against them, -they halted. The governor then sent a delegation of citizens to ask them -what they wanted. - -They asserted, insolently, that there were among the Indians some who -had committed murders, and that they must be given up. Some of the -ringleaders were then taken into the barracks and asked to point out the -murderers. Covered with confusion, they were obliged to admit they could -not accuse one Indian there. They then charged the Quakers with having -taken away six and concealed them. This also was disproved, and finally -the excitement subsided. - -All through the spring and summer the Indians remained prisoners in the -barracks. Their situation became almost insupportable from confinement, -unwholesome diet, and the mental depression inevitable in their state. -To add to their misery small-pox broke out among them, and fifty-six -died in the course of the summer from this loathsome disease. - -"We cannot describe," said the missionaries, "the joy and fervent desire -which most of them showed in the prospect of seeing their Saviour face -to face. We saw with amazement the power of the blood of Jesus in the -hearts of poor sinners." This was, no doubt, true; but there might well -have entered into the poor, dying creatures' thoughts an ecstasy at the -mere prospect of freedom, after a year of such imprisonment and -suffering. - -At last, on December 4th, the news of peace reached Philadelphia. On the -6th a proclamation was published in all the newspapers that war was -ended and hostilities must cease. The joy with which the prisoned -Indians received this news can hardly be conceived. It "exceeded all -descriptions," says the record, and "was manifested in thanksgivings and -praises to the Lord." - -It was still unsafe, however, for them to return to their old homes, -which were thickly surrounded by white settlers, who were no less -hostile now at heart than they had been before the proclamation of -peace. It was decided, therefore, that they should make a new settlement -in the Indian country on the Susquehanna River. After a touching -farewell to their old friends of the Bethlehem congregation, and a -grateful leave-taking of the governor, who had protected and supported -them for sixteen months, they set out on the 3d of April for their new -home in the wilderness. For the third time their aged, sick, and little -children were placed in overloaded wagons, for a long and difficult -journey—a far harder one than any they had yet taken. The -inhospitalities of the lonely wilderness were worse than the curses and -revilings of riotous mobs. They were overtaken by severe snow-storms. -They camped in icy swamps, shivering all night around smouldering fires -of wet wood. To avoid still hostile whites they had to take great -circuits through unbroken forests, where each foot of their path had to -be cut tree by tree. The men waded streams and made rafts for the women -and children. Sometimes, when the streams were deep, they had to go into -camp, and wait till canoes could be built. They carried heavy loads of -goods for which there was no room in the wagons. Going over high, steep -hills, they often had to divide their loads into small parcels, thus -doubling and trebling the road. Their provisions gave out. They ate the -bitter wild potatoes. When the children cried with hunger, they peeled -chestnut-trees, and gave them the sweet-juiced inner bark to suck. Often -they had no water except that from shallow, muddy puddles. Once they -were environed by blazing woods, whose fires burnt fiercely for hours -around their encampment. Several of the party died, and were buried by -the way. - -"But all these trials were forgotten in their daily meetings, in which -the presence of the Lord was most sensibly and comfortably felt. These -were always held in the evening, around a large fire, in the open air." - -They celebrated a "joyful commemoration" of Easter, and spent the -Passion-week "in blessed contemplation" of the sufferings of Jesus, -whose "presence supported them under all afflictions, insomuch that they -never lost their cheerfulness and resignation" during the five long -weeks of this terrible journey. - -On the 9th of May they arrived at Machwihilusing, and "forgot all their -pain and trouble for joy that they had reached the place of their future -abode. *** With offers of praise and thanksgiving, they devoted -themselves anew to Him who had given them rest for the soles of their -feet." - -"With renewed courage" they selected their home on the banks of the -Susquehanna, and proceeded to build houses. They gave to the settlement -the name of Friedenshutten—a name full of significance, as coming from -the hearts of these persecuted wanderers: Friedenshutten—"Tents of -Peace." - -If all this persecution had fallen upon these Indians because they were -Christians, the record, piteous as it is, would be only one out of -thousands of records of the sufferings of Christian martyrs, and would -stir our sympathies less than many another. But this was not the case. -It was simply because they were Indians that the people demanded their -lives, and would have taken them, again and again, except that all the -power of the Government was enlisted for their protection. The fact of -their being Christians did not enter in, one way or the other, any more -than did the fact that they were peaceable. They were Indians, and the -frontiersmen of Pennsylvania intended either to drive all Indians out of -their State or kill them, just as the frontiersmen of Nebraska and of -Colorado now intend to do if they can. We shall see whether the United -States Government is as strong to-day as the Government of the Province -of Pennsylvania was in 1763; or whether it will try first (and fail), as -John Penn did, to push the helpless, hunted creatures off somewhere into -a temporary makeshift of shelter, for a temporary deferring of the -trouble of protecting them. - -Sixteen years after the Conestoga massacre came that of Gnadenhütten, -the blackest crime on the long list; a massacre whose equal for -treachery and cruelty cannot be pointed out in the record of massacres -of whites by Indians. - -II.—_The Gnadenhütten Massacre._ - -In the year 1779 the congregations of Moravian Indians living at -Gnadenhütten, Salem, and Schonbrun, on the Muskingum River, were -compelled by hostile Indians to forsake their villages and go northward -to the Sandusky River. This movement was instigated by the English, who -had become suspicious that the influence of the Moravian missionaries -was thrown on the side of the colonies, and that their villages were -safe centres of information and supplies. These Indians having taken no -part whatever in the war, there was no pretext for open interference -with them; but the English agents found it no difficult matter to stir -up the hostile tribes to carry out their designs. And when the harassed -congregations finally consented to move, the savages who escorted them -were commanded by English officers. - -"The savages drove them forward like cattle," says an old narrative; -"the white brethren and sisters in the midst, surrounded by the -believing Indians." "One morning, when the latter could not set out as -expeditiously as the savages thought proper, they attacked the white -brethren, and forced them to set out alone, whipping their horses -forward till they grew wild, and not even allowing mothers time to -suckle their children. The road was exceeding bad, leading through a -continuance of swamps. Sister Zeisberger fell twice from her horse, and -once, hanging in the stirrup, was dragged for some time; but assistance -was soon at hand, and the Lord preserved her from harm. Some of the -believing Indians followed them as fast as possible, but with all their -exertions did not overtake them till night." - -For one month these unfortunate people journeyed through the wilds in -this way. When they reached the Sandusky Creek the savages left them to -take care of themselves as best they might. They were over a hundred -miles from their homes, "in a wilderness where there was neither game -nor provisions." Here they built huts of logs and bark. They had neither -beds nor blankets. In fact, the only things which the savages had left -them were their utensils for making maple sugar. It was the middle of -October when they reached Sandusky. Already it was cold, and the winter -was drawing near. In November Governor De Peyster, the English commander -at Fort Detroit, summoned the missionaries to appear before him and -refute the accusations brought against their congregations of having -aided and abetted the colonies. - -"The missionaries answered that they doubted not in the least but that -very evil reports must have reached his ears, as the treatment they had -met with had sufficiently proved that they were considered as guilty -persons, but that these reports were false. *** That Congress, indeed, -knew that they were employed as missionaries to the Indians, and did not -disturb them in their labors; but had never in anything given them -directions how to proceed." - -The governor, convinced of the innocence and single-heartedness of these -noble men, publicly declared that "he felt great satisfaction in their -endeavors to civilize and Christianize the Indians, and would permit -them to return to their congregations." He then gave them passports for -their journey back to Sandusky, and appended a permission that they -should perform the functions of their office among the Christian Indians -without molestation. - -This left them at rest so far as apprehensions of attack from hostile -Indians were concerned; but there still remained the terrible -apprehension of death by starvation and cold. Deep snows lay on the -ground. Their hastily-built huts were so small that it was impossible to -make large fires in them. Their floors being only the bare earth, -whenever a thaw came the water forced itself up and then froze again. -Cattle died for lack of food, and their carcasses were greedily -devoured; nursing children died for want of nourishment from their -starving mothers' breasts; the daily allowance of corn to each adult was -one pint, and even this pittance it was found would not last till -spring. - -Nevertheless, "they celebrated the Christmas holidays with cheerfulness -and blessing, and concluded this remarkable year with thanks and praise -to Him who is ever the Saviour of his people. But, having neither bread -nor wine, they could not keep the communion." - -Meantime the corn still stood ungathered in their old fields on the -Muskingum River. Weather-beaten, frozen, as it was, it would be still a -priceless store to these starving people. The project of going back -there after it began to be discussed. It was one hundred and twenty-five -miles' journey; but food in abundance lay at the journey's end. Finally -it was decided that the attempt should be made. Their first plan was to -hide their families in the woods at some distance from the settlements -lest there might be some danger from hostile whites. On their way, -however, they were met by some of their brethren from Schonbrun, who -advised them to go back openly into their deserted towns, assuring them -that the Americans were friendly to them now. They accordingly did so, -and remained for several weeks at Salem and Gnadenhütten, working day -and night gathering and husking the weather-beaten corn, and burying it -in holes in the ground in the woods for future supply. On the very day -that they were to have set off with their packs of corn, to return to -their starving friends and relatives at Sandusky, a party of between one -and two hundred whites made their appearance at Gnadenhütten. Seeing the -Indians scattered all through the cornfields, they rode up to them, -expressing pleasure at seeing them, and saying that they would take them -into Pennsylvania, to a place where they would be out of all reach of -persecution from the hostile savages or the English. They represented -themselves as "friends and brothers, who had purposely come out to -relieve them from the distress brought on them on account of their being -friends to the American people. *** The Christian Indians, not in the -least doubting their sincerity, walked up to them and thanked them for -being so kind; while the whites again gave assurances that they would -meet with good treatment from them. They then advised them to -discontinue their work and cross over to the town, in order to make -necessary arrangements for the journey, as they intended to take them -out of the reach of their enemies, and where they would be supplied -abundantly with all they stood in need of." - -They proposed to take them to Pittsburg, where they would be out of the -way of any assault made by the English or the savages. This the Indians -heard, one of their missionaries writes, "with resignation, concluding -that God would perhaps choose this method to put an end to their -sufferings. Prepossessed with this idea, they cheerfully delivered their -guns, hatchets, and other weapons to the murderers, who promised to take -good care of them, and in Pittsburg to return every article to its -rightful owner. Our Indians even showed them all those things which they -had secreted in the woods, assisted in packing them up, and emptied all -their beehives for these pretended friends." - -In the mean time one of the assistants, John Martin by name, went to -Salem, ten miles distant, and carried the good news that a party of -whites had come from the settlements to carry them to a place of safety -and give them protection. "The Salem Indians," says the same narrative, -"did not hesitate to accept of this proposal, believing unanimously that -God had sent the Americans to release them from their disagreeable -situation at Sandusky, and imagining that when arrived at Pittsburg they -might soon find a safe place to build a settlement, and easily procure -advice and assistance from Bethlehem." - -Some of the whites expressed a desire to see the village of Salem, were -conducted thither, and received with much friendship by the Indians. On -the way they entered into spiritual conversation with their unsuspecting -companions, feigning great piety and discoursing on many religious and -scriptural subjects. They offered also to assist the Salem Indians in -moving their effects. - -In the mean time the defenceless Indians at Gnadenhütten were suddenly -attacked, driven together, bound with ropes, and confined. As soon as -the Salem Indians arrived, they met with the same fate. - -The murderers then held a council to decide what should be done with -them. By a majority of votes it was decided to kill them all the next -day. To the credit of humanity be it recorded, that there were in this -band a few who remonstrated, declared that these Indians were innocent -and harmless, and should be set at liberty, or, at least, given up to -the Government as prisoners. Their remonstrances were unavailing, and, -finding that they could not prevail on these monsters to spare the -Indians' lives, "they wrung their hands, calling God to witness that -they were innocent of the blood of these Christian Indians. They then -withdrew to some distance from the scene of slaughter." - -The majority were unmoved, and only disagreed as to the method of -putting their victims to death. Some were for burning them alive; others -for tomahawking and scalping them. The latter method was determined on, -and a message was sent to the Indians that, "as they were Christian -Indians, they might prepare themselves in a Christian manner, for they -must all die to-morrow." - -The rest of the narrative is best told in the words of the Moravian -missionaries: "It may be easily conceived how great their terror was at -hearing a sentence so unexpected. However, they soon recollected -themselves, and patiently suffered the murderers to lead them into two -houses, in one of which the brethren were confined and in the other the -sisters and children. *** Finding that all entreaties to save their -lives were to no purpose, and that some, more blood-thirsty than others, -were anxious to begin upon them, they united in begging a short delay, -that they might prepare themselves for death, which request was granted -them. Then asking pardon for whatever offence they had given, or grief -they had occasioned to each other, they knelt down, offering fervent -prayers to God their Saviour and kissing one another. Under a flood of -tears, fully resigned to his will, they sung praises unto him, in the -joyful hope that they would soon be relieved from all pains and join -their Redeemer in everlasting bliss. *** The murderers, impatient to -make a beginning, came again to them while they were singing, and, -inquiring whether they were now ready for dying, they were answered in -the affirmative, adding that they had commended their immortal souls to -God, who had given them the assurance in their hearts that he would -receive their souls. One of the party, now taking up a cooper's mallet -which lay in the house, saying, 'How exactly this will answer for the -purpose,' began with Abraham, and continued knocking down one after -another until he counted fourteen that he had killed with his own hands. -He now handed the instrument to one of his fellow-murderers, saying: 'My -arm fails me. Go on in the same way. I think I have done pretty well.' -In another house, where mostly women and children were confined, Judith, -a remarkably pious aged widow, was the first victim. After they had -finished the horrid deed they retreated to a small distance from the -slaughterhouses; but, after a while, returning again to view the dead -bodies, and finding one of them (Abel), although scalped and mangled, -attempting to raise himself from the floor, they so renewed their blows -upon him that he never rose again. *** Thus ninety-six persons magnified -the name of the Lord by patiently meeting a cruel death. Sixty-two were -grown persons and thirty-four children. Many of them were born of -Christian parents in the society, and were among those who in the year -1763 were taken under the protection of the Pennsylvania Government at -the time of the riots of the Paxton Boys. *** Two boys, about fourteen -years of age, almost miraculously escaped from this massacre. One of -them was scalped and thrown down for dead. Recovering himself, he looked -around; but, with great presence of mind, lay down again quickly, -feigning death. In a few moments he saw the murderers return, and again -bury their hatchets in the head of Abel, who was attempting to rise, -though scalped and terribly mangled. As soon as it was dark, Thomas -crept over the dead bodies and escaped to the woods, where he hid -himself till night. The other lad, who was confined in the house with -the women, contrived unnoticed to slip through a trap-door into the -cellar, where he lay concealed through the day, the blood all the while -running down through the floor in streams. At dark he escaped through a -small window and crept to the woods, where he encountered Thomas, and -the two made their way together, after incredible hardships, to -Sandusky. To describe the grief and terror of the Indian congregation on -hearing that so large a number of its members was so cruelly massacred -is impossible. Parents wept and mourned for the loss of their children, -husbands for their wives, and wives for their husbands, children for -their parents, sisters for brothers, and brothers for sisters. But they -murmured not, nor did they call for vengeance on the murderers, but -prayed for them. And their greatest consolation was a full assurance -that all their beloved relatives were now at home in the presence of the -Lord, and in full possession of everlasting happiness." - -An account of this massacre was given in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, of -April 17th, 1782. It runs as follows: - -"The people being greatly alarmed, and having received intelligence that -the Indian towns on the Muskingum had not moved, as reported, a number -of men, properly provided, collected and rendezvoused on the Ohio, -opposite the Mingo Bottom, with a desire to surprise the above towns. - -"One hundred men swam the river, and proceeded to the towns on the -Muskingum, where the Indians had collected a large quantity of -provisions to supply their war-parties. They arrived at the town in the -night, undiscovered, attacked the Indians in their cabins, and so -completely surprised them that they killed and scalped upward of -ninety—but a few making their escape—about forty of whom were warriors, -the rest old women and children. About eighty horses fell into their -hands, which they loaded with the plunder, the greatest part furs and -skins, and returned to the Ohio without the loss of a man." - -III.—_Massacres of Apaches._ - -In less than one hundred years from this Gnadenhütten massacre an -officer of the United States Army, stationed at Camp Grant, in Arizona -Territory, writes to his commanding officer the following letter: - - "Camp Grant, Arizona Territory, May 17th, 1871. - -"DEAR COLONEL,—Thanks for your kind letter of last week. If I could see -you and have a long talk, and answer all your questions, I could come -nearer giving you a clear idea of the history of the Indians at this -post than by any written account. Having had them constantly under my -observation for nearly three months, and the care of them constantly on -my mind, certain things have become so much a matter of certainty to me -that I am liable to forget the amount of evidence necessary to convince -even the most unprejudiced mind that has not been brought in contact -with them. I will, however, try and give you a connected account, and if -it proves not sufficiently full in detail, you may be sure all its -positive statements will be sustained by the testimony of all competent -judges who have been at this post and cognizant of the facts. - -"Sometime in February a party of five old women came in under a flag of -truce, with a letter from Colonel Greene, saying they were in search of -a boy, the son of one of the number taken prisoner near Salt River some -months before. This boy had been well cared for, and had become attached -to his new mode of life, and did not wish to return. The party were -kindly treated, rationed while here, and after two days went away, -asking permission to return. They came in about eight days, I think, -with a still larger number, with some articles for sale, to purchase -manta, as they were nearly naked. Before going away they said a young -chief would like to come in with a party and have a talk. This I -encouraged, and in a few days he came with about twenty-five of his -band. He stated in brief that he was chief of a band of about one -hundred and fifty of what were originally the Aravapa Apaches; that he -wanted peace; that he and his people had no home, and could make none, -as they were at all times apprehensive of the approach of the cavalry. I -told him he should go to the White Mountains. He said, 'That is not our -country, neither are they our people. We are at peace with them, but -never have mixed with them. Our fathers and their fathers before them -have lived in these mountains, and have raised corn in this valley. We -are taught to make mescal, our principal article of food, and in summer -and winter here we have a never-failing supply. At the White Mountains -there is none, and without it now we get sick. Some of our people have -been in at Goodwin, and for a short time at the White Mountains; but -they are not contented, and they all say, "Let us go to the Aravapa and -make a final peace, and never break it."' - -"I told him I had no authority to make any treaty with him, or to -promise him that he would be allowed a permanent home here, but that he -could bring in his hand, and I would feed them, and report his wishes to -the Department commander. In the mean time runners had been in from two -other small bands, asking the same privileges and giving the same -reasons. I made the same reply to all, and by about the 11th of March I -had over three hundred here. I wrote a detailed account of the whole -matter, and sent it by express to Department Head-quarters, asking for -instructions, having only the general policy of the Government in such -cases for my guidance. After waiting more than six weeks my letter was -returned to me without comment, except calling my attention to the fact -that it was not briefed properly. At first I put them in camp, about -half a mile from the post, and counted them, and issued their rations -every second day. The number steadily increased until it reached the -number of five hundred and ten. - -"Knowing, as I did, that the responsibility of the whole movement rested -with me, and that, in case of any loss to the Government coming of it, I -should be the sufferer, I kept them continually under my observation -till I came not only to know the faces of the men, but of the women and -children. They were nearly naked, and needed everything in the way of -clothing. I stopped the Indians from bringing hay, that I might buy of -these. I arranged a system of tickets with which to pay them and -encourage them; and to be sure that they were properly treated, I -personally attended to the weighing. I also made inquiries as to the -kind of goods sold them, and prices. This proved a perfect success; not -only the women and children engaged in the work, but the men. The amount -furnished by them in about two months was nearly 300,000 pounds. - -"During this time many small parties had been out with passes for a -certain number of days to burn mescal. These parties were always mostly -women, and I made myself sure by noting the size of the party, and from -the amount of mescal brought in, that no treachery was intended. From -the first I was determined to know not only all they did, but their -hopes and intentions. For this purpose I spent hours each day with them -in explaining to them the relations they should sustain to the -Government, and their prospects for the future in case of either -obedience or disobedience. I got from them in return much of their -habits of thought and rules of action. I made it a point to tell them -all they wished to know, and in the plainest and most positive manner. -They were readily obedient, and remarkably quick of comprehension. They -were happy and contented, and took every opportunity to show it. They -had sent out runners to two other bands which were connected with them -by intermarriages, and had received promises from them that they would -come in and join them. I am confident, from all I have been able to -learn, that but for this unlooked-for butchery, by this time we would -have had one thousand persons, and at least two hundred and fifty -able-bodied men. As their number increased and the weather grew warmer, -they asked and obtained permission to move farther up the Aravapa to -higher ground and plenty of water, and opposite to the ground they were -proposing to plant. They were rationed every third day. Captain Stanwood -arrived about the first of April, and took command of the post. He had -received, while _en route_, verbal instructions from General Stoneman to -recognize and feed any Indians he might find at the post as prisoners of -war. After he had carefully inspected all things pertaining to their -conduct and treatment, he concluded to make no changes, but had become -so well satisfied of the integrity of their intentions that he left on -the 24th with his whole troop for a long scout in the lower part of the -Territory. The ranchmen in this vicinity were friendly and kind to them, -and felt perfectly secure, and had agreed with me to employ them at a -fair rate of pay to harvest their barley. The Indians seemed to have -lost their characteristic anxiety to purchase ammunition, and had, in -many instances, sold their best bows and arrows. I made frequent visits -to their camp, and if any were absent from count, made it my business to -know why. - -"Such was the condition of things up to the morning of the 30th of -April. They had so won on me that, from my first idea of treating them -justly and honestly, as an officer of the army, I had come to feel a -strong personal interest in helping to show them the way to a higher -civilization. I had come to feel respect for men who, ignorant and -naked, were still ashamed to lie or steal; and for women who would work -cheerfully like slaves to clothe themselves and children, but, untaught, -held their virtue above price. Aware of the lies industriously -circulated by the puerile press of the country, I was content to know I -had positive proof they were so. - -"I had ceased to have any fears of their leaving here, and only dreaded -for them that they might be at any time ordered to do so. They -frequently expressed anxiety to hear from the general, that they might -have confidence to build for themselves better houses; but would always -say, 'You know what we want, and if you can't see him you can write, and -do for us what you can.' It is possible that, during this time, -individuals from here had visited other bands; but that any number had -ever been out to assist in any marauding expedition I know is false. On -the morning of April 30th 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 Captain 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 the two interpreters, -mounted, to the Indian camp, with orders to tell the chiefs the exact -state of things, and for them to bring their entire party inside the -post. As I had no cavalry, and but about fifty infantry (all recruits), -and no other officer, I could not leave the post to go to their defence. -My messengers returned in about an hour with intelligence that they -could find no living Indians. - -"Their camp was burning, and the ground strewed with their dead and -mutilated women and children. I immediately mounted a party of about -twenty soldiers and citizens, and sent them with the post surgeon with a -wagon to bring in the wounded, if any could be found. The party returned -late in the afternoon, having found no wounded, and without having been -able to communicate with any of the survivors. Early the next morning I -took a similar party with spades and shovels, and went out and buried -the dead immediately in and about the camp. I had, the day before, -offered the interpreters, or any one who would do so, $100 to go to the -mountains and communicate with them, and convince them that no officer -or soldier of the United States Government had been concerned in the -vile transaction; and, failing in this, 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 we were at the work, many of -them came to the spot and indulged in expressions of grief too wild and -terrible to be described. - -"That evening they began to come in from all directions, singly and in -small parties, so changed as hardly to be recognizable in the -forty-eight hours during which they had neither eaten nor slept. Many of -the men, whose families had all been killed, when I spoke to them and -expressed 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 if I were their last hope on earth. Children, who two -days before had been full of frolic, kept at a distance, expressing -wondering horror. - -"I did what I could: I fed them, talked to them, and listened patiently -to their accounts. I sent horses to the mountains to bring in two badly -wounded women, one shot through the left leg, one with an arm shattered. -These were attended to, and are doing well, and will recover. - -"Their camp was surrounded and attacked at daybreak. So sudden and -unexpected was it, that I found a number of women shot while asleep -beside their bundles of hay, which they had collected to bring in on -that morning. The wounded who were unable to get away had their brains -beaten out with clubs or stones, while some were shot full of arrows -after having been mortally wounded by gun-shots. The bodies were all -stripped. Of the number buried, one was an old man, and one was a -well-grown boy; all the rest women and children. Of the whole number -killed and missing—about one hundred and twenty-five—only eight were -men. It has been said that the men were not there: they were all there. -On the 28th we counted one hundred and twenty-eight men, a small number -being absent for mescal, all of whom have since been in. I have spent a -good deal of time with them since the affair, and have been astonished -at their continued unshaken faith in me, and their perfectly clear -understanding of their misfortune. They say, 'We know there are a great -many white men and Mexicans who do not wish us to live at peace. We know -that the Papagos would never have come out against us at this time -unless they had been persuaded to do so.' What they do not understand -is, while they are at peace and are conscious of no wrong intent, that -they should be murdered. - -"One of the chiefs said: 'I no longer want to live; my women and -children 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 their -throats; 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 governor we never have and never shall see.' - -"About their captives they say: 'Get them back for us. Our little boys -will grow up slaves, and our girls, as soon as they are large enough, -will be diseased prostitutes, to get money for whoever owns them. 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 gave to you, and we look to you, who can write and talk and have -soldiers, to get them back.' - -"I assure you it is no easy task to convince them of my zeal when they -see so little being done. I have pledged my word to them that I never -would rest, day or night, until they should have justice, and just now I -would as soon leave the army as to be ordered away from them, or be -obliged to order them away from here. But you well know the difficulties -in the way. You know that parties who would engage in murder like this -could and would make statements and multiply affidavits without end in -their justification. I know you will use your influence on the right -side. I believe, with them, this may be made either a means of making -good citizens of them and their children, or of driving them out to a -hopeless war of extermination. They ask to be allowed to live here in -their old homes, where nature supplies nearly all their wants. They ask -for a fair and impartial trial of their faith, and they ask that all -their captive children may be returned to them. Is their demand -unreasonable?" - -This letter was written to Colonel T. G. C. Lee, U.S.A., by Lieut. Royal -E. Whitman, 3d U.S. Cavalry. It is published in the Report of the Board -of Indian Commissioners for 1871. There is appended to it the following -affidavit of the post surgeon at Camp Grant: - -"On this 16th day of September, 1871, personally appeared Conant B. -Brierley, who, being duly sworn according to law, deposeth and saith: 'I -am acting-assistant surgeon, U.S.A., at Camp Grant, Arizona, where I -arrived April 25th, 1871, and reported to the commanding officer for -duty as medical officer. Some four hundred Apache Indians were at that -time held as prisoners of war by the military stationed at Camp Grant, -and during the period intervening between April 25th and 30th I saw the -Indians every day. They seemed very well contented, and were busily -employed in bringing in hay, which they sold for manta and such little -articles as they desired outside the Government ration. April 29th -Chiquita and some of the other chiefs were at the post, and asked for -seeds and for some hoes, stating that they had ground cleared and ready -for planting. They were told that the garden-seeds had been sent for, -and would be up from Tucson in a few days. They then left, and I saw -nothing more of them until after the killing. - -"'Sunday morning I heard a rumor that the Indians had been attacked, and -learned from Lieutenant Whitman that he had sent the two interpreters to -the Indian camp to warn the Indians, and bring them down where they -could be protected, if possible. The interpreters returned and stated -that the attack had already been made and the Indians dispersed, and -that the attacking party were returning. - -"'Lieutenant Whitman then ordered me to go to the Indian camp to render -medical assistance, and bring down any wounded I might find. I took -twelve men and a wagon, and proceeded without delay to the scene of the -murder. On my arrival I found that I should have but little use for the -wagon or medicine. The work had been too thoroughly done. The camp had -been fired, and the dead bodies of twenty-one women and children were -lying scattered over the ground; those who had been wounded in the first -instance had their brains beaten out with stones. Two of the squaws had -been first ravished, and then shot dead. One infant of some two months -was shot twice, and one leg nearly hacked off. *** I know from my own -personal observations that, during the time the Indians were in, after -my arrival, they were rationed every three days, and Indians absent had -to be accounted for; their faces soon became familiar to me, and I could -at once tell when any strange Indian came in. - -"'And I furthermore state that I have been among nearly all the tribes -on the Pacific coast, and that I have never seen any Indians who showed -the intelligence, honesty, and desire to learn manifested by these -Indians. I came among them greatly prejudiced against them; but, after -being with them, I was compelled to admit that they were honest in their -intentions, and really desired peace. - - "'C. B. Brierley, - "'Acting Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A.'" - - * * * * * - -This is not the only instance of cruel outrage committed by white men on -the Apaches. In the Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners for 1871 -is the following letter from one of the Arizona pioneers, Mr. J. H. -Lyman, of Northampton, Mass. Mr. Lyman spent the years of 1840-'41 among -the Apaches, and thus briefly relates an occurrence which took place at -a time when they were friendly and cordial to all Americans going among -them: - -"The Indians were then, as now, hostile to the Mexicans of Sonora, and -they were constantly making raids into the State and driving off the -cattle. The Mexicans feared them, and were unable to meet them man to -man. At that time American trappers found the beaver very abundant about -the head-waters of the Gila River, among those rich mountain valleys -where the Apaches had, and still have, their secure retreats. At the -time I speak of there were two companies of trappers in that region. One -of the companies, about seventeen men, was under a captain named -Johnson. The other company consisted of thirty men, I think. I was -trapping on another head of the Gila, several miles north. The valleys -were full of Apaches, but all peaceful toward the white men, both -Indians and whites visiting each other's camps constantly and -fearlessly, with no thought of treachery or evil. Besides the Mexicans, -the only enemies of the Apaches were the Piutes and Navajoes, in the -north-west. But here in their fastnesses they felt safe from all foes. - -"One day Johnson concluded to go down into Sonora on a spree, as was -occasionally the way with mountain-men. He there saw the Governor of -Sonora, who, knowing that he had the confidence of the Indians, offered -him an ounce of gold for every Apache scalp he would bring him. The -bargain was struck. Johnson procured a small mountain howitzer, and -then, with supplies for his party, returned to his camp. Previous to -entering it he loaded his howitzer with a quantity of bullets. On -approaching the valley he was met by the Indians, who joyfully welcomed -him back, and proceeded at once to prepare the usual feast. While they -were boiling and roasting their venison and bear meat, and were gathered -in a small group around the fire, laughing and chatting in anticipation -of the pleasure they expected in entertaining their guests, Johnson told -those of his party who had remained behind of the offer of the governor, -and with such details of temptation as easily overcame any scruples such -men might have. - -"As they were all armed with rifles, which were always in hand day and -night, together with pistols in belt, they needed no preparation. The -howitzer, which the Indians might have supposed to be a small keg of -whiskey, was placed on the ground and pointed at the group of warriors, -squaws, and little children round the fire, watching the roasting meal. - -"While they were thus engaged, with hearts full of kindly feelings -toward their white friends, Johnson gave the signal. The howitzer was -discharged, sending its load of bullets scattering and tearing through -the mass of miserable human beings, and nearly all who were not stricken -down were shot by the rifles. A very few succeeded in escaping into the -ravine, and fled over the dividing ridge into the northern valleys, -where they met others of their tribe, to whom they told the horrible -story. - -"The Apaches at once showed that they could imitate their more civilized -brothers. Immediately a band of them went in search of the other company -of trappers, who, of course, were utterly unconscious of Johnson's -infernal work. They were attacked, unprepared, and nearly all killed; -and then the story that the Apaches were treacherous and cruel went -forth into all the land, but nothing of the wrongs they had received." - -Is it to be wondered at that the Apaches became one of the most hostile -and dangerous tribes on the Pacific coast? - -These are but four massacres out of scores, whose history, if written, -would prove as clearly as do these, that, in the long contest between -white men and Indians, the Indian has not always been the aggressor, and -that treachery and cruelty are by no means exclusively Indian traits. - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - CONCLUSION. - - -There are within the limits of the United States between two hundred and -fifty and three hundred thousand Indians, exclusive of those in Alaska. -The names of the different tribes and bands, as entered in the -statistical tables of the Indian Office Reports, number nearly three -hundred. One of the most careful estimates which have been made of their -numbers and localities gives them as follows: "In Minnesota and States -east of the Mississippi, about 32,500; in Nebraska, Kansas, and the -Indian Territory, 70,650; in the Territories of Dakota, Montana, -Wyoming, and Idaho, 65,000; in Nevada and the Territories of Colorado, -New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, 84,000; and on the Pacific slope, -48,000." - -Of these, 130,000 are self-supporting on their own reservations, -"receiving nothing from the Government except interest on their own -moneys, or annuities granted them in consideration of the cession of -their lands to the United States."[31] - -Footnote 31: - - A Annual Report of Indian Commissioner for 1872. - -This fact alone would seem sufficient to dispose forever of the -accusation, so persistently brought against the Indian, that he will not -work. - -Of the remainder, 84,000 are partially supported by the Government—the -interest money due them and their annuities, as provided by treaty, -being inadequate to their subsistence on the reservations where they are -confined. In many cases, however, these Indians furnish a large part of -their support—the White River Utes, for instance, who are reported by -the Indian Bureau as getting sixty-six per cent. of their living by -"root-digging, hunting, and fishing;" the Squaxin band, in Washington -Territory, as earning seventy-five per cent., and the Chippewas of Lake -Superior as earning fifty per cent. in the same way. These facts also -would seem to dispose of the accusation that the Indian will not work. - -There are about 55,000 who never visit an agency, over whom the -Government does not pretend to have either control or care. These 55,000 -"subsist by hunting, fishing, on roots, nuts, berries, etc., and by -begging and stealing;" and this also seems to dispose of the accusation -that the Indian will not "work for a living." There remains a small -portion, about 31,000, that are entirely subsisted by the Government. - -There is not among these three hundred bands of Indians one which has -not suffered cruelly at the hands either of the Government or of white -settlers. The poorer, the more insignificant, the more helpless the -band, the more certain the cruelty and outrage to which they have been -subjected. This is especially true of the bands on the Pacific slope. -These Indians found themselves of a sudden surrounded by and caught up -in the great influx of gold-seeking settlers, as helpless creatures on a -shore are caught up in a tidal wave. There was not time for the -Government to make treaties; not even time for communities to make laws. -The tale of the wrongs, the oppressions, the murders of the -Pacific-slope Indians in the last thirty years would be a volume by -itself, and is too monstrous to be believed. - -It makes little difference, however, where one opens the record of the -history of the Indians; every page and every year has its dark stain. -The story of one tribe is the story of all, varied only by differences -of time and place; but neither time nor place makes any difference in -the main facts. Colorado is as greedy and unjust in 1880 as was Georgia -in 1830, and Ohio in 1795; and the United States Government breaks -promises now as deftly as then, and with an added ingenuity from long -practice. - -One of its strongest supports in so doing is the wide-spread sentiment -among the people of dislike to the Indian, of impatience with his -presence as a "barrier to civilization," and distrust of it as a -possible danger. The old tales of the frontier life, with its horrors of -Indian warfare, have gradually, by two or three generations' telling, -produced in the average mind something like an hereditary instinct of -unquestioning and unreasoning aversion which it is almost impossible to -dislodge or soften. - -There are hundreds of pages of unimpeachable testimony on the side of -the Indian; but it goes for nothing, is set down as sentimentalism or -partisanship, tossed aside and forgotten. - -President after president has appointed commission after commission to -inquire into and report upon Indian affairs, and to make suggestions as -to the best methods of managing them. The reports are filled with -eloquent statements of wrongs done to the Indians, of perfidies on the -part of the Government; they counsel, as earnestly as words can, a trial -of the simple and unperplexing expedients of telling truth, keeping -promises, making fair bargains, dealing justly in all ways and all -things. These reports are bound up with the Government's Annual Reports, -and that is the end of them. It would probably be no exaggeration to say -that not one American citizen out of ten thousand ever sees them or -knows that they exist, and yet any one of them, circulated throughout -the country, read by the right-thinking, right-feeling men and women of -this land, would be of itself a "campaign document" that would initiate -a revolution which would not subside until the Indians' wrongs were, so -far as is now left possible, righted. - -In 1869 President Grant appointed a commission of nine men, representing -the influence and philanthropy of six leading States, to visit the -different Indian reservations, and to "examine all matters appertaining -to Indian affairs." - -In the report of this commission are such paragraphs as the following: -"To assert that 'the Indian will not work' is as true as it would be to -say that the white man will not work. - -"Why should the Indian be expected to plant corn, fence lands, build -houses, or do anything but get food from day to day, when experience has -taught him that the product of his labor will be seized by the white man -to-morrow? The most industrious white man would become a drone under -similar circumstances. Nevertheless, many of the Indians" (the -commissioners might more forcibly have said 130,000 of the Indians) "are -already at work, and furnish ample refutation of the assertion that 'the -Indian will not work,' There is no escape from the inexorable logic of -facts. - -"The history of the Government connections with the Indians is a -shameful record of broken treaties and unfulfilled promises. The history -of the border white man's connection with the Indians is a sickening -record of murder, outrage, robbery, and wrongs committed by the former, -as the rule, and occasional savage outbreaks and unspeakably barbarous -deeds of retaliation by the latter, as the exception. - -"Taught by the Government that they had rights entitled to respect, when -those rights have been assailed by the rapacity of the white man, the -arm which should have been raised to protect them has ever been ready to -sustain the aggressor. - -"The testimony of some of the highest military officers of the United -States is on record to the effect that, in our Indian wars, almost -without exception, the first aggressions have been made by the white -man; and the assertion is supported by every civilian of reputation who -has studied the subject. In addition to the class of robbers and outlaws -who find impunity in their nefarious pursuits on the frontiers, there is -a large class of professedly reputable men who use every means in their -power to bring on Indian wars for the sake of the profit to be realized -from the presence of troops and the expenditure of Government funds in -their midst. They proclaim death to the Indians at all times in words -and publications, making no distinction between the innocent and the -guilty. They irate the lowest class of men to the perpetration of the -darkest deeds against their victims, and as judges and jurymen shield -them from the justice due to their crimes. Every crime committed by a -white man against an Indian is concealed or palliated. Every offence -committed by an Indian against a white man is borne on the wings of the -post or the telegraph to the remotest corner of the land, clothed with -all the horrors which the reality or imagination can throw around it. -Against such influences as these the people of the United States need to -be warned." - -To assume that it would be easy, or by any one sudden stroke of -legislative policy possible, to undo the mischief and hurt of the long -past, set the Indian policy of the country right for the future, and -make the Indians at once safe and happy, is the blunder of a hasty and -uninformed judgment. The notion which seems to be growing more -prevalent, that simply to make all Indians at once citizens of the -United States would be a sovereign and instantaneous panacea for all -their ills and all the Government's perplexities, is a very -inconsiderate one. To administer complete citizenship of a sudden, all -round, to all Indians, barbarous and civilized alike, would be as -grotesque a blunder as to dose them all round with any one medicine, -irrespective of the symptoms and needs of their diseases. It would kill -more than it would cure. Nevertheless, it is true, as was well stated by -one of the superintendents of Indian Affairs in 1857, that, "so long as -they are not citizens of the United States, their rights of property -must remain insecure against invasion. The doors of the federal -tribunals being barred against them while wards and dependents, they can -only partially exercise the rights of free government, or give to those -who make, execute, and construe the few laws they are allowed to enact, -dignity sufficient to make them respectable. While they continue -individually to gather the crumbs that fall from the table of the United -States, idleness, improvidence, and indebtedness will be the rule, and -industry, thrift, and freedom from debt the exception. The utter absence -of individual title to particular lands deprives every one among them of -the chief incentive to labor and exertion—the very mainspring on which -the prosperity of a people depends." - -All judicious plans and measures for their safety and salvation must -embody provisions for their becoming citizens as fast as they are fit, -and must protect them till then in every right and particular in which -our laws protect other "persons" who are not citizens. - -There is a disposition in a certain class of minds to be impatient with -any protestation against wrong which is unaccompanied or unprepared with -a quick and exact scheme of remedy. This is illogical. When pioneers in -a new country find a tract of poisonous and swampy wilderness to be -reclaimed, they do not withhold their hands from fire and axe till they -see clearly which way roads should run, where good water will spring, -and what crops will best grow on the redeemed land. They first clear the -swamp. So with this poisonous and baffling part of the domain of our -national affairs—let us first "clear the swamp." - -However great perplexity and difficulty there may be in the details of -any and every plan possible for doing at this late day anything like -justice to the Indian, however hard it may be for good statesmen and -good men to agree upon the things that ought to be done, there certainly -is, or ought to be, no perplexity whatever, no difficulty whatever, in -agreeing upon certain things that ought not to be done, and which must -cease to be done before the first steps can be taken toward righting the -wrongs, curing the ills, and wiping out the disgrace to us of the -present condition of our Indians. - -Cheating, robbing, breaking promises—these three are clearly things -which must cease to be done. One more thing, also, and that is the -refusal of the protection of the law to the Indian's rights of property, -"of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." - -When these four things have ceased to be done, time, statesmanship, -philanthropy, and Christianity can slowly and surely do the rest. Till -these four things have ceased to be done, statesmanship and philanthropy -alike must work in vain, and even Christianity can reap but small -harvest. - - - - - APPENDIX. - - - - - I. - - THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE. - - -The following letters were printed in the _New York Tribune_ in the -winter of 1879. They are of interest, not only as giving a minute -account of one of the most atrocious massacres ever perpetrated, but -also as showing the sense of justice which is to be found in the -frontiersman's mind to-day. That men, exasperated by atrocities and -outrages, should have avenged themselves with hot haste and cruelty, -was, perhaps, only human; but that men should be found, fifteen years -later, apologizing for, nay, justifying the cruel deed, is indeed a -matter of marvel. - - -LETTER I. - -In June, 1864, Governor Evans, of Colorado, sent out a circular to the -Indians of the Plains, inviting all friendly Indians to come into the -neighborhood of the forts, and be protected by the United States troops. -Hostilities and depredations had been committed by some bands of -Indians, and the Government was about to make war upon them. This -circular says: - -"In some instances they (the Indians) have attacked and killed soldiers, -and murdered peaceable citizens. For this the Great Father is angry, and -will certainly hunt them out and punish them; but he does not want to -injure those who remain friendly to the whites. He desires to protect -and take care of them. For this purpose I direct that all friendly -Indians keep away from those who are at war, and go to places of safety. -Friendly Arapahoes and Cheyennes belonging to the Arkansas River will go -to Major Colby, United States Agent at Fort Lyon, who will give them -provisions and show them a place of safety." - -In consequence of this proclamation of the governor, a band of -Cheyennes, several hundred in number, came in and settled down near Fort -Lyon. After a time they were requested to move to Sand Creek, about -forty miles from Fort Lyon, where they were still guaranteed "perfect -safety" and the protection of the Government. Rations of food were -issued to them from time to time. On the 27th of November, Colonel J. M. -Chivington, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Denver, and -Colonel of the First Colorado Cavalry, led his regiment by a forced -march to Fort Lyon, induced some of the United States troops to join -him, and fell upon this camp of friendly Indians at daybreak. The chief, -White Antelope, always known as friendly to the whites, came running -toward the soldiers, holding up his hands and crying "Stop! stop!" in -English. When he saw that there was no mistake, that it was a deliberate -attack, he folded his arms and waited till he was shot down. The United -States flag was floating over the lodge of Black Kettle, the head chief -of the tribe; below it was tied also a small white flag as additional -security—a precaution Black Kettle had been advised by United States -officers to take if he met troops on the Plains. In Major Wynkoop's -testimony, given before the committee appointed by Congress to -investigate this massacre, is the following passage: - -"Women and children were killed and scalped, children shot at their -mothers' breasts, and all the bodies mutilated in the most horrible -manner. *** The dead bodies of females profaned in such a manner that -the recital is sickening, Colonel J. M. Chivington all the time inciting -his troops to their diabolical outrages." - -Another man testified as to what he saw on the 30th of November, three -days after the battle, as follows: - -"I saw a man dismount from his horse and cut the ear from the body of an -Indian, and the scalp from the head of another. I saw a number of -children killed; they had bullet-holes in them; one child had been cut -with some sharp instrument across its side. I saw another that both ears -had been cut off. *** I saw several of the Third Regiment cut off -fingers to get the rings off them. I saw Major Sayre scalp a dead -Indian. The scalp had a long tail of silver hanging to it." - -Robert Bent testified: - -"I saw one squaw lying on the bank, whose leg had been broken. A soldier -came up to her with a drawn sabre. She raised her arm to protect -herself; he struck, breaking her arm. She rolled over, and raised her -other arm; he struck, breaking that, and then left her without killing -her. I saw one squaw cut open, with an unborn child lying by her side." - -Major Anthony testified: - -"There was one little child, probably three years old, just big enough -to walk through the sand. The Indians had gone ahead, and this little -child was behind, following after them. The little fellow was perfectly -naked, travelling in the sand. I saw one man get off his horse at a -distance of about seventy-five yards and draw up his rifle and fire. He -missed the child. Another man came up and said, 'Let me try the son of a -b——. I can hit him.' He got down off his horse, kneeled down, and fired -at the little child, but he missed him. A third man came up, and made a -similar remark, and fired, and the little fellow dropped." - -The Indians were not able to make much resistance, as only a part of -them were armed, the United States officers having required them to give -up their guns. Luckily they had kept a few. - -When this Colorado regiment of demons returned to Denver they were -greeted with an ovation. _The Denver News_ said: "All acquitted -themselves well. Colorado soldiers have again covered themselves with -glory;" and at a theatrical performance given in the city, these scalps -taken from Indians were held up and exhibited to the audience, which -applauded rapturously. - -After listening, day after day, to such testimonies as these I have -quoted, and others so much worse that I may not write and _The Tribune_ -could not print the words needful to tell them, the committee reported: -"It is difficult to believe that beings in the form of men, and -disgracing the uniform of United States soldiers and officers, could -commit or countenance the commission of such acts of cruelty and -barbarity;" and of Colonel Chivington: "He deliberately planned and -executed a foul and dastardly massacre, which would have disgraced the -veriest savage among those who were the victims of his cruelty." - -This was just fifteen years ago, no more. Shall we apply the same rule -of judgment to the white men of Colorado that the Government is now -applying to the Utes? There are 130,000 inhabitants of Colorado; -hundreds of them had a hand in this massacre, and thousands in cool -blood applauded it when it was done. There are 4000 Utes in Colorado. -Twelve of them, desperate, guilty men, have committed murder and rape, -and three or four hundred of them did, in the convenient phrase of our -diplomacy, "go to war against the Government;" _i.e._, they attempted, -by force of arms, to restrain the entrance upon their own lands—lands -bought, owned and paid for—of soldiers that the Government had sent -there, to be ready to make way upon them, in case the agent thought it -best to do so! This is the plain English of it. This is the plain, naked -truth of it. - -And now the Secretary of the Interior has stopped the issue of rations -to 1000 of these helpless creatures; rations, be it understood, which -are not, and never were, a charity, but are the Utes' rightful dues, on -account of lands by them sold; dues which the Government promised to pay -"annually forever." Will the American people justify this? There is such -a thing as the conscience of a nation—as a nation's sense of justice. -Can it not be roused to speak now? Shall we sit still, warm and well -fed, in our homes, while five hundred women and little children are -being slowly starved in the bleak, barren wildernesses of Colorado? -Starved, not because storm, or blight, or drouth has visited their -country and cut off their crops; not because pestilence has laid its -hand on them and slain the hunters who brought them meat, but because it -lies within the promise of one man, by one word, to deprive them of -one-half their necessary food for as long a term of years as he may -please; and "the Secretary of the Interior cannot consistently feed a -tribe that has gone to war against the Government." - -We read in the statutes of the United States that certain things may be -done by "executive order" of the President. Is it not time for a -President to interfere when hundreds of women and children are being -starved in his Republic by the order of one man? Colonel J. M. -Chivington's method was less inhuman by far. To be shot dead is a mercy, -and a grace for which we would all sue, if to be starved to death were -our only other alternative. - - H. H. - -New York, Jan 31st, 1880. - - * * * * * - -This letter drew from the former editor of the _Rocky Mountain News_, a -Denver newspaper, the following reply: - -LETTER II. - - _To the Editor of the Tribune_: - -SIR,—In your edition of yesterday appears an article, under the above -caption, which arraigns the people of Colorado as a community of -barbarous murderers, and finally elevates them above the present -Secretary of the Interior, thereby placing the latter gentleman in a -most unenviable light if the charges averred be true. "The Sand Creek -Massacre" of 1864 is made the text and burden of the article; its -application is to the present condition of the White River band of Utes -in Colorado. Quotations are given from the testimony gathered, and the -report made thereon by a committee of Congress charged with a so-called -investigation of the Sand Creek affair. That investigation was made for -a certain selfish purpose. It was to break down and ruin certain men. -Evidence was taken upon one side only. It was largely false, and -infamously partial. There was no answer for the defence. - -The Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians assembled at Sand Creek were not under -the protection of a United States fort. A few of them had been encamped -about Fort Lyon and drawing supplies therefrom, but they had gradually -disappeared and joined the main camp on Dry Sandy, forty miles from the -fort, separated from it by a waterless desert, and entirely beyond the -limit of its control or observation. While some of the occupants were -still, no doubt, occasional visitors at the fort, and applicants for -supplies and ammunition, most of the warriors were engaged in raiding -the great Platte River Road, seventy-five miles farther north, robbing -and burning trains, stealing cattle and horses, robbing and destroying -the United States mails, and killing white people. During the summer and -fall they had murdered over fifty of the citizens of Colorado. They had -stolen and destroyed provisions and merchandise, and driven away stock -worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. They had interrupted the mails, -and for thirty-two consecutive days none were allowed to pass their -lines. When satiated with murder and arson, and loaded with plunder, -they would retire to their sacred refuge on Sand Creek to rest and -refresh themselves, recruit their wasted supplies of ammunition from -Fort Lyon—begged under the garb of gentle, peaceful savages—and then -return to the road to relieve their tired comrades, and riot again in -carnage and robbery. These are facts; and when the "robbers' roost" was -cleaned out, on that sad but glorious 27th day of November, 1864, they -were sufficiently proven. Scalps of white men not yet dried; letters and -photographs stolen from the mails; bills of lading and invoices of -goods; bales and bolts of the goods themselves, addressed to merchants -in Denver; half-worn clothing of white women and children, and many -other articles of like character, were found in that poetical Indian -camp, and recovered by the Colorado soldiers. They were brought to -Denver, and those were the scalps exhibited in the theatre of that city. -There was also an Indian saddle-blanket entirely fringed around the -edges with white women's scalps, with the long, fair hair attached. -There was an Indian saddle over the pommel of which was stretched skin -stripped from the body of a white woman. Is it any wonder that soldiers -flushed with victory, after one of the hardest campaigns ever endured by -men, should indulge—some of them—in unwarranted atrocities after finding -such evidence of barbarism, and while more than forty of their comrades -were weltering in their own blood upon the field? - -If "H. H." had been in Denver in the early part of that summer, when the -bloated, festering bodies of the Hungate family—father, mother, and two -babes—were drawn through the streets naked in an ox-wagon, cut, -mutilated, and scalped—the work of those same red fiends who were so -justly punished at Sand Creek; if, later, "H. H." had seen an upright -and most estimable business man go crazy over the news of his son's -being tortured to death a hundred miles down the Platte, as I did; if -"H. H." had seen one-half the Colorado homes made desolate that fateful -season, and a tithe of the tears that were caused to flow, I think there -would have been one little word of excuse for the people of -Colorado—more than a doubtful comparison with an inefficient and -culpable Indian policy. Bear in mind that Colorado had no railroads -then. Her supplies reached her by only one road—along the Platte—in -wagons drawn by oxen, mules, or horses. That line was in full possession -of the enemy. Starvation stared us in the face. Hardly a party went or -came without some persons being killed. In some instances whole trains -were cut off and destroyed. Sand Creek saved Colorado, and taught the -Indians the most salutary lesson they had ever learned. And now, after -fifteen years, and here in the shadow of the Nation's Capitol, with the -spectre of "H. H.'s" condemnation staring me in the face, I am neither -afraid nor ashamed to repeat the language then used by _The Denver -News_: "All acquitted themselves well. Colorado soldiers have again -covered themselves with glory." - -Thus much of history is gone over by "H. H." to present in true dramatic -form the deplorable condition of the White River Utes, 1000 in number, -who are now suffering the pangs of hunger and the discomfort of cold in -the wilds of Western Colorado, without any kind agent to issue rations, -provide blankets, or build fires for them. It is really too bad. A -painful dispensation of Providence has deprived them of their best -friend, and they are desolate and bereaved. He placed his life and its -best efforts, his unbounded enthusiasm for their good, his great -Christian heart—all at their service. But an accident befell him, and he -is no more. The coroner's jury that sat upon his remains found that his -dead body had a barrel stave driven into his mouth, a log-chain around -his neck, by which it had been dragged about like a dead hog, and sundry -bullet-holes through his body. The presumption was that from the effect -of some one of these accidents he died; and, alas! he is no longer to -serve out weekly rations to his flock of gentle Utes. There is no sorrow -over his death or the desolation it wrought, but there is pity, oceans -of pity, for the Indians who are hungry and cold. True, at the time he -died they took the flour, the pork, and salt, and coffee, and sugar, and -tobacco, and blankets, and all the other supplies that he would have -issued to them through all this long winter had he lived. With his care -these would have lasted until spring, and been sufficient for their -wants; but, without it, "H. H." is suspicious that they are all gone, -and yet it is but just past the middle of winter. Can "H. H." tell why -this is thus? It is also true that they drove away the large herd of -cattle from the increase of which that same unfortunate agent and his -predecessors had supplied them with beef for eleven years past, and yet -the consumption did not keep pace with the natural increase. They took -them all, and are presumed to have them now. True, again, they had at -the beginning of winter, or at the period of the melancholy loss of -their best friend, about 4000 horses that were rolling fat, and three -acres of dogs—not bad food in an emergency, or for an Indian -thanksgiving feast—some of which should still remain. - -THE WHOLE WHITE RIVER BAND GUILTY. - -But "H. H." intimates that there is an alleged excuse for withholding -rations from these poor, persecuted red angels. "Twelve" of them have -been bad, and the tyrant at the head of the Interior Department is -systematically starving all of the 1000 who constitute the band, and -their 4000 horses, and 1800 cattle, and three acres of dogs, and six -months' supplies, because those twelve bad Indians cannot -conscientiously pick themselves out and be offered up as a -burnt-offering and a sacrifice to appease the wrath of an outraged and -partly civilized nation. This is the present indictment, and the -Secretary and the President are commanded to stand up and plead "Guilty -or not guilty, but you know you are guilty, d—n you." Now I challenge -and defy "H. H.," or any other person living, to pick out or name twelve -White River male Utes, over sixteen years of age, who were _not_ guilty, -directly or indirectly, as principals or accomplices before the fact, in -the Thornburgh attack or in the Agency massacre. I know these Indians -well enough to know that these attacks were perfectly understood and -deliberately planned. I cannot be made to believe that a single one of -them, of common-sense and intelligence, was ignorant of what was to take -place, and that knowledge extended far beyond the White River band. -There were plenty of recruits from both the Los Pinos and the Uintah -bands. In withholding supplies from the White River Utes the Secretary -of the Interior is simply obeying the law. He cannot, except upon his -own personal responsibility, issue supplies to a hostile Indian tribe, -and the country will hold him accountable for a departure from his line -of duty. Inferentially the Indians are justified by "H. H." in their -attack upon Thornburgh's command. Their object was to defend "their own -lands—lands bought, owned, and paid for." Bought of whom, pray? Paid for -by whom? To whom was payment made? The soldiers were making no attack; -they contemplated none. The agent had no authority to order an attack. -He could not proclaim war. He could have no control whatever over the -troops. But his life was in danger. The honor of his family was at -stake. He asked for protection. "H. H." says he had no right to it. His -life and the honor of his aged wife and of his virgin daughter are gone, -and "H. H." is the champion of fiends who wrought the ruin. - - WM. N. BYERS. - -Washington, D. C., Feb. 6th, 1880. - - * * * * * - -The most fitting reply to the assertions in this extraordinary document -was by still further citations from the sworn testimony given before the -Congressional committees—evidence with which volumes could have been -filled. - -LETTER III. - - _To the Editor of the Tribune_: - -SIR,—In reply to the letter in Sunday's _Tribune_, headed "The Starving -Utes," I would like to place before the readers of _The Tribune_ some -extracts from sworn testimony taken in Colorado on the subject of the -Sand Creek massacre. The writer of this letter says: - -"The Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians assembled at Sand Creek were not -under the protection of a United States fort." - -The following testimony is that of Lieutenant Craven, Senate Document, -vol. ii., 1866-67, p. 46: - -"I had some conversation with Major Downing, Lieutenant Maynard, and -Colonel Chivington. I stated to them my feelings in regard to the -matter—that I believed it to be murder—and stated the obligations that -we of Major Wynkoop's command were under to those Indians. - -"To Colonel Chivington I know I stated that Major Wynkoop had pledged -his word as an officer and man to those Indians, and that all officers -under him were indirectly pledged in the same manner that he was, and -that I felt that it was placing us in very embarrassing circumstances to -fight the same Indians that had saved our lives, as we all felt that -they had. - -"Colonel Chivington's reply was that he believed it to be right and -honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians that would -kill women and children; and, 'damn any one that was in sympathy with -Indians;' and, 'such men as Major Wynkoop and myself had better get out -of the United States service.'" - -This conversation was testified to by other witnesses. Major Wynkoop, it -will be remembered, was the officer in command at Fort Lyon when this -band of Cheyennes and Arapahoes came in there to claim protection, in -consequence of the governor's proclamation, saying that, - -"All friendly Arapahoes and Cheyennes, belonging on the Arkansas River, -will go to Major Colby, United States Indian Agent at Fort Lyon, who -will give them provisions and show them a place of safety." - -Major Wynkoop was succeeded in the command of Fort Lyon by Major -Anthony, who continued for a time to issue rations to these Indians, as -Major Wynkoop had done; but after a time he called them together and -told them he could not feed them any longer; they would better go where -they could hunt. _He selected the place to which they were to move on -Sandy Creek._ They obeyed, and he gave back to them some of the arms -which had been taken away. They were moved to Sandy Creek, about forty -miles from Fort Lyon, partly "for fear of some conflict between them and -the soldiers or emigrants," Fort Lyon being on a thoroughfare of travel. -One of the chiefs—One Eye—was hired by Major Anthony at $125 a month "to -obtain information for the use of the military authorities. Several -times he brought news to the fort of proposed movements of hostile -Indians." This chief was killed in the massacre. - -This is the testimony of Captain Soule, First Colorado Cavalry: - -"Did you protest against attacking those Indians?" - -"I did." - -"Who was your commanding officer?" - -"Major Anthony." - -"Did you inform Major Anthony of the relations existing with Black -Kettle?" - -"I did. He knew the relations. I frequently talked to him about it." - -"What answer did Major Anthony make to your protests?" - -"He said that we were going to fight the hostile Indians at Smoky Hill. -He also said that he was in for killing all Indians, and that he had -only been acting friendly with them until he could get a force large -enough to go out and kill all of them." - -This is the testimony of S. E. Brown: - -"Colonel Chivington in a public speech said his policy was to kill and -scalp all, little and big: nits made lice." - -Governor Hunt testified as follows: [Governor Hunt was one of the -earliest settlers in Colorado. He was United States Marshal, Delegate to -Congress, and afterward Governor of the Territory.] - -"We have always regarded Black Kettle and White Antelope as the special -friends of the white man ever since I have been in this country." - -"Do you know of any acts of hostility committed by them or with their -consent?" - -"No, sir, I do not." - -"Did you ever hear any acts of hostility attributed to them by any one?" - -"No, sir." *** - -The following extract is: - -"The regiment, when they marched into Denver, exhibited Indian scalps." - -This is from the official report of Major Wynkoop, major commanding Fort -Lyon. - -"In conclusion, allow me to say that, from the time I held the -consultation with the Indian chiefs on the head-waters of Smoky Hill up -to the date of this massacre by Colonel Chivington, not one single -depredation had been committed by the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. The -settlers of the Arkansas Valley had returned to their ranches, from -which they had fled, had taken in their crops, and had been resting in -perfect security under assurances from myself that they would be in no -danger for the present. Since this last horrible murder by Colonel -Chivington the country presents a scene of desolation. All communication -is cut off with the States, except by sending large bodies of troops, -and already over a hundred whites have fallen victims to the fearful -vengeance of these betrayed Indians." - - January 15th, 1865. - - * * * * * - -The writer of this letter says, in regard to the investigation of the -Sand Creek massacre by the Congressional committee, that "evidence was -taken upon one side only," and "there was no answer for the defence." - -A large part of the testimony is sworn evidence, given by the Governor -of Colorado, by Colonel J. M. Chivington himself, who planned and -executed the massacre, and by Major Anthony, who accompanied him with -troops from Fort Lyon. The writer of this article says that "the -investigation was made for a certain selfish purpose, *** to break down -and ruin certain men." - -The names of Senator Foster, Senator Doolittle, and "honest Ben Wade -"are the best refutation of this statement. It will be hard to impeach -the trustworthiness of reports signed by these names, and one of these -reports says: - -"It is difficult to believe that beings in the form of men, and -disgracing the uniform of United States soldiers and officers, could -commit or countenance the commission of such acts of cruelty and -barbarity." - -Of Colonel Chivington, it says: - -"He deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly massacre, -which would have disgraced the veriest savage among those who were the -victims of his cruelty." - -And of Major Anthony: - -"The testimony of Major Anthony, who succeeded an officer disposed to -treat these Indians with justice and humanity, is sufficient of itself -to show how unprovoked and unwarranted was this massacre. He testifies -that he found these Indians camped near Fort Lyon when he assumed -command of that fort; that they professed their friendliness to the -whites, and their willingness to do whatever he demanded of them; that -they delivered their arms up to him; that they went to and encamped on -the place designated by him; that they gave him information from time to -time of acts of hostility which were meditated by other hostile bands, -and in every way conducted themselves properly and peaceably; and yet he -says it was fear and not principle which prevented his killing them -while they were completely in his power; and, when Colonel Chivington -appeared at Fort Lyon on his mission of murder and barbarity, Major -Anthony made haste to accompany him with men and artillery." - -The writer of this letter says that the evidence given in this -"so-called investigation" was "largely false and infamously partial." If -this were the case, why did not all persons so "infamously" slandered -see to it that before the year ended their own version of the affair -should reach, if not the general public, at least the Department of the -Interior? Why did they leave it possible for the Secretary of the -Interior to incorporate in his Annual Report for 1865—to be read by all -the American people—these paragraphs? - -"No official account has ever reached this office from its own proper -sources of the most disastrous and shameful occurrence, the massacre of -a large number of men, women, and children of the Indians of this agency -(the Upper Arkansas) by the troops under the command of Colonel -Chivington of the United States Volunteer Cavalry of Colorado. *** - -"When several hundred of them had come into a place designated by -Governor Evans as a rendezvous for those who would separate themselves -from the hostile parties, these Indians were set upon and butchered in -cold blood by troops in the service of the United States. The few who -escaped to the northward told a story which effectually prevented any -more advances toward peace by such of the bands as were well disposed." - -And why did the Government of the United States empower General Sanborn, -in the Council held October 12th, 1865, with the Arapahoes and -Cheyennes, including the remnants of bands that had escaped from the -Sand Creek massacre, to formally and officially repudiate the action of -the United States soldiers in that massacre? General Sanborn said, in -this council: - -"We all feel disgraced and ashamed when we see our officers or soldiers -oppressing the weak, or making war on those who are at peace with us. -*** We are willing, as representatives of the President, to restore all -the property lost at Sand Creek, or its value. *** He has sent out his -commissioners to make reparation, as far as we can. *** So heartily do -we repudiate the actions of our soldiers that we are willing to give to -the chiefs in their own right 320 acres of land each, to hold as his own -forever, and to each of the children and squaws who lost husbands or -parents; we are also willing to give 160 acres of land as their own, to -keep as long as they live." - -The writer of this letter, quoting the statement from a previous article -in _The Tribune_, that the White River Utes, in their attack on Major -Thornburgh's command, fought "to defend their own lands—lands bought, -owned, and paid for," asks: - -"Bought of whom, pray? Paid for by whom? To whom was payment made?" - -"Bought" of the United States Government, thereby recognizing the United -States Government's right to "the sovereignty of the soil" as superior -to the Indians' "right of occupancy." - -"Paid for" by the Ute Indians, by repeated "relinquishments" of said -"right of occupancy" in large tracts of valuable lands; notably by the -"relinquishment," according to the Brunot Treaty of 1873, of 4,000,000 -acres of valuable lands, "unquestionably rich in mineral -deposits."—_Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior for 1873_, p. -464. - -"To whom was payment made?" - -To the United States Government, which has accepted and ratified such -exchanges of "right of occupancy" for "right of sovereignty," and such -sales of "right of occupancy" for large sums of money by repeated and -reiterated treaties. - -The Secretary of the Interior has incorporated in his Annual Report for -1879 (in the report on Indian Affairs, p. 36) the following paragraphs: - -"Let it be fully understood that the Ute Indians have a good and -sufficient title to 12,000,000 acres of land in Colorado, and that these -Indians did not thrust themselves in the way of the white people, but -that they were originally and rightfully possessors of the soil, and -that the land they occupy has been acknowledged to be theirs by solemn -treaties made with them by the United States. - -"It will not do to say that a treaty with an Indian means nothing. It -means even more than the pledge of the Government to pay a bond. It is -the most solemn declaration that any government of any people ever -enters into. Neither will it do to say that treaties never ought to have -been made with Indians. That question is now not in order, as the -treaties have been made, and must be lived up to whether convenient or -otherwise. - -"By beginning at the outset with the full acknowledgment of the absolute -and indefeasible right of these Indians to 12,000,000 acres in Colorado, -we can properly consider what is the best method of extinguishing the -Indian title thereto without injustice to the Indians, and without -violating the plighted faith of the Government of the United States." - -The writer of this letter says: - -"In withholding supplies from the White River Utes, the Secretary of the -Interior is simply obeying the law. He cannot, except upon his own -personal responsibility, issue supplies to a hostile Indian tribe." - -Secretary Schurz has published, in the Annual Report of the Department -of the Interior for 1879, the following paragraph in regard to this case -of the White River Utes: - -"The atrocity of the crimes committed should not prevent those -individuals who are innocent from being treated as such, according to -Article 17 of the treaty, viz.: _Provided_, that if any chief of either -of the confederated bands make war against the United States, or in any -manner violate this treaty in any essential part, said chief shall -forfeit his position as chief, and all rights to any of the benefits of -this treaty; but, _provided further_, any Indian of either of these -confederated bands who shall remain at peace, and abide by the terms of -this treaty in all its essentials, shall be entitled to its benefits and -provisions, notwithstanding his particular chief and band have forfeited -their rights thereto." - -The writer of this letter says, in allusion to the murders and outrages -committed by some of the White River Utes, that "H. H. is the champion -of the fiends who wrought the ruin." Have the readers of _The Tribune_ -so understood my protests against the injustice of punishing the -innocent for the crimes of the guilty? - - H. H. - -New York, Feb. 22d, 1880. - - * * * * * - -This letter was followed by a card from Mr. Byers, reiterating some of -his assertions; and by a second short letter, which closed the -discussion. - - _To the Editor of the Tribune_: - -SIR,—I ask only a little space for reference to the communication of "H. -H." in to-day's _Tribune_. It is asked, "If the investigation of the -Sand Creek affair was so unfair, why did not the people of Colorado -correct the false impression by presenting their own version of the -case?" The answer is that the case was prejudged, and we were denied a -hearing in our defence. - -The inference is conveyed in to-day's article that Indian hostilities on -the plains were provoked by and followed after the Sand Creek massacre. -We, who were so unfortunate as to be citizens of Colorado at the time, -know that a very great majority of the savage atrocities of that period -occurred before the battle of Sand Creek. We know that the Sand Creek -Indian camp was the common rendezvous of the hostile bands who were -committing those atrocities. We know that comparatively few occurred -afterward. No amount of special pleading, no reiteration of partial -statements, and withholding of more important truths, will change the -facts so well known to the earlier settlers of Colorado. - -I deny that the Utes have either bought or paid for any land. They have -relinquished for a consideration a certain portion of the land they -formerly claimed, and still retain the other portion. I deny, also, that -only twelve of the White River Utes are guilty and the great mass of -them innocent. The contrary is the fact. - - WM. N. BYERS. - -New York, Feb. 24th, 1880. - - _To the Editor of the Tribune_: - -SIR,—In reply to the assertion that the perpetrators of the Sand Creek -massacre were "denied a hearing in their defence," I wish to state to -the readers of _The Tribune_ that, in addition to the Congressional -committees from whose reports I have already quoted, there was appointed -a Military Commission to investigate that massacre. This commission sat -seventy-three days, in Denver and at Fort Lyon. Colonel J. M. Chivington -called before it, in his "defence," all the witnesses he chose, and gave -notice on the seventy-third day of the commission's sitting that he did -not "wish to introduce any more witnesses for the defence." He also had -(and used) the privilege of cross-examining every witness called by the -commission. The evidence given before this commission occupies over two -hundred pages of Volume II., Senate Documents for 1866-'67. - -In reply to the assertion that "a great majority of the savage -atrocities of that period occurred before" the massacre at Sand Creek, -and that "comparatively few occurred after," I will give to the readers -of _The Tribune_ one extract from the report of the Indian Peace -Commission of 1868. Alluding to the Sand Creek massacre, the report -says: - -"It scarcely has its parallel in the records of Indian barbarity. -Fleeing women, holding up their hands and praying for mercy, were shot -down; infants were killed and scalped in derision; men were tortured and -mutilated in a manner that would put to shame the savages of interior -Africa. No one will be astonished that a war ensued which cost the -Government $30,000,000, and carried conflagration and death into the -border settlements. During the spring and summer of 1865 no less than -8000 troops were withdrawn from the effective forces engaged in the -Rebellion to meet this Indian war." - -The Commissioners who made this report were N. J. Taylor, President; J. -B. Henderson, John B. Sanborn, William T. Sherman, Lieutenant-general; -William S. Harvey, Brevet Major-general; Alfred H. Terry, Brevet -Major-general; C. C. Augur, Brevet Major-general; S. F. Tappan. - -In reply to the assertion that the Utes have not "either bought or paid -for any land," I will ask such of _The Tribune_ readers as are -interested in the subject to read the "Brunot Treaty," made September -13th, 1873, "between Felix R. Brunot, Commissioner for the United -States, and the chiefs, headmen, and men" of the seven confederated -bands of Utes. It is to be found in the report of the Department of the -Interior for 1873, p. 454. - -In conclusion of the discussion as to the Sand Creek massacre, I will -relate one more incident of that terrible day. It has not been recorded -in any of the reports. It was told in Colorado, to one of the members of -the Senate Committee at the time of their investigation: One of the -squaws had escaped from the village, and was crouching behind some low -sage brush. A frightened horse came running toward her hiding-place, its -owner in hot pursuit. Seeing that the horse was making directly for her -shelter, and that she would inevitably be seen, and thinking that -possibly if she caught the horse, and gave him back to the owner, she -might thus save her life, she ran after the horse, caught it, and stood -holding it till the soldier came up. Remembering that with her blanket -rolled tight around her she might possibly be taken for a man, as she -put into the soldier's hand the horse's bridle, with the other hand she -threw open her blanket enough to show her bosom, that he might see that -she was a woman. He put the muzzle of his pistol between her breasts and -shot her dead; and afterward was "not ashamed" to boast of the act. It -was by such deeds as this that "the Colorado soldiers acquitted -themselves well, and covered themselves with glory." - - H. H. - -New York, Feb. 28th, 1880. - - - - - II. - - THE PONCA CASE. - - -_Extract from Treaty with the Poncas, giving them Dakota Lands._ - -"ART. II.—In consideration of the cession or release of that portion of -the reservation above described by the Ponca tribe of Indians to the -Government of the United States, the Government of the United States, by -way of rewarding them for their constant fidelity to the Government -thereof, and with a view of returning to the said tribe of Ponca Indians -their old burying-grounds and cornfields, hereby cede and relinquish to -the tribe of Ponca Indians the following described fractional townships, -to wit, township thirty-one (31), north range, seven (7) west; also -fractional township thirty-two (32), north ranges, six (6), seven (7), -eight (8), nine (9), and ten (10) west; also fractional township -thirty-three (33), north ranges, seven (7) and eight (8) west; and also -all that portion of township thirty-three (33), north ranges, nine (9) -and ten (10) west, lying south of Ponca Creek; and also all the islands -in the Niobrara or Running Water River lying in front of lands or -townships above ceded by the United States to the Ponca tribe of -Indians." - -A correspondence which was held with the Secretary of the Interior in -the winter of 1879, in regard to the Poncas, is so excellent an -illustration of the methods and policy of the Interior Department that -it is worth while to give it at length here. - -FIRST LETTER. - -MRS. JACKSON TO SECRETARY SCHURZ. - - New York, Friday, Jan. 9th, 1880. - -_To the Secretary of the Interior_: - -DEAR SIR,—I have received from a Boston lady a letter which has so -important a bearing on the interests of the Poncas that I take the -liberty of asking you to read and reply to the following extracts. I -send them to you with the writer's permission: - -"In Boston most of those who are likely to give most largely and feel -most strongly for the Indians have confidence in Secretary Schurz. They -think that so far he has shown himself their friend, and they feel -unprepared to help any plan with regard to the Indians which he opposes. -The greatest service which could be rendered to the Indian cause at -present would be given, therefore, by some one sufficiently interested -to obtain an answer who would write to Secretary Schurz, and request -him, on the part of the Indians, either to aid them by publicly and -cordially endorsing this effort of the Poncas to secure their legal -rights in the courts, or else to give his reasons against this attempt, -in so clear a form that one could understand them. If there are good -reasons, there can be no ground for keeping them secret, and the public -has a right to know them. If not, no man can call himself a friend of -the Indians who throws cold water on the present interest of the public -in this matter. - -"Secretary Schurz has already stated that it was not worth while to sue -for the Ponca lands, as the Poncas are better off where they now are; -but Secretary Schurz cannot deny that it is worth ten times $10,000 to -prove that if the Government seizes land given to the Indians forever by -solemn compact, the latter can by the courts recover it. Secretary -Schurz has also said that a bill to give the Indians land in severalty -is already before Congress. If he wishes that bill to pass he must know -that it is only by help of the people that the ignorance, apathy, and -greed which are accountable for the shameful record of the past can be -overcome; and that, whatever his sentiments toward these particular -Poncas, he cannot afford to throw aside the interest they have excited. - -"For a hundred years the Indians have been the victims of fraud and -oppression on the part of the Government. Will anything put an end to it -but to give the Indians the legal right to protect themselves? Promises -and plans will not do it, for who can assure their performance? -Secretary Schurz's position is a strange one, and the public are waiting -and watching to see what it means. Is it possible that he is satisfied -to have 250,000 human beings, with valuable possessions (however -uncivilized), held as absolute slaves, with no rights, and at the mercy -of a government like ours, whose constant changes, to say the least, -render most improbable the wise, equitable, and humane treatment he -recommends in his report—and when the distance of the Indian from the -personal interests of all but those States which have a personal -interest in possessing his lands makes the assistance of Congress in -such treatment still more unlikely? I cannot but believe that he has -allowed himself to be driven into an opposition he does not really feel; -and that he will yet have the magnanimity to forget any criticism on his -own acts, and take the lead with those who would try to give the Indians -a permanent defence against the vicissitudes of party and the greed of -men. - -"I will not forget to add that if the three thousand and odd hundreds of -dollars needed to complete the ten thousand required to pay the costs of -the Ponca suits cannot be raised in the great city of New York, I will -myself guarantee to raise it in Boston in twenty-four hours if Secretary -Schurz will openly endorse the plan." - -The matter stands, therefore, in this shape: If you can say that you -approve of the Poncas bringing the suits they wish to bring for the -recovery of their lands, all the money for which they ask can be placed -in their hands immediately. The writer of the above letter assured me -that she would herself give the entire sum if there were any difficulty -in raising it. If you do not approve of the Poncas bringing these suits, -or making an effort to bring them, are you willing to give the reasons -of your disapproval? It would be a great satisfaction to those Boston -friends of yours whose action in this matter turns solely on your -decision, if these reasons could be stated in clear and explicit form. - - Yours respectfully, - - HELEN JACKSON. - -SECRETARY SCHURZ TO MRS. JACKSON. - - Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Jan. 17th, 1880. - -DEAR MADAM,—I should certainly have answered your letter of the 9th -instant more promptly had I not been somewhat overburdened with official -business during the past week. I hope you will kindly pardon the -involuntary delay. - -As I understand the matter, money is being collected for the purpose of -engaging counsel to appear for the Poncas in the courts of the United -States, partly to represent them in the case of an appeal from Judge -Dundy's _habeas corpus_ decision, and partly to procure a decision for -the recovery of their old reservation on the Missouri River. I believe -that the collection of money for these purposes is useless. An appeal -from Judge Dundy's _habeas corpus_ decision can proceed only from the -Government, not from the Poncas, for the simple reason that the decision -was in favor of the latter. An appeal was, indeed, entered by the United -States District-attorney at Omaha immediately after the decision had -been announced. Some time ago his brief was submitted to me. On -examining it, I concluded at once to advise the attorney-general of my -opinion that it should be dropped, as I could not approve the principles -upon which the argument was based. The attorney-general consented to -instruct the district-attorney accordingly, and thus Judge Dundy's -decision stands without further question on the part of the Government. -Had an appeal been prosecuted, and had Judge Dundy's decision been -sustained by the court above, the general principles involved in it -would simply have been affirmed without any other practical effect than -that already obtained. This matter is therefore ended. - -As to the right of the Poncas to their old reservation on the Missouri, -the Supreme Court has repeatedly decided that an Indian tribe cannot sue -the United States or a State in the federal courts. The decisions are -clear and uniform on this point. Among lawyers with whom I discussed -this matter, I have not found a single one who entertained a different -view; but I did find among them serious doubts as to whether a decision, -even if the Poncas could bring suits, would be in their favor, -considering the facts in the case. But, inasmuch as such a suit cannot -be brought at all, this is not the question. It is evidently idle to -collect money and to fee attorneys for the purpose of doing a thing -which cannot be done. Had the disinterested friends of the Indians who -are engaged in this work first consulted lawyers on the question of -possibility, they would no doubt have come to the same conclusion. - -The study I have given to the Indian question in its various aspects, -past and present, has produced in my mind the firm conviction that the -only certain way to secure the Indians in their possessions, and to -prevent them from becoming forever a race of homeless paupers and -vagabonds, is to transform their tribal title into individual title, -inalienable for a certain period; in other words, to settle them in -severalty, and give them by patent an individual fee-simple in their -lands. Then they will hold their lands by the same title by which white -men hold theirs, and they will, as a matter of course, have the same -standing in the courts, and the same legal protection of their property. -As long as they hold large tracts in the shape of reservations, only -small parts of which they can make useful to themselves and to others, -the whole being held by the tribe in common, their tenure will always be -insecure. It will grow more and more so as our population increases, and -the quantity of available land diminishes. We may call this an ugly and -deplorable fact, but it is a fact for all that. Long experience shows -that the protests of good people in the name of justice and humanity -have availed but very little against this tendency, and it is useless to -disguise and unwise to overlook it, if we mean to do a real service to -the Indians. - -For this reason I attach much more importance to the passage of -legislation providing for the settlement of the Indians in severalty, -and giving them individual title in fee-simple, the residue of their -lands not occupied by them to be disposed of for their benefit, than to -all the efforts, however well intended, to procure judicial decisions -which, as I have shown, cannot be had. I am glad to say that the -conversations I have had with senators and representatives in Congress -on the policy of settling the Indians in severalty have greatly -encouraged my hope of the success of the "severalty bill" during the -present session. - -I need not repeat here what I said in a letter to Mr. Edward Atkinson, -which you may possibly have seen some time ago in the Boston papers, -about the necessity of educating Indian children. You undoubtedly -understand that as well as I do, and I hope you will concur in my -recommendation that the money collected for taking the Ponca case into -the courts, which is impossible of accomplishment, and as much more as -can be added, be devoted to the support and enlargement of our Indian -schools, such as those at Hampton and Carlisle. Thus a movement which -undoubtedly has the hearty sympathy of many good men and women, but -which at present seems in danger of being wasted on the unattainable, -may be directed into a practical channel, and confer a real and lasting -benefit on the Indian race. - - Very respectfully yours, - - C. SCHURZ. - -Mrs. HELEN JACKSON, New York. - -MRS. JACKSON'S SECOND LETTER. - - Brevoort House, New York, Thursday, Jan. 22d, 1880. - -_Hon. Carl Schurz_: - -DEAR SIR,—Your letter of the 17th instant is at hand. If I understand -this letter correctly, the position which you take is as follows: That -there is in your opinion, and in the opinion of the lawyers whom you -have consulted on the subject, no way of bringing before the courts the -suits for the prosecution of which money has been and is being -contributed by the friends of the Poncas; that the reason you do not -approve of this movement is that "it is evidently idle to collect money -and to fee attorneys for the purpose of doing a thing which cannot be -done." This is the sole reason which I understand you to give for -discountenancing the collection of money for these suits. Am I correct -in this? And are we to infer that it is on this ground and no other that -you oppose the collection of money for this purpose? Are we to -understand that you would be in favor of the Poncas recovering their -lands by process of law, provided it were practicable? - -You say, also, that you hope I will "concur" in your "recommendation -that the money collected for taking the Ponca case into the courts shall -be devoted to the support and enlargement of our Indian schools." May I -ask how it would be, in your opinion, possible to take money given by -thousands of people for one specific purpose and use it for another -different purpose? You say, "Had the friends of the Indians who are -engaged in this work first consulted lawyers on the question of -possibility, they would, no doubt, have come to the same conclusion." -Had the friends of the Indians engaged in this work, and initiated this -movement without having consulted lawyers, it would have been indeed -foolish. But this was not the case. Lawyers of skill and standing were -found ready to undertake the case; and the matter stands therefore -to-day precisely as it stood when I wrote to you on the 17th instant. -All the money which is thought to be needed for carrying the Ponca case -before the courts can be raised in twenty-four hours in Boston, if you -can say that you approve of the suits being brought. If your only -objection to the movement is the one objection which you have stated, -namely, that it would be futile, can you not say that, if lawyers of -standing are ready to undertake the case, you would be glad to see the -attempt made in the courts, and the question settled? If it is, as you -think, a futile effort, it will be shown to be so. If it is, as the -friends and lawyers of the Poncas think, a practicable thing, a great -wrong will be righted. - -You say that "to settle them (the Indians) in severalty, and give them -by patent an individual fee-simple in their lands," will enable them to -"hold their lands by the same title by which white men hold theirs," and -that "then they will, as a matter of course, have the same standing in -the courts and the same legal protection of their property." May I ask -you if any bill has been brought before Congress which is so worded as -to secure these ends? My only apology for troubling you again is my deep -interest in the Indians, and in the Ponca case especially. - - Yours truly, - - HELEN JACKSON. - -REPLY OF SECRETARY SCHURZ TO THE SECOND LETTER. - - Washington, D.C., Jan. 26th, 1880. - -DEAR MADAM,—In reply to your letter of the 22d instant, I beg leave to -say that if an Indian tribe could maintain an action in the courts of -the United States to assert its rights, I should object to it just as -little as I would object to the exercise of the same privilege on the -part of white men. What I do object to is the collection of money from -philanthropic and public-spirited persons, ostensibly for the benefit of -the Indians, but in fact for the benefit of attorneys and others who are -to be paid for again testing a question which has been tested more than -once, and has been decided by the Supreme Court so clearly and -comprehensively that further testing seems utterly futile. You say that -there are lawyers of skill and standing ready to undertake the case. Of -course there are such. You can find lawyers of skill and standing to -undertake for a good fee any case, however hopeless: that is their -business. But I am by no means of your opinion that, whether it be -futile or not, the experiment should be tried once more, and for this -purpose the collection of money should be further encouraged. It cannot -be said in this case that if the attempt will not help it will not hurt. -There seems to be now a genuine and active interest in the Indian -question springing up. Many sincere friends of the Indian are willing to -spend time and money for the promotion of their welfare. Such a movement -can do great good if wisely guided in the direction of attainable -objects; but if it be so conducted that it can result only in putting -money into the pockets of private individuals, without any benefit to -the Indians, the collapse will be as hurtful as it seems to be -inevitable. It will not only be apt to end a movement which, if well -directed, might have become very useful, but it will also deter the -sincere friends of the Indians who contributed their means in the hope -of accomplishing something from further efforts of that kind, so that we -may find it very difficult, for a long time at least, to engage this -active sympathy again. Confidence once abused does not revive very -quickly. This is my view of the case. You ask me "how it would be -possible to take money given by thousands of people for one specific -purpose, and use it for another and different purpose," meaning the -support of Indian schools. It would, in my opinion, be far better to lay -the matter in its true aspect frankly before the contributors, and to -ask them for their consent to the change of purpose, than to throw away -the money for a purpose which cannot be accomplished. - -In reply to your inquiry whether any bill has been brought before -Congress providing for the settlement of the Indians in severalty, and -for conferring upon the individual title in fee-simple to the lands -allotted to them, I am glad to say that several bills of this kind have -been introduced in both the Senate and the House, and are now before the -respective committees on Indian affairs for consideration. If such a -bill passes, of which there is great hope, the Indian, having a fee -title by patent to the piece of land which he individually, not as a -member of a tribe, holds as his own, will stand in the eye of the law -just like any other owner of property in his individual right, and, as a -matter of course, will have the same standing in court. This will do -more in securing the Indian in the practical enjoyment of his property -than anything else I can think of, and it has long been my endeavor to -bring about just this result. I trust we shall obtain the desired -legislation during the present session of Congress. - - Very respectfully yours, - - C. SCHURZ. - -Mrs. HELEN JACKSON, New York. - - * * * * * - -The evasive and inconclusive character of these replies of the Secretary -provoked much comment, and gave rise to a very wide-spread and natural -impression that he was for some reason or other averse to the -restoration to the Poncas of their old homes. The letters were reviewed -by one of the editors of the _New York Times_ in a paper so admirable -that the letters ought not to be printed without it. - -CIVIL RIGHTS IN ACRES. - -(From the _New York Times_, February 21st, 1880.) - -"As most of the readers of the _Times_ already know, friends of the -Ponca Indians are endeavoring to have the tribe restored to their old -reservation in Dakota. Or, more strictly speaking, it is proposed that -their reservation shall be restored to them. The lands occupied by the -Poncas were ceded to them by the United States by solemn treaty. By a -cruel and wicked blunder, which no man has attempted to explain, those -lands were ceded to the Sioux. But the Sioux did not want the lands, and -they have never occupied them unto this day. To this robbery of the -tribe was added the destruction of their houses, movable property, and -farms. A citizen of the United States would have redress in the courts -for such an outrage as this. An Indian has no legal status. He is merely -a live and particularly troublesome animal, in the eye of the law. But, -while the Poncas were trying to get back on their lands, they were -arrested by order of the Secretary of the Interior, on the charge of -running away from the agency to which they had been sent by the -Government when their lands were taken from them. It is not necessary to -add words to intensify this accumulation of criminal folly and wrong. -Certain citizens of Nebraska, hearing of the injustice which was being -perpetrated on the Poncas, raised funds, and had the chiefs brought -before United States District Judge Dundy on a writ of _habeas corpus_, -to inquire why they were thus restrained of their liberty. Judge Dundy -decided that an Indian was 'a person' within the meaning of the _Habeas -Corpus_ Act, and that these persons were unlawfully held in duress. - -"It was thought that the United States would appeal from this dictum, -but no appeal was taken, much to the disappointment of the friends of -the Indians, as it was hoped that a decision could be reached to show -whether the Indian was or was not so far clothed with the privilege of a -citizen that he could have a standing in the courts of law. Accordingly, -the public-spirited and philanthropic persons who had espoused the cause -of the Poncas resolved to make up a case, which, carried to the United -States Supreme Court, should determine once and forever this moot point. -To this end money has been raised by subscription, by special gift, and -by contributions taken at public meetings in various parts of the -country. A lady residing in Boston, moved by the pitiful condition of -the Indians, who tried to struggle toward civilization, offered to -supply all the money which was lacking toward the expenses of the suit, -provided Secretary Schurz would give some public assurances that he -favored this manner of determining the case, or would give his reasons -against this attempt. The lady's proposition was sent to Mrs. Helen Hunt -Jackson, whose disinterested and efficient labors in behalf of the -deeply-wronged Poncas had already attracted attention. Mrs. Jackson -forwarded to Secretary Schurz the whole statement. Thereupon an -interesting correspondence ensued. This correspondence has been printed -in the Boston papers, presumably by direction of Secretary Schurz. - -"In reply to the request to say whether he approves of the movement to -carry the Ponca case to the Supreme Court, in order that the tribe may -recover their old reservation, the Secretary says that this would be -useless, as the courts have repeatedly decided that an Indian tribe -cannot sue the United States. Unfortunately, Mr. Schurz does not cite -these cases, but we must take it for granted that he knows what he is -talking about. He adds that he has taken the advice of lawyers, who -coincide with him in this opinion. As a suit cannot be brought at all, -according to the Secretary and his legal advisers, it would be idle to -collect money for this purpose; and the Secretary suggests that, if the -disinterested friends of the Indians had consulted lawyers before they -began their work, they would be of his opinion as to the futility of the -attempt. This, of course, leaves the impression that the Secretary -withholds his approval of the movement to secure legal rights for the -Poncas, though he does not say so in express terms. His reason for not -approving the attempt is that it will do no good. His solution to the -Indian problem, as it is vaguely called, is to settle the Indians in -severalty, breaking up their tribal organization, and giving to each -individual his lands in fee-simple. This, the Secretary thinks, will -enable them to hold their lands by the same title as that by which white -men hold theirs, and, 'as a matter of course, they will have the same -standing in the courts' as white men. It is to be regretted that the -Secretary did not pause here long enough to show how the giving to an -Indian of 160 acres of land can clothe him with civil rights which he -does not now possess, and which the Secretary thinks that the courts -cannot give him. For this reason, however, Mr. Schurz is greatly in -favor of legislation providing for the settlement of the Indians in -severalty, various bills to accomplish which, he says, are in -preparation. As for the money raised already, the Secretary suggests -that since, in his opinion, it would be misspent in obtaining judicial -decision, it might be used in the education of Indian children. - -"Replying to this, Mrs. Jackson asks if the Secretary would be in favor -of the Poncas recovering their lands by process of law, provided that -could be done. To this direct and very important inquiry we regret to -notice that the Secretary finds himself unable to reply, although, in a -letter immediately following this, he does say that if an Indian tribe -could maintain an action at law in the courts to assert its rights, he -would no more object to it than he would to a white man's doing the same -thing. As to the suggestion that the money collected for the expenses of -legal proceedings be used for educational purposes, Mrs. Jackson asks -the Secretary how it would be possible to take money given for one -specific purpose and use it for another and wholly different purpose. -Mr. Schurz rejoins that the consent of the donors may first be obtained; -but he forgets that it would be impossible to canvass the country to -ascertain the wishes of thousands of unknown givers to this fund. -Referring to the intimation that the friends of the Indians had not -taken legal counsel in this matter, and that the Secretary had, Mrs. -Jackson observes that they did take such counsel, and that an omission -to do so would have been indeed foolish. - -"It will be observed that the Secretary's objection to the attempt to -secure civil rights is its futility; and, in answer to Mrs. Jackson's -statement that the friends of the Indians have sought the opinions of -lawyers in this case, he replies that one 'can find lawyers of skill and -standing to undertake, for a good fee, any case, however hopeless.' To -those who might think that this is unjustly severe on the legal -profession, it should be said that Mr. Schurz has been by profession a -lawyer, and should know what he is talking about. And we must presume -that Mr. Schurz's profound knowledge of the law, which is fortified by -the opinions of eminent legal men, induces him to consider the whole -case closed in advance of its submission to the courts. It would be -interesting, however, to know if the Secretary's lawyers of skill and -standing are less easily influenced by the prospect of a 'good fee' than -the lawyers of skill and standing consulted by the friends of the -Poncas. The exceedingly able opinion of Secretary Schurz, we find, is -that it is useless to give the Indian a standing in the courts through -judicial decisions, as he can readily secure this by accepting from the -Government of the United States a deed of 160 acres of land." - -CONDITION OF THE PONCAS IN THE SUMMER OF 1880. - -Standing Bear and his party, after their release by the decision of -Judge Dundy, settled on an island in the Niobrara River, which was a -part of their old reservation, and had fortunately been overlooked when -the United States Government took forcible possession of the rest of -their land and presented it to the Sioux. Here they were joined by other -fugitives of their tribe till the number reached about one hundred and -thirty. A committee which had been organized in Omaha for their relief -supplied them with farming implements, and they went industriously to -work. This committee published in July, 1880, a report containing the -following paragraphs: - -"We consider the treatment of the Ponca Indians as one of the most -heart-sickening chapters in our national record of Indian wrongs, and we -are determined to spare no effort to restore to them their stolen homes -and rights, and to relieve the American people of the stigma of this -terrible wrong. - -"The Senate of the United States during the past winter appointed a -select committee 'to ascertain and report the circumstances of the -removal of the Ponca Indians from their reservation, and whether the -said Indians are not entitled to be restored thereto.' This Senate -Committee devoted a long time to a thorough and patient investigation of -this whole Ponca case, and reported that the Poncas had been 'forced, -without authority of law, from their homes to the Indian Territory,' and -reported also a bill for their restoration to their former reservation, -and recommending 'that $50,000 be appropriated for the purpose of taking -the Poncas back, and restoring their now dilapidated homes.' - -"This able report of the United States Senate says that 'in dealing with -one of the most peaceable and orderly and well-disposed of all the -tribes of Indians, the Government has violated in the most flagrant -manner their rights of property, and disregarded their appeals to the -honor and justice of the United States, and the dictates of humanity.'" - -The report also says that "the committee can find no language -sufficiently strong to condemn the whole proceeding, and trace to it all -the troubles which have come upon the Poncas, and the hardships and -sufferings which have followed them since they were taken from their old -reservation and placed in their present position in the Indian -Territory." - -The Omaha Ponca Relief Committee need no better vindication of their -action in behalf of this distressed and outraged people than these -strong and weighty words of a committee of United States Senators, -composed of representative men of both political parties. - -The Omaha Committee consisted of Bishop Clarkson, of Nebraska, chairman; -Rev. A. F. Sherrill, Rev. W. I. Harsha, Leavitt Burnham, W. M. Yates, -and P. L. Perine. - -At the request of this committee, Mr. T. H. Tibbles in June went to the -Indian Territory to visit the Poncas (of whom only about 400 were left -alive). He was authorized "to assure them of the interest and efforts of -humane people all over the country in their behalf, and to notify them -that the Omaha Committee were ready to assist them in any practical way -to return to their old homes, from which they had been unjustly and -inhumanly ejected." - -Mr. Tibbles succeeded in visiting the Poncas, although the Government -agent interfered with him in many ways, and finally arrested him by -authority of an order from Washington to arrest any member of the Omaha -Committee who came upon the reservation. He was insulted by the agent, -taken by force out of the reservation, and threatened with much more -severe treatment if he ever returned. - -This high-handed outrage on a free citizen of the United States aroused -indignation throughout the country. The comments of the Press on the -occurrence showed that people were at last waking up to a sense of the -tyrannical injustice of the Indian Department. The _New York Tribune_ -said, editorially: - -"The Indian Department may as well understand at once that the Ponca -case has passed out of their control. It is a matter of simple justice -which the people are determined to see righted. *** No petty Indian -agent has the legal right to imprison, maltreat, and threaten the life -of any citizen totally guiltless of offence beyond that of working to -give these serfs of the Government the standing of human beings. *** It -is the Government of this great Republic, where all men are free and -equal, that holds these Poncas prisoners on a tract where to remain is -death. They are innocent of any crime except that they have been robbed -of their land, and that they ask to bring suit, as a black man or -convict could do, in the courts for its recovery." - -Mr. Tibbles reported the condition of the Poncas in Indian Territory as -"deplorable in the extreme. They live in constant dread and fear, and -are as much imprisoned as if they were in a penitentiary." They seem "to -have lost all hope, are broken-hearted and disconsolate. With one or two -exceptions, they are making no effort to help themselves. Their -so-called farms are miserable little patches, to which they pay very -little attention. One of them said to me, 'If the Government forces me -to stay here, it can feed me. I had a good farm back at our old home, -and if I was back there I would farm again; I have no heart to work -here.' The one hundred and fifteen who are back on the old reservation -have a much larger amount of land under cultivation than the whole four -hundred who are in Indian Territory. They have kept their crops in good -condition, and are full of energy and hope." - -The Government Agency for the Poncas having been transferred to the -Indian Territory, the annuities due the tribe were of course paid there, -and that portion of the tribe which had fled back to Dakota received -nothing. Moreover, the Indian Bureau issued an order forbidding any -Ponca who should leave the Indian Territory to take with him any kind of -property whatsoever, under penalty of being arrested for stealing. As -they could not take their families on the long, hard journey to Dakota -without food or means of transportation, this order kept them imprisoned -in Indian Territory as effectually as a military guard could have done. - -The Government employés in charge of them reported, meanwhile, that they -had "made up their minds to live and die where they are. *** There -exists a feeling of contentment in the tribe that will make it very -difficult for any one to induce them to leave their present home," says -a general press despatch, presumably dictated by the Indian Bureau, and -sent throughout the country on July 15th. - -It seems an insult to people's common-sense to suppose that this -statement would be believed, close on the heels of the general order for -the arrest of all fleeing Poncas who should dare to take with them out -of the Indian Territory one dollar's worth of property. A very -superfluous piece of legislation, surely, for a community so "contented" -that it would be "difficult for any one to induce them to leave their -homes." - -THE LEGAL ASPECT OF THE CASE. - -The chivalric and disinterested attorneys who had had the charge of the -Ponca case from the outset, were not to be intimidated by the threats -nor outwitted by the expedients of the Indian Bureau. The ingenious -devices practised by the Department of the Interior to hinder the -getting service of summons upon the defendants in the suits necessary to -recover the Poncas' lands, make by themselves a shameful chapter, which -will some day be written out. But on the 13th of July the attorneys were -able to report to the Omaha Committee as follows: - -REPORT OF THE ATTORNEYS. - - Omaha, July 13th, 1880. - - _To Omaha Ponca Indian Committee_: - -In response to the inquiry of one of your members as to the condition of -the suits instituted by us to liberate Standing Bear and his associate -from the custody of the military, and to recover possession of the Ponca -reservation, we make the following statement: - -On April 8th, 1879, was filed by us the petition in the case of United -States _ex rel._ Ma-chu-nah-zha (Standing Bear) _et al._ _vs._ George -Crook, a Brigadier-general of the Army of the United States and -Commander of the Department of the Platte, in the U.S. District Court -for the District of Nebraska, for a writ of _habeas corpus_ for the -release of Standing Bear and his companions. This cause was tried about -the first of May, 1879, and Standing Bear and his companions were -restored to their liberty. Thereupon the U. S. District-attorney took -the case to the United States Circuit Court for this District by appeal, -and about May 19th, upon hearing before Mr. Justice Miller, Associate -Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was there continued, -and on January 5th, 1880, the appeal was dismissed on the motion of the -U. S. District-attorney. - -On April 3d, 1880, was commenced by us the case of Ponca tribe of -Indians _vs._ Makh-pi-ah-lu-ta, or Red Cloud, in his own behalf, and in -behalf of the Sioux nation of Indians, in the U. S. Circuit Court for -the District of Nebraska, and on May 18th, 1880, we commenced in the -same court the case of Ponca tribe of Indians _vs._ Sioux nation of -Indians. These cases were commenced, and are being prosecuted by us, to -recover possession of and establish the title of the Ponca tribe of -Indians to so much of their old reservation as lies within the limits of -Nebraska. Great delay was made necessary in the commencement of these -cases, and the ones subsequently commenced in Dakota, of which we below -make mention, owing to difficulties in getting service of summons upon -the defendants. On May 22d, 1880, service of summons was had on the -defendants in both cases, and some action will be taken therein at the -next term of the court. - -About the 20th of May, 1880, there were commenced in Dakota other suits -in the name of the Ponca tribe of Indians, and against the Sioux nation -of Indians, and against certain of their chiefs, to settle and establish -the title of the Ponca tribe of Indians to so much of their old -reservation as lies within the limits of Dakota. Service has been had in -these cases, and the several suits mentioned will be prosecuted by us -with all convenient speed. - -We might add that we also have in charge the case of John Elk _vs._ -Charles Wilkins, in the U. S. Circuit Court for this District, which is -being prosecuted by us to determine the rights of Indians under the -Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. - - Respectfully submitted, - - A. J. POPPLETON, - JNO. L. WEBSTER. - - - - - III. - - TESTIMONIES TO INDIAN CHARACTER. - - -"Early in 1800 the Governor of the North-west Territory, in his -message to the assembly, invited their attention to the condition of -the Indians. He observed that, irrespective of the principles of -religion and justice, it was the interest and should be the policy of -the United States to be at peace with them; but that could not -continue to be the case if the treaties existing between them and the -Government were broken with impunity by the inhabitants of the -Territory. He referred to the well-known fact that while the white men -loudly complained of every injury committed by the Indians, however -trifling, and demanded immediate reparation, they were daily -perpetrating against them injuries and wrongs of the most provoking -and atrocious nature, for which the perpetrators had not been brought -to justice. *** He stated that the number of those unfortunate people -who had been murdered since the peace of Greenville was sufficient to -produce serious alarm for the consequences. He added, further, that a -late attempt to bring to punishment a white man, who was clearly -proved to have killed two adult Indians and wounded two of their -children, had proved abortive."—BURNET'S _Notes on North-west -Territory_. - -CHARACTER OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIANS. - -"Among other falsehoods it has been asserted confidently, but without a -shadow of argument or fact to sustain the assertion, that they cannot be -brought to a state of civilization, or be induced to form communities -and engage in the pursuits of agriculture and the arts, in consequence -of some physical difference between them and the Anglo-Saxon race. This -hypothesis is contradicted by experience, which has abundantly shown -that the two races, when placed in the same situation, and acted upon by -the same causes, have invariably resorted to the same expedients and -pursued the same policy. - -"This averment is sustained by a reference to the white people who have -been taken prisoners in childhood and brought up among the Indians. In -every such case the child of civilization has become the ferocious adult -of the forest, manifesting all the peculiarities, tastes, and -preferences of the native Indian. His manners, habits, propensities, and -pursuits have been the same, so that the most astute philosophical -observer has not been able to discover any difference between them, -except in the color of the skin, and in some instances even this has -been removed by long exposure to the elements, and the free use of oils -and paints." - -The many instances which there are on record of cases in which persons -taken captive by the Indians, while young, have utterly refused in later -life to return to their relatives and homes, go to confirm this -statement of Judge Burnet's. - -On the other hand, he says: "The attempts that have been made at -different times to improve the minds and cultivate the morals of these -people have always been attended by success. - -"On an unprejudiced comparison between the civilized educated white man -and the civilized educated Indian, all this theory of an organic -constitutional difference between the European and the native Indian -vanishes. - -"In what respect have Ross, Boudinot, Hicks, Ridge, and others differed -from the educated men of our own race? Inasmuch then as the reclaimed -educated Indian becomes assimilated to the white man, and the European -brought up from infancy among the Indians becomes identified with them, -this alleged difference cannot be real, it must be imaginary. - -"The fact is, the difficulty of civilizing the natives of this continent -is neither greater nor less than that which retarded the improvement of -the barbarous nations of Europe two thousand years ago. *** Men -uncivilized have always delighted in the chase, and had a propensity to -roam; both history and experience prove that nothing but necessity, -arising from such an increase of population as destroys the game, has -ever induced men to settle in communities, and rely on the cultivation -of the earth for subsistence. In the progress of civilization the chase -has given way to the pastoral state, and that has yielded to agriculture -as the increase of numbers has rendered it necessary. - -"As soon as the Cherokees and the Wyandots were surrounded by a white -population, and their territory was so contracted as to cut off their -dependence on hunting and fishing, they became farmers, and manifested a -strong desire to cultivate the arts; and this would have been the choice -of the whole Indian race if the policy of the Government had permitted -it! - -"It is not just to consider the natives of this country as a distinct -and inferior race because they do not generally imitate us, when we not -only remove every consideration that could induce them to do so, but in -fact render it impossible. What motive of ambition was there to -stimulate them to effort, when they were made to feel that they held -their country as tenants at will, liable to be driven off at the -pleasure of their oppressors? - -"As soon as they were brought to a situation in which necessity prompted -them to industry, and induced them to begin to adopt our manners and -habits of life, the covetous eye of the white man was fixed on their -incipient improvements, and they received the chilling notice that they -must look elsewhere for permanent homes. - -"At the time our settlements were commencing north-west of the Ohio, the -Indians were its acknowledged owners and sovereigns; the Government -claimed no right either of occupancy or soil, except as they obtained it -by purchase." - -(On the 31st of July, 1793, the United States Commissioners said to the -assembled chiefs of the North-western tribes, in a council held at the -home of one Captain Elliott, on the Detroit River: "By the express -authority of the President of the United States, we acknowledge the -property, or right of soil to the great country above described, to be -in the Indian nations as long as they desire to occupy it; we claim only -the tracts before particularly mentioned, and the right of pre-emption -granted by the King, as before explained.") - -"The entire country from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi was admitted to -be theirs, and a more delightful, fertile valley cannot be found on the -earth. *** - -"Unconscious of the ruinous consequences that were to follow their -intimacy with white men, they ceded to the American Government large and -valuable portions of the country at nominal prices. Those lands were -rapidly settled by Americans, in whose purity and friendship the -unsuspecting natives had great confidence; nor did they awake from that -delusion till their habits of sobriety and morality had been undermined, -and the vices engendered by intemperance and idleness had contaminated -every tribe. *** - -"Their subsistence became precarious; their health declined; their -self-respect, their dignity of character, and the heroism inherited from -their ancestors were lost. They became in their own estimation a -degraded, dependent race. The Government, availing itself of their -weakness and want of energy, succeeded by bribes and menaces in -obtaining the best portions of their country, and eventually in driving -them from the land of their birth to a distant home in an unknown -region. - -"This distressing chapter of aboriginal history began at the treaty of -Greenville, in 1795, and terminated in less than fifty years. The writer -of these notes witnessed its commencement, progress, and -close."—BURNET'S _Notes on North-west Territory_. - -NEZ PERCÉS AND FLAT-HEADS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY. - -"They were friendly in their dispositions, and honest to the most -scrupulous degree in their intercourse with the white men. *** Simply to -call these people religious would convey but a faint idea of the deep -hue of piety and devotion which pervades the whole of their conduct. -Their honesty is immaculate; and their purity of purpose and their -observance of the rites of their religion are most uniform and -remarkable. They are certainly more like a nation of saints than a horde -of savages."—CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE'S _Narrative_, _revised by_ W. IRVING. - -"I fearlessly assert to the world, and I defy contradiction, that the -North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a highly moral -and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of -some great Author of his being and the universe—in dread of whose -displeasure he constantly lives with the apprehension before him of a -future state, when he expects to be rewarded or punished according to -the merits he has gained or forfeited in this world. - -"I never saw any other people who spend so much of their lives in -humbling themselves before and worshipping the Great Spirit as these -tribes do, nor any whom I would not as soon suspect of insincerity and -hypocrisy. - -"Self-denial and self-torture, and almost self-immolation, are continual -modes of appealing to the Great Spirit for his countenance and -forgiveness. - -"To each other I have found these people kind and honorable, and endowed -with every feeling of parental, filial, and conjugal affection that is -met with in more enlightened communities."—CATLIN'S _North American -Indians_. - -Mr. Catlin spent eight years among the Indians more than forty years -ago. He travelled among the wildest of them, lived with them in the -freest intimacy, and this is his verdict as to their native traits, when -uncontaminated by white men and whiskey. - -As long ago as 1724, the Jesuit Father Lafitau wrote of the Indians, and -stated that to his own experience he added that of Father Garnier, who -had lived sixty years among them: "They are possessed," says he, "of -sound judgment, lively imagination, ready conception, and wonderful -memory. All the tribes retain at least some trace of an ancient -religion, handed down to them from their ancestors, and a form of -government. They reflect justly upon their affairs, and better than the -mass of the people among ourselves. They prosecute their ends by sure -means; they evince a degree of coolness and composure which would exceed -our patience; they never permit themselves to indulge in passion, but -always, from a sense of honor and greatness of soul, appear masters of -themselves. They are high-minded and proud; possess a courage equal to -every trial, an intrepid valor, the most heroic constancy under -torments, and an equanimity which neither misfortunes nor reverses can -shake. Toward each other they behave with a natural politeness and -attention, entertaining a high respect for the aged, and a consideration -for their equals which appears scarcely reconcilable with that freedom -and independence of which they are so jealous. They make few professions -of kindness, but yet are affable and generous. Toward strangers and the -unfortunate they exercise a degree of hospitality and charity which -might put the inhabitants of Europe to the blush." - -Father Lafitau does not disguise the fact that the Indians have great -faults. He says they are "suspicious and vindictive, cruel to their -enemies." - -Père Lallemant, a missionary among the Hurons, says: "In point of -intellect they are not at all inferior to the natives of Europe; I could -not have believed that, without instruction, nature could have produced -such ready and vigorous eloquence, or such a sound judgment in their -affairs as that which I have so much admired among the Hurons. I admit -that their habits and customs are barbarous in a thousand ways; but, -after all, in matters which they consider as wrong, and which their -public condemns, we observe among them less criminality than in France, -although here the only punishment of a crime is the shame of having -committed it." - -In a history of New France, published in 1618, it is stated of the -Indians that "they are valorous, faithful, generous, and humane; their -hospitality is so great that they extend it to every one who is not -their enemy. They speak with much judgment and reason, and, when they -have any important enterprise to undertake, the chief is attentively -listened to for two or three hours together, and he is answered point to -point, as the subject may require." - -In 1656 the Jesuit missionaries among the Iroquois reported: "Among many -faults caused by their blindness and barbarous education, we meet with -virtues enough to cause shame among the most of Christians. Hospitals -for the poor would be useless among them, because there are no beggars; -those who have are so liberal to those who are in want, that everything -is enjoyed in common. The whole village must be in distress before any -individual is left in necessity." - -Captain Carver, who travelled in 1766 among the wildest tribes, -describes them as "cruel, barbarous, and revengeful in war, persevering -and inflexible in pursuit of an enemy, sanguinary in their treatment of -prisoners, and sparing neither age nor sex." On the other hand, he found -them temperate in their mode of living, patient of hunger and fatigue, -sociable and humane to all whom they looked on as friends, and ready to -share with them the last morsel of food they possessed, or to expose -their lives in their defence. In their public character he describes -them as "possessing an attachment to their nation unknown to the -inhabitants of any other country, combining as if actuated by one soul -against a common enemy, never swayed in their councils by selfish or -party views, but sacrificing everything to the honor and advantage of -their tribe, in support of which they fear no danger, and are affected -by no sufferings. They are not only affectionately attached, indeed, to -their own offspring, but are extremely fond of children in general. They -instruct them carefully in their own principles, and train them up with -attention in the maxims and habits of their nation. Their system -consists chiefly in the influence of example, and impressing on them the -traditionary histories of their ancestors. When the children act wrong, -their parents remonstrate and reprimand but never chastise -them."—_HALKETT'S Hist. Notes._ - -The very idea of corporal punishment of little children seems to have -been peculiarly obnoxious to the native North American. In the "Relation -de Nouvelle France," published in 1633, there is a curious story of an -incident which took place at Quebec. A party of Indians, watching a -French drummer-boy beat his drum, pressed more closely around him than -he liked, and he struck one of the Indians in the face with his -drum-stick so sharply that the blow drew blood. The Indians, much -offended, went to the interpreter and demanded apologies and a present, -according to their custom. "No," said the interpreter, "our custom is to -punish the offender; we will punish the boy in your presence." When the -Indians saw the child stripped for the flogging they began immediately -to beg for his pardon; but as the soldiers continued their preparations -for whipping the lad, one of the Indians suddenly stripped himself and -threw his robe over the boy, crying out, "Scourge me, if you choose, but -do not strike the boy!" The good Father Le Jeune, who tells this story, -adds that this unwillingness of the Indians to see any child chastised -"will probably occasion trouble to us in the design we have to instruct -their youth." - -As far back as 1587 we find evidence that the Indians were not without -religion. Thomas Hariot, an employé of Sir Walter Raleigh's, writing -from the Virginia colony, says of the Virginia Indians: "Theye beleeve -that there are many gods, which theye call Mantaoc, but of different -sorts and degrees; one onely chief and Great God, which hath been from -all eternitie; who, as theye affirme, when hee proposed to make the -world, made first other gods of a principall order, to bee as means and -instruments to bee used in the creation and government to folow; and -after the sunne, moone, and starres as pettie gods, and the instruments -of the other order more principall." - -"In general," says Hunter, "a day seldom passes with an elderly Indian, -or others who are esteemed wise and good, in which a blessing is not -asked, or thanks returned to the Giver of Life, sometimes audibly, but -more generally in the devotional language of the heart." - -All the employés of the North-west Fur Company bear the same testimony -to the fidelity and honesty of the Indians. - -General H. Sibley once said to Bishop Whipple that for thirty years it -had been the uniform boast of the Sioux in every council that they had -never taken the life of a white man. - - - - - IV. - - OUTRAGES COMMITTED ON INDIANS BY WHITES. - - -In Captain Bonneville's narrative of five years spent in the Rocky -Mountains are many instances of cruel outrages committed by whites upon -Indians. - -"One morning one of his trappers, discovering that his traps had been -carried off in the night, took a horrid oath that he would kill the -first Indian he should meet, innocent or guilty. As he was returning -with his comrades to camp, he beheld two unfortunate Root Diggers seated -on the bank, fishing; advancing upon them, he levelled his rifle, shot -one on the spot, and flung his bleeding body into the stream. - -"A short time afterward, when this party of trappers were about to cross -Ogden's River, a great number of Shoshokies, or Root Diggers, were -posted on the opposite bank, when they imagined they were there with -hostile intent; they advanced upon them, levelled their rifles, and -killed twenty-five of them on the spot. The rest fled to a short -distance, then halted and turned about, howling and whining like wolves, -and uttering most piteous wailings. The trappers chased them in every -direction. The poor wretches made no defence, but fled in terror; nor -does it appear from the accounts of the boasted victors that a weapon -had been wielded by the Indians throughout the affair." - -There seemed to be an emulation among these trappers which could inflict -the greatest outrages on the natives. They chased them at full speed, -lassoed them like cattle, and dragged them till they were dead. - -At one time, when some horses had been stolen by the Riccarees, this -same party of trappers took two Riccaree Indians prisoners, and declared -that, unless the tribe restored every horse that had been stolen, these -two Indians, who had strayed into the trappers' camp without any -knowledge of the offence committed, should be burnt to death. - -"To give force to their threat, a pyre of logs and fagots was heaped up -and kindled into a blaze. The Riccarees released one horse and then -another; but, finding that nothing but the relinquishment of all their -spoils would purchase the lives of the captives, they abandoned them to -their fate, moving off with many parting words and howlings, when the -prisoners were dragged to the blazing pyre and burnt to death in sight -of their retreating comrades. - -"Such are the acts that lead to terrible recriminations on the part of -the Indians. Individual cases of the kind dwell in the recollections of -whole tribes, and it is a point of honor and conscience to avenge them. - -"The records of the wars between the early settlers of Virginia and New -England and the natives exhibit cruelties on both sides that make one -shudder. *** When the Indian would tear the scalp from the crown of the -scarcely yet dead victim, and mutilate the body, could he be expected to -reform those cruelties when he saw the white man in his turn cut off the -heads of his people, and mutilate and quarter their bodies, as was done -with King Philip's, whose head, after being cut off, was sent to -Plymouth and hung up there on a gibbet, where it remained twenty years, -while one of his hands was sent to Boston as a trophy, his body being -quartered and hung upon four trees?"—_M'FORLEY'S History and Travels._ - -FROM REPORT OF THE INDIAN BUREAU FOR 1854. - - "Port Orford, Oregon Territory, February 5th, 1854. - -"I grieve to report to you that a most horrid massacre, or rather an -out-and-out barbarous murder, was perpetrated on a portion of the Nason -tribe, residing at the mouth of the Coquille River, on the morning of -the 28th of January last, by a party of forty miners. Before giving you -the result of my examination and my own conclusions, I will give you the -reasons which that party assign in justification of their acts. - -"They avow that, for some time past, the Indians at the mouth of the -Coquille have been insolent; that they have been in the habit of riding -the horses of white men without permission; that of late they have -committed many thefts, such as stealing paddles and many other articles -the property of white men; that one of their number recently discharged -his gun at the ferry-house; and that but a few days prior to the attack -on the Indians, the chief, on leaving the ferry-house, where he had just -been fed, fired his gun at a party of four white men standing near the -door of the house. They further state that, on the 27th of January, they -sent for the chief to come in for a talk; that he not only refused to -come in, but sent back word that he would kill white men if they came to -his home; that he meant to kill all the white men he could; that he was -determined to drive the white men out of his country; that he would kill -the men at the ferry, and burn their houses. Immediately after this -conversation with the chief, the white men at and near the ferry-house -assembled, and deliberated on the necessity of an immediate attack on -the Indians. - -"The result of their deliberation, with the full proceedings of their -meeting, is herein enclosed. At the conclusion, a courier was despatched -to the upper mines for assistance. A party of about twenty responded to -the call, and arrived at the ferry-house on the evening preceding the -morning of the massacre. On the arrival of this re-enforcement the -proceedings of the meeting first held were reconsidered, and unanimously -approved. - -"At the dawn of day on the morning of the 28th of January the party of -the ferry, joined by about twenty men from the upper mines, organized, -and, in three detachments, marched upon the Indian ranches, and -consummated a most inhuman slaughter. A full account of what they term -'a fight' you will find in the report which their captain, George H. -Abbott, forwarded to me on the day of the massacre. - -"The Indians were roused from sleep to meet their death, with but feeble -show of resistance. They were shot down as they were attempting to -escape from their houses; fifteen men and one squaw killed; two squaws -badly wounded. On the part of the white men, not even the slightest -wound was received. The houses of the Indians, with but one exception, -were fired, and entirely destroyed. Thus was committed a massacre too -inhuman to be readily believed. Now for my examination of this horrid -affair. - -"On the morning of the 29th of January I left Port Orford for the -Coquille. We arrived at the ferry-house early in the evening of that -day. Early in the morning of the day after my arrival I sent for the -chief, who immediately came in, attended by about thirty of his people. -The chief, as well as his people, was so greatly alarmed—apparently -apprehensive that the white men would kill them even in my presence—that -it was with a good deal of difficulty that I could induce him to express -his mind freely. He seemed only anxious to stipulate for peace and the -future safety of his people; and to procure this he was willing to -accept any terms that I might dictate. The chief was evidently afraid to -complain of or censure the slaughterers of his tribe, and for a time -replied to all the charges made against him with hesitancy. After -repeated assurances of protection, he finally answered to the point -every interrogatory. I asked him if he had at any time fired at the man -at the ferry-house. 'No!' was his prompt reply. At the time he was said -to have fired at the white man, he declared with great earnestness that -he shot at a duck in the river, at a distance of some two hundred yards -from the ferry-house, when on his way home, and possibly the ball of his -gun might have bounded from the water. My subsequent observation of the -course of the river, and the point from which he was said to have fired, -convinced me that his statement was entitled to the fullest credit. His -statement is confirmed by the doubt expressed by one of the party at -whom he was said to have fired. - -"The white men making the accusation only heard the whizzing of a -bullet. This was the only evidence adduced in proof of the chief having -fired at them. I asked the chief if he, or if to his knowledge any of -his people, had ever fired at the ferry-house. To this he answered, -'No.' He most emphatically denied ever sending threatening language to -the men at the ferry, but admitted that some of his people had. He also -admitted that some of his tribe had stolen from white men, and that they -had used their horses without permission. He did not deny that his heart -had been bad toward white men, and that he had hoped they would leave -his country. He promised to do all I required of him. If I desired, he -said he would leave the home of his fathers and take his people to the -mountains; but, with my permission and protection, he would prefer -remaining in the present home of his people. - -"Everything I asked or required of him he readily assented to, promising -most solemnly to maintain on his part permanent friendly relations with -white men. My interview with the tribe occupied about two hours. During -the entire council they listened with most profound attention, evidently -being determined to fasten on their minds all that fell from my lips. At -the conclusion of the council I requested the chief to send for all the -guns and pistols in the possession of his men. You will be surprised -when I tell you that all the guns and pistols in the hands of the -Indians at the ranches amounted to just five pieces, two of which were -unserviceable; as to powder and ball, I do not believe they had five -rounds. Does this look like being prepared for war? Can any sane man -believe those Indians, numbering not over seventy-five, all told, -including women and children, had concocted a plan to expel from their -country some three hundred whites? Such a conclusion is too preposterous -to be entertained for a moment. There was no necessity for resorting to -such extreme measures. I regard the murder of those Indians as one of -the most barbarous acts ever perpetrated by civilized men. But what can -be done? The leaders of the party cannot be arrested, though justice -loudly demands their punishment. Here we have not even a justice of the -peace; and as to the military force garrisoned at Fort Orford, it -consists of four men. If such murderous assaults are to be continued, -there will be no end of Indian war in Oregon."—_F. M. SMITH, Sub-Agent._ - -The Simon Kenton referred to in the following narrative was an -experienced Indian fighter, and commanded a regiment in the war of 1812. - -"In the course of the war of 1812 a plan was formed by some of the -militia stationed at Urbana, Ohio, to attack an encampment of friendly -Indians, who had been threatened by the hostile tribes, and were invited -to remove with their families within our frontier settlements as a place -of safety, under an assurance that they should be protected. Kenton -remonstrated against the movement as being not only mutinous, but -treacherous and cowardly. He vindicated the Indian character against the -false charges which were alleged in justification of the outrage they -were about to perpetrate, and warned them against the infamy they would -incur by destroying a defenceless band of men, women, and children, who -had been induced to place themselves in their power by a solemn promise -of protection. - -"He appealed to their humanity, their honor, and their duty as soldiers. -He contrasted his knowledge of the character of those unfortunate people -with their ignorance of it. He told them that he had endured suffering -and torture at their hands again and again, but that it was in time of -war, when they were defending their wives and children, and when he was -seeking to destroy and exterminate them; and that, under those -circumstances, he had no right to complain, and never did complain. But, -said he, in time of peace they have always been kind, faithful friends, -and generous, trustworthy men. - -"Having exhausted the means of persuasion without effect, and finding -them still resolved on executing their purpose, he took a rifle and -called on them to proceed at once to the execution of the foul -deed—declaring with great firmness that he would accompany them to the -encampment, and shoot down the first man who attempted to molest it. 'My -life,' said he, 'is drawing to a close: what remains of it is not worth -much;' but, much or little, he was resolved that, if they entered the -Indian camp, it should be done by passing over his corpse. Knowing that -the old veteran would fulfil his promise, their hearts failed them; not -one ventured to take the lead; their purpose was abandoned, and the -Indians were saved."—_BURNET on the North-west Territory._ - - - - - V. - - EXTRACTS - - FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION SENT TO TREAT WITH - THE SIOUX CHIEF, SITTING BULL, IN CANADA. - - -The commission consisted of Brigadier-general Terry, Hon. A. G. -Lawrence, and Colonel Corbin, secretary. After one month's journey, -_via_ Omaha, Nebraska, Helena, Montana, and Fort Benton, these gentlemen -were met on the Canadian boundary by a Canadian officer with a mounted -escort, who conducted them to Fort Walsh, when they were met by Sitting -Bull and the other chiefs. - -General Terry recapitulated to them the advantages of being at peace -with the United States, the kindly treatment that all surrendered -prisoners had received, and said: "The President invites you to come to -the boundary of his and your country, and there give up your arms and -ammunition, and thence to go to the agencies to which he will assign -you, and there give up your horses, excepting those which are required -for peace purposes. Your arms and horses will then be sold, and with all -the money obtained for them cows will be bought and sent to you." - -It is mortifying to think that representatives of the United States -should have been compelled gravely to submit in a formal council -proposals so ludicrous as these. The Indians must have been totally -without sense of humor if they could have listened to them without -laughter. Sitting Bull's reply is worthy of being put on record among -the notable protests of Indian chiefs against the oppressions of their -race. - -He said: "For sixty-four years you have kept me and my people, and -treated us bad. What have we done that you should want us to stop? We -have done nothing. It is all the people on your side that have started -us to do all these depredations. We could not go anywhere else, and so -we took refuge in this country. *** I would like to know why you came -here. In the first place I did not give you the country; but you -followed me from one place to another, so I had to leave and come over -to this country. *** You have got ears, and you have got eyes to see -with them, and you see how I live with these people. You see me. Here I -am. If you think I am a fool, you are a bigger fool than I am. This -house is a medicine house. You come here to tell us lies, but we don't -want to hear them. I don't wish any such language used to me—that is, to -tell me lies in my Great Mother's house. This country is mine, and I -intend to stay here and to raise this country full of grown people. See -these people here. We were raised with them" (again shaking hands with -the British officers). "That is enough, so no more. *** The part of the -country you gave me you ran me out of. *** I wish you to go back, and to -take it easy going back." - -The-one-that-runs-the-Ree, a Santee chief, said: "You didn't treat us -well, and I don't like you at all. *** I will be at peace with these -people as long as I live. This country is ours. We did not give it to -you. You stole it away from us. You have come over here to tell us lies, -and I don't propose to talk much, and that is all I have to say. I want -you to take it easy going home. Don't go in a rush." - -Nine, a Yankton, said: "Sixty-four years ago you got our country, and -you promised to take good care of us and keep us. You ran from one place -to another killing us and fighting us. *** You did not treat us right -over there, so we came back over here. *** I come in to these people -here, _and they give me permission to trade with the traders_. _That is -the way I make my living._ Everything I get I buy from the traders. I -don't steal anything. *** I am going to live with these people here." - -So profound a contempt did the Indians feel for this commission that -they allowed a squaw to address it. - -A squaw, named The-one-that-speaks-once, wife of -The-man-that-scatters-the-bear, said: "I was over at your country. I -wanted to raise my children there, but you did not give me any time. I -came over to this country to raise my children, and have a little peace" -(shaking hands with the British officers); "that is all I have to say to -you. I want you to go back where you came from. These are the people -that I am going to stay with and raise my children with." - -The Indians having risen, being apparently about to leave the room, the -interpreter was directed to ask the following questions: "Shall I say to -the President that you refuse the offers that he has made to you? Are we -to understand that you refuse those offers?" Sitting Bull answered: "I -could tell you more, but that is all I have to tell. If we told you -more, you would not pay any attention to it. This part of the country -does not belong to your people. You belong on the other side, this side -belongs to us." - -The Crow, shaking hands, and embracing Colonel McLeod, and shaking hands -with the other British officers, said: "This is the way I will live in -this part of the country. *** _These people that don't hide anything_, -they are all the people I like. *** Sixty-four years ago I shook hands -with the soldiers, and ever since that I have had hardships. I made -peace with them; and ever since then I have been running from one place -to another to keep out of their way. *** Go to where you were born, and -stay there. I came over to this country, and my Great Mother knows all -about it. She knows I came over here, and she don't wish anything of me. -We think, and all the women in the camp think, we are going to have the -country full of people. *** I have come back in this part of the country -again to have plenty more people, to live in peace, and raise children." - -The Indians then inquired whether the commission had anything more to -say, and the commission answered that they had nothing more to say, and -the conference closed. - -The commission, with a naïve lack of comprehension of the true situation -of the case, go on to say that "they are convinced that Sitting Bull and -the bands under him will not seek to return to this country at present. -It is believed that they are restrained from returning," partly by their -recollection of the severe handling they had by the military forces of -the United States in the last winter and spring, and partly "by their -belief that, for some reason which they cannot fathom, the Government of -the United States earnestly desires that they shall return. *** In their -intense hostility to our Government, they are determined to contravene -its wishes to the best of their ability." It would seem so—even to the -extent of foregoing all the privileges offered them on their return—the -giving up of all weapons—the exchanging of their horses for cows—and the -priceless privilege of being shut up on reservations, off which they -could not go without being pursued, arrested, and brought back by -troops. What a depth of malignity must be in the breasts of these -Indians, that to gratify it they will voluntarily relinquish all these -benefits, and continue to remain in a country where they must continue -to hunt, and make their own living on the unjust plan of free trade in -open markets! - - - - - VI. - - ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE OLD GRIEVANCES OF - THE SIOUX. - - -INTERVIEW BETWEEN RED IRON, CHIEF OF THE SISSETON SIOUX, AND GOVERNOR -RAMSEY, IN DECEMBER, 1852. - -Claims had been set up by the Indian traders for $400,000 of the money -promised to the Sioux by the treaties of 1851 and 1852. The Indians -declared that they did not owe so much. Governor Ramsey endeavored to -compel Red Iron to sign a receipt for it; he refused. He said his tribe -had never had the goods. He asked the governor to appoint -arbitrators—two white men and one Indian; it was refused. He then said -that he would accept three white men as arbitrators, if they were honest -men: this was refused. - -An eye-witness has sketched the appearance of the chief on that -occasion, and the interview between him and the governor: The council -was crowded with Indians and white men when Red Iron was brought in, -guarded by soldiers. He was about forty years old, tall and athletic; -about six feet high in his moccasins, with a large, well-developed head, -aquiline nose, thin compressed lips, and physiognomy beaming with -intelligence and resolution. He was clad in the half-military, -half-Indian costume of the Dakota chiefs. He was seated in the -council-room without greeting or salutation from any one. In a few -minutes the governor, turning to the chief in the midst of a breathless -silence, by the aid of an interpreter, opened the council. - -Governor Ramsey asked: "What excuse have you for not coming to the -council when I sent for you?" - -The chief rose to his feet with native grace and dignity, his blanket -falling from his shoulders, and purposely dropping the pipe of peace, he -stood erect before the governor with his arms folded, and right hand -pressed on the sheath of his scalping-knife; with firm voice he replied: - -"I started to come, but your braves drove me back." - -_Gov._ "What excuse have you for not coming the second time I sent for -you?" - -_Red Iron._ "No other excuse than I have given you." - -_Gov._ "At the treaty I thought you a good man, but since you have acted -badly, and I am disposed to break you. I do break you." - -_Red Iron._ "You break me! My people made me a chief. My people love me. -I will still be their chief. I have done nothing wrong." - -_Gov._ "Why did you get your braves together and march around here for -the purpose of intimidating other chiefs, and prevent their coming to -the council?" - -_Red Iron._ "I did not get my braves together, they got together -themselves to prevent boys going to council to be made chiefs, to sign -papers, and to prevent single chiefs going to council at night, to be -bribed to sign papers for money we have never got. We have heard how the -Medewakantons were served at Mendota; that by secret councils you got -their names on paper, and took away their money. We don't want to be -served so. My braves wanted to come to council in the daytime, when the -sun shines, and we want no councils in the dark. We want all our people -to go to council together, so that we can all know what is done." - -_Gov._ "Why did you attempt to come to council with your braves, when I -had forbidden your braves coming to council?" - -_Red Iron._ "You invited the chiefs only, and would not let the braves -come too. This is not the way we have been treated before; this is not -according to our customs, for among Dakotas chiefs and braves go to -council together. When you first sent for us, there were two or three -chiefs here, and we wanted to wait till the rest would come, that we -might all be in council together and know what was done, and so that we -might all understand the papers, and know what we were signing. When we -signed the treaty the traders threw a blanket over our faces and -darkened our eyes, and made us sign papers which we did not understand, -and which were not explained or read to us. We want our Great Father at -Washington to know what has been done." - -_Gov._ "Your Great Father has sent me to represent him, and what I say -is what he says. He wants you to pay your old debts, in accordance with -the paper you signed when the treaty was made, and to leave that money -in my hands to pay these debts. If you refuse to do that I will take the -money back." - -_Red Iron._ "You can take the money back. We sold our land to you, and -you promised to pay us. If you don't give us the money I will be glad, -and all our people will be glad, for we will have our land back if you -don't give us the money. That paper was not interpreted or explained to -us. We are told it gives about 300 boxes ($300,000) of our money to some -of the traders. We don't think we owe them so much. We want to pay all -our debts. We want our Great Father to send three good men here to tell -us how much we do owe, and whatever they say we will pay; and that's -what all these braves say. Our chiefs and all our people say this." All -the Indians present responded, "Ho! ho!" - -_Gov._ "That can't be done. You owe more than your money will pay, and I -am ready now to pay your annuity, and no more; and when you are ready to -receive it, the agent will pay you." - -_Red Iron._ "We will receive our annuity, but we will sign no papers for -anything else. The snow is on the ground, and we have been waiting a -long time to get our money. We are poor; you have plenty. Your fires are -warm. Your tepees keep out the cold. We have nothing to eat. We have -been waiting a long time for our moneys. Our hunting-season is past. A -great many of our people are sick, for being hungry. We may die because -you won't pay us. We may die, but if we do we will leave our bones on -the ground, that our Great Father may see where his Dakota children -died. We are very poor. We have sold our hunting-grounds and the graves -of our fathers. We have sold our own graves. We have no place to bury -our dead, and you will not pay us the money for our lands." - -The council was broken up, and Red Iron was sent to the guard-house, -where he was kept till next day. Between thirty and forty of the braves -of Red Iron's band were present during this arrangement before the -governor. When he was led away, they departed in sullen silence, headed -by Lean Bear, to a spot a quarter of a mile from the council-house, -where they uttered a succession of yells—the gathering signal of the -Dakotas. Ere the echoes died away, Indians were hurrying from their -tepees toward them, prepared for battle. They proceeded to the eminence -near the camp, where mouldered the bones of many warriors. It was the -memorable battle-ground, where their ancestors had fought, in a conflict -like Waterloo, the warlike Sacs and Foxes, thereby preserving their -lands and nationality. Upon this field stood two hundred resolute -warriors ready to do battle for their hereditary chief. Lean Bear, the -principal brave of Red Iron's band, was a large, resolute man, about -thirty-five years of age, and had great influence in his nation. - -Here, on their old battle-ground, Lean Bear recounted the brave deeds of -Red Iron, the long list of wrongs inflicted on the Indians by the white -men, and proposed to the braves that they should make a general attack -on the whites. By the influence of some of the half-breeds, and of white -men who were known to be friendly to them, Lean Bear was induced to -abandon his scheme; and finally, the tribe, being starving, consented to -give up their lands and accept the sum of money offered to them. - -"Over $55,000 of this treaty money, paid for debts of the Indians, went -to one Hugh Tyler, a stranger in the country, 'for getting the treaties -through the Senate, and for necessary disbursements in securing the -assent of the chiefs.'" - -Five years later another trader, under the pretence that he was going to -get back for them some of this stolen treaty money, obtained their -signature to vouchers, by means of which he cheated them out of $12,000 -more. At this same time he obtained a payment of $4,500 for goods he -said they had stolen from him. Another man was allowed a claim of $5,000 -for horses he said they had stolen from him. - -"In 1858 the chiefs were taken to Washington, and agreed to the treaties -for the cession of all their reservation north of the Minnesota River, -under which, as ratified by the Senate, they were to have $166,000; but -of this amount they never received one penny till four years afterward, -when $15,000 in goods were sent to the Lower Sioux, and these were -deducted out of what was due them under former treaties."—_History of -the Sioux War_, by ISAAC V. D. HEARD. - -This paragraph gives the causes of the fearful Minnesota massacre, in -which eight hundred people lost their lives. - -The treaty expressly provided that no claims against the Indians should -be paid unless approved by the Indians in open council. No such council -was held. A secret council was held with a few chiefs, but the body of -the Indians were ignorant of it. There was a clause in this treaty that -the Secretary of the Interior might use any funds of the Indians for -such purposes of civilization as his judgment should dictate. Under this -clause the avails of over six hundred thousand acres of land were taken -for claims against the Indians. Of the vast amount due to the Lower -Sioux, only a little over $800 was left to their credit in Washington at -the time of the outbreak. Moreover, a portion of their annual annuity -was also taken for claims. - -REMOVAL OF THE SIOUX AND WINNEBAGOES FROM MINNESOTA in 1863. - -"The guard that accompanied these Indians consisted of four commissioned -officers, one hundred and thirty-five soldiers, and one laundress; in -all, one hundred and forty persons. The number of Santee Sioux -transported was thirteen hundred and eighteen. For the transportation -and subsistence of these Indians and the guard there was paid the sum of -$36,322.10. - -"The number of Winnebagoes transported was nineteen hundred and -forty-five; for their transportation and subsistence there was paid the -farther sum of $56,042.60—making the whole amount paid the contractors -$92,364.70. - -"The Sioux were transported from Fort Snelling to Hannibal, Missouri, on -two steamboats. One of the boats stopped there, and the Indians on it -crossed over to St. Joseph, on the Missouri River, by rail. The other -boat continued to the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, -and thence up the latter to St. Joseph; and here the Indians that -crossed over by rail were put upon the boat, and from thence to Crow -Creek all of them were on one boat. They were very much crowded from St. -Joseph to Crow Creek. Sixteen died on the way, being without attention -or medical supplies. All the Indians were excluded from the cabin of the -boat, and confined to the lower and upper decks. It was in May, and to -go among them on the lower deck was suffocating. They were fed on hard -bread and mess pork, much of it not cooked, there being no opportunity -to cook it only at night when the boat laid up. They had no sugar, -coffee, or vegetables. Confinement on the boat in such a mass, and want -of proper food, created much sickness, such as diarrhœa and fevers. For -weeks after they arrived at Crow Creek the Indians died at the rate of -from three to four per day. In a few weeks one hundred and fifty had -died, mainly on account of the treatment they had received after leaving -Fort Snelling."—_MANEYPENNY, Our Indian Wards._ - -FOOD OF THE INDIANS AT CROW CREEK, DAKOTA, IN THE WINTER OF 1864. - -"During the summer the Indians were fed on flour and pork; they got no -beef till fall. They suffered for want of fresh beef as well as for -medical supplies. In the fall their ration began to fail; and the issue -was gradually reduced; and the Indians complained bitterly. *** The beef -furnished was from the cattle that hauled the supplies from Minnesota. -These cattle had travelled over three hundred miles, hauling the train, -with nothing to eat but the dry prairie grass, there being no -settlements on the route they came. The cattle were very poor. Some died -or gave out on the trip, and such were slaughtered, and the meat brought -in on the train for food for the Indians. About the 1st of January, -1864, near four hundred of the cattle were slaughtered. Except the dry -prairie grass, which the frost had killed, these cattle had no food from -the time they came to Crow Creek until they were slaughtered. A part of -the beef thus made was piled up in the warehouse in snow, and the -remainder in like manner packed in snow outside. This beef was to keep -the Indians until the coming June. The beef was black, and very poor—the -greater part only skin and bone. Shortly after the arrival of the train -from Minnesota the contractors for supplying the Indians with flour took -about one hundred head of the oxen, selecting the best of them, yoked -them up, and sent them with wagons to Sioux City, some two hundred and -forty miles, to haul up flour. This train returned in February, and -these oxen were then slaughtered, and fed to the Indians. - -"In January the issue of soup to the Indians commenced. It was made in a -large cotton-wood vat, being cooked by steam carried from the boiler of -the saw-mill in a pipe to the vat. The vat was partly filled with water, -then several quarters of beef chopped up were thrown into it, and a few -sacks of flour added. The hearts, lights, and entrails were added to the -compound, and in the beginning a few beans were put into the vat; but -this luxury did not continue long. This soup was issued every other -day—to the Santee Sioux one day, the alternate day to the Winnebagoes. -It was very unpalatable. On the day the Indians received the soup they -had no other food issued to them. They were very much dissatisfied, and -said they could not live on the soup, when those in charge told them if -they could live elsewhere they had better go, but that they must not go -to the white settlements. Many of them did leave the agency, some going -to Fort Sully, others to Fort Randall, in search of food. From a -description of this nauseous mess called soup, given by Samuel C. -Haynes, then at Fort Randall, and assistant-surgeon in the military -service, it is seen that the Indians had good cause to leave Crow Creek. -He states that there were thrown into the vat 'beef, beef-heads, -entrails of the beeves, some beans, flour, and pork. I think there were -put into the vat two barrels of flour each time, which was not oftener -than once in twenty-four hours. This mass was then cooked by the steam -from the boiler passing through the pipe into the vat. When that was -done, all the Indians were ordered to come with their pails and get it. -It was dipped out to the Indians with a long-handled dipper made for the -purpose. I cannot say the quantity given to each. It was about the -consistency of very thin gruel. The Indians would pour off the thinner -portion and eat that which settled at the bottom. As it was dipped out -of the vat, some of the Indians would get the thinner portions and some -would get some meat. I passed there frequently when it was cooking, and -was often there when it was being issued. It had a very offensive odor. -It had the odor of the contents of the entrails of the beeves. I have -seen the settlings of the vat after they were through issuing it to the -Indians, when they were cleaning the vat, and the settlings smelled like -carrion—like decomposed meat. Some of the Indians refused to eat it, -saying they could not, it made them sick.'"—_MANEYPENNY, Our Indian -Wards._ - - - - - VII. - - LETTER FROM SARAH WINNEMUCCA, - - AN EDUCATED PAH-UTE WOMAN. - - - _To Major H. Douglas, U. S. Army_: - -SIR,—I learn from the commanding officer at this post that you desire -full information in regard to the Indians around this place, with a -view, if possible, of bettering their condition by sending them on the -Truckee River Reservation. All the Indians from here to Carson City -belong to the Pah-Ute tribe. My father, whose name is Winnemucca, is the -head chief of the whole tribe; but he is now getting too old, and has -not energy enough to command, nor to impress on their minds the -necessity of their being sent on the reservation. In fact, I think he is -entirely opposed to it. He, myself, and most of the Humboldt and Queen's -River Indians were on the Truckee Reservation at one time; but if we had -stayed there, it would be only to starve. I think that if they had -received what they were entitled to from the agents, they would never -have left them. So far as their knowledge of agriculture extends, they -are quite ignorant, as they have never had the opportunity of learning; -but I think, if proper pains were taken, that they would willingly make -the effort to maintain themselves by their own labor, providing they -could be made to believe that the products were their own, for their own -use and comfort. It is needless for me to enter into details as to how -we were treated on the reservation while there. It is enough to say that -we were confined to the reserve, and had to live on what fish we might -be able to catch in the river. If this is the kind of civilization -awaiting us on the reserves, God grant that we may never be compelled to -go on one, as it is much preferable to live in the mountains and drag -out an existence in our native manner. So far as living is concerned, -the Indians at all military posts get enough to eat and considerable -cast-off clothing. - -But how long is this to continue? What is the object of the Government -in regard to Indians? Is it enough that we are at peace? Remove all the -Indians from the military posts and place them on reservations such as -the Truckee and Walker River Reservations (as they were conducted), and -it will require a greater military force stationed round to keep them -within the limits than it now does to keep them in subjection. On the -other hand, if the Indians have any guarantee that they can secure a -permanent home on their own native soil, and that our white neighbors -can be kept from encroaching on our rights, after having a reasonable -share of ground allotted to us as our own, and giving us the required -advantages of learning, I warrant that the savage (as he is called -to-day) will be a thrifty and law-abiding member of the community -fifteen or twenty years hence. - -Sir, if at any future time you should require information regarding the -Indians here, I will be happy to furnish the same if I can. - - SARAH WINNEMUCCA. - -Camp McDermitt, Nevada, April 4th, 1870. - - - - - VIII. - - LAWS OF THE DELAWARE NATION OF INDIANS. - -[Adopted July 21st, A.D. 1866.] - - -The chiefs and councillors of the Delaware tribe of Indians convened at -their council-house, on the reservation of said tribe, adopted July -21st, 1866, the following laws, to be amended as they think proper: - - -ARTICLE I. - -_Section 1._ A national jail shall be built on the public grounds, upon -which the council-house is now situated. - -_Sec. 2._ Any person who shall steal any horse, mule, ass, or cattle of -any kind, shall be punished as follows: For the first offence the -property of the offender shall be sold by the sheriff, to pay the owner -of the animal stolen the price of said animal, and all costs he may -sustain in consequence of such theft. But if the offender has no -property, or if his property be insufficient to pay for the animal -stolen, so much of his annuity shall be retained as may be necessary to -pay the owner of said animal, as above directed, and no relative of said -offender shall be permitted to assist him in paying the penalties of -said theft. For the second offence the thief shall be sent to jail for -thirty-five days, and shall pay all costs and damages the owner may -sustain on account of said theft. For the third offence the thief shall -be confined in jail three months, and shall pay all costs and damages, -as above provided. - -_Sec. 3._ If any person shall steal a horse beyond the limits of the -reserve, and bring it within the limits thereof, it shall be lawful for -the owner to pursue and reclaim the same upon presenting satisfactory -proof of ownership, and, if necessary, receive the assistance of the -officers of the Delaware nation. _And it is further provided_, that such -officials as may from time to time be clothed with power by the United -States agent may pursue such offender either within or without the -limits of the reserve. - -_Sec. 4._ Whoever shall ride any horse without the consent of the owner -thereof shall, for the first offence, pay the sum of ten dollars for -each day and night that he may keep the said animal; and for the second -offence shall be confined in jail for the term of twenty-one days, -besides paying a fine of ten dollars. - -_Sec. 5._ Whoever shall reclaim and return any such animal to the -rightful owner, other than the wrong-doer, as in the last section -mentioned, shall receive therefor the sum of two and fifty-hundredths -dollars. - -_Sec. 6._ In all cases of theft, the person or persons convicted of such -theft shall be adjudged to pay all costs and damages resulting -therefrom; and in case of the final loss of any animal stolen, then the -offender shall pay the price thereof in addition to the costs and -damages, as provided in a previous section. - -_Sec. 7._ Whoever shall steal any swine or sheep shall, for the first -offence, be fined the sum of fifteen dollars; ten of which shall be paid -to the owner of the sheep or swine taken, and five dollars to the -witness of the theft; for the second offence the thief shall, in -addition to the above penalty, be confined in jail for twenty-eight -days; and for the third offence the thief shall be confined four weeks -in jail, and then receive a trial, and bear such punishment as may be -adjudged upon such trial. - -_Sec. 8._ Whoever shall steal a fowl of any description shall, for the -first offence, pay to the owner of such animal the sum of five dollars; -for the second offence, in addition to the above penalty, the thief -shall be confined in jail for twenty-one days. The witness by whom such -theft shall be proven shall be entitled to receive such reasonable -compensation as may be allowed to him, to be paid by the offender. - -_Sec. 9._ A lawful fence shall be eight rails high, well staked and -ridered. If any animal shall break through or over a lawful fence, as -above defined, and do any damage, the owner of the enclosure shall give -notice thereof to the owner of such animal, without injury to the -animal. The owner of such animal shall therefore take care of the same, -and prevent his doing damage; but should he neglect or refuse so to do, -the animal itself shall be sold to pay for the damage it may have done. -But if the premises be not enclosed by a lawful fence, as above defined, -the owner of the enclosure shall receive no damages; but should he -injure any animal getting into such enclosure, shall pay for any damage -he may do such animal. - -_Sec. 10._ Every owner of stock shall have his or her brand or mark put -on such stock, and a description of the brand or mark of every person in -the tribe shall be recorded by the national clerk. - -ARTICLE II. - -_Sec. 1._ Whoever shall maliciously set fire to a house shall, for the -first offence, pay to the owner of such house all damages which he may -sustain in consequence of such fire; and, in addition thereto, for the -second offence shall be confined in jail for the term of twenty-one -days. - -_Sec. 2._ Should human life be sacrificed in consequence of any such -fire, the person setting fire as aforesaid shall suffer death by -hanging. - -_Sec. 3._ It shall be unlawful for any person to set on fire any woods -or prairie, except for the purpose of protecting property, and then only -at such times as shall permit the person so setting the fire to -extinguish the same. - -_Sec. 4._ Whoever shall violate the provisions of the last preceding -section shall, for the first offence, be fined the sum of five dollars, -and pay the full value of all property thereby destroyed; for the second -offence, in addition to the penalty above described, the offender shall -be confined in jail for the term of thirty-five days; and for the third -offence the same punishment, except that the confinement in jail shall -be for the period of three months. - -_Sec. 5._ Any person living outside of the reserve cutting hay upon the -land of one living on the reserve, shall pay to the owner of such land -the sum of one dollar per acre, or one-half of the hay so cut. - -_Sec. 6._ No person shall sell any wood on the reserve, except said wood -be first cut and corded. - -ARTICLE III. - -_Sec. 1._ Whoever shall find any lost article shall forthwith return the -same to the owner, if he can be found, under the penalty imposed for -stealing such article, for a neglect of such duty. - -_Sec. 2._ Whoever shall take any article of property without permission -of its owner shall pay the price of the article so taken, and receive -such punishment as the judge in his discretion may impose. - -ARTICLE IV. - -_Sec. 1._ Whoever shall take up any animal on the reserve as a stray -shall, within one week, have the description of such animal recorded in -the stray-book kept by the council. - -_Sec. 2._ If the owner of said stray shall claim the same within one -year from the day on which the description was recorded, he shall be -entitled to take it, after duly proving his property, and paying at the -rate of five dollars per month for the keeping of such animal. - -_Sec. 3._ The title to any stray, duly recorded, and not claimed within -one year from the date of such record, shall rest absolutely in the -person taking up and recording the same. - -_Sec. 4._ Whoever shall take up a stray, and refuse or neglect to record -a description of the same, as provided in Section 1 of this Article, -shall be deemed to have stolen such animal, if the same be found in his -possession, and shall suffer the penalties inflicted for stealing like -animals. The stray shall be taken from him, and remain at the disposal -of the council, and a description of the same shall be recorded in the -stray-book. - -ARTICLE V. - -_Sec. 1._ If a person commit murder in the first degree, he shall, upon -conviction, suffer the penalty of death; but if the evidence against him -be insufficient, or if the killing be done in self-defence, the person -doing the killing shall be released. - -_Sec. 2._ Whoever shall, by violence, do bodily harm to the person of -another shall be arrested, and suffer such punishment as may on trial be -adjudged against him; and should death result from such bodily harm done -to the person of another, the offender shall be arrested, and suffer -such punishment as may be adjudged against him. - -_Sec. 3._ Whoever shall wilfully slander an innocent party shall be -punished for such slander at the discretion of the judge. - -_Sec. 4._ Whoever, being intoxicated or under the influence of liquor, -shall display at the house of another, in a dangerous or threatening -manner, any deadly weapons, and refuse to desist therefrom, being -commanded so to do, and put up such weapons, either by the owner of the -house or by any other person, shall for the first offence be fined the -sum of five dollars, and pay all damages which may accrue; for the -second offence shall be confined in jail twenty-one days, and pay a fine -of ten dollars, and pay all damages which may accrue; and for the third -offence shall be imprisoned in the jail for thirty-five days, be fined -twenty dollars, and pay all damages as aforesaid. - -_Sec. 5._ Officers shall be appointed to appraise all damages accruing -under the last preceding section, who shall hear all the evidence, and -render judgment according to the law and the evidence. - -_Sec. 6._ Whoever shall, being under the influence of liquor, attend -public worship or any other public meeting, shall first be commanded -peaceably to depart; and if he refuses, it shall be the duty of the -sheriff to arrest and confine such person until he becomes sober; and -the offender shall pay a fine of five dollars. - -_Sec. 7._ It shall be the duty of the sheriff to attend all meetings for -public worship. - -_Sec. 8._ No member of the Delaware nation shall be held liable for any -debts contracted in the purchase of intoxicating liquors. - -_Sec. 9._ The United States Agent and the chiefs shall have power to -grant license to bring merchandise to the national payment ground for -sale to so many traders as they may think proper for the interest of the -nation. - -_Sec. 10._ It shall be unlawful for any one person to bring any kind of -drinks, except coffee, on the payment ground; and any person who shall -offend against this section shall forfeit his drinkables and his right -to remain on the payment ground. - -_Sec. 11._ It shall be unlawful for any one person to bring within the -reserve more than one pint of spirituous liquors at any one time. For -the first offence against this section the offender shall forfeit his -liquors, and pay a fine of five dollars; for the second offence he shall -forfeit his liquors, and pay a fine of ten dollars; and for the third -offence he shall forfeit his liquors, and be fined the sum of -twenty-five dollars. - -_Sec. 12._ Any person who shall find another in possession of more than -one pint of liquor at one time upon the reserve may lawfully spill and -destroy the same, and shall use such force as may be necessary for such -purpose. Should the owner resist, and endeavor to commit bodily harm -upon the person engaged in spilling or destroying said liquor, he shall -be taken into custody by the sheriff, and be punished as an offender -against the law. - -_Sec. 13._ The sheriff may lawfully compel any man or any number of men, -ministers of the Gospel excepted, to assist in capturing any person who -shall violate these laws. - -_Sec. 14._ Whoever shall offer resistance to any capture or arrest for -violating any of the provisions of these laws shall be punished, not -only for the original offence for which he was arrested, but also for -resisting an officer. - -ARTICLE VI. - -_Sec. 1._ All business affecting the general interest of the nation -shall be transacted by the council in regular sessions. - -_Sec. 2._ All personal acts of chiefs, councillors, or private -individuals, in such matters as affect the general interest of the -nation, shall be considered null and void. - -_Sec. 3._ Whoever shall violate the last preceding section by -undertaking, in a private capacity and manner, to transact public and -national business, shall be imprisoned in the national jail for a period -not less than six months nor more than one year, and shall forfeit his -place of office or position in the nation; which place or position shall -be filled by the appointment of other suitable persons. - -_Sec. 4._ Councillors shall be appointed who shall take an oath -faithfully to perform their duties to the nation, and for neglect of -such duties others shall be appointed to fill their places. - -_Sec. 5._ Should a councillor go on a journey, so that it is impossible -for him to attend the meetings of the council regularly, he may appoint -a substitute who shall act for him in his absence. - -_Sec. 6._ Certain days shall be set apart for council and court days. - -_Sec. 7._ The chiefs and councillors shall appoint three sheriffs, at a -salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per annum each; one clerk, at -one hundred dollars per annum; and one jailer, at a salary of one -hundred dollars per annum, whose salary shall be due and payable -half-yearly; and in case either of the above officers shall neglect or -refuse to perform any of the duties of his office, he shall forfeit his -salary, and his office shall be declared vacant, and another shall be -appointed to fill the office. - -_Sec. 8._ The chiefs and councillors shall semi-annually, in April and -October, make an appropriation for national expenses, which -appropriation shall be taken from the trust fund, or any other due the -Delawares, and paid to the treasury. - -_Sec. 9._ There shall be a treasurer appointed annually, on the first -day of April, whose duty it shall be to receive and disburse all moneys -to be used for national purposes; but the treasurer shall pay out money -only on order of chiefs and councillors, and for his services shall be -paid five per cent. on the amount disbursed. - -ARTICLE VII. - -_Sec. 1._ It shall be lawful for any person, before his or her death, to -make a will, and thereby dispose of his or her property as he or she may -desire. - -_Sec. 2._ If a man dies, leaving no will to show the disposal of his -property, and leaves a widow and children, one-fourth of his property -shall be set aside for the payment of his debts. Should the property so -set aside be insufficient to pay all his debts in full, it shall be -divided among his creditors _pro rata_, which _pro rata_ payment shall -be received by his creditors in full satisfaction of all claims and -demands whatever. - -_Sec. 3._ If the property so set apart for the payment of debts is more -than sufficient to pay all debts, the remainder shall be equally divided -among the children. - -_Sec. 4._ The widow shall be entitled to one-third of the property not -set aside for the payment of debts. - -_Sec. 5._ If a man dies, leaving no widow or children, his debts shall -first be paid out of the proceeds of his personal property, and the -remainder, if any, with the real estate, shall be given to the nearest -relative. - -_Sec. 6._ Whoever shall take or receive any portion of the property -belonging to the widow and orphans, shall be punished as if he had -stolen the property. - -_Sec. 7._ The council shall appoint guardians for orphan children when -they deem it expedient so to do. - -ARTICLE VIII. - -_Sec. 1._ If a white man marry a member of the nation, and accumulate -property by such marriage, said property shall belong to his wife and -children; nor shall he be allowed to remove any portion of such property -beyond the limits of the reserve. - -_Sec. 2._ Should such white man lose his wife, all the property shall -belong to the children, and no subsequent wife shall claim any portion -of such property. - -_Sec. 3._ Should such white man die in the nation, leaving no children, -all his property shall belong to his wife, after paying his debts. - -_Sec. 4._ Should such white man lose his wife, and have no children, -one-half of the personal property shall belong to him, and the other -half shall belong to his wife's nearest relatives. - -_Sec. 5._ Should such white man be expelled from the reserve, and the -wife choose to follow her husband, she shall forfeit all her right and -interest in the reserve. - -ARTICLE IX. - -_Sec. 1._ No member of the nation shall lease any grounds to persons not -members of the nation. - -_Sec. 2._ Should a white man seek employment of any member of the -nation, he shall first give his name to the United States Agent, and -furnish him with a certificate of good moral character, and also a -statement of the time for which he is employed, and the name of his -employer. - -_Sec. 3._ The employed shall pay all hired help according to agreement. - -_Sec. 4._ Any person or persons violating any of the provisions of these -laws on the reserve shall be punished as therein provided. - -_Sec. 5._ All white men on the reserve disregarding these laws shall -also be expelled from the reserve. - - -ARTICLE X. - -_Sec. 1._ Whoever shall forcibly compel any woman to commit adultery, or -who shall commit a rape upon a woman, shall, for the first offence, be -fined the sum of fifty dollars, and be imprisoned in jail for -thirty-five days; for the second offence he shall be fined one hundred -dollars, and be confined three months in the national jail; and for the -third offence he shall be punished as the court shall see proper. - - - - - IX. - - ACCOUNT OF THE CHEROKEE WHO INVENTED THE - CHEROKEE ALPHABET. - - -"Sequoyah, a Cherokee Indian, instead of joining the rude sports of -Indian boys while a child, took great delight in exercising his -ingenuity by various mechanical labors. He also assisted in the -management of his mother's property, consisting of a farm and cattle and -horses. In his intercourse with the whites he became aware that they -possessed an art by which a name impressed upon a hard substance might -be understood at a glance by any one acquainted with the art. He -requested an educated half-breed, named Charles Hicks, to write his -name; which being done, he made a die containing a fac-simile of the -word, which he stamped upon all the articles fabricated by his -mechanical ingenuity. From this he proceeded to the art of drawing, in -which he made rapid progress before he had the opportunity of seeing a -picture or engraving. These accomplishments made the young man very -popular among his associates, and particularly among the red ladies; but -it was long before incessant adulation produced any evil effect upon his -character. At length, however, he was prevailed upon to join his -companions, and share in the carouse which had been supplied by his own -industry. But he soon wearied of an idle and dissipated life, suddenly -resolved to give up drinking, and learned the trade of a blacksmith by -his own unaided efforts. In the year 1820, while on a visit to some -friends in a Cherokee village, he listened to a conversation on the art -of writing, which seems always to have been the subject of great -curiosity among the Indians. Sequoyah remarked that he did not regard -the art as so very extraordinary, and believed he could invent a plan by -which the red man might do the same thing. The company were incredulous; -but the matter had long been the subject of his reflections, and he had -come to the conclusion that letters represented words or ideas, and -being always uniform, would always convey the same meaning. His first -plan was to invent signs for words; but upon trial he was speedily -satisfied that this would be too cumbrous and laborious, and he soon -contrived the plan of an alphabet which should represent sounds, each -character standing for a syllable. He persevered in carrying out his -intention, and attained his object by forming eighty-six characters. - -"While thus employed he incurred the ridicule of his neighbors, and was -entreated to desist by his friends. The invention, however, was -completely successful, and the Cherokee dialect is now a written -language; a result entirely due to the extraordinary genius of Sequoyah. -After teaching many to read and write, he left the Cherokee nation in -1822 on a visit to Arkansas, and introduced the art among the Cherokees -who had emigrated to that country; and, after his return home, a -correspondence was opened in the Cherokee language between the two -branches of the nation. In the autumn of 1823 the General Council -bestowed upon him a silver medal in honor of his genius, and as an -expression of gratitude for his eminent public services."—_North -American Review._ - -"We may remark, with reference to the above, that as each letter of this -alphabet represents one of eighty-six sounds, of which in various -transpositions the language is composed, a Cherokee can read as soon as -he has learned his alphabet. It is said that a clever boy may thus be -taught to read in a single day."—_The Saturday Magazine_, London, April, -1842. - - - - - X. - - PRICES PAID BY WHITE MEN FOR SCALPS. - - -"In the wars between France and England and their colonies, their -Indian allies were entitled to a premium for every scalp of an enemy. -In the war preceding 1703 the Government of Massachusetts gave twelve -pounds for every Indian scalp. In 1722 it was augmented to one hundred -pounds—a sum sufficient to purchase a considerable extent of American -land. On the 25th of February, 1745, an act was passed by the American -colonial legislature, entitled 'An Act for giving a reward for -scalps.'"—_Sketches of the History, Manners, and Customs of the North -American Indians, by JAMES BUCHANAN, 1824._ - -"There was a constant rivalry between the Governments of Great Britain, -France, and the United States as to which of them should secure the -services of the barbarians to scalp their white enemies, while each in -turn was the loudest to denounce the shocking barbarities of such tribes -as they failed to secure in their own service; and the civilized world, -aghast at these horrid recitals, ignores the fact that nearly every -important massacre in the history of North America was organized and -directed by agents of some one of these Governments."—_GALE, Upper -Mississippi._ - - - - - XI. - - EXTRACT FROM TREATY WITH CHEYENNES, IN 1865. - - -ART. 6th of the treaty of Oct. 14th, 1865, between the United States and -the chiefs and headmen representing the confederated tribes of the -Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians: - -"The United States being desirous to express its condemnation of, and as -far as may be repudiate the gross and wanton outrages perpetrated -against certain bands of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians by Colonel J. M. -Chivington, in command of United States troops, on the 29th day of -November, 1864, at Sand Creek, in Colorado Territory, while the said -Indians were at peace with the United States and under its flag, whose -protection they had by lawful authority been promised and induced to -seek, and the Government, being desirous to make some suitable -reparation for the injuries thus done, will grant 320 acres of land by -patent to each of the following named chiefs of said bands, *** and will -in like manner grant to each other person of said bands made a widow, or -who lost a parent on that occasion, 160 acres of land. *** The United -States will also pay in United States securities, animals, goods, -provisions, or such other useful articles as may in the discretion of -the Secretary of the Interior be deemed best adapted to the respective -wants and conditions of the persons named in the schedule hereto -annexed, they being present and members of the bands who suffered at -Sand Creek on the occasion aforesaid, the sums set opposite their names -respectively, as a compensation for property belonging to them, and then -and there destroyed or taken from them by the United States troops -aforesaid." - -One of the Senate amendments to this treaty struck out the words "by -Colonel J. M. Chivington, in command of United States troops." If this -were done with a view of relieving "Colonel J. M. Chivington" of -obloquy, or of screening the fact that "United States troops" were the -instruments by which the murders were committed, is not clear. But in -either case the device was a futile one. The massacre will be known as -"The Chivington Massacre" as long as history lasts, and the United -States must bear its share of the infamy of it. - - - - - XII. - - WOOD-CUTTING BY INDIANS IN DAKOTA. - - -In his report for 1877 the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Dakota -says: "Orders have been received to stop cutting of wood by Indians, to -pay them for what they have already cut, to take possession of it and -sell it. This I am advised is under a recent decision which deprives -Indians of any ownership in the wood until the land is taken by them in -severalty. If agents do not enforce these orders, they lay themselves -liable. If they do enforce them, the Indians are deprived of what little -motive they have for labor. In the mean time, aliens of all nations cut -wood on Indian lands, sell to steamboats, fill contracts for the army -and for Indian agencies at high prices. *** Cutting wood is one of the -very few things an Indian can do in Dakota at this time." - - - - - XIII. - - SEQUEL TO THE WALLA WALLA MASSACRE. - -[This narrative was written by a well-known army officer, correspondent -of the _Army and Navy Journal_, and appeared in that paper Nov. 1st, -1879.] - - -The history of that affair (the Walla Walla Massacre) was never written, -we believe; or, if it was, the absolute facts in the case were never -given by any unprejudiced person, and it may be interesting to not a few -to give them here. The story, as told by our Washington correspondent, -"Ebbitt," who was a witness of the scenes narrated, is as follows: - -"The first settlements in Oregon, some thirty years ago, were made by a -colony of Methodists. One of the principal men among them was the late -Mr. or Governor Abernethy, as he was called, as he was for a short time -the prominent Governor of Oregon. He was the father-in-law of our genial -Deputy Quartermaster-general Henry C. Hodges, an excellent man, and he -must not be remembered as one of those who were responsible for the -shocking proceedings which we are about to relate. A minister by the -name of Whitman, we believe, had gone up to the Walla Walla region, -where he was kindly received by the Cayuse and other friendly Indians, -who, while they did not particularly desire to be converted to the -Christian faith as expounded by one of Wesley's followers, saw no -special objection to the presence of the missionary. So they lived -quietly along for a year or two; then the measles broke out among the -Indians, and a large number of them were carried off. They were told by -their medicine men that the disease was owing to the presence of the -whites, and Mr. Whitman was notified that he must leave their country. -Filled with zeal for the cause, and not having sense enough to grasp the -situation, he refused to go. - -"At this time the people of the Hudson's Bay Company had great influence -with all the Indians in that region, and the good old Governor Peter -Skeen Ogden was the chief factor of the Company at Fort Vancouver. He -was apprised of the state of feeling among the Indians near the mission -by the Indians themselves, and he was entreated by them to urge Whitman -to go away, for if he did not he would surely be killed. The governor -wrote up to the mission advising them to leave, for a while at least, -until the Indians should become quiet, which they would do as soon as -the measles had run its course among them. His efforts were useless, and -sure enough one day in 1847, we believe, the mission was cleaned out, -the missionary and nearly all of those connected with it being killed. - -"An Indian war follows. This was carried on for some months, and with -little damage, but sufficient for a claim by the territory upon the -General Government for untold amounts of money. Two or three years -later, when the country had commenced to fill up with emigration, and -after the regiment of Mounted Riflemen and two companies of the First -Artillery had taken post in Oregon, the people began to think that it -would be well to stir up the matter of the murder of the Whitman family. -General Joseph Lane had been sent out as governor in 1849, and he -doubtless thought it would be a good thing for him politically to humor -the people of the territory. Lane was a vigorous, resolute, Western man, -who had been a general officer during the Mexican war, and he then had -Presidential aspirations. So the governor came to Fort Vancouver, where -the head-quarters of the department were established, under Colonel -Loring, of the Mounted Rifles, and procured a small escort, with which -he proceeded to hunt up the Indians concerned in the massacre, and -demand their surrender. By this time the Indians had begun to comprehend -the power of the Government; and when the governor found them, and -explained the nature of his mission, they went into council to decide -what was to be done. After due deliberation, they were convinced that if -they were to refuse to come to any terms they would be attacked by the -soldiers, of whom they then had deadly fear, and obliged to abandon -their country forever. So they met the governor, and the head chief said -that they had heard what he had to say. It was true that his people had -killed the whites at the mission, but that they did so for the reason -that they really thought that a terrible disease had been brought among -them by the whites; that they had begged them to go away from them, for -they did not wish to kill them, and that they only killed them to save -their own lives, as they thought. He said that for this the whites from -down the Columbia had made war upon them, and killed many more of their -people than had been killed at the mission, and they thought they ought -to be satisfied. As they were not, three of their principal men had -volunteered to go back with the governor to Oregon City to be tried for -the murder. This satisfied the governor, and the men bid farewell to -their wives and little ones and to all their tribe, for they very well -knew that they would never see them again. They knew that they were -going among those who thirsted for their blood, and that they were going -to their death, and that death the most ignominious that can be accorded -to the red man, as they were to be hung like dogs. - -"The governor and his party left. The victims gave one long last look at -the shore as they took the little boat on the Columbia, but no word of -complaint ever came from their lips. When they arrived at Fort Vancouver -we had charge of these Indians. They were not restrained in any way—no -guard was ever kept over them, for there was no power on earth that -could have made them falter in their determination to go down to Oregon -City, and die like men for the salvation of their tribe. - -"At Oregon City these men walked with their heads erect, and with the -bearing of senators, from the little boat, amidst the jibes and jeers of -a brutal crowd, to the jail which was to be the last covering they would -ever have over their heads. - -"The trial came on, the jury was empanelled, and Captain Claiborne, of -the Mounted Rifles, volunteered to defend the Indians, who were told -that they were to have a fair trial, and that they would not be punished -unless they were found guilty. To all this they paid no heed. They said -it was all right, but they did not understand a word of what they were -compelled to listen to for several days, and they cared nothing for the -forms of the law. They had come to die, and when some witnesses swore -that they recognized them as the very Indians who killed Whitman—all of -which was explained to them—not a muscle of their faces changed, -although it was more than suspected that the witnesses were never near -the mission at the time of the massacre. The trial was over, and, of -course, the Indians were condemned to be hanged. Without a murmur or -sigh of regret, and with a dignity that would have impressed a Zulu with -profound pity, these men walked to the gallows and were hung, while a -crowd of civilized Americans—men, women, and children of the nineteenth -century—looked on and laughed at their last convulsive twitches. - -"We have read of heroes of all times, but never did we read of or -believe that such heroism as these Indians exhibited could exist. They -knew that to be accused was to be condemned, and they would be executed -in the civilized town of Oregon City just as surely as would a poor -woman accused of being a witch have been executed in the civilized and -Christian town of Salem, in the good State of Massachusetts, two hundred -years ago. - -"A generation has passed away since the execution or murder of these -Indians at Oregon City. Governor Lane still lives, not as ex-President, -but as a poor but vigorous old man down in the Rogue River Valley. The -little nasty town of Oregon City was the scene of a self-immolation as -great as any of which we read in history, and there were not three -persons there who appreciated it. The accursed town is, we hear, still -nastier than ever, and the intelligent jury—no man of whom dared to have -a word of pity or admiration for those poor Indians—with the spectators -of that horrid scene, are either dead and damned, or they are sunk in -the oblivion that is the fate of those who are born without souls." - - - - - XIV. - - AN ACCOUNT - - - OF THE NUMBERS, LOCATION, AND SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL - CONDITION OF EACH IMPORTANT TRIBE AND BAND OF INDIANS - WITHIN THE UNITED STATES, WITH THE EXCEPTION - OF THOSE DESCRIBED IN THE PREVIOUS PAGES. - -[From the Report of Francis A. Walker, United States Commissioner of -Indian Affairs for the year 1872.] - - -The Indians within the limits of the United States, exclusive of those -in Alaska, number, approximately, 300,000. - -They may be divided, according to their geographical location or range, -into five grand divisions, as follows: in Minnesota, and States east of -the Mississippi River, about 32,500; in Nebraska, Kansas, and the Indian -Territory, 70,650; in the Territories of Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and -Idaho, 65,000; in Nevada, and the Territories of Colorado, New Mexico, -Utah, and Arizona, 84,000; and on the Pacific slope, 48,000. *** As -regards their means of support and methods of subsistence, they may be -divided as follows: those who support themselves upon their own -reservations, receiving nothing from the Government except interest on -their own moneys, or annuities granted them in consideration of the -cession of their lands to the United States, number about 130,000; those -who are entirely subsisted by the Government, about 31,000; those in -part subsisted, 84,000,—together, about 115,000; those who subsist by -hunting and fishing, upon roots, nuts, berries, etc., or by begging and -stealing, about 55,000. - -TRIBES EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. - -NEW YORK. - -The Indians of New York, remnants of the once powerful "Six Nations," -number 5070. They occupy six reservations in the State, containing in -the aggregate 68,668 acres. Two of these reservations, viz., the -Alleghany and Cattaraugus, belonged originally to the Colony of -Massachusetts; but, by sale and assignment, passed into the hands of a -company, the Indians holding a perpetual right of occupancy, and the -company referred to, or the individual members thereof, owning the -ultimate fee. The same state of facts formerly existed in regard to the -Tonawanda reserve; but the Indians who occupy it have purchased the -ultimate fee of a portion of the reserve, which is now held in trust for -them by the Secretary of the Interior. The State of New York exercises -sovereignty over these reservations. The reservations occupied by the -Oneidas, Onondagas, and Tuscaroras have been provided for by treaty -stipulations between the Indians and the State of New York. All six -reserves are held and occupied by the Indians in common. While the -Indian tribes of the continent, with few exceptions, have been steadily -decreasing in numbers, those of New York have of late more than held -their own, as is shown by an increase of 100 in the present reports over -the reported number in 1871, and of 1300 over the number embraced in the -United States census of 1860. On the New York reservations are -twenty-eight schools; the attendance during some portions of the past -year exceeding 1100; the daily average attendance being 608. Of the -teachers employed, fifteen are Indians, as fully competent for this -position as their white associates. An indication of what is to be -accomplished in the future, in an educational point of view, is found in -the successful effort, made in August last, to establish a teacher's -institute on the Cattaraugus Reservation for the education of teachers -specially for Indian schools. Thirty-eight applicants attended, and -twenty-six are now under training. The statistics of individual wealth -and of the aggregate product of agricultural and other industry are, in -general, favorable; and a considerable increase in these regards is -observed from year to year. Twenty thousand acres are under cultivation; -the cereal crops are good; while noticeable success has been achieved in -the raising of fruit. - -MICHIGAN. - -The bands or tribes residing in Michigan are the Chippewas of Saginaw, -Swan Creek, and Black River; the Ottawas and Chippewas; the -Pottawattomies of Huron; and the L'Anse band of Chippewas. - -_The Chippewas_ of Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River, numbering 1630, -and the Ottawas and Chippewas, 6039, are indigenous to the country. They -are well advanced in civilization; have, with few exceptions, been -allotted lands under treaty provisions, for which they have received -patents; and are now entitled to all the privileges and benefits of -citizens of the United States. Those to whom no allotments have been -made can secure homesteads under the provisions of the Act of June 10th, -1872. All treaty stipulations with these Indians have expired. They now -have no money or other annuities paid to them by the United States -Government. The three tribes first named have in all four schools, with -115 scholars; and the last, two schools, with 152 scholars. - -_The Pottawattomies_ of Huron number about fifty. - -_The L'Anse_ band of Chippewas, numbering 1195, belong with the other -bands of the Chippewas of Lake Superior. They occupy a reservation of -about 48,300 acres, situated on Lake Superior, in the extreme northern -part of the State. But few of them are engaged in agriculture, most of -them depending for their subsistence on hunting and fishing. They have -two schools, with an attendance of fifty-six scholars. - -The progress of the Indians of Michigan in civilization and industry has -been greatly hindered in the past by a feeling of uncertainty in regard -to their permanent possession and enjoyment of their homes. Since the -allotment of land, and the distribution of either patents or homestead -certificates to these Indians (the L'Anse or Lake Superior Chippewas, a -people of hunting and fishing habits, excepted), a marked improvement -has been manifested on their part in regard to breaking land and -building houses. The aggregate quantity of land cultivated by the -several tribes is 11,620 acres—corn, oats, and wheat being the chief -products. The dwellings occupied consist of 244 frame and 835 -log-houses. The aggregate population of the several tribes named -(including the confederated "Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottawattomies," -about 250 souls, with whom the Government made a final settlement in -1866 of its treaty obligations) is, by the report of their agent for the -current year, 9117—an increase over the number reported for 1871 of 402; -due, however, perhaps as much to the return of absent Indians as to the -excess of births over deaths. In educational matters these Indians have, -of late, most unfortunately, fallen short of the results of former -years; for the reason mainly that, their treaties expiring, the -provisions previously existing for educational uses failed. - -WISCONSIN. - -The bands or tribes in Wisconsin are the Chippewas of Lake Superior, the -Menomonees, the Stockbridges, and Munsees, the Oneidas, and certain -stray bands (so-called) of Winnebagoes, Pottawattomies, and Chippewas. - -_The Chippewas_ of Lake Superior (under which head are included the -following bands: Fond du Lac, Boise Forte, Grand Portage, Red Cliff, Bad -River, Lac de Flambeau, and Lac Court D'Oreille) number about 5150. They -constitute a part of the Ojibways (anglicized in the term Chippewas), -formerly one of the most powerful and warlike nations in the north-west, -embracing many bands, and ranging over an immense territory, extending -along the shores of Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior to the steppes -of the Upper Mississippi. Of this great nation large numbers are still -found in Minnesota, many in Michigan, and a fragment in Kansas. - -The bands above mentioned by name are at present located on several -small reservations set apart for them by treaties of September 30th, -1854, and April 7th, 1866, in Wisconsin and Minnesota, comprising in all -about 695,290 acres. By Act of Congress of May 29th, 1872, provision was -made for the sale, with the consent of the Indians, of three of these -reservations, _viz._, the Lac de Flambeau and Lac Court D'Oreille in -Wisconsin, and the Fond du Lac in Minnesota; and for the removal of the -Indians located thereon to the Bad River Reservation, where there is -plenty of good arable land, and where they can be properly cared for, -and instructed in agriculture and mechanics. - -The greater part of these Indians at present lead a somewhat roving -life, finding their subsistence chiefly in game hunted by them, in the -rice gathered in its wild state, and in the fish afforded by waters -conveniently near. Comparatively little is done in the way of -cultivating the soil. Certain bands have of late been greatly -demoralized by contact with persons employed in the construction of the -Northern Pacific Railroad, the line of which runs near one (the Fond du -Lac) of their reservations. Portions of this people, however, especially -those situated at the Bad River Reservation, have begun to evince an -earnest desire for self-improvement. Many live in houses of rude -construction, and raise small crops of grain and vegetables; others -labor among the whites; and a number find employment in cutting rails, -fence-posts, and saw-logs for the Government. In regard to the efforts -made to instruct the children in letters, it may be said that, without -being altogether fruitless, the results have been thus far meagre and -somewhat discouraging. The majority of the parents profess to wish to -have their children educated, and ask for schools; but when the means -are provided and the work undertaken, the difficulties in the way of -success to any considerable extent appear in the undisciplined character -of the scholars, which has to be overcome by the teacher without -parental co-operation, and in the great irregularity of attendance at -school, especially on the part of those who are obliged to accompany -their parents to the rice-fields, the sugar-camps, or the -fishing-grounds. - -_The Menomonees_ number 1362, and are located on a reservation of -230,400 acres in the north-eastern part of Wisconsin. They formerly -owned most of the eastern portion of the State, and, by treaty entered -into with the Government on the 18th of October, 1848, ceded the same -for a home in Minnesota upon lands that had been obtained by the United -States from the Chippewas; but, becoming dissatisfied with the -arrangement, as not having accorded them what they claimed to be -rightfully due, subsequently protested, and manifested great -unwillingness to remove. In view of this condition of affairs, they -were, by the President, permitted to remain in Wisconsin, and -temporarily located upon the lands they now occupy, which were secured -to them by a subsequent treaty made with the tribe on the 12th of May, -1854. This reservation is well watered by lakes and streams, the latter -affording excellent power and facilities for moving logs and lumber to -market; the most of their country abounding with valuable pine timber. A -considerable portion of the Menomonees have made real and substantial -advancement in civilization; numbers of them are engaged in agriculture; -others find remunerative employment in the lumbering camp established -upon their reservation, under the management of the Government Agent, -while a few still return at times to their old pursuits of hunting and -fishing. - -Under the plan adopted by the Department in 1871, in regard to cutting -and selling the pine timber belonging to these Indians, 2,000,000 feet -have been cut and driven, realizing $23,731, of which individual Indians -received for their labor over $3000, the treasury of the tribe deriving -a net profit of five dollars per thousand feet. The agent estimates -that, for labor done by the Indians upon the reservation, at lumbering, -and for work outside on railroads, during the past year, about $20,000 -has been earned and received, exclusive of the labor rendered in -building houses, raising crops, making sugar, gathering rice, and -hunting for peltries. The work of education upon the reservations has -been of late quite unsatisfactory, but one small school being now in -operation, with seventy scholars, the average attendance being fifty. - -_The Stockbridges and Munsees_, numbering 250, occupy a reservation of -60,800 acres adjoining the Menomonees. The Stockbridges came originally -from Massachusetts and New York. After several removals, they, with the -Munsees, finally located on their present reservation. Under the -provisions of the Act of February 6th, 1871, steps are now being taken -to dispose of all of their reservation, with the exception of eighteen -sections best adapted for agricultural purposes, which are reserved for -their future use. They have no treaty stipulations with the United -States at the present time; nor do they receive any annuities of any -kind from the Government. These tribes—indeed it may be said this tribe -(the Stockbridges), for of the Munsees there probably remain not more -than half a dozen souls—were formerly an intelligent, prosperous people, -not a whit behind the most advanced of the race, possessed of good -farms, well instructed, and industrious. Unfortunately for them, though -much to the advantage of the Government, which acquired thereby a -valuable tract of country for white settlement, they removed, in 1857, -to their present place of abode. The change has proved highly -detrimental to their interests and prospects. Their new reservation, the -greater part poor in soil and seriously affected by wet seasons and -frequent frosts, has never yielded them more than a meagre subsistence. -Many have for this reason left the tribe, and have been for years -endeavoring to obtain a livelihood among the whites, maintaining but -little intercourse with those remaining on the reservation, yet still -holding their rights in the tribal property. The result has been -bickerings and faction quarrels, prejudicial to the peace and -advancement of the community. More than one-half of the present -membership of the tribe, from both the "citizen" and the "Indian" -parties, into which it has been long divided, are reported by the agent -as having decided to avail themselves of the enrolment provisions in the -Act of Congress of February, 1871, before referred to, by which they -will finally receive their share of the tribal property, and become -citizens of the United States. Those who desire to retain their tribal -relation under the protection of the United States may, under the act -adverted to, if they so elect by their council, procure a new location -for their future home. The school interests and religious care of this -people are under the superintendence of Mr. Jeremiah Slingerland, a -Stockbridge of much repute for his intelligence, and his success in the -cause of the moral and educational improvement of his people. - -_The Oneidas_, numbering 1259, have a reservation of 60,800 acres near -Green Bay. They constitute the greater portion of the tribe of that name -(derived from Lake Oneida, where the tribe then resided), formerly one -of the "Six Nations." *** - -MINNESOTA. - -The Indians residing within the limits of Minnesota, as in the case of -those of the same name living in Wisconsin, heretofore noticed, -constitute a portion of the Ojibway or Chippewa nation, and comprise the -following bands: Mississippi, Pillager, Winnebagoshish, Pembina, Red -Lake, Boise Forte, Fond du Lac, and Grand Portage. The last three bands, -being attached to the agency for the Chippewas of Lake Superior, have -been treated of in connection with the Indians of Wisconsin. The five -first-named bands number in the aggregate about 6455 souls, and occupy, -or rather it is intended they shall ultimately occupy, ample -reservations in the central and northern portion of the State, known as -the White Earth, Leech Lake, and Red Lake reservations, containing -altogether about 4,672,000 acres—a portion of which is very valuable for -its pine timber. *** _Mississippi Bands._—These Indians reside in -different localities. Most of them are on their reservation at White -Earth; others are at Mille Lac, Gull Lake, and some at White Oak Point -reservations. Upon the first-named reservation operations have been -quite extensive in the erection of school-buildings, dwelling-houses, -shops, and mills, and in breaking ground. At one time during the past -summer there was a prospect of an abundant yield from 300 acres sown in -cereals; but, unfortunately, the grasshoppers swept away the entire -crop; and a second crop of buckwheat and turnips proved a failure. The -Indians on this reservation are well-behaved, and inclined to be -industrious. Many of them are engaged in tilling the soil, while others -are learning the mechanical arts; and they may, as a body, be said to be -making considerable progress in the pursuits of civilized life. About -one-half of the Indians at Gull Lake have been removed to White Earth: -the remainder are opposed to removal, and will, in their present -feeling, rather forfeit their annuities than change their location. The -Mille Lac Chippewas, who continue to occupy the lands ceded by them in -1863, with reservation of the right to live thereon during good -behavior, are indisposed to leave their old home for the new one -designed for them on the White Earth Reservation. Only about twenty-five -have thus far been induced to remove. Their present reservation is rich -in pine lands, the envy of lumber dealers; and there is a strong -pressure on all sides for their early removal. They should have help -from the Government, whether they remain or remove; and this could be -afforded to a sufficient extent by the sale for their benefit of the -timber upon the lands now occupied by them. Probably the Government -could provide for them in no better way. - -_The White Oak Point Chippewas_ were formerly known as Sandy Lake -Indians. They were removed in 1867 from Sandy Lake and Rabbit Lake to -White Oak Point, on the Mississippi, near the eastern part of the Leech -Lake Reservation. This location is unfavorable to their moral -improvement and material progress, from its proximity to the lumber -camps of the whites. Thus far the effort made to better their condition, -by placing them on farming land, has proved a failure. The ground broken -for them has gone back into grass, and their log-houses are in ruins, -the former occupants betaking themselves to their wonted haunts. It -would be well if these Indians could be induced to remove to the White -Earth Reservation. - -At Red Lake the Indians have had a prosperous year: good crops of corn -and potatoes have been raised, and a number of houses built. This band -would be in much better circumstances were they possessed of a greater -quantity of arable lands. That to which they are at present limited -allows but five acres, suitable for that use, to each family. It is -proposed to sell their timber, and with the proceeds clear lands, -purchase stock, and establish a manual-labor school. - -_The Pembina_ bands reside in Dakota Territory, but are here noticed in -connection with the Minnesota Indians, because of their being attached -to the same agency. They have no reservation, having ceded their lands -by treaty made in 1863, but claim title to Turtle Mountain in Dakota, on -which some of them resided at the time of the treaty, and which lies -west of the line of the cession then made. They number, the full-bloods -about 350, and the half-breeds about 100. They lead a somewhat nomadic -life, depending upon the chase for a precarious subsistence, in -connection with an annuity from the Government of the United States. - -_The Chippewas_ of Minnesota have had but few educational advantages; -but with the facilities now being afforded, and with the earnest -endeavors that are now being put forth by their agent and the teachers -employed, especially at White Earth, it is expected that their interests -in this regard will be greatly promoted. At White Earth school -operations have been quite successful; so much so, that it will require -additional accommodations to meet the demands of the Indians for the -education of their children. The only other school in operation is that -at Red Lake, under the auspices of the American Indian Mission -Association. - -INDIANA. - -There are now in Indiana about 345 Miamis, who did not go to Kansas when -the tribe moved to that section under the treaty of 1840. They are good -citizens, many being thrifty farmers, giving no trouble either to their -white neighbors or to the Government. There is also a small band called -the Eel River band of Miamis, residing in this State and in Michigan. - -NORTH CAROLINA, TENNESSEE, AND GEORGIA. - -_Cherokees._—There are residing in these States probably about 1700 -Cherokees, who elected to remain, under the provisions respecting -Cherokees averse to removal, contained in the twelfth article of the -treaty with the Cherokees of 1835. Under the Act of July 29th, 1848, a -_per capita_ transportation and subsistence fund of $53.33 was created -and set apart for their benefit, in accordance with a census-roll made -under the provisions of said act; the interest on which fund, until such -time as they shall individually remove to the Indian country, is the -only money to which those named in said roll, who are living, or the -heirs of those who have deceased, are entitled. This interest is too -small to be of any benefit; and some action should be taken by Congress, -with a view of having all business matters between these Indians and the -Government settled, by removing such of them west as now desire to go, -and paying those who decline to remove the _per capita_ fund referred -to. The Government has no agent residing with these Indians. In -accordance with their earnestly expressed desire to be brought under the -immediate charge of the Government, as its wards, Congress, by law -approved July 27th, 1868, directed that the Secretary of the Interior -should cause the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to take the same -supervisory charge of them as of other tribes of Indians; but this -practically amounts to nothing, in the absence of means to carry out the -intention of the law with any beneficial result to the Indians. The -condition of this people is represented to be deplorable. Before the -late Rebellion they were living in good circumstances, engaged, with all -the success which could be expected, in farming, and in various minor -industrial pursuits. Like all other inhabitants of this section, they -suffered much during the war, and are now, from this and other causes, -much impoverished. - -FLORIDA. - -_Seminoles._—There are a few Seminoles, supposed to number about 300, -still residing in Florida—being those, or the descendants of those, who -refused to accompany the tribe when it removed to the West many years -ago. But little is known of their condition and temper. - -NEBRASKA, KANSAS, AND THE INDIAN TERRITORY. - -The tribes residing in Nebraska, Kansas, and the Indian Territory are -divided as follows: in Nebraska, about 6485; in Kansas, 1500; in the -Indian Territory, 62,465. - -NEBRASKA. - -The Indians in Nebraska are the Santee Sioux, Winnebagoes Omahas, -Pawnees, Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri, Iowas, and the Otoes and -Missourias. *** - -_Omahas._—The Omahas, a peaceable and inoffensive people, numbering 969, -a decrease since 1871 of fifteen, are native to the country now occupied -by them, and occupy a reservation of 345,600 acres adjoining the -Winnebagoes. They have lands allotted to them in severalty, and have -made considerable advancement in agriculture and civilization, though -they still follow the chase to some extent. Under the provisions of the -Act of June 10th, 1872, steps are being taken to sell 50,000 acres of -the western part of their reservation. The proceeds of the sale of these -lands will enable them to improve and stock their farms, build houses, -etc., and, with proper care and industry, to become in a few years -entirely self-sustaining. A few cottages are to be found upon this -reservation. There are at present three schools in operation on this -reservation, with an attendance of 120 scholars. - -_Pawnees._—The Pawnees, a warlike people, number 2447, an increase for -the past year of eighty-three. They are located on a reservation of -288,000 acres, in the central part of the State. They are native to the -country now occupied by them, and have for years been loyal to the -Government, having frequently furnished scouts for the army in -operations against hostile tribes or marauding bands. Their location, so -near the frontier, and almost in constant contact with the Indians of -the plains, with whom they have been always more or less at war, has -tended to retard their advancement in the arts of civilization. They -are, however, gradually becoming more habituated to the customs of the -whites, are giving some attention to agriculture, and, with the -disappearance of the buffalo from their section of the country, will -doubtless settle down to farming and to the practice of mechanical arts -in earnest. The Act of June 10th, 1872, heretofore referred to, provides -also for the sale of 50,000 acres belonging to the Pawnees, the same to -be taken from that part of their reservation lying south of Loup Fork. -These lands are now being surveyed; and it is believed that, with the -proceeds of this sale, such improvements, in the way of building houses -and opening and stocking farms, can be made for the Pawnees as will at -an early day induce them to give their entire time and attention to -industrial pursuits. There are two schools in operation on the -reservation—one a manual-labor boarding-school, the other a day-school, -with an attendance at both of 118 scholars. Provision was also made by -Congress, at its last session, for the erection of two additional -school-houses for the use of this tribe. - -_Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri._—These Indians, formerly a portion of -the same tribe with the Indians now known as the Sacs and Foxes of the -Mississippi, emigrated many years ago from Iowa, and settled near the -tribe of Iowas, hereafter to be mentioned. They number at the present -time but eighty-eight, having been steadily diminishing for years. They -have a reservation of about 16,000 acres, lying in the south-eastern -part of Nebraska and the north-eastern part of Kansas, purchased for -them from the Iowas. Most of it is excellent land; but they have never, -to any considerable extent, made use of it for tillage, being almost -hopelessly disinclined to engage in labor of any kind, and depending -principally for their subsistence, a very poor one, upon their annuity, -which is secured to them by the treaty of October 31st, 1837, and -amounts to $7870. By Act of June 10th, 1872, provision was made for the -sale of a portion or all of their reservation, the proceeds of such sale -to be expended for their immediate use, or for their removal to the -Indian Territory or elsewhere. They have consented to the sale of their -entire reservation; and, so soon as funds shall have been received from -that source, steps will be taken to have them removed to the Indian -Territory south of Kansas. - -_Iowas._—These Indians, numbering at present 225, emigrated years ago -from Iowa and North-western Missouri, and now have a reservation -adjoining the Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri, containing about 16,000 -acres. They belong to a much better class of Indians than their -neighbors the Sacs and Foxes, being temperate, frugal, industrious, and -interested in the education of their children. They were thoroughly -loyal during the late rebellion, and furnished a number of soldiers to -the Union army. Many of them are good farmers; and as a tribe they are -generally extending their agricultural operations, improving their -dwellings, and adding to their comforts. A large majority of the tribe -are anxious to have their reservation allotted in severalty; and, -inasmuch as they are not inclined to remove to another locality, it -would seem desirable that their wishes in this respect should be -complied with. One school is in operation on the reservation, with an -attendance of sixty-eight scholars, besides an industrial home for -orphans, supported by the Indians themselves. - -_Otoes and Missourias._—These Indians, numbering 464, an increase of -fourteen over last year, were removed from Iowa and Missouri to their -present beautiful and fertile reservation, comprising 160,000 acres, and -situated in the southern part of Nebraska. Until quite recently they -have evinced but little disposition to labor for a support, or in any -way to better their miserable condition; yet cut off from their wonted -source of subsistence, the buffalo, by their fear of the wild tribes -which have taken possession of their old hunting-grounds, they have -gradually been more and more forced to work for a living. Within the -last three years many of them have opened farms and built themselves -houses. A school has also been established, having an attendance of -ninety-five scholars. - -KANSAS. - -The Indians still remaining in Kansas are the Kickapoos, Pottawattomies -(Prairie band), Chippewas and Munsees, Miamis, and the Kansas or Kaws. - -_Kickapoos._—The Kickapoos emigrated from Illinois, and are now located, -to the number of 290, on a reservation of 19,200 acres, in the -north-eastern part of the State. During the late war a party of about -one hundred, dissatisfied with the treaty made with the tribe in 1863, -went to Mexico, upon representations made to them by certain of their -kinsmen living in that republic that they would be welcomed and -protected by the Mexican Government; but, finding themselves deceived, -attempted to return to the United States. Only a few, however, succeeded -in reaching the Kickapoo Agency. The Kickapoos now remaining in Mexico -separated from the tribe more than twenty years ago, and settled among -the southern Indians in the Indian Territory, on or near the Washita -River, whence they went to Mexico where they still live, notwithstanding -the efforts of the Government of late to arrange with Mexico for their -removal to the Indian Territory, and location upon some suitable -reservation. Their raids across the border have been a sore affliction -to the people of Texas; and it is important that the first promising -occasion should be taken to secure their return to the United States, -and their establishment where they may be carefully watched, and -restrained from their depredatory habits, or summarily punished if they -persist in them. The Kickapoos remaining in Kansas are peaceable and -industrious, continuing to make commendable progress in the cultivation -of their farms, and showing much interest in the education of their -children. Under the provisions of the treaty of June 28th, 1862, a few -of these Indians have received lands in severalty, for which patents -have been issued, and are now citizens of the United States. Two schools -are in operation among these Indians, with a daily average attendance of -thirty-nine scholars. - -_Pottawattomies._—The Prairie band is all of this tribe remaining in -Kansas, the rest having become citizens and removed, or most of them, to -the Indian Territory. The tribe, excepting those in Wisconsin heretofore -noticed, formerly resided in Michigan and Indiana, and removed to Kansas -under the provisions of the treaty of 1846. The Prairie band numbers, as -nearly as ascertained, about 400, and is located on a reserve of 77,357 -acres, fourteen miles north of Topeka. Notwithstanding many efforts to -educate and civilize these Indians, most of them still cling tenaciously -to the habits and customs of their fathers. Some, however, have recently -turned their attention to agricultural pursuits, and are now raising -stock, and most of the varieties of grain produced by their white -neighbors. They are also showing more interest in education than -formerly—one school being in operation on the reservation, with an -attendance of eighty-four scholars. - -_Chippewas and Munsees._—Certain of the Chippewas of Saginaw, Swan -Creek, and Black River, removed from Michigan under the treaty of 1836; -and certain Munsees, or Christian Indians, from Wisconsin under the -treaty of 1839. These were united by the terms of the treaty concluded -with them July 16th, 1859. The united bands now number only fifty-six. -They own 4760 acres of land in Franklin County, about forty miles south -of the town of Lawrence, holding the same in severalty, are considerably -advanced in the arts of life, and earn a decent living, principally by -agriculture. They have one school in operation, with an attendance of -sixteen scholars. These Indians at present have no treaty with the -United States; nor do they receive any assistance from the Government. - -_Miamis._—The Miamis of Kansas formerly resided in Indiana, forming one -tribe with the Miamis still remaining in that State, but removed in 1846 -to their present location, under the provisions of the treaty of 1840. - -Owing to the secession of a considerable number who have allied -themselves with the Peorias in the Indian Territory, and also to the -ravages of disease consequent on vicious indulgences, especially in the -use of intoxicating drinks, this band, which on its removal from Indiana -embraced about five hundred, at present numbers but ninety-five. These -have a reservation of 10,240 acres in Linn and Miami Counties, in the -south-eastern part of Kansas, the larger part of which is held in -severalty by them. - -The Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in immediate charge, in his report -for this year says the Miamis remaining in Kansas are greatly -demoralized, their school has been abandoned, and their youth left -destitute of educational advantages. Considerable trouble has been for -years caused by white settlers locating aggressively on lands belonging -to these Indians, no effort for their extrusion having been thus far -successful. - -_Kansas or Kaws._—These Indians are native to the country they occupy. -They number at present 593; in 1860 they numbered 803. Although they -have a reservation of 80,640 acres of good land in the eastern part of -the State, they are poor and improvident, and have in late years -suffered much for want of the actual necessaries of life. They never -were much disposed to labor, depending upon the chase for a living, in -connection with the annuities due from the Government. They have been -growing steadily poorer; and even now, in their straitened -circumstances, and under the pressure of want, they show but little -inclination to engage in agricultural pursuits, all attempts to induce -them to work having measurably proved failures. Until quite recently -they could not even be prevailed upon to have their children educated. -One school is now in operation, with an attendance of about forty-five -scholars. By the Act of May 8th, 1872, provision was made for the sale -of all the lands owned by these Indians in Kansas, and for their removal -to the Indian Territory. Provision was also made, by the Act of June -5th, 1872, for their settlement within the limits of a tract of land -therein provided to be set apart for the Osages. Their lands in Kansas -are now being appraised by commissioners appointed for the purpose, -preparatory to their sale. - -INDIAN TERRITORY. - -The Indians at present located in the Indian Territory—an extensive -district, bounded north by Kansas, east by Missouri and Arkansas, south -by Texas, and west by the one hundredth meridian, designated by the -commissioners appointed under Act of Congress, July 20th, 1867, to -establish peace with certain hostile tribes, as one of two great -Territories (the other being, in the main, the present Territory of -Dakota, west of the Missouri) upon which might be concentrated the great -body of all the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains—are the Cherokees, -Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Seminoles, Senecas, Shawnees, Quapaws, -Ottawas of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Bœuf, Peorias, and confederated -Kaskaskias, Weas and Piankeshaws, Wyandottes, Pottawattomies, Sacs and -Foxes of the Mississippi, Osages, Kiowas, Comanches, the Arapahoes and -Cheyennes of the south, the Wichitas and other affiliated bands, and a -small band of Apaches long confederated with the Kiowas and Comanches. -*** - -_Choctaws and Chickasaws._—These tribes are for certain national -purposes confederated. The Choctaws, numbering 16,000—an increase of -1000 on the enumeration for 1871—have a reservation of 6,688,000 acres -in the south-eastern part of the Territory; and the Chickasaws, -numbering 6000, own a tract containing 4,377,600 acres adjoining the -Choctaws on the west. These tribes originally inhabited the section of -country now embraced within the State of Mississippi, and were removed -to their present location in accordance with the terms of the treaties -concluded with them, respectively, in 1820 and 1832. The remarks made -respecting the language, laws, educational advantages, industrial -pursuits, and advancement in the arts and customs of civilized life of -the Cherokees will apply in the main to the Choctaws and Chickasaws. The -Choctaws have thirty-six schools in operation, with an attendance of 819 -scholars; the Chickasaws eleven, with 379 scholars. The Choctaws, under -the treaties of November 16th, 1805, October 18th, 1820, January 20th, -1825, and June 22d, 1855, receive permanent annuities as follows: in -money, $3000; for support of government, education, and other beneficial -purposes, $25,512 89; for support of light-horsemen, $600; and for iron -and steel, $320. They also have United States and State stocks, held in -trust for them by the Secretary of the Interior, to the amount of -$506,427 20, divided as follows: on account of "Choctaw general fund," -$454,000; of "Choctaw school fund," $52,427 20. The interest on these -funds, and the annuities, etc., are turned over to the treasurer of the -nation, and expended under the direction of the National Council in the -manner and for the objects indicated in each case. The Chickasaws, under -Act of February 25th, 1799, and treaty of April 28th, 1866, have a -permanent annuity of $3000. They also have United States and State -stocks, held in trust for them by the Secretary of the Interior, to the -amount of $1,185,947 03-2/3—$183,947 03-2/3 thereof being a "national -fund," and $2000 a fund for "incompetents." The interest on these sums, -and the item of $3000 first referred to, are paid over to the treasurer -of the nation, and disbursed by him under the direction of the National -Council, and for such objects as that body may determine. - -_Creeks._—The Creeks came originally from Alabama and Georgia. They -numbered at the latest date of enumeration 12,295, and have a -reservation of 3,215,495 acres in the eastern and central part of the -territory. They are not generally so far advanced as the Cherokees, -Choctaws, and Chickasaws, but are making rapid progress, and will -doubtless in a few years rank in all respects with their neighbors, the -three tribes just named. The Creeks, by the latest reports, have -thirty-three schools in operation; one of which is under the management -of the Methodist Mission Society, and another supported by the -Presbyterians. The number of scholars in all the schools is 760. These -Indians have, under treaties of August 7th, 1790, June 16th, 1802, -January 24th, 1826, August 7th, 1856, and June 14th, 1866, permanent -annuities and interest on moneys uninvested as follows: in money, -$68,258 40; for pay of blacksmiths and assistants, wagon-maker, -wheelwright, iron and steel, $3250; for assistance in agricultural -operations, $2000; and for education, $1000. The Secretary of the -Interior holds in trust for certain members of the tribe, known as -"orphans," United States and State bonds to the amount of $76,999 66, -the interest on which sum is paid to those of said orphans who are -alive, and to the representatives of those who have deceased. - -_Seminoles._—The Seminoles, numbering 2398, an increase of 190 over the -census of 1871, have a reservation of 200,000 acres adjoining the Creeks -on the west. This tribe formerly inhabited the section of country now -embraced in the State of Florida. Some of them removed to their present -location under the provisions of the treaties of 1832 and 1833. The -remainder of the tribe, instigated by the former chief, Osceola, -repudiated the treaties, refused to remove, and soon after commenced -depredating upon the whites. In 1835 these depredations resulted in war, -which continued seven years, with immense cost of blood and treasure. -The Indians were at last rendered powerless to do further injury, and, -after efforts repeated through several years, were finally, with the -exception of a few who fled to the everglades, removed to a reservation -in the now Indian territory. In 1866 they ceded to the United States, by -treaty, the reservation then owned by them, and purchased the tract they -at present occupy. They are not so far advanced in the arts of civilized -life as the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks, but are making -rapid progress in that direction, and will, it is confidently believed, -soon rank with the tribes named. They cultivate 7600 acres; upon which -they raised during the past year 300,000 bushels of corn, and 6000 -bushels of potatoes. They live in log-houses, and own large stocks of -cattle, horses, and hogs. The schools of the Seminoles number four, with -an attendance of 169 scholars. - -They receive, under treaties made with them August 7th, 1856, and March -21st, 1866, annuities, etc., as follows: interest on $500,000, amounting -to $25,000 annually, which is paid to them as annuity; interest on -$50,000, amounting to $2500 annually, for support of schools; and $1000, -the interest on $20,000, for the support of their government. - -_Senecas and Shawnees._—The Senecas, numbering 214, and the Shawnees, -numbering ninety, at the present time, removed, some thirty-five or -forty years ago, from Ohio to their present location in the -north-eastern corner of the territory. They suffered severely during the -Rebellion, being obliged to leave their homes and fly to the north, -their country being devastated by troops of both armies. Under the -provisions of the treaty of 1867, made with these and other tribes, the -Senecas, who were then confederated with the Shawnees, dissolved their -connection with that tribe, sold to the United States their half of the -reservation owned by them in common with the Shawnees, and connected -themselves with those Senecas who then owned a separate reservation. The -Shawnees now have a reservation of 24,960 acres, and the united Senecas -one of 44,000 acres. These tribes are engaged in agriculture to a -considerable extent. They are peaceable and industrious. Many are -thrifty farmers, and in comfortable circumstances. They have one school -in operation, with an attendance of thirty-six scholars, which includes -some children of the Wyandottes, which tribe has no schools. - -_Quapaws._—These Indians number at the present time about 240. They are -native to the country, and occupy a reservation of 104,000 acres in the -extreme north-east corner of the territory. They do not appear to have -advanced much within the past few years. In common with other tribes in -that section, they suffered greatly by the late war, and were rendered -very destitute. Their proximity to the border towns of Kansas, and the -facilities thereby afforded for obtaining whiskey, have tended to retard -their progress; but there has recently been manifested a strong desire -for improvement; and with the funds derived from the sale of a part of -their lands, and with the proposed opening of a school among them, -better things are hoped for in the future. - -_Ottawas._—The Ottawas of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Bœuf number, at -the present time, 150. They were originally located in Western Ohio and -Southern Michigan, and were removed, in accordance with the terms of the -treaty concluded with them in 1831, to a reservation within the present -limits of Kansas. Under the treaty of 1867 they obtained a reservation -of 24,960 acres, lying immediately north of the western portion of the -Shawnee Reservation. They have paid considerable attention to education, -are well advanced in civilization, and many of them are industrious and -prosperous farmers. They have one school, attended by fifty-two -scholars. The relation of this small band to the Government is somewhat -anomalous, inasmuch as, agreeably to provisions contained in the -treaties of 1862 and 1867, they have become citizens of the United -States, and yet reside in the Indian country, possess a reservation -there, and maintain a purely tribal organization. They removed from -Franklin Co., Kansas, in 1870. - -_Peorias_, _etc._—The Peorias, Kaskaskias, Weas, and Piankeshaws, who -were confederated in 1854, and at that time had a total population of -259, now number 160. They occupy a reservation of 72,000 acres, -adjoining the Quapaw Reservation on the south and west. Under treaties -made with these tribes in 1832, they removed to a tract within the -present limits of Kansas, where they remained until after the treaty of -1867 was concluded with them, in which treaty provision was made whereby -they obtained their present reservation. These Indians are generally -intelligent, well advanced in civilization, and, to judge from the -statistical reports of their agent, are very successful in their -agricultural operations, raising crops ample for their own support. With -the Peorias are about forty Miamis from Kansas. They have one school in -operation, with an attendance of twenty-nine scholars. - -_Wyandottes._—The Wyandottes number at the present time 222 souls. Ten -years ago there were 435. They occupy a reservation of 20,000 acres, -lying between the Seneca and Shawnee reservations. This tribe was -located for many years in North-western Ohio, whence they removed, -pursuant to the terms of the treaty made with them in 1842, to a -reservation within the present limits of Kansas. By the treaty made with -them in 1867 their present reservation was set apart for those members -of the tribe who desired to maintain their tribal organization, instead -of becoming citizens, as provided in the treaty of 1855. They are poor, -and, having no annuities and but little force of character, are making -slight progress in industry or civilization. They have been lately -joined by members of the tribe, who, under the treaty, accepted -citizenship. These, desiring to resume their relations with their -people, have been again adopted into the tribe. - -_Pottawattomies._—These Indians, who formerly resided in Michigan and -Indiana, whence they removed to Kansas, before going down into the -Indian Territory numbered about 1600. They have, under the provisions of -the treaty of 1861 made with the tribe, then residing in Kansas, become -citizens of the United States. By the terms of said treaty they received -allotments of land, and their proportion of the tribal funds, with the -exception of their share of certain non-paying State stocks, amounting -to $67,000, held in trust by the Secretary of the Interior for the -Pottawattomies. Having disposed of their lands, they removed to the -Indian Territory, where a reservation thirty miles square, adjoining the -Seminole Reservation on the west, had been, by the treaty of 1867, -provided for such as should elect to maintain their tribal organization. -It having been decided, however, by the Department that, as they had all -become citizens, there was consequently no part of the tribe remaining -which could lay claim, under treaty stipulations, to the reservation in -the Indian Territory, legislation was had by Congress at its last -session—Act approved May 23d, 1872—by which these citizen Pottawattomies -were allowed allotments of land within the tract originally assigned for -their use as a tribe, to the extent of 160 acres to each head of family, -and to each other person twenty-one years of age, and of eighty acres to -each minor. Most if not all of them are capable of taking care of -themselves; and many of them are well-educated, intelligent, and thrifty -farmers. - -_Absentee Shawnees._—These Indians, numbering 663, separated about -thirty years ago from the main tribe, then located in Kansas, and -settled in the Indian Territory, principally within the limits of the -thirty miles square tract heretofore referred to in the remarks relative -to the Pottawattomies, where they engaged in farming, and have since -supported themselves without assistance from the Government. - -_Sacs and Foxes._—The Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi number at the -present time 463. In 1846 they numbered 2478. They have a reservation of -483,340 acres, adjoining the Creeks on the west, and between the North -Fork of the Canadian and the Red Fork of the Arkansas Rivers. They -formerly occupied large tracts of country in Wisconsin, Iowa, and -Missouri, whence they removed, by virtue of treaty stipulations, to a -reservation within the present limits of Kansas. By the terms of the -treaties of 1859 and 1868 all their lands in Kansas were ceded to the -United States, and they were given in lieu thereof their present -reservation. These Indians, once famous for their prowess in war, have -not, for some years, made any marked improvement upon their former -condition. Still they have accomplished a little, under highly adverse -circumstances and influences, in the way of opening small farms and in -building houses, and are beginning to show some regard for their women -by relieving them of the burdens and labors heretofore required of them. -There is hope of their further improvement, although they are still but -one degree removed from the Blanket or Breech-clout Indians. They have -one school in operation, with an attendance of only about twelve -scholars. Three hundred and seventeen members of these tribes, after -their removal to Kansas, returned to Iowa, where they were permitted to -remain, and are now, under the Act of March 2d, 1867, receiving their -share of the tribal funds. They have purchased 419 acres of land in Tama -County, part of which they are cultivating. They are not much disposed -to work, however, on lands of their own, preferring to labor for the -white farmers in their vicinity, and are still much given to roving and -hunting. - -_Osages._—The Osages, numbering 3956, are native to the general section -of the country where they now live. Their reservation is bounded on the -north by the south line of Kansas, east by the ninety-sixth degree of -west longitude, and south and west by the Arkansas River, and contains -approximately 1,760,000 acres. They still follow the chase, the buffalo -being their main dependence for food. Their wealth consists in horses -(of which they own not less than 12,000) and in cattle. - -_Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches._—These tribes, confederated under -present treaty stipulations, formerly ranged over an extensive country -lying between the Rio Grande and the Red River. As nearly as can be -ascertained, they number as follows: Kiowas, 1930; Comanches, 3180; and -Apaches, 380. They are now located upon a reservation secured to them by -treaty made in 1867, comprising 3,549,440 acres in the south-western -part of the Indian Territory, west of and adjoining the Chickasaw -country. Wild and intractable, these Indians, even the best of them, -have given small signs of improvement in the arts of life; and, -substantially, the whole dealing of the Government with them thus far -has been in the way of supplying their necessities for food and -clothing, with a view to keeping them upon their reservation, and -preventing their raiding into Texas, with the citizens of which State -they were for many years before their present establishment on terms of -mutual hatred and injury. Some individuals and bands have remained quiet -and peaceable upon their reservation, evincing a disposition to learn -the arts of life, to engage in agriculture, and to have their children -instructed in letters. To these every inducement is being held out to -take up land, and actively commence tilling it. Thus far they have under -cultivation but 100 acres, which have produced the past year a good crop -of corn and potatoes. The wealth of these tribes consists in horses and -mules, of which they own to the number, as reported by their agent, of -16,500, a great proportion of the animals notoriously having been stolen -in Texas. - -However, it may be said, in a word, of these Indians, that their -civilization must follow their submission to the Government, and that -the first necessity in respect to them is a wholesome example, which -shall inspire fear and command obedience. So long as four-fifths of -these tribes take turns at raiding into Texas, openly and boastfully -bringing back scalps and spoils to their reservation, efforts to inspire -very high ideas of social and industrial life among the communities of -which the raiders form so large a part will presumably result in -failure. - -_Arapahoes and Cheyennes of the South._—These tribes are native to the -section of country now inhabited by them. The Arapahoes number at the -present time 1500, and the Cheyennes 2000. By the treaty of 1867, made -with these Indians, a large reservation was provided for them, bounded -on the north by Kansas, on the east by the Arkansas River, and on the -south and west by the Red Fork of the Arkansas. They have, however, -persisted in a refusal to locate on this reservation; and another tract, -containing 4,011,500 acres, north of and adjoining the Kiowa and -Comanche Reservation, was set apart for them by Executive order of -August 10th, 1869. By Act of May 29th, 1872, the Secretary of the -Interior was authorized to negotiate with these Indians for the -relinquishment of their claim to the lands ceded to them by the said -treaty, and to give them in lieu thereof a "sufficient and permanent -location" upon lands ceded to the United States by the Creeks and -Seminoles in treaties made with them in 1866. Negotiations to the end -proposed were duly entered into with these tribes unitedly; but, in the -course of such negotiations, it has become the view of this office that -the tribes should no longer be associated in the occupation of a -reservation. The Arapahoes are manifesting an increasing disinclination -to follow farther the fortunes of the Cheyennes, and crave a location of -their own. Inasmuch as the conduct of the Arapahoes is uniformly good, -and their disposition to make industrial improvement very decided, it is -thought that they should now be separated from the more turbulent -Cheyennes, and given a place where they may carry out their better -intentions without interruption, and without the access of influences -tending to draw their young men away to folly and mischief. With this -view a contract, made subject to the action of Congress, was entered -into between the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the delegation of -the Arapahoe tribe which visited Washington during the present season -(the delegation being fully empowered thereto by the tribe), by which -the Arapahoes relinquish all their interest in the reservation granted -them by the treaty of 1867, in consideration of the grant of a -reservation between the North Fork of the Canadian River and the Red -Fork of the Arkansas River, and extending from a point ten miles east of -the ninety-eighth to near the ninety-ninth meridian of west longitude. -Should this adjustment of the question, so far as the Arapahoes are -concerned, meet the approval of Congress, separate negotiations will be -entered into with the Cheyennes, with a view to obtaining their -relinquishment of the reservation of 1867, and their location on some -vacant tract within the same general section of the Indian Territory. - -A considerable number of the Arapahoes are already engaged in -agriculture, though at a disadvantage; and, when the question of their -reservation shall have been settled, it is confidently believed that -substantially the whole body of this tribe will turn their attention to -the cultivation of the soil. Two schools are conducted for their benefit -at the agency, having an attendance of thirty-five scholars. Of the -Cheyennes confederated with the Arapahoes, the reports are less -favorable as to progress made in industry, or disposition to improve -their condition. Until 1867 both these tribes, in common with the Kiowas -and Comanches, were engaged in hostilities against the white settlers in -Western Kansas; but since the treaty made with them in that year they -have, with the exception of one small band of the Cheyennes, remained -friendly, and have committed no depredations. - -_Wichitas_, _etc._—The Wichitas and other affiliated bands of Keechies, -Wacoes, Towoccaroes, Caddoes, Ionies, and Delawares, number 1250, -divided approximately as follows: Wichitas, 299; Keechies, 126; Wacoes, -140; Towoccaroes, 127; Caddoes, 392; Ionies, 85; Delawares, 81. These -Indians, fragments of once important tribes originally belonging in -Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, and the Indian Territory, were all, excepting -the Wichitas and Delawares, removed by the Government from Texas, in -1859, to the "leased district," then belonging to the Choctaws and -Chickasaws, where they have since resided, at a point on the Washita -River near old Fort Cobb. They have no treaty relations with the -Government, nor have they any defined reservation. They have always, or -at least for many years, been friendly to the whites, although in close -and constant contact with the Kiowas and Comanches. A few of them, -chiefly Caddoes and Delawares, are engaged in agriculture, and are -disposed to be industrious. Of the other Indians at this agency some -cultivate small patches in corn and vegetables, the work being done -mainly by women; but the most are content to live upon the Government. -The Caddoes rank among the best Indians of the continent, and set an -example to the other bands affiliated with them worthy of being more -generally followed than it is. In physique, and in the virtues of -chastity, temperance, and industry, they are the equals of many white -communities. - -A permanent reservation should be set aside for the Indians of this -agency; and, with proper assistance, they would doubtless in a few years -become entirely self-sustaining. But one school is in operation, with an -attendance of eighteen scholars. These Indians have no annuities; but an -annual appropriation of $50,000 has for several years been made for -their benefit. This money is expended for goods and agricultural -implements, and for assistance and instruction in farming, etc. - -DAKOTA, MONTANA, WYOMING, AND IDAHO. - -The tribes residing in Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho are divided -as follows: in Dakota, about 28,000; Montana, 30,000; Wyoming, 2000; and -Idaho, 5000. The present temporary location of the Red Cloud Agency has, -however, drawn just within the limits of Wyoming a body of Indians -varying from 8000 to 9000, who are here, and usually reckoned as -belonging to Dakota. - -DAKOTA. - -The Indians within the limits of Dakota Territory are the Sioux, the -Poncas, and the Arickarees, Gros Ventres, and Mandans. *** - -_Arickarees, Gros Ventres, and Mandans._—These tribes number 2200, and -have a reservation set apart for their occupancy by Executive order of -April 12th, 1870, comprising 8,640,000 acres, situated in the -north-western part of Dakota and the eastern part of Montana, extending -to the Yellowstone and Powder rivers. They have no treaty with the -Government, are now and have always been friendly to the whites, are -exceptionally known to the officers of the army and to frontiersmen as -"good Indians," and are engaged to some extent in agriculture. Owing to -the shortness of the agricultural season, the rigor of the climate, and -the periodical ravages of grasshoppers, their efforts in this direction, -though made with a degree of patience and perseverance not usual in the -Indian character, have met with frequent and distressing reverses; and -it has from time to time been found necessary to furnish them with more -or less subsistence to prevent starvation. They are traditional enemies -of the Sioux; and the petty warfare maintained between them and the -Sioux of the Grand River and Cheyenne River Agencies—while, like most -warfare confined to Indians alone, it causes wonderfully little loss of -life—serves to disturb the condition of these agencies, and to retard -the progress of all the parties concerned. These Indians should be moved -to the Indian Territory, south of Kansas, where the mildness of the -climate and the fertility of the soil would repay their labors, and -where, it is thought, from their willingness to labor and their docility -under the control of the Government, they would in a few years become -wholly self-supporting. The question of their removal has been submitted -to them, and they seem inclined to favor the project, but have expressed -a desire to send a delegation of their chiefs to the Indian Territory, -with a view of satisfying themselves as to the desirableness of the -location. Their wishes in this respect should be granted early next -season, that their removal and settlement may be effected during the -coming year. Notwithstanding their willingness to labor, they have shown -but little interest in education. Congress makes an appropriation of -$75,000 annually for goods and provisions, for their instruction in -agricultural and mechanical pursuits, for salaries of employés, and for -the education of their children, etc. - -MONTANA. - -The Indian tribes residing within the limits of Montana are the -Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegans, the Gros Ventres of the Prairie, the -Assinaboines, the Yanktonais, Santee and Teton (so-called) Sioux, a -portion of the Northern Arapahoes and Cheyennes, the River Crows, the -Mountain Crows, the Flat-heads, Pend d'Oreilles and Kootenays, and a few -Shoshones, Bannocks, and Sheep-eaters, numbering in the aggregate about -32,412. They are all, or nearly all, native to the regions now occupied -by them respectively. - -The following table will exhibit the population of each of these tribes, -as nearly as the same can be ascertained: - - Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegans 7500 - - Assinaboines 4790 - - Gros Ventres 1100 - - Santee, Yanktonais, Uncpapa, and - Cut-head Sioux, at Milk River Agency 2625 - - River Crows 1240 - - Mountain Crows 2700 - - Flat-heads 460 - - Pend d'Oreilles 1000 - - Kootenays 320 - - Shoshones, Bannocks, and Sheep-eaters 677 - - Roving Sioux, commonly called Teton - Sioux, including those gathered during - 1872 at and near Fort Peck (largely - estimated) 8000 - - -------- - - Estimated total 30,412 - -The number of Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes roaming in Montana, who, -it is believed, have co-operated with the Sioux under Sitting Bull, in -their depredations, is not known: it is probably less than 1000. - -The Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegans (located at the Blackfeet Agency, on -the Teton River, about seventy-five miles from Fort Benton), the Gros -Ventres, Assinaboines, the River Crows, about 1000 of the Northern -Arapahoes and Cheyennes, and the Santee and Yankton Sioux (located at -the Milk River Agency, on the Milk River, about one hundred miles from -its mouth), occupy jointly a reservation in the extreme northern part of -the Territory, set apart by treaties (not ratified) made in 1868 with -most of the tribes named, and containing about 17,408,000 acres. The -Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegans, particularly the last-named band, have -been, until within about two years, engaged in depredating upon the -white settlers. The Indians at the Milk River Agency, with the exception -of the Sioux, are now, and have been for several years, quiet and -peaceable. The Sioux at this agency, or most of them, were engaged in -the outbreak in Minnesota in 1862. On the suppression of hostilities -they fled to the northern part of Dakota, where they continued roaming -until, in the fall of 1871, they went to their present location, with -the avowed intention of remaining there. Although they had been at war -for years with the Indians properly belonging to the Milk River Agency, -yet, by judicious management on the part of the agent of the Government -stationed there, and the influence of some of the most powerful chiefs, -the former feuds and difficulties were amicably arranged; and all -parties have remained friendly to each other during the year past. The -Indians at neither the Blackfeet nor the Milk River Agency show any -disposition to engage in farming; nor have they thus far manifested any -desire for the education of their children. They rely entirely upon the -chase and upon the bounty of the Government for their support. They, -however, quite scrupulously respect their obligation to preserve the -peace; and no considerable difficulty has of late been experienced, or -is anticipated, in keeping them in order. The Blackfeet, Bloods, and -Piegans have an annual appropriation of $50,000 made for their benefit; -the Assinaboines, $30,000; the Gros Ventres of the Prairie, $35,000; the -River Crows, $30,000. These funds are used in furnishing the respective -tribes with goods and subsistence, and generally for such other objects -as may be deemed necessary to keep the Indians quiet. - -_Mountain Crows._—These Indians have a reservation of 6,272,000 acres, -lying in the southern part of the Territory, between the Yellowstone -River and the north line of Wyoming Territory. They have always been -friendly to the whites, but are inveterate enemies of the Sioux, with -whom they have for years been at war. By the treaty of 1868—by the terms -of which their present reservation was set apart for their -occupancy—they are liberally supplied with goods, clothing, and -subsistence. But few of them are engaged in farming, the main body -relying upon their success in hunting, and upon the supplies furnished -by the Government for their support. They have one school in operation, -with an attendance, however, of only nine scholars. By the treaty of May -7th, 1868, provision is made by which they are to receive for a limited -number of years the following annuities, etc., viz.: in clothing and -goods, $22,723 (twenty-six instalments due); in beneficial objects, -$25,000 (six instalments due); in subsistence, $131,400 (one instalment -due). Blacksmiths, teachers, physician, carpenter, miller, engineer, and -farmer are also furnished for their benefit, at an expense to the -Government of $11,600. - -_Flat-heads_, _etc._—The Flat-heads, Pend d'Oreilles, and Kootenays have -a reservation of 1,433,600 acres in the Jocko Valley, situated in the -north-western part of the Territory, and secured to them by treaty of -1855. This treaty also provided for a reservation in the Bitter-root -Valley, should the President of the United States deem it advisable to -set apart another for their use. The Flat-heads have remained in the -last-named valley; but under the provisions of the Act of June 5th, -1872, steps are being taken for their removal to the Jocko Reservation. -Many of these Indians are engaged in agriculture; but, as they receive -little assistance from the Government, their progress in this direction -is slow. They have one school in operation, with an attendance of -twenty-seven scholars. - -_Shoshones_, _etc._—The Shoshones, Bannocks, and Sheep-eaters are at -present located about twenty miles above the mouth of the Lemhi Fork of -the Salmon River, near the western boundary of the Territory. They have -shown considerable interest in agriculture, and many of them are quite -successful as farmers. They have no reservation set apart for them, -either by treaty or by Executive order. They are so few in number that -it would probably be better to remove them, with their consent, to the -Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, where their brethren are located, than -to provide them with a separate reservation. They have no schools in -operation. An annual appropriation of $25,000 is made for these Indians, -which sum is expended for their benefit in the purchase of clothing, -subsistence, agricultural implements, etc. - -WYOMING. - -The Indians in this Territory, with the exception of the Sioux and -Northern Arapahoes and Cheyennes, mentioned under the heads of Dakota -and Montana, respectively, are the eastern band of Shoshones, numbering -about 1000. The Shoshones are native to the country. Their reservation -in the Wind River Valley, containing 2,688,000 acres, was set apart for -them by treaty of 1868. - -But little advancement in civilization has been made by these Indians, -owing to their indisposition to labor for a living, and to the incessant -incursions into their country of the Sioux and the Northern Arapahoes -and Cheyennes, with which tribes they have for many years been at war. -The losses sustained from these incursions, and the dread which they -inspire, tend to make the Shoshones unsettled and unwilling to remain -continuously on the reservation. They therefore spend most of the year -in roaming and hunting, when they should be at work tilling the soil and -improving their lands. There is one school at the agency, having an -attendance of ten scholars, in charge of an Episcopal missionary as -teacher. - -IDAHO. - -The Indian tribes in Idaho are the Nez Percés, the Boisé and Bruneau -Shoshones, and Bannocks, the Cœur d'Alênes, and Spokanes, with several -other small bands, numbering in the aggregate about 5800 souls. *** - -_Shoshones and Bannocks._—These Indians, numbering 1037—the former 516 -and the latter 521—occupy a reservation in the south-eastern part of the -Territory, near Fort Hall, formerly a military post. This reservation -was set apart by treaty of 1868 and Executive order of July 30th, 1869, -and contains 1,568,000 acres. The Shoshones on this reservation have no -treaty with the Government. Both bands are generally quiet and -peaceable, and cause but little trouble; are not disposed to engage in -agriculture, and, with some assistance from the Government, depend upon -hunting and fishing for subsistence. There is no school in operation on -the reservation. - -_Cœur d'Alênes_, _etc._—The Cœur d'Alênes, Spokanes, Kootenays, and Pend -d'Oreilles, numbering about 2000, have no treaty with the United States, -but have a reservation of 256,000 acres set apart for their occupancy by -Executive order of June 14th, 1867, lying thirty or forty miles north of -the Nez Percés Reservation. They are peaceable, have no annuities, -receive no assistance from the Government, and are wholly -self-sustaining. These Indians have never been collected upon a -reservation, nor brought under the immediate supervision of an agent. So -long as their country shall remain unoccupied, and not in demand for -settlement by the whites, it will scarcely be desirable to make a change -in their location; but the construction of the Northern Pacific -Railroad, which will probably pass through or near their range, may make -it expedient to concentrate them. At present they are largely under the -influence of Catholic missionaries of the Cœur d'Alêne Mission. - -COLORADO, NEW MEXICO, UTAH, ARIZONA, AND NEVADA. - -The tribes residing in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada -are divided as follows: in Colorado, about 3800; New Mexico, 19,000; -Utah, 10,000; Arizona, 25,000; and Nevada, 13,000. - -COLORADO. - -The Indians residing in Colorado Territory are the Tabequache band of -Utes, at the Los Pinos Agency, numbering 3000, and the Yampa, Grand -River, and Uintah bands of the White River Agency, numbering 800. They -are native to the section which they now inhabit, and have a reservation -of 14,784,000 acres in the western part of the Territory, set apart for -their occupancy by treaty made with them in 1868. The two agencies above -named are established on this reservation, the White River Agency being -in the northern part, on the river of that name, and the other in the -south-eastern part. This reservation is much larger than is necessary -for the number of Indians located within its limits; and, as valuable -gold and silver mines have been, or are alleged to have been, discovered -in the southern part of it, the discoveries being followed by the -inevitable prospecting parties and miners, Congress, by Act of April -23d, 1872, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to enter into -negotiations with the Utes for the extinguishment of their right to the -south part of it. - -A few of these Indians, who have declined to remove to and remain upon -the reservation, still roam in the eastern part of the Territory, -frequently visiting Denver and its vicinity, and causing some annoyance -to the settlers by their presence, but committing no acts of violence or -extensive depredations. The Indians of Colorado have thus far shown but -little interest in the pursuits of civilized life or in the education of -their children. A school is in operation at the Northern or White River -Agency, with an attendance of forty scholars. Steps are also being taken -to open one at the southern or Los Pinos Agency. - -NEW MEXICO. - -The tribes residing and roaming within the limits of New Mexico are the -Navajoes, the Mescalero, Gila, and Jicarilla bands of Apaches; the -Muache, Capote, and Weeminuche bands of Utes; and the Pueblos. - -_Navajoes._—The Navajoes now number 9114, an increase of 880 over last -year's enumeration. Superintendent Pope considers this increase to be -mainly due to the return, during the year, of a number who had been held -in captivity by the Mexicans. They have a reservation of 3,328,000 acres -in the north-western part of New Mexico and north-eastern part of -Arizona, set apart for them by treaty of 1868. These Indians are natives -of the section of the country where they are now located. Prior to 1864 -no less than seven treaties had been made with these tribes, which were -successively broken on their part, and that, with but one exception, -before the Senate could take action on the question of their -ratification. In 1864 the Navajoes were made captives by the military, -and taken to the Bosque Redondo Reservation, which had been set apart -for the Mescalero Apaches, where they were for a time held as prisoners -of war, and then turned over to this Department. After the treaty of -1868 had been concluded, they were removed to their present location, -where they have, as a tribe, remained quiet and peaceable, many of them -being engaged in agriculture and in raising sheep and goats. Of these -they have large flocks, numbering 130,000 head, which supply them not -only with subsistence, but also with material from which they -manufacture the celebrated, and for warmth and durability unequalled, -Navajo blanket. They also have a stock of 10,000 horses. These Indians -are industrious, attend faithfully to their crops, and even put in a -second crop when the first, as frequently happens, is destroyed by -drought or frost. One school is in operation on the reservation, with an -attendance of forty scholars. - -_Mescalero Apaches._—These Indians, numbering about 830, are at present -located—not, however, upon a defined reservation secured to them—near -Fort Stanton, in the eastern part of the Territory, and range generally -south of that point. Prior to 1864 they were located on the Bosque -Redondo Reservation, where they were quiet and peaceable until the -Navajoes were removed to that place. Being unable to live in harmony -with the newcomers, they fled from the reservation, and until quite -recently have been more or less hostile. They are now living at peace -with the whites, and conducting themselves measurably well. They have no -schools, care nothing apparently about the education of their children, -and are not to any noticeable extent engaged in farming, or in any -pursuit of an industrial character. These Indians have no treaty with -the United States; nor do they receive any annuities. They are, however, -subsisted in part by the Government, and are supplied with a limited -quantity of clothing when necessary. In addition to the Mescaleros -proper, Agent Curtis reports as being embraced in his agency other -Indians, called by him Aguas Nuevos, 440; Lipans, 350 (probably from -Texas); and Southern Apaches, 310, whose proper home is no doubt upon -the Tularosa Reservation. These Indians, the agent remarks, came from -the Comanche country to his agency at various dates during the past -year. - -_Gila (sometimes called Southern) Apaches._—This tribe is composed of -two bands, the Mimbres and Mogollons, and number about 1200. They are -warlike, and have for years been generally unfriendly to the Government. -The citizens of Southern New Mexico, having long suffered from their -depredatory acts, loudly demanded that they be removed; and to comply -with the wish of the people, as well as to prevent serious difficulties -and possibly war, it was a year or two since decided to provide the -Indians with a reservation distant from their old home, and there -establish them. With a view to that end a considerable number of them -were collected early last year at Cañada Alamosa. Subsequently, by -Executive order dated November 9th, 1871, a reservation was set apart -for them with other roving bands of Apaches in the Tularosa Valley, to -which place 450 of them are reported to have been removed during the -present year by United States troops. These Indians, although removed -against their will, were at first pleased with the change, but, after a -short experience of their new home, became dissatisfied; and no small -portion left the reservation to roam outside, disregarding the system of -passes established. They bitterly object to the location as unhealthy, -the climate being severe and the water bad. There is undoubtedly much -truth in these complaints. They ask to be taken back to Cañada Alamosa, -their own home, promising there to be peaceable and quiet. Of course -nothing can be said of them favorable to the interests of education and -labor. Such of these Indians as remain on the reservation are being fed -by the Government. They have no treaty with the United States; nor do -they receive annuities of any kind. - -_Jicarilla Apaches._—These Indians, numbering about 850, have for -several years been located with the Muache Utes, about 650 in number, at -the Cimarron Agency, upon what is called "Maxwell's Grant," in -North-eastern New Mexico. They have no treaty relations with the -Government; nor have they any reservation set apart for them. Efforts -were made some years ago to have them, with the Utes referred to, remove -to the large Ute Reservation in Colorado, but without success. The -Cimarron Agency, however, has lately been discontinued; and these -Apaches will, if it can be effected without actual conflict, be removed -to the Mescalero Agency at Fort Stanton. Four hundred Jicarilla Apaches -are also reported as being at the Tierra Amarilla Agency. - -_Muache, Weeminuche, and Capote Utes._—These bands—the Muache band, -numbering about 650, heretofore at the Cimarron Agency, and the other -two bands, numbering 870, at the Abiquiu Agency—are all parties to the -treaty made with the several bands of Utes in 1868. It has been desired -to have these Indians remove to their proper reservation in Colorado; -but all efforts to this end have thus far proved futile. The -discontinuance of the Cimarron Agency may have the effect to cause the -Muaches to remove either to that reservation or to the Abiquiu Agency, -now located at Tierra Amarilla, in the north-western part of the -territory. These three bands have generally been peaceable, and friendly -to the whites. Recently, however, some of them have shown a disposition -to be troublesome; but no serious difficulty is apprehended. None of -them appear disposed to work for a subsistence, preferring to live by -the chase and on the bounty of the Government; nor do they show any -inclination or desire to have their children educated, and taught the -habits and customs of civilized life. Declining to remove to and locate -permanently upon the reservation set apart for the Utes in Colorado, -they receive no annuities, and participate in none of the benefits -provided in the treaties of 1863 and 1868 with the several bands of Ute -Indians referred to under the head of "Colorado." - -_Pueblos._—The Pueblos, so named because they live in villages, number -7683. They have 439,664 acres of land confirmed to them by Act of -Congress of December 22d, 1858, the same consisting of approved claims -under old Spanish grants. They have no treaty with the United States, -and receive but little aid from the Government. During the past two -years efforts have been made, and are still being continued, to secure -the establishment of schools in all the villages of the Pueblos, for the -instruction of their children in the English language. Five such schools -are now being conducted for their benefit. - -The history of the Pueblos is an interesting one. They are the remains -of a once powerful people, and in habits and modes of life are still -clearly distinguished from all other aborigines of the continent. The -Spanish invaders found them living generally in towns and cities. They -are so described by Spanish historians as far back as 1540. They early -revolted, though without success, against Spanish rule; and in the -struggle many of their towns were burnt, and much loss of life and -property occasioned. It would seem, however, that, in addition to the -villagers, there were others at that time living dispersed, whose -reduction to Pueblos was determined upon and made the subject of a -decree by Charles V. of Spain, in 1546, in order chiefly, as declared, -to their being instructed in the Catholic faith. Under the Spanish -Government schools were established at the villages; the Christian -religion was introduced, and impressed upon the people, and the rights -of property thoroughly protected. By all these means a high degree of -civilization was secured, which was maintained until after the -establishment of Mexican independence; when, from want of Government -care and support, decay followed, and the Pueblos measurably -deteriorated, down to the time when the authority of the United States -was extended over that country: still they are a remarkable people, -noted for their sobriety, industry, and docility. They have few wants, -and are simple in their habits and moral in their lives. They are, -indeed, scarcely to be considered Indians, in the sense traditionally -attached to that word, and, but for their residence upon reservations -patented to these bands in confirmation of ancient Spanish grants, and -their continued tribal organization, might be regarded as a part of the -ordinary population of the country. There are now nineteen villages of -these Indians in New Mexico. Each village has a distinct and organized -government, with its governor and other officers, all of whom are -elected annually by the people, except the _cacique_, a sort of -high-priest, who holds his office during life. Though nominally -Catholics in religion, it is thought that their real beliefs are those -of their ancestors in the days of Montezuma. - -UTAH. - -The tribes residing wholly or in part within the limits of Utah are the -North-western, Western, and Goship bands of Shoshones; the Weber, Yampa, -Elk Mountain, and Uintah bands of Utes; the Timpanagos, the San Pitches, -the Pah-Vents, the Piedes, and She-be-rechers—all, with the exception of -the Shoshones, speaking the Ute language, and being native to the -country inhabited by them. - -_North-western, Western, and Goship Shoshones._—These three bands of -Shoshones, numbering together about 3000, have treaties made with the -Government in 1863. No reservations were provided to be set apart for -them by the terms of said treaties, the only provision for their benefit -being the agreement on the part of the United States to furnish them -with articles, to a limited extent and for a limited term, suitable to -their wants as hunters or herdsmen. Having no reservations, but little -can be done for their advancement. They live in North-western Utah and -North-eastern Nevada, and are generally inclined to be industrious, many -of them gaining a livelihood by working for the white settlers, while -others cultivate small tracts of land on their own account. - -The Weber Utes, numbering about 300, live in the vicinity of Salt Lake -City, and subsist by hunting, fishing, and begging. The Timpanagos, -numbering about 500, live south of Salt Lake City, and live by hunting -and fishing. The San Pitches, numbering about 300, live, with the -exception of some who have gone to the Uintah Valley Reservation, in the -country south and east of the Timpanagos, and subsist by hunting and -fishing. The Pah-Vents number about 1200, and occupy the Territory south -of the Goships, cultivate small patches of ground, but live principally -by hunting and fishing. The Yampa Utes, Piedes, Piutes, Elk Mountain -Utes, and She-be-rechers live in the eastern and southern parts of the -Territory. They number, as nearly as can be estimated, 5200; do not -cultivate the soil, but subsist by hunting and fishing, and at times by -depredating in a small way upon the white settlers. They are warlike and -migratory in their habits, carrying on a petty warfare pretty much all -the time with the southern Indians. These bands of Utes have no treaties -with the United States: they receive no annuities, and but very little -assistance from the Government. - -The Uintah Utes, numbering 800, are now residing upon a reservation of -2,039,040 acres in Uintah Valley, in the north-eastern corner of the -Territory, set apart for the occupancy of the Indians in Utah by -Executive order of October 3d, 1861, and by Act of Congress of May 5th, -1864. This reservation comprises some of the best farming land in Utah, -and is of sufficient extent to maintain all the Indians in the -Territory. Some of the Indians located here show a disposition to engage -in agriculture, though most of them still prefer the chase to labor. No -steps have yet been taken to open a school on the reservation. The -Uintah Utes have no treaty with the United States; but an appropriation -averaging about $10,000 has been annually made for their civilization -and improvement since 1863. - -ARIZONA. - -The tribes residing in the Territory of Arizona are the Pimas and -Maricopas, Papagoes, Mohaves, Moquis, and Orivas Pueblos, Yumas, -Yavapais, Hualapais, and different bands of the Apaches. All are native -to the districts occupied by them, respectively. - -_Pimas and Maricopas._—These, said to have been in former years -"Village" or "Pueblo" Indians, number 4342, and occupy a reservation of -64,000 acres, set apart for them under the Act of February 28th, 1859, -and located in the central part of the Territory, on the Gila River. -They are, and always have been, peaceful and loyal to the Government; -are considerably advanced, according to a rude form of civilization, and -being industrious, and engaged quite successfully, whenever the -conditions of soil and climate are favorable, in farming operations, are -nearly self-sustaining. The relations of these bands with the -neighboring whites are, however, very unfavorable to their interests; -and the condition of affairs is fast growing worse. The difficulty -arises out of the fact of the use, and probably the improvident use, by -the whites above them, of the water of the Gila River, by which they are -deprived of all means of irrigating their lands. Much dissatisfaction is -manifested on this account; and the result is, so far, that many of the -Indians have left the reservation, and gone to Salt River Valley, where -they are making a living by tilling the soil, not, however, without -getting into trouble at this point also with the settlers. - -The Pimas and Maricopas are greatly interested in the education of their -children. Two schools are in operation on the reservation, with an -attendance of 105 scholars. These tribes have no treaty with the United -States, and receive but little assistance from the Government. - -_Papagoes._—These Indians, numbering about 5000, are of the same class, -in some respects, as the Pueblos in New Mexico, living in villages, -cultivating the soil, and raising stock for a support. They have no -reservation set apart for their occupancy, but inhabit the south-eastern -part of the Territory. Many of them have embraced Christianity; and they -are generally well-behaved, quiet, and peaceable. They manifest a strong -desire to have their children educated; and steps to this end have been -taken by the Department. These Indians have no treaty relations with the -United States, and receive no assistance from the Government. The -expediency of assigning to the Papagoes a reservation, and concentrating -them where they can be brought within the direct care and control of the -Government, is under consideration by the Department. There seems to be -no reason to doubt that, if so established, and once supplied with -implements and stock, they would become in a short time not only -self-sustaining but prosperous. - -_Mohaves._—These Indians have a reservation of 75,000 acres, located on -the Colorado River, and set apart for them and other tribes in the -vicinity of said river, under the Act of March 3d, 1865. The Mohaves -number about 4000, of whom only 828 are on the reservation, the rest -either roaming at large or being fed at other reservations in the -Territory. An irrigating canal has been built for them at great expense; -but farming operations have not as yet proved very successful. Over 1100 -acres, however, are being cultivated by the Indians. The crops consist -of corn, melons, and pumpkins. These Indians show but little progress in -civilization. The parents objecting to the education of their children, -no schools have been put in operation on the reservation, as they could -be conducted only on a compulsory system. The Mohaves have no treaty -stipulations with the United States; but they are partly subsisted, and -are largely assisted in their farming operations, from the general -incidental fund of the Territory. - -_Yumas._—These Indians number probably 2000. They inhabit the country -near the mouth of the Colorado River, but belong to the reservation -occupied by the Mohaves. They refuse, however, to remove to the -reservation, and gain a scanty subsistence by planting, and by cutting -wood for steamers plying on the river. Many of them remain about Arizona -City, performing menial services for the whites, and gratifying their -inveterate passion for gambling. They have no treaty with the United -States, and receive but little assistance from the Government. - -_Hualapais._—These Indians, numbering about 1500, inhabit the country -near the Colorado River, north of the Mohaves, ranging a considerable -distance into the interior. They have been, and still are, more or less -hostile. Those who are quiet and peaceable are, with members of other -bands of Indians, being fed by the Government at Camps McDowell, Beal's -Spring, and Date Creek. - -_Yavapais and Apaches._—These Indians are estimated to number from 8000 -to 12,000, the lower estimate being the more reasonable. Their -ranging-grounds are in the central, northern, and eastern parts of the -Territory. Most of them have long been hostile to the Government, -committing numerous robberies and murders. Earnest efforts have been -made during the past year to settle them on reservations, three of -which, viz., Camp Apache, Camp Grant, and Camp Verde, were set apart for -their occupancy by Executive order dated November 9th, 1871. These -efforts, however, have not resulted very successfully; the Indians -occasionally coming upon the reservations in large numbers, but leaving -without permission, and, indeed, defiantly, whenever so disposed, -oftentimes renewing their depredations before their supplies of -government rations are exhausted. Many of the bands of this tribe (if it -can be called a tribe; habits, physical structure, and language all -pointing to a great diversity in origin among the several bands) are -seemingly incorrigible, and will hardly be brought to cease their -depredations and massacres except by the application of military force. - -NEVADA. - -The tribes residing in Nevada are Pah-Utes, Piutes, Washoes, Shoshones, -and Bannocks, and are native to the districts inhabited by them -respectively. - -_Pah-Utes._—These Indians, numbering about 6000, inhabit the western -part of the State. Two reservations have been set apart for them—one -known as the Walker River, the other as the Pyramid Lake Reservation, -containing each 320,000 acres. These Indians are quiet, and friendly to -the whites—are very poor, and live chiefly upon fish, game, seeds, and -nuts, with such assistance as the Government from time to time renders -them. They show considerable disposition to labor; and those on the -reservations, especially the Walker River Reservation, are cultivating -small patches of ground. The Pyramid Lake Reservation affords, in -addition, excellent fishing, and the surrounding settlements a ready -market for the catch over and above what the Indians require for their -own consumption. No schools have been established for these Indians. -They have no treaty relations with the Government, and receive no -annuities. - -_Piutes._—The Piutes, numbering probably 2500, inhabit the south-eastern -part of the State. They have no reservation set apart for them; nor have -they any treaty with the United States. They roam about at will, are -very destitute, and obtain a living principally by pilfering from the -whites, although a few of them are engaged in a small way in farming. -But very little can be done for these Indians by the Government in their -present unsettled condition. They should be brought upon one of the -reservations set apart for the Indians in Nevada, or upon the Uintah -Reservation in Utah, where they could receive suitable care and proper -instruction in the arts of civilized life. - -_Washoes._—These Indians, numbering about 500, are a poor, miserable, -and debauched people, and spend most of their time among the white -settlements, where they gain some supplies of food and clothing by -menial services. They have no reservation and no treaty, are not in -charge of any agent of the Government; and vice and disease are rapidly -carrying them away. - -_Shoshones._—The Shoshones are a portion of the North-western, Western, -and Goship bands, referred to under the head of "Utah." Those roaming or -residing in the eastern part of Nevada number about 2000. The remarks -made respecting their brethren in Utah will equally apply to them. - -_Bannocks._—The Bannocks, roaming in the north-eastern part of the -State, number, probably, 1500, and are doubtless a portion of the people -of that name ranging in Eastern Oregon and Southern Idaho. They have no -treaty with the Government, nor any reservation set apart for them, and -are not in charge of any United States agent. They should, if possible, -be located upon the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, where some steps -could be taken to advance them in civilization. - -THE PACIFIC SLOPE. - -The Indians on the Pacific slope are divided as follows: in Washington -Territory, about 14,000; in Oregon, 12,000; in California, 22,000. - -WASHINGTON TERRITORY. - -The tribes residing in Washington Territory are the Nisqually, Puyallup, -and other confederate tribes; the D'Wamish and other allied bands; the -Makahs, the S'Klallams, the Qui-nai-elts and Qui-leh-utes, the Yakamas, -the Chehalis, and other allied tribes, and the Colville, Spokanes, Cœur -d'Alênes, Okanagans, and others. - -_Nisqually, Puyallup, and others._—These Indians, numbering about 1200, -have three reservations, containing, as per treaty of 1854, 26,776 -acres, situated on the Nisqually and Puyallup Rivers, and on an island -in Puget Sound. Some of these Indians are engaged in farming, and raise -considerable wheat, also potatoes and other vegetables. Many are -employed by the farmers in their vicinity; while others still are idle -and shiftless, spending their time wandering from place to place. One -school is in operation on the Puyallup Reservation, with an attendance -of eleven scholars. - -_D'Wamish and others._—The D'Wamish and other allied tribes number 3600, -and have five reservations, containing in all 41,716 acres, set apart by -treaty made with them in 1855, and located at as many points on Puget -Sound. Many of these Indians, particularly those residing on the Lummi -Reservation, are industrious farmers, raising all the produce necessary -for their support, and owning a large number of cattle, horses, hogs, -etc.; while others are either employed by the neighboring white farmers -or engaged in lumbering on their own account. They are generally -Christianized, most of them members of the Catholic Church. One school, -with fifty-seven scholars, is in operation on the Tulalip Reservation, -where all the Government buildings are located. This school has had a -remarkable degree of success, as reported by the agent and by -disinterested visitors. - -_Makahs._—These Indians number 604, and have a reservation of 12,800 -acres, set apart by treaty made with them in 1855, and located at the -extreme north-west corner of the Territory. They are a bold, hardy race, -not inclined to till the soil for a support, but depending principally -upon fishing and the taking of fur-seal for their livelihood. One school -is in operation among them, with an attendance of sixteen scholars. - -_S'Klallams._—These Indians, numbering 919, have a reservation of 4000 -acres, set apart by treaty made with them in 1855, and located on what -is known as "Hood's Canal." Some of them are engaged, in a small way, in -farming; and others are employed in logging for the neighboring -saw-mills. Their condition generally is such that their advancement in -civilization must necessarily be slow. A school has been established on -the reservation, and is attended by twenty-two scholars. - -_Qui-nai-elts, Qui-leh-utes, Hohs, and Quits._—These Indians number 520, -and have a reservation of 25,600 acres, in the extreme eastern part of -the Territory, and almost wholly isolated from white settlements, set -apart under a treaty made with them July 1st, 1855. But one of the four -tribes mentioned, the Qui-nai-elts, live upon the reservation: the -others reside at different points along the coast, northward from the -reservation. These declare that they never agreed to sell their country, -and that they never knowingly signed any treaty disposing of their right -to it. The bottom land on the reservation is heavily timbered, and a -great deal of labor is required to clear it; but, when cleared, it -produces good crops. Many of the Indians, though in the main fish-eaters -(the Qui-nai-elt River furnishing them with salmon in great abundance), -are cultivating small patches, and raise sufficient vegetables for their -own use. One school is in operation on the reservation, with an -attendance of fifteen scholars. - -_Yakamas._—The Yakamas number 3000, and have a reservation in the -southern part of the Territory, containing 783,360 acres, set apart for -them by treaty of June 9th, 1855. These Indians belong to numerous -bands, confederated under the title of Yakamas. Many of them, under the -able management of their present agent, have become noticeably advanced -in civilization, and are good farmers or skilled mechanics. The -manual-labor school at the Yakama Agency has been a complete success, -and of incalculable benefit in imparting to the children a practical -knowledge of farming and of the different mechanical arts. Their -principal wealth is in horses, of which they own 12,000. The fact that -the reservation for these Indians is located east of the Cascade -Mountains, away from all contact with the whites, has doubtless tended, -in a great measure, to make this what it is—the model agency on the -Pacific slope: though to this result the energy and devotion of Agent -Wilbur have greatly contributed. Churches have been built on the -reservation, which are well attended, the services being conducted by -native preachers. There are at present two schools, with an attendance -of forty-four scholars. - -_Chehalis and others, Remnants of Tribes, and Parties to no Treaty with -the Government._—These Indians number about 600, and have a reservation -of 4322 acres in the eastern part of the territory, set apart for them -by Executive order of July 8th, 1864. A considerable portion of the land -in this reservation is excellent for agricultural purposes; and quite -extensive crops are being raised by the Indians of the Chehalis tribe. -None of the other tribes for whom the reservation was intended reside -upon it, declining to do so for the reason that they do not recognize it -as their own, and fear to prejudice their claims to other lands by so -doing. - -All these Indians have horses and cattle in abundance. They are -industrious; and, being good field-hands, those of them who do not farm -on their own account find ready employment from the surrounding farmers, -their services always commanding the highest wages. Having no treaty -relations with the Government, no direct appropriations are made for -their benefit. They, however, receive some assistance from the general -incidental fund of the Territory. The Indians herein referred to as not -living upon the reservation are of the Cowlitz, Chinook, Shoalwater Bay, -and Humboldt tribes. They profess to desire a home at the mouth of the -Humboldt and Coinoose rivers, where they originated. - -_Colville and other Tribes._—These Indians, numbering 3349, occupy the -north-eastern portion of the territory. They have no treaty relations -with the Government, and, until the present year, have had no -reservation set apart for them. They are now, however, to be -established, under an order of the President of July 2d, 1872, in the -general section of the Territory where they now are, upon a tract which -is bounded on the south and east by the Columbia River, on the west by -the Okinakane River, and on the north by British Columbia. The tribes -for whom this reservation is designed are known as Colvilles, -Okinakanes, San Poels, Lake Spokanes, Cœur d'Alênes, Calispells, and -Methows. Some of these Indians, however, have settled upon valuable -tracts of land, and have made extensive improvements, while others, to a -considerable number, have begun farming in a small way at various points -within the district from which it is proposed to remove their respective -tribes. It is doubtful whether these individuals will voluntarily remove -to the reservation referred to, which is some distance west of their -present location. It is proposed, therefore, to allow such as are -engaged in farming to remain where they are, if they so desire. Owing to -the influx of whites into the country thus claimed or occupied by these -Indians, many of them have been crowded out; and some of them have had -their own unquestionable improvements forcibly wrested from them. This -for a time during the past summer caused considerable trouble, and -serious difficulties were apprehended; but thus far peace has been -preserved by a liberal distribution among them of agricultural -implements, seeds, blankets, etc. No funds are appropriated specially -for these Indians, such supplies and presents as are given them being -furnished from the general incidental fund of the Territory. - -OREGON. - -The tribes residing in Oregon are the Umatillas, Cayuses, Walla-Wallas, -Wascoes, Molels, Chasta Scotans, Coosas, Alseas, Klamath, Modocs, and -Wal-pah-pee Snakes, besides numerous other small bands. They are all -native to the country. On account of the great number of small tribes -and bands in this State—the number of tribes and bands parties to the -same treaty being in some cases as high as ten or fifteen—these Indians -will be treated of, and the remarks concerning them will be made, under -the heads of the agencies at which they are respectively located. - -_Umatilla Agency._—The tribes located at this agency are the Umatillas, -Cayuses, and a portion of the Walla-Wallas, and number 837. They have a -reservation of 512,000 acres, situated in the north-eastern part of the -State, set apart for them by treaty of June 9th, 1855. This reservation -is very fertile, and, as usual in such cases, has attracted the cupidity -of the whites. A proposition was made last year, under the authority of -Congress, to have the Indians take land in severalty, or sell and remove -to some other reservation. The Indians, however, in the exercise of -their treaty rights, refused to accede to this proposition. These -Indians are successfully engaged in agricultural operations, are nearly -self-supporting, and may be considered, comparatively speaking, wealthy. -It is gratifying to state that the introduction of whiskey by whites -upon this reservation, and its sale to the Indians, has, during the last -year, received a decided check through the vigilance of Agent Cornoyer -in causing the arrest and trial of four citizens for a violation of the -law in this respect. All the parties charged were convicted, and are now -in prison. This is especially worthy of note, from the fact that it is -always exceedingly difficult to obtain convictions for such dealing with -Indians in any section of the country. There is one school in operation -on the reservation, with an attendance of twenty-seven scholars. - -_Warm Spring Agency._—The Indians at this agency, known as the -"Confederated Tribes and Bands of Indians in Middle Oregon," comprise -seven bands of the Walla-Walla and Wasco tribes, numbering 626. They -have a reservation of 1,024,000 acres, located in the central part of -the State, set apart for them by the treaty of June 25th, 1855. Though -there is but little really good land in this reservation, many of the -Indians, by reason of their industry, have succeeded measurably in their -farming operations, and may be considered as self-sustaining. In morals -they have greatly improved; so that polygamy, the buying and selling of -wives, gambling, and drunkenness have ceased to be common among them, as -in the past. There are some, however, who are disposed to wander off the -reservation and lead a vagabond life. But little advancement has been -made in education among these Indians. One school is in operation at the -agency, with an attendance of fifty-one scholars. - -_Grand Ronde Agency._—The Indians at this agency comprise the Molalla, -Clackama, Calapooia, Molel, Umpqua, Rogue River, and other bands, -seventeen in all, with a total population of 870. The reservation upon -which these bands are located is in the northwestern part of the State. -It contains 69,120 acres, and was set apart for their occupation by -treaty of January 22d, 1855, with the Molallas, Clackamas, etc., and by -Executive order of June 30th, 1857. Some portions of this reservation -are well adapted to grain-raising, though much of it is rough and -heavily timbered. An allotment of land in severalty has been directed to -be made, much to the gratification and encouragement of the tribes. -These Indians are inclined to industry, and show commendable zeal in -cultivating their farms, growing crops which compare favorably with -those of their white neighbors. Their customs and habits of life also -exhibit a marked improvement. One school is in operation, with an -attendance of fifty scholars. - -_Siletz Agency._—The Indians at this agency are the Chasta Scotans and -fragments of fourteen other bands, called, generally, coast-tribes, -numbering altogether about 2500. These Indians, including those at the -Alsea Sub-agency, have a reservation of 1,100,800 acres set apart for -them by treaty of August 11th, 1855; which treaty, however, has never -been ratified, although the reservation is occupied by the Indians. They -were for a long time much averse to labor for a support; but recently -they have shown more disposition to follow agriculture, although -traditionally accustomed to rely chiefly upon fish for food. Many -already have their farms well fenced and stocked, with good, comfortable -dwellings and out-houses erected thereon. There is no reason why they -should not, in time, become a thoroughly prosperous people. The failure -to make allotments of land in severalty, for which surveys were -commenced in 1871, has been a source of much uneasiness to the Indians, -and has tended to weaken their confidence in the good intentions of the -Government. One school is in operation on the reservation, with an -attendance of twenty scholars. None of the tribes or bands at this -agency have any treaty relations with the United States, unless it may -be a few members of the Rogue River band, referred to under the head of -the Grand Ronde Agency. - -_Alsea Sub-agency._—The Indians at this sub-agency are the Alseas, -Coosas, Sinselans, and a band of Umpquas, numbering in all 300, located -within the limits of the reservation referred to under the head of the -Siletz Agency. The remarks made about the Indians at the Siletz Agency -will generally apply to the Indians of this sub-agency. The Coosas, -Sinselans, and Umpquas are making considerable advancement in -agriculture, and, had they advantages of instruction, would rapidly -acquire a proficiency in the simpler mechanical branches of industry. -The Alseas are not so tractable, and exhibit but little desire for -improvement. All the assistance they receive from the Government is -supplied out of the limited amount appropriated for the general -incidental expenses of the service in Oregon. - -_Klamath Agency._—The Indians belonging to this agency are the Klamaths -and Modocs, and the Yahooskin and Wal-pah-pee bands of Snakes, numbering -altogether about 4000, of whom only 1018 are reported at the agency. -They have a reservation containing 768,000 acres, set apart for them by -the treaty of October 14th, 1864, and by Executive order of March 14th, -1871, situated in the extreme southern portion of the State. This -reservation is not well adapted to agriculture. The climate is cold and -uncertain; and the crops are consequently liable to be destroyed by -frosts. It is, however, a good grazing country. Although this -reservation is, comparatively speaking, a new one, the Indians located -upon it are making commendable progress, both in farming operations and -in lumbering. A part of the Modocs, who belong by treaty to this agency, -and who were at one time located upon the reservation, have, on account -of their troubles with the Klamaths—due principally to the overbearing -disposition of the latter—left the agency, and refuse to return to it. -They desire to locate upon a small reservation by themselves. Under the -circumstances they should be permitted to do this, or else be allowed to -select a tract on the Malheur Reservation. There is no school at present -in operation for these Indians. - -_Malheur Reservation._—This reservation, set apart by Executive order of -September 12th, 1872, is situated in the south-eastern part of the -State. Upon this it is the intention of the Department eventually to -locate all the roving and straggling bands, in Eastern and South-eastern -Oregon, which can be induced to settle there. As no funds are at the -disposal of the Department with which to make the necessary -improvements, and to provide temporary subsistence for Indians removed, -the work has not yet been fairly commenced. The Indians who should be -collected upon this reservation are now a constant source of annoyance -to the white settlers. They hang about the settlements and military -posts, begging and stealing; and, unless some prompt measures be taken -to bring them under the care and control of an agent of the Government, -serious trouble may result at any time. Congress should make the -necessary appropriation during the coming session to maintain an agent -for these Indians, to erect the agency buildings, and to provide -subsistence for such as may be collected and may remain upon the -reservation. - -_Indians not upon Reservations._—There are a number of Indians, probably -not less than 3000, "renegades," and others of roving habits, who have -no treaty relations with the Government, and are not in charge of any -agent. The tribal names of some of these are the Clatsops, Nestucals, -Tillamooks, Nehalims, Snakes, and Nez Percés. The "renegades," such in -fact, and so called, roam on the Columbia River, and are of considerable -annoyance to the agents at Warm Springs and Umatilla: others, the -Snakes, 200 in number, are upon the edge of the Grand Ronde Reservation. -These live by hunting and fishing, and profess to desire to have lands -allotted to them, and a school provided for their children. The Nez -Percés, belonging in Idaho, to the estimated number of 200, are found in -Wallowa Valley, in the eastern part of the State. They claim that they -were not parties to the treaty with the Nez Percé tribe years ago; that -the valley in which they live has always belonged to them; and they -strenuously oppose its settlement by the whites. - -CALIFORNIA. - -The tribes in California are the Ukie, Pitt River, Wylackie, Concon, -Redwood, Humboldt, Hoonsolton, Miscott, Siah, Tule, Tejon, Coahuila, -King's River, and various other bands and tribes, including the "Mission -Indians," all being native to the country. - -_Round Valley Agency._—The Indians belonging to this agency are the -Ukies, Concons, Pitt Rivers, Wylackies, and Redwoods, numbering in all -1700. The number has been increased during the past year by bringing in -1040 Indians collected in Little Lake and other valleys. A reservation -containing 31,683 acres has been set apart, per Act of April 8th, 1864, -and Executive order of March 30th, 1870, in the western and northern -part of the State, for these Indians, and for such others as may be -induced to locate thereon. The lands in the reservation are very -fertile; and the climate admits of a widely varied growth of crops. More -produce being raised than is necessary for the subsistence of the -Indians, the proceeds derived from the sale of the surplus are used in -purchasing stock and work animals, and for the further improvement of -the reservation. Several of the Indians are engaged in cultivating -gardens, while others work as many as twenty-five or thirty acres on -their own account. - -The Indians on this reservation are uniformly quiet and peaceable, -notwithstanding that they are much disturbed by the white trespassers. -Suits, by direction of the Department, were commenced against such -trespassers, but without definite results as yet; the Attorney-general -having directed the United States District-attorney to suspend -proceedings. Of this reservation the Indian Department has in actual -possession and under fence only about 4000 acres; the remainder being in -the possession of settlers, all clamorous for breaking up the -reservation and driving the Indians out. - -The Indians at this reservation have shown no especial disposition to -have their children educated; and no steps were taken to that end until -in the summer of 1871, when a school was commenced. There is now one -school in operation, with an attendance of 110 scholars. These Indians -have no treaties with the Government; and such assistance as is rendered -them in the shape of clothing, etc., is from the money appropriated for -the general incidental expenses of the Indian service in the State. - -_Hoopa Valley Agency._—The Indians belonging to this agency are the -Humboldts, Hoonsoltons, Miscotts, Siahs, and several other bands, -numbering 725. - -A reservation was set apart, per Act of April 8th, 1864, for these and -such other Indians in the northern part of the State as might be induced -to settle thereon. This reservation is situated in the north-western -part of the State, on both sides of the Trinity River, and contains -38,400 acres. As a rule, sufficient is raised on the reservation to -supply the wants of the Indians. These Indians are quiet and peaceable, -and are not disposed to labor on the reservation in common, but will -work industriously when allowed to do so on their own individual -account. One school is in operation on the reservation, with an -attendance of seventy-four scholars. Having no treaty relations with the -United States, and, consequently, no regular annuities appropriated for -their benefit, the general incidental fund of the State is used so far -as may be necessary, and so far as the amount appropriated will admit, -to furnish assistance in the shape of clothing, agricultural implements, -seeds, etc. Besides these, their agent has a general supervisory control -of certain Klamath Indians, who live adjacent to the reservation and -along the banks of the Klamath River. These formerly belonged to a -reservation bearing their name, which was, years ago, abandoned in -consequence of the total destruction by flood of agency buildings and -improvements. They now support themselves chiefly by hunting and -fishing, and by cultivating small patches in grain and vegetables. - -_Tule River Farm, or Agency._—The Indians located at this point are the -Tules and Manaches, numbering 374. These Indians are gradually -improving, are quite proficient in all kinds of farm-work, and show a -good disposition to cultivate the soil on their own account. There is -one school in operation at the Tule River Farm, with an attendance of -thirty-seven scholars. About sixty miles from the agency reside several -hundred King's River Indians, who are in a wretched and destitute -condition. They desire to be attached to the agency, and have in the -past received occasional supplies of food from it. - -_Indians not on Reservations._—In addition to the Indians located at the -three agencies named, there are probably not less than 20,000, including -the Mission Indians (so called), the Coahuilas, Owen's River, and -others, in the southern part of the State; and those on the Klamath, -Trinity, Scott, and Salmon rivers, in the northern part. The Mission -Indians, having been for the past century under the Catholic missions -established on the California coast, are tolerably well advanced in -agriculture, and compare favorably with the most highly civilized tribes -of the east. The Coahuilas, and others inhabiting the south-eastern and -eastern portions of the State, and those in the north, support -themselves by working for white settlers, or by hunting, fishing, -begging, and stealing, except, it may be, a few of the northern Indians, -who go occasionally to the reservations and the military posts in that -section for assistance in the way of food. - -There are also about 4000 Owen's River and Manache Indians east of the -Sierras, whom the settlers would gladly see removed to a reservation, -and brought under the care of an agent. The Department has under -consideration the propriety of establishing a new reservation, upon -which shall be concentrated these and numerous other Indians, in which -event the Tule River Agency could advantageously be discontinued. - - - - - XV. - - - REPORT - - ON THE CONDITION AND NEEDS OF THE MISSION INDIANS OF - CALIFORNIA, MADE BY SPECIAL AGENTS HELEN JACKSON AND - ABBOT KINNEY, TO THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. - - - Colorado Springs, Col., July 13th, 1883. - -SIR,—In compliance with our instructions bearing dates November 28th, -1882, and January 12th, 1883, we have the honor to submit to you the -following report on the subject of the Mission Indians in Southern -California. - -The term "Mission Indians" dates back over one hundred years, to the -time of the Franciscan missions in California. It then included all -Indians who lived in the mission establishments, or were under the care -of the Franciscan Fathers. Very naturally the term has continued to be -applied to the descendants of those Indians. In the classification of -the Indian Bureau, however, it is now used in a somewhat restricted -sense, embracing only those Indians living in the three southernmost -counties of California, and known as Serranos, Cahuillas, San Luisenos, -and Dieguinos; the last two names having evidently come from the names -of the southernmost two missions, San Luis Rey and San Diego. A census -taken in 1880, of these bands, gives their number as follows: - - Serranos 381 - Cahuillas 675 - San Luisenos 1,120 - Dieguinos 731 - ------- - Total 2,907 - -This estimate probably falls considerably short of the real numbers, as -there are no doubt in hiding, so to speak, in remote and inaccessible -spots, many individuals, families, or even villages, that have never -been counted. These Indians are living for the most part in small and -isolated villages; some on reservations set apart for them by Executive -order; some on Government land not reserved, and some upon lands -included within the boundaries of confirmed Mexican grants. - -Considerable numbers of these Indians are also to be found on the -outskirts of white settlements, as at Riverside, San Bernardino, or in -the colonies in the San Gabriel Valley, where they live like gypsies in -brush huts, here to-day, gone to-morrow, eking out a miserable existence -by days' works, the wages of which are too often spent for whiskey in -the village saloons. Travellers in Southern California, who have formed -their impressions of the Mission Indians from these wretched wayside -creatures, would be greatly surprised at the sight of some of the Indian -villages in the mountain valleys, where, freer from the contaminating -influence of the white race, are industrious, peaceable communities, -cultivating ground, keeping stock, carrying on their own simple -manufactures of pottery, mats, baskets, &c., and making their living,—a -very poor living, it is true; but they are independent and -self-respecting in it, and ask nothing at the hands of the United States -Government now, except that it will protect them in the ownership of -their lands,—lands which, in many instances, have been in continuous -occupation and cultivation by their ancestors for over one hundred -years. - -From tract after tract of such lands they have been driven out, year by -year, by the white settlers of the country, until they can retreat no -farther; some of their villages being literally in the last tillable -spot on the desert's edge or in mountain fastnesses. Yet there are in -Southern California to-day many fertile valleys, which only thirty years -ago were like garden spots with these same Indians' wheat-fields, -orchards, and vineyards. Now, there is left in these valleys no trace of -the Indians' occupation, except the ruins of their adobe houses; in some -instances these houses, still standing, are occupied by the robber -whites who drove them out. The responsibility for this wrong rests, -perhaps, equally divided between the United States Government, which -permitted lands thus occupied by peaceful agricultural communities to be -put "in market," and the white men who were not restrained either by -humanity or by a sense of justice, from "filing" homestead claims on -lands which had been fenced, irrigated, tilled, and lived on by Indians -for many generations. The Government cannot justify this neglect on the -plea of ignorance. Repeatedly, in the course of the last thirty years, -both the regular agents in charge of the Mission Indians and special -agents sent out to investigate their condition have made to the Indian -Bureau full reports setting forth these facts. - -In 1873 one of these special agents, giving an account of the San -Pasquale Indians, mentioned the fact that a white man had just -pre-empted the land on which the greater part of the village was -situated. He had paid the price of the land to the register of the -district land office, and was daily expecting his patent from -Washington. "He owned," the agent says, "that it was hard to wrest from -these well-disposed and industrious creatures the homes they had built -up; but," said he, "if I had not done it, somebody else would; for all -agree that the Indian has no right to public lands." This San Pasquale -village was a regularly organized Indian pueblo, formed by about one -hundred neophytes of the San Luis Rey Mission, under and in accordance -with the provisions of the Secularization Act in 1834. The record of its -founding is preserved in the Mexican archives at San Francisco. These -Indians had herds of cattle, horses, and sheep; they raised grains, and -had orchards and vineyards. The whole valley in which this village lay -was at one time set off by Executive order as a reservation, but by the -efforts of designing men the order was speedily revoked; and no sooner -has this been done than the process of dispossessing the Indians began. -There is now, on the site of that old Indian pueblo, a white settlement -numbering 35 voters. The Indians are all gone,—some to other villages; -some living near by in cañons and nooks in the hills, from which, on the -occasional visits of the priest, they gather and hold services in the -half-ruined adobe chapel built by them in the days of their prosperity. - -This story of the San Pasquale Indians is only a fair showing of the -experiences of the Mission Indians during the past fifty years. Almost -without exception they have been submissive and peaceable through it -all, and have retreated again and again to new refuges. In a few -instances there have been slight insurrections among them, and -threatenings of retaliation; but in the main their history has been one -of almost incredible long suffering and patience under wrongs. - -In 1851 one of the San Luiseno bands, the Aqua Caliente Indians, in the -north part of San Diego County, made an attack on the house of a white -settler, and there was for a time great fear of a general uprising of -all the Indians in the country. It is probable that this was instigated -by the Mexicans, and that there was a concerted plan for driving the -Americans out of the country. The outbreak was easily quelled, however; -four of the chiefs were tried by court-martial and shot by order of -General Heintzelman, and in January of the following year a treaty was -made with the San Luiseno and Dieguino Indians, setting off for them -large tracts of land. This treaty was made by a United States -commissioner, Dr. Wozencraft, and Lieutenant Hamilton, representing the -Army, and Col. J. J. Warner, the settler whose house had been attacked. -The greater part of the lands which were by this treaty assigned to the -Indians are now within the boundaries of grants confirmed and patented -since that time; but there are many Indian villages still remaining on -them, and all Indians living on such lands are supposed to be there -solely on the tolerance and at the mercy of the owners of said ranches, -and to be liable to ejectment by law. Whether this be so or not is a -point which it would seem to be wise to test before the courts. It is -certain that in the case of all these Mission Indians the rights -involved are quite different from and superior to the mere "occupancy" -right of the wild and uncivilized Indian. - -At the time of the surrender of California to the United States these -Mission Indians had been for over seventy years the subjects, first of -the Spanish Government, secondly of the Mexican. They came under the -jurisdiction of the United States by treaty provisions,—the treaty of -Guadalupe Hidalgo, between the United States and Mexico, in 1848. At -this time they were so far civilized that they had become the chief -dependence of the Mexican and white settlers for all service indoors and -out. In the admirable report upon these Indians made to the Interior -Department in 1853, by the Hon. B. D. Wilson, of Los Angeles, are the -following statements:— - -"These same Indians had built all the houses in the country, planted all -the fields and vineyards. Under the Missions there were masons, -carpenters, plasterers, soap-makers, tanners, shoe-makers, blacksmiths, -millers, bakers, cooks, brick-makers, carters and cart-makers, weavers -and spinners, saddlers, shepherds, agriculturalists, horticulturalists, -vineros, vaqueros; in a word, they filled all the laborious occupations -known to civilized society." - -The intentions of the Mexican Government toward these Indians were wise -and humane. At this distance of time, and in face of the melancholy -facts of the Indians' subsequent history, it is painful to go over the -details of the plans devised one short half-century ago for their -benefit. In 1830 there were in the twenty-one missions in California -some 20,000 or 30,000 Indians, living comfortable and industrious lives -under the control of the Franciscan Fathers. The Spanish colonization -plan had, from the outset, contemplated the turning of these mission -establishments into pueblos as soon as the Indians should have become -sufficiently civilized to make this feasible. The Mexican Government, -carrying out the same general plan, issued in 1833 an act, called the -Secularization Act, decreeing that this change should be made. This act -provided that the Indians should have assigned to them cattle, horses, -and sheep from the mission herds; also, lands for cultivation. One -article of Governor Figueroa's regulations for the carrying out of the -Secularization Act provided that there should be given to every head of -a family, and to all above twenty-one years of age, though they had no -family, a lot of land not exceeding 400 varas square, nor less than 100. -There was also to be given to them in common, enough land for pasturing -and watering their cattle. Another article provided that one-half the -cattle of each mission school should be divided among the Indians of -that mission in a proportionable and equitable manner; also one-half of -the chattels, instruments, seeds, &c. Restrictions were to be placed on -the disposition of this property. The Indians were forbidden "to sell, -burden, or alienate under any pretext the lands given them. Neither can -they sell the cattle." The commissioners charged with the carrying out -of these provisions were ordered to "explain all the arrangements to the -Indians with suavity and patience;" to tell them that the lands and -property will be divided among them so that each one may "work, -maintain, and govern himself without dependence on any one." It was also -provided that the rancherias (villages) situated at a distance from the -missions, and containing over twenty-five families, might, if they -chose, form separate pueblos, and the distribution of lands and property -to them should take place in the same manner provided for those living -near the missions. - -These provisions were in no case faithfully carried out. The -administration of the Missions' vast estates and property was too great -a temptation for human nature, especially in a time of revolution and -misrule. The history of the thirteen years between the passing of the -Secularization Act and the conquest of California is a record of -shameful fraud and pillage, of which the Indians were the most hapless -victims. Instead of being permitted each one to work, maintain, and -govern himself without dependence on any one, as they had been promised, -their rights to their plats of land were in the majority of cases -ignored; they were forced to labor on the mission lands like slaves; in -many instances they were hired out in gangs to cruel masters. From these -cruelties and oppressions they fled by hundreds, returning to their old -wilderness homes. Those who remained in the neighborhood of the pueblos -became constantly more and more demoralized, and were subjected to every -form of outrage. By a decree of the Los Angeles aqumiento, about the -time of our taking possession of California, all Indians found without -passes, either from the alcalde of the pueblos in which they lived, or -from their "masters [significant phrase], were to be treated as -horse-thieves and enemies." At this time there were, according to Mr. -Wilson's report, whole streets in Los Angeles where every other house -was a grog-shop for Indians; and every Saturday night the town was -filled with Indians in every stage of intoxication. Those who were -helpless and insensible were carried to the jail, locked up, and on -Monday morning bound out to the highest bidders at the jail gates. "The -Indian has a quick sense of justice," says Mr. Wilson; "he can never see -why he is sold out to service for an indefinite period for intemperance, -while the white man goes unpunished for the same thing, and the very -richest and best men, to his eye, are such as tempt him to drink, and -sometimes will pay him for his labor in no other way." Even the sober -and industrious and best skilled among them could earn but little; it -having become a custom to pay an Indian only half the wages of a white -man. - -From this brief and necessarily fragmentary sketch of the position and -state of the Mission Indians under the Mexican Government, at the time -of the surrender of California to the United States, it will be seen -that our Government received by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo a legacy -of a singularly helpless race in a singularly anomalous position. It -would have been very difficult, even at the outset, to devise -practicable methods of dealing justly with these people, and preserving -to them their rights. But with every year of our neglect the -difficulties have increased and the wrongs have been multiplied, until -now it is, humanly speaking, impossible to render to them full measure -of justice. All that is left in our power is to make them some -atonement. Fortunately for them, their numbers have greatly diminished. -Suffering, hunger, disease, and vice have cut down more than half of -their numbers in the last thirty years; but the remnant is worth saving. -Setting aside all question of their claim as a matter of atonement for -injustice done, they are deserving of help on their own merits. No one -can visit their settlements, such as Aqua Caliente, Saboba, Cahuilla -Valley, Santa Ysabel, without having a sentiment of respect and profound -sympathy for men who, friendless, poor, without protection from the law, -have still continued to work, planting, fencing, irrigating, building -houses on lands from which long experience has taught them that the -white man can drive them off any day he chooses. That drunkenness, -gambling, and other immoralities are sadly prevalent among them, cannot -be denied; but the only wonder is that so many remain honest and -virtuous under conditions which make practically null and void for them -most of the motives which keep white men honest and virtuous. - -Having thus given as brief a presentation as possible of the general -situation and nature of these Indians, we will proceed to state what, to -the best of our judgment, are the steps which ought to be taken by the -United States Government in their behalf. The descriptions of the most -important villages we visited, and the detailed accounts of -circumstances and situations on which our suggestions are based, are -given for convenience of reference in separate exhibits. - -1st. The first and most essential step, without which there is no -possibility of protecting these Indians or doing anything intelligently -for them, is the determining, resurveying, rounding out, and distinctly -marking, their reservations already existing. The only way of having -this done accurately and honestly, is to have it done by a surveyor who -is under the orders and constant supervision of an intelligent and -honest commissioner; not by an independent surveyor who runs or "floats" -reservation lines where he and his friends or interested parties choose, -instead of where the purpose of the United States Government, looking to -the Indians' interests, had intended. There have been too many surveys -of Indian reservations in Southern California of this sort. (See -Exhibits C, H, I, J, L.) All the reservations made in 1876—and that -comprises nearly all now existing—were laid off by guess, by the -surveyor in San Diego, on an imperfect county map. These sections, thus -guessed at by the surveyor, were reported by the commissioner to the -Interior Department, set aside by Executive order, and ordered to be -surveyed. When the actual survey came to be made, it was discovered that -in the majority of cases the Indian villages intended to be provided for -were outside the reservation lines, and that the greater part of the -lands set apart were wholly worthless. The plats of these reservations -are in the surveyor-general's office at San Francisco. On each of them -was marked by the surveyor an additional line in color, showing what -tracts ought to be added to take in the Indian villages and fields. So -far as we could learn, no action was taken in regard to these proposed -additions. - -The reservation lines, when thus defined, should be marked plainly and -conspicuously by monuments and stakes, leaving no room for doubt. A plat -of each reservation should then be given to the Indians living on it. It -was pathetic, in our visits to village after village, to hear the -Indians' request reiterated for this thing,—"a paper to show to the -white men where their lands were." Every fragment of writing they had -ever received, which could by any possibility bear on their title to -their lands, they had carefully preserved; old tattered orders from Army -officers thirty years back, orders from justices of the peace, &c., all -worthless of course, but brought forward with touching earnestness to -show us. In no single instance had the reservation lines ever been -pointed out to them. One band, the Sequan Indians, who had never seen -any agent, said they had been told that they were on a reservation, but -they did not know if it were true or not. They had been obliged to give -up keeping stock, because they could not find any place where the whites -would let them pasture cattle. (See Exhibit J.) - -There are some settlements of Indians on Government lands not set off as -reservations, in some instances not surveyed. These tracts should all be -surveyed, their boundaries marked, and the lands withdrawn from market -to be permanently set aside for the Indians' use. We use the term -"rounding out" in regard to these reservations chiefly on account of the -complication which results from their being in some cases within the -limit of railroad grants, and made subsequent to those grants. Some are -actually within the limits of the Southern Pacific Railroad grant; -others will be within the limits of the Texas Pacific grant, should that -be confirmed. The odd sections thus belonging to the railroads should be -secured to the Indians. There are also a few claims to lands within -reservation boundaries, which are legal on account of their having been -made before the reservations were set off. These should be extinguished. -(See Exhibit O.) - -2d. All white settlers now on reservations should be removed. For the -last four years stray settlers have been going in upon reservation -tracts. This is owing to the lack of boundary definitions and marks as -aforesaid, also to the failure of the surveys to locate the reservations -so as to take in all the ground actually occupied by Indian villages. -Thus, in many instances, the Indians' fields and settlements have been -wrested from them, and they in their turn have not known where they -could or could not go. There is not a single reservation of any size -which is free from white settlers. It would seem that agents in charge -of these Indians should have been authoritatively instructed in no case -to allow squatters to settle on lands known to be within reservation -lines, whether they were occupied by Indians or not. (See Exhibits H, I, -O.) - -The amount of land set off in Indian reservations in Southern California -appears by the record to be very large, but the proportion of it which -is really available is very small. San Diego County itself is -four-fifths desert and mountain, and it is no exaggeration to say that -the proportion of desert and mountain in the reservation is even larger -than this. By thus resurveying, rounding out, and freeing from white -settlers the present reservations, adding to them all Government lands -now actually in occupation by Indians, there will be, according to the -best of our judgment, nearly land enough for the accommodation of all -the Mission Indians except those whose settlements are on grants. - -3d. In regard to this latter class, _i.e._, those whose villages are now -within the boundaries of confirmed grants, the Government has to choose -between two courses of action,—either to remove them and make other -provision for them, or to uphold and defend their right to remain where -they are. In support of the latter course we believe a strong case could -be made out, and we have secured from one of the ablest firms in -Southern California a written legal opinion on this point. (See Exhibit -A.) It seems clear that this contest should be made by the Government -itself. It is impossible for these poverty-stricken and ignorant people -to undertake on their own account and at their own expense the legal -settlement of this matter. It would be foolish to advise it; inhuman to -expect it. A test case could be made which would settle the question for -all. (See Exhibit B.) In case the decision be favorable to the Indians -remaining, the ranch owners should then be called on to mark off the -boundaries of the Indians' lands according to the California State law -covering such cases. (See Exhibit R.) Whether the lands thus reverting -to the Indians could properly be considered as Government lands or not, -would be a question to be determined. Probably the surest way of -securing them for the Indians' permanent use would be to consider them -as such and have them defined as reservations by act of Congress. - -4th. And this brings us to our fourth recommendation, which is, that all -these Indians' reservations, those already set off by Executive order, -and all new ones made for them, whether of Government lands now in their -occupation, or of lands which may be hereafter by legal process -reclaimed for them from the grant lands on which they are now living, be -patented to the several bands occupying them; the United States to hold -the patent in trust for the period of twenty-five years; at the -expiration of that time the United States to convey the same by patent -to said Indians, as has been done for the Omaha Indians. The insecurity -of reservations made merely by Executive order is apparent, and is -already sadly illustrated in Southern California by the history of the -San Pasquale Reservation, that of Aqua Caliente, and others. The -insecurity of reservations set apart by act of Congress is only a degree -less. The moment it becomes the interest and purpose of white men in any -section of the country to have such reservation tracts restored to the -public domain, the question of its being done is only a question of -influence and time. It is sure to be done. The future of these -industrious, peaceable, agricultural communities ought not to be left a -single day longer than is necessary, dependent on such chances; chances -which are always against and never for Indians' interests in the matter -of holding lands. The best way and time of allotting these Indians' -lands to them in severalty must be left to the decision of the -Government, a provision being incorporated in their patent to provide -for such allotments from time to time as may seem desirable, and agents -and commissioners being instructed to keep the advantages of this system -constantly before the Indians' minds. Some of them are fit for it now, -and earnestly desire it, but the majority are not ready for it. The -communal system, on which those now living in villages use their lands, -satisfies them, and is apparently administered without difficulty. It is -precisely the same system as that on which the pueblo lands were -cultivated by the early Spanish settlers in Southern California. They -agree among themselves to respect each other's right of occupancy; a -man's right to a field this year depending on his having cultivated it -last year, and so on. It seems not to occur to these Indians that land -is a thing to be quarrelled over. - -In the village of Aqua Caliente, one of the most intelligent of the -young men was so anxious to show us his fields that we went with him a -little distance outside the village limits to see them. He had some -eight acres in grain, vine, and fruit trees. Pointing first in one -direction, then in another, he indicated the places where his ground -joined other men's ground. There was no line of demarcation whatever, -except it chanced to be a difference of crops. We said to him, -"Alessandro, how do you know which is your land and which is theirs?" He -seemed perplexed, and replied, "This was my mother's land. We have -always had it." "But," we persisted, "suppose one of these other men -should want more land and should take a piece of yours?" "He couldn't," -was all the reply we could get from Alessandro, and it was plain that he -was greatly puzzled by the suggestion of the possibility of neighbors -trespassing on each other's cultivated fields. - -5th. We recommend the establishment of more schools. At least two more -are immediately needed, one at the Rincon, and one at Santa Ysabel. (See -Exhibits G, L.) As the reservations are gradually cleared, defined and -assured for the Indians' occupancy, hundreds of Indians who are now -roving from place to place, without fixed homes, will undoubtedly settle -down in the villages, and more schools will be needed. It is to be -hoped, also, that some of the smaller bands will unite with the larger -ones, for the sake of the advantages of the school and other advantages -of a larger community. The isolated situation of many of the smaller -settlements is now an insuperable difficulty in the way of providing -education for all the children. These Indians are all keenly alive to -the value of education. In every village that we visited we were urged -to ask the Government to give them a school. In one they insisted upon -ranging the children all in rows, that we might see for ourselves that -there were children enough to justify the establishing of a school. - -In this connection we would suggest that if a boarding and industrial -school, similar to those at Hampton and Carlisle, could be established -in Southern California, it would be of inestimable value, and would -provide opportunities for many children who, owing to the isolation of -their homes, could not be reached in any other way. - -We would further suggest that, in our judgment, only women teachers -should be employed in these isolated Indian villages. There is a great -laxity of morals among these Indians; and in the wild regions where -their villages lie, the unwritten law of public sentiment, which in more -civilized communities does so much to keep men virtuous, hardly exists. -Therefore the post of teacher in these schools is one full of -temptations and danger to a man. (See Exhibit M.) Moreover, women have -more courage and self-denying missionary spirit, sufficient to undertake -such a life, and have an invaluable influence outside their -school-rooms. They go familiarly into the homes, and are really -educating the parents as well as the children in a way which is not -within the power of any man, however earnest and devoted he may be. - -We would also suggest that great good might be accomplished among these -Indians by some form of itinerary religious and educational labor among -them. In the list of assignments of Indian agencies to different -religious denominations, as given in the report of the Indian Bureau for -1882, the Mission Agency is assigned to the Evangelical Lutheran; but we -could not learn that this denomination had done any work among them. So -far as the Mission Indians have any religion at all they are Catholics. -In many of the villages are adobe chapels, built in the time of the -missions, where are still preserved many relics of the mission days, -such as saints' images, holy-water kettles, &c. In these chapels on the -occasions of the priest's visits the Indians gather in great numbers, -women sometimes walking two days' journey, bringing their babies on -their backs to have them baptized. There are also in several of the -villages old Indians, formerly trained at the missions, who officiate -with Catholic rites at funerals, and on Sundays repeat parts of the -Mass. As these Indians are now situated in isolated settlements so far -apart, and so remote from civilized centres, the only practicable method -of reaching them all would be by some form of itinerary labor. A fervent -religious and practical teacher, who should spend his time in going from -village to village, remaining in each a few days or weeks, as the case -might be, would sow seed which would not cease to grow during the -intervals of his absence. If he were a man of sound common-sense and -knowledge of laws of life, fitted to instruct the Indians in matters of -hygiene, cleanliness, ventilation, &c., and in a few of the simple -mechanical arts, as well as in the doctrines of religion and morality, -he would do more for the real good of these people at present than can -be accomplished by schools. - -6th. The suggestion of the value of itinerary labor among the Indians -leads to our next recommendation, which we consider of great importance, -_viz._, that it should be made the duty of any Government agent in -charge of the Mission Indians to make a round of inspection at least -twice a year, visiting each village or settlement however small. In no -other way can anything like a proper supervision of these Indians' -interests be attained. This proof of the Government's intention to keep -a sharp eye on all that might occur in relation to the Indians would -have a salutary moral effect, not only on the Indians, but on the white -settlers in their neighborhood. It would also afford the means of -dealing with comparative promptitude with the difficulties and troubles -continually arising. As it is now, it is not to be wondered at that the -Indians feel themselves unprotected and neglected, and the white -settlers feel themselves safe in trespassing on Indians' property or -persons. In some of the villages, where pre-emption claims have been -located within the last four years, no agent has ever been. It is safe -to say, that had an agent been on the ground each year, with the proper -authority to take efficient measures, much of the present suffering and -confusion would have been prevented. In the case, for instance, of the -Los Coyotes village, filed on a few months ago (see Exhibit F), there -was no reason why those lands should not have been set apart for the -Indians long ago, had their situation been understood; so in the San -Ysidro case, and others. The whole situation of an agent in regard to -the Mission Indians is totally different from that of ordinary agency on -a reservation. The duties of an Indian agent on a reservation may be -onerous, but they are in a sense simple. His Indians are all together, -within comparatively narrow limits, and, so to speak, under his hand, -and dependent largely on the Government. The Mission Indians, on the -contrary, are scattered in isolated settlements thirty, forty, a hundred -miles away from the agency headquarters, many of them in regions -difficult of access. Moreover, the Indians are in the main -self-supporting and independent. Protection or oversight worth anything -to them can only be given by a systematic method of frequent visitation. - -What is true in this respect of the agent's work is, if possible, still -truer of the physician's. If there is to be an agency physician for the -Mission Indians at all, he should be a young, strong, energetic man, who -is both able and willing to make at least four circuits a year through -the villages, and who will hold himself bound to go when called in all -cases of epidemics, serious illness, or accidents occurring among -Indians within one day's journey of the agency headquarters. Whatever -salary it is necessary to pay to secure such service as this should be -paid, or else the office of agency physician to the Mission Indians -should be abolished. Anything less than this is a farce and a fraud. - -7th. We recommend that there be secured the appointment of a lawyer, or -a law firm in Los Angeles, to act as special United States attorney in -all cases affecting the interests of these Indians. They have been so -long without any protection from the law that outrages and depredations -upon them have become the practice in all white communities near which -they live. Indians' stock is seized, corraled and held for fines, -sometimes shot, even on the Indians' own reservations or in the public -domain. In seasons of dearth roving stockmen and shepherds drive their -herds and flocks into Indians' grain-fields, destroying their -subsistence for a whole year. Lands occupied by Indians or by Indian -villages are filed on for homestead entry precisely as if they were -vacant lands. This has been more than once done without the Indians -receiving any warning until the sheriff arrived with the writ for their -ejectment. The Indians' own lives are in continual danger, it being a -safe thing to shoot an Indian at any time when only Indian witnesses are -present. (See Exhibits C, E.) It is plain that all such cases as these -should be promptly dealt with by equal means. One of the greatest -difficulties in the position of the Mission Indians' agent is, that in -all such cases he is powerless to act except through the at best slow -and hitherto unsatisfactory channel of reporting to the Interior -Department. He is in the embarrassing position of a guardian of wards -with property and property rights, for the defence of which he is unable -to call in prompt legal assistance. In instances in which the Indians -themselves have endeavored to get redress through the courts, they have -in the majority of cases—to the shame of the Southern California bar be -it spoken—been egregiously cheated. They are as helpless as children in -the hands of dishonest, unscrupulous men. We believe that the mere fact -of there being such a United States legal authority near at hand to act -for the Indians would in a short time, after a few effective -illustrations of its power, do away with the greater proportion of the -troubles demanding legal interference. - -The question of the rights of Indians living on grant lands to remain -there will, if the Department decides to test it by law, involve some -litigation, as it will no doubt be contested by the ranch owners; but -this point once settled, and the Indians secured in the ownership of -their lands, a very few years will see the end of any special need of -litigation in their behalf. We recommend in this connection and for this -office the firm of Brunson & Wells, of Los Angeles. We have obtained -from this firm a clear and admirable opinion on these Indians' right to -their present homes (see Exhibit A), and we know them to be of high -standing at the bar and to have a humane sympathy for Indians. - -8th. We recommend that there should be a judicious distribution of -agricultural implements among these Indians. No village should be -omitted. Wagons, harness, ploughs, spades, and hoes are greatly needed. -It is surprising to see what some of these villages have accomplished -with next to no implements. In the Santa Ysabel village the Indians had -three hundred acres in wheat; there were but three old broken ploughs in -the village, no harness, and no wagon. (See Exhibit G.) There is at -present much, and not unfounded, sore feeling in some of the villages -which have thus far received no help of this kind, while others of the -villages have been supplied with all that was needed. - -9th. There should always be provided for the Mission Indians' agency a -small fund for the purchase of food and clothing for the very old and -sick in times of especial destitution. The Mission Indians as a class do -not beg. They are proud-spirited, and choose to earn their living. They -will endure a great deal before they will ask for help. But in seasons -of drought or when their little crops have, for any cause, failed, there -is sometimes great distress in the villages. Last winter the Cahuillas, -in the Cahuilla Valley (see Exhibit C), were for many weeks without -sufficient food. The teacher of their school repeatedly begged them to -let her write to the agent for help, but they refused. At last one night -the captain and two of the head men came to her room and said she might -write. They could no longer subdue the hunger. She wrote the letter; the -next morning at daylight the Indians were at her door again. They had -reconsidered it, they said, and they would not beg. They would rather -starve, and they would not permit her to send the letter. - -10th. The second and third special points on which we were instructed to -report to the Department were, whether there still remains in Southern -California any Government land suitable for an Indian reservation, and -if not, in case lands must be bought for that purpose, what lands can be -most advantageously purchased. There is no Government land remaining in -Southern California in blocks of any size suitable for either white or -Indian occupancy. The reason that the isolated little settlements of -Indians are being now so infringed upon and seized, even at the desert's -edge and in stony fastnesses of mountains, is that all the good -lands—_i.e._, lands with water or upon which water can be developed—are -taken up. - -We recommend two purchases of land,—one positively, the other -contingently. The first is the Pauma Ranch, now owned by Bishop Mora, of -Los Angeles. (See Exhibit P.) This ranch, lying as it does between the -Rincon and Pala Reservations on the north and south, and adjoining the -La Jolla Reservation, affords an admirable opportunity to consolidate a -large block of land for Indian occupancy. It is now, in our opinion, a -desirable tract. While it is largely hilly and mountainous, there is -considerable good sheep and cattle pasturing on it, and a fair amount of -bottom land for cultivation along the river. The price asked for it is, -as lands are now selling in Southern California, low. If the already -existing reservations are cleared of whites, unified, and made ready for -Indian occupancy, and the Government lands now in actual occupation by -Indians be assured to them, the addition of this Pauma Ranch will be, in -our opinion, all that will be required to make comfortable provision for -all the Indians, except those living within the boundaries of confirmed -grants. - -Should the Department decide to remove all these and provide them with -new homes, we recommend the purchase of the Santa Ysabel ranch. (See -Exhibit Q.) The purchase of this ranch for an Indian reservation was -recommended to the Government some years ago, but it was rejected on -account of the excessive price asked for it. It is now offered to the -Government for $95,000. During the past ten years the value of lands in -Southern California has in many places quadrupled; in some it is worth -more than twenty times what it was then. We have no hesitation in saying -that it is not now possible to buy an equally suitable tract for any -less money. The ranch contains 17,719.40 acres; is within the rain belt -of San Diego County, is well watered, and, although it is largely -mountainous, has good pasture, some meadow land, and some oak timber. It -is, moreover, in the region to which the greater proportion of these -Indians are warmly attached and in the vicinity of which most of them -are now living. One large Indian village is on the ranch. (See Exhibit -G.) Father Ubach, the Catholic priest of San Diego, who has known these -Indians for seventeen years, says of it, "it is the only tract to which -human power can force these Indians to remove." We recommend this -purchase only as a last resort in the event of the Department's being -compelled to provide new homes for all the Indians now living within the -boundaries of confirmed grants. - -In conclusion, we would make the suggestion that there are several small -bands of Mission Indians north of the boundaries of the so-called -Mission Indians' agency, for whom it would seem to be the duty of the -Government to care as well as for those already enumerated. One of these -is the San Carlos Indians, living near the old San Carlos Mission at -Monterey. There are nearly one hundred of these, and they are living on -lands which were given to them before the Secularization Act in 1834. -These lands are close to the boundaries of the ranch San Francisquito of -Monterey. These boundaries have been three times extended, each time -taking in a few more acres of the Indians' lands, until now they have -only ten or twelve acres left. There are also some very destitute -Indians living in the neighborhood of the San Antonio Mission, some -sixty miles south of Monterey, and of San Miguel, forty miles farther -south, and of Santa Juez near Santa Barbara. These Indians should not be -overlooked in arrangements made for the final establishing of the -Mission Indians in Southern California. - -Hoping that these recommendations may be approved by the Department, we -are, - - Very respectfully yours, - - HELEN JACKSON. - ABBOT KINNEY. - -HON. H. PRICE, Commissioner of Indian Affairs - - - - - INDEX OF EXHIBITS. - - - Page - - A. Legal brief of Brunson & Wells 475 - - B. Saboba 479 - - C. Cahuilla Reservation 481 - - D. Warner's Ranch Indians 485 - - E. San Ysidros 488 - - F. Los Coyotes 490 - - G. Santa Ysabel 492 - - H. Mesa Grande 494 - - I. Capitan Grande 496 - - J. Sequan 500 - - K. The Conejos 501 - - L. Pala and neighborhood, including Rincon, - Pauma, and La Jolla 502 - - M. Pachanga 504 - - N. The Desert Indians 506 - - O. San Gorgonio Reservation 508 - - P. Pauma Ranch and the proposal for its - sale to the U. S. Government 512 - - Q. Proposition for sale of Santa Ysabel - Ranch to the U. S. Government 513 - - R. Copy of California State law for the - government and protection of Indians 513 - - -EXHIBIT A. - - Los Angeles, Cal., May 12th, 1883. - -SIR,—In response to your verbal request asking our opinion as to the -following questions, _viz._:— - -1st. Have civilized Indians and those who are engaged in agriculture or -labor of any kind, and also those who are known as Pueblos or Rancheros -Indians in California, a right to occupy and possess lands which they -and their predecessors had continuously occupied, possessed, and enjoyed -while said lands were under the jurisdiction of the Mexican Government, -up to and at the date of the ratification of the treaty Guadalupe -Hidalgo between the United States and the Mexican Republic, March, 1848, -notwithstanding that said lands so occupied and enjoyed by the Indians -aforesaid had been while they were so occupying and possessing the same, -by the proper Spanish and Mexican authorities before the ratification of -said treaty granted to certain Spanish and Mexican citizens, and since -the acquisition by the United States of the territory embracing said -lands so granted been by the United States confirmed, surveyed, and -patented to the grantees or their legal representatives? - -2d. Has the United States Government the right to condemn lands within -the State of California for the purpose of giving Indians homes thereon? - -We have the honor to submit the following as our reply and answer to the -above interrogatories. Before and at the date of the treaty of Guadalupe -Hidalgo, all the territory now known as California was a part of and -under the jurisdiction of the Mexican Republic. We do not regard it as -necessary, in order to answer the questions propounded, to give a -history of the land-laws of Spain and Mexico, nor the method of -acquiring land prior to August 18th, 1824. - -On August 18th, 1824, the Mexican Congress enacted a general -colonization law, prescribing the mode of granting lands throughout the -Mexican territory. This law was limited and defined by a series of -regulations ordained by the Mexican Government, November 21st, 1828. By -these laws and regulations, which have ever since continued in force, -the governors of Territories were authorized to grant, with certain -specified exceptions, vacant land. By the fundamental laws of 1824, the -regulations of 1824, and the regulations of the departmental legislature -consistent therewith, all Mexican grants in California have been -determined; and by this has been determined the validity of every grant -of land in California. (Lesse & Vallejo _vs._ Clark, 3 Cal. 17.) The -limitations, as well as the fundamental laws mentioned, provided that in -making grants or distribution of land (such as are now known as Mexican -grants),— - -1st. It must be vacant land, and, if occupied by Indians, then without -prejudice to them. - -2d. That such land as would be granted to the damage and injury of the -Indians should be returned to the rightful owners. - -The Mexican Government reserved from private grant all lands occupied -and possessed by the Indians. Great care was taken to make strict -reservation of such land; and by law no valid grant of land occupied or -possessed by Indians could be made so as to dispossess them. When -California was ceded to the United States, the rights of property of its -citizens remained unchanged. By the law of nations those rights were -sacred and inviolable, and the obligations passed to the new government -to protect and maintain them. The term property, as applied to lands, -embraces all titles, legal or equitable, perfect or imperfect. -(Teschemacher _vs._ Thompson, 18 Cal. 12.) The United States never had, -and does not now possess, any power under or by virtue of said treaty -whereby it could or can confer upon a citizen holding and claiming -property granted by the Mexican Government other or different property -rights than those conferred by such Government, and such as were -possessed, enjoyed, and held by him while under the jurisdiction of such -government. It cannot abridge or enlarge the right to enjoy and to -possess property held by virtue of Mexican law at the date of said -treaty, nor can it deprive persons of any right to property which -belonged to them at the date of said treaty. - -A mere grant of land by the Mexican governor without compliance by the -grantee with the further requisitions of the Mexican laws forms but an -inchoate title, and the land passed to the United States, which hold it -subject to the trust imposed by the treaty and the equities of the -grantee. _The execution of the trust is a political power._ (Lesse _vs._ -Clark, 3 Cal. 17.) - -By the fundamental laws of 1824, the regulation of 1828, and the -regulation of the departmental legislature, one condition was that in -making private grants of lands the lands granted must be vacant lands. -Lands occupied by and in possession of Indians were not such vacant -lands; for by the same laws and regulations it was provided that such -grants must be without prejudice or damage to the Indians, and that such -land granted to the damage and injury of the Indians should be returned -to the rightful owners. (New Code, law 9, title 12, book 4.) - -The Mexican authorities recognized the rights of Indians to hold, enjoy, -and possess lands, and there are of record a number of grants made by -the Mexican authorities to Indians. They not only had the right to -receive grants of land under the Mexican laws, but also to convey the -lands so granted. (United States _vs._ Sinnol, Hoffman's Reports, 110.) - -It will be observed that at the date when private grants of land were -made with some regard for law, the limitation and conditions required by -law to be observed were inserted in such grants, _viz._: L.C., No. -342-6, S. D., 398; L. C., No. 254-219, S. D., 228-407; L. C., No. -740-372, N. D., 208; L. C., No. 326-359, N. D., 389; Hoffman's Report -Land Cases, pp. 35 _et seq._; Surveyor-General's letter, dated San -Francisco, March 14, 1883, and addressed to Mrs. William S. Jackson. - -The Indians and their descendants, who occupied and now occupy lands -within the grants above named, as well as grants containing claims of a -similar character, are in our opinion possessed and seized of the lands -which were and have been and now are in their possession; and they can -hold the same against persons claiming the same by virtue of a United -States patent, issued upon a confirmed Mexican grant. This leaves to be -answered the following question: Can the Indians hold lands for which a -United States patent has issued conditioned as set out in the first -question, provided no conditions or limitations are contained or -expressed in the grant? This is a question beset and surrounded by many -difficulties; nor do we deem it necessary to do more than refer to -restrictions and limitations contained in the laws of Mexico concerning -private grants of lands upon which Indians were residing,—lands which -were occupied by them. It is certain that if such lands were granted by -a Mexican official, and the authorities omitted to recite the conditions -and limitations required by law, and reserve from the operation of such -grant such lands as the law conditioned could not be conveyed by such -grant, such a grant would and could not take it out of the operation of -the law. It could not defeat the rights of those whose rights attached -by reason of law. If the officers of the Mexican Government to whom was -confided the trust exceeded their authority as regulated by the -solemnities and formalities of the law, the courts are bound to take -notice of it, and cannot shield those claiming under such title from the -necessary consequence of ignorance, carelessness, or arbitrary -assumption of power. (Lesse & Vallejo _vs._ Clark, 3 Cal. 17.) - -It is now necessary to inquire how far and to what extent will the -issuance to the grantee of the United States patent change or modify -this rule. We shall not discuss, as we do not deem it necessary, the -decision of the United States Supreme Court, that "a United States -patent cannot be attached collaterally, but may be by a direct -proceeding," as we did not regard these decisions as in any way -affecting the question submitted and now before us. - -In 1851, March 3d, Congress passed an act entitled "An act to ascertain -and settle the private land-claims in the State of California." By said -statute it was enacted "that it shall be the duty of the commission -herein provided for to ascertain and report to the Secretary of the -Interior the tenure by which the Mission lands are held, and those held -by civilized Indians, and those who are engaged in agriculture or labor -of any _kind_, and also those which are _occupied_ and cultivated by -Pueblos or Rancheros Indians." (U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. ix. p. -634, sec. 16, Little & Brown's ed.) We have no means of ascertaining -whether such a report was made, or, if made, its contents. We have no -doubt the commission did their duty and complied with the law, and that -their report will be found on file in the Department of the Interior. -This report, if in our hands, would greatly aid us in reaching a correct -conclusion. By the same act it is further provided that the patent of -the United States issued to parties holding Mexican grants are -conclusive between the United States and the said claimants only, and -shall not affect the interest of that person. (_Ib._ p. 634.) If the -report of the commission established the fact that the Indians were -residing upon and occupying lands within the boundaries of claimed -grants, which grants have no conditions or limitation inserted therein, -that they claimed such lands by virtue of the laws of Mexico, this -evidence, with such other evidence as we understand can be furnished, is -in our opinion enough to establish under the law, as we regard it, a -right in the Indians to hold and occupy such lands against the confirmee -or patentee. If, however, no such report has been made, we are of the -opinion, if conclusive evidence can be furnished proving that these -Indians were in possession of these lands at the time these grants were -made by the Mexican authorities, that they continued in possession, and -were in possession at the date of the treaty, and have since continued -in possession, the law will entitle them to hold such land against all -persons claiming under the patent. - -We answer the second question propounded as follows:— - -By the fifth amendment to the Constitution of the United States it is -provided: *** "Nor shall private property be taken for public use -without just compensation." Would the taking of lands belonging to -citizens for the purpose of giving the same to Indians be such a public -use as is contemplated by the Constitution? We are of the opinion it -would not. (Walther _vs._ Warner, 25 Mo. 277; Board of Education _vs._ -Hockman, 48 Mo. 243; Buffalo & New York Railroad Company _vs._ Brannan, -9 N.Y. 100; Bradley _vs._ New York, &c. Railroad Company, 21 Conn. 294; -Fisher _vs._ Horicon Iron Work, &c. Company, 10 Wis. 354; New Orleans & -Railroad Company _vs._ Railroad Company, 53 Ala. 211; Conn _vs._ -Horrigan, 2 Allen, 159; Chambers _vs._ Sattuler, 40 Cal. 497; Railroad -Company _vs._ City of Stockton, 41 Cal. 149; Channel Company _vs._ -Railroad Company, 51 Cal. 269; Gilmer _vs._ Lime Point, 18 Cal. 229; -Conn _vs._ Tewksbury, 11 Metcalf, 55; Manufacturing Company _vs._ Head, -56 N.H. 386; Olmstead _vs._ Camp, 33 Conn. 532; Buckman _vs._ Saratoga -Railroad Company, 3 Paige Ch. 45; Memphis Freight Company _vs._ Memphis, -4 Cold. 419; Enfield Toll Bridge Company _vs._ Hartford Railroad -Company, 17 Conn. 42.) - - We are, very respectfully, - - BRUNSON & WELLS, Attorneys-at-Law. - - ABBOT KINNEY, Esq., Los Angeles, Cal. - - -EXHIBIT B. - -SABOBA. - -Saboba is the name of a village of Indians of the Serrano tribe, one -hundred and fifty-seven in number, living in the San Jacinto Valley, at -the base of the San Jacinto Mountains, in San Diego County. The village -is within the boundaries of a Mexican grant, patented to the heirs of J. -Estudillo, January 17th, 1880. The greater part of the grant has been -sold to a company which, in dividing up its lands, allotted the tract -where the Saboba village lies to one M. R. Byrnes, of San Bernardino, -who proposes to eject the Indians unless the United States Government -will buy his whole tract of seven hundred acres at an exorbitant price. -The Saboba village occupies about two hundred acres, the best part of -Mr. Byrnes's tract. The Indians have lived in the place for over a -hundred years. They have adobe houses, fenced fields and orchards, and -irrigating ditches. There is in the village a never-failing spring, with -a flow of about twenty-five miner's inches. It is claimed by the Indians -that the first surveys did not take in their village. This is probably -true; the resurveying of grants and "floating" their lines so as to take -in lands newly discovered to be of value, and leave out others -discovered to be worthless, being a common practice in California. In a -country where water is gold, such a spring as these Saboba Indians owned -could not long escape notice or be left long in the undisturbed -possession of Indians. These Indians support themselves now, and have -always done so, by farming, and by going out in organized bands as -sheep-shearers and vintagers. They are industrious and peaceable, and -make in good seasons a fairly comfortable living. They formerly kept -stock, but since the new occupancy, allotting and fencing of the valley, -have been obliged to give it up. There is a Government school in this -village, numbering from thirty to forty pupils, who have made remarkable -progress in their studies. The school is taught by a Pennsylvania lady, -formerly a teacher of the freedmen. Her gentleness and refinement have -exerted an influence all through the village, and her self-denying -labors among the people in times of sickness and suffering have been the -work of a missionary rather than of a teacher. The following letters -were written by two of the children in this school, both under fourteen -years of age. They were written without the teacher's knowledge or aid, -and brought to her with the request that she would send them. The -handwritings are clear and good:— - -_To the President of the United States_: - -MR. PRESIDENT: DEAR SIR,—I wish to write a letter for you, and I will -try to tell you some things. The white people call San Jacinto rancho -their land, and I don't want them to do it. We think it is ours, for God -gave it to us first. Now I think you will tell me what is right, for you -have been so good to us, giving us a school and helping us. Will you not -come to San Jacinto some time to see us, the school, and the people of -Saboba village? Many of the people are sick, and some have died. We are -so poor that we have not enough good food for the sick, and sometimes I -am afraid that we are all going to die. Will you please tell what is -good about our ranches, and come soon to see us? - - Your friend, - - RAMON CAVAVI. - -_Mrs. Jackson_: - -MY DEAR FRIEND,—I wish to write you a letter about the American people -that want to drive us away from our own village of Saboba. I don't know -what they can be about. I don't know why they do so. My teacher told me -she was very sorry about the town, and then my teacher said, I think -they will find a good place for you if you have to go; but I do hope -they will not drive you away. Then it will be very good for all the -people of Saboba. It is a very good town for the people. They have all -the work done on their gardens, and they are very sorry about the work -that is done. My work is very nicely done also. The people are making -one big fence to keep the cows and the horses off their garden. - - Your true friend, - - ANTONIO LEON. - -These Saboba Indians are greatly dispirited and disheartened at the -prospect of being driven out of their homes, and feel that the -Government ought to protect them. The captain of the village, a very -sensible and clear-headed man, said, "If the Government says we must go, -we must; but we would rather die right here than move." The right of -these Indians to the tract they have so long occupied and cultivated is -beyond question. That this right could be successfully maintained in the -courts is the opinion of the law firm of Brunson & Wells, whose -admirable paper covering all cases of this kind is given herewith. (See -exhibit.) - -We found three miles from this village on Government land a narrow cañon -called Indian Cañon, in which half a dozen Indian families were living. -The cañon is but five or six miles long and very narrow; but it has a -small, never-failing brook in it, and some good bottom land, on which -the Indians had excellent wheat crops growing. The sides of it are -moderately well wooded. It was surprising that so desirable a nook had -been overlooked or omitted by the surveyors of the San Jacinto Ranch. We -wrote to the Department immediately, recommending its being set aside -for Indians' use. In another beautiful cañon, also with a never-failing -stream running through it, we found living the old chief, Victoriano, -nearly one hundred years old. The spot was an oasis of green, oak and -willow trees, a wheat field, and apricot orchard and vineyard, the -latter planted by Victoriano's father. This place has been given by -Victoriano to his grandson, who we were told is taking steps to secure -it to himself under the Indian Homestead Act. - -EXHIBIT C. - -THE CAHUILLA RESERVATION. - -The Cahuilla Valley is about forty miles from Saboba, high up among the -peaks and spurs of the San Jacinto Mountains; a wild, barren, -inaccessible spot. The Cahuilla village, situated here, was one of the -most interesting that we visited, and the Indians seemed a clear-headed, -more individual and independent people than any other we saw. This is -partly due to their native qualities, the tribe having been originally -one of the most warlike and powerful in the country, as is indicated by -their name, which signifies "master." The isolation of this village has -also tended to keep these Indians self-respecting and independent. There -is no white settlement within ten miles, there being comparatively -little to tempt white men into these mountain-fastnesses. The population -of the village numbers from one hundred and fifty to two hundred. The -houses are of adobe, thatched with reeds; three of the houses have -shingled roofs, and one has the luxury of a floor. These Indians make -the greater part of their living by stock-raising. They also send out a -sheep-shearing band each year. They have sixteen fields, large and -small, under cultivation, and said they would have had many more except -for the lack of ploughs, there being but one plough for the whole -village. They raise wheat, barley, corn, squashes, and watermelons. -Sometimes the frost kills the corn, and occasionally the grasshoppers -descend on the valley, but aside from these accidents their crops do -well. All through the village were to be seen their curious outdoor -granaries—huge baskets made of twisted and woven twigs and set up on -poles. The women were neatly dressed, the children especially so, and -the faces of all, men, women, and children, had an animation and look of -intellectual keenness very uncommon among the Southern California -Indians. On the outskirts of the village is a never-failing hot spring. -In this water the Indians, old and young, are said to be continually -bathing. It was the Indians' impression that the lines of their -reservation ran directly through the centre of this hot spring. They had -been told so by some white men, but they know nothing certainly. The -lines had never been shown to them. On subsequent examination at the -surveyor-general's office in San Francisco we discovered that this -spring and the village itself are entirely outside the reservation -lines; also that another Indian settlement called Duasno, a few miles -distant, and intended to have been included in the reservation, is -outside the lines. The Cahuilla Reservation stands recorded as -containing twenty-six sections of land; so far as we could judge of the -region, it seemed to us a generous estimate to say that there might be -possibly five hundred acres of cultivatable land in it. In good years -there would be considerable pasturage on the sides of the mountains; but -far the greater part of the tract is absolutely worthless, being bare -and stony mountains. The Cahuillas, however, are satisfied with it. They -love the country, and would not exchange it for fertile valleys below. -They said that they would be perfectly contented if the Government would -only mark their land off for them, and set up boundaries so that they -could know where they might keep their own stock and keep the white -men's stock out. All they asked for in addition to this was some -harnesses, wagons, and agricultural implements, especially ploughs. Of -these last the captain reiterated, and was not satisfied till he saw the -figures written down, that ten was the smallest number that would be -sufficient for the village. - -A few rods from the hot spring there stood a good adobe house, shut up, -unoccupied. The history of this house is worth telling, as an -illustration of the sort of troubles to which Indians in these remote -regions, unprotected by the Government, and unable to protect -themselves, are exposed. Some eight years ago the Cahuillas rented a -tract of their land as pasture to two Mexicans named Machado. These -Machados, by permission of the Indians, built this adobe house, and -lived in it when looking after their stock. At the expiration of the -lease the house was to be the property of the Indians. When the Machados -left they said to the Cahuilla captain, "Here is your house." The next -year another man named Thomas rented a pasture tract from the Indians -and also rented this house, paying for the use of it for two years six -bulls, and putting into it a man named Cushman, who was his overseer. At -the end of the two years Thomas said to the Cahuillas, "Here is your -house; I now take my cattle away." But the man Cushman refused to move -out of the house; said it was on railroad land which he had bought of -the railroad company. In spite of the Indians' remonstrances he lived on -there for three or four years. Finally he died. After his death his old -employer, Thomas, who had once rented this very house from the Indians, -came forward, claimed it as his own, and has now sold it to a man named -Parks. Through all this time the Indians committed no violence on the -trespassers. They journeyed to Los Angeles to find out from the railroad -company whether Cushman owned the land as he said, and were told that he -did not. They laid the matter before their agent, but he was unable to -do anything about it. It would seem of the greatest importance in the -case of this reservation, and of all others similarly placed, that the -odd section claimed or owned by the railroad companies should be secured -and added to the permanent reservation. Much further trouble will in -this way be saved. - -An incident which had occurred on the boundaries of the Cahuilla -Reservation a few weeks before our arrival there is of importance as an -illustration of the need of some legal protection for the Indians in -Southern California. A Cahuilla Indian named Juan Diego had built for -himself a house and cultivated a small patch of ground on a high -mountain ledge a few miles north of the village. Here he lived alone -with his wife and baby. He had been for some years what the Indians call -a "locoed" Indian, being at times crazy; never dangerous, but yet -certainly insane for longer or shorter periods. His condition was known -to the agent, who told us that he had feared he would be obliged to shut -Juan up if he did not get better. It was also well known throughout the -neighboring country, as we found on repeated inquiry. Everybody knew -that Juan Diego was "locoed." (This expression comes from the effect a -weed of that name has upon horses, making them wild and unmanageable.) -Juan Diego had been off to find work at sheep-shearing. He came home at -night riding a strange horse. His wife exclaimed, "Why, whose horse is -that?" Juan looked at the horse, and replied confusedly, "Where is my -horse, then?" The woman, much frightened, said, "You must take that -horse right back; they will say you stole it." Juan replied that he -would as soon as he had rested; threw himself down and fell asleep. From -this sleep he was awakened by the barking of the dogs, and ran out of -the house to see what it meant. The woman followed, and was the only -witness of what then occurred. A white man, named Temple, the owner of -the horse which Juan had ridden home, rode up, and on seeing Juan poured -out a volley of oaths, levelled his gun and shot him dead. After Juan -had fallen on the ground Temple rode closer and fired three more shots -in the body, one in the forehead, one in the cheek, and one in the -wrist, the woman looking on. He then took his horse, which was standing -tied in front of the house, and rode away. The woman, with her baby on -her back, ran to the Cahuilla village and told what had happened. This -was in the night. At dawn the Indians went over to the place, brought -the murdered man's body to the village, and buried it. The excitement -was intense. The teacher, in giving us an account of the affair, said -that for a few days she feared she would be obliged to close her school -and leave the village. The murderer went to the nearest justice of the -peace and gave himself up, saying that he had in self-defence shot an -Indian. He swore that the Indian ran towards him with a knife. A jury of -twelve men was summoned, who visited the spot, listened to Temple's -story, pronounced him guiltless, and the judge so decided. The woman's -testimony was not taken. It would have been worthless if it had been, so -far as influencing that jury's minds was concerned. Her statement was -positive that Juan had no knife, nor weapon of any kind; sprang up from -his sleep and ran out hastily to see what had happened, and was shot -almost as soon as he had crossed the threshold of the door. The district -attorney in San Diego, on being informed by us of the facts in the case, -reluctantly admitted that there would be no use whatever in bringing a -white man to trial for murder of an Indian under such circumstances, -with only Indian testimony to convict him. This was corroborated, and -the general animus of public feeling vividly illustrated to us by a -conversation we had later with one of the jurors in the case, a fine, -open-hearted, manly young fellow, far superior in education and social -standing to the average Southern California ranchman. He not only -justified Temple's killing the Indian, but said he would have done the -same thing himself. "I don't care whether the Indian had a knife or -not," he said; "that didn't cut any figure at all the way I looked at -it. Any man that'd take a horse of mine and ride him up that mountain -trail, I'd shoot him whenever I found him. Stockmen have just got to -protect themselves in this country." The fact that Juan had left his own -horse, a well-known one, in the corral from which he had taken Temple's; -that he had ridden the straight trail to his own door, and left the -horse tied in front of it, thus making it certain that he would be -tracked and caught, weighed nothing in this young man's mind. The utmost -concession that he would make was finally to say, "Well, I'll agree that -Temple was to blame for firin' into him after he was dead. That was -mean, I'll allow." - -The account of our visit to the Cahuilla Reservation would be incomplete -without a brief description of the school there. It numbers from forty -to fifty scholars, and is taught by a widow who, with her little -daughter ten years of age, lives in one small room built on at the end -of the school-house. Part of the room is curtained off into a recess -holding bed, washstand, and bureau. The rest of the room is a -sitting-room, kitchen, store-room, and barely holds the cooking-stove, -table, and chairs. Here alone, with her little daughter, in a village of -near two hundred Indians, ten miles from any white man's home, this -brave woman has lived more than a year, doing a work of which the hours -spent in the school-room are the smallest part. The Indians come to her -with every perplexity and trouble; call on her for nursing when they are -ill, for food when they are destitute. If she would allow it her little -room could always be crowded with women, and men also, eager to watch -and learn. The Cahuillas have good brains, are keen, quick, and -persevering. The progress that these children have made in the -comparatively short time since their school was opened was far beyond -that ordinarily made by white children in the same length of time. -Children who two years ago did not know a letter, read intelligently in -the second and third readers, spelled promptly and with remarkable -accuracy, and wrote clear and legible hands, their copy-books being -absolutely free from blots or erasures; some of the older pupils went -creditably through a mental arithmetic examination, in which the -questions were by no means easy to follow. They sang songs in fair tune -and time, and with great spirit, evidently enjoying this part of the -exercises more than all the rest. We had carried to them a parcel of -illustrated story-books, very kindly contributed by some of the leading -publishers in New York and Boston, and the expression of the rows of -bright dark eyes as the teacher held up book after book was long to be -remembered. The strain on the nervous system of teachers in such -positions as this can hardly be estimated by ordinary standards. The -absolute isolation, the ceaseless demand, the lack, not only of the -comforts, but of many of the necessities of life, all mount up into a -burden which it would seem no woman could long endure. Last winter there -was a snow-storm in the Cahuilla Valley lasting two days and nights. A -fierce wind drove the dry snow in at every crevice of the poorly built -adobe house, like sand in a sand-storm. The first day of the storm the -school had to be closed early in the day, as the snow fell so fast on -books and slates nothing could be done. The last night of the storm the -teacher and her little girl spent the entire night in shovelling snow -out of the room. They would pile it in a blanket, open the door, empty -the blanket, and then resume shovelling. They worked hard all night to -keep pace with the storm. When the snowing stopped the school-room was -drifted full, and for many days after was wet and damp. It would seem as -if the school term in such places as this ought not to be over eight -months in the year. The salaries, however, should not be reduced, for -they are barely living salaries now, every necessary of life being -procured at a great disadvantage in these wild regions. One of these -teachers told us she had been obliged to give an Indian $1 to ride to -the nearest store and bring her one dollar's worth of sugar. It was the -opinion of the Cahuilla teacher (a teacher of experience at the East -before her marriage) that the Indians would accomplish more in eight -months than in the nine. The strain upon them also is too great—of the -unwonted confinement and continuous brain work. Should this change be -made the vacation should be so arranged as to be taken at the -sheep-shearing season, at which times all the schools are much broken up -by the absence of the elder boys. - -EXHIBIT D. - -THE WARNER'S RANCH INDIANS. - -The tract known as Warner's Ranch lies in the northern part of San Diego -County, about forty miles from the Cahuilla Valley. It contains two -grants, the San José del Valle and the Valle de San José; the first -containing between 26,000 and 27,000 acres, confirmed to J. J. Warner, -patented January 16th, 1880; the second, containing between 17,000 and -18,000 acres, confirmed to one Portilla, patented January 10th, 1880. -The whole property is now in the possession of Governor Downey, of Los -Angeles. There are said to be several conflicting claims yet unsettled. -The ranch is now used as a sheep and stock ranch, and is of great value. -It is a beautiful region, well watered and wooded. There are within its -boundaries five Indian villages, of San Luisenos and Diegmons—Aqua -Caliente, Puerta de la Cruz, Puerta de San José, San José, and Mataguay. -The last four are very small, but Aqua Caliente has long been the most -flourishing and influential village in the country. It was formerly set -apart as a reservation, but the executive order was cancelled January -17th, 1880, immediately after the patenting of the San José del Valle -Ranch, within the boundaries of which it was then claimed that the -village lay, although to the best information we could get the first -three surveys of that ranch did not take the village in. The aged -captain of the Aqua Caliente Indians still preserves a paper giving a -memorandum of the setting off of this reservation of about 1,120 acres -for this people. It was by executive order, 1875. He also treasures -several other equally worthless papers—a certificate from a San Diego -judge that the Indians are entitled to their lands; a memorandum of a -promise from General Kearney, who assured them that in consideration of -their friendliness and assistance to him they should retain their homes -without molestation, "although the whole State should fill with white -men." It is not to be wondered at that these Aqua Caliente Indians find -it difficult to-day to put any faith in white men's promises. - -It will be seen from the above brief statement of the situation that -they have an exceedingly strong claim on the Government for protection -in their right to their lands. Since the restoration of their village -and fields "to the public domain," the patenting of the ranches and -their sale to Governor Downey, the Indians have been in constant anxiety -and terror. Governor Downey has been considerate and humane in his -course toward them, and toward all the Indians on his estate. And his -superintendent also is friendly in his treatment of them, permitting -them all the liberty he can consistently with his duty to the ranch. He -finds their labor invaluable at sheep-shearing time, and is able -throughout the year to give them occasional employment. But the Indians -know very well that according to the usual course of things in San Diego -County they are liable any day to be ejected by process of law; and it -is astonishing that under the circumstances they have so persevered in -their industries of one sort and another. They have a good number of -fields under cultivation. They also make saddle mats and hats out of -fibrous plants; the women make baskets and lace. It is said to be the -most industrious village in the county; the old captain dealing severely -with any Indian found idle. They have also a small revenue from the hot -springs, from which the village takes its name. These bubble up in a -succession of curious stone basins in the heart of the village. They are -much resorted to in summer by rheumatic and other patients, who rent the -Indians' little adobe houses and pay them a small tax for the use of the -waters. The Indians themselves at these times move into bush huts in a -valley or cañon some two miles above the village, where their chief -cultivated fields lie. They were very earnest to know from us if we -would advise their planting more of this ground. They said they would -have planted it all except that they were afraid of being driven away. -This upper valley and these planting fields were said to be on -Government land; but on examination of the surveyor's plats in the Los -Angeles land office, we could find no field notes to indicate their -location. These Indians have in use another valley called Lost Valley, -some fifteen miles from their village high up in the mountains, and -reached only by one very steep trail. Here they keep their stock, being -no longer able to pasture it below. They were touchingly anxious to have -us write down the numbers of cattle, horses, sheep, each man had, and -report to Washington, that the President might see how they were all -trying to work. There are probably from one hundred and twenty-five to -one hundred and fifty head of cattle owned in the village, about fifty -horses, and one hundred sheep. - -There is here a Government school, taught by a young German lady of -excellent education and much enthusiasm in her work. At great cost and -risk she has carried her piano up into these wilds, and finds it an -invaluable assistance in training and influencing her pupils. It was a -scene not to be forgotten, when after their exercises in reading, -arithmetic, &c., in all of which they showed a really wonderful -proficiency, the children crowded into the teacher's little room and -sang their songs to the piano accompaniment, played by her with spirit -and feeling. "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty," was the -song they seemed to like best; all unaware how little applicable to -their own situation were its strains of exultant joy and freedom. In -this one tiny room adjoining the school-room this young lady lives, -sleeps, prepares her own food, frequently having a "cooking class" of -Indian women, whom she is teaching to make soups, bread, &c., and to do -fine washing. It is impossible to put too much appreciative sympathy on -these women teachers in Indian schools in Southern California. Their -situation and their work are unique in isolation and difficulty. - -The other Indian villages on Warner's Ranch do not demand separate -description, consisting of not more than half a dozen houses each, and -numbering only from fifteen to thirty Indians. Each village, however, -has its own captain, and its cultivated fields, orchards, &c., to which -the Indians are profoundly attached, and from which it would be very -hard to induce them to move, spite of their poverty, and the difficulty -of making a living, as they are now placed. - -During our stay at Warner's Ranch, the captain of the San José village -had an experience which will illustrate the helplessness of these Indian -farmers in Southern California. He had on a piece of Government land, a -short distance from his village, a fenced wheat-field of some fifty -acres; it was his chief dependence for his year's support. Going away -one day, he left his aged father in charge at home; the old man wandered -away, and during his absence one of the roving sheep-herders, of whom -the country is full, broke down the fence, turned in his flock, and when -Domingo came home at night the whole field was eaten close to the -ground. Hearing of our being at the superintendent's house, Domingo came -over to ask if we could help him in the matter. The quiet, -matter-of-course way in which he told the story was more impressive than -any loudness of complaint would have been. He said very simply, "What -can I do for food this winter?" Mr. Kinney rode over to the village, saw -the field, and after some trouble found the herder, who, much -frightened, said he did it by his master's orders. This master, an -Italian, lived some twenty miles away; the nearest justice of the peace, -sixteen miles. On seeing the justice we found that nothing could be done -in the way of securing damages from the sheep-owner until two white men, -residents of the county, should inspect the premises and estimate the -damages. Domingo rode sixteen miles in the night in a fierce storm of -sleet and rain, with letters from us to white men on the ranch, asking -them to do this. He was back again at daylight with a note from one of -them, saying that he could not induce a man to go with him. Finally, the -justice, at our request, hired two men at days' wages to go and inspect -the Indian's field. They estimated the damages at about one-tenth of the -real amount, and thus we were obliged to leave the matter. We afterwards -received a letter from the Italian stating that he had settled with -Domingo, but not mentioning the sum paid. It was plain that except for -our taking hold of the affair the Indian would never have recovered a -cent. This is by no means an exceptional instance. - -EXHIBIT E. - -THE SAN YSIDRO INDIANS. - -In the San Ysidro Cañon, about eight miles from Warner's Ranch, has been -living from time immemorial a band of San Luiseno Indians, numbering -from fifty to seventy-five, and called by the name of their cañon. We -first saw the captain of these Indians in Los Angeles, in the office of -the United States Court Commissioner, Mr. H. T. Lee, of whose kindness -and humane sympathy in dealing with all Indian matters which come under -his notice it is not out of place here to make grateful mention. This -Captain Pablo, with two of his head men, had walked a three days' -journey to Los Angeles to see if he could get any help in the matter of -lands which had been wrested from his people. His story was a pitiful -one. Some six years ago a white man named Chatham Helm had come in at -the head of their cañon, three miles above the site of their village, -taken up a homestead claim there, cutting off the greater part of their -water supply, and taking some of their cultivated fields, and leaving -them restricted room for their stock. Since that time they had been -growing poorer and poorer, but had managed to live by cultivating lands -below the village near the mouth of the cañon, where there was another -small stream. But now a new squatter had appeared below them, and filed -on all the remaining lands, including the site of the village itself. -The man Helm, above them, had patented his lands, built a good house, -and was keeping considerable stock. The Indians could have no water -except what he permitted to come down the cañon. Three years ago one of -their number had been shot dead by Helm, who was set free on the usual -plea of self-defence. Since then the Indians had been in continual -terror. The new squatter had threatened them with the same fate if they -came near his enclosures. Between these two squatters the Indian village -was completely hemmed in and cut off, and starvation stared them in the -face. In fact, in the course of the last winter one little girl had -actually died for want of food. Their countenances corroborated the -tale. They were gaunt with hunger and full of despair. It would exceed -the limits of this paper to give a full report of the interview with -these Indians. It will not soon be forgotten by any one taking part in -it,—the solemn tones in which the Indians replied to the interpreter's -questions, the intent and imploring gaze with which they studied all our -faces and listened to all the words unintelligible to them in which we -spoke with one another. - -It was finally decided to forward to the Interior Department the -affidavits of these Indians, setting forth the manner in which they had -been robbed of their lands, and requesting that Cloos's entry be held -for cancellation, and that Helm's patent be reopened. It was found, on -looking the matter up in Washington, that several years ago this cañon -had been withdrawn from market with a view to having it set off as a -reservation for the Indians living in it, but the matter had slipped -everybody's mind. On visiting the San Ysidro Cañon ourselves a few weeks -later, we found that Cloos, taking time by the forelock, had sold out -his homestead claim, his house, and what he was pleased to call his -"improvements," for $600 to a poor old widow, Mrs. Pamela Hagar by name. -We found Mrs. Hagar, with her son, on the ground, preparing to go into -the bee business. She appeared very little surprised at hearing that the -claim she had bought was a questionable one, remarking: "Well, I -mistrusted something was wrong; Cloos seemed in such a hurry to get his -money." This woman appeared nearly as helpless as the Indians -themselves. The deed she had taken from Cloos was not acknowledged; she -had not got it recorded; her name was misspelled in it; and the -enumeration of the sections, &c., in it did not agree with the list in -the land office certificate. She begged us to ask the Government to -refund to her the sum she had paid to Cloos, and signed by her mark a -paper saying she would accept it. It is a small sum, and as the poor old -woman made the transaction in good faith, knowing nothing about the -Indians' presence on the place, it would seem not unreasonable that she -should be paid. The next morning Cloos himself appeared on the scene, -very angry and resentful. He said he had "a perfect right to file on -that land;" that "Indians were not citizens" and "had no right to public -lands," and that "the stockmen of San Diego County were not going to -stand the Indians' killing their stock much longer;" that "the -Government ought to put the Indians all together somewhere and take care -of them," and that "there'd be a big fight with Indians in San Diego -County before long, we might rest assured of that;" and much more of the -same sort, which would not be worth repeating, except that it is a good -illustration of the animus of the greater portion of Southern California -ranchmen towards Indians. A few days after this we were gladdened by the -news from Washington that Cloos's filing was held for cancellation, and -that the Attorney-General had ordered proceedings to be begun in San -Francisco for the vacating of Chatham Helm's patent. A few instances of -such promptitude as this would change the whole status of the South -California Indians, giving courage to them, and, what is still more -important, making it clear to the perception of white men that the -Indians' rights are no longer to be disregarded as they have been. - -EXHIBIT F. - -THE LOS COYOTES. - -Five miles up from the head of the San Ysidro Cañon, to be reached only -by a steep and narrow trail, lies a small valley on the desert side of -the mountains. It is little more than a pocket on a ledge. From its rim -one looks down directly into the desert. Few white men have ever -penetrated to it, and the Indians occupying it have been hitherto safe, -by reason of the poverty and inaccessibility of their home. No agent has -ever visited them; they have supported themselves by keeping stock and -cultivating their few acres of land. There are not more than eighty -acres all told in the valley. About three weeks before our arrival at -Warner's Ranch a man named Jim Fane, a comrade of Helm, who had usurped -the San Ysidro Cañon, having, no doubt, learned through Helm of the -existence of the Los Coyotes Valley, appeared in the village and offered -the Indians $200 for their place. They refused to sell, upon which he -told them that he had filed on the land, should stay in any event, and -proceeded to cut down trees and build a corral. It seems a marvellous -forbearance on the part of a community numbering twenty-six able-bodied -men and twenty-one women not to take any forcible measures to repel such -an intruder as this. But the South California Indians have learned by -long experience that in any contest with white men they are sure to be -found in the wrong. Not an Indian laid violent hands on Fane. He seems -to have gone about as safely in the heart of this Indian village, which -he was avowedly making ready to steal, as if he had been in an empty -wilderness. Mr. Kinney found him there, hard at work, his belt full of -cartridges and pistols. He was a rough fellow, at first disposed to be -defiant and blustering, but on being informed of the Department's action -in the case of Cloos's filing, he took a milder tone, and signed a paper -saying that he would take $75 for his "improvements." Later in the day, -after consulting with his friend Helm, he withdrew the paper and -announced his determination to stay in the valley. On inquiry at the -land office at Los Angeles we found that his filing had been returned to -him for correction of errors. We were therefore in time to secure the -stopping of all further proceedings on his part through the land office. -Nothing, however, but authorized and authoritative action on the part of -the agent representing the Interior Department will stop his proceedings -on the ground. Just before leaving California we received an urgent -letter from the Los Coyotes' captain, saying that Fane was still -there—still cutting down their trees and building corrals. - -The Indians of this band are robust, active, and finely made, more -nearly in the native health and strength of the race than any other band -in the country. The large proportion of children also bore testimony to -their healthful condition, there being thirty-five children to -twenty-one women and twenty-six men. The captain had the lists of his -people kept by three lines of notches on a stick, a new notch being made -for each birth and crossed out for each death. They could count only up -to five. Everything beyond that was "many." Their houses were good, -built of hewn pine timber with thatched roofs made from some tough -fibrous plant, probably the yucca. Each house had a thatched bower in -front of it and stood in a fenced enclosure. These Indians raise beans, -pumpkins, wheat, barley, and corn. They have twenty-five head of cattle -and more horses. They say they have lived in this valley always, and -never desire to leave it. The only things they asked for were a harness, -chain, coulter, and five ploughs. They have now one plough. - -This village is one of the best illustrations of our remarks on the need -of itinerary labor among the Mission Indians. Here is a village of -eighty-four souls living in a mountain fastness which they so love they -would rather die than leave it, but where the ordinary agencies and -influences of civilization will never reach, no matter how thickly -settled the regions below may come. A fervent religious and practical -teacher spending a few weeks each year among these Indians might sow -seed that would never cease growing during the intervals of his absence. - -EXHIBIT G. - -THE SANTA YSABEL RANCH. - -The Santa Ysabel Ranch is adjoining to Warner's Ranch. It is a -well-wooded, well-watered, beautiful country, much broken by steep and -stony mountains. The original grant of this ranch was confirmed March -17th, 1858, to one José Ortego and the heirs of Edward Stokes. The -patent was issued May 14th, 1872. It is now owned by a Captain Wilcox, -who has thus far not only left undisturbed the Indian village within the -boundaries of his estate, but has endeavored to protect the Indians by -allowing to the ranch lessee a rebate of $200 yearly on the rent on -account of the Indians' occupancy. There is in the original grant of -this ranch the following clause: "The grantees will leave free and -undisturbed the agricultural lands which the Indians of San Diego are -actually occupying." - -We found on arriving at the Santa Ysabel village that an intelligent -young Indian living there had recently been elected as general over the -Dieguino Indians in the neighborhood. He showed to us his papers and -begged us to wait till he could have all his captains gathered to meet -us. Eight villages he reported as being under his control,—Santa Ysabel, -Mesa Grande, Mesa Chilquita, San José, Mataguay, La Puerta, Laguna, and -Anaha. He was full of interest and inquiry and enthusiasm about his -people. "I want know American way," he said in his broken English. "I -want make all my people like American people. How I find out American -laws? When white men lose cow, lose pig, they come here with pistol and -say we must find or give up man that stole. How we know? Is that -American law? We all alone out here. We got nobody show us. Heap things -I want ask about. I make all my people work. We can't work like American -people; we ain't got work with; we ain't got wagon, harness; three old -broked ploughs for all these people. What we want, some man right here -to go to. While you here white man very good; when you go away trouble -same as before." - -There are one hundred and seventy-one Indians in this village. They are -very poor. Many of their houses are of tule or brush, their clothes were -scanty and ragged, some of the older men wearing but a single garment. -That they had not been idle their big wheat-field proved; between three -and four hundred acres fenced and the wheat well up. "How do you divide -the crops?" we asked. "Every man knows his own piece," was the reply. -They sell all of this wheat that they can spare to a storekeeper some -three miles away. Having no wagon they draw the wheat there on a sort of -sledge or wood triangle, about four feet long, with slats across it. A -rope is tied to the apex of this, then fastened to the horn of a saddle -on a horse ridden by a man, who steers the sledge as best he may. The -Indians brought this sledge to show us, to prove how sorely they needed -wagons. They also made the women bring out all the children and arrange -them in rows, to show that they had enough for a school, repeating over -and over that they had many more, but they were all out digging wild -roots and vegetables. "If there was not great many them, my people die -hungry," said the general; "them most what we got eat." It is a sore -grievance to these Santa Ysabel Indians that the Aqua Caliente Indians, -only twenty miles away, have received from the Government a school, -ploughs, wagons, &c., while nothing whatever has been done for them. -"Them Aqua Caliente Indians got everything," said the general; "got hot -springs too; make money on them hot springs; my people got no chance -make money." - -On the second day of our stay in this region we saw four of the young -general's captains, those of Puerta San Felipe, San José, Anaha, and -Laguna. In Puerta San Felipe are sixty-four people. This village is on a -confirmed grant, the "Valle de San Felipe," confirmed to Felipe -Castillo. The ranch is now leased to a Frenchman, who is taking away the -water from the Indian village, and tells the captain that the whole -village belongs to him, and that if anybody so much as hunts a rabbit on -the place he will put him in prison. These people are in great -destitution and trouble, being deprived of most of their previous means -of support. The Anaha captain reported fifty-three people in his -village. White men had come in and fenced up land on both sides of him. -"When he plants his wheat and grain the white men run their hogs into -the fields;" and "when the white men find anything dead they come to him -to make him tell everything about it, and he has not got anything to -tell." The San José captain had a similar story. The Laguna captain was -a tall, swarthy, well-to-do-looking Indian, so unlike all the rest that -we wondered what there could have been in his life to produce such a -difference. He said nobody troubled him. He had good land, plenty of -water, raised grain and vegetables, everything he wanted except -watermelons. His village contained eleven persons; was to be reached -only by a steep trail, the last four miles. We expressed our pleasure at -finding one Indian captain and village that were in no trouble and -wanted for nothing. He smiled mysteriously, as we afterward recalled, -and reiterated that nobody troubled him. The mystery was explained -later, when we discovered accidentally in San Diego that this Laguna -village had not escaped, as we supposed, the inroads of white men, and -that the only reason that the Laguna Indians were not in trouble was -that they had peaceably surrendered half their lands to a white man, who -was living amicably among them under a sort of contract or lease. - -EXHIBIT H. - -MESA GRANDE. - -Mesa Grande lies high up above the Santa Ysabel village and fifteen -miles west of it. The tract adjoins the Santa Ysabel Ranch, and is, as -its name indicates, a large table-land. There was set off here in 1876 a -large reservation, intended to include the Mesa Grande Indian village, -and also a smaller one of Mesa Chilquita; but, as usual, the villages -were outside of the lines, and the lands reserved were chiefly -worthless. One of the settlers in the neighborhood told us he would not -take the whole reservation as a gift and pay the taxes on it. The -situation of the Indians here is exceedingly unfortunate and growing -more and more so daily. The good Mesa Grande lands, which they once -owned and occupied, and which should have been secured to them, have -been fast taken up by whites, the Indians driven off, and, as the young -general said, "all bunched up till they haven't got any room." Both the -Mesa Chilquita and Mesa Grande plateaus are now well under cultivation -by whites, who have good houses and large tracts fenced in. - -They have built a good school-house, which we chanced to pass at the -hour of recess, and noting Indian faces among the children, stopped to -inquire about them. There were, out of twenty-seven scholars, fifteen -Indians or half-breeds, some of them the children of Indians who had -taken up homesteads. We asked the teacher what was the relative -brightness of the Indian and white children. Supposing that we shared -the usual prejudice against Indians, the teacher answered in a -judiciously deprecating tone, "Well, really there isn't so much -difference between them as you would suppose." "In favor of which race?" -we asked. Thus suddenly enlightened as to our animus in the matter, the -teacher changed his tone, and said he found the Indian children full as -bright as the whites; in fact, the brightest scholar he had was a -half-breed girl. - -On the census list taken of Indians in 1880 Mesa Grande and Mesa -Chilquita are reported as having, the first one hundred and three -Indians, the second twenty-three. There are probably not so many now, -the Mesa Chilquita tract being almost wholly in possession of the -whites. The Mesa Grande village has a beautiful site on a small stream, -in a sort of hill basin, surrounded by higher hills. The houses are -chiefly adobe, and there is on one of the slopes a neat little adobe -chapel, with a shingled roof nearly done, of which the Indians were very -proud. There were many fields of grain and a few fruit orchards. The -women gathered around our carriage in eager groups, insisting on shaking -hands, and holding up their little children to shake hands also. They -have but once seen an agent of the Government, and any evidence of real -interest in them and their welfare touches them deeply. - -The condition of the Indians in this district is too full of -complications and troubles to be written out here in detail. A verbatim -copy of a few of our notes taken on the spot will give a good picture of -the situation. - -Chrysanto, an Indian, put off his farm two months ago by white man named -Jim Angel, with certificate of homestead from Los Angeles land office. -Antonio Douro, another, put off in same way from his farm near -school-house. He had built good wooden house; the white man took that -and half his land. He was ploughing when the white man came and said, -"Get out! I have bought this land." They have been to the agent. They -have been ten times, till they are tired to go. Another American named -Hardy ran an Indian off his farm, built a house on it; then he sold it -to Johnson, and Johnson took a little more land; and Johnson sold it to -Stone, and he took still more. They used to be well fixed, had plenty of -stock and hundreds of horses. Now they are all penned up, and have had -to pay such fines they have got poor. Whites take their horses and -cattle and corral them and make them pay 25 cents, 50 cents to get them -out. "Is that American law?" they asked; "and if it is law for Indians' -horses, is it not same for white men's horses?" But one Indian shut up -some of the white men's horses that came on his land, and the constable -came and took them all away and made the Indian pay money. The Americans -so thick now they want all the Indians away; so, to make them go, they -keep accusing them of stealing. - -This is a small tithe of what we were told. It was pitiful to see the -hope die out of the Indians' faces as they laid grievance after -grievance before us, and we were obliged to tell them we could do -nothing, except to "tell the Government." On our way back to Santa -Ysabel we were waylaid by several Indians, some of them very aged, each -with the same story of having been driven off or being in imminent -danger of being driven off his lands. - -On the following day we had a long interview with one of the white -settlers of Mesa Grande, and learned some particulars as to a -combination into which the Mesa Grande whites had entered to protect -themselves against cattle and horse thieves. The young Indian general -was present at this interview. His boots were toeless; he wore an old -gingham shirt and ragged waistcoat, but his bearing was full of dignity. -According to the white man's story, this combination was not a vigilance -committee at all. It was called "The Protective League of Mesa Grande," -and had no special reference to Indians in any way. According to the -Indian general's story it was a vigilance committee, and all the Indians -knew very well that their lives were in danger from it. The white man -protested against this, and reiterated his former statements. To our -inquiry why, if the league were for the mutual protection of all -cattle-owners in the region, the captains of the Indian villages were -not invited to join it, he replied that he himself would have been in -favor of that, but that to the average white settler in the region such -a suggestion would be like a red rag to a bull; that he himself, -however, was a warm friend to the Indians. "How long you been friend to -Indians?" asked the boy-general, with quiet sarcasm. We afterwards -learned by inquiry of one of the most influential citizens of a -neighboring town, that this protective league was in fact nothing more -or less than a vigilance committee, and that it meant short shrift to -Indians; but being betrayed by one of its members it had come to an -untimely end, to the great relief of all law-abiding people in the -vicinity. He also added that the greater part of the cattle and horse -stealing in the region was done by Mexicans and whites, not by Indians. - -Whether it is possible for the Government to put these Mesa Grande -Indians into a position to protect themselves, and have anything like a -fair chance to make their living in their present situation, is a -question; but that it ought to be done, if possible, is beyond question. -It is grievous to think that this fine tract of land so long owned and -occupied by these Indians, and in good faith intended by the Government -to be set aside for their use, has thus passed into other hands. Even if -the reservation tract, some three hundred acres, has been by fraudulent -representations restored to the public domain, and now occupied by a man -named Clelland, who has taken steps to patent it, the tract by proper -investigation and action could probably be reclaimed for the Indians' -use. - -EXHIBIT I. - -CAPITAN GRANDE. - -Capitan Grande is the name of the cañon through which the San Diego -River comes down from the Cuyamaca Mountains, where it takes its rise. -The cañon is thirty-five miles from the city of San Diego; is fifteen -miles long, and has narrow bottom lands along the river, in some places -widening out into good meadows. It is in parts beautifully wooded and -full of luxuriant growths of shrubs and vines and flowering plants. In -1853 a band of Dieguino Indians were, by the order of Lieutenant -Magruder, moved from San Diego to this cañon (see Paper No. 1, appended -hereto). These Indians have continued ever since to live there, although -latterly they have been so much pressed upon by white settlers that -their numbers have been reduced. A large reservation, showing on the -record nineteen full sections, was set off here, in 1876, for these -Indians. It is nearly all on the bare sides of the mountain walls of the -cañon. As usual, the village site was not taken in by the lines. -Therefore white settlers have come in and the Indians been driven away. -We were informed that a petition was in circulation for the restoration -to the public domain of a part of this reservation. We could not succeed -in finding a copy of this petition; but it goes without saying that any -such petition means the taking away from the Indians the few remaining -bits of good land in their possession. There are now only about sixty -Indians left in this cañon. Sixteen years ago there were from one -hundred and fifty to two hundred—a flourishing community with large -herds of cattle and horses and good cultivated fields. It is not too -late for the Government to reclaim the greater part of this cañon for -its rightful owners' use. The appended affidavits, which we forwarded to -Washington, will show the grounds on which we earnestly recommended such -a course. - - PAPER NO. 1. - -Copy of Colonel Magruder's order locating the Indians in Capitan Grande. - - Mission San Diego, February 1st, 1853. - -Permission is hereby given to Patricio and Leandro, alcalde and captain, -to cultivate and live at the place called Capitan Grande, about four -leagues to the south and east of Santa Ysabel, as it is with extreme -difficulty that these Indians can gain a subsistence on the lands near -the mission in consequence of the want of sufficient water for -irrigation. It is understood that this spot, called, as above, Capitan -Grande, is a part of the public domain. All persons are hereby warned -against disturbing or interfering with the said Indians, or their -people, in the occupation or cultivation of said lands. Any complaints -in reference to said cultivation or to the right of occupancy must be -laid before the commanding officer of this post, in the absence of the -Indian agent for this part of the country. - - (Signed by Colonel Magruder.) - - PAPER NO. 2. - -Copy of affidavit of the captain of Capitan Grande Indians and one of -his head men. - - State of California, County of San Diego: - -In the application of Daniel C. Isham, James Meade, Mary A. Taylor, and -Charles Hensley. - -Ignacio Curo and Marcellino, being duly sworn by me through an -interpreter, and the words being interpreted to each and every one of -them, each for himself deposes and says: - -I am an Indian belonging to that portion of the Dieguino Indians under -the captainship of Ignacio Curo, and residing in the rancheria of -Capitan Grande, being also a part and portion of the Indian people known -as Mission Indians; our said rancheria was located at Capitan Grande, -where we all now reside in A. D. 1853, by an order issued by Colonel -Magruder, of the United States Army, located at the post of San Diego on -February 1st of said year, 1853. That since that time we and our -families have resided on and possessed said lands. That said lands are -included in township 14 south, range 2 east, of San Bernardino meridian -in San Diego County, State of California. - -That affiants are informed and believe that Daniel C. Isham, James -Meade, Mary A. Taylor, and Charles Hensley have each of them filed in -the land office of Los Angeles their application for pre-emption or -homestead of lands included in the lands heretofore possessed by -affiants, and now occupied by the rancheria of affiants as a home for -themselves and families. That said affiants and their tribe have -constantly occupied and partly cultivated the land so claimed by said -Isham, Meade, Taylor, and Hensley since the year 1853. That they nor -their tribe have ever signed any writing yielding possession or -abandoning their rights to said lands; but that said parties heretofore -mentioned are attempting by deceit, fraud, and violence to obtain said -lands from affiants and the Government of the United States. Affiants -therefore pray that the land officers of the United States Government -will protect them in their right, and stay all proceedings on the part -of said claimants until the matter is thoroughly investigated and the -rights of the respective parties adjudicated. - - IGNACIO CURO, his + mark. - MARCELLINO, his + mark. - -Witness: M. A. LUCE. - - - PAPER NO. 3. - - -Copy of affidavit of Anthony D. Ubach, in regard to Capitan Grande -Indians, and in the matter of the application of Daniel Isham, James -Meade, Mary A. Taylor, and Charles Hensley. - -Anthony D. Ubach, being first duly sworn, on oath deposes and says: I am -now, and have been continuously for the last seventeen years, Catholic -pastor at San Diego, and have frequently made official visitations to -the various Indian villages or rancherias in said county; that I have -frequently during said time visited the Capitan Grande Rancheria, on the -San Diego River, in said county of San Diego; that when I first visited -said rancheria, some seventeen years ago, the Indians belonging to the -rancheria cultivated the valley below the falls on the San Diego River -and herded and kept their stock as far up as said falls; that I know the -place now occupied and claimed by the above-named applicants, and each -of them, and also the place occupied and claimed by Dr. D. W. Strong; -that from the time I first visited said rancheria until the lands were -occupied by the aforesaid white men said lands were occupied, -cultivated, and used by the Indians of Capitan Grande Rancheria as a -part of their rancheria; that upon one occasion I acted as interpreter -for Capitan Ignacio Curo in a negotiation between said Capitan Ignacio -and D. W. Strong, and that said Strong at that time rented from said -Ignacio a portion of the rancheria lands for bee pasture; I also know -that Capt. A. P. Knowles and A. S. Grant also rented the lands from the -Indians of the rancheria when they first located there. - - ANTHONY D. UBACH. - -San Diego, State of California. - - PAPER NO. 4. - -Copy of the deposition of J. S. Manasse in the matter of the Capitan -Grande Indians and the application of Daniel Isham, James Meade, Mary A. -Taylor, and Charles Hensley. - - State of California, San Diego County: - -J. S. Manasse, being first duly sworn, on oath deposes and says: I am -now, and have been continuously since the year 1853, a resident of said -county of San Diego; that I have known these certain premises on the San -Diego River, said county, known as the Capitan Grande Rancheria, since -the year 1856; that at that time and for many years thereafter the -Indians belonging to said Capitan Grande Rancheria occupied and -cultivated their fields as far up as the falls on the San Diego River; -that the premises now occupied by the above-named applicants were so -occupied and cultivated by the Indians belonging to said rancheria -during the time aforesaid; I know that about one year ago Capt. A. P. -Knowles paid rent to Ignacio Curo for a portion of the land now claimed -by the above-named applicant, Charles Hensley; also that when I first -knew of the rancheria and for many years thereafter the Indians of that -rancheria owned and kept there a considerable number of cattle, horses, -and sheep. - - J. S. MANASSE. - -The lands above referred to as claimed by Dr. D. W. Strong were patented -by him September 15th, 1882. They include all the lands formerly -cultivated by the Indians and used for stock pasturage at the head of -the cañon. When, at the expiration of his first year's lease of the -tract for bee pasturage, the Indians asked if he wished to renew the -lease he informed them that he should stay and file on the land. His -lines are as follows: N. E. 1/4 of N. E. 1/4, S. 1/2 of N. E. 1/4, and -N. W. 1/4 of S. E. 1/4, Sec. 2, T. 14 S., R. 2 E., S. B. M., Home. No. -969. - -Charles Hensley's homestead entry is as follows: No. 986, March 29th, -1882. S. 1/2 of N. W. 1/4 and W. 1/2 of S. W. 1/4, Sec. 22, T. 14 S., R. -2 E., S. B. M. This is on the original site of the Indian village, and -Hensley is living in Capitan Ignacio Curo's house, for which, after -being informed that he had to leave it at any rate and might as well get -a little money for it, Ignacio took a small sum of money. - -James Meade's entry, which included Mary Taylor's interest, is as -follows: No. 987, March 29th, 1882. N. 1/2 of N. W. 1/4 and N. 1/2 of N. -E. 1/4, Sec. 22, T. 14 S., R. 2 E., S. B. M. Captain Knowles's lines we -did not ascertain. He claims and in one way or another occupies several -tracts in the cañon. - -EXHIBIT J. - -THE SEQUAN INDIANS. - -The Sequan Indians are a small band of Dieguino Indians living in a rift -of the hills on one side of the Sweetwater Cañon, about twenty miles -from San Diego. There are less than fifty of them all told. They are -badly off, having for the last ten years been more and more encroached -on by white settlers, until now they can keep no cattle, and have little -cultivable land left. There is a small reservation of one section set -off for them, but the lines were never pointed out to them, and they -said to us they did not know whether it were true that they had a -reservation or not. They had heard also that there was an agent for the -Indians, but they did not know whether that were true or not. As nearly -as we could determine, this village is within the reservation lines; and -if it is, some of the fields which have been recently taken away from -the Indians by the whites must be also. They had the usual bundle of -tattered "papers" to show, some of which were so old they were hardly -legible. One of them was a certificate from a justice of the peace in -San Diego, setting forth that this justice, by virtue of power in him -vested by the California State law, did— - -"permit hereby all these Indians to occupy peaceably and without -disturbance all the certain land and premises heretofore occupied and -held by these Indians aforesaid, including all their right and title to -all other necessary privileges thereto belonging, mainly the water -necessary for the irrigation of their lands." - -These Indians are much dispirited and demoralized, and wretchedly poor. -Probably the best thing for them would be, in case the Capitan Grande -Cañon is cleared of whites and assured to the Indians, to remove there -and join the Capitan Grande band. - -EXHIBIT K. - -THE CONEJOS. - -The Conejos are of the Dieguino tribe. Their village is said to be -partly on the Capitan Grande Reservation. One man familiar with the -region told us that the reservation line ran through the centre of the -Conejos village. The village is reached only by a nine-miles horseback -trail, and we did not visit it. The captain came to San Diego to see us, -and we also learned many particulars of the village from an intelligent -ranchwoman who has spent eleven summers in its vicinity. There are -thirty-two men, twenty-six women, and twenty-two children in the band. -They have good fields of wheat, and raise corn, squashes, and beans; yet -there is not a plough in the village. The captain is very strenuous in -his efforts to make all his Indians work. When strange Indians come to -the village to visit, they also are set to work. No one is allowed to -remain longer than three days without lending a hand at the village -labor. They are a strong and robust band. They say they have always -lived in their present place. The captain asked for ploughs, harnesses, -and "all things to work with," also for some clothes for his very old -men and women. He also begged to be "told all the things he ought to -know;" said no agent had ever visited them, and "no one ever told them -anything." - -In many of their perplexities they are in the habit of consulting Mrs. -Gregory, and she often mounts her horse and rides nine miles to be -present at one of their councils. Not long ago one of their number, a -very young Indian, having stabbed a white man living near Julian, was -arrested, put in jail, and in imminent danger of being lynched by the -Julian mob. They were finally persuaded, however, to give him up to his -tribe to be tried and punished by them. Mrs. Gregory was sent for to be -present at the trial. The facts in the case were, that the Irishman had -attempted to take the young Indian's wife by force. The husband -interfering, the Irishman, who was drunk, fired at him, upon which the -Indian drew his knife and stabbed the Irishman. Mrs. Gregory found the -young Indian tied up in the snow, a circle of Indians sitting around -him. Recounting the facts, the captain said to Mrs. Gregory, "Now, what -do you think I ought to do?" "Would you think he deserved punishment if -it were an Indian he had stabbed under the same circumstances?" asked -Mrs. Gregory. "Certainly not," was the reply, "we should say he did just -right." "I think so too," said Mrs. Gregory; "the Irishman deserved to -be killed." But the captain said the white people would be angry with -him if no punishment were inflicted on the young man; so they whipped -him and banished him from the rancheria for one year. Mrs. Gregory said -that during the eleven years that they had kept their cattle ranch in -the neighborhood of this village, but one cow had ever been stolen by -the Indians; and in that instance the Indians themselves assisted in -tracking the thief, and punished him severely. - -EXHIBIT L. - -PALA AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. - -In the days of the prosperity of the San Luis Rey Mission, Pala was one -of its chief appanages. It lies an easy day's journey from San Luis Rey, -in the valley of the San Luis Rey River. It has also a little stream of -its own, the Pala Creek. It is a beautiful spot, surrounded by high -hills, with wooded spars, and green bits of meadow here and there. The -ruins of the old mission buildings are still standing, and services are -held several times a year in the dilapidated chapel. It has always been -a favorite spot with the San Luis Rey Indians, some five or six hundred -of whom are living in the region. The chief settlements are Pala, Pauma, -Apeche, La Jolla, and Rincon. At Pala, La Jolla, and Rincon are -reservations. Of the Pala Reservation some tracts have been restored to -the public domain, to be patented to whites. The remainder of this -reservation, so far as we could learn its location, contains very little -good land, the greater part of it being in the wash of the creek. The -Rincon Reservation is better, being at the head of the valley, directly -on the river, walled in to the south by high mountains. It is, as its -name signifies, in a corner. Here is a village of nearly two hundred -Indians; their fields are fenced, well irrigated, and under good -cultivation in grains and vegetables. They have stock—cattle, horses, -and sheep. As we drove into the village, an Indian boy was on hand with -his hoe to instantly repair the break in the embankment of the ditches -across which we were obliged to drive. These Indians have been reported -to us as being antagonistic and troublesome, having refused to have a -Government school established there. Upon inquiry of them we found that -the latter fact was true. They said they wanted a title to their lands, -and till they had that they did not wish to accept anything from the -Government; that the agent had promised it to them again and again, but -that they had now lost faith in ever getting it. The captain said: "The -commissioners come one day and tell us we own the lands and fields; the -next day comes somebody and measures, and then we are out of our houses -and fields, and have to live like dogs." On the outskirts of this -village is living a half-breed, Andrew Scott, who claims some of the -Indians' fields and cuts off part of their water supply. He is reported -as selling whiskey to them, and in this and other ways doing them great -harm. It is not improbable that he would be found to be within the -reservation lines. - -Between the Rincon and Pala lies the Pauma village. It is on the Pauma -Ranch, the purchase of which for Indian occupancy we have recommended to -the Government. This ranch is now rented, and the Indians are much -interfered with by the lessee, who is naturally reluctant to lose the -profit off a single acre of the land. There is in the original grant of -the Pauma Ranch the following clause: "They shall have free the arable -lands now occupied by the Indians who are established thereon, as also -the lands they may need for their small quantity of live stock." - -The La Jolla region we were unable to visit. The Indian village is said -to be outside the reservation lines. There is a claim against this -tract, and the La Jolla captain told us that the parties representing it -had said to him that they were coming in with sheep next year, and would -drive all the Indians out. Upon inquiry at the surveyor-general's office -in San Francisco in regard to the La Jolla tract, we learned that there -is a record on file in the archives of that department purporting to -show that there was a grant made in favor of the Indians of San Luis -Rey, Pablo, and José Apis, for a tract of land named La Jolla, in the -immediate vicinity of the Valle de San José, dated November 7th, 1845, -signed by Pio Pico; deposited in the archives January 31st, 1878. From -Mr. Chauncey M. Hayes, a resident of San Luis Rey, the agent of the -Pauma Ranch, we received the following letter on the subject of La -Jolla: - -"La Jolla was granted November 7th, 1845, by the Mexican Government to -José and Pablo Apis Indians, Expediente No. 242, and is recorded in the -surveyor-general's office, in book No. 4, p. 17. It was not presented to -the land commissioner in 1858, and remained without any action being -taken. Col. Cave J. Couts, now deceased, bought the interest of the -grantees, and a contract was afterwards made between Judge E. D. Sawyer, -of San Francisco, and himself to secure its approval by a special act of -Congress. About three years ago an act was passed approving the grant -for about 8,848 acres, reserving therefrom all lands then occupied. If -this included Indians, there would not be much of La Jolla left." - -It is evident that this is a claim which should be closely investigated. -The probabilities are that it would not bear such investigation. In Pala -some of the Indians had been ejected from their homes under -circumstances of great cruelty and injustice; affidavits setting forth -the facts in their case were forwarded by us to Washington (see Paper -No. 1, appended hereto). It is to be hoped that the Indians can be -reinstated in their homes. If the Pauma Ranch be purchased for Indian -occupancy, as we recommend, it will, with the present reservation tracts -of the Rincon, Pala, and La Jolla, make a sizable block of land, where -the Indians will be comparatively free from white intrusion, and where -they will have a good chance to support themselves by agriculture and -stock-raising. - - PAPER NO. 1, APPENDED TO EXHIBIT L. - -Affidavit of the claims of Arthur Golsh, Gaetano Golsh, and others, to a -certain piece of land in township of Pala. - -Patricio Soberano and Felipe Joqua, being duly sworn by me through an -interpreter, and the words hereof being interpreted to each and every -one of them, each for himself deposes and says: I am an Indian belonging -to that portion of the San Luisenos Indians under the captainship of -José Antonio Sal, and belonging in the rancheria of Pala. I have -occupied the land in question ever since my childhood, together with -Geromino Lugo and Luis Ardillo, our wives and families numbering in all -twenty-nine persons. I have resided on the land in question continuously -until December, 1882. About five years ago one Arthur Golsh rented of -Luis Ardillo a portion of said land for three months at a rental of $5 -per month. After this, said Golsh claimed the property of Ardillo and of -the three other Indians; ordered them to leave; used threats; on one -occasion aimed a pistol at Patricio Soberano. He then proceeded to file -on the land, and obtained a patent for the land, while these Indians -were still residing upon it. The said Indians had upon the said land -four houses, one of which is adobe, various enclosed fields, and a long -ditch for bringing irrigation water to the said lands. In spite of the -threats of Arthur Golsh and others, we continued to occupy the lands -until December, 1882, when we were informed by Agent S. S. Lawson that -if we did not leave voluntarily we would be put off by the sheriff. - -Said affiants therefore pray that said land be returned to the said -Indians by the United States Government. - -Signed by Patricio Soberano and Felipe Joqua in presence of the justice -of the peace, in Pala. - - EXHIBIT M. - -THE PACHANGA INDIANS. - -This little band of Indians is worthy of a special mention. They are San -Luisenos, and formerly lived in the Temecula Valley, where they had good -adobe houses and a large tract of land under cultivation. The ruins of -these houses are still standing there, also their walled graveyard full -of graves. There had been a settlement of Indians in this Temecula -Valley from time immemorial, and at the time of the secularization of -the missions many of the neophytes of San Luis Rey returned thither to -their old home. At the time of the outbreak of the Aqua Caliente -Indians, in 1851, these Temecula Indians refused to join in it and moved -their families and stock to Los Angeles for protection. Pablo, their -chief at that time, was a man of some education, could read and write, -and possessed large herds of cattle and horses. This Temecula Valley was -a part of the tract given to the San Luisenos and Dieguinos by the -treaty of January 3d, 1853, referred to in the body of this report. (See -page 460.) In 1873 a decree of ejectment against these Indians was -obtained in the San Francisco courts without the Indians' knowledge. The -San Diego Union of September 23d, 1875, says on the subject: - -"For forty years these Indians have been recognized as the most thrifty -and industrious Indians in all California. For more than twenty years -past these Indians have been yearly told by the United States -commissioners and agents, both special and general, as well as by their -legal counsel, that they could remain on these lands. Now, without any -previous knowledge by them of any proceedings in court, they are ordered -to leave their lands and homes. The order of ejectment has been served -on them by the sheriff of San Diego County. He is not only commanded to -remove these Indians, but to take of their property whatever may be -required to pay the costs incurred in the suit." - -Comment on the extracts would be superfluous. There is not often so much -of history condensed in the same number of newspaper paragraphs. A -portion of these Temecula Indians, wishing to remain as near their old -homes and the graves of their dead as possible, went over in the -Pachanga cañon, only three miles distant. It was a barren, dry spot; but -the Indians sunk a well, built new houses, and went to work again. In -the spring of 1882, when we first visited the place, there was a -considerable amount of land in wheat and barley, and a little fencing -had been done. In July, 1882, the tract was set off by Executive order -as a reservation for these Indians. In the following May we visited the -valley again. Our first thought on entering it was, Would that all -persons who still hold to the belief that Indians will not work could -see this valley. It would be hardly an extreme statement to say that the -valley was one continuous field of grain. At least four times the amount -of the previous year had been planted. Corrals had been built, fruit -orchards started; one man had even so far followed white men's example -as to fence in his orchard a piece of the road which passed his place. -The whole expression of the place had changed; so great a stimulus had -there been to the Indians in even the slight additional sense of -security given by the Executive order setting off their valley as a -reservation. And, strangely enough, as if Nature herself had conspired -at once to help and to avenge these Indians in the Temecula Valley from -which they had been driven out, the white men's grain crops were thin, -poor, hardly worth cutting; while the Indians' fields were waving high -and green—altogether the best wheat and barley we had seen in the -county. It is fortunate that this little nook of cultivable land was set -aside as a reservation. Had it not been it would have been "filed on" -before now by the whites in the region, who already look with envy and -chagrin on the crops the Indian exiles have wrested from land nobody -thought worth taking up. - -A Government school has been opened here within the past year, and the -scholars have made good progress. We found, however, much unpleasant -feeling among the Indians in regard to the teacher of this school, owing -to his having a few years before driven off four Indian families from -their lands at Pala, and patented the lands to himself. There were also -other rumors seriously affecting his moral character which led us to -make the suggestion in regard to the employment of female teachers in -these Indian schools. (See report recommendation.) As one of the Indians -forcibly said, to set such men as this over schools was like setting the -wolf to take care of the lambs. - -These Pachanga Indians had, before the setting aside of their tract as a -reservation, taken steps towards the securing of their cañon, and the -dividing it among themselves under the provisions of the Indian -Homestead Act. They were counselled to this and assisted in it by -Richard Eagan, of San Juan Capistrano, well known as a good friend of -the Indians. They have expressed themselves as deeply regretting that -they were persuaded to abandon this plan and have the tract set off as a -reservation. They were told that they could in this way get their -individual titles just as securely and without cost. Finding that they -have no individual titles, and cannot get them, they are greatly -disappointed. It would seem wise to allow them as soon as possible to -carry out their original intention. They are quite ready and fit for it. - - EXHIBIT N. - -THE DESERT INDIANS. - -The Indians known as the Desert Indians are chiefly of the Cahuilla -tribe, and are all under the control of an aged chief named Cabezon, who -is said to have more power and influence than any Indian now living in -California. These Indians' settlements are literally in the desert; some -of them being in that depressed basin, many feet below sea-level, which -all travellers over the Southern Pacific Railroad will recollect. There -is in this desert one reservation, called Aqua Caliente, of about 60,000 -acres. From the best information that we can get this is all barren -desert land, with only one spring in it. These Desert Indians are -wretchedly poor, and need help perhaps more than any others in Southern -California. We were unable to visit these Indians personally, but were -so fortunate as to induce Capt. J. G. Stanley, a former Indian agent for -the Mission Indians and a warm friend of theirs, to go out in our stead -and report to us on their condition. His report is herewith given:— - -_Mrs. H. H. Jackson_: - -MADAM,—In compliance with your request I proceeded to the Cabezon -Valley, and have endeavored, as far as was possible with the limited -time at my command, to ascertain the present condition and actual -necessities of these Indians that still inhabit that portion of the -Colorado Basin known as the Cabezon Valley, that being also the name of -the head chief, who, from the best information that can be obtained, is -not less than ninety and probably one hundred years old, and who still -has great influence with all the Indians in that region. I found it -impracticable to visit all the rancherias, and accordingly sent out -runners and called a council of all the Indians of all the villages, to -be held at a point on the railroad known as Walter's Station, that being -the most central point. The next day there were present in council about -one hundred Indians, including the captains of all the rancherias and -the old chief Cabezon. Having been special agent under the old -superintendent system, and well acquainted with the Indians, I was -received by them with the greatest cordiality. I read and interpreted -your letter to Cabezon, and also explained that you were not able to -visit them in person on account of ill health. The Indians, through -their spokesman or interpreter, then stated their cause of complaint. -First, that Mr. Lawson had never visited their villages nor taken any -interest in their welfare; that he had allowed his interpreter, Juan -Morengo, to take the advantage of them; that Juan Morengo had made a -contract for them with a man in San Bernardino to cut wood on land -claimed by the Indians for the railroad company, he taking the lion's -share on the profits, and agreeing to pay them every Saturday in money; -that Juan Morengo took some $200 belonging to the Indians and -appropriated it to his own use; that the contractor did not pay as -agreed, but wished the Indians to take poor flour and other articles at -a great price. There may be some exaggeration of the causes of -complaint, but it is evident that no one has looked after the rights of -these Indians. The Indians have stopped cutting the wood, and they say -the contractor tells them he will send others to cut wood if they will -not do it. If I understand rightly this is Government land, and no one -has a right to cut the timber. It is true, it is mesquite timber, and -they profess to cut only the dry trees, but the mesquite is invaluable -to the Indians. It not only makes their fires, but its fruit supplies -them with a large amount of subsistence. The mesquite bean is used green -and dry, and at the present time is their principal article of food. -Moreover, without the mesquite tree the valley would be an absolute -desert. The wood (the dead trees) could be made a source of employment -and profitable revenue to the Indians if cut with proper regulations, -but the present mode is destruction to the timber, and benefits but few -of the Indians. I have extended my remarks on this subject, as I think -it very important. If the wood is to be cut the Indians should be -supplied with wagons and harness that they may do all the work of -delivering the wood and get the profit of their labor. I would suggest -that it is very important that a tract of country be segregated and set -apart for these Indians. There is a vast amount of desert land in their -country, but there are spots in it that have been occupied by them for -hundreds of years where wheat, corn, melons, and other farm products can -be grown. There is very little running water, but water is so near the -surface that it can be easily developed. The Indians appear to know -nothing of any lands being set apart for them, but claim the whole -territory they have always occupied. I think that to avoid complications -something should be done for these Indians immediately to protect their -interests. At present there are eight villages or rancherias, each with -its own captain, but all recognizing old Cabezon as head chief. I -ascertained from each captain the number belonging to his village, and I -found the aggregate to be 560 souls. These Indians are not what are -called Christianized Indians. They never belonged to the missions and -have never been received into any church. They believe in spirits and -witchcraft. While I was among them I was told by a white man that the -Indians intended to kill one of their number because he had bewitched a -man and made him sick. I asked the interpreter about it. He acknowledged -it to be true, but said they only intended to frighten him so that he -would let the man alone. I told him it would be wrong to kill the -Indian, and he said they would not do it. They are very anxious to have -schools established amongst them, and are willing to all live in one -village if a suitable place can be selected. I shall offer as my opinion -that immediate steps should be taken to set apart lands for these -Indians, that they be permitted to cut wood for sale only on the public -lands in Cabezon Valley, that no one be permitted to cut any green -timber in the valley, that two strong wagons and harness for twelve -horses be furnished (or loaned) to the Indians for the purpose of -hauling wood only, that lumber be furnished to make sheds for said -wagons and harness. The Indians have horses of their own. - - All of which is respectfully submitted. - - J. G. STANLEY. - - EXHIBIT O. - -THE SAN GORGONIO RESERVATION. - -This is the only reservation of any size or value in Southern -California. It lies in the San Gorgonio Pass, between the San Bernardino -and San Jacinto Mountains. The Southern Pacific Railroad passes -throughout it. It is a large tract, including a considerable proportion -of three townships. It is in an exposed situation, open to the desert -winds, and very hot in summer. A small white settlement, called Banning, -lies in this district. Most of the titles to these settlements are said -to have been acquired before the reservation was set off. We received -from the settlers in Banning the following letter: - -_To Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Kinney, Commissioners, &c._: - -At a public meeting of all the residents on the lands reserved for -Indian purposes, held at Banning, in San Gorgonio Pass, San Bernardino -County, California, it was resolved that a delegation from our -inhabitants be appointed to proceed to San Bernardino, and lay before -the commissioners a statement of the existing status of the lands -reserved for Indian purposes as affecting the citizens resident on those -townships known as 2 and 3 S., R. 1 E., and 2 S., R. 2 E., in San -Bernardino meridian. Believing that it is of the utmost importance that -you should become conversant with facts affecting the condition and -future well-being of the Indians whom it is designed to place upon these -lands, we respectfully request a hearing. Among those facts as affecting -the residents directly, and more remotely the Indians, are the -following: - -There is in San Gorgonio Township, of which these lands are a part, a -population of two hundred and fifty souls. In township 3 S., R. 1 E., is -the village of Banning, which is the business centre of the surrounding -country, and has an immediately surrounding population numbering fifty -souls. It has post and express offices, railroad depot, district school, -church organization, general merchandise store, the flume of the San -Gorgonio Fluming Company, two magistrates; and during the last year -there was sold or shipped from this place alone fully 20,000 bushels of -wheat and barley, over 200 tons of baled hay, a large amount of honey, -butter, eggs, poultry, live stock, &c., besides 200 cords of wood. -Although more than half of the area of this township is in the mountains -and uninhabited, from the remaining portion which is surveyed land, -there is at this time fully 1,200 acres in grain, and the value of the -improved property is over $50,000, exclusive of railroad property. -Vested interests have been acquired to all the water available for -irrigation under the code of laws existing in this State. Wells have -repeatedly been dug without success in this township. United States -patents to lands were granted in this township long anterior to the -Executive order reserving the lands for Indian purposes, and since then -the population has not increased. No Indian has, within the memory of -man, resided in this township. There are not over two entire sections of -land in the entire area left available for cultivation; and on these, -without abundance of water, no one could possibly succeed in earning a -livelihood. One of these sections was occupied and was abandoned, the -attempt to raise a cereal crop having failed. The extreme aridity of the -climate renders the successful growth of cereals problematical, even -when summer fallowing is pursued, and the amount of human casualty -possessed by the average Indian does not usually embrace the period of -two years. To intersperse Indians between white settlers who own the -railroad land or odd sections and the remaining portions of the -Government sections, where a "no fence" law exists, as here, would not -be conducive to the well-being of the Indians, and would result in a -depreciation of our property alike needless and disastrous. In township -2 S., R. 2 E., there are not over eighty acres available,—that in Weaver -Creek cañon, where the water was acquired and utilized before the -Executive order and the legal right well established. In township 2 S., -R. 1 E., settlements were made many years before the issue of the order -of reservation, especially on odd-numbered sections or railroad lands as -then supposed to be, and these bona-fide settlers have acquired claims -in equity to their improvements. On one ranch in this township,—that of -Messrs. Smith & Stewart, who have cultivated and improved the mesa or -bench lands,—there was produced several thousand sacks of grain; but -this involved such an outlay of capital and knowledge, beside experience -in grain-growing such as Indians do not possess. In this township, -embracing the three mentioned, there are upward of forty voters; and -these unanimously and respectfully ask you to grant us a hearing, when -we can reply to any interrogatories you may be pleased to make. If you -will kindly name the time when to you convenient, the undersigned will -at once wait upon you. - - W. K. DUNLAP, - BEN. W. SMITH, - S. Z. MILLARD, - WELWOOD MURRAY, - GEO. C. EGAN, - D. A. SCOTT, - G. SCOTT. - -There is upon this San Gorgonio Reservation a considerable amount of -tillable land. There are also on it several small but good water-rights. -One of these springs, with the adjacent land, is occupied by an Indian -village, called the Potrero, numbering about sixty souls,—an industrious -little community, with a good amount of land fenced and under -cultivation. These Indians are in great trouble on account of their -stock, the approaches to their stock-ranges having been by degrees all -fenced off by white settlers, leaving the Indians no place where they -can run their cattle without risk of being corralled and kept till fines -are paid for their release. All the other springs except this one are -held by white settlers, who with one exception, we were informed, have -all come on within the past five years. They claim, however, to have -bought the rights of former settlers. One of the largest blocks of this -reservation lies upon the San Bernardino Mountain, and is a fair -stock-range. It is now used for this purpose by a man named Hyler. The -next largest available block of land on the reservation is now under -tillage by the dry system by the firm of Smith & Stewart. There is also -a bee-ranch on the reservation, belonging to Herron & Wilson. One of the -springs and the land adjacent are held by a man named Jost. He is on -unsurveyed land, but claims that by private survey he has ascertained -that he is on an odd-numbered section, and has made application to the -railroad for the same. He requested us to submit to the Department his -estimate of the value of his improvements. It is appended to this -exhibit. It seems plain from the above facts, and from the letter of the -Banning gentleman, that a considerable number of Indians could be -advantageously placed on this reservation if the whites were removed. It -would be necessary to acquire whatever titles there may be to tracts -included in the reservation; also to develop the water by the -construction of reservoirs, &c., probably to purchase some small -water-rights. Estimating roughly, we would say by an expenditure of from -$30,000 to $40,000 this reservation could be rounded out and put into -readiness for Indians. It ought to be most emphatically stated and -distinctly understood that without some such preparation as this in the -matter of water-rights and channels the Indians cannot be put there. It -is hardly possible for one unfamiliar with the Southern California -country to fully understand how necessary this is. Without irrigation -the greater portion of the land is worthless, and all arrangements for -developing, economizing, and distributing water are costly. This is an -objection to the San Gorgonio Reservation. There are two others. The -Indians for the most part have an exceeding dislike to the region, and -will never go there voluntarily,—perhaps only by force. The alternative -of railroad sections with the sections of the reservations will surely -lead to troubles in the future between the white settlers and the -Indians. These are serious objections; but it is the only large block of -land the Government has left available for the purpose of Indian -occupancy. - - PAPER NO. 1, APPENDED TO EXHIBIT O. - -Claim of C. F. Jost and wife for improvements in San Gorgonio -Reservation, Banning, San Bernardino County. - -Settled on section 25, township 2 S., R. 1 E., S. B. M., San Bernardino -County, in May, 1875. Bought out other white settlers. Hold railroad -permission to settle on land; of date, November, 1875. - - IMPROVEMENTS. - - House $300.00 - - Barn 150.00 - - Milk-house 50.00 - - Meat-house 50.00 - - Granary 50.00 - - Potato-house and cellar 50.00 - - Chicken-house 20.00 - - Two board flumes 50.00 - - Two water-dams 20.00 - - Honey-house 10.00 - - Wire fencing 300.00 - - Other fencing 200.00 - - One hundred and seventy fruit trees - (mostly bearing this year) 400.00 - - Breaking up sod land and draining land 200.00 - - Amount paid to first white settler for - claim (no improvements) 250.00 - - -------- - - $2,100.00 - -On the 1st of June I will have $50 worth of seed-potatoes in the ground, -and labor, $100. It is necessary to plough the ground three times to -properly prepare it for potatoes. This crop in December of the same year -is worth $500 to $600 in the markets. Have about seventy stands of bees, -worth, say $300, which if I am moved will be a dead loss. - - EXHIBIT P. - -THE PAUMA RANCH. - -The Pauma Ranch lies on the San Luis Rey River, between the Rincon and -Pala Reservations. It contains three leagues of land, largely upland and -mesa, good for pasturage and dry farming. It can be irrigated by -bringing water from the San Luis Rey River. There is some timber on it; -also some bottom-lands along the river and along the Pauma Creek. The -ranch is the property of Bishop Mora, who made to us the following -proposition for its sale: - -For the sum of $31,000 in gold coin of the United States of North -America, I am disposed to sell to the Government of the United States, -for the benefit of the Mission Indians, the ranch called "Pauma Ranch, -in the County of San Diego," containing three leagues of land, more or -less, reserving to myself and to my assignees, 1st, two acres of land -whereon the present Indian chapel stands; 2d, 320 acres on one -half-section on the south side of the public road leading to Pala, -whereon the frame house stands formerly belonging to Joaquin Amat. -Terms, cash on delivery of deed of sale. This offer is made with the -proviso that the transaction is to be concluded on or before the 31st -day of October of the present year. - - FRANCIS MORA, - Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles. - -Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara County, May 14th, 1883. - -Upon being informed by us that this condition of time of sale would make -it impossible for us to secure these lands for the Indians, the Bishop, -in the following note, waived that condition:— - - San Luis Obispo, May 21st, 1883. - -_Mrs. William S. Jackson_: - -DEAR MRS. JACKSON,—Your favor of the 17th instant has been received. I -feel heartily thankful for the interest you take in behalf of our -Indians, and do with pleasure waive the condition as regards to the -time, and will let the offer stand until the proposed bill has been -voted on by Congress; provided, however, that the purchase can be -brought to a close during spring or summer of the year 1884, and subject -to one year's lease, which will conclude December 31st, 1884, because I -must try, _pendente transactione_, to get enough to pay taxes. - -Hoping you will reach home in good health, - - Yours, affectionately, - - FRANCIS MORA, - Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles. - -It should be distinctly understood that Bishop Mora in making this -offer, and generously allowing it to stand open for so long a time, is -influenced by a warm desire for the welfare of the Indians. - - EXHIBIT Q. - -PROPOSITION FOR THE SALE OF THE SANTA YSABEL RANCH TO THE UNITED STATES -GOVERNMENT. - - Los Angeles, Cal., May 19th, 1883. - -_Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson and Abbot Kinney, Esq., Special Commissioners -to the Mission Indians_: - -Should the U. S. Government wish to purchase the Santa Ysabel rancho, in -San Diego County, California, containing 4 leagues of land, or about -18,000 acres, we will sell said rancho for the sum of ninety-five -thousand dollars ($95,000), gold coin. - - Respectfully, - - HARTSHORNE & WILCOX, - By E. F. SPENCE, Agent. - - EXHIBIT R. - -AN ACT for the government and protection of Indians, passed by the -California State legislature April 22d, 1850. - -SECTION 1. Justices of the peace shall have jurisdiction in all cases of -complaints by, for, or against Indians in their respective townships in -this State. - -SEC. 2. Persons and proprietors of lands on which Indians are residing -shall permit such Indians peaceably to reside on such lands unmolested -in the pursuit of their usual avocations for the maintenance of -themselves and their families; provided the white person or proprietor -in possession of such lands may apply to a justice of the peace in the -township where the Indians reside to set off to such Indians a certain -amount of land, and on such application the justice shall set off a -sufficient amount of land for the necessary wants of such Indians, -including the site of their village or residence if they so prefer it, -and in no case shall such selection be made to the prejudice of such -Indians; nor shall they be forced to abandon their homes or villages -where they have resided for a number of years; and either party feeling -themselves aggrieved can appeal to the county court from the decision of -the justice, and then, when divided, a record shall be made of the lands -so set off in the court so dividing them; and the Indians shall be -permitted to remain thereon until otherwise provided for. - - * * * * * - -This act has never been repealed, nor, so far as we could learn, -complied with in a single instance. To-day it would be held as of no -value in the California courts. - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE - - -Punctuation has been normalized. - -Variations in spelling hyphenation and accentuation were maintained. - -Italicized words and phrases are presented by surrounding the text with -_underscores_. - - - - - HELEN JACKSON'S WRITINGS. - - A KEY TO "RAMONA." - - A CENTURY OF DISHONOR. - - A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings - with some of the Indian Tribes. - - A New Edition. 12mo. pp. 514. Cloth. $1.50. - -Mrs. Jackson devoted a whole year of her life to writing and compiling -materials for "A Century of Dishonor," and while thus engaged she -mentally resolved to follow it with a story which should have for its -_motif_ the cause of the Indian. After completing her "Report on the -Condition and Needs of the Mission Indians of California" (see Appendix, -p. 458) she set herself down to this task, and "Ramona" is the result. -This was in New York in the winter of 1883-84, and while thus engaged -she wrote her publisher that she seemed to have the whole story at her -fingers' ends, and nothing but physical impossibility prevented her from -finishing it at a sitting. Alluding to it again on her death-bed, she -wrote: "I did not write 'Ramona;' it was written through me. My -life-blood went into it,—all I had thought, felt, and suffered for five -years on the Indian question." - -The report made by Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Kinney is grave, concise, and -deeply interesting. It is added to the Appendix of this new edition of -her book. In this California journey Mrs. Jackson found the materials -for "Ramona," the Indian novel, which was the last important work of her -life, and in which nearly all the incidents are taken from life. In the -report of the Mission Indians will be found the story of the Temecula -removal, and the tragedy of Alessandro's death, as they appear in -"Ramona."—_Boston Daily Advertiser._ - - * * * * * - -Mrs. Jackson's Letter of Gratitude to the President. - -The following letter from Mrs. Jackson to the President was written by -her four days before her death, Aug. 12, 1885:— - -_To_ GROVER CLEVELAND, _President of the United States_: - -Dear Sir,—From my death-bed I send you a message of heartfelt thanks for -what you have already done for the Indians. I ask you to read my -"Century of Dishonor." I am dying happier for the belief I have that it -is your hand that is destined to strike the first steady blow toward -lifting this burden of infamy from our country, and righting the wrongs -of the Indian race. - - With respect and gratitude, - - HELEN JACKSON. - -_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the -publishers_, - - ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. - -RAMONA. A Story. 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50. (50th thousand.) - -_The Atlantic Monthly_ says of the author that she is "a Murillo in -literature," and that the story "is one of the most artistic creations -of American literature." Says a lady: "To me it is the most distinctive -piece of work we have had in this country since 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and -its exquisite finish of style is beyond that classic." "The book is -truly an American novel," says the _Boston Advertiser_. "Ramona is one -of the most charming creations of modern fiction," says CHARLES D. -WARNER. "The romance of the story is irresistibly fascinating," says -_The Independent_. "The best novel written by a woman since George Eliot -died, as it seems to me, is Mrs. Jackson's 'Ramona,'" says T. W. -HIGGINSON. - -ZEPH. A Posthumous Story. 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.25. - -Those who think that all the outrage and wrong are on the side of the -man, and all the suffering and endurance on the side of the woman, -cannot do better than read this sad and moving sketch. It is written by -a woman; but never, I think, have I heard of more noble and -self-sacrificing conduct than that of the much-tried husband in this -story, or conduct more vile and degrading than that of the woman who -went by the name of his wife. Such stories show how much both sexes have -to forgive and forget. The author, who died before she could complete -this little tale of Colorado life, never wrote anything more beautiful -for its insight into human nature, and certainly never anything more -instinct with true pathos. A writer of high and real gifts as a novelist -was lost to the world by the untimely death of Mrs. Jackson.—_The -Academy, London._ - -BETWEEN WHILES. A Collection of Stories. 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.25. - -Mrs. Helen Jackson's publishers have collected six of her best short -stories into this volume. Most of them appeared in magazines in the last -year or two of her life. "The Inn of the Golden Pear," the longest and -by far the strongest of them all, is, however, entirely new to the -public. - -Outside of her one great romance ("Ramona"), the author has never -appealed to the human heart with more simple and beautiful certainty -than in these delightful pictures.—_Bulletin, San Francisco._ - -Mrs. Helen Jackson's "Little Bel's Supplement," the touching story of a -young schoolmistress in Prince Edward's Island, is not likely to be -forgotten by any one who has read it. The high and splendid purpose that -directed the literary work of "H. H.," and which is apparent in nearly -everything that came from her pen, was supported by a peculiar power, -unerring artistic taste, and a pathos all her own. This charming tale -and one about the Adirondacks and a child's dream form part of the -contents of this posthumous volume, to which, on her death-bed, she gave -the beautiful title "Between Whiles." It is worthy to be placed -alongside of her most finished pieces.—_Commercial Advertiser, New -York._ - -MERCY PHILBRICK'S CHOICE. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00. - -HETTY'S STRANGE HISTORY. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00. - -These two stories were originally published anonymously, having been -written for the "No Name Series" of novels, in which they had a large -popularity. - -BITS OF TRAVEL. Square 18mo. Cloth, red edges. Price, $1.25. - -The volume has few of the characteristics of an ordinary book of travel. -It is entertaining and readable, from cover to cover; and when the -untravelled reader has finished it, he will find that he knows a great -deal more about life in Europe—having seen it through intelligent and -sympathetic eyes—than he ever got before from a dozen more pretentious -volumes.—_Hartford Courant._ - -BITS OF TRAVEL AT HOME. Square 18mo. Cloth, red edges. Price, $1.50. - -The descriptions of American scenery in this volume indicate the -imagination of a poet, the eye of an acute observer of Nature, the hand -of an artist, and the heart of a woman. - -H. H.'s choice of words is of itself a study of color. Her picturesque -diction rivals the skill of the painter, and presents the woods and -waters of the Great West with a splendor of illustration that can -scarcely be surpassed by the brightest glow of the canvas. Her -intuitions of character are no less keen than her perceptions of -Nature.—_N. Y. Tribune._ - -GLIMPSES OF THREE COASTS: California and Oregon; Scotland and England; -Norway, Denmark, and Germany. 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50. - -Helen Hunt Jackson has left another monumental memorial of her literary -life in the volume entitled "Glimpses of Three Coasts," which is just -published and includes some fourteen papers relating to life in -California and Oregon, in Scotland and England, and on the North Shore -of Europe in Germany, Denmark, and Norway. The sketches are marked by -that peculiar charm that characterizes Mrs. Jackson's interpretations of -Nature and life. She had the divining gift of the poet; she had the -power of philosophic reflection; and these, with her keen observation -and swift sympathies and ardent temperament, make her the ideal -interpreter of a country's life and resources.—_Traveller, Boston._ - -BITS OF TALK ABOUT HOME MATTERS. Square 18mo. Cloth, red edges. Price, -$1.00. - -"Bits of Talk" is a book that ought to have a place of honor in every -household; for it teaches, not only the true dignity of parentage, but -of childhood. As we read it, we laugh and cry with the author, and -acknowledge that, since the child is father of the man, in being the -champion of childhood, she is the champion of the whole coming race. -Great is the rod, but H. H. is not its prophet!—MRS. HARRIET PRESCOTT -SPOFFORD, _in Newburyport Herald_. - -POEMS: Complete, comprising "Verses by H. H." and "Sonnets and Lyrics." -Square 18mo. Red edges, price, $1.50; white cloth, gilt, $1.75. - -Shortly after the publication of "Verses" Ralph Waldo Emerson walked -into the office of the publishers and inquired for the "Poems of H. H." -While he was looking at it the attendant ventured to remark that H. H. -was called our greatest woman poet. "The 'woman' might well be omitted," -was the only reply of the Concord philosopher. He was then engaged in -compiling his poetical anthology (Parnassus), in the preface to which he -says: "The poems of a lady who contents herself with the initials H. H. -in her book, published in Boston (1874), have a rare merit of thought -and expression, and will reward the reader for the careful attention -which they require." - - JUVENILES. - -BITS OF TALK, in Verse and Prose. For Young Folks. Square 18mo. Cloth. -Price, $1.00. - -It is just such a book as children will enjoy, made up as it is of a -variety of attractive reading, short stories, fairy tales, parables, and -poems, with here and there a chapter of good advice, given in such a -taking way without a bit of goody talk, that the children will find it -pleasant to take, little as they like advice after the usual -fashion.—_Worcester Spy._ - -NELLY'S SILVER MINE. A Story of Colorado Life. With Illustrations. 16mo. -Cloth. Price, $1.50. - -"Nelly's Silver Mine" is one of those stories which, while having the -noble simplicity and freshness whereby the young are captivated, is full -of a thought and wisdom which command for it the attention of -all.—_Philadelphia Inquirer._ - -CAT STORIES. Containing "Letters from a Cat," "Mammy Tittleback and her -Family," and "The Hunter Cats of Connorloa," bound in one volume. Small -4to. Cloth. Price, $2.00; or, each volume separately, $1.25. - -The subject is attractive, for there is nothing children take a more -real interest in than cats; and the writer has had the good sense to -write neither above nor below her subject. The type is large, so that -those for whom the book is intended may read it themselves.... For -details we must refer all interested to the story itself, which seems to -us written with admirable verisimilitude.—_London Academy._ - -_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of the price, by -the publishers_, - - ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's A Century of Dishonor, by Helen Hunt Jackson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CENTURY OF DISHONOR *** - -***** This file should be named 50560-0.txt or 50560-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/5/6/50560/ - -Produced by readbueno, Jan-Fabian Humann and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: A Century of Dishonor - A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with - some of the Indian Tribes - -Author: Helen Hunt Jackson - -Release Date: November 27, 2015 [EBook #50560] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CENTURY OF DISHONOR *** - - - - -Produced by readbueno, Jan-Fabian Humann and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>Front Cover<br />(This cover was produced by the Transcriber and is in the public domain.)</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div> - <a id='Page_i'></a> - <h1 class='c000'>A CENTURY OF DISHONOR</h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>A SKETCH</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT'S DEALINGS</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>WITH SOME OF THE INDIAN TRIBES</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div><span class='sc'>By</span> HELEN JACKSON (H. H.),</div> - <div class='c002'><span class='small'>AUTHOR OF "RAMONA," "VERSES," "BITS OF TRAVEL,"</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>"BITS OF TRAVEL AT HOME," "BITS OF TALK ABOUT HOME MATTERS,"</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>"BITS OF TALK FOR YOUNG FOLKS," "NELLY'S SILVER MINE,"</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>H. H.'S CAT STORIES, ETC.</span></div> - <div class='c002'><span class='small'>"<i>Every human being born upon our continent, or who comes here</i></span></div> - <div><span class='small'><i>from any quarter of the world, whether savage or civilized, can go</i></span></div> - <div><span class='small'><i>to our courts for protection—except those who belong to the tribes</i></span></div> - <div><span class='small'><i>who once owned this country. The cannibal from the islands of the</i></span></div> - <div><span class='small'><i>Pacific, the worst criminals from Europe, Asia, or Africa, can appeal</i></span></div> - <div><span class='small'><i>to the law and courts for their rights of person and property—all,</i></span></div> - <div><span class='small'><i>save our native Indians, who, above all, should be protected from</i></span></div> - <div><span class='small'><i>wrong.</i>"</span> <span class='sc'>Gov. Horatio Seymour</span></div> - <div class='c002'>NEW EDITION, ENLARGED BY THE ADDITION OF THE REPORT OF</div> - <div>THE NEEDS OF THE MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA</div> - <div class='c001'>BOSTON</div> - <div class='c002'>ROBERTS BROTHERS</div> - <div class='c002'>1889</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><a id='Page_ii'></a><i>Copyright, 1885</i>,</div> - <div><span class='sc'>By Roberts Brothers</span>.</div> - <div class='c001'>University Press:</div> - <div><span class='sc'>John Wilson and Son, Cambridge</span>.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_iii'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> -<table class='table0' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='72%' /> -<col width='27%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c005'></td> - <td class='c006'>PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Preface, by Bishop Whipple</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_v'>v</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Introduction, by President Julius H. Seelye</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>CHAPTER I.</td> - <td class='c006'></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Introductory</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>CHAPTER II.</td> - <td class='c006'></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Delawares</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_32'>32</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>CHAPTER III.</td> - <td class='c006'></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Cheyennes</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>CHAPTER IV.</td> - <td class='c006'></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Nez Percés</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_103'>103</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>CHAPTER V.</td> - <td class='c006'></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Sioux</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_136'>136</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td class='c007' colspan='2'>CHAPTER VI.</td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Poncas</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_186'>186</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>CHAPTER VII.</td> - <td class='c006'></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Winnebagoes</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_218'>218</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>CHAPTER VIII.</td> - <td class='c006'></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Cherokees</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_257'>257</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><a id='Page_iv'></a>CHAPTER IX.</td> - <td class='c006'></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Massacres of Indians by Whites</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_298'>298</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>I. The Conestoga Massacre</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_298'>298</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>II. The Gnadenhütten Massacre</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_317'>317</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>III. Massacres of Apaches</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_324'>324</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>CHAPTER X.</td> - <td class='c006'></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Conclusion</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_336'>336</a></td> - </tr> -</table> -<p class='c008'>APPENDIX.</p> - -<table class='table1' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='12%' /> -<col width='63%' /> -<col width='23%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>I.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Sand Creek Massacre</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_343'>343</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>II.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>The Ponca Case</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_359'>359</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>III.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Testimonies to Indian Character</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_374'>374</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>IV.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Outrages Committed on Indians by Whites</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_381'>381</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>V.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Extracts from the Report of the Commission sent to treat with the Sioux Chief Sitting Bull, in Canada</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_386'>386</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>VI.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Account of some of the old Grievances of the Sioux</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_389'>389</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>VII.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Letter from Sarah Winnemucca, an Educated Pah-Ute Woman</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_395'>395</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>VIII.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Laws of the Delaware Nation of Indians</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_396'>396</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>IX.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Account of the Cherokee who Invented the Cherokee Alphabet</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_404'>404</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>X.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Prices paid by White Men for Scalps</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_405'>405</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>XI.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Extract from Treaty with Cheyennes in 1865</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_406'>406</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>XII.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Wood-cutting by Indians in Dakota</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_407'>407</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>XIII.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Sequel to the Walla Walla Massacre</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_407'>407</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>XIV.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>An Account of the Numbers, Location, and Social and Industrial Condition of each Important Tribe and Band of Indians within the United States</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_411'>411</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c009'>XV.</td> - <td class='c005'><span class='sc'>Report on the Condition and Needs of the Mission Indians of California</span></td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_458'>458</a></td> - </tr> -</table> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_v'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>PREFACE.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>I have been requested to write a preface to this sad story of -"A Century of Dishonor." I cannot refuse the request of one -whose woman's heart has pleaded so eloquently for the poor Red -men. The materials for her book have been taken from official -documents. The sad revelation of broken faith, of violated treaties, -and of inhuman deeds of violence will bring a flush of shame -to the cheeks of those who love their country. They will wonder -how our rulers have dared to so trifle with justice, and provoke -the anger of God. Many of the stories will be new to the reader. -The Indian owns no telegraph, employs no press reporter, and his -side of the story is unknown to the people.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nations, like individuals, reap exactly what they sow; they -who sow robbery reap robbery. The seed-sowing of iniquity replies -in a harvest of blood. The American people have accepted -as truth the teaching that the Indians were a degraded, brutal -race of savages, whom it was the will of God should perish at -the approach of civilization. If they do not say with our Puritan -fathers that these are the Hittites who are to be driven out -before the saints of the Lord, they do accept the teaching that -manifest destiny will drive the Indians from the earth. The inexorable -has no tears or pity at the cries of anguish of the doomed -race. Ahab never speaks kindly of Naboth, whom he has -robbed of his vineyard. It soothes conscience to cast mud on the -character of the one whom we have wronged.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The people have laid the causes of Indian wars at the door of -the Indian trader, the people on the border, the Indian agents, -the army, and the Department of the Interior. None of these are -responsible for the Indian wars, which have cost the United States -five hundred millions of dollars and tens of thousands of valuable -lives. In the olden time the Indian trader was the Indian's -friend. The relation was one of mutual dependence. If the -trader oppressed the Indian he was in danger of losing his debt; -<a id='Page_vi'></a>if the Indian refused to pay his debts, the trader must leave the -country. The factors and agents of the old fur companies tell us -that their goods were as safe in the unguarded trading-post as in -the civilized village. The pioneer settlers have had too much at -stake to excite an Indian massacre, which would overwhelm their -loved ones in ruin. The army are not responsible for Indian -wars; they are "men under authority," who go where they are -sent. The men who represent the honor of the nation have a -tradition that lying is a disgrace, and that theft forfeits character. -General Crook expressed the feeling of the army when he -replied to a friend who said, "It is hard to go on such a campaign." -"Yes, it is hard; but, sir, the hardest thing is to go and -fight those whom you know are in the right." The Indian Bureau -is often unable to fulfil the treaties, because Congress has -failed to make the appropriations. If its agents are not men of -the highest character, it is largely due to the fact that we send a -man to execute this difficult trust at a remote agency, and expect -him to support himself and family on $1500 a year. The Indian -Bureau represents a system which is a blunder and a crime.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indian is the only human being within our territory who -has no individual right in the soil. He is not amenable to or -protected by law. The executive, the legislative, and judicial -departments of the Government recognize that he has a possessory -right in the soil; but his title is merged in the tribe—the -man has no standing before the law. A Chinese or a Hottentot -would have, but the native American is left pitiably helpless. -This system grew out of our relations at the first settlement of -the country. The isolated settlements along the Atlantic coast -could not ask the Indians, who outnumbered them ten to one, to -accept the position of wards. No wise policy was adopted, with -altered circumstances, to train the Indians for citizenship. Treaties -were made of the same binding force of the constitution; but -these treaties were unfilled. It may be doubted whether one single -treaty has ever been fulfilled as it would have been if it had -been made with a foreign power. The treaty has been made as -between two independent sovereigns. Sometimes each party has -been ignorant of the wishes of the other; for the heads of both -parties to the treaty have been on the interpreter's shoulders, and -he was the owned creature of corrupt men, who desired to use -the Indians as a key to unlock the nation's treasury. Pledges, -solemnly made, have been shamelessly violated. The Indian has -had no redress but war. In these wars ten white men were killed -<a id='Page_vii'></a>to one Indian, and the Indians who were killed have cost the -Government a hundred thousand dollars each. Then came a new -treaty, more violated faith, another war, until we have not a hundred -miles between the Atlantic and Pacific which has not been -the scene of an Indian massacre.</p> - -<p class='c010'>All this while Canada has had no Indian wars. Our Government -has expended for the Indians a hundred dollars to their one. -They recognize, as we do, that the Indian has a possessory right -to the soil. They purchase this right, as we do, by treaty; but -their treaties are made with <i>the Indian subjects</i> of Her Majesty. -They set apart a <i>permanent</i> reservation for them; they seldom remove -Indians; they select agents of high character, who receive -their appointments for life; they make fewer promises, but they -fulfil them; they give the Indians Christian missions, which have -the hearty support of Christian people, and all their efforts are -toward self-help and civilization. An incident will illustrate the -two systems. The officer of the United States Army who was -sent to receive Alaska from the Russian Government stopped in -British Columbia. Governor Douglas had heard that an Indian -had been murdered by another Indian. He visited the Indian -tribe; he explained to them that the murdered man was a subject -of Her Majesty; he demanded the culprit. The murderer -was surrendered, was tried, was found guilty, and was hanged. -On reaching Alaska the officer happened to enter the Greek -church, and saw on the altar a beautiful copy of the Gospels in -a costly binding studded with jewels. He called upon the Greek -bishop, and said, "Your Grace, I called to say you had better remove -that copy of the Gospels from the church, for it may be -stolen." The bishop replied, "Why should I remove it? It was -the gift of the mother of the emperor, and has lain on the altar -seventy years." The officer blushed, and said, "There is no law -in the Indian country, and I was afraid it might be stolen." The -bishop said, "The book is in God's house, and it is His book, and -I shall not take it away." The book remained. The country -became ours, and the next day the Gospel was stolen.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Our Indian wars are needless and wicked. 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 joy to die for his people. -Our most terrible wars have been with the noblest types of -<a id='Page_viii'></a>the Indians, and with men who had been the white man's friend. -Nicolet said the Sioux were the finest type of wild men he had -ever seen. Old traders say that it used to be the boast of the -Sioux that they had never taken the life of a white man. Lewis -and Clarke, Governor Stevens, and Colonel Steptoe bore testimony -to the devoted friendship of the Nez Percés for the white man. -Colonel Boone, Colonel Bent, General Harney, and others speak -in the highest praise of the Cheyennes. The Navahoes were a -semi-civilized people.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Our best friends have suffered more deeply from our neglect -and violated faith than our most bitter foes. Peaceable Indians -often say, "You leave us to suffer; if we killed your people, then -you would take care of us."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Our Indian wars have not come wholly from violated faith. In -time of peace it has been our policy to establish "almshouses" to -train and educate savage paupers. We have purchased paint, -beads, scalping-knives, to deck warriors, and have fed them in -idleness at the agency. Around this agency and along the border -were gathered influences to degrade the savage, and sink him to -a depth his fathers had never known. It has only needed a real -or a fancied wrong to have this pauperized savagery break out in -deeds of blood. Under President Grant a new departure was -taken. The peace policy was little more than a name. No -change was made in the Indian system; no rights of property -were given; no laws were passed to protect the Indians. The -President did take the nomination of Indian agents from politicians, -who had made the office a reward for political service. He -gave the nomination of Indian agents to the executive committees -of the missionary societies of the different churches. Where these -Christian bodies established schools and missions, and the Government -cast its influence on the side of labor, it was a success. -More has been done to civilize the Indians in the past twelve -years than in any period of our history. The Indian Ring has -fought the new policy at every step; and yet, notwithstanding -our Indian wars, our violated treaties, and our wretched system, -thousands of Indians, who were poor, degraded savages, are now -living as Christian, civilized men. There was a time when it -seemed impossible to secure the attention of the Government to -any wrongs done to the Indians: it is not so to-day. The Government -does listen to the friends of the Indians, and many of -the grosser forms of robbery are stopped. No permanent reform -can be secured until the heart of the people is touched. In 1862 -<a id='Page_ix'></a>I visited Washington, to lay before the Administration the causes -which had desolated our fair State with the blood of those slain -by Indian massacre. After pleading in vain, and finding no redress, -Secretary Stanton said to a friend, "What does the Bishop -want? If he came here to tell us that our Indian system is a sink -of iniquity, tell him we all know it. Tell him the United States -never cures a wrong until the people demand it; and when the -hearts of the people are reached the Indian will be saved." In -this book the reader will find the sad story of a century—no, not -the whole story, but the fragmentary story of isolated tribes. -The author will have her reward if it shall aid in securing justice -to a noble and a wronged race. Even with the sad experiences -of the past we have not learned justice. The Cherokees -and other tribes received the Indian Territory as a compensation -and atonement for one of the darkest crimes ever committed by -a Christian nation. That territory was conveyed to them by legislation -as strong as the wit of statesmen could devise. The fathers -who conveyed this territory to the Cherokees are dead. -Greedy eyes covet the land. The plans are laid to wrest it from -its rightful owners. If this great iniquity is consummated, these -Indians declare that all hope in our justice will die out of their -hearts, and that they will defend their country with their lives.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The work of reform is a difficult one; it will cost us time, -effort, and money; it will demand the best thoughts of the best -men in the country. We shall have to regain the confidence of -our Indian wards by honest dealing and the fulfilment of our -promises. Now the name of a white man is to the Indians a synonyme -for "liar." Red Cloud recently paid a visit to the Black -Hills, and was hospitably entertained by his white friends. In -bidding them good-bye he expressed the hope that, if they did -not meet again on earth, they might meet beyond the grave "in -a land where white men ceased to be liars."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Dark as the history is, there is a brighter side. No missions -to the heathen have been more blessed than those among the Indians. -Thousands, who were once wild, painted savages, finding -their greatest joy in deeds of war, are now the disciples of the -Prince of Peace. There are Indian churches with Indian congregations, -in which Indian clergy are telling the story of God's love -in Jesus Christ our Saviour. Where once was only heard the medicine-drum -and the song of the scalp-dance, there is now the bell -calling Christians to prayer, and songs of praise and words of -prayer go up to heaven. The Christian home, though only a -<a id='Page_x'></a>log-cabin, has taken the place of the wigwam; and the poor, degraded -Indian woman has been changed to the Christian wife -and mother. With justice, personal rights, and the protection of -law, the Gospel will do for our Red brothers what it has done for -other races—give to them homes, manhood and freedom.</p> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>H. B. Whipple</span>, <i>Bishop of Minnesota</i>.</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>New York</span>, <i>November 11th, 1880</i>.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_1'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>INTRODUCTION.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>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 American -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 then a -howling wilderness, was largely an unpeopled solitude. The -roaming wild men who met the new discoverers were, however, -numerous enough to make the Indian problem at the outset a -serious one, while neither its gravity nor its difficulty yet shows -signs of diminution.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The difficulty is not because the Indians are wild and savage -men, for such men have in the past history of the human race -been subdued and civilized in unnumbered instances, while the -changes which in our time have been wrought among the cannibals -of the South Sea and the barbarians of South Africa, and -among the wildest and most savage of the North American Indians -themselves, show abundantly that the agencies of civilization, -ready to our hand are neither wanting nor weak.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The great difficulty with the Indian problem is not with the -Indian, but with the Government and people of the United States. -Instead of a liberal and far-sighted policy looking to the education -and civilization and possible citizenship of the Indian tribes, -we have suffered these people to remain as savages, for whose future -we have had no adequate care, and to the consideration of -whose present state the Government has only been moved when -pressed by some present danger. We have encroached upon -their means of subsistence without furnishing them any proper -return; we have shut them up on reservations often notoriously -unfit for them, or, if fit, we have not hesitated to drive them off for -<a id='Page_2'></a>our profit, without regard to theirs; we have treated them sometimes -as foreign nations, with whom we have had treaties; sometimes -as wards, who are entitled to no voice in the management of their -affairs; and sometimes as subjects, from whom we have required -obedience, but to whom we have recognized no obligations. That -the Government of the United States, which has often plighted its -faith to the Indian, and has broken it as often, and, while punishing -him for his crimes, has given him no status in the courts except -as a criminal, has been sadly derelict in its duty toward him, -and has reaped the whirlwind only because it has sown the wind, -is set forth in no exaggerated terms in the following pages, and -ought to be acknowledged with shame by every American citizen.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It will be admitted now on every hand that the only solution -of the Indian problem involves the entire change of these people -from a savage to a civilized life. They are not likely to be exterminated. -Unless we ourselves withdraw from all contact with -them, and leave them to roam untrammeled over their wilds, or -until the power of a Christian civilization shall make them consciously -one with us, they will not cease to vex us.</p> - -<p class='c010'>But how shall they become civilized? Civilization is in a most -important sense a gift rather than an acquisition. Men do not -gain it for themselves, except as stimulated thereto by some incitement -from above themselves. The savage does not labor for -the gratifications of civilized life, since he does not desire these. -His labors and his desires are both dependent upon some spiritual -gift, which, having kindled him, quickens his desires and calls -forth his toil. Unless he has some help from without, some light -and life from above to illumine and inspire him, the savage remains -a savage, and without this all the blandishments of the civilization -with which he might be brought into contact could no -more win him into a better state than could all the light and -warmth of the sun woo a desert into a fruitful field. When English -missionaries went to the Indians in Canada, they took with -them skilled laborers who should teach the Indians how to labor, -and who, by providing them at first with comfortable houses, and -clothing, and food, should awaken their desires and evoke their -efforts to perpetuate and increase these comforts. But the Indian -would not work, and preferred his wigwam, and skins, and raw -flesh, and filth to the cleanliness and conveniences of a civilized -home; and it was only as Christian influences taught him his inner -need, and how this could be supplied, that he was led to wish -and work for the improvement of his outer condition and habits -<a id='Page_3'></a>of life. The same is true everywhere. Civilization does not reproduce -itself. It must first be kindled, and can then only be -kept alive by a power genuinely Christian.</p> - -<p class='c010'>But it is idle to attempt to carry Christian influences to any one -unless we are Christian. The first step, therefore, toward the desired -transformation of the Indian is a transformed treatment of -him by ourselves. In sober earnest, our Government needs, first of -all, to be Christian, and to treat the Indian question as Christian -principles require. This means at the outset that we should be -honest, and not talk about maintaining our rights until we are -willing to fulfil our obligations. It means that we should be kind, -and quite as eager to give the Indian what is ours as to get what -is his. It means that we should be wise, and patient, and persevering, -abandoning all makeshifts and temporary expedients, and -setting it before us as our fixed aim to act toward him as a brother, -until he shall act as a brother toward us. There is no use to -attempt to teach Christian duty to him in words till he has first -seen it exemplified in our own deeds.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The true Christian principle of self-forgetful honesty and kindness, -clearly and continuously exhibited, is the first requisite of -true statesmanship in the treatment of the Indian question. This -would not require, however, the immediate entrance of the Indian -upon all the privileges of citizenship and self-direction. Christianized -though he might be, he would need for a longer or shorter -time guardianship like a child. A wise care for his own interests -could not be expected of him at the outset, and the Government -should care for him with wise forethought. Obedience to -the law should be required of him, and the protection of the law -afforded him. The jurisdiction of the courts and the presence of -the Government should be felt in the Indian Territory and upon -every Indian reservation as powerfully as in the most enlightened -portions of the land. The court should go as early as the school, -if not before, and is itself an educational agency of incalculable -importance.</p> - -<p class='c010'>When the Indian, through wise and Christian treatment, becomes -invested with all the rights and duties of citizenship, his -special tribal relations will become extinct. This will not be -easily nor rapidly done; but all our policy should be shaped toward -the gradual loosening of the tribal bond, and the gradual -absorption of the Indian families among the masses of our people. -This would involve the bringing to an end of the whole system -of Indian reservations, and would forbid the continued isolation -<a id='Page_4'></a>of the Indian Territory. It is not wise statesmanship to create -impassable barriers between any parts of our country or any portions -of our people.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Very difficult questions demanding very careful treatment arise -in reference to just this point. Certain Indian tribes now own certain -Indian reservations and the Indian Territory, and this right -of property ought to be most sacredly guarded. But it does not, -therefore, follow that these Indians, in their present state, ought -to control the present use of this property. They may need a -long training before they are wise enough to manage rightfully -what is nevertheless rightfully their own. This training, to -which their property might fairly contribute means, should assiduously -be given in established schools with required attendance.</p> - -<p class='c010'>If the results thus indicated shall gradually come to pass, the -property now owned by the tribes should be ultimately divided -and held in severalty by the individual members of the tribes. -Such a division should not be immediately made, and, when -made, it should be with great care and faithfulness; but the -Indian himself should, as soon as may be, feel both the incentives -and the restraints which an individual ownership of property -is fitted to excite, and the Government, which is his guardian, -having educated him for this ownership, should endow him -with it. But until the Indian becomes as able as is the average -white man to manage his property for himself, the Government -should manage it for him, no matter whether he be willing or unwilling -to have this done.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A difficulty arises in the cases—of which there are many—where -treaties have been made by the Government of the United -States with different Indian tribes, wherein the two parties have -agreed to certain definitely named stipulations. Such treaties -have proceeded upon the false view—false in principle, and equally -false in fact—that an Indian tribe, roaming in the wilderness -and living by hunting and plunder, is a nation. In order to be a -nation, there must be a people with a code of laws which they -practise, and a government which they maintain. No vague sense -of some unwritten law, to which human nature, in its lowest stages, -doubtless feels some obligation, and no regulations instinctively -adopted for common defence, which the rudest people herded together -will always follow, are enough to constitute a nation. -These Indian tribes are not a nation, and nothing either in their -history or their condition could properly invest them with a treaty-making -power.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_5'></a>And yet when exigencies have seemed to require, we have -treated them as nations, and have pledged our own national faith -in solemn covenant with them. It were the baldest truism to -say that this faith and covenant should be fulfilled. Of course it -should be fulfilled. It is to our own unspeakable disgrace that -we have so often failed therein. But it becomes us wisely and -honestly to inquire whether the spirit of these agreements might -not be falsified by their letter, and whether, in order to give the -Indian his real rights, it may not be necessary to set aside prerogatives -to which he might technically and formally lay claim. If the -Indian Territory and the Indian reservations have been given to -certain tribes as their possession forever, the sacredness of this -guarantee should not shut our eyes to the sacredness also of the -real interests of the people in whose behalf the guarantee was -given. We ought not to lose the substance in our efforts to retain -the shadow; we ought not to insist upon the <i>summum jus</i>, -when this would become the <i>summa injuria</i>.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Of course the utmost caution is needed in the application of -such a principle. To admit that a treaty with the Indians may -be set aside without the consent of the Indians themselves, is to -open the door again to the same frauds and falsehoods which -have so darkly branded a "Century of Dishonor." But our great -trouble has been that we have sought to exact justice from the -Indian while exhibiting no justice to him; and when we shall -manifest that all our procedure toward him is in truth and uprightness, -we need have no fear but that both his conscience and -his judgment will in the end approve.</p> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Julius H. Seelye.</span></div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Amherst College</span>, <i>December 10, 1880</i>.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_7'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>AUTHOR'S NOTE.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>All the quotations in this book, where the name of the authority -is not cited, are from Official Reports of the War Department -or the Department of the Interior.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The book gives, as its title indicates, only a sketch, and not a -history.</p> - -<p class='c010'>To write in full the history of any one of these Indian communities, -of its forced migrations, wars, and miseries, would fill a volume -by itself.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The history of the missionary labors of the different churches -among the Indians would make another volume. It is the one -bright spot on the dark record.</p> - -<p class='c010'>All this I have been forced to leave untouched, in strict adherence -to my object, which has been simply to show our causes -for national shame in the matter of our treatment of the Indians. -It is a shame which the American nation ought not to lie under, -for the American people, as a people, are not at heart unjust.</p> - -<p class='c010'>If there be one thing which they believe in more than any -other, and mean that every man on this continent shall have, it is -"fair play." And as soon as they fairly understand how cruelly -it has been denied to the Indian, they will rise up and demand it -for him.</p> -<div class='c011'>H. H.</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><a id='Page_9'></a>A CENTURY OF DISHONOR.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER I.<br /> <br />INTRODUCTORY.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>The question of the honorableness of the United States' -dealings with the Indians turns largely on a much disputed and -little understood point. What was the nature of the Indians' -right to the country in which they were living when the continent -of North America was discovered? Between the theory -of some sentimentalists that the Indians were the real owners -of the soil, and the theory of some politicians that they had -no right of ownership whatever in it, there are innumerable -grades and confusions of opinion. The only authority on the -point must be the view and usage as accepted by the great discovering -Powers at the time of discovery, and afterward in -their disposition of the lands discovered.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Fortunately, an honest examination of these points leaves no -doubt on the matter.</p> - -<p class='c010'>England, France, Spain, little Portugal—all quarrelling fiercely, -and fighting with each other for the biggest share in the -new continent—each claiming "sovereignty of the soil" by -right of priority of discovery—all recognized the Indians' -"right of occupancy" as a right; a right alienable in but two -ways, either by purchase or by conquest.</p> - -<p class='c010'>All their discussions as to boundaries, from 1603 down to -<a id='Page_10'></a>1776, recognized this right and this principle. They reiterated, -firstly, that discoverers had the right of sovereignty—a -right in so far absolute that the discoverer was empowered by -it not only to take possession of, but to grant, sell, and convey -lands still occupied by Indians—and that for any nation to -attempt to take possession of, grant, sell, or convey any such -Indian-occupied lands while said lands were claimed by other -nations under the right of discovery, was an infringement of -rights, and just occasion of war; secondly, that all this granting, -selling, conveying was to be understood to be "subject to -the Indians' right of occupancy," which remained to be extinguished -either through further purchase or through conquest -by the grantee or purchaser.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Peters, in his preface to the seventh volume of the "United -States Statutes at Large," says, "The history of America, from -its discovery to the present day, proves the universal recognition -of these principles."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Each discovering Power might regulate the relations between -herself and the Indians; but as to the existence of the -Indians' "right of occupancy," there was absolute unanimity -among them. That there should have been unanimity regarding -any one thing between them, is remarkable. It is impossible -for us to realize what a sudden invitation to greed and -discord lay in this fair, beautiful, unclaimed continent—eight -millions of square miles of land—more than twice the size of -all Europe itself. What a lure to-day would such another new -continent prove! The fighting over it would be as fierce now -as the fighting was then, and the "right of occupancy" of the -natives would stand small chance of such unanimous recognition -as the four Great Powers then justly gave it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Of the fairness of holding that ultimate sovereignty belonged -to the civilized discoverer, as against the savage barbarian, -there is no manner nor ground of doubt. To question -this is feeble sentimentalism. But to affirm and uphold this -<a id='Page_11'></a>is not in any wise to overlook the lesser right which remained; -as good, of its kind, and to its extent, as was the greater right -to which, in the just nature of things, it was bound to give -way.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It being clear, then, that the Indians' "right of occupancy" -was a right recognized by all the great discovering Powers, -acted upon by them in all their dispositions of lands here discovered, -it remains next to inquire whether the United States -Government, on taking its place among the nations, also recognized -or accepted this Indian "right of occupancy" as an actual -right. Upon this point, also, there is no doubt.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"By the treaty which concluded the War of our Revolution, -Great Britain relinquished all claims not only to the government, -but to the proprietary and territorial rights of the United -States whose boundaries were fixed in the second Article. -By this treaty the powers of the government and the right to -soil which had previously been in Great Britain passed definitely -to these States. We had before taken possession of -them by declaring independence, but neither the declaration of -independence nor the treaty confirming it could give us more -than that which we before possessed, or to which Great Britain -was before entitled. It has never been doubted that either the -United States or the several States had a clear title to all the -lands within the boundary-lines described in the treaty, subject -only to the Indian right of occupancy, and that the exclusive -right to extinguish that right was vested in that government -which might constitutionally exercise it."<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c012'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>"Subject to the Indian right of occupancy." It is noticeable -how perpetually this phrase reappears. In their desire to -define, assert, and enforce the greater right, the "right of sovereignty," -the makers, interpreters, and recorders of law did -not realize, probably, how clearly and equally they were defining, -<a id='Page_12'></a>asserting, and enforcing the lesser right, the "right of -occupancy."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Probably they did not so much as dream that a time would -come when even this lesser right—this least of all rights, it -would seem, which could be claimed by, or conceded to, an -aboriginal inhabitant of a country, however savage—would be -practically denied to our Indians. But if they had foreseen -such a time, they could hardly have left more explicit testimony -to meet the exigency.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The United States have unequivocally acceded to that -great and broad rule by which its civilized inhabitants now -hold this country. They hold and assert in themselves the -title by which it was acquired. They maintain, as all others -have maintained, that discovery gave an exclusive right to extinguish -the Indian title of occupancy, either by purchase or -conquest, and gave also a right to such a degree of sovereignty -as the circumstances of the people would allow them to exercise.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The power now possessed by the United States to grant -lands resided, while we were colonies, in the Crown or its grantees. -The validity of the titles given by either has never been -questioned in our courts. It has been exercised uniformly over -territories in possession of the Indians. The existence of this -power must negative the existence of any right which may -conflict with and control it. An absolute title to lands cannot -exist at the same time in different persons or in different -governments. An absolute must be an exclusive title, or at -least a title which excludes all others not compatible with it. -All our institutions recognize the absolute title of the Crown, -subject only to the Indian right of occupancy, and recognize -the absolute title of the Crown to extinguish the right. This -is incompatible with an absolute and complete title in the Indians."<a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c012'><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_13'></a>Certainly. But it is also "incompatible with an absolute -and perfect title" in the white man! Here again, in their desire -to define and enforce the greater right, by making it so -clear that it included the lesser one, they equally define and -enforce the lesser right as a thing to be included. The word -"subject" is a strong participle when it is used legally. Provisions -are made in wills, "subject to" a widow's right of -dower, for instance, and the provisions cannot be carried out -without the consent of the person to whom they are thus declared -to be "subject." A title which is pronounced to be -"subject to" anything or anybody cannot be said to be absolute -till that subjection is removed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There have been some definitions and limitations by high -legal authority of the methods in which this Indian "right of -occupancy" might be extinguished even by conquest.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The title by conquest is acquired and maintained by force. -The conqueror prescribes its limits. Humanity, however, acting -on public opinion, has established as a general rule that the -conquered shall not be wantonly oppressed, and that their condition -shall remain as eligible as is compatible with the objects -of the conquest. Usually they are incorporated with the victorious -nation, and become subjects or citizens of the government -with which they are connected. *** When this incorporation -is practicable, humanity demands, and a wise policy -requires, that the rights of the conquered to property should -remain unimpaired; that the new subjects should be governed -as equitably as the old. *** When the conquest is complete, -and the conquered inhabitants can be blended with the conquerors, -or safely governed as a distinct people, public opinion, -which not even the conqueror can disregard, imposes these restraints -upon him, and he cannot neglect them without injury -to his fame, and hazard to his power."<a id='r3' /><a href='#f3' class='c012'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_14'></a>In the sadly famous case of the removal of the Cherokee -tribe from Georgia, it is recorded as the opinion of our Supreme -Court that "the Indians are acknowledged to have an -unquestionable, and heretofore unquestioned, right to the lands -they occupy until that right shall be extinguished by a voluntary -cession to the Government." *** "The Indian nations -have always been considered as distinct independent political -communities, retaining their original natural rights as the undisputed -possessors of the soil, from time immemorial, with the -single exception of that imposed by irresistible power, which -excluded them from intercourse with any other European potentate -than the first discoverer of the coast of the particular -region claimed; and this was a restriction which those European -potentates imposed on themselves as well as on the -Indians. The very term 'nation,' so generally applied to -them, means 'a people distinct from others.' The Constitution, -by declaring treaties already made, as well as those to be -made, to be the supreme law of the land, has adopted and -sanctioned the previous treaties with the Indian nations, and -consequently admits their rank among those powers who are -capable of making treaties. The words 'treaty' and 'nation' -are words of our own language, selected in our diplomatic -and legislative proceedings by ourselves, having each a -definite and well understood meaning. We have applied them -to Indians as we have applied them to other nations of the -earth. They are applied to all in the same sense."<a id='r4' /><a href='#f4' class='c012'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>In another decision of the Supreme Court we find still -greater emphasis put upon the Indian right of occupancy, by -stating it as a right, the observance of which was stipulated for -in treaties between the United States and other nations.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"When the United States acquired and took possession of -the Floridas, the treaties which had been made with the Indian -<a id='Page_15'></a>tribes before the acquisition of the territory by Spain and -Great Britain remained in force over all the ceded territory, as -the law which regulated the relations with all the Indians who -were parties to them, and were binding on the United States -by the obligation they had assumed by the Louisiana treaty as -a supreme law of the land.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The treaties with Spain and England before the acquisition -of Florida by the United States, which guaranteed to the Seminole -Indians their lands, according to the right of property -with which they possessed them, were adopted by the United -States, who thus became the protectors of all the rights they -(the Indians) had previously enjoyed, or could of right enjoy, -under Great Britain or Spain, as individuals or nations, by any -treaty to which the United States thus became parties in -1803. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The Indian right to the lands as property was not merely -of possession; that of alienation was concomitant; both were -equally secured, protected, and guaranteed by Great Britain -and Spain, subject only to ratification and confirmation by the -license, charter, or deed from the government representing the -king." ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>The laws made it necessary, when the Indians sold their -lands, to have the deeds presented to the governor for confirmation. -The sales by the Indians transferred the kind of right -which they possessed; the ratification of the sale by the governor -must be regarded as a relinquishment of the title of -the Crown to the purchaser, and no instance is known of refusal -of permission to sell, or of the rejection of an Indian -sale.<a id='r5' /><a href='#f5' class='c012'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>"The colonial charters, a great portion of the individual -grants by the proprietary and royal governments, and a still -greater portion by the States of the Union after the Revolution, -<a id='Page_16'></a>were made for lands within the Indian hunting-grounds. -North Carolina and Virginia, to a great extent, paid their officers -and soldiers of the Revolutionary War by such grants, -and extinguished the arrears due the army by similar means. -It was one of the great resources which sustained the war, not -only by those States but by other States. The ultimate fee, -encumbered with the right of occupancy, was in the Crown -previous to the Revolution, and in the States afterward, and -subject to grant. This right of occupancy was protected by -the political power, and respected by the courts until extinguished." -*** "So the Supreme Court and the State courts -have uniformly held."<a id='r6' /><a href='#f6' class='c012'><sup>[6]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>President Adams, in his Message of 1828, thus describes the -policy of the United States toward the Indians at that time:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"At the establishment of the Federal Government the principle -was adopted of considering them as foreign and independent -powers, and also as proprietors of lands. As independent -powers, we negotiated with them by treaties; as proprietors, -we purchased of them all the land which we could -prevail on them to sell; as brethren of the human race, rude -and ignorant, we endeavored to bring them to the knowledge -of religion and letters."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Kent says: "The European nations which, respectively, established -colonies in America, assumed the ultimate dominion -to be in themselves, and claimed the exclusive right to grant a -title to the soil, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy. -The natives were admitted to be the rightful occupants of the -soil, with a <i>legal</i> as well as just claim to retain possession of -it, and to use it according to their own discretion, though not -to dispose of the soil at their own will, except to the government -claiming the right of pre-emption." *** "The United -States adopted the same principle; and their exclusive right to -<a id='Page_17'></a>extinguish the Indian title by purchase or conquest, and to -grant the soil and exercise such a degree of sovereignty as circumstances -required, has never been judicially questioned."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Kent also says, after giving the Supreme Court decision in -the case of Johnson <i>vs.</i> M'Intosh: "The same court has since -been repeatedly called upon to discuss and decide great questions -concerning Indian rights and title, and the subject has of -late become exceedingly grave and momentous, affecting the -faith and the character, if not the tranquillity and safety, of -the Government of the United States."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In Gardner's "Institutes of International Law" the respective -rights to land of the Indians and the whites are thus -summed up: "In our Union the aborigines had only a possessory -title, and in the original thirteen States each owned in -fee, <i>subject to the Indian right</i>, all ungranted lands within their -respective limits; and beyond the States the residue of the -ungranted lands were vested in fee in the United States, <i>subject -to the Indian possessory</i> right, to the extent of the national -limits."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Dr. Walker, in his "American Law," makes a still briefer -summary: "The American doctrine on the subject of Indian -title is briefly this: The Indians have no fee in the lands they -occupy. The fee is in the Government. They cannot, of -course, aliene them either to nations or individuals, the exclusive -right of pre-emption being in the Government. Yet -they have a qualified right of occupancy which can only be <i>extinguished -by treaty, and upon fair compensation</i>; until which -they are entitled to be protected in their possession."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Abbott's Digest," one of the very latest authorities, reiterates -the same principle: "The right of occupancy has been -recognized in countless ways, among others by many decisions -of courts and opinions of attorney-generals."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It being thus established that the Indian's "right of occupancy" -in his lands was a right recognized by all the Great -<a id='Page_18'></a>Powers discovering this continent, and accepted by them as a -right necessary to be extinguished either by purchase or conquest, -and that the United States, as a nation, has also from -the beginning recognized, accepted, and acted upon this theory, -it is next in order to inquire whether the United States has -dealt honorably or dishonorably by the Indians in this matter -of their recognized "right of occupancy."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In regard to the actions of individuals there is rarely much -room for discussion whether they be honorable or dishonorable, -the standard of honor in men's conduct being, among -the civilized, uniform, well understood, and undisputed. Stealing, -for instance, is everywhere held to be dishonorable, as -well as impolitic; lying, also, in all its forms; breaking of -promises and betrayals of trust are scorned even among the -most ignorant people. But when it comes to the discussion of -the acts of nations, there seems to be less clearness of conception, -less uniformity of standard of right and wrong, honor -and dishonor. It is necessary, therefore, in charging a government -or nation with dishonorable conduct, to show that -its moral standard ought in nowise to differ from the moral -standard of an individual; that what is cowardly, cruel, base -in a man, is cowardly, cruel, base in a government or nation. -To do this, it is only needful to look into the history of the -accepted "Law of Nations," from the days of the Emperor -Justinian until now.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Roman jurisconsults employed as synonymous, says -Wheaton, "the two expressions, 'jus gentium,' that law which -is found among all the known nations of the earth, and 'jus -naturale,' founded on the general nature of mankind; nevertheless, -of these two forms of the same idea, the first ought to -be considered as predominant, since it as well as the 'jus civile' -was a positive law, the origin and development of which must -be sought for in history."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nations being simply, as Vattel defines them, "societies of -<a id='Page_19'></a>men united together," it is plain that, if there be such a thing -as the "law of nature," which men as individuals are bound to -obey, that law is also obligatory on the "societies" made up -of men thus "united."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Hobbes divides the law of nature into that of man and that -of States, saying, "The maxims of each of these laws are precisely -the same; but as States, once established, assume personal -properties, that which is termed the natural law when we -speak of the duties of individuals is called the law of nations -when applied to whole nations or States." The Emperor Justinian -said, "The law of nations is common to the whole human -race."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Grotius draws the distinction between the law of nature and -the law of nations thus: "When several persons at different -times and in various places maintain the same thing as certain, -such coincidence of sentiment must be attributed to some general -cause. Now, in the questions before us, that cause must -necessarily be one or the other of these two—either a just consequence -drawn from natural principles, or a universal consent; -the former discovers to us the law of nature, and the latter the -law of nations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Vattel defines the "necessary law of nations" to be the "application -of the law of nature to nations." He says: "It is -'necessary,' because nations are absolutely bound to observe it. -This law contains the precepts prescribed by the law of nature -to States, on whom that law is not less obligatory than on individuals; -since States are composed of men, their resolutions are -taken by men, and the law of nations is binding on all men, -under whatever relation they act. This is the law which -Grotius, and those who follow him, call the Internal Law of -Nations, on account of its being obligatory on nations in the -point of conscience."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Vattel says again: "Nations being composed of men naturally -free and independent, and who before the establishment of -<a id='Page_20'></a>civil societies lived together in the state of nature, nations or -sovereign States are to be considered as so many free persons -living together in the state of nature."</p> - -<p class='c010'>And again: "Since men are naturally equal, and a perfect -equality prevails in their right and obligations as equally proceeding -from nature, nations composed of men, and considered -as so many free persons living together in the state of nature, -are naturally equal, and inherit from nature the same obligations -and rights. Power or weakness does not in this respect -produce any difference. A dwarf is as much a man as a giant; -a small republic no less a sovereign State than the most powerful -kingdom."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In these two last sentences is touched the key-note of the -true law of nations, as well as of the true law for individuals—justice. -There is among some of the later writers on jurisprudence -a certain fashion of condescending speech in their -quotations from Vattel. As years have gone on, and States -have grown more powerful, and their relations more complicated -by reason of selfishness and riches, less and less has been -said about the law of nature as a component and unalterable -part of the law of nations. Fine subtleties of definition, of -limitation have been attempted. Hundreds of pages are full -of apparently learned discriminations between the parts of that -law which are based on the law of nature and the parts which -are based on the consent and usage of nations. But the two -cannot be separated. No amount of legality of phrase can do -away with the inalienable truth underlying it. Wheaton and -President Woolsey to-day say, in effect, the same thing which -Grotius said in 1615, and Vattel in 1758.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Says Wheaton: "International law, as understood among -civilized nations, may be defined as consisting of those rules of -conduct which reason deduces as consonant to justice from the -nature of the society existing among independent nations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>President Woolsey says: "International law, in a wide and -<a id='Page_21'></a>abstract sense, would embrace those rules of intercourse between -nations which are deduced from their rights and moral -claims; or, in other words, it is the expression of the jural -and moral relations of States to one another.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"If international law were not made up of rules for which -reasons could be given satisfactory to man's intellectual and -moral nature, if it were not built on principles of right, it -would be even less of a science than is the code which governs -the actions of polite society."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is evident, therefore, that the one fundamental right, of -which the "law of nations" is at once the expression and the -guardian, is the right of every nation to just treatment from -other nations, the right of even the smallest republic equally -with "the most powerful kingdom." Just as the one fundamental -right, of which civil law is the expression and guardian, -is the right of each individual to just treatment from every -other individual: a right indefeasible, inalienable, in nowise -lessened by weakness or strengthened by power—as majestic -in the person of "the dwarf" as in that of "the giant."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Of justice, Vattel says: "Justice is the basis of all society, -the sure bond of all commerce. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"All nations are under a strict obligation to cultivate justice -toward each other, to observe it scrupulously and carefully, -to abstain from anything that may violate it. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The right of refusing to submit to injustice, of resisting -injustice by force if necessary, is part of the law of nature, and -as such recognized by the law of nations.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In vain would Nature give us a right to refuse submitting -to injustice, in vain would she oblige others to be just in their -dealings with us, if we could not lawfully make use of force -when they refused to discharge this duty. The just would lie -at the mercy of avarice and injustice, and all their rights would -soon become useless. From the foregoing right arise, as two -distinct branches, first, the right of a just defence, which belongs -<a id='Page_22'></a>to every nation, or the right of making war against whoever -attacks her and her rights; and this is the foundation of -defensive war. Secondly, the right to obtain justice by force, -if we cannot obtain it otherwise, or to pursue our right by force -of arms. This is the foundation of offensive war."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Justice is pledged by men to each other by means of promises -or contracts; what promises and contracts are between -men, treaties are between nations.</p> - -<p class='c010'>President Woolsey says: "A contract is one of the highest -acts of human free-will: it is the will binding itself in regard -to the future, and surrendering its right to change a certain -expressed intention, so that it becomes, morally and jurally, a -wrong to act otherwise.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"National contracts are even more solemn and sacred than -private ones, on account of the great interests involved; of the -deliberateness with which the obligations are assumed; of the -permanence and generality of the obligations, measured by the -national life, and including thousands of particular cases; and -of each nation's calling, under God, to be a teacher of right to -all, within and without its borders."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Vattel says: "It is a settled point in natural law that he -who has made a promise to any one has conferred upon him a -real right to require the thing promised; and, consequently, -that the breach of a perfect promise is a violation of another -person's right, and as evidently an act of injustice as it would -be to rob a man of his property. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"There would no longer be any security, no longer any commerce -between mankind, if they did not think themselves obliged -to keep faith with each other, and to perform their promises."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is evident that the whole weight of the recognized and -accepted law of nations is thrown on the side of justice between -nation and nation, and is the recognized and accepted -standard of the obligation involved in compacts between nation -and nation.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_23'></a>We must look, then, among the accepted declarations of the -law of nations for the just and incontrovertible measure of the -shame of breaking national compacts, and of the wickedness of -the nations that dare to do it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>We shall go back to the earliest days of the world, and find -no dissent from, no qualification of the verdict of the infamy -of such acts. Livy says of leagues: "Leagues are such agreements -as are made by the command of the supreme power, and -whereby the whole nation is made liable to the wrath of God -if they infringe it."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Grotius opens his "Admonition," in conclusion of the third -book of his famous "Rights of War and Peace," as follows: -"'For it is by faith,' saith Cicero, 'that not commonwealths -only, but that grand society of nations is maintained.' 'Take -away this,' saith Aristotle, 'and all human commerce fails.' -It is, therefore, an execrable thing to break faith on which so -many lives depend. 'It is,' saith Seneca, 'the best ornament -wherewith God hath beautified the rational soul; the strongest -support of human society, which ought so much the more inviolably -to be kept by sovereign princes by how much they -may sin with greater license and impunity than other men. -Wherefore take away faith, and men are more fierce and cruel -than savage beasts, whose rage all men do horribly dread. Justice, -indeed, in all other of her parts hath something that is -obscure; but that whereunto we engage our faith is of itself -clear and evident; yea, and to this very end do men pawn -their faith, that in their negotiations one with another all -doubts may be taken away, and every scruple removed. How -much more, then, doth it concern kings to keep their faith inviolate, -as well for conscience' sake as in regard to their honor -and reputation, wherein consists the authority of a kingdom.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>Vattel says: "Treaties are no better than empty words, if -nations do not consider them as respectable engagements, as -<a id='Page_24'></a>rules which are to be inviolably observed by sovereigns, and -held sacred throughout the whole earth.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The faith of treaties—that firm and sincere resolution, that -invariable constancy in fulfilling our engagements, of which we -make profession in a treaty—is therefore to be held sacred and -inviolable between the nations of the earth, whose safety and -repose it secures; and if mankind be not wilfully deficient in -their duty to themselves, infamy must ever be the portion of -him who violates his faith. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He who violates his treaties, violates at the same time the -law of nations, for he disregards the faith of treaties, that faith -which the law of nations declares sacred; and, so far as dependent -on him, he renders it vain and ineffectual. Doubly -guilty, he does an injury to his ally, and he does an injury to -all nations, and inflicts a wound on the great society of mankind. -***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"On the observance and execution of treaties," said a respectable -sovereign, "depends all the security which princes -and States have with respect to each other, and no dependence -could henceforward be placed in future conventions if the existing -ones were not to be observed."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is sometimes said, by those seeking to defend, or at least -palliate, the United States Government's repeated disregard of -its treaties with the Indians, that no Congress can be held responsible -for the acts of the Congress preceding it, or can bind -the Congress following it; or, in other words, that each Congress -may, if it chooses, undo all that has been done by previous -Congresses. However true this may be of some legislative -acts, it is clearly not true, according to the principles of international -law, of treaties.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On this point Vattel says: "Since public treaties, even those -of a personal nature, concluded by a king, or by another sovereign -who is invested with sufficient power, are treaties of -State, and obligatory on the whole nation, real treaties, which -<a id='Page_25'></a>were intended to subsist independently of the person who has -concluded them, are undoubtedly binding on his successors; -and the obligation which such treaties impose on the State -passes successively to all her rulers as soon as they assume the -public authority. The case is the same with respect to the -rights acquired by those treaties. They are acquired for the -State, and successively pass to her conductors."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Von Martens says: "Treaties, properly so called, are either -personal or real. They are personal when their continuation -in force depends on the person of the sovereign or his family, -with whom they have been contracted. They are real when -their duration depends on the State, independently of the person -who contracts. Consequently, all treaties between republics -must be real. All treaties made for a time specified or -forever are real. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"This division is of the greatest importance, because real -treaties never cease to be obligatory, except in cases where all -treaties become invalid. Every successor to the sovereignty, in -virtue of whatever title he may succeed, is obliged to observe -them without their being renewed at his accession."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Wheaton says: "They (treaties) continue to bind the State, -whatever intervening changes may take place in its internal -constitution or in the persons of its rulers. The State continues -the same, notwithstanding such change, and consequently -the treaty relating to national objects remains in force so long -as the nation exists as an independent State."</p> - -<p class='c010'>There is no disagreement among authorities on this point. -It is also said by some, seeking to defend or palliate the United -States Government's continuous violations of its treaties -with the Indians, that the practice of all nations has been and -is to abrogate a treaty whenever it saw good reason for doing -so. This is true; but the treaties have been done away with -in one of two ways, either by a mutual and peaceful agreement -to that effect between the parties who had made it—the treaty -<a id='Page_26'></a>being considered in force until the consent of both parties to -its abrogation had been given—or by a distinct avowal on the -part of one nation of its intention no longer to abide by it, -and to take, therefore, its chances of being made war upon in -consequence. Neither of these courses has been pursued by -the United States Government in its treaty-breaking with the -Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Vattel says, on the dissolution of treaties: "Treaties may be -dissolved by mutual consent at the free-will of the contracting -powers."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Grotius says: "If either party violate the League, the other -party is freed; because each Article of the League hath the -form and virtue of a condition."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Kent says: "The violation of any one article of a treaty is -a violation of the whole treaty. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It is a principle of universal jurisprudence that a compact -cannot be rescinded by one party only, if the other party does -not consent to rescind it, and does no act to destroy it. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"To recommence a war by breach of the articles of peace, is -deemed much more odious than to provoke a war by some -new demand or aggression; for the latter is simply injustice, -but in the former case the party is guilty both of perfidy and -injustice."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is also said, with unanswerable irrelevancy, by some who -seek to defend or palliate the United States Government's continuous -violation of its treaties with the Indians, that it was, -in the first place, absurd to make treaties with them at all, to -consider them in any sense as treaty-making powers or nations. -The logic of this assertion, made as a justification for -the breaking of several hundred treaties, concluded at different -times during the last hundred years, and broken as fast as -concluded, seems almost equal to that of the celebrated defence -in the case of the kettle, which was cracked when it was -lent, whole when returned, and, in fact, was never borrowed at -<a id='Page_27'></a>all. It would be a waste of words to reason with minds that -can see in this position any shelter for the United States Government -against the accusation of perfidy in its treaty relations -with the Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The statement is undoubtedly a true one, that the Indians, -having been placed in the anomalous position as tribes, of "domestic -dependent nations," and as individuals, in the still more -anomalous position of adult "wards," have not legally possessed -the treaty-making power. Our right to put them, or -to consider them to be in those anomalous positions, might -be successfully disputed; but they, helpless, having accepted -such positions, did, no doubt, thereby lose their right to be -treated with as nations. Nevertheless, that is neither here nor -there now: as soon as our Government was established, it proceeded -to treat with them as nations by name and designation, -and with precisely the same forms and ratifications that it used -in treating with other nations; and it continued to treat with -them as nations by name and designation, and with continually -increasing solemnity of asseveration of good intent and good -faith, for nearly a century. The robbery, the cruelty which -were done under the cloak of this hundred years of treaty-making -and treaty-breaking, are greater than can be told. -Neither mountains nor deserts stayed them; it took two seas -to set their bounds.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1871, Congress, either ashamed of making treaties only -to break them, or grudging the time, money, and paper it -wasted, passed an act to the effect that no Indian tribe should -hereafter be considered as a foreign nation with whom the -United States might contract by treaty. There seems to have -been at the time, in the minds of the men who passed this -act, a certain shadowy sense of some obligation being involved -in treaties; for they added to the act a proviso that it should -not be construed as invalidating any treaties already made. -But this sense of obligation must have been as short-lived as -<a id='Page_28'></a>shadowy, and could have had no element of shame in it, since -they forthwith proceeded, unabashed, to negotiate still more -treaties with Indians, and break them; for instance, the so-called -"Brunot Treaty" with the Ute Indians in Colorado, and -one with the Crow Indians in Montana—both made in the -summer of 1873. They were called at the time "conventions" -or "agreements," and not "treaties;" but the difference -is only in name.</p> - -<p class='c010'>They stated, in a succession of numbered articles, promises -of payment of moneys, and surrenders and cessions of land, -by both parties; were to be ratified by Congress before taking -effect; and were understood by the Indians agreeing to them -to be as binding as if they had been called treaties. The fact -that no man's sense of justice openly revolted against such -subterfuges, under the name of agreements, is only to be explained -by the deterioration of the sense of honor in the nation. -In the days of Grotius there were men who failed to -see dishonor in a trick if profit came of it, and of such he -wrote in words whose truth might sting to-day as, no doubt, -it stung then:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Whereas there are many that think it superfluous to require -that justice from a free people or their governors which -they exact daily from private men, the ground of this error is -this: because these men respect nothing in the law but the -profit that ariseth from it, which in private persons, being -single and unable to defend themselves, is plain and evident; -but for great cities, that seem to have within themselves all -things necessary for their own well-being, it doth not so plainly -appear that they have any need of that virtue called justice -which respects strangers."</p> - -<p class='c010'>These extracts from unquestioned authorities on international -law prove that we may hold nations to standards of justice -and good faith as we hold men; that the standards are the -same in each case; and that a nation that steals and lies and -<a id='Page_29'></a>breaks promises, will no more be respected or unpunished than -a man who steals and lies and breaks promises. It is possible -to go still farther than this, and to show that a nation habitually -guilty of such conduct might properly be dealt with therefore -by other nations, by nations in no wise suffering on account -of her bad faith, except as all nations suffer when the interests -of human society are injured.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The interest of human society," says Vattel, "would authorize -all the other nations to form a confederacy, in order to -humble and chastise the delinquent." *** When a nation -"regards no right as sacred, the safety of the human race requires -that she should be repressed. To form and support an -unjust pretension is not only doing an injury to the party -whose interests are affected by that pretension; but to despise -justice in general is doing an injury to all nations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The history of the United States Government's repeated violations -of faith with the Indians thus convicts us, as a nation, -not only of having outraged the principles of justice, which are -the basis of international law; and of having laid ourselves -open to the accusation of both cruelty and perfidy; but of -having made ourselves liable to all punishments which follow -upon such sins—to arbitrary punishment at the hands of any -civilized nation who might see fit to call us to account, and to -that more certain natural punishment which, sooner or later, as -surely comes from evil-doing as harvests come from sown seed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>To prove all this it is only necessary to study the history of -any one of the Indian tribes. I propose to give in the following -chapters merely outline sketches of the history of a few of -them, not entering more into details than is necessary to show -the repeated broken faith of the United States Government toward -them. A full history of the wrongs they have suffered -at the hands of the authorities, military and civil, and also of -the citizens of this country, it would take years to write and -volumes to hold.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_30'></a>There is but one hope of righting this wrong. It lies in -appeal to the heart and the conscience of the American people. -What the people demand, Congress will do. It has been—to -our shame be it spoken—at the demand of part of the people -that all these wrongs have been committed, these treaties broken, -these robberies done, by the Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'>So long as there remains on our frontier one square mile of -land occupied by a weak and helpless owner, there will be a -strong and unscrupulous frontiersman ready to seize it, and a -weak and unscrupulous politician, who can be hired for a vote -or for money, to back him.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The only thing that can stay this is a mighty outspoken -sentiment and purpose of the great body of the people. Right -sentiment and right purpose in a Senator here and there, and -a Representative here and there, are little more than straws -which make momentary eddies, but do not obstruct the tide. -The precedents of a century's unhindered and profitable robbery -have mounted up into a very Gibraltar of defence and -shelter to those who care for nothing but safety and gain. -That such precedents should be held, and openly avowed as -standards, is only one more infamy added to the list. Were -such logic employed in the case of an individual man, how -quick would all men see its enormity. Suppose that a man -had had the misfortune to be born into a family whose name -had been blackened by generations of criminals; that his father, -his grandfather, and his great-grandfather before them had -lived in prisons, and died on scaffolds, should that man say -in his soul, "Go to! What is the use? I also will commit -robbery and murder, and get the same gain by it which my -family must have done?" Or shall he say in his soul, "God -help me! I will do what may be within the power of one -man, and the compass of one generation, to atone for the -wickedness, and to make clean the name of my dishonored -house!"</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_31'></a>What an opportunity for the Congress of 1880 to cover itself -with a lustre of glory, as the first to cut short our nation's -record of cruelties and perjuries! the first to attempt to redeem -the name of the United States from the stain of a century -of dishonor!</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_32'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER II.<br /> <br />THE DELAWARES.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>When Hendrik Hudson anchored his ship, the <i>Half Moon</i>, -off New York Island in 1609, the Delawares stood in great -numbers on the shore to receive him, exclaiming, in their innocence, -"Behold! the gods have come to visit us!"</p> - -<p class='c010'>More than a hundred years later, the traditions of this event -were still current in the tribe. The aged Moravian missionary, -Heckewelder, writing in 1818, says:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I at one time, in April, 1787, was astonished when I heard -one of their orators, a great chief of the Delawares, Pachgants-chilias -by name, go over this ground, recapitulating the most -extraordinary events which had before happened, and concluding -in these words: 'I admit that there are good white men, -but they bear no proportion to the bad; the bad must be the -strongest, for they rule. They do what they please. They enslave -those who are not of their color, although created by the -same Great Spirit who created them. They would make slaves -of us if they could; but as they cannot do it, they kill us. -There is no faith to be placed in their words. They are not -like the Indians, who are only enemies while at war, and are -friends in peace. They will say to an Indian, "My friend; -my brother!" They will take him by the hand, and, at the -same moment, destroy him. And so you' (he was addressing -himself to the Christian Indians at Gnadenhütten, Pennsylvania) -'will also be treated by them before long. Remember that -<a id='Page_33'></a>this day I have warned you to beware of such friends as these. -I know the Long-knives. They are not to be trusted.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>The original name of the Delawares was Lenni Lenape, or -"original people." They were also called by the Western -tribes Wapenachki, "people at the rising of the sun." When -the name "Delawares" was given to them by the whites, they -at first resented it; but being told that they, and also one of -their rivers, were thus named after a great English brave—Lord -De la Warre—they were much pleased, and willingly took the -name. Their lands stretched from the Hudson River to the -Potomac. They were a noble-spirited but gentle people; -much under the control of the arrogant and all-powerful Iroquois, -who had put upon them the degradation of being called -"women," and being forced to make war or give up land at -the pleasure of their masters.</p> - -<p class='c010'>During William Penn's humane administration of the affairs -of Pennsylvania, the Delawares were his most devoted friends. -They called him Mignon, or Elder Brother.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"From his first arrival in their country," says Heckewelder, -"a friendship was formed between them, which was to last as -long as the sun should shine, and the rivers flow with water. -That friendship would undoubtedly have continued to the -end of time, had their good brother always remained among -them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the French and Indian war of 1755 many of them fought -on the side of the French against the English; and in the beginning -of our Revolutionary war the majority of them sided -with the English against us.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Most of the memorable Indian massacres which happened -during this period were the result of either French or English -influence. Neither nation was high-minded enough to scorn -availing herself of savage allies to do bloody work which she -would not have dared to risk national reputation by doing herself. -This fact is too much overlooked in the habitual estimates -<a id='Page_34'></a>of the barbarous ferocity of the Indian character as -shown by those early massacres.<a id='r7' /><a href='#f7' class='c012'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>The United States' first treaty with the Delawares was made -in 1778, at Fort Pitt. The parties to it were said to be "the -United States and the Delaware Nation." It stipulates that there -shall be peace, and that the troops of the United States may pass -"through the country of the Delaware Nation," upon paying the -full value of any supplies they may use. It further says that, -"Whereas the enemies of the United States have endeavored -by every artifice to possess the Indians with an opinion that -it is our design to extirpate them, and take possession of their -country; to obviate such false suggestions, the United States -guarantee to said nation of Delawares, and their heirs, all their -territorial rights in the fullest and most ample manner as -bounded by former treaties."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The treaty also provides that, "should it for the future be -found conducive for the mutual interest of both parties to invite -any other tribes who have been friends to the interests of -the United States to join the present confederation and form -a State, whereof the Delaware Nation shall be the head," it -shall be done; and the Delawares shall be entitled to send a -representative to Congress.<a id='r8' /><a href='#f8' class='c012'><sup>[8]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>The Delawares agreed to send all the warriors they could -spare to fight for us, and that there should be peace and perpetual -friendship.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this time the rest of the Ohio tribes, most of the New -York tribes, and a large part of the Delawares were in arms on -the British side. When the war of the Revolution was concluded, -they were all forced to make peace as best they could -with us; and in our first treaty we provided for the reinstating -in the Delaware Nation of the chiefs and headmen who had -<a id='Page_35'></a>made that old alliance with us; they having lost caste in -their tribe for having fought on our side.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It is agreed," says the final Article of the treaty, "that the -Delaware chiefs, Kelelamand, or Lieut.-colonel Henry, Henque -Pushees, or the Big Cat, and Wicocalind, or Captain White -Eyes, who took up the hatchet for the United States, and their -families, shall be received into the Delaware Nation in the same -situation and rank as before the war, and enjoy their due portions -of the lands given to the Wyandotte and Delaware nations -in this treaty, as fully as if they had not taken part with America, -or as any other person or persons in the said nations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This Captain White Eyes had adhered to our cause in spite -of great opposition from the hostile part of the tribe. At one -time he was threatened with a violent death if he should dare -to say one word for the American cause; but by spirited harangues -he succeeded in keeping the enthusiasm of his own -party centred around himself, and finally carrying them over to -the side of the United States. Some of his speeches are on record, -and are worthy to be remembered:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"If you will go out in this war," he said to them at one -time, when the band were inclined to join the British, "you -shall not go without me. I have taken peace measures, it is -true, with the view of saving my tribe from destruction; but if -you think me in the wrong, if you give more credit to runaway -vagabonds than to your own friends—to a man, to a warrior, -to a Delaware—if you insist on fighting the Americans—go! -and I will go with you. And I will not go like the bear-hunter, -who sets his dogs on the animal to be beaten about with his -paws, while he keeps himself at a safe distance. No; I will -lead you on; I will place myself in the front; I will fall with -the first of you! You can do as you choose; but as for me, I -will not survive my nation. I will not live to bewail the miserable -destruction of a brave people, who deserved, as you do, -a better fate."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_36'></a>Were there many speeches made by commanders to their -troops in those revolutionary days with which these words do -not compare favorably?</p> - -<p class='c010'>This treaty, by which our faithful ally, Wicocalind, was reinstated -in his tribal rank, was made at Fort M'Intosh in -1785. The Wyandottes, Chippewas, and Ottawas, as well as -the Delawares, joined in it. They acknowledged themselves -and all their tribes to be "under the protection of the United -States, and of no other sovereign whatsoever." The United -States Government reserved "the post of Detroit" and an -outlying district around it; also, the post at Michilimackinac, -with a surrounding district of twelve miles square, and some -other reserves for trading-posts.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians' lands were comprised within lines partly indicated -by the Cuyahoga, Big Miami, and Ohio rivers and their -branches; it fronted on Lake Erie; and if "any citizen of the -United States," or "any other person not an Indian," attempted -"to settle on any of the lands allotted to the Delaware and -Wyandotte nations in this treaty"—the fifth Article of the -treaty said—"the Indians may punish him as they please."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, all are largely made -up of the lands which were by this first treaty given to the -Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Five years later, by another treaty at Fort Harmar, the provisions -of this treaty were reiterated, the boundaries somewhat -changed and more accurately defined. The privilege of hunting -on all the lands reserved to the United States was promised -to the Indians "without hinderance or molestation, so long -as they behaved themselves peaceably;" and "that nothing -may interrupt the peace and harmony now established between -the United States and the aforesaid nations," it was promised -in one of the articles that white men committing offences or -murders on Indians should be punished in the same way as -Indians committing such offences.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_37'></a>The year before this treaty Congress had resolved that "the -sum of $20,000, in addition to the $14,000 already appropriated, -be appropriated for defraying the expenses of the treaties -which have been ordered, or which may be ordered to be held, -in the present year, with the several Indian tribes in the Northern -Department; and for extinguishing the Indian claims, the -whole of the said $20,000, together with $6,000 of the said -$14,000, to be applied solely to the purpose of extinguishing -Indian claims to the lands they have already ceded to the -United States by obtaining regular conveyances for the same, -and for extending a purchase beyond the limits hitherto fixed -by treaty."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Here is one of the earliest records of the principle and -method on which the United States Government first began -its dealings with Indians. "Regular conveyances," "extinguishing -claims" by "extending purchase." These are all -the strictest of legal terms, and admit of no double interpretations.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians had been much dissatisfied ever since the first -treaties were made. They claimed that they had been made -by a few only, representing a part of the tribe; and, in 1786, -they had held a great council on the banks of the Detroit -River, and sent a message to Congress, of which the following -extracts will show the spirit.</p> - -<p class='c010'>They said: "It is now more than three years since peace -was made between the King of Great Britain and you; but -we, the Indians, were disappointed, finding ourselves not included -in that peace according to our expectations, for we -thought that its conclusion would have promoted a friendship -between the United States and the Indians, and that we might -enjoy that happiness that formerly subsisted between us and -our Elder Brethren. We have received two very agreeable -messages from the Thirteen United States. We also received -a message from the king, whose war we were engaged in, desiring -<a id='Page_38'></a>us to remain quiet, which we accordingly complied with. -During this time of tranquillity we were deliberating the best -method we could to form a lasting reconciliation with the Thirteen -United States. *** We are still of the same opinion -as to the means which may tend to reconcile us to each other; -and we are sorry to find, although we had the best thoughts -in our minds during the before-mentioned period, mischief has -nevertheless happened between you and us. We are still anxious -of putting our plan of accommodation into execution, and -we shall briefly inform you of the means that seem most probable -to us of effecting a firm and lasting peace and reconciliation, -the first step toward which should, in our opinion, be -that all treaties carried on with the United States on our parts -should be with the general will of the whole confederacy, and -carried on in the most open manner, without any restraint on -either side; and especially as landed matters are often the subject -of our councils with you—a matter of the greatest importance -and of general concern to us—in this case we hold it -indisputably necessary that any cession of our lands should be -made in the most public manner, and by the united voice of -the confederacy, holding all partial treaties as void and of no -effect. *** We say, let us meet half-way, and let us pursue -such steps as become upright and honest men. We beg -that you will prevent your surveyors and other people from -coming upon our side of the Ohio River."</p> - -<p class='c010'>These are touching words, when we remember that only -the year before the United States had expressly told these Indians -that if any white citizens attempted to settle on their -lands they might "punish them as they pleased."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We have told you before we wished to pursue just steps, -and we are determined they shall appear just and reasonable in -the eyes of the world. This is the determination of all the -chiefs of our confederacy now assembled here, notwithstanding -the accidents that have happened in our villages, even when in -<a id='Page_39'></a>council, where several innocent chiefs were killed when absolutely -engaged in promoting a peace with you, the Thirteen -United States."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The next year the President instructed the governor of the -territory northwest of the Ohio to "examine carefully into the -real temper of the Indian tribes" in his department, and says: -"The treaties which have been made may be examined, but -must not be departed from, unless a change of boundary beneficial -to the United States can be obtained." He says also: -"You will not neglect any opportunity that may offer of extinguishing -the Indian rights to the westward, <i>as far as the Mississippi</i>."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Beyond that river even the wildest dream of greed did not -at that time look.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The President adds, moreover: "You may stipulate that any -white persons going over the said boundaries without a license -from the proper officers of the United States may be treated -in such manner as the Indians may see fit."</p> - -<p class='c010'>I have not yet seen, in any accounts of the Indian hostilities -on the North-western frontier during this period, any reference -to those repeated permissions given by the United States to -the Indians, to defend their lands as they saw fit. Probably -the greater number of the pioneer settlers were as ignorant of -these provisions in Indian treaties as are the greater number of -American citizens to-day, who are honestly unaware—and being -unaware, are therefore incredulous—that the Indians had either -provocation or right to kill intruders on their lands.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this time separate treaties were made with the Six Nations, -and the governor says that these treaties were made separately -because of the jealousy and hostility existing between -them and the Delawares, Wyandottes, etc., which he is "not -willing to lessen," because it weakens their power. "Indeed," -he frankly adds, "it would not be very difficult, if circumstances -required it, to set them at deadly variance."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_40'></a>Thus early in our history was the ingenious plan evolved of -first maddening the Indians into war, and then falling upon -them with exterminating punishment. The gentleman who -has left on the official records of his country his claim to the -first suggestion and recommendation of this method is "Arthur -St. Clair, governor of the territory of the United States northwest -of the Ohio River, and commissioner plenipotentiary of -the United States of America for removing all causes of controversy, -regulating trade, and settling boundaries with the Indian -nations in the Northern Department."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Under all these conditions, it is not a matter of wonder that -the frontier was a scene of perpetual devastation and bloodshed; -and that, year by year, there grew stronger in the minds -of the whites a terror and hatred of Indians; and in the minds -of the Indians a stronger and stronger distrust and hatred of -the whites.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Delawares were, through the earlier part of these troubled -times, friendly. In 1791 we find the Secretary of War -recommending the commissioners sent to treat with the hostile -Miamis and Wabash Indians to stop by the way with the -friendly Delawares, and take some of their leading chiefs with -them as allies. He says, "these tribes are our friends," and, -as far as is known, "the treaties have been well observed by -them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>But in 1792 we find them mentioned among the hostile -tribes to whom was sent a message from the United States -Government, containing the following extraordinary paragraphs:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Brethren: The President of the United States entertains -the opinion that the war which exists is an error and mistake -on your parts. That you believe the United States want to -deprive you of your lands, and drive you out of the country. -<i>Be assured that this is not so</i>; on the contrary, that we should -be greatly gratified with the opportunity of imparting to you -<a id='Page_41'></a>all the blessings of civilized life; of teaching you to cultivate -the earth, and raise corn; to raise oxen, sheep, and other domestic -animals; to build comfortable houses; and to educate -your children so as ever to dwell upon the land.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Consult, therefore, upon the great object of peace; call in -your parties, and enjoin a cessation of all further depredations; -and as many of the principal chiefs as shall choose repair to -Philadelphia, the seat of the Great Government, and there -make a peace founded on the principles of justice and humanity. -<i>Remember that no additional lands will be required of -you, or any other tribe, to those that have been ceded by former -treaties.</i>"</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was in this same year, also, that General Putnam said to -them, in a speech at Post Vincennes: "The United States -don't mean to wrong you out of your lands. They don't -want to take away your lands by force. They want to do you -justice." And the venerable missionary, Heckewelder, who had -journeyed all the way from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to try to -help bring about peace, said to them, "The great chief who -has spoken to you is a good man. He loves you, and will always -speak the truth to you. I wish you to listen to his words, -and do as he desires you."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1793 a great council was held, to which came the chiefs -and headmen of the Delawares, and of twelve other tribes, -to meet commissioners of the United States, for one last effort -to settle the vexed boundary question. The records of -this council are profoundly touching. The Indians reiterated -over and over the provisions of the old treaties which -had established the Ohio River as one of their boundaries. -Their words were not the words of ignorant barbarians, clumsily -and doggedly holding to a point; they were the words of -clear-headed, statesman-like rulers, insisting on the rights of -their nations. As the days went on, and it became more and -more clear that the United States commissioners would not -<a id='Page_42'></a>agree to the establishment of the boundary for which the Indians -contended, the speeches of the chiefs grow sadder and -sadder. Finally, in desperation, as a last hope, they propose to -the commissioners that all the money which the United States -offers to pay to them for their lands shall be given to the white -settlers to induce them to move away. They say:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Money to us is of no value, and to most of us unknown; -and as no consideration whatever can induce us to sell the lands -on which we get sustenance for our women and children, we -hope we may be allowed to point out a mode by which your -settlers may be easily removed, and peace thereby obtained.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We know that these settlers are poor, or they would never -have ventured to live in a country which has been in continual -trouble ever since they crossed the Ohio. Divide, therefore, -this large sum of money which you have offered us among -these people; give to each, also, a proportion of what you say -you would give to us annually, over and above this very large -sum of money, and we are persuaded they would most readily -accept of it in lieu of the lands you sold them. If you add, -also, the great sums you must expend in raising and paying -armies with a view to force us to yield you our country, you -will certainly have more than sufficient for the purpose of repaying -these settlers for all their labor and their improvements.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"You have talked to us about concessions. It appears -strange that you should expect any from us, who have only -been defending our just rights against your invasions. We -want peace. Restore to us our country, and we shall be enemies -no longer.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"*** We desire you to consider, brothers, that our only -demand is the peaceable possession of a small part of our once -great country. Look back and review the lands from whence -we have been driven to this spot. We can retreat no farther, -because the country behind hardly affords food for its present -<a id='Page_43'></a>inhabitants, and we have therefore resolved to leave our bones -in this small space to which we are now confined."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The commissioners replied that to make the Ohio River the -boundary was now impossible; that they sincerely regretted -that peace could not be made; but, "knowing the upright and -liberal views of the United States," they trust that "impartial -judges will not attribute the continuance of the war to them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Notice was sent to the governor that the Indians "refused -to make peace;" and General Anthony Wayne, a few weeks -later, wrote to the Secretary of War, "The safety of the Western -frontiers, the reputation of the legion, the dignity and interest -of the nation—all forbid a retrograde manœuvre, or giving -up one inch of ground we now possess, till the enemy are -compelled to sue for peace."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The history of the campaigns that followed is to be found in -many volumes treating of the pioneer life of Ohio and other -North-western States. One letter of General Wayne's to the -Secretary of War, in August, 1794, contains a paragraph which -is interesting, as showing the habits and method of life of the -people whom we at this time, by force of arms, drove out -from their homes—homes which we had only a few years before -solemnly guaranteed to them, even giving them permission -to punish any white intruders there as they saw fit. By a -feint of approaching Grand Glaize through the Miami villages, -General Wayne surprised the settlement, and the Indians, being -warned by a deserter, had barely time to flee for their -lives. What General Wayne had intended to do may be inferred -from this sentence in his letter: "I have good grounds -to conclude that the defection of this villain prevented the -enemy from receiving a fatal blow at this place when least -expected."</p> - -<p class='c010'>However, he consoles himself by the fact that he has -"gained possession of the grand emporium of the hostile Indians -of the West without loss of blood. The very extensive -<a id='Page_44'></a>and highly cultivated fields and gardens show the work of -many hands. The margins of those beautiful rivers—the Miamis, -of the Lake, and Au Glaize—appear like one continued -village for a number of miles, both above and below this place; -nor have I ever before beheld such immense fields of corn in -any part of America, from Canada to Florida."</p> - -<p class='c010'>All these villages were burnt, and all these cornfields destroyed; -the Indians were followed up and defeated in a sharp -fight. The British agents did their best to keep them hostile, -and no inconsiderable aid was furnished to them from Canada. -But after a winter of suffering and hunger, and great vacillations -of purpose, they finally decided to yield to the inevitable, -and in the summer of 1795 they are to be found once more -assembled in council, for the purpose of making a treaty; once -more to be told by the representatives of the United States -Government that "the heart of General Washington, the Great -Chief of America, wishes for nothing so much as peace and -brotherly love;" that "such is the justice and liberality of the -United States," that they will now a third time pay for lands; -and that they are "acting the part of a tender father to them -and their children in thus providing for them not only at present, -but forever."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Eleven hundred and thirty Indians (eleven tribes, besides -the Delawares, being represented) were parties to this treaty. -By this treaty nearly two-thirds of the present State of Ohio -were ceded to the United States; and, in consideration of these -"cessions and relinquishments, and to manifest the liberality -of the United States as the great means of rendering this peace -strong and perpetual," the United States relinquished all claims -"to all other Indian lands northward of the River Ohio, eastward -of the Mississippi, and westward and southward of the -Great Lakes and the waters uniting them, according to the -boundary line agreed upon by the United States and the King -of Great Britain, in the treaty of peace made between them -<a id='Page_45'></a>in the year 1783," with the exception of four tracts of land. -But it was stated to the Indians that these reservations were -not made "to annoy or impose the smallest degree of restraint -on them in the quiet enjoyment and full possession -of their lands," but simply to "connect the settlements of the -people of the United States," and "to prove convenient and -advantageous to the different tribes of Indians residing and -hunting in their vicinity."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The fifth Article of the treaty is: "To prevent any misunderstanding -about the Indian lands now relinquished by the -United States, it is explicitly declared that the meaning of that -relinquishment is this: that the Indian tribes who have a right -to those lands are quietly to enjoy them—hunting, planting, -and dwelling thereon <i>so long as they please</i> without any molestation -from the United States; but when those tribes, or any -of them, shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any part of -them, they are to be sold only to the United States; and until -such sale the United States will protect all the said Indian -tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens -of the United States, and against all other white persons who -intrude on the same."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The sixth Article reiterates the old pledge, proved by the -last three years to be so worthless—that, "If any citizen of -the United States, or any other white person or persons, shall -presume to settle upon the lands now relinquished by the -United States, such citizen or other person shall be out of -the protection of the United States; and the Indian tribe -on whose land the settlement may be made may drive off the -settler, or punish him in such manner as they shall think fit."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The seventh Article gives the Indians the liberty "to hunt -within the territory and lands which they have now ceded to -the United States, without hinderance or molestation, so long -as they demean themselves peaceably."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The United States agreed to pay to the Indians twenty -<a id='Page_46'></a>thousand dollars' worth of goods at once; and "henceforward, -every year, forever, useful goods to the value of nine thousand -five hundred dollars." Peace was declared to be "established" -and "perpetual."</p> - -<p class='c010'>General Wayne told the Indians that they might believe -him, for he had never, "in a public capacity, told a lie;" and -one of the Indians said, with much more dignity, "The Great -Spirit above hears us, and I trust we shall not endeavor to deceive -each other."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1813, by a treaty at Vincennes, the bounds of the reservation -of the Post of St. Vincennes were defined, and the Indians, -"as a mark of their regard and attachment to the United -States, relinquished to the United States the great salt -spring on the Saline Creek."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In less than a year we made still another treaty with them -for the extinguishment of their title to a tract of land between -the Ohio and the Wabash rivers (which they sold to us for a -ten years' annuity of three hundred dollars, which was to be -"exclusively appropriated to ameliorating their condition and -promoting their civilization"); and in one year more still another -treaty, in which a still further cession of land was made -for a permanent annuity of one thousand dollars.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In August of this year General Harrison writes to the Secretary -of War that there are great dissensions between the Delawares -and Miamis in regard to some of the ceded lands, the -Miamis claiming that they had never consented to give them -up. General Harrison observes the most exact neutrality in -this matter, but says, "A knowledge of the value of land is fast -gaining ground among the Indians," and negotiations are becoming -in consequence much more difficult. In the course of -this controversy, "one of the chiefs has said that he knew a -great part of the land was worth six dollars an acre."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is only ten years since one of the chiefs of these same -tribes had said, "Money is to us of no value." However, they -<a id='Page_47'></a>must be yet very far from having reached any true estimate of -real values, as General Harrison adds: "From the best calculation -I have been able to make, the tract now ceded contains -at least two millions of acres, and embraces some of the finest -lands in the Western country."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Cheap at one thousand dollars a year!—even with the negro -man thrown in, which General Harrison tells the Secretary he -has ordered Captain Wells to purchase, and present to the -chief, The Turtle, and to draw on the United States Treasury -for the amount paid for him.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Four years later (1809) General Harrison is instructed by -the President "to take advantage of the most favorable moment -for extinguishing the Indian title to the lands lying east -of the Wabash, and adjoining south;" and the title was extinguished -by the treaty of Fort Wayne—a little more money -paid, and a great deal of land given up.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1814 we made a treaty, simply of peace and friendship, -with the Delawares and several other tribes: they agreeing to -fight faithfully on our side against the English, and we agreeing -to "confirm and establish all the boundaries" as they had -existed before the war.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1817 it was deemed advisable to make an effort to "extinguish -the Indian title to all the lands claimed by them within -the limits of the State of Ohio". Two commissioners were -appointed, with great discretionary powers; and a treaty was -concluded early in the autumn, by which there was ceded to -the United States nearly all the land to which the Indians had -claim in Ohio, a part of Indiana, and a part of Michigan. -This treaty was said by the Secretary of War to be "the -most important of any hitherto made with the Indians." -"The extent of the cession far exceeded" his most sanguine -expectations, and he had the honesty to admit that "there can -be no real or well-founded objection to the amount of the compensation -given for it, except that it is not an adequate one."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_48'></a>The commissioners who negotiated the treaty were apprehensive -that they would be accused of having made too liberal -terms with the Indians, and in their report to the department -they enumerate apologetically the reasons which made it impossible -for them to get the land cheaper. Mr. Cass says of -the terms: "Under any circumstances, they will fall infinitely -short of the pecuniary and political value of the country obtained."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians, parties to this treaty, surrendered by it almost -the last of their hunting-grounds, and would soon be driven to -depending wholly upon the cultivation of the soil.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1818 the Delawares again ceded land to the United -States—ceded all to which they laid claim in the State of Indiana—and -the United States promised to provide for them "a -country to reside in on the west side of the Mississippi," and -"to guarantee to them the peaceable possession" of the same. -They were to have four thousand dollars a year in addition to -all the sums promised by previous treaties, and they were to be -allowed to remain three years longer by sufferance in their -present homes. The Government also agreed to pay them for -their improvements on their lands, to give them a hundred and -twenty horses, and a "sufficient number of pirogues to aid in -transporting them to the west side of the Mississippi;" also -provisions for the journey.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1829 a supplementary Article was added to this treaty. -The United States Government began to show traces of compunction -and pity. The Article says, "Whereas the Delaware -Nation are now willing to remove," it is agreed upon that the -country in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, selected -for their home, "shall be conveyed and forever secured by -the United States to the said Delaware Nation, as their permanent -residence; and the United States hereby pledges the -faith of the Government to guarantee to the said Delaware Nation, -forever, the quiet and peaceable and undisturbed enjoyment -<a id='Page_49'></a>of the same against the claims and assaults of all and every -other people whatever."</p> - -<p class='c010'>An additional permanent annuity of one thousand dollars is -promised; forty horses, "and the use of six wagons and ox-teams -to assist in removing heavy articles," provisions for the -journey, and one year's subsistence after they reach their new -home; also the erection of a grist and saw mill within two -years.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1833 the Secretary of War congratulated the country on -the fact that "the country north of the Ohio, east of the Mississippi, -including the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the -Territory of Michigan as far as the Fox and Wisconsin rivers," -has been practically "cleared of the embarrassments of Indian -relations," as there are not more than five thousand Indians, all -told, left in this whole region.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the same year says -that it is "grateful to notice" how much the Indians' condition -is "ameliorated under the policy of removal." He says that -they, "protected by the strong arm of the Government, and -dwelling on lands <i>distinctly</i> and permanently established as -their own, enjoying a delightful climate and a fertile soil, turn -their attention to the cultivation of the earth, and abandon the -chase for the surer supply of domestic animals."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This commissioner apparently does not remember, perhaps -never read, the records of the great fields of corn which the -Delawares had on the Miami River in 1795, and how they returned -twice that summer and replanted them, after General -Wayne had cut down and burnt the young crops. They had -"turned their attention to the cultivation of the soil" forty -years ago, and that was what came of it. We shall see how -much better worth while it may be for them to plant corn in -their new "permanent home," than it was in their last one.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The printed records of Indian Affairs for the first forty -years of this century are meagre and unsatisfactory. Had the -<a id='Page_50'></a>practice prevailed then, as at the present time, of printing full -annual reports for the different tribes, it would be possible to -know much which is now forever locked up in the traditions -and the memories of the Indians themselves. For ten years -after the making of this last quoted treaty, there is little official -mention of the Delawares by name, beyond the mention -in the fiscal reports of the sums paid to them as annuities and -for education. In 1833 the commissioner says, "The agent for -the Delawares and Shawnees states that he was shown cloth -that was spun and wove, and shirts and other clothing made -by the Indian girls."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1838 the Delawares are reported as cultivating one thousand -five hundred acres of land in grain and vegetables, and -raising a great many hogs, cattle, and horses. "They are a -brave, enterprising people," and "at peace with all neighboring -Indians."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Parties of them frequently make excursions into the Rocky -Mountains after beaver, and return with a rich reward, sometimes -as much as one thousand dollars to an individual; but -their money is soon spent, chiefly for ardent spirits. The -agent says: "The only hinderance now in the way of the -Delawares, Shawnees, and Kickapoos is ardent spirits. *** -These whiskey traffickers, who seem void of all conscience, -rob and murder many of these Indians; I say rob—they will -get them drunk, and then take their horses, guns, or blankets -off their backs, regardless of how quick they may freeze to -death; I say they murder—if not directly, indirectly, they -furnish the weapon—they make them drunk, and, when drunk, -they kill their fellow-beings. Some freeze to death when drunk; -several drunken Indians have been drowned in the Missouri -River this season, aiming to cross when drunk."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1844 the chiefs of the Delawares met together, and prepared -a remarkable document, which was forwarded to the -Secretary of War. In this paper they requested that all the -<a id='Page_51'></a>school funds to which they were entitled by treaty provisions -might be paid to the Indian Manual Labor School near the -Fort Leavenworth Agency; might be pledged to that school -for ten years to come, and that they might therefor be guaranteed -the education and subsistence of Delaware children, not -exceeding fifty at any one time. It came out, in course of this -negotiation, that two thousand dollars were due them on arrearages -of their school fund.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Secretary acceded to this request, but imposed five -conditions upon it, of which the fourth seems worth chronicling, -as an indication of the helplessness of the Delawares in -the matter of the disposition of their own money: "The interest -to be paid annually when it may suit the Treasury; and -this ratification to be subject to withdrawal, and the agreement -itself to rescission, and to be annulled at the pleasure of the -Department."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1845 the Delawares "raise a sufficiency to subsist on. -The women do a large portion of the work on the farms. In -many families, however, the women do not work on the farm. -They raise corn, pumpkins, beans, pease, cabbages, potatoes, -and many kinds of garden vegetables. Some few raise wheat -and oats. They have lately had built, out of their own means, -a good saw and grist mill, with two run of stones, one for corn -and the other for wheat. There is a constant stream, called -the Stranger, in their country that affords excellent water privileges. -On this stream their mills are built."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this time they are waiting with much anxiety to see if -their "Great Father" will punish the Sioux, who have at two -different times attacked them, and murdered in all some thirty -men. "They say they do not wish to offend and disobey -their Great Father, and before they attempt to revenge themselves -they will wait and see if their Great Father will compel -the Sioux to make reparation."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1848 "almost every family is well supplied with farming-stock; -<a id='Page_52'></a>and they have raised abundance of corn, some wheat, -potatoes, oats, and garden vegetables; have made butter and -cheese; and raised fruit, etc., etc. They dwell in good log-cabins, -and some have extremely neat houses, well furnished. -They have their outhouses, stables, well-fenced lots, and some -have good barns." There are seventy scholars in one school -alone that are taught by the Friends; and the teacher reports: -"It is truly astonishing to see the rapidity with which they -acquire knowledge. The boys work on the farm part of the -time, and soon learn how to do what they are set at. The -girls spend a part of their time in doing housework, sewing, -etc. Many of them do the sewing of their own, and some -of the clothes of the other children."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1853 the Delawares are recorded as being "among the -most remarkable of our colonized tribes. By their intrepidity -and varied enterprise they are distinguished in a high degree. -Besides being industrious farmers and herdsmen, they hunt -and trade all over the interior of the continent, carrying their -traffic beyond the Great Salt Lake, and exposing themselves to -a thousand perils."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Their agent gives, in his report for this year, a graphic account -of an incident such as has only too often occurred on -our frontier. "A small party of Delawares, consisting of a -man, his squaw, and a lad about eighteen years of age, recently -returning from the mountains, with the avails and profits of -a successful hunt and traffic, after they had commenced their -journey homeward the second day the man sickened and died. -Before he died he directed his squaw and the young man to -hasten home with their horses and mules—thirteen in number—their -money (four hundred and forty-five dollars), besides -many other articles of value. After a few days' travel, near -some of the forts on the Arkansas, they were overtaken by -four white men, deserters from the United States Army—three -on foot, and one riding a mule. The squaw and young man -<a id='Page_53'></a>loaned each of the men on foot a horse or mule to ride, and -furnished them with provisions. They all travelled on friendly -together for some six or seven days, till they arrived at -Cottonwood Creek, thirty-five or forty miles west of Council -Grove. One evening, while resting, the young man was killed -by these men; and the squaw was also supposed by these -wretches to be dead, having had her throat cut badly and her -head fractured. The two were then dragged off in the grass, -supposed to be dead. The men gathered the mules, horses, -money, guns, blankets—all that they supposed of value—and -made for Jackson County, Missouri, where they disposed of the -stock as best they could, and three of them took steamer for -St. Louis. The squaw, on the day after, resuscitated; and soon -discovering that her companion had been killed, and everything -they possessed had disappeared, she, in her feeble and -dangerous condition, took the road to Council Grove. The -fifth day, she says, she was overtaken by a Kaw Indian, and -brought into Council Grove, where the traders had every attention -paid her, and sent a runner to the Delaware traders and -myself, and we soon succeeded in capturing one of the men -in Liberty, Clay County, Missouri, where he confessed the -whole tragedy—the murder, robbing, etc. The three others -had left for St. Louis. A telegraphic despatch to St. Louis, -however, had the desired effect, and the three men were taken -and brought back to Liberty, where, on trial before two justices -of the peace, they were committed for trial in the District -Court of the United States for the State of Missouri. As feeble -as the squaw was, I was under the necessity of having her -taken to Liberty as a witness. She readily recognized and -pointed out in a large crowd of persons three of the prisoners. -I have caused four of the recovered mules and horses to be -turned over to the unfortunate squaw. I expect to recover -two or three more; the balance, I am of opinion, will never be -obtained."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_54'></a>In the report of the Indian Commissioner for this year -there is also a paragraph which should not be omitted from -this sketch: "The present seems to be an appropriate occasion -for calling the attention of Congress to certain treaty stipulations -with various Indian tribes which the Government, for -a number of years, has failed to execute. In consideration -of the cession of their lands to the United States"—by some -nine tribes of the Mississippi and Missouri regions, among -whom were the Delawares—"it was stipulated on the part -of the Government that certain sums should be paid to said -tribes, amounting in the aggregate to $2,396,600, and that -the same should be invested in safe and profitable stocks, -yielding an interest of not less than five per cent. per annum.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Owing, however, to the embarrassed condition of the Treasury, -it was deemed advisable by Congress, in lieu of making -the investments, to appropriate from year to year a sum equal -to the annual interest at five per cent. on the several amounts -required to be invested. On this amount the Government has -already paid from its treasury $1,742,240—a sum which is -now equal to two-thirds of the principal, and will in a few -years be equal to the whole, if the practice of appropriating -the interest be continued. As there is no limitation to the period -of these payments, such a policy indefinitely continued -would prove a most costly one to the Government. At the -end of every twenty years it will have paid from the public -treasury by way of interest the full amount of the stipulated -investments. *** The public finances are in a prosperous condition. -Instead of fiscal embarrassment, there is now a redundancy -of money, and one of the vexed questions of the day is, -What shall be done with the surplus in the Treasury? Considering -the premises, it seems to be quite clear that so much -thereof as may be necessary for the purpose should be promptly -applied to the fulfilment of our treaty obligations."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_55'></a>In 1854 the influx of white settlers into Kansas was so -great, it became evident that the Indian reservations there could -not be kept intact; and the Delawares made a large cession of -their lands back to the United States, to be restored to the -public domain. For this they were to receive ten thousand -dollars. The sixth Article of this treaty provided for the giving -of annuities to their chiefs. "The Delawares feel now, as -heretofore, grateful to their old chiefs for their long and faithful -services. In former treaties, when their means were scanty, -they provided by small life annuities for the wants of the -chiefs, some of whom are now receiving them. These chiefs -are poor, and the Delawares believe it their duty to keep them -from want in their old age." The sum of ten thousand dollars, -therefore, was to be paid to their five chiefs—two hundred and -fifty dollars a year each.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Article second provided that the President should cause the -land now reserved for their permanent home to be surveyed -at any time when they desired it, in the same manner as the -ceded country was being surveyed for the white settlers.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the following year their agent writes thus of the results -which have followed the opening of this large tract to white -settlers: "The Indians have experienced enough to shake their -confidence in the laws which govern the white race. The irruptions -of intruders on their trust lands, their bloody dissensions -among themselves, outbreaks of party, etc., must necessarily, -to these unsophisticated people, have presented our system -of government in an unfavorable light.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Numerous wrongs have been perpetrated on many parts of -the reserve; the white men have wasted their most valuable -timber with an unsparing hand; the trust lands have been -greatly injured in consequence of the settlements made thereon. -The Indians have complained, but to no purpose. I have -found it useless to threaten legal proceedings. *** The Government -is bound in good faith to protect this people. *** -<a id='Page_56'></a>The agricultural portion of this tribe have done well this season; -abundant crops of corn promise them a supply of food -for the ensuing year."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The simple-minded trustingness of these people is astonishing. -Even now they assent to an Article in this treaty which -says that, as the means arising from the sale of all this land -they had given up would be more than they could use, the -remainder should be "from time to time invested by the President -of the United States in safe and profitable stocks; the -principal to remain unimpaired, and the interest to be applied -annually for the civilization, education, and religious culture of -the Delaware people, and such other objects of a beneficial -character as in his judgment are proper and necessary." Another -Article stipulates that, if any of the Delawares are worthless -or idle, the President can withhold their share of the -moneys.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Article fifteenth says, gravely, "The primary object of this -instrument being to advance the interests and welfare of the -Delaware people, it is agreed that, if it prove insufficient to -effect these ends from causes which cannot now be foreseen, -Congress may hereafter make such farther provision, by law -not inconsistent herewith, as experience may prove to be necessary -to promote the interests, peace, and happiness of the Delaware -people."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1860 the United States made its next treaty with the -Delawares, in which they consented to give the Leavenworth, -Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company right of way and -certain lands in their reserve. In 1861 another treaty, in -which, as the railway company had not paid, and was not able -to pay, the $286,742 which it had promised to pay the Delawares, -the President authorized the Commissioners of Indian -Affairs to take the bonds of said railroad for that amount, -and a mortgage on one hundred thousand acres of the land -which the Indians had sold to the railway company.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_57'></a>There was another very curious bit of legislation in regard -to the Delawares this year, viz., an Act of Congress authorizing -the Secretary of the Treasury to enter on his books $423,990.26 -to the credit of the Delawares; being the amount of bonds -which the United States had invested for the Delawares in -State bonds of Missouri, Tennessee, and North Carolina, and -which had been stolen while in the custody of Jacob Thompson, -late Secretary of the Interior, in whose department they -had been deposited for safe-keeping. (At the same time there -were stolen $66,735 belonging to the Iowas, and $169,686.75 -belonging to the confederated bands of Kaskaskias, Peorias, -Piankeshaws, and Keas.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this year the Commissioner of Indian Affairs visited the -Delawares, and reported them well advanced in civilization, in -possession of comfortable dwellings and farms, with personal -property averaging one thousand dollars to an individual. -Many of them were traders, and travelled even to the boundaries -of California.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1862 two regiments of Delawares and Osages enlisted as -soldiers in an expedition to the Indian Territory, under Colonel -Weer, who says of them: "The Indian soldiers have far exceeded -the most sanguine expectations. They bore the brunt -of the fighting done by the expedition, and, had they been -properly sustained, would have effectually ended the sway of -the rebels in the Indian Territory."</p> - -<p class='c010'>There was during this year a terrible condition of affairs in -Kansas and the Indian Territory. The Indians were largely on -the side of the rebels; yet, as the Indian Commissioner said in -his report for this year—a paragraph which is certainly a species -of Irish bull—"While the rebelling of a large portion of -most of the tribes abrogates treaty obligations, and places them -at our mercy, the very important fact should not be forgotten -that the Government first wholly failed to keep its treaty stipulations -with them in protecting them." "By withdrawing all -<a id='Page_58'></a>the troops from the forts in the Indian Territory," it left them -"at the mercy of the rebels." That is, we first broke the treaty; -and then their subsequent failure to observe it "placed them at -our mercy!"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It is," he says, "a well-known fact that in many instances -self-preservation compelled them to make the best terms they -could with the rebels; and that this is the case has been proved -by a large number of them joining our army as soon as a sufficient -force had penetrated their country to make it safe for -them to do so."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Delawares enlisted, in 1862, one hundred and seventy -men in the Union army, and this out of a population of only -two hundred males between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. -There was probably no instance in the whole country of such -a ratio of volunteers as this. They were reported as being in -the army "tractable, sober, watchful, and obedient to the commands -of their superiors." They officered their own companies, -and the use of spirituous liquors was strictly prohibited -among them—a fact the more remarkable, as drunkenness was -one of their chief vices at home.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Already, however, the "interests" of the white settlers in -Kansas were beginning to be clearly in opposition to the interests -of the Indians. "Circumscribed as they are, and closely -surrounded by white settlements, I can see nothing in the future -for them but destruction," says the commissioner. "I think it -is for the interest of the Indians that they be removed to some -other locality as soon as possible."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Several of them have from fifty to one hundred acres of -land in cultivation, with comfortable dwellings, barns, and out-houses. -*** All the families are domiciled in houses. *** -Their crops of corn will yield largely. Nearly every family -will have a sufficiency for their own consumption, and many of -the larger farmers a surplus. *** There are but few Delaware -children of the age of twelve or fourteen that cannot read."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_59'></a>Here is a community of a thousand people, larger than many -of the farming villages in New England, for instance, "the average -of personal property amounting to one thousand dollars;" -all living in their own houses, cultivating from fifty to one -hundred acres of land, nearly all the children in schools, and -yet it is for their "interest to be moved!" The last sentence -of the following paragraph tells the story:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"When peace is restored to our country, a removal of all -the Indians in Kansas will certainly be advantageous to them -as well as to the State."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1863 their agent writes: "Since the question of the removal -of the Indians from Kansas has been agitated, improvements -have been much retarded among the Delawares and -other Indians in Kansas.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I think they are sufficiently prepared to make new treaties -with the Government, *** having in view settlement in the -Southern country of those who elect to emigrate, compensation -for the homes they relinquish, and a permission to remain -in their present homes for all who are opposed to leaving -Kansas."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this time, "one-half the adult population are in the volunteer -service of the United States. They make the best of -soldiers, and are highly valued by their officers. *** No State -in the Union has furnished so many men for our armies, from -the same ratio of population, as has the Delaware tribe. *** -The tribe has 3900 acres of land under cultivation, in corn, -wheat, oats, and potatoes." (And yet one-half the adult men -are away!)</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this year the Delawares, being "sufficiently prepared" to -make new treaties looking to their removal out of the way of -the white settlers in Kansas, petitioned the United States Government -to permit them to take eight hundred dollars of their -annuity funds to pay the expense of sending a delegation of -their chiefs to the Rocky Mountains, to see if they could find -<a id='Page_60'></a>there a country which would answer for their new home. The -commissioner advises that they should not be allowed to go -there, but to the Indian Territory, of which he says, "The -geographical situation is such that its occupation by lawless -whites can be more easily prevented than any other portion -of the country." "By common consent, this appears to be recognized -as the Indian country, and I have strong hopes that it -will eventually prove for them a prosperous and happy home."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1864 their agent writes that the greater part of the personal -property owned by the Delawares is in stock, "which is -constantly being preyed upon by the whites, until it has become -so reduced that it is difficult to obtain a good animal in -the nation." He says he is unable, for the want of proper information, -to determine what amount they had at the beginning -of the year, but believes, from observation, "that it has -undergone a depletion to the extent of twenty thousand dollars -in the past year."</p> - -<p class='c010'>What a picture of a distressed community! The men away -at war, old men, women, and children working the farms, and -twenty thousand dollars of stock stolen from them in one -year!</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1865 a large proportion of those who had enlisted in the -United States Army were mustered out, and returned home. -The agent says: "It affords me great pleasure to chronicle the -continued loyalty of this tribe during the past four years; and, -as events tend westward, they evince every disposition to aid -the Government by contributing their knowledge of the country -to the officers of the army, and rendering such services -thereto as they are qualified to perform."</p> - -<p class='c010'>They "have distinguished themselves in many instances in -the conflicts on the borders;" nevertheless, in this same year, -these discharged soldiers were prohibited by the Government -from carrying revolvers. When the commissioner instructed -the agent to disarm them, the agent very properly replied, -<a id='Page_61'></a>stating the difficulties in the case: "Firstly, what disposition -is to be made of weapons taken forcibly from these Indians? -Secondly, many of these Indians are intelligent, only using -weapons when any well-disposed white person would have -done so; and if one class is disarmed, all must be;" on which -the commissioner so modified his order as to say that "peaceably -disposed Indians" might keep the usual weapons used by -them in hunting; but whenever they visited agencies or towns -they must deliver up all weapons to the agent, who would receipt -for them, and return them "at proper times." This order -is to be enforced, if possible, by an "appeal to their better -judgment."</p> - -<p class='c010'>There are no records of the practical working of this order. -Very possibly it fell at once, by its own weight, into the already -large category of dead-letter laws in regard to Indians. -It is impossible to imagine an Indian who had served four -years as an officer in the army (for the Delawares officered -their own companies) submitting to be disarmed by an agent -on any day when he might need to go to Atchison on business. -Probably even that "appeal to his better judgment" which -the commissioner recommends, would only draw from him a -very forcible statement to the effect that any man who went -about in Kansas at that time unarmed was a fool.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1866 the Indian Commissioner reports that "the State -of Kansas is fast being filled by an energetic population who -appreciate good land; and as the Indian reservations were selected -as being the best in the State, but <i>one result can be expected -to follow</i>.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Most of the Indians are anxious to move to the Indian -country south of Kansas, where white settlers cannot interfere -with them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Intermingled as the Kansas reservations are with the public -lands, and surrounded in most cases by white settlers who -too often act on the principle that an Indian has no rights -<a id='Page_62'></a>that a white man is bound to respect, they are injured and -annoyed in many ways. Their stock are stolen, their fences -broken down, their timber destroyed, their young men plied -with whiskey, their women debauched; so that, while the uncivilized -are kept in a worse than savage state, having the -crimes of civilization forced upon them, those farther advanced, -and disposed to honest industry, are discouraged beyond endurance."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In spite of all this the Delawares raised, in 1866, 72,000 -bushels of grain, 13,000 bushels of potatoes, and owned 5000 -head of cattle.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In July of this year a treaty was made with them, providing -for the removal to the Indian Territory of all who should not -decide to become citizens of Kansas, and the sale of their -lands. The superintendent of the Fort Leavenworth Agency -writes at this time: "The running of the Union Pacific Railroad -through the Delawares' diminished reserve has been a -source of grievous annoyance and damage to the Delawares, -as has also an organization styled the Delaware Lumber Company. -Out of these two companies grew much complaint and -investigation, resulting in the appointment of a special agent -to sell to the railroad the timber required for the construction -of the road, and no more. The Delaware Lumber Company -being thus restricted" (<i>i.e.</i>, being prevented from helping -themselves to the Indians' timber), immediately "gave up -their business, and stopped their mills," but not before they -had damaged the Indians' property to the amount of twenty-eight -thousand dollars.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Twenty thousand dollars' worth of stock and twenty-eight -thousand dollars' worth of timber having been stolen in two -years from this little village of farmers, no wonder they are -"sufficiently prepared to move." Other causes have conspired -also to render them in haste to be gone. The perpetual expectation -of being obliged to remove had unsettled the whole community, -<a id='Page_63'></a>and made them indifferent to effort and improvement. -The return of their young men from the war had also had a -demoralizing effect. Drunken frays were not uncommon, in -which deadly weapons were used, spite of the Department's -regulations for disarming all Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In July of this year the Delaware chiefs, distressed by this -state of affairs, drew up for their nation a code of laws which -compare favorably with the laws of so-called civilized States.<a id='r9' /><a href='#f9' class='c012'><sup>[9]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1867 the Delawares are said to be "very impatient to be -gone from their reserve, in order to build houses this autumn -for winter use, and to be fencing fields for the ensuing year at -their new reserve." The annuities due them in April of this -year have not been paid till autumn, and this has delayed their -movements. Many of the young men are still away, acting as -scouts and guides in the army. In the course of this year and -the next the whole tribe moved by detachments to their new -home. "Those who removed during the winter went to work -in a laudable manner, and made their improvements—many -building comfortable houses and raising respectable crops" the -first season. They are said to be now in a fair way to be better -off than ever before. They have "given up their tribal organization -and become Cherokee citizens. They report that -they are well pleased with their new homes; and, being separated -from the many temptations by which they were surrounded -in their old reservation, are learning to appreciate the -many benefits to be derived from leading a temperate, industrious, -and consequently a prosperous and happy life."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1869 it is said that, "as soon as the final arrangement -relative to their funds is perfected, they will lose their nationality -and become identified with the Cherokees."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1870 we find nearly all the Delawares in Indian Territory; -but it seems that, owing to a carelessly surveyed boundary, some -<a id='Page_64'></a>three hundred of them had settled down on lands which were -outside the Cherokee Reservation, and had been assigned by -the Government to the Osages. This unfortunate three hundred, -therefore, are removed again; this time to the lands -of the Peorias, where they ask permission to establish themselves. -But in the mean time, as they had made previous arrangements -with the Cherokees, and all their funds had been -transferred to the Cherokee Nation, it is thought to be "very -unfortunate that they should be thus obliged to seek a new -home;" and it is said to be "quite desirable that the parties in -interest should reconcile their unsettled affairs to mutual advantage."</p> - -<p class='c010'>We are too much inclined to read these records carelessly, -without trying to picture to ourselves the condition of affairs -which they represent. It has come to be such an accepted -thing in the history and fate of the Indian that he is to be -always pushed on, always in advance of what is called the -march of civilization, that to the average mind statements of -these repeated removals come with no startling force, and suggest -no vivid picture of details, only a sort of reassertion of an -abstract general principle. But pausing to consider for a moment -what such statements actually mean and involve; imagining -such processes applied to some particular town or village -that we happen to be intimately acquainted with, we can soon -come to a new realization of the full bearing and import of -them; such uprooting, such perplexity, such loss, such confusion -and uncertainty, inflicted once on any community of white -people anywhere in our land, would be considered quite enough -to destroy its energies and blight its prospects for years. It -may very well be questioned whether any of our small communities -would have recovered from such successive shocks, -changes, and forced migrations, as soon and as well as have -many of these Indian tribes. It is very certain that they would -not have submitted to them as patiently.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_65'></a>After this we find in the Official Reports no distinctive mention -of the Delawares by name, except of a few who had been -for some time living in the Indian Territory, and were not included -in the treaty provisions at the time of the removal from -Kansas. This little handful—eighty-one in number—is all that -now remain to bear the name of that strong and friendly people -to whom, a little more than one hundred years ago, we -promised that they should be our brothers forever, and be entitled -to a representation in our Congress.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This band of Delawares is associated with six other dwindled -remnants of tribes—the Caddoes, Ionies, Wichitas, Towaconies, -Wacoes, Keechies, and Comanches—on the Wichita -Agency, in Indian Territory.</p> - -<p class='c010'>They are all reported as being "peaceable, well disposed," -and "actively engaged in agricultural pursuits."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Of the Delawares it is said, in 1878, that they were not able -to cultivate so much land as they had intended to during that -year, "on account of loss of stock by horse-thieves."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Even here, it seems, in that "Indian country south of Kansas, -where" (as they were told) "white settlers could not interfere -with them," enemies lie in wait for them, as of old, to rob and -destroy; even here the Government is, as before, unable to protect -them; and in all probability, the tragedies of 1866 and -1867 will before long be re-enacted with still sadder results.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_66'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER III.<br /> <br />THE CHEYENNES.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>Our first treaty with the Cheyennes was made in 1825, at -the mouth of the Teton River. It was merely a treaty of amity -and friendship, and acknowledgment on the part of the -Cheyennes of the "supremacy" of the United States. Two -years before this, President Monroe reported the "Chayenes" -to be "a tribe of three thousand two hundred and fifty souls, -dwelling and hunting on a river of the same name, a western -tributary of the Missouri, a little above the Great Bend." Ten -years later, Catlin, the famous painter of Indians, met a "Shienne" -chief and squaw among the Sioux, and painted their -portraits. He says, "The Shiennes are a small tribe of about -three thousand in number, living neighbors to the Sioux on the -west of them, between the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains. -There is no finer race of men than these in North America, -and none superior in stature, except the Osages: scarcely a -man in the tribe full grown who is less than six feet in height." -They are "the richest in horses of any tribe on the continent; -living where the greatest herds of wild horses are grazing on -the prairies, which they catch in great numbers, and sell to the -Sioux, Mandans, and other tribes, as well as to the fur-traders.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"These people are the most desperate set of warriors and -horsemen, having carried on almost unceasing wars with the -Pawnees and Blackfeet. The chief was clothed in a handsome -dress of deer-skins, very neatly garnished with broad bands of -porcupine-quill work down the sleeves of his shirt and leggings. -<a id='Page_67'></a>The woman was comely, and beautifully dressed. Her -dress of the mountain-sheepskin tastefully ornamented with -quills and beads, and her hair plaited in large braids that hung -down on her breast."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1837 the agent for the "Sioux, Cheyennes, and Poncas" -reports that "all these Indians live exclusively by the chase;" -and that seems to be the sum and substance of his information -about them. He adds, also, that these remote wandering tribes -have a great fear of the border tribes, and wish to avoid them. -In 1838 the Cheyennes are reported as carrying on trade at a -post on the Arkansas River near the Santa Fe road, but still -depending on the chase.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1842 they are spoken of as a "wandering tribe on the -Platte;" and in the same year, Mr. D. D. Mitchell, Supt. of Indian -Affairs, with his head-quarters at St. Louis, writes: "Generations -will pass away before this territory" [the territory in -which the wild tribes of the Upper Mississippi were then wandering] -"becomes much more circumscribed; for if we draw a -line running north and south, so as to cross the Missouri about -the mouth of the Vermilion River, we shall designate the limits -beyond which civilized men are never likely to settle. At this -point the Creator seems to have said to the tides of emigration -that are annually rolling toward the West, 'Thus far shalt thou -go, and no farther.' At all events, if they go beyond this, they -will never stop on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. The -utter destitution of timber, the sterility of sandy soil, together -with the coldness and dryness of the climate, furnish obstacles -which not even Yankee enterprise is likely to overcome. A -beneficent Creator seems to have intended this dreary region as -an asylum for the Indians, when the force of circumstances -shall have driven them from the last acre of the fertile soil -which they once possessed. Here no inducements are offered -to the ever-restless Saxon breed to erect their huts. *** The -time may arrive when the whole of the Western Indians will be -<a id='Page_68'></a>forced to seek a resting-place in this Great American Desert; -and this, in all probability, will form a new era in the history -of this singular and ill-fated race. They will remain a wandering, -half civilized, though happy people. 'Their flocks and -herds will cover a thousand hills,' and will furnish beef and -mutton for a portion of the dense population of whites that -will swarm in the more fertile sections of the great valley of -the Mississippi."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This line, recommended by Mr. Mitchell, runs just east of -Dakota, through the extreme eastern portion of Nebraska, a little -to the east of the middle of Kansas, through the middle of -Indian Territory and Texas, to the Gulf of Mexico. Montana, -Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico, all lie west of it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The records of the War Department for 1846 contain an interesting -account of a visit made to all the wild tribes of the -Upper Missouri Agency—the Yankton Sioux, the Arrikarees, -Mandans, Assinaboines, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and others. In -reply to the agent's remonstrances with one of the Sioux chiefs -in regard to their perpetual warring with each other, the chief -"was very laconic and decided, remarking 'that if their great-grandfather -desired them to cease to war with their enemies, -why did he not send each of them a petticoat, and make squaws -of them at once?'" This same chief refused to allow the boys -of his tribe to go to the Choctaw schools, saying, "They would -return, as the few did who went to St. Louis, drunkards, or die -on the way."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Cheyennes and other Indians living on the Platte complained -bitterly of the passage of the emigrants through their -country. They said they ought to be compensated for the -right of way, and that the emigrants should be restricted by -law and the presence of a military force from burning the -grass, and from unnecessary destruction of game. They were -systematically plundered and demoralized by traders. Whiskey -was to be had without difficulty; sugar and coffee were sold -<a id='Page_69'></a>at one dollar a pound; ten-cent calico at one dollar a yard; -corn at seventy-five cents a gallon, and higher.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1847 a law was passed by Congress forbidding the introduction -of whiskey into the Indian country, and even the partial -enforcement of this law had a most happy effect. Foremost -among those to acknowledge the benefits of it were the -traders themselves, who said that the Indians' demand for substantial -articles of trade was augmented two hundred per cent.: -"They enjoy much better health, look much better, and are better -people. *** You now rarely ever hear of a murder committed, -whereas when whiskey was plenty in that country murder -was a daily occurrence." These Indians themselves were -said to be "opposed to the introduction of ardent spirits into -their country; *** but, like almost all other Indians, will use -it if you give it to them, and when under its influence are dangerous -and troublesome." There were at this time nearly forty-six -thousand of these Upper Missouri Indians. Five bands of -them—"the Sioux, Cheyennes, Gros Ventres, Mandans, and Poncas"—were -"excellent Indians, devotedly attached to the white -man," living "in peace and friendship with our Government," -and "entitled to the special favor and good opinion of the Department -for their uniform good conduct and pacific relations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1848 it was estimated from the returns made by traders -that the trade of this agency amounted to $400,000. Among -the items were 25,000 buffalo tongues. In consequence of this -prosperity on the part of the Indians, there was a partial cessation -of hostilities on the whites; but it was still a perilous -journey to cross the plains, and in 1849 the necessity for making -some sort of treaty stipulations with all these wild tribes -begins to be forced emphatically upon the attention of the -United States Government. A safe highway across the continent -must be opened. It is a noticeable thing, however, that, -even as late as this in the history of our diplomatic relations -with the Indian, his right to a certain control as well as occupancy -<a id='Page_70'></a>of the soil was instinctively recognized. The Secretary -of the Interior, in his report for 1849, says: "The wild tribes -of Indians who have their hunting-grounds in the great prairie -through which our emigrants to California pass, have, during -the year, been more than usually pacific. They have suffered -our people to pass through their country with little interruption, -though they travelled in great numbers, and consumed on -their route much grass and game. For these the Indians expect -compensation, and their claim is just."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Secretary, therefore, concurs in the recommendation of -the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that treaties be negotiated -with these tribes, stipulating for the right of way through their -country, and the use of grass and game, paying them therefor -small annuities in useful articles of merchandise, and agricultural -implements, and instruction. "The right of way"—"through -their country." A great deal is conceded, covered, -and conveyed by such phrases as these. If they mean anything, -they mean all that the Indians ever claimed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians were supposed to be influenced to this peaceableness -and good-will more by a hope of rewards and gifts -than by a wholesome fear of the power of the Government; -and it was proposed to take a delegation of chiefs to Washington, -"in order that they may acquire some knowledge of our -greatness and strength, which will make a salutary impression -on them, and through them on their brethren," and "will tend -to influence them to continue peaceful relations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It begins to dawn upon the Government's perception that -peace is cheaper as well as kinder than war. "We never can -whip them into friendship," says one of the superintendents of -the Upper Missouri Agency. A treaty "can do no harm, and -the expense would be less than that of a six months' war. *** -Justice as well as policy requires that we should make some remuneration -for the damages these Indians sustain in consequence -of the destruction of their game, timber, etc., by the -whites passing through their country."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_71'></a>"Their game, timber," "their country," again. The perpetual -recurrence of this possessive pronoun, and of such phrases -as these in all that the Government has said about the Indians, -and in all that it has said to them, is very significant.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1850 the Indian Commission writes that "it is much -to be regretted that no appropriation was made at the last session -of Congress for negotiating treaties with the wild tribes of -the plains. These Indians have long held undisputed possession -of this extensive region; and, regarding it as their own, -they consider themselves entitled to compensation not only for -the right of way through their territory, but for the great and -injurious destruction of game, grass, and timber committed by -our troops and emigrants."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The bill providing for the negotiation of these treaties was -passed unanimously by the Senate, but "the unhappy difficulties -existing on the subject of slavery" delayed it in the House -until it was too late to be carried into effect.</p> - -<p class='c010'>All the tribes had been informed of this pending bill, and -were looking forward to it with great interest and anxiety. In -1849 they had all expressed themselves as "very anxious to be -instructed in agriculture and the civilized arts." Already the -buffalo herds were thinning and disappearing. From time immemorial -the buffalo had furnished them food, clothing, and -shelter; with its disappearance, starvation stared them in the -face, and they knew it. There can be no doubt that at this -time all the wild tribes of the Upper Missouri region—the -Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahoes—were ready and anxious to establish -friendly relations with the United States Government, -and to enter into some arrangement by which some means of -future subsistence, and some certainty of lands enough to live -on, could be secured to them. Meantime they hunted with -greater diligence than ever; and in this one year alone had sold -to the fur-traders within the limits of one agency $330,000 -worth of buffalo-robes, and "furs, peltries, and miscellaneous -<a id='Page_72'></a>goods to the amount of $60,000. What they thus receive for -their furs, robes, etc., would be ample for their support," says -Hatton, "were it not that they have to give such exorbitant -prices for what they purchase from the whites."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the winter and spring of 1850 all these tribes were visited -by an agent of the Government. He reported them as "friendly -disposed," but very impatient to come to some understanding -about the right of way. "This is what the Indians want, -and what they are anxious about; having been told long since, -and so often repeated by travellers passing (who care little -about the consequences of promises so they slip through safely -and unmolested themselves), that their 'Great Father' would -soon reward them liberally for the right of way, the destruction -of timber, game, etc., as well as for any kindness shown -Americans passing through their country."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the summer of 1851 this much desired treaty was made. -Seven of the prairie and mountain tribes gathered in great -force at Fort Laramie. The report of this council contains -some interesting and noticeable points.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We were eighteen days encamped together, during which -time the Indians conducted themselves in a manner that excited -the admiration and surprise of every one. The different -tribes, although hereditary enemies, interchanged daily visits, -both in their individual and national capacities; smoked and -feasted together; exchanged presents; adopted each other's -children, according to their own customs; and did all that was -held sacred or solemn in the eyes of these Indians to prove -the sincerity of their peaceful and friendly intentions, both -among themselves and with the citizens of the United States -lawfully residing among them or passing through the country."</p> - -<p class='c010'>By this treaty the Indians formally conceded to the United -States the right to establish roads, military or otherwise, -throughout the Indian country, "so far as they claim or exercise -ownership over it."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_73'></a>They agreed "to maintain peaceful relations among themselves, -and to abstain from all depredations upon whites passing -through their country, and to make restitution for any -damages or loss that a white man shall sustain by the acts of -their people."</p> - -<p class='c010'>For all the damages which they had suffered up to that time -in consequence of the passing of the whites through their country, -they accepted the presents then received as payment in -full.</p> - -<p class='c010'>An annuity of $50,000 a year for fifty years to come was -promised to them. This was the price of the "right of way."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Fifty thousand dollars for a limited period of years is a -small amount to be distributed among at least fifty thousand -Indians, especially when we consider that we have taken away, -or are rapidly taking away from them all means of support," -says one of the makers of this treaty. There would probably -be no dissent from this opinion. A dollar a year, even assured -to one for fifty years, seems hardly an adequate compensation -for the surrender of all other "means of support."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The report continues: "Viewing the treaty in all its provisions, -I am clearly of opinion that it is the best that could -have been made for both parties. I am, moreover, of the opinion -that it will be observed and carried out in as good faith on -the part of the Indians as it will on the part of the United -States and the white people thereof. There was an earnest -solemnity and a deep conviction of the necessity of adopting -some such measures evident in the conduct and manners of -the Indians throughout the whole council. On leaving for -their respective homes, and bidding each other adieu, they gave -the strongest possible evidence of their friendly intentions for -the future, and the mutual confidence and good faith which -they had in each other. Invitations were freely given and as -freely accepted by each of the tribes to interchange visits, talk, -and smoke together like brothers, upon ground where they had -<a id='Page_74'></a>never before met except for the purpose of scalping each other. -This, to my mind, was conclusive evidence of the sincerity of -the Indians, and nothing but bad management or some untoward -misfortune ever can break it."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Secretary of the Interior, in his report for this year, -speaks with satisfaction of the treaties negotiated with Indians -during the year, and says: "It cannot be denied that most of -the depredations committed by the Indians on our frontiers -are the offspring of dire necessity. The advance of our population -compels them to relinquish their fertile lands, and seek -refuge in sterile regions which furnish neither corn nor game: -impelled by hunger, they seize the horses, mules, and cattle of -the pioneers, to relieve their wants and satisfy the cravings of -nature. They are immediately pursued, and, when overtaken, -severely punished. This creates a feeling of revenge on their -part, which seeks its gratification in outrages on the persons -and property of peaceable inhabitants. The whole country -then becomes excited, and a desolating war, attended with a -vast sacrifice of blood and treasure, ensues. This, it is believed, -is a true history of the origin of most of our Indian hostilities.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"All history admonishes us of the difficulty of civilizing a -wandering race who live mainly upon game. To tame a savage -you must tie him down to the soil. You must make him -understand the value of property, and the benefits of its separate -ownership. You must appeal to those selfish principles -implanted by Divine Providence in the nature of man for the -wisest purposes, and make them minister to civilization and -refinement. You must encourage the appropriation of lands -by individuals; attach them to their homes by the ties of interest; -teach them the uses of agriculture and the arts of -peace; *** and they should be taught to look forward to -the day when they may be elevated to the dignity of American -citizenship.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"By means like these we shall soon reap our reward in the -<a id='Page_75'></a>suppression of Indian depredations; in the diminution of the -expenses of the Department of War; in a valuable addition to -our productive population; in the increase of our agriculture -and commerce; and in the proud consciousness that we have -removed from our national escutcheon the stain left on it by -our acknowledged injustice to the Indian race."</p> - -<p class='c010'>We find the Cheyennes, therefore, in 1851, pledged to peace -and good-will toward their Indian neighbors, and to the white -emigrants pouring through their country. For this conceded -right of way they are to have a dollar a year apiece, in "goods -and animals;" and it is supposed that they will be able to eke -out this support by hunting buffaloes, which are still not extinct.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1852 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs writes: "Notwithstanding -the mountain and prairie Indians continue to suffer -from the vast number of emigrants who pass through their -country, destroying their means of support, and scattering disease -and death among them, yet those who were parties to the -treaty concluded at Fort Laramie, in the fall of 1851, have been -true to their obligations, and have remained at peace among -themselves and with the whites."</p> - -<p class='c010'>And the superintendent writes: "Congress made a very liberal -appropriation of $100,000 to make a treaty with the prairie -and mountain tribes. A very satisfactory treaty was made -with them last fall at Fort Laramie, the conditions of which, -on their part, have been faithfully observed—no depredations -having been committed during the past season by any of the -tribes parties to the Fort Laramie treaty. The Senate amended -the treaty, substituting <i>fifteen</i> instead of <i>fifty</i> years as the period -for which they were to have received an annual supply of -goods, animals, etc., at the discretion of the President. This -modification of the treaty I think very proper, as the condition -of these wandering hordes will be entirely changed during the -next fifteen years. The treaty, however, should have been sent -<a id='Page_76'></a>back to the Indians for the purpose of obtaining their sanction -to the modification, as was done in the case of the Sioux treaty -negotiated by Commissioners Ramsey and Lea. It is hoped -this oversight will be corrected as early as practicable next -spring, otherwise the large amounts already expended will have -been uselessly wasted, and the Indians far more dissatisfied -than ever."</p> - -<p class='c010'>To comment on the bad faith of this action on the part of -Congress would be a waste of words; but its impolicy is so -glaring that one's astonishment cannot keep silent—its impolicy -and also its incredible niggardliness. A dollar apiece a year, -"in goods, animals," etc., those Indians had been promised that -they should have for fifty years. It must have been patent -to the meanest intellect that this was little to pay each year -to any one man from whom we were taking away, as the commissioner -said, "his means of support." But, unluckily for the -Indians, there were fifty thousand of them. It entered into -some thrifty Congressman's head to multiply fifty by fifty, -and the aggregate terrified everybody. This was much more -likely to have been the cause of the amendment than the cause -assigned by the superintendent, viz., the probable change of -localities of all the "wandering hordes" in the next fifteen -years. No doubt it would be troublesome to the last degree -to distribute fifty thousand dollars, "in goods, animals," etc., to -fifty thousand Indians wandering over the entire Upper Missouri -region; but no more troublesome, surely, in the sixteenth -year than in the fifteenth. The sophistry is too transparent; -it does not in the least gloss over the fact that, within the first -year after the making of our first treaty of any moment with -these tribes—while they to a man, the whole fifty thousand of -them, kept their faith with us—we broke ours with them in -the meanest of ways—robbing them of more than two-thirds -of the money we had promised to pay.</p> - -<p class='c010'>All the tribes "promptly" assented to this amendment, however; -<a id='Page_77'></a>so says the Annual Report of the Indian Commissioner -for 1853; and adds that, with a single exception, they have -maintained friendly relations among themselves, and "manifested -an increasing confidence in and kindness toward the -whites."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Some of them have begun to raise corn, beans, pumpkins, -etc., but depend chiefly on the hunt for their support. But -the agent who was sent to distribute to them their annuities, -and to secure their assent to the amendment to the treaty, -reports: "The Cheyennes and the Arapahoes, and many of -the Sioux, are actually in a starving state. They are in abject -want of food half the year, and their reliance for that scanty -supply, in the rapid decrease of the buffalo, is fast disappearing. -The travel upon the roads drives them off, or else confines -them to a narrow path during the period of emigration, -and the different tribes are forced to contend with hostile -nations in seeking support for their villages. Their women -are pinched with want, and their children constantly crying -with hunger. Their arms, moreover, are unfitted to the pursuit -of smaller game, and thus the lapse of a few years presents -only the prospect of a gradual famine." And in spite -of such suffering, these Indians commit no depredations, and -show increasing confidence in and kindness toward the whites.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This agent, who has passed many years among the Indians, -speaks with great feeling of the sad prospect staring them in -the face. He says: "But one course remains which promises -any permanent relief to them, or any lasting benefit to the -country in which they dwell; that is, simply to make such -modifications in the 'intercourse' laws as will invite the residence -of traders among them, and open the whole Indian Territory -for settlement. Trade is the only civilizer of the Indian. -It has been the precursor of all civilization heretofore, and it -will be of all hereafter. It teaches the Indian the value of -other things besides the spoils of the chase, and offers to him -<a id='Page_78'></a>other pursuits and excitements than those of war. All obstructions -to its freedom, therefore, only operate injuriously. *** -The Indians would soon lose their nomadic character, and -forget the relations of tribes. *** And this, while it would -avoid the cruel necessity of our present policy—to wit, extinction—would -make them an element in the population, and -sharer in the prosperity of the country." He says of the -"system of removals, and congregating tribes in small parcels -of territory," that it has "eventuated injuriously on those who -have been subjected to it. It is the legalized murder of a -whole nation. It is expensive, vicious, and inhuman, and producing -these consequences, and these alone. The custom, being -judged by its fruits, should not be persisted in."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is in the face of such statements, such protests as these, -that the United States Government has gone steadily on with -its policy, so called, in regard to the treatment of the Indian.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1854 the report from the Upper Missouri region is still -of peace and fidelity on the part of all the Indians who joined -in the Fort Laramie treaty. "Not a single instance of murder, -robbery, or other depredation has been committed by -them, either on the neighboring tribes parties to the treaty or -on whites. This is the more remarkable, as before the treaty -they were foremost in the van of thieves and robbers—always -at war, pillaging whoever they met, and annoying their own -traders in their own forts."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the summer of this year the Cheyennes began to be dissatisfied -and impertinent. At a gathering of the northern -band at Fort Laramie, one of the chiefs demanded that the -travel over the Platte road should be stopped. He also, if the -interpreter was to be relied on, said that next year the Government -must send them out one thousand white women for -wives. The Southern Cheyennes had given up to their agent -some Mexican prisoners whom they had taken in the spring, -and this act, it was supposed, had seemed to the northern band -<a id='Page_79'></a>a needless interference on the part of the United States. -Moreover, it was a matter constantly open to the observation -of all friendly Indians that the hostiles, who were continually -plundering and attacking emigrant trains, made, on the whole, -more profit out of war than they made out of peace. On the -North Platte road during this year the Pawnees alone had -stolen several thousands of dollars' worth of goods; and, in -addition to this, there was the pressure of public sentiment—a -thing which is as powerful among Indians as among whites. It -was popular to be on the war-path: the whites were invaders; -it was brave and creditable to slay them. Taking all these things -into account, it was only to be wondered at that these Cheyennes, -Arapahoes, and Sioux kept to the provisions of their -treaty at all. Nevertheless, the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and -some bands of the Sioux continued peaceable and friendly; -and in 1855 they begged to be supplied with a farmer to -teach them how to farm; also with a blacksmith. Their agent -strongly recommends that this be done, saying that there is -not "in the whole Indian country a more favorable location -for a farm for grazing stock and game than the South Platte. -In a very short period of time the Arapahoes and Cheyennes -would become fixed and settled, and a part of each tribe—the -old women and men—would become agriculturists; rude, it is -true, yet sufficiently skilful to raise corn, potatoes, and beans, -and dwell in cabins or fixed habitations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the summer of 1856 the Cheyennes were, by a disastrous -accident, forced into the position of hostiles. A small war-band -went out to attack the Pawnees; they were in camp near -the North Platte road: as the mail-wagon was passing, two of -the Cheyennes ran toward it to beg tobacco. The mail-carrier, -terrified, fired on them, and the Indians fired back, wounding -him; the chiefs rushed out, stopped the firing, explained -the matter, and then severely flogged the Indians who had returned -the mail-carrier's fire. But the mischief had been done.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_80'></a>The mail-carrier reported his having been fired at by a Cheyenne -Indian, and the next day troops from Fort Kearny attacked -the Indians and killed six of the war-party. The rest -refused to fight, and ran away, leaving their camp and all it -contained. The war-party, thoroughly exasperated, attacked -an emigrant train, killed two men and a child, and took one -woman captive. The next day they killed her, because she -could not ride on horseback and keep up with them. Within -a short time two more small war-parties had left the band, attacked -trains, and killed two men, two women, and a child. -The chiefs at first could not restrain them, but in September -they sent a delegation to the agency to ask their agent's assistance -and advice. They said that the war-party was now completely -under their control, and they wished to know what -they could do. They implored the Great Father not to be angry -with them, "for they could not control the war-party when -they saw their friends killed by soldiers after they had thrown -down their bows and arrows and begged for life."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In October the agent reported that the Cheyennes were -"perfectly quiet and peaceable, and entirely within control, -and obedient to authority." The chiefs had organized a -sort of police, whose duty was to kill any war-parties that -might attempt to leave the camp.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Through the winter the Cheyennes remained in the south -and south-eastern parts of the agency, and strictly observed the -conditions which their agent had imposed upon them. In the -following August, however, a military force under General -Sumner was sent out "to demand from the tribe the perpetrators -of their late outrages on the whites, and ample security for -their good conduct." The Cheyennes were reported by General -Sumner as showing no disposition to yield to these demands; -he therefore attacked them, burnt their village to the -ground, and destroyed their winter supplies—some fifteen or -twenty thousand pounds of buffalo meat.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_81'></a>Of how they lived, and where, during the winter following this -fight, there is little record. In the next year's reports the Cheyennes -are said to be very anxious for a new treaty, which will assign -to them a country in which they can dwell safely. "They -said they had learned a lesson last summer in their fight with -General Sumner—that it was useless to contend with the white -man, who would soon with his villages occupy the whole prairie. -They wanted peace; and as the buffalo—their principal -dependence for food and clothing (which even now they were -compelled to seek many miles from home, where their natural -enemies, the Pawnee and Osage, roamed), would soon disappear -entirely, they hoped their Great Father, the white chief at -Washington, would listen to them, and give them a home -where they might be provided for and protected against the -encroachments of their white brothers, until at least they had -been taught to cultivate the soil and other arts of civilized life. -They have often desired ploughs and hoes, and to be taught -their use."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The next year's records show the Government itself aware -that some measures must be taken to provide for these troublesome -wild tribes of the prairie: almost more perplexing in -time of peace than in time of war is the problem of the disposition -to be made of them. Agents and superintendents -alike are pressing on the Government's attention the facts and -the bearing of the rapid settling of the Indian lands by the -whites; the precariousness of peaceful relations; the dangers -of Indian wars. The Indians themselves are deeply anxious -and disturbed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They have heard that all of the Indian tribes to the eastward -of them have ceded their lands to the United States, except -small reservations; and hence, by an Indian's reasoning, -in a few years these tribes will emigrate farther west, and, as -a matter of necessity, occupy the hunting-grounds of the wild -tribes."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_82'></a>When the agent of the Upper Platte Agency tried to reason -on this subject with one of the Sioux chiefs, the chief said: -"When I was a young man, and I am not yet fifty, I travelled -with my people through the country of the Sac and Fox tribe, -to the great water Minne Toukah (Mississippi), where I saw -corn growing, but no white people; continuing eastward, we -came to the Rock River valley, and saw the Winnebagoes, but -no white people. We then came to the Fox River valley, and -thence to the Great Lake (Lake Michigan), where we found a -few white people in the Pottawattomie country. Thence we -returned to the Sioux country at the Great Falls of Irara (St. -Anthony), and had a feast of green corn with our relations, who -resided there. Afterward we visited the pipe-clay quarry in -the country of the Yankton Sioux, and made a feast to the -'Great Medicine,' and danced the 'sun dance,' and then returned -to our hunting-grounds on the prairie. And now our Father -tells us the white man will never settle on our lands, and kill -our game; but see! the whites cover all of those lands I have -just described, and also the lands of the Poncas, Omahas, and -Pawnees. On the South Platte the white people are finding -gold, and the Cheyennes and Arapahoes have no longer any -hunting-grounds. Our country has become very small, and before -our children are grown up we shall have no game."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the autumn of this year (1859) an agent was sent to hold -a council with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and tell them of -the wish of the Government that they should "assume a fixed -residence, and occupy themselves in agriculture. This they at -once received with favor, and declared with great unanimity to -be acceptable to them. They expected and asked that the Department -shall supply them with what is necessary to establish -themselves permanently. *** Both these tribes had scrupulously -maintained peaceful relations with the whites, and with -other Indian tribes, notwithstanding the many causes of irritation -growing out of the occupation of the gold region, and the -<a id='Page_83'></a>emigration to it through their hunting-grounds, which are no -longer reliable as a certain source of food to them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was estimated that during the summer of 1859 over sixty -thousand emigrants crossed these plains in their central belt. -The trains of vehicles and cattle were frequent and valuable in -proportion; and post lines and private expresses were in constant -motion.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1860 a commissioner was sent out to hold a council with -the Cheyennes and Arapahoes at Bent's Fort, on the Upper -Arkansas, and make a treaty with them. The Arapahoes were -fully represented; but there were present only two prominent -chiefs of the Cheyennes—Black Kettle and White Antelope. -(White Antelope was one of the chiefs brutally murdered five -years later in the Chivington massacre in Colorado.) As it -was impossible for the rest of the Cheyennes to reach the Fort -in less than twenty days, and the commissioner could not wait -so long, Black Kettle and White Antelope wished it to be distinctly -understood that they pledged only themselves and their -own bands.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The commissioner says: "I informed them as to the object -of my visit, and gave them to understand that their Great -Father had heard with delight of their peaceful disposition, -although they were almost in the midst of the hostile tribes. -They expressed great pleasure on learning that their Great Father -had heard of their good conduct, and requested me to say, -in return, that they intended in every respect to conform to the -wishes of the Government. I then presented to them a diagram -of the country assigned them, by their treaty of 1851, as -their hunting-grounds, which they seemed to understand perfectly, -and were enabled without difficulty to give each initial -point. In fact, they exhibited a degree of intelligence seldom -to be found among tribes where no effort has been made to -civilize them. I stated to them that it was the intention of -their Great Father to reduce the area of their present reservation, -<a id='Page_84'></a>and that they should settle down and betake themselves -to agriculture, and eventually abandon the chase as a means of -support. They informed me that such was their wish; and -that they had been aware for some time that they would be -compelled to do so: that game was growing more scarce every -year, and that they had also noticed the approach of whites, -and felt that they must soon, in a great measure, conform to -their habits. *** It has not fallen to my lot to visit any -Indians who seem more disposed to yield to the wishes of the -Government than the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Notwithstanding -they are fully aware of the rich mines discovered in -their country, they are disposed to yield up their claims without -any reluctance. They certainly deserve the fostering hand -of the Government, and should be liberally encouraged in their -new sphere of life."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This treaty was concluded in February of the next year, at -Fort Wise. The chiefs of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes there -"ceded and relinquished" all the lands to which they had any -claim, "wherever situated," except a certain tract whose boundaries -were defined. The land relinquished included lands in -Kansas and Nebraska, and all of that part of Colorado which is -north of the Arkansas, and east of the Rocky Mountains.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in "consideration of their -kind treatment by the citizens of Denver and the adjoining -towns," "respectfully requested," in the eleventh Article of -this treaty, that the United States would permit the proprietors -of these towns to enter their lands at the minimum price of -one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. This Article was -struck out by the Senate, and the Indians consented to the -amendment; but the proof of their good-will and gratitude -remained on record, nevertheless.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The desire of the Government to make farmers of these Indians -was reiterated in this treaty, and evidenced by pledges -of purchase of stock, agricultural implements, etc.; mills, also, -<a id='Page_85'></a>and mechanic shops they were to have, and an annuity of -$30,000 a year for fifteen years. There was this clause, however, -in an article of the treaty, "Their annuities may, at the -discretion of the President of the United States, be discontinued -entirely should said Indians fail to make reasonable -and satisfactory efforts to improve and advance their condition; -in which case such other provision shall be made for -them as the President and Congress may judge to be suitable -or proper." Could there be a more complete signing away -than this of all benefits provided for by the treaty?</p> - -<p class='c010'>Lands were to be assigned to them "in severalty," and certificates -were to be issued by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, -specifying the names of individuals; and that the "said -tracts were set apart for the exclusive use and benefit of the -assignees and their heirs." Each Indian was to have forty -acres of land, "to include in every case, as far as practicable, -a reasonable portion of timber and water."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tenth Article of the treaty provided that the annuities -now paid to the Arapahoes and Cheyennes should be continued -to them until the stipulations of such treaties or articles of -agreement should be fulfilled; and the seventh Article provided -that the President, with the assent of Congress, should -have power to modify or change any "of the provisions of former -treaties" "in such manner and to whatever extent" he -might judge it to be necessary and expedient for their best -interests.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Could a community of people be delivered up more completely -bound and at the mercy of a government? Some of -the bands of the Cheyennes who were not represented at this -council were much dissatisfied with the treaty, as evidently -they had great reason to be. And as time went on, all the -bands became dissatisfied. Two years later we find that, instead -of their being settled on those farms "in severalty," the -survey of their lands has been just completed, and that "a -<a id='Page_86'></a>contract will soon be made for the construction of a ditch for -the purpose of irrigating their arable land." "It is to be -hoped," the Superintendent of the Colorado Agency writes, -that "when suitable preparations for their subsistence by agriculture -and grazing are made, these tribes will gradually cease -their roaming, and become permanently settled." It would -seem highly probable that under those conditions the half-starved -creatures would be only too glad to cease to roam. It -is now ten years since they were reported to be in a condition -of miserable starvation every winter, trying to raise a little -corn here and there, and begging to have a farmer and a blacksmith -sent out to them. They are now divided and subdivided -into small bands, hunting the buffalo wherever they can find -him, and going in small parties because there are no longer -large herds of buffaloes to be found anywhere. The Governor -of Colorado says, in his report for 1863, that "these extensive -subdivisions of the tribes caused great difficulty in ascertaining -the really guilty parties in the commission of offences." -Depredations and hostilities are being frequently committed, -but it is manifestly unjust to hold the whole tribe responsible -for the acts of a few.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Things grew rapidly worse in Colorado. Those "preparations -for their subsistence by agriculture and grazing"—which -it took so much room to tell in the treaty—not having been -made; the farmer, and the blacksmith, and the grist-mill not -having arrived; the contract not having been even let for the -irrigating-ditch, without which no man can raise any crops in -Colorado, not even on arable lands—many of the Cheyennes -and Arapahoes took to a system of pilfering reprisals from -emigrant trains, and in the fights resulting from this effort to -steal they committed many terrible murders. All the tribes on -the plains were more or less engaged in these outrages; and it -was evident, before midsummer of 1864, that the Government -must interfere with a strong hand to protect the emigrants and -<a id='Page_87'></a>Western settlers—to protect them from the consequences of its -own bad faith with the Indians. The Governor of Colorado -called for military aid, and for authority to make a campaign -against the Indians, which was given him. But as there was no -doubt that many of the Indians were still peaceable and loyal, -and he desired to avoid every possibility of their sharing in -the punishment of the guilty, he issued a proclamation in -June, requesting all who were friendly to come to places which -he designated, where they were to be assured of safety and protection. -This proclamation was sent to all the Indians of the -plains. In consequence of it, several bands of friendly Arapahoes -and Cheyennes came to Fort Lyon, and were there received -by the officer in charge, rationed, and assured of safety. -Here there occurred, on the 29th of November, one of the foulest -massacres which the world has seen. This camp of friendly -Indians was surprised at daybreak, and men, women, and -children were butchered in cold blood. Most of those who -escaped fled to the north, and, joining other bands of the -tribe, proceeded at once to take most fearful, and, it must be -said, natural revenge. A terrible war followed. Some of them -confederated with the Sioux, and waged relentless war on all -the emigrant routes across the plains. These hostilities were -bitter in proportion to the bitterness of resentment felt by the -refugees from this massacre. "It will be long before faith in -the honor and humanity of the whites can be re-established in -the minds of these barbarians," says an official report, "and -the last Indian who escaped from the brutal scene at Sand -Creek will probably have died before its effects will have disappeared."<a id='r10' /><a href='#f10' class='c012'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>In October of the next year some of the bands, having first -had their safety assured by an old and tried friend, I. H. Leavenworth, -Indian Agent for the Upper Arkansas, gathered together -<a id='Page_88'></a>to hold a council with United States Commissioners on -the Little Arkansas. The commissioners were empowered by -the President to restore to the survivors of the Sand Creek massacre -full value for all the property then destroyed; "to make -reparation," so far as possible. To each woman who had lost a -husband there they gave one hundred and sixty acres of land; -to each child who had lost a parent, the same. Probably even -an Indian woman would consider one hundred and sixty acres -of land a poor equivalent for a murdered husband; but the -offers were accepted in good part by the tribe, and there is -nothing in all the history of this patient race more pathetic -than the calm and reasonable language employed by some of -these Cheyenne and Arapahoe chiefs at this council. Said -Black Kettle, the chief over whose lodge the American flag, -with a white flag tied below, was floating at the time of the -massacre, "I once thought that I was the only man that persevered -to be the friend of the white man; but since they have -come and cleaned out our lodges, horses, and everything else, -it is hard for me to believe white men any more. *** All my -friends, the Indians that are holding back, they are afraid to -come in; are afraid that they will be betrayed as I have been. -I am not afraid of white men, but come and take you by the -hand." Elsewhere, Black Kettle spoke of Colonel Chivington's -troops as "that fool-band of soldiers that cleared out our -lodges, and killed our women and children. This is hard on -us." With a magnanimity and common-sense which white -men would have done well to imitate in their judgments of the -Indians, he recognized that it would be absurd, as well as unjust, -to hold all white men in distrust on account of the acts -of that "fool-band of soldiers."<a id='r11' /><a href='#f11' class='c012'><sup>[11]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>By the terms of this treaty, a new reservation was to be set -apart for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes; hostile acts on either -side were to be settled by arbitration; no whites were to be -allowed on the reservation; a large tract of country was to be -"relinquished" by the Indians, but they were "expressly permitted -to reside upon and range at pleasure throughout the unsettled -portions of that part of the country they claim as originally -theirs." The United States reserved the right to build -roads and establish forts in the reservation, and pledged itself to -pay "annually, for the period of forty years," certain sums of -money to each person in the tribe: twenty dollars a head till -they were settled on their reservation; after that, forty dollars -a head. To this end an accurate annual census of the Indians -was promised at the time of the annuity payment in the spring.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians went away from this council full of hope and -satisfaction. Their oldest friends, Colonel Bent and Kit Carson, -were among the commissioners, and they felt that at last they -had a treaty they could trust. Their old reservation in Colorado -(to which they probably could never have been induced to -return) was restored to the public domain of that territory, and -they hoped in their new home for greater safety and peace. -The Apaches, who had heretofore been allied with the Kiowas -and Comanches, were now allied with them, and to have the -benefits of the new treaty. A small portion of the tribe—chiefly -young men of a turbulent nature—still held aloof, and -refused to come under the treaty provisions. One riotous band, -called the Dog Soldiers, were especially refractory; but, before -the end of the next year, they also decided to go southward -and join the rest of the tribe on the new reservation. Occasional -hostilities took place in the course of the winter, one of -which it is worth while to relate, the incident is so typical a one.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On the 21st of February a son of one Mr. Boggs was killed -and scalped by a party of four Cheyenne Indians about six -miles east of Fort Dodge, on the Arkansas River. On investigation, -<a id='Page_90'></a>it appeared that Mr. Boggs had gone to the Indian -camp without any authority, and had there traded off eleven -one-dollar bills for ten-dollar bills. The Indian on whom this -trick had been played found Mr. Boggs out, went to him, and -demanded reparation; and, in the altercation and fight which -ensued, Mr. Boggs's son was killed. This story is given in the -official report of Lieutenant-colonel Gordon, U.S.A., and Colonel -Gordon adds, "I think this case needs no further comment."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Cheyennes did not long remain at peace; in the summer -the Senate had added to this last treaty an amendment -requiring their new reservation to be entirely "outside the -State of Kansas, and not within any Indian territory, except -on consent of the tribes interested." As the reservation had -been partly in Kansas, and partly on the lands of the Cherokees, -this amendment left them literally without any home whatever. -Under these circumstances, the young men of the tribe -soon began to join again with other hostile Indians in committing -depredations and hostilities along the great mail-routes on -the plains. Again they were visited with summary and apparently -deserved vengeance by the United States troops, and in -the summer of 1867 a Cheyenne village numbering three hundred -lodges was burnt by United States soldiers under General -Hancock. Fortunately the women and children had all -fled on the first news of the approach of the army. Soon after -this another council was held with them, and once more the -precarious peace was confirmed by treaty; but was almost immediately -broken again in consequence of the failure of the -Government to comply with the treaty provisions. That some -members of these tribes had also failed to keep to the treaty -provisions is undoubtedly true, but by far the greater part of -them were loyal and peaceable. "The substantial cause of this -war," however, was acknowledged by the Indian Bureau itself -to be "the fact that the Department, for want of appropriations, -was compelled to stop their supplies, and to permit them to -recur to the chase for subsistence."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_91'></a>In 1868 "the country bounded east by the State of Arkansas, -south by Texas, north by Kansas, and west by the hundredth -meridian of longitude, was set apart for the exclusive -use of the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Comanches, and -such other bands as might be located there by proper authority;" -and the whole was declared to constitute "a military district," -under command of Major-general Hazen, U.S.A. In October -of the same year Major Wynkoop, who had been the faithful -friend of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes ever since the days -of Sand Creek, published his last protest in their behalf, in a -letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He says that the -failure of the Government to fulfil treaty provisions in the matter -of supplies forced them to resort to hunting again; and -then the refusal of the Government to give them the arms and -ammunition promised in the treaty, left them without any -means of securing the game; hence the depredations. The -chiefs had promised to deliver up the guilty ones to Major -Wynkoop, "but before sufficient time had elapsed for them to -fulfil their promises the troops were in the field, and the Indians -in flight. *** Even after the majority of the Cheyennes had -been forced to take the war-path, in consequence of the bad -acts of some of their nation, several bands of the Cheyennes, -and the whole Arapahoe tribe, could have been kept at peace -had proper action been taken at the time; but now all the Indians -of the Upper Arkansas are engaged in the struggle."<a id='r12' /><a href='#f12' class='c012'><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1869 many Arapahoes and Cheyennes had made their -way to Montana, and were living with the Gros Ventres; most -of those who remained at the south were quiet, and seemed to -be disposed to observe the provisions of the treaty, but were -earnestly imploring to be moved farther to the north, where -they might hunt buffalo.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_92'></a>In 1870, under the care of an agent of the Society of -Friends, the improvement of the Southern Cheyennes was remarkable. -Buildings were put up, land was broken and planted, -and the agent reports that, "with proper care on the part of -the Government," there will not be any "serious trouble" with -the tribe, although there are still some "restless spirits" among -them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1872 the Cheyennes and Arapahoes are reported as "allied -to the Government in the maintenance of peace on the -border. Very strong inducements have been made by the raiding -bands of Kiowas, at critical times in the past two years, to -join them in hostile alliance in raids against the whites; but -all such appeals have been rejected, and, as a tribe, they have -remained loyal and peaceful."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Thirty lodges of the Northern Cheyennes returned this year -and joined their tribe, but many of them were still roaming -among the Northern Sioux. In 1874 there were said to be -over three thousand of these Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes -at the Red Cloud Agency. The Government refused any -longer to permit them to stay there; and, after repeated protests, -and expressions of unwillingness to move, they at last -consented to go to the Indian Territory. But their removal -was deferred, on account of the unsettled state of the Southern -Cheyennes. Early in the spring troubles had broken out -among them, in consequence of a raid of horse-thieves on -their reservation. The chief, Little Robe, lost forty-three head -of valuable ponies. These ponies were offered for sale in -Dodge City, Kansas, where Little Robe's son, with a small -band of young men, made an unsuccessful effort to reclaim -them. Failing in this, the band, on their way back, stole the -first stock they came to; were pursued by the Kansas farmers, -the stock recaptured, and Little Robe's son badly wounded. -This was sufficient to bring on a general war against white -men in the whole region; and the history of the next few -<a id='Page_93'></a>months was a history of murders and outrages by Cheyennes, -Kiowas, Osages, and Comanches. Sixty lodges of the Cheyennes -took refuge under the protection of the United States -troops at the agency, and the old problem returned again, how -to punish the guilty without harming the innocent. A vigorous -military campaign was carried on under General Miles -against the hostiles until, in the spring of 1875, the main body -surrendered. Wretched, half starved, more than half naked, -without lodges, ponies—a more pitiable sight was never seen -than this band of Indians. It was inconceivable how they had -so long held out; nothing but a well-nigh indomitable pride -and inextinguishable hatred of the whites and sense of wrongs -could have supported them. It was decided that thirty-three -of the most desperate ones should be sent as prisoners to St. -Augustine, Florida; but before the selection was completed a -general stampede among the surrendered braves took place, resulting -in the final escape of some four hundred. They held -their ground from two <span class='fss'>P.M.</span> until dark against three companies -of cavalry and two Gatling guns, and, "under cover of an extremely -dark and stormy night, escaped, leaving only three -dead on the field." It is impossible not to admire such bravery -as this. The Report of the Indian Bureau for 1875 says of -the condition of affairs at this agency at this time: "The -friendly Cheyennes have had their loyalty put to the severest -test by comparing their own condition with that of the full-fed -and warmly-housed captives of the War Department. Notwithstanding -all privations, they have been unswerving in their -friendship, and ever ready to assist the agent in maintaining -order, and compelling the Northern Cheyennes who have visited -the agency to submit to a count." In consequence of the -hostilities, they were obliged to remain close to the agency in -camp—a hardship that could hardly be endured, and resulted -in serious suffering. Their rations were not enough to subsist -them, and yet, being cut off from hunting, they were entirely -<a id='Page_94'></a>dependent on them. And even these inadequate rations did -not arrive when they were due. Their agent writes, in 1875: -"On last year's flour contract not a single pound was received -until the fourteenth day of First Month, 1875, when six months -of cold weather and many privations had passed, notwithstanding -the many protestations and urgent appeals from the agent."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The now thoroughly subjugated Cheyennes went to work -with a will. In one short year they are reported as so anxious -to cultivate the ground that, when they could not secure the -use of a plough or hoe, they used "axes, sticks of wood, and -their hands, in preparing the ground, planting and cultivating -their garden spots."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Northern Cheyennes are still on the Red Cloud Agency, -and are reported as restless and troublesome.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1877 they were all removed to the Cheyenne and Arapahoe -Agency, in Indian Territory. The Reports of the Department -say that they asked to be taken there. The winter of -1866 and the summer of 1867 were seasons of great activity -and interest at this agency. In the autumn they went off on a -grand buffalo hunt, accompanied by a small detail of troops -from Fort Reno. Early in the winter white horse-thieves -began to make raids on their ponies, and stole so many that -many of the Indians were obliged to depend on their friends' -ponies to help them return home. Two hundred and sixty in -all were stolen—carried, as usual, to Dodge City and sold. A -few were recovered; but the loss to the Indians was estimated -at two thousand nine hundred dollars. "Such losses are -very discouraging to the Indians," writes their agent, and -are "but a repetition of the old story that brought on the war -of 1874."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In midsummer of this year the "Cheyenne and Arapahoe -Transportation Company" was formed: forty wagons were -sent out, with harness, by the Government; the Indians furnished -the horses; and on the 19th of July the Indians set out -<a id='Page_95'></a>in their new <i>rôle</i> of "freighters" of their own supplies. They -went to Wichita, Kansas—one hundred and sixty-five miles—in -six days, with their ponies; loaded sixty-five thousand pounds -of supplies into the wagons, and made the return trip in two -weeks, all things being delivered in good condition.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This experiment was thoroughly tested; and its results are -notable among the many unheeded refutations of the constantly -repeated assertion that Indians will not work. The agent -of the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes, testifying before a Senate -Committee in 1879, says: "We have run a wagon train, -driven by Indians, to Wichita, for three years and over, and -have never had a drunken Indian yet."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Do they waste their money, or bring it home?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They almost invariably spend it for saddles or clothing, -or something of use to them that is not furnished by the Government. -*** They have never stolen an ounce of sugar, -coffee, or anything else: they have been careful not to injure -or waste anything, and have delivered everything in good -faith."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The agent reports not a single case of drunkenness during -the year. The manual labor and boarding-school has one hundred -and thirteen scholars in it, "all it can accommodate." -The children earned four hundred dollars in the year by work -of one sort and another, and have "expended the money as -judiciously as would white children of their ages." They -bought calico, cotton cloth, shoes, hats, several head of cattle, -and one horse. They also "bought many delicacies for their -friends in camp who were sick and in need."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"One Cheyenne woman tanned robes, traded them for twenty-five -two-year-old heifers, and gave them to her daughter in -the school. *** The boys have one hundred and twenty acres -of corn under cultivation, ten acres of potatoes, broom-corn, -sugar-cane, peanuts, melons, and a good variety of vegetables. -They are entitled to one-half the crop for cultivating it."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_96'></a>This is a marvellous report of the change wrought in a people -in only two years' time. It proves that the misdemeanors, -the hostilities of 1874 and 1875, had been largely forced on -them by circumstances.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The winter of 1877 and summer of 1878 were terrible -seasons for the Cheyennes. Their fall hunt had proved unsuccessful. -Indians from other reservations had hunted the -ground over before them, and driven the buffalo off; and the -Cheyennes made their way home again in straggling parties, -destitute and hungry. Their agent reports that the result of -this hunt has clearly proved that "in the future the Indian -must rely on tilling the ground as the principal means of support; -and if this conviction can be firmly established, the greatest -obstacle to advancement in agriculture will be overcome. -With the buffalo gone, and their pony herds being constantly -decimated by the inroads of horse-thieves, they must soon -adopt, in all its varieties, the way of the white man. *** The -usual amount of horse-stealing has prevailed, and the few cases -of successful pursuit have only increased the boldness of the -thieves and the number of the thefts. Until some other system -of law is introduced we cannot hope for a cessation of this -grievance."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The ration allowed to these Indians is reported as being "reduced -and insufficient," and the small sums they have been -able to earn by selling buffalo-hides are said to have been "of -material assistance" to them in "supplementing" this ration. -But in this year there have been sold only $657 worth of -skins by the Cheyennes and Arapahoes together. In 1876 -they sold $17,600 worth. Here is a falling off enough to -cause very great suffering in a little community of five thousand -people. But this was only the beginning of their troubles. -The summer proved one of unusual heat. Extreme heat, chills -and fever, and "a reduced and insufficient ration," all combined, -resulted in an amount of sickness heart-rending to read -<a id='Page_97'></a>of. "It is no exaggerated estimate," says the agent, "to place -the number of sick people on the reservation at two thousand. -Many deaths occurred which might have been obviated had -there been a proper supply of anti-malarial remedies at hand. -*** Hundreds applying for treatment have been refused medicine."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Northern Cheyennes grew more and more restless and -unhappy. "In council and elsewhere they profess an intense -desire to be sent North, where they say they will settle down -as the others have done," says the report; adding, with an obtuseness -which is inexplicable, that "no difference has been -made in the treatment of the Indians," but that the "compliance" -of these Northern Cheyennes has been "of an entirely -different nature from that of the other Indians," and that it may -be "necessary in the future to compel what so far we have been -unable to effect by kindness and appeal to their better natures."</p> - -<p class='c010'>If it is "an appeal to men's better natures" to remove them -by force from a healthful Northern climate, which they love -and thrive in, to a malarial Southern one, where they are struck -down by chills and fever—refuse them medicine which can -combat chills and fever, and finally starve them—then, indeed, -might be said to have been most forcible appeals made to the -"better natures" of these Northern Cheyennes. What might -have been predicted followed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Early in the autumn, after this terrible summer, a band of -some three hundred of these Northern Cheyennes took the -desperate step of running off and attempting to make their -way back to Dakota. They were pursued, fought desperately, -but were finally overpowered, and surrendered. They surrendered, -however, only on the condition that they should be -taken to Dakota. They were unanimous in declaring that -they would rather die than go back to the Indian Territory. -This was nothing more, in fact, than saying that they would -rather die by bullets than of chills and fever and starvation.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_98'></a>These Indians were taken to Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Here -they were confined as prisoners of war, and held subject to the -orders of the Department of the Interior. The department -was informed of the Indians' determination never to be taken -back alive to Indian Territory. The army officers in charge -reiterated these statements, and implored the department to -permit them to remain at the North; but it was of no avail. -Orders came—explicit, repeated, finally stern—insisting on the -return of these Indians to their agency. The commanding -officer at Fort Robinson has been censured severely for the -course he pursued in his effort to carry out those orders. It -is difficult to see what else he could have done, except to have -resigned his post. He could not take three hundred Indians -by sheer brute force and carry them hundreds of miles, especially -when they were so desperate that they had broken up -the iron stoves in their quarters, and wrought and twisted -them into weapons with which to resist. He thought perhaps -he could starve them into submission. He stopped the issue -of food; he also stopped the issue of fuel to them. It was -midwinter; the mercury froze in that month at Fort Robinson. -At the end of two days he asked the Indians to let their -women and children come out that he might feed them. Not -a woman would come out. On the night of the fourth day—or, -according to some accounts, the sixth—these starving, freezing -Indians broke prison, overpowered the guards, and fled, -carrying their women and children with them. They held the -pursuing troops at bay for several days; finally made a last -stand in a deep ravine, and were shot down—men, women, and -children together. Out of the whole band there were left alive -some fifty women and children and seven men, who, having -been confined in another part of the fort, had not had the good -fortune to share in this outbreak and meet their death in the -ravine. These, with their wives and children, were sent to Fort -Leavenworth, to be put in prison; the men to be tried for murders -<a id='Page_99'></a>committed in their skirmishes in Kansas on their way to -the north. Red Cloud, a Sioux chief, came to Fort Robinson -immediately after this massacre, and entreated to be allowed -to take the Cheyenne widows and orphans into his tribe to be -cared for. The Government, therefore, kindly permitted twenty-two -Cheyenne widows and thirty-two Cheyenne children—many -of them orphans—to be received into the band of the -Ogallalla Sioux.</p> - -<p class='c010'>An attempt was made by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, -in his Report for 1879, to show by tables and figures that -these Indians were not starving at the time of their flight from -Indian Territory. The attempt only redounded to his own disgrace; -it being proved, by the testimony given by a former -clerk of the Indian Bureau before the Senate committee appointed -to investigate the case of the Northern Cheyennes, that -the commissioner had been guilty of absolute dishonesty in his -estimates, and that the quantity of beef actually issued to the -Cheyenne Agency was hundreds of pounds less than he had -reported it, and that the Indians were actually, as they had -claimed, "starving."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The testimony given before this committee by some of the -Cheyenne prisoners themselves is heart-rending. One must -have a callous heart who can read it unmoved.</p> - -<p class='c010'>When asked by Senator Morgan, "Did you ever really suffer -from hunger?" one of the chiefs replied, "We were <i>always</i> -hungry; we <i>never</i> had enough. When they that were sick -once in awhile felt as though they could eat something, we -had nothing to give them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Did you not go out on the plains sometimes and hunt buffalo, -with the consent of the agent?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We went out on a buffalo-hunt, and nearly starved while -out; we could not find any buffalo hardly; we could hardly -get back with our ponies; we had to kill a good many of our -ponies to eat, to save ourselves from starving."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_100'></a>"How many children got sick and died?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Between the fall of 1877 and 1878 we lost fifty children. -A great many of our finest young men died, as well as many -women."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Old Crow," a chief who served faithfully as Indian scout -and ally under General Crook for years, said: "I did not feel -like doing anything for awhile, because I had no heart. I did -not want to be in this country. I was all the time wanting to -get back to the better country where I was born, and where -my children are buried, and where my mother and sister yet -live. So I have laid in my lodge most of the time with nothing -to think about but that, and the affair up north at Fort -Robinson, and my relatives and friends who were killed there. -But now I feel as though, if I had a wagon and a horse or -two, and some land, I would try to work. If I had something, -so that I could do something, I might not think so much about -these other things. As it is now, I feel as though I would just -as soon be asleep with the rest."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The wife of one of the chiefs confined at Fort Leavenworth -testified before the committee as follows: "The main thing I -complained of was that we didn't get enough to eat; my children -nearly starved to death; then sickness came, and there -was nothing good for them to eat; for a long time the most -they had to eat was corn-meal and salt. Three or four children -died every day for awhile, and that frightened us."</p> - -<p class='c010'>(This testimony was taken at Fort Reno, in Indian Territory.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>When asked if there were anything she would like to say to -the committee, the poor woman replied: "I wish you would -do what you can to get my husband released. I am very poor -here, and do not know what is to become of me. If he were -released he would come down here, and we would live together -quietly, and do no harm to anybody, and make no trouble. -But I should never get over my desire to get back north; I -<a id='Page_101'></a>should always want to get back where my children were born, -and died, and were buried. That country is better than this -in every respect. *** There is plenty of good, cool water -there—pure water—while here the water is not good. It is -not hot there, nor so sickly. Are you going where my husband -is? Can you tell when he is likely to be released?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Senators were obliged to reply to her that they were not -going where her husband was, and they could not tell when he -would be released.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In view of the accounts of the sickness and suffering of these -Indians in 1877 and 1878, the reports made in 1879 of the -industry and progress at the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Agency -are almost incredible. The school children have, by their earnings, -bought one hundred head of cattle; 451,000 pounds of -freight have been transported by the Indians during the year; -they have also worked at making brick, chopping wood, making -hay, hauling wood, and splitting and hauling rails; and -have earned thereby $7,121.25. Two of the girls of the school -have been promoted to the position of assistant teachers; and -the United States mail contractor between this agency and -Fort Elliott, in Texas—a distance of one hundred and sixty-five -miles—has operated almost exclusively with full-blooded Indians: -"there has been no report of breach of trust on the part -of any Indians connected with this trust, and the contractor -expresses his entire approval of their conduct."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is stated also that there was not sufficient clothing to furnish -each Indian with a warm suit of clothing, "as promised -by the treaty," and that, "by reference to official correspondence, -the fact is established that the Cheyennes and Arapahoes -are judged as having no legal rights to any lands, having forfeited -their treaty reservation by a failure to settle thereon," -and their "present reservation not having been, as yet, confirmed -by Congress. Inasmuch as the Indians fully understood, -and were assured that this reservation was given to them in -<a id='Page_102'></a>lieu of their treaty reservation, and have commenced farming -in the belief that there was no uncertainty about the matter, it -is but common justice that definite action be had at an early -day, securing to them what is their right."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It would seem that there could be found nowhere in the -melancholy record of the experiences of our Indians a more -glaring instance of confused multiplication of injustices than -this. The Cheyennes were pursued and slain for venturing to -leave this very reservation, which, it appears, is not their reservation -at all, and they have no legal right to it. Are there any -words to fitly characterize such treatment as this from a great, -powerful, rich nation, to a handful of helpless people?</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_103'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER IV.<br /> <br />THE NEZ PERCÉS.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>Bounded on the north, south, and east by snow-topped -mountains, and on the west by shining waters; holding in its -rocky passes the sources of six great rivers; bearing on its -slopes and plains measureless forests of pine and cedar and -spruce; its meadows gardens of summer bloom and fruit, and -treasure-houses of fertility,—lies Oregon: wide, healthful, beautiful, -abundant, and inviting, no wonder it was coveted and -fought for.</p> - -<p class='c010'>When Lewis and Clarke visited it, eighty years ago, they -found living there many tribes of Indians, numbering in all, at -the lowest estimates, between twenty and thirty thousand; of -all these tribes the Nez Percés were the richest, noblest, and -most gentle.</p> - -<p class='c010'>To the Cayuses, one of the most warlike of these tribes, -Messrs. Lewis and Clarke presented an American flag, telling -them it was an emblem of peace. The gay coloring and beauty -of the flag, allied to this significance, made a deep impression -on the poetic minds of these savages. They set the flag up in -a beautiful valley called the Grande Ronde—a fertile basin -some twenty-five miles in diameter, surrounded by high walls -of basaltic rock, and watered by a branch of the Snake River: -around this flag they met their old enemies the Shoshones, and -swore to keep perpetual peace with them; and the spot became -consecrated to an annual meeting of the tribes—a sort of fair, -where the Cayuse, Nez Percé, and Walla Walla Indians came -every summer and traded their roots, skins, elk and buffalo -<a id='Page_104'></a>meats, for salmon and horses, with the Shoshones. It was a -beautiful spot, nearly circular, luxuriantly covered with grass, -the hill wall around it thick grown with evergreen trees, chiefly -larch. The Indians called it Karpkarp, which being translated -is "Balm of Gilead."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The life of these Indians was a peculiar one. Most of them -had several homes, and as they lived only a part of the year in -each, were frequently spoken of by travellers as nomadic tribes, -while in fact they were as wedded to their homes as any civilized -inhabitants of the world; and their wanderings were as -systematic as the removals of wealthy city people from town -homes to country places. If a man were rich enough, and fond -enough of change, to have a winter house in New York, a house -for the summer in Newport, and one for autumn in the White -Mountains, nobody would think of calling him a nomad; still -less if he made these successive changes annually, with perfect -regularity, owing to opportunities which were offered him at -regularly recurring intervals in these different places to earn -his living; which was the case with the Oregon Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>As soon as the snow disappears in the spring there is in -certain localities, ready for gathering, the "pohpoh"—a small -bulb, like an onion. This is succeeded by the "spatlam," and -the "spatlam" by the "cammass" or "ithwa," a root like a -parsnip, which they make into fine meal. In midsummer come -the salmon in countless shoals up the rivers. August is the -month for berries, of which they dry great quantities for winter -use. In September salmon again—coming down stream -now, exhausted and ready to die, but in sufficiently good condition -to be dried for the winter. In October comes the "mesani," -another root of importance in the Indian larder. After -this they must depend on deer, bears, small game, and wild-fowl. -When all these resources fail, there is a kind of lichen -growing on the trees, of which they can eat enough to keep -themselves from starving, though its nutritive qualities are very -<a id='Page_105'></a>small. Thus each season had its duty and its appointed place -of abode, and year after year the same month found them in -the same spot.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1833 a delegation from these Oregon Indians went to St. -Louis, and through Mr. Catlin, the artist, made known their object, -which was "to inquire for the truth of a representation -which they said some white men had made among them, that -our religion was better than theirs, and that they would all be -lost if they did not embrace it." Two members of this delegation -were Nez Percés—"Hee-oh'ks-te-kin" and "H'co-a-h'co-a-h'cotes-min," -or "Rabbit-skin Leggings," and "No Horns on -his Head." Their portraits are to be found in "Catlin's American -Indians." One of these died on his way home; but the -other journeyed his thousands of miles safely back, and bore -to his tribe the news "that the report which they had heard -was well founded, and that good and religious men would soon -come among them to teach this religion, so that they could all -understand and have the benefits of it."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Two years later the Methodist Episcopal Society and the -American Board both sent missionaries to Oregon. Before -this the religion of the fur-traders was the only white man's -religion that the Indians had had the opportunity of observing. -Eleven different companies and expeditions, besides the Hudson's -Bay and the North-west Companies, had been established -in their country, and the Indians had become only too familiar -with their standards and methods. It was not many years after -the arrival of the missionaries in Oregon that a traveller -there gave the following account of his experience with a Nez -Percé guide:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Creekie (so he was named) was a very kind man; he turned -my worn-out animals loose, and loaded my packs on his -own; gave me a splendid horse to ride, and intimated by significant -gestures that we would go a short distance that afternoon. -I gave my assent, and we were soon on our way; having -<a id='Page_106'></a>ridden about ten miles, we camped for the night. I noticed, -during the ride, a degree of forbearance toward each other -which I had never before observed in that race. When we -halted for the night the two boys were behind; they had been -frolicking with their horses, and, as the darkness came on, lost -the trail. It was a half-hour before they made their appearance, -and during this time the parents manifested the most -anxious solicitude for them. One of them was but three years -old, and was lashed to the horse he rode; the other only seven -years of age—young pilots in the wilderness at night. But -the elder, true to the sagacity of his race, had taken his course, -and struck the brook on which we were encamped within three -hundred yards of us. The pride of the parents at this feat, -and their ardent attachment to the children, were perceptible -in the pleasure with which they received them at their evening -fire, and heard the relation of their childish adventures. -The weather was so pleasant that no tent was spread. The -willows were bent, and the buffalo-robes spread over them. -Underneath were laid other robes, on which my Indian host -seated himself, with his wife and children on one side and -myself on the other. A fire burnt brightly in front. Water -was brought, and the evening ablutions having been performed, -the wife presented a dish of meat to her husband and one to -myself. There was a pause. The woman seated herself between -her children. The Indian then bowed his head and -prayed to God. A wandering savage in Oregon, calling on -Jehovah in the name of Jesus Christ! After the prayer he -gave meat to his children and passed the dish to his wife. -While eating, the frequent repetition of the words Jehovah and -Jesus Christ, in the most reverential manner, led me to suppose -that they were conversing on religious topics, and thus -they passed an hour. Meanwhile the exceeding weariness of a -long day's travel admonished me to seek rest. I had slumbered -I know not how long, when a strain of music awoke me. -<a id='Page_107'></a>The Indian family was engaged in its evening devotions. They -were singing a hymn in the Nez Percés language. Having -finished, they all knelt and bowed their faces on the buffalo-robe, -and Creekie prayed long and fervently. Afterward they -sung another hymn, and retired. To hospitality, family affection, -and devotion, Creekie added honesty and cleanliness to a -great degree, manifesting by these fruits, so contrary to the -nature and habits of his race, the beautiful influence of the -work of grace on the heart."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The earliest mention of the Nez Percés in the official records -of the Indian Bureau is in the year 1843. In that year an -agent was sent out to investigate the condition of the Oregon -tribes, and he reports as follows: "The only tribes from which -much is to be hoped, or anything to be feared in this part of -Oregon, are the Walla Wallas, Cayuses, and Nez Percés, inhabiting -a district on the Columbia and its tributaries, commencing -two hundred and forty miles from its mouth, and stretching -four hundred and eighty miles in the interior."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Nez Percés, living farther inland, "inhabit a beautiful -grazing district, not surpassed by any I have seen for verdure, -water privileges, climate, or health. This tribe forms an honorable -exception to the general Indian character—being more -noble, industrious, sensible, and better disposed toward the -whites and their improvements in the arts and sciences; and -though brave as Cæsar, the whites have nothing to dread at -their hands in case of their dealing out to them what they conceive -to be right and equitable."</p> - -<p class='c010'>When this agent arrived at the missionary station among -the Nez Percés, he was met there by a large body of the Indians -with twenty-two of their chiefs. The missionaries received -him "with joyful countenances and glad hearts;" the -Indians, "with civility, gravity, and dignified reserve."</p> - -<p class='c010'>He addressed them at length, explaining to them the kind -intentions of the Government toward them. They listened -<a id='Page_108'></a>with "gravity, fixed attention, and decorum." Finally an aged -chief, ninety years of age, arose and said: "I speak to-day; -perhaps to-morrow I die. I am the oldest chief of the tribe. -I was the high chief when your great brothers, Lewis and -Clarke, visited this country. They visited me, and honored me -with their friendship and counsel. I showed them my numerous -wounds, received in bloody battle with the Snakes. They -told me it was not good; it was better to be at peace; gave -me a flag of truce; I held it up high. We met, and talked, -but never fought again. Clarke pointed to this day—to you -and this occasion. We have long waited in expectation; sent -three of our sons to Red River school to prepare for it; two -of them sleep with their fathers; the other is here, and can be -ears, mouth, and pen for us. I can say no more; I am quickly -tired; my voice and limbs tremble. I am glad I live to see -you and this day; but I shall soon be still and quiet in -death."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this council the Nez Percés elected a head chief named -Ellis, and adopted the following Code of Laws:</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 1.</i> Whoever wilfully takes life shall be hung.</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 2.</i> Whoever burns a dwelling-house shall be hung.</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 3.</i> Whoever burns an out-building shall be imprisoned six months, -receive fifty lashes, and pay all damages.</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 4.</i> Whoever carelessly burns a house or any property shall pay -damages.</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 5.</i> If any one enter a dwelling without permission of the occupant, -the chiefs shall punish him as they think proper. Public rooms are excepted.</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 6.</i> If any one steal, he shall pay back twofold; and if it be the -value of a beaver-skin or less, he shall receive twenty-five lashes; and if -the value is over a beaver-skin, he shall pay back twofold, and receive -fifty lashes.</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 7.</i> If any one take a horse and ride it, without permission, or take -any article and use it, without liberty, he shall pay for the use of it, and -receive from twenty to fifty lashes, as the chief shall direct.</p> - -<p class='c013'><a id='Page_109'></a><i>Art. 8.</i> If any one enter a field and injure the crops, or throw down the -fence, so that cattle or horses go in and do damage, he shall pay all damages, -and receive twenty-five lashes for every offence.</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 9.</i> Those only may keep dogs who travel or live among the game. -If a dog kill a lamb, calf, or any domestic animal, the owner shall pay the -damage, and kill the dog.</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 10.</i> If an Indian raise a gun or other weapon against a white man, -it shall be reported to the chiefs, and they shall punish him. If a white -man do the same to an Indian, it shall be reported to Dr. White, and he -shall punish or redress it.</p> - -<p class='c013'><i>Art. 11.</i> If an Indian break these laws, he shall be punished by his -chiefs; if a white man break them, he shall be reported to the agent, and -punished at his instance.</p> - -<p class='c010'>These laws, the agent says, he "proposed one by one, leaving -them as free to reject as to accept. They were greatly pleased -with all proposed, but wished a heavier penalty to some, and -suggested the dog-law, which was annexed."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In a history of Oregon written by one W. H. Gray, of Astoria, -we find this Indian agent spoken of as a "notorious -blockhead." Mr. Gray's methods of mention of all persons -toward whom he has antagonism or dislike are violent and undignified, -and do not redound either to his credit as a writer -or his credibility as a witness. But it is impossible to avoid -the impression that in this instance he was not far from the -truth. Surely one cannot read, without mingled horror and -incredulity, this programme of the whipping-post, offered as -one of the first instalments of the United States Government's -"kind intentions" toward these Indians; one of the first practical -illustrations given them of the kind of civilization the -United States Government would recommend and introduce.</p> - -<p class='c010'>We are not surprised to read in another narrative of affairs -in Oregon, a little later, that "the Indians want pay for being -whipped, the same as they did for praying—to please the missionaries—during -the great revival of 1839. *** Some of the -influential men in the tribe desired to know of what benefit -<a id='Page_110'></a>this whipping-system was going to be to them. They said -they were willing it should continue, provided they were to -receive shirts and pants and blankets as a reward for being -whipped. They had been whipped a good many times, and -had got nothing for it, and it had done them no good. If this -state of things was to continue, it was all good for nothing, -and they would throw it away."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Secretary of War does not appear to have seen this -aspect of his agent's original efforts in the line of jurisprudence. -He says of the report which includes this astounding -code, merely that "it furnishes some deeply interesting and -curious details respecting certain of the Indian tribes in that -remote part of our territories," and that the conduct of the -Nez Percés on the occasion of this important meeting "impresses -one most agreeably."</p> - -<p class='c010'>A report submitted at the same time by the Rev. Mr. Spaulding, -who had lived six years as missionary among the Nez -Percés, is much pleasanter reading. He says that "nearly all -the principal men and chiefs are members of the school; that -they are as industrious in their schools as on their farms. -They cultivate their lands with much skill and to good advantage, -and many more would do so if they had the means. -About one hundred are printing their own books with the -pen. This keeps up a deep interest, as they daily have new -lessons to print; and what they print must be committed to -memory as soon as possible. A good number are now so far -advanced in reading and printing as to render much assistance -in teaching. Their books are taken home at night, and every -lodge becomes a school-room. Their lessons are Scripture lessons; -no others (except the laws) seem to interest them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Even this missionary seems to have fallen under some strange -glamour on the subject of the whipping-code; for he adds: -"The laws which you so happily prepared, and which were -unanimously adopted by the people, I have printed in the form -<a id='Page_111'></a>of a small school-book. A great number of the school now -read them fluently."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the next year's report of the Secretary of War we read -that "the Nez Percé tribe have adopted a few simple and -plain laws as their code, which will teach them self-restraint, -and is the beginning of government on their part." The Secretary -also thinks it "very remarkable that there should so -soon be several well supported, well attended, and well conducted -schools in Oregon." (Not at all remarkable, considering -that the Congregationalists, the Methodist Episcopalians, and -the Roman Catholics have all had missionaries at work there -for eight years.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1846, the Nez Percés, with the rest of the Oregon tribes, -disappear from the official records of the Indian Bureau. "It -will be necessary to make some provision for conducting our -relations with the Indian tribes west of the Rocky Mountains," -it is said; but, "the whole subject having been laid before Congress, -it was not deemed advisable to continue a service that -was circumscribed in its objects, and originally designed to be -temporary." The founder of the whipping-post in Oregon was -therefore relieved from his duties, and it is to be hoped his -laws speedily fell into disuse. The next year all the Protestant -missions in Oregon were abandoned, in consequence of the -frightful massacre by the Cayuses of the missionary families -living among them.<a id='r13' /><a href='#f13' class='c012'><sup>[13]</sup></a> But the Nez Percés, though deprived of -their teaching, did not give up the faith and the practice they -had taught them. Six years later General Benjamin Alvord -bore the following testimony to their religious character:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In the spring of 1853 a white man, who had passed the previous -winter in the country of the Nez Percés, came to the -military post at the Dalles, and on being questioned as to the -manners and customs of the tribe, he said that he wintered -<a id='Page_112'></a>with a band of several hundred in number, and that the whole -party assembled every evening and morning for prayer, the -exercises being conducted by one of themselves in their own -language. He stated that on Sunday they assembled for exhortation -and worship."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1851 a superintendent and three agents were appointed -for Indian service in Oregon. Treaties were negotiated with -some of the tribes, but they were not ratified, and in 1853 -there was, in consequence, a wide-spread dissatisfaction among -all the Indians in the region. "They have become distrustful -of all promises made them by the United States," says the -Oregon superintendent, "and believe the design of the Government -is to defer doing anything for them till they have wasted -away. The settlement of the whites on the tracts which they -regarded as secured to them by solemn treaty stipulations, results -in frequent misunderstandings between them and the -settlers, and occasions and augments bitter animosities and resentments. -I am in almost daily receipt of complaints and petitions -for a redress of wrongs from both parties."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Governor Stevens, of Washington Territory, in charge of the -Northern Pacific Railroad Explorations and Survey, wrote, this -year, "These hitherto neglected tribes, whose progress from -the wild wanderers of the plains to kind and hospitable neighbors -is personally known to you, are entitled, by every consideration -of justice and humanity, to the fatherly care of the -Government."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In Governor Stevens's report is to be found a comprehensive -and intelligible account of all the Indian tribes in Oregon and -Washington Territory. The greater part of the Nez Percés' -country was now within the limits of Washington Territory, -only a few bands remaining in Oregon. They were estimated -to number at least eighteen hundred, and were said to be a -"rich and powerful tribe, owning many horses." Every year -they crossed the mountains to hunt buffalo on the plains of -the Missouri.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_113'></a>In 1855 there was a general outbreak of hostilities on the -part of the Oregon Indians. Tribe after tribe, even among -those who had been considered friendly, fell into the ranks of -the hostiles, and some base acts of treachery were committed. -The Oregon settlers, menaced with danger on all sides, became -naturally so excited and terrified that their actions were hasty -and ill-advised. "They are without discipline, without order, -and similar to madmen," says one official report. "Every day -they run off the horses and the cattle of the friendly Indians. -I will soon no longer be able to restrain the friendly Indians. -They are indignant at conduct so unworthy of the whites, who -have made so many promises to respect and protect them if -they remain faithful friends. I am very sure, if the volunteers -are not arrested in their brigand actions, our Indians will save -themselves by flying to the homes of their relations, the Nez -Percés, who have promised them help; and then all these Indians -of Oregon would join in the common defence until they -be entirely exterminated."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is difficult to do full justice to the moral courage which -is shown by Indians who remain friendly to whites under such -circumstances as these. The traditions of their race, the powerful -influence of public sentiment among their relatives and -friends, and, in addition, terror for their own lives—all combine -in times of such outbreaks to draw even the friendliest -tribes into sympathy and co-operation with those who are -making war on whites.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this time the hostile Indians in Oregon sent word to the Nez -Percés, "Join us in the war against the whites, or we will wipe -you out." They said, "We have made the whites run out of the -country, and we will now make the friendly Indians do the same."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"What can the friendly Indians do?" wrote the colonel of a -company of Washington Territory Volunteers; "they have no -ammunition, and the whites will give them none; and the hostiles -say to them, 'We have plenty; come and join us, and save -<a id='Page_114'></a>your lives.' The Nez Percés are very much alarmed; they -say, 'We have no ammunition to defend ourselves with if we -are attacked.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Oregon superintendent writes to General Wool (in -command at this time of the Department of the Pacific), imploring -him to send troops to Oregon to protect both friendly -Indians and white settlers, and to enable this department to -maintain guarantees secured to these Indians by treaty stipulations. -He says that the friendly Indians are "willing to submit -to almost any sacrifice to obtain peace, but there may be -a point beyond which they could not be induced to go without -a struggle."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This outbreak terminated after some sharp fighting, and -about equal losses on both sides, in what the Oregon superintendent -calls "a sort of armistice," which left the Indians -"much emboldened," with the impression on their minds that -they have the "ability to contend successfully against the entire -white race."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Moreover, "the non-ratification of the treaties heretofore -made to extinguish their title to the lands necessary for the -occupancy and use of our citizens, seems to have produced no -little disappointment; and the continued extension of our settlements -into their territory, without any compensation being -made to them, is a constant source of dissatisfaction and hostile -feeling.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It cannot be expected that Indians situated like those in -Oregon and Washington Territory, occupying extensive sections -of country where, from the game and otherwise, they derive a -comfortable support, will quietly and peaceably submit, without -any equivalent, to be deprived of their homes and possessions, -and to be driven off to some other locality where they cannot -find their usual means of subsistence. Such a proceeding is not -only contrary to our policy hitherto, but is repugnant alike to -the dictates of humanity and the principles of natural justice.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_115'></a>"The principle of recognizing and respecting the usufruct -right of the Indians to the lands occupied by them has not -been so strictly adhered to in the case of the tribes in the Territories -of Oregon and Washington. When a territorial government -was first provided for Oregon—which then embraced -the present Territory of Washington—strong inducements were -held out to our people to emigrate and settle there without the -usual arrangements being made in advance for the extinguishment -of the title of the Indians who occupied and claimed the -lands. Intruded upon, ousted of their homes and possessions -without any compensation, and deprived in most cases of their -accustomed means of support, without any arrangement having -been made to enable them to establish and maintain themselves -in other locations, it is not a matter of surprise that they have -committed many depredations upon our citizens, and been exasperated -to frequent acts of hostility."</p> - -<p class='c010'>As was to be expected, the armistice proved of no avail; and -in 1858 the unfortunate Territories had another Indian war on -their hands. In this war we find the Nez Percés fighting on -the side of the United States against the hostile Indians. One -of the detachments of United States troops was saved from destruction -only by taking refuge with them. Nearly destitute -of ammunition, and surrounded by hundreds of hostile Indians, -the little company escaped by night; and "after a ride of ninety -miles mostly at a gallop, and without a rest, reached Snake -River," where they were met by this friendly tribe, who "received -them with open arms, succored the wounded men, and -crossed in safety the whole command over the difficult and -dangerous river."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The officer in command of the Nez Percé band writes as -follows, in his report to the Indian Commissioner:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Allow me, my dear sir, while this general war is going on, -to point you to at least a few green spots where the ravages of -war do not as yet extend, and which thus far are untainted -<a id='Page_116'></a>and unaffected, with a view of so retaining them that we may -hereafter point to them as oases in this desert of war. These -green spots are the Nez Percés, the Flat-heads, and Pend -d'Oreilles. In this connection I refer with grateful pride to -an act of Colonel Wright, which embodies views and motives -which, endorsed and carried out by the Government, must redound -to his credit and praise, and be the means of building -up, at no distant day, a bold, brave, warlike, and numerous -people.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Before leaving Walla-Walla, Colonel Wright assembled the -Nez Percé people, told them his object was to war with and -punish our enemies; but as this great people were and ever -had been our friends, he wanted their friendship to be as enduring -as the mountains around which they lived; and in order -that no difference of views or difficulty might arise, that their -mutual promises should be recorded."</p> - -<p class='c010'>With this view he there made a treaty of friendship with -them, and thirty of the bravest warriors and chiefs at once marshalled -themselves to accompany him against the enemy.</p> - -<p class='c010'>When Colonel Wright asked these Indians what they wanted, -"their reply was worthy of a noble race—'Peace, ploughs, -and schools.'" At this time they had no agent appointed to -attend to their welfare; they were raising wheat, corn, and -vegetables with the rude means at their command, and still -preserved the faith and many of the practices taught them by -the missionaries thirteen years before.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1859 peace was again established in Oregon, and the Indians -"considered as conquered." The treaties of 1855 were -ratified by the Senate, and this fact went far to restore tranquillity -in the territories. Congress was implored by the superintendents -to realize "the importance of making the appropriations -for fulfilling those treaty stipulations at the earliest practicable -moment;" that it may "prevent the recurrence of another -savage war, necessarily bloody and devastating to our -<a id='Page_117'></a>settlements, extended under the authority and sanction of our -Government." With marvellous self-restraint, the superintendents -do not enforce their appeals by a reference to the fact that, -if the treaties had been fulfilled in the outset, all the hostilities -of the last four years might probably have been avoided.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The reservation secured to the Nez Percés was a fine tract -of country, one hundred miles long and sixty in width—well -watered, timbered, and of great natural resources. Already the -Indians had begun to practice irrigation in their fields; had -large herds of horses, and were beginning to give attention to -improving the breed. Some of them could read and write -their own language, and many of them professed Christianity, -and were exemplary in their conduct—a most remarkable fact, -proving the depth of the impression the missionary teachings -must have made. The majority of them wore the American -costume, and showed "their progress in civilization by attaching -little value to the gewgaws and trinkets which so generally -captivate the savage."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In less than two years the peace of this noble tribe was -again invaded; this time by a deadly foe—the greed of gold. -In 1861 there were said to be no less than ten thousand miners -in the Nez Percé country prospecting for gold. Now arose -the question, What will the Government do? Will it protect -the rights of the Indians or not?</p> - -<p class='c010'>"To attempt to restrain miners would be like attempting to -restrain the whirlwind," writes the superintendent of Washington -Territory; and he confesses that, "seeing the utter impossibility -of preventing miners from going to the mines," he has -refrained from taking any steps which, by a certain want of -success, would tend to weaken the force of the law.</p> - -<p class='c010'>For the next few years the Nez Percés saw with dismay the -steady stream of settlers pouring into their country. That -they did not resist it by force is marvellous, and can only be -explained by the power of a truly Christian spirit.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_118'></a>"Their reservation was overrun by the enterprising miners; -treaty stipulations were disregarded and trampled under foot; -towns were established thereon, and all the means that cupidity -could invent or disloyalty achieve were resorted to to shake -their confidence in the Government. They were disturbed in -the peaceable possession of what they regarded as their vested -rights, sacredly secured by treaty. They were informed that -the Government was destroyed, and that whatever treaties were -made would never be carried out. All resistance on their part -proved unavailing, and inquietude and discontent predominated -among them," says the Governor of Idaho, in 1865. Shortly -after, by the organization of that new Territory, the Nez -Percés' reservation had been removed from the jurisdiction of -Washington Territory to that of Idaho.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A powerful party was organized in the tribe, advocating the -forming of a league with the Crows and Blackfeet against the -whites. The non-arrival of promised supplies; the non-payment -of promised moneys; the unchecked influx of miners -throughout the reservation, put strong weapons into the hands -of these disaffected ones. But the chiefs "remained firm and -unwavering in their devotion to the Government and the laws. -They are intelligent—their head chief, Sawyer, particularly so—and -tell their people to still wait patiently." And yet, at -this very time, there was due from the United States Government -to this chief Sawyer six hundred and twenty-five -dollars! He had for six months been suffering for the commonest -necessaries of life, and had been driven to disposing of -his vouchers at fifty cents on the dollar to purchase necessaries. -The warriors also, who fought for us so well in 1856, -were still unpaid; although in the seventh article of the treaty -of 1863 it had been agreed that "the claims of certain members -of the Nez Percé tribe against the Government, for services -rendered and horses furnished by them to the Oregon Mounted -Volunteers, as appears by certificates issued by W. H. Fauntleroy, -<a id='Page_119'></a>Acting Regimental Quartermaster, and commanding Oregon -Volunteers, on the 6th of March, 1856, at Camp Cornelius, -and amounting to $4665, shall be paid to them in full in -gold coin."</p> - -<p class='c010'>How many communities of white men would remain peaceable, -loyal, and friendly under such a strain as this?</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1866 the Indian Bureau report of the state of our diplomatic -relations with the Nez Percés is that the treaty concluded -with them in 1863 was ratified by the Senate, "with an -amendment which awaited the action of the Indians. The -ratification of this treaty has been delayed for several years for -various reasons, partly arising from successive changes in the -Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Idaho, whose varying opinions -on the subject of the treaty have caused doubts in the -minds of senators. A later treaty had been made, but, on -careful consideration of the subject, it was deemed advisable to -carry into effect that of 1863. The Nez Percés claimed title -to a very large district of country comprised in what are now -organized as Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, but principally -within the latter Territory; and already a large white population -is pressing upon them in the search for gold. They are -peaceable, industrious, and friendly, and altogether one of the -most promising of the tribes west of the Rocky Mountains, -having profited largely by the labors of missionaries among -them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>By the treaty ratified in this year they give up "all their -lands except a reservation defined by certain natural boundaries, -and agree to remove to this reservation within one year. -Where they have improvements on lands outside of it, such -improvements are to be appraised and paid for. The tillable -lands are to be surveyed into tracts of twenty acres each, and -allotted to such Indians as desire to hold lands in severalty. -The Government is to continue the annuities due under former -treaties, and, in addition, pay the tribe, or expend for them for -<a id='Page_120'></a>certain specific purposes having their improvement in view, -the sum of $262,500, and a moderate sum is devoted to -homes and salaries for chiefs. The right of way is secured -through the reservation, and the Government undertakes to -reserve all important springs and watering-places for public -use."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this same year the Governor of Idaho writes, in his annual -report to the Department of the Interior: "Prominent -among the tribes of Northern Idaho stand the Nez Percés, a -majority of whom boast that they have ever been the faithful -friends of the white man. But a few over half of the entire -tribe of the Nez Percés are under treaty. The fidelity of -those under treaty, even under the most discouraging circumstances, -must commend itself to the favorable consideration of -the Department. The non-payment of their annuities has had -its natural effect on the minds of some of those under treaty; -but their confiding head chief, Sawyer, remains unmoved, and -on all occasions is found the faithful apologist for any failure -of the Government. Could this tribe have been kept aloof -from the contaminating vices of white men, and had it been in -the power of the Government promptly to comply with the -stipulations of the treaty of 1855, there can be no doubt but -that their condition at this time would have been a most prosperous -one, and that the whole of the Nez Percé nation would -by this time have been willing to come under treaty, and settle -on the reservation with those already there."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1867 the patience of the Nez Percés is beginning to show -signs of wearing out. The Governor of Idaho writes: "This -disaffection is great, and serious trouble is imminent. It could -all be settled by prompt payment by the Government of their -just dues; but if delayed too long I greatly fear open hostilities. -They have been patient, but promises and explanations are losing -force with them now. *** Their grievances are urged with -such earnestness that even Sawyer, who has always been our -<a id='Page_121'></a>apologist, has in a measure abandoned his pacific policy, and -asks boldly that we do them justice. *** Even now it may not -be too late; but, if neglected, war may be reasonably expected. -Should the Nez Percés strike a blow, all over our Territory -and around our boundaries will blaze the signal-fires and gleam -the tomahawks of the savages—Kootenays, Pen d'Oreilles, Cœur -d'Alenes, Blackfeet, Flat-heads, Spokanes, Pelouses, Bannocks, -and Shoshones will be involved."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This disaffection, says the agent, "began to show itself soon -after the visit of George C. Haigh, Esq., special agent, last December, -to obtain their assent to the amendments to the treaty -of June 9th, 1863—the non-ratification of that treaty had gone -on so long, and promises made them by Governor Lyon that it -would not be ratified, and that he was authorized to make a -new treaty with them by which they would retain all of their -country, as given them under the treaty of 1851, except the -site of the town of Lewiston. They had also been informed -in March, 1866, that Governor Lyon would be here in the June -following, to pay them back-annuities due under the treaty of -1855. The failure to carry out these promises, and the idea -they have that the stipulations of the treaty of 1863 will be -carried out in the same manner, is one of the causes of their -bad feeling. It showed itself plainly at the council lately held, -and is on the increase. If there is the same delay in carrying -out the stipulations of the treaty of 1863 that there has been -in that of 1855, some of the chiefs with their bands will join -the hostile Indians. There are many things it is impossible to -explain to them. They cannot understand why the $1185 that -was promised by Governor Lyon to the Indian laborers on the -church is not paid. He told them when the walls were up -they should receive their pay. These laborers were poor men, -and such inducements were held out to them that they commenced -the work in good faith, with the full expectation of receiving -their pay when their labors ceased."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_122'></a>The head chief Sawyer's pay is still in arrears. For the last -quarter of 1863, and the first and second of 1864, he has received -no pay. No wonder he has ceased to be the "apologist" -of the Government, which four years ago promised him -an annuity of $500 a year.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Spite of this increasing disaffection the Nez Percés are industrious -and prosperous. They raised in this year 15,000 -bushels of wheat. "Many of them carried their wheat to be -ground to the mills, while many sold the grain to packers for -feed, while much of it is boiled whole for food. Some few of -the better class have had their wheat ground, and sold the flour -in the mining-camps at lower prices than packers could lay it -down in the camps. Some have small pack-trains running -through the summer; one in particular, Cru-cru-lu-ye, runs -some fifteen animals; he sometimes packs for whites, and -again runs on his own account. A Clearwater Station merchant -a short time ago informed me of his buying some oats -of Cru-cru-lu-ye last fall. After the grain had been weighed, -and emptied out of the sacks, the Indian brought the empty -sacks to the scales to have them weighed, and the tare deducted, -saying he only wanted pay for the oats. Their sales of melons, -tomatoes, corn, potatoes, squashes, green pease, etc., during the -summer, in the different towns and mining-camps, bring in some -$2000 to $3000. Their stock of horses and cattle is increasing -fast, and with the benefits to be derived from good American -stallions, and good bulls and cows, to be distributed to them -under the stipulations of the treaty of 1863, they will rapidly -increase in wealth."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1869 their reservation is still unsurveyed, and when the -Indians claim that white settlers are establishing themselves inside -the lines there is no way of proving it, and the agent says -all he can do is to promise that "the white man's heart shall -be better;" and thus the matter will rest until another disturbance -arises, when the same complaints are made, and the same -<a id='Page_123'></a>answers given as before—that "the white man's heart shall be -better, and the boundary-line shall be surveyed."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Other treaty stipulations are still unfulfilled; and the non-treaty -party, while entirely peaceable, is very strong, and immovably -opposed to treaties.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1870, seven years after it was promised, the long deferred -survey of the reservation was made. The superintendent and -the agent both remonstrated, but in vain, against the manner in -which it was done; and three years later a Board of Special -Commissioners, appointed to inquire into the condition of the -Indians in Idaho, examined the fence put up at that time, and -reported that it was "a most scandalous fraud. It is a post-and-board -fence. The posts are not well set. Much of the lumber -is deficient in width and length. The posts are not dressed. -The lumber laps at any joint where it may chance to meet, -whether on the posts or between them, and the boards are not -jointed on the posts where they meet; they are lapped and -fastened generally with one nail, so that they are falling down -rapidly. The lumber was cut on the reservation. The contract -price of the fence was very high; the fencing done in -places of no value to any one, for the reason that water cannot -be had for irrigation. The Government cannot be a party to -such frauds on the people who intrust it with their property."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this year a commission was sent to Oregon to hold council -with the band of Nez Percés occupying Wallowa Valley, in -Oregon, "with a view to their removal, if practicable, to the -Nez Percé Reservation in Idaho. They reported this removal -to be impracticable, and the Wallowa Valley has been withdrawn -from sale, and set apart for their use and occupation by -Executive order."<a id='r14' /><a href='#f14' class='c012'><sup>[14]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>This commission report that one of the most troublesome -questions in the way of the Government's control of Indian affairs -<a id='Page_124'></a>in Idaho is the contest between the Catholic and Protestant -churches. This strife is a great detriment to the Indians. -To illustrate this, they quote Chief Joseph's reason for not -wishing schools on his reservation. He was the chief of the -non-treaty band of Nez Percés occupying the Wallowa Valley, -in Oregon:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Do you want schools and school-houses on the Wallowa -Reservation?" asked the commissioners.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Joseph.</i> "No, we do not want schools or school-houses on -the Wallowa Reservation."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Com.</i> "Why do you not want schools?"</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Joseph.</i> "They will teach us to have churches."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Com.</i> "Do you not want churches?"</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Joseph.</i> "No, we do not want churches."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Com.</i> "Why do you not want churches?"</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Joseph.</i> "They will teach us to quarrel about God, as the -Catholics and Protestants do on the Nez Percé Reservation, -and at other places. We do not want to learn that. We may -quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we -never quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Great excitement prevailed among the settlers in Oregon at -the cession of the Wallowa Valley to the Indians. The presence -of United States soldiers prevented any outbreak; but the -resentment of the whites was very strong, and threats were -openly made that the Indians should not be permitted to occupy -it; and in 1875 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs -writes:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The settlements made in the Wallowa Valley, which has -for years been the pasture-ground of the large herds of horses -owned by Joseph's band, will occasion more or less trouble -between this band and the whites, until Joseph is induced or -compelled to settle on his reservation."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is only two years since this valley was set apart by Executive -order for the use and occupation of these Indians; already -<a id='Page_125'></a>the Department is contemplating "compelling" them to leave -it and go to the reservation in Idaho. There were stormy -scenes there also during this year. Suits were brought against -all the employés of the Lapwai Agency, and a claim set up for -all the lands of the agency, and for many of the Indian farms, -by one Langford, representing the old claim of the missionaries, -to whom a large tract of ground had been ceded some thirty -years before. He attempted to take forcible possession of the -place, and was ejected finally by military force, after the decision -of the Attorney-general had been given that his claim -was invalid.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indian Bureau recommended a revocation of the executive -order giving the Wallowa Valley to Joseph and his band. -In June of this year President Grant revoked the order, and -in the autumn a commission was sent out "to visit these Indians, -with a view to secure their permanent settlement on the -reservation, their early entrance on a civilized life, and to adjust -the difficulties then existing between them and the settlers."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is worth while to study with some care the reasons which -this commission gave to Chief Joseph why the Wallowa Valley, -which had been given to him by Executive order in 1873, -must be taken away from him by Executive order in 1875:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Owing to the coldness of the climate, it is not a suitable -location for an Indian reservation. *** It is now in part settled -by white squatters for grazing purposes. *** The President -claimed that he extinguished the Indian title to it by the -treaty of 1863. *** It is embraced within the limits of the -State of Oregon. *** The State of Oregon could not probably -be induced to cede the jurisdiction of the valley to the -United States for an Indian reservation. *** In the conflicts -which might arise in the future, as in the past, between him -and the whites, the President might not be able to justify or -defend him. *** A part of the valley had already been surveyed -and opened to settlement: *** if, by some arrangement, -<a id='Page_126'></a>the white settlers in the valley could be induced to leave -it, others would come."</p> - -<p class='c010'>To all these statements Joseph replied that he "asked nothing -of the President. He was able to take care of himself. He -did not desire Wallowa Valley as a reservation, for that would -subject him and his band to the will of, and dependence on, -another, and to laws not of their own making. He was disposed -to live peaceably. He and his band had suffered wrong -rather than do wrong. One of their number was wickedly -slain by a white man during the last summer, but he would -not avenge his death."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The serious and feeling manner in which he uttered these -sentiments was impressive," the commissioners say, and they -proceeded to reply to him "that the President was not disposed -to deprive him of any just right, or govern him by his -individual will, but merely subject him to the same just and -equal laws by which he himself as well as all his people were -ruled."</p> - -<p class='c010'>What does it mean when commissioners sent by the President -to induce a band of Indians to go on a reservation to live, -tell them that they shall be subjected on that reservation -"merely to the same just and equal laws" by which the President -and "all his people are ruled?" And still more, what is -the explanation of their being so apparently unaware of the -enormity of the lie that they leave it on official record, signed -by their names in full? It is only explained, as thousands of -other things in the history of our dealings with the Indians -are only to be explained, by the habitual indifference, carelessness, -and inattention with which questions relative to Indian -affairs and legislation thereon are handled and disposed of, in -whatever way seems easiest and shortest for the time being. -The members of this commission knew perfectly well that the -instant Joseph and his band moved on to the reservation they -became subject to laws totally different from those by which -<a id='Page_127'></a>the President and "all his people were ruled," and neither -"just" nor "equal:" laws forbidding them to go beyond certain -bounds without a pass from the agent; laws making them -really just as much prisoners as convicts in a prison—the only -difference being that the reservation is an unwalled out-of-door -prison; laws giving that agent power to summon military -power at any moment, to enforce any command he might -choose to lay on them, and to shoot them if they refused to -obey.<a id='r15' /><a href='#f15' class='c012'><sup>[15]</sup></a> "The same just and equal laws by which the President -himself and all his people are ruled!" Truly it is a psychological -phenomenon that four men should be found willing to leave -it on record under their own signatures that they said this thing.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Farther on in the same report there is an enumeration of -some of the experiences which the Nez Percés who are on the -Idaho Reservation have had of the advantages of living there, -and of the manner in which the Government has fulfilled its -promises by which it induced them to go there; undoubtedly -these were all as well known to Chief Joseph as to the commissioners. -For twenty-two years he had had an opportunity -to study the workings of the reservation policy. They say:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"During an interview held with the agent and the treaty -Indians, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there were sufficient -unoccupied tillable lands for Joseph's band on the reservation, -and for the further purpose of securing their co-operation -to aid us in inducing Joseph to come upon the reservation, -facts were brought to our attention of a failure on the -part of the Government to fulfil its treaty stipulations with -these Indians. The commission therefore deem it their duty -to call the attention of the Government to this subject.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"1st. Article second of the treaty of June 9th, 1863, provides -that no white man—excepting such as may be employed by the -<a id='Page_128'></a>Indian Department—shall be permitted to reside upon the reservation -without permission of the tribe, and the superintendent -and the agent. Nevertheless, four white men are occupying -or claiming large tracts on the reservation.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It is clearly the duty of the Government to adjust and -quiet these claims, and remove the parties from the reservation. -Each day's delay to fulfil this treaty stipulation adds to -the distrust of the Indians in the good faith of the Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"2d. Article third of the same treaty of 1863 provides for the -survey of the land suitable for cultivation into lots of twenty -acres each; while a survey is reported to have been early made, -no measures were then, or have been since, taken to adjust farm -limits to the lines of the surveyed lots.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"3d. Rules and regulations for continuing the possession of -these lots and the improvements thereon in the families of deceased -Indians, have not been prescribed, as required by the -treaty.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"4th. It is also provided that certificates or deeds for such -tracts shall be issued to individual Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The failure of the Government to comply with this important -provision of the treaty causes much uneasiness among the -Indians, who are little inclined to spend their labor and means -in improving ground held by the uncertain tenure of the pleasure -of an agent.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"5th. Article seventh of the treaty provides for a payment -of four thousand six hundred and sixty-five dollars in gold coin -to them for services and horses furnished the Oregon Mounted -Volunteers in 1856. It is asserted by the Indians that this -provision of the treaty has hitherto been disregarded by the -Government."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The commissioners say that "every consideration of justice -and equity, as well as expediency, demands from the Government -a faithful and literal compliance with all its treaty obligations -<a id='Page_129'></a>toward the Indians. A failure to do this is looked -upon as bad faith, and can be productive of only bad results."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At last Chief Joseph consented to remove from the Wallowa -Valley with his band, and go to the Lapwai Reservation. The -incidents of the council in which this consent was finally -wrung from him, are left on record in Chief Joseph's own -words, in an article written by him (through an interpreter) -and published in the <i>North American Review</i> in 1874. It is -a remarkable contribution to Indian history.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It drew out a reply from General O. O. Howard, who called -his paper "The true History of the Wallowa Campaign:" published -in the <i>North American Review</i> two months after Chief -Joseph's paper.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Between the accounts given by General Howard and by -Chief Joseph of the events preceding the Nez Percé war, there -are noticeable discrepancies.</p> - -<p class='c010'>General Howard says that he listened to the "oft-repeated -dreamer nonsense of the chief, 'Too-hool-hool-suit,' with no -impatience, but finally said to him: 'Twenty times over I hear -that the earth is your mother, and about the chieftainship of -the earth. I want to hear it no more.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>Chief Joseph says: "General Howard lost his temper, and -said 'Shut up! I don't want to hear any more of such -talk.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Too-hool-hool-suit answered, 'Who are you, that you ask -us to talk, and then tell me I sha'n't talk? Are you the Great -Spirit? Did you make the world?'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>General Howard, quoting from his record at the time, says: -"The rough old fellow, in his most provoking tone, says something -in a short sentence, looking fiercely at me. The interpreter -quickly says: 'He demands what person pretends to divide -this land, and put me on it?' In the most decided voice -I said, 'I am the man. I stand here for the President, and -<a id='Page_130'></a>there is no spirit, bad or good, that will hinder me. My orders -are plain, and will be executed.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>Chief Joseph says: "General Howard replied, 'You are an -impudent fellow, and I will put you in the guard-house,' and -then ordered a soldier to arrest him."</p> - -<p class='c010'>General Howard says: "After telling the Indians that this -bad advice would be their ruin, I asked the chiefs to go with -me to look at their land. 'The old man (Too-hool-hool-suit) -shall not go. I will leave him with Colonel Perry.' He says, -'Do you want to scare me with reference to my body?' I said, -'I will leave your body with Colonel Perry.' I then arose and -led him out of the council, and gave him into the charge of -Colonel Perry."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Chief Joseph says: "Too-hool-hool-suit made no resistance. -He asked General Howard, 'Is that your order? I don't care. -I have expressed my heart to you. I have nothing to take -back. I have spoken for my country. You can arrest me, but -you cannot change me, or make me take back what I have -said.' The soldiers came forward and seized my friend, and -took him to the guard—house. My men whispered among -themselves whether they should let this thing be done. I -counselled them to submit. *** Too-hool-hool-suit was prisoner -for five days before he was released."</p> - -<p class='c010'>General Howard, it will be observed, does not use the word -"arrested," but as he says, later, "Too-hool-hool-suit was released -on the pledge of Looking-glass and White Bird, and on -his own earnest promise to behave better," it is plain that Chief -Joseph did not misstate the facts. This Indian chief, therefore, -was put under military arrest, and confined for five days, for -uttering what General Howard calls a "tirade" in a council to -which the Indians had been asked to come for the purpose of -consultation and expression of sentiment.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Does not Chief Joseph speak common-sense, as well as natural -feeling, in saying, "I turned to my people and said, 'The -<a id='Page_131'></a>arrest of Too-hool-hool-suit was wrong, but we will not resent -the insult. We were invited to this council to express our -hearts, and we have done so.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>If such and so swift penalty as this, for "tirades" in council, -were the law of our land, especially in the District of Columbia, -it would be "no just cause of complaint" when Indians suffer -it. But considering the frequency, length, and safety of "tirades" -in all parts of America, it seems unjust not to permit -Indians to deliver them. However, they do come under the -head of "spontaneous productions of the soil;" and an Indian -on a reservation is "invested with no such proprietorship" in -anything which comes under that head.<a id='r16' /><a href='#f16' class='c012'><sup>[16]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>Chief Joseph and his band consented to move. Chief Joseph -says: "I said in my heart that, rather than have war, I would -give up my country. I would give up my father's grave. I -would give up everything rather than have the blood of white -men upon the hands of my people."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was not easy for Joseph to bring his people to consent to -move. The young men wished to fight. It has been told that, -at this time, Chief Joseph rode one day through his village, -with a revolver in each hand, saying he would shoot the first -one of his warriors that resisted the Government. Finally, they -gathered all the stock they could find, and began the move. A -storm came, and raised the river so high that some of the cattle -could not be taken across. Indian guards were put in charge -of the cattle left behind. White men attacked these guards -and took the cattle. After this Joseph could no longer restrain -his men, and the warfare began, which lasted over two months. -It was a masterly campaign on the part of the Indians. They -were followed by General Howard; they had General Crook -on their right, and General Miles in front, but they were not -once hemmed in; and, at last, when they surrendered at Bear -<a id='Page_132'></a>Paw Mountain, in the Montana Hills, it was not because they -were beaten, but because, as Joseph says, "I could not bear to -see my wounded men and women suffer any longer; we had -lost enough already. *** We could have escaped from Bear -Paw Mountain if we had left our wounded, old women and -children, behind. We were unwilling to do this. We had -never heard of a wounded Indian recovering while in the hands -of white men. *** I believed General Miles, or I never would -have surrendered. I have heard that he has been censured for -making the promise to return us to Lapwai. He could not -have made any other terms with me at that time. I could -have held him in check until my friends came to my assistance, -and then neither of the generals nor their soldiers would ever -have left Bear Paw Mountain alive. On the fifth day I went -to General Miles and gave up my gun, and said, 'From where -the sun now stands, I will fight no more.' My people needed -rest; we wanted peace."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The terms of this surrender were shamefully violated. Joseph -and his band were taken first to Fort Leavenworth and then to -the Indian Territory. At Leavenworth they were placed in the -river bottom, with no water but the river water to drink.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Many of my people sickened and died, and we buried them -in this strange land," says Joseph. "I cannot tell how much -my heart suffered for my people while at Leavenworth. The -Great Spirit Chief who rules above seemed to be looking some -other way, and did not see what was being done to my people."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Yet with a marvellous magnanimity, and a clear-headed sense -of justice of which few men would be capable under the circumstances, -Joseph says: "I believe General Miles would have -kept his word if he could have done so. I do not blame him -for what we have suffered since the surrender. I do not know -who is to blame. We gave up all our horses, over eleven hundred, -and all our saddles, over one hundred, and we have not -heard from them since. Somebody has got our horses."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_133'></a>This narrative of Chief Joseph's is profoundly touching; a -very Iliad of tragedy, of dignified and hopeless sorrow; and it -stands supported by the official records of the Indian Bureau.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"After the arrival of Joseph and his band in Indian Territory, -the bad effect of their location at Fort Leavenworth manifested -itself in the prostration by sickness at one time of two -hundred and sixty out of the four hundred and ten; and 'within -a few months' in the death of 'more than one-quarter of the -entire number.'"<a id='r17' /><a href='#f17' class='c012'><sup>[17]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>"It will be borne in mind that Joseph has never made a -treaty with the United States, and that he has never surrendered -to the Government the lands he claimed to own in Idaho. *** -Joseph and his followers have shown themselves to be brave -men and skilful soldiers, who, with one exception, have observed -the rules of civilized warfare. *** These Indians were -encroached upon by white settlers, on soil they believed to be -their own, and when these encroachments became intolerable, -they were compelled in their own estimation to take up -arms."<a id='r18' /><a href='#f18' class='c012'><sup>[18]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>Chief Joseph and a remnant of his band are still in Indian -Territory, waiting anxiously the result of the movement now -being made by the Ponca chief, Standing Bear, and his friends -and legal advisers, to obtain from the Supreme Court a decision -which will extend the protection of the civil law to every Indian -in the country.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Of the remainder of the Nez Percés (those who are on the -Lapwai Reservation), the report of the Indian Bureau for 1879 -is that they "support themselves entirely without subsistence -from the Government; procure of their own accord, and at -their own expense, wagons, harness, and other farming implements -beyond the amount furnished by the Government under -<a id='Page_134'></a>their treaty," and that "as many again as were taught were -turned away from school for lack of room."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions has contributed -during this year $1750 for missionary work among them, and -the Indians themselves have raised $125.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Their reservation is thus described: "The majority of land -comprising the reservation is a vast rolling prairie, affording -luxuriant pasturage for thousands of their cattle and horses. -The Clearwater River, flowing as it does directly through the -reserve, branching out in the North, Middle, and South Forks, -greatly benefits their locations that they have taken in the valleys -lying between such river and the bluffs of the higher land, -forming in one instance—at Kaimaih—one of the most picturesque -locations to be found in the whole North-west. Situated -in a valley on either side of the South Fork, in length about -six miles, varying in width from one-half to two miles; in form -like a vast amphitheatre, surrounded on all sides by nearly perpendicular -bluffs rising two thousand feet in height, it forms -one of the prettiest valleys one can imagine. A view from the -bluff reveals a living panorama, as one sees the vast fields of -waving grain surrounding well-built and tasty cottages adorned -with porches, and many of the conveniences found among industrious -whites. The sight would lead a stranger, not knowing -of its inhabitance by Indians, to inquire what prosperous white -settlement was located here. It is by far the most advanced in -the ways of civilization and progress of any in the Territory, -if not on the coast."</p> - -<p class='c010'>How long will the white men of Idaho permit Indians to occupy -so fair a domain as this? The small cloud, no larger -than a man's hand, already looms on their horizon. The closing -paragraph of this (the last) report from the Nez Percés is:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Some uneasiness is manifest about stories set afloat by renegade -whites, in relation to their treatment at the expiration of -their treaty next July, but I have talked the matter over, and -<a id='Page_135'></a>they will wait patiently to see the action on the part of the -Government. They are well civilized; but one mistake on the -part of the Government at this time would destroy the effects -of the past thirty years' teachings. Give them time and attention; -they will astonish their most zealous friends in their -progress toward civilization."</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_136'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER V.<br /> <br />THE SIOUX.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>The word Sioux is a contraction from the old French word -"Nadouessioux," or "Enemies," the name given by the French -traders to this most powerful and warlike of all the North-western -tribes. They called themselves "Dakota," or "many in -one," because so many bands under different names were joined -together. At the time of Captain Carver's travels among the -North American Indians there were twelve known bands of -these "Nadouwessies." They entertained the captain most -hospitably for seven months during the winter of 1766-'7; -adopted him as one of their chiefs; and when the time came -for him to depart, three hundred of them accompanied him -for a distance on his journey, and took leave with expressions -of friendship for him, and good-will toward the Great -Father, the English king, of whom he had told them. The -chiefs wished him to say to the king "how much we desire -that traders may be sent to abide among us with such things -as we need, that the hearts of our young men, our wives, and -children may be made glad. And may peace subsist between -us so long as the sun, the moon, the earth, and the waters shall -endure;" and "acquaint the Great King how much the Nadouwessies -wish to be counted among his good children."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nothing in all the history of the earliest intercourse between -the friendly tribes of North American Indians and the Europeans -coming among them is more pathetic than the accounts -of their simple hospitality, their unstinted invitations, and their -<a id='Page_137'></a>guileless expressions of desire for a greater knowledge of the -white men's ways.</p> - -<p class='c010'>When that saintly old bigot, Father Hennepin, sailed up the -Illinois River, in 1680, carrying his "portable chapel," chalice, -and chasuble, and a few holy wafers "in a steel box, shut very -close," going to teach the savages "the knowledge of the Captain -of Heaven and Earth, and to use fire-arms, and several -other things relating to their advantage," the Illinois were so -terrified that, although they were several thousand strong, they -took to flight "with horrid cries and howlings." On being -reassured by signs and words of friendliness, they slowly returned—some, -however, not until three or four days had passed. -Then they listened to the good man's discourses with "great -attention; afterward gave a great shout for joy," and "expressed -a great gratitude;" and, the missionaries being footsore -from long travel, the kindly creatures fell to rubbing their -legs and feet "with oil of bears, and grease of wild oxen, -which after much travel is an incomparable refreshment; and -presented us some flesh to eat, putting the three first morsels -into our mouths with great ceremonies."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was a pity that Father Hennepin had no more tangible -benefit than the doctrine of the "efficacy of the Sacraments" to -communicate to the hospitable Illinois in return for their healing -ointments. Naturally they did not appreciate this, and he -proceeded on his way disheartened by their "brutish stupidity," -but consoling himself, however, with the thought of the -infants he had baptized. Hearing of the death of one of them, -he says he is "glad it had pleased God to take this little Christian -out of the world," and he attributed his own "preservation -amidst the greatest dangers" afterward to "the care he took -for its baptism." Those dangers were, indeed, by no means inconsiderable, -as he and his party were taken prisoners by a -roaming party of these Indians, called in the Father's quaint -old book "Nadouwessians." He was forced to accompany -<a id='Page_138'></a>them on their expeditions, and was in daily danger of being -murdered by the more riotous and hostile members of the -band. He found these savages on the whole "good-natured -men, affable, civil, and obliging," and he was indebted for his -life to the good-will of one of the chiefs, who protected him -again and again at no inconsiderable danger to himself. The -only evidence of religion among the Nadouwessies which he -mentions is that they never began to smoke without first holding -the pipe up to the sun, saying, "Smoke, sun!" They also -offered to the sun the best part of every beast they killed, carrying -it afterward to the cabin of their chief; from which Father -Hennepin concluded that they had "a religious veneration -for the sun."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The diplomatic relations between the United States Government -and the Sioux began in the year 1815. In that year and -the year following we made sixteen "treaties" of peace and -friendship with different tribes of Indians—treaties demanding -no cessions of land beyond the original grants which had been -made by these tribes to the English, French, or Spanish governments, -but confirming those to the United States; promising -"perpetual peace," and declaring that "every injury or act of -hostility committed by one or other of the contracting parties -shall be mutually forgiven and forgot." Three of these treaties -were made with bands of the Sioux—one of them with "the -Sioux of the Leaf, the Sioux of the Broad Leaf, and the Sioux -who shoot in the Pine-tops."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1825 four more treaties were made with separate Sioux -bands. By one of those treaties—that of Prairie du Chien—boundaries -were defined between the Chippewas and the Sioux, -and it was hoped that their incessant feuds might be brought -to an end. This hostility had continued unabated from the -time of the earliest travellers in the country, and the Sioux had -been slowly but steadily driven south and west by the victorious -Chippewas. A treaty could not avail very much toward -<a id='Page_139'></a>keeping peace between such ancient enemies as these. Fighting -went on as before; and white traders, being exposed to the -attacks of all war-parties, suffered almost more than the Indians -themselves. The Government consoled itself for this spectacle -of bloody war, which it was powerless to prevent, by the -thought that the Indians would "probably fight on until some -one or other of the tribes shall become too reduced and feeble -to carry on the war, when it will be lost as a separate power"—an -equivocal bit of philosophizing which was unequivocally -stated in these precise words in one of the annual reports of -the War Department.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the third Article of the next treaty, also at Prairie du -Chien, in 1830, began the trouble which has been from that -day to this a source of never ending misunderstanding and of -many fierce outbreaks on the part of the Sioux. Four of the -bands by this article ceded and relinquished to the United -States "forever" a certain tract of country between the Mississippi -and the Des Moines River. In this, and in a still further -cession, two other bands of Sioux, who were not fully represented -at the council, must join; also, some four or five other -tribes. Landed and "undivided" estate, owned in common by -dozens of families, would be a very difficult thing to parcel out -and transfer among white men to-day, with the best that fair -intentions and legal skill combined could do; how much more -so in those days of unsurveyed forests, unexplored rivers, -owned and occupied in common by dozens of bands of wild -and ignorant Indians, to be communicated with only by interpreters. -Misconstructions and disputes about boundaries would -have been inevitable, even if there had been all possible fairmindedness -and good-will on both sides; but in this case there -was only unfairmindedness on one side, and unwillingness on -the other. All the early makers of treaties with the Indians -congratulated themselves and the United States on the getting -of acres of valuable land by the million for next to nothing, -<a id='Page_140'></a>and, as years went on, openly lamented that "the Indians were -beginning to find out what lands were worth;" while the Indians, -anxious, alarmed, hostile at heart, seeing themselves harder -and harder pressed on all sides, driven "to provide other -sources for supplying their wants besides those of hunting, -which must soon entirely fail them,"<a id='r19' /><a href='#f19' class='c012'><sup>[19]</sup></a> yielded mile after mile -with increasing sense of loss, which they were powerless to prevent, -and of resentment which it would have been worse than -impolitic for them to show.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The first annuities promised to the Sioux were promised by -this treaty—$3000 annually for ten years to the Yankton and -Santee bands; to the other four, $2000. The Yankton and -Santee bands were to pay out of their annuity $100 yearly to -the Otoes, because part of some land which was reserved for -the half-breeds of the tribe had originally belonged to the -Otoes. "A blacksmith, at the expense of the United States; -also, instruments for agricultural purposes; and iron and steel -to the amount of $700 annually for ten years to some of the -bands, and to the amount of $400 to the others; also, $3000 a -year 'for educational purposes,' and $3000 in presents distributed -at the time," were promised them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was soon after these treaties that the artist Catlin made his -famous journeys among the North American Indians, and gave -to the world an invaluable contribution to their history, perpetuating -in his pictures the distinctive traits of their faces -and their dress, and leaving on record many pages of unassailable -testimony as to their characteristics in their native state. -He spent several weeks among the Sioux, and says of them: -"There is no tribe on the continent of finer looking men, and -few tribes who are better and more comfortably clad and supplied -with the necessaries of life. *** I have travelled several -years already among these people, and I have not had my scalp -<a id='Page_141'></a>taken, nor a blow struck me, nor had occasion to raise my -hand against an Indian; nor has my property been stolen as -yet to my knowledge to the value of a shilling, and that in a -country where no man is punishable by law for the crime of -stealing. *** That the Indians in their native state are drunken, -is false, for they are the only temperance people, literally -speaking, that ever I saw in my travels, or expect to see. If -the civilized world are startled at this, it is the fact that they -must battle with, not with me. These people manufacture no -spirituous liquor themselves, and know nothing of it until it -is brought into their country, and tendered to them by Christians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"That these people are naked, is equally untrue, and as -easily disproved with the paintings I have made, and with -their beautiful costumes which I shall bring home. I shall be -able to establish the fact that many of these people dress not -only with clothes comfortable for any latitude, but that they -dress also with some considerable taste and elegance. *** Nor -am I quite sure that they are entitled to the name of 'poor' -who live in a country of boundless green fields, with good -horses to ride; where they are all joint tenants of the soil together; -where the Great Spirit has supplied them with an -abundance of food to eat."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Catlin found six hundred families of the Sioux camped at -one time around Fort Pierre, at the mouth of the Teton River, -on the west bank of the Missouri. There were some twenty -bands, each with their chief, over whom was one superior chief, -called Ha-won-je-tah (the One Horn), whose portrait is one of -the finest in Catlin's book. This chief took his name, "One -Horn," from a little shell which he wore always on his neck. -This shell had descended to him from his father, and he said -"he valued it more than anything which he possessed:" affording -a striking instance of the living affection which these -people often cherish for the dead, inasmuch as he chose to -<a id='Page_142'></a>carry this name through life in preference to many others and -more honorable ones he had a right to have taken from different -battles and exploits of his extraordinary life. He was the -fleetest man in the tribe; "could run down a buffalo, which he -had often done on his own legs, and drive his arrow to the -heart."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This chief came to his death, several years later, in a tragic -way. He had been in some way the accidental cause of the -death of his only son—a very fine youth—and so great was -the anguish of his mind at times that he became insane. In -one of these moods he mounted his favorite war-horse, with -his bow and arrows in his hand, and dashed off at full speed -upon the prairies, repeating the most solemn oath that he -would slay the first living thing that fell in his way, be it man -or beast, friend or foe. No one dared follow him, and after -he had been absent an hour or two his horse came back to the -village with two arrows in its body covered with blood. Fears -of the most serious kind were now entertained for the fate of -the chief, and a party of warriors immediately mounted their -horses and retraced the animal's tracks to the place of the -tragedy, where they found the body of their chief horribly -mangled and gored by a buffalo-bull, whose carcass was stretched -by the side of him.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A close examination of the ground was then made by the -Indians, who ascertained by the tracks that their unfortunate -chief, under his unlucky resolve, had met a buffalo-bull in the -season when they are very stubborn, and unwilling to run from -any one, and had incensed the animal by shooting a number of -arrows into him, which had brought him into furious combat. -The chief had then dismounted and turned his horse loose, having -given it a couple of arrows from his bow, which sent it -home at full speed, and then had thrown away his bow and -quiver, encountering the infuriated animal with his knife alone, -and the desperate battle had resulted in the death of both. -<a id='Page_143'></a>Many of the bones of the chief were broken, and his huge antagonist -lay dead by his side, weltering in blood from a hundred -wounds made by the chief's long and two-edged knife.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Had the provisions of these first treaties been fairly and -promptly carried out, there would have been living to-day -among the citizens of Minnesota thousands of Sioux families, -good and prosperous farmers and mechanics, whose civilization -would have dated back to the treaty of Prairie du -Chien.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In looking through the records of the expenditures of the -Indian Bureau for the six years following this treaty, we find -no mention of any specific provisions for the Sioux in the matter -of education. The $3000 annually which the treaty promised -should be spent "on account of the children of the said -tribes and bands," is set down as expended on the "Choctaw -Academy," which was in Kentucky. A very well endowed institution -that must have been, if we may trust to the fiscal reports -of the Indian Bureau. In the year 1836 there were set -down as expended on this academy: On account of the Miamis, -$2000; the Pottawattomies, $5000; the Sacs, Foxes, and -others, $3000; the Choctaws, $10,000; the Creeks, east, $3000; -the Cherokees, west, $2000; the Florida Indians, $1000; the -Quapaws, $1000; the Chickasaws, $3000; the Creeks, $1000: -being a total of $31,000.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There were in this year one hundred and fifty-six pupils at -the Choctaw Academy, sixteen of them being from the Sacs, -Foxes, Sioux, and others represented in the Treaty of Prairie -du Chien of 1830. For the education of these sixteen children, -therefore, these tribes paid $3000 a year. The Miamis paid -more in proportion, having but four youths at school, and -$2000 a year charged to them. The Pottawattomies, on a -treaty provision of $5000, educated twenty.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1836 Congress appropriated $2000 "for the purpose of -extinguishing the Indian title between the State of Missouri -<a id='Page_144'></a>and the Missouri River. The land owned here by the Indians -was a long, narrow belt of country, separated from the rest of -the Indian country by the Missouri River. The importance of -it to the State of Missouri was evident—an "obvious convenience -and necessity." The citizens of Missouri made representations -to this effect; and though the President is said to have -been "unwilling to assent, as it would be in disregard of the -guarantee given to the Indians in the Treaty of Prairie du -Chien, and might be considered by them as the first step in -a series of efforts to obtain possession of their new country," -he nevertheless consented that the question of such a cession -should be submitted to them. Accordingly, negotiations were -opened, and nearly all the Indians who had rights in these -lands, "seeing that from their local position they could never -be made available for Indian purposes," relinquished them.<a id='r20' /><a href='#f20' class='c012'><sup>[20]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1837 the Government invited deputations of chiefs from -many of the principal tribes to come to Washington. It was -"believed to be important to exhibit" to them "the strength -of the nation they would have to contend with" if they ventured -to attack our borders, "and at the same time to impress -upon them the advantages which flow from civilization." -Among these chiefs came thirty chiefs and headmen of the -Sioux; and, being duly "impressed," as was most natural, concluded -treaties by which they ceded to the United States "all -their land east of the Mississippi River, and all their islands in -the same." These chiefs all belonged to the Medawakanton -band, "community of the Mysterious Lakes."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The price of this cession was $300,000, to be invested for -them, and the interest upon this sum, at five per cent., to be -paid to them "annually forever;" $110,000 to be distributed -among the persons of mixed blood in the tribe; $90,000 to be -<a id='Page_145'></a>devoted to paying the just debts of the tribe; $8230 to be expended -annually for twenty years in stock, implements, on physicians, -farmers, blacksmiths, etc.; $10,000 worth of tools, cattle, -etc., to be given to them immediately, "to enable them to -break up and improve their lands;" $5300 to be expended annually -for twenty years in food for them, "to be delivered at -the expense of the United States;" $6000 worth of goods to -be given to them on their arrival at St. Louis.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1838 the Indian Bureau reports that all the stipulations -of this treaty have been complied with, "except those which -appropriate $8230 to be expended annually in the purchase of -medicines, agricultural implements, and stock; and for the support -of a physician, farmers, and blacksmiths," and "bind the -United States to supply these Sioux as soon as practicable with -agricultural implements, tools, cattle, and such other articles as -may be useful to them, to an amount not exceeding $10,000, -to enable them to break up and improve their lands." The -fulfilment or non-fulfilment of these stipulations has been left -to the discretion of the agent; and the agent writes that it -"must be obvious to any one that a general personal intercourse" -on his part "is impracticable," and that "his interviews -with many of the tribes must result from casualty and accident." -This was undoubtedly true; but it did not, in all probability, -occur to the Indians that it was a good and sufficient reason -for their not receiving the $18,000 worth of goods promised.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Five thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine dollars were -expended the next year under this provision of the treaty, and -a few Indians, who "all labored with the hoe," raised their -own crops without assistance. Six thousand bushels of corn -in all were housed for the winter; but the experiment of turning -hunters into farmers in one year was thought not to be, on -the whole, an encouraging one. The "peculiar habits of indolence, -and total disregard and want of knowledge of the value -and uses of time and property," the agent says, "almost forbid -<a id='Page_146'></a>hope." A more reasonable view of the situation would have -seen in it very great hope. That out of five hundred warriors -a few score should have been already found willing to work -was most reassuring, and promised well for the future of the -tribe.</p> - -<p class='c010'>For the next ten years affairs went on badly with the Sioux; -they were continually attacked by the Chippewas, Ottawas, and -others, and continually retaliated. The authorities took a sensible -view of this state of things, as being the easiest way of -securing the safety of the whites. "So long as they (the Indians) -are at war with each other they will not feel a disposition -to disturb the peace and safety of our exposed frontier settlements," -wrote Governor Dodge, in 1840.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Whiskey traders flocked faster and faster into the neighborhood; -fur traders, also, found it much more for their interest -to trade with drunken Indians than with sober ones, and the -Sioux grew rapidly demoralized. Their annuities were in arrears; -yet this almost seemed less a misfortune than a blessing, -since both money, goods, and provisions were so soon squandered -for whiskey.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1842 several of the bands were reduced to a state of semi-starvation -by the failure of corn crops, and also by the failure -of the Senate to ratify a treaty they had made with Governor -Doty in 1841.<a id='r21' /><a href='#f21' class='c012'><sup>[21]</sup></a> Depending on the annuities promised in this -treaty, they had neglected to make their usual provisions for -the winter. Frosts, which came in June, and drought, which -followed in July, combined to ruin their crops. For several -years the water had been rapidly decreasing in all the lakes -and streams north-west of Traverse de Sioux: the musk-rat -ponds, from which the Indians used to derive considerable -revenue, had dried up, and the musk-rats had gone, nobody -knew where; the beaver, otter, and other furry creatures had -<a id='Page_147'></a>been hunted down till they were hard to find; the buffalo had -long since been driven to new fields, far distant. Many of the -Indians were too poor to own horses on which to hunt. They -were two hundred miles from the nearest place where corn -could be obtained, even if they had money to pay for it. Except -for some assistance from the Government, they would -have died by hundreds in the winter of this year.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1849 the "needs" of the white settlers on the east side -of the Mississippi made it imperative that the Sioux should be -again removed from their lands. "The desirable portions of -Minnesota east of the Mississippi were already so occupied by -a white population as to seem to render it absolutely necessary -to obtain without delay a cession from the Indians on the west -side of the river, for the accommodation of our citizens emigrating -to that quarter, a large portion of whom would probably -be compelled to precipitate themselves on that side of the -Mississippi."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Commissioners were accordingly sent to treat with the Indians -owning these desired lands. In the instructions given -to these commissioners there are some notable sentences: -"Though the proposed purchase is estimated to contain some -twenty millions of acres, and some of it no doubt of excellent -quality," there are "sound reasons why it is comparatively valueless -to the Indians, and a large price should not be paid for -it." Alive to the apparent absurdity of the statement that -lands which are "absolutely necessary" for white farmers are -"comparatively valueless" to Indians whom the Government -is theoretically making every effort to train into farmers, and -who have for the last ten years made appreciable progress in -that direction, the commissioner adds, "With respect to its being -valuable to the United States, it is more so for the purpose -of making room for our emigrating citizens than for any other; -and only a small part of it is now actually necessary for that -object. *** The extent of the proposed cession should be no -<a id='Page_148'></a>criterion of the amount that should be paid for it. On a full -consideration of the whole matter, it is the opinion of this office -that from two to two and a half cents an acre would be an -ample equivalent for it." Some discretion is left to the commissioners -as to giving more than this if the Indians are "not -satisfied;" but any such increase of price must be "based on -such evidence and information as shall fully satisfy the President -and Senate."<a id='r22' /><a href='#f22' class='c012'><sup>[22]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>Reading farther on in these instructions, we come at last to -the real secret of this apparent niggardliness on the part of the -Government. It is not selfishness at all; it is the purest of -philanthropy. The Government has all along been suffering -in mind from two conflicting desires—"the desire to give these -Indians an equivalent for their possessions," and, on the other -hand, "the well-ascertained fact that no greater curse can be -inflicted on a tribe so little civilized as the Sioux than to have -large sums of money coming to them as annuities." *** On -the whole, the commissioner says that we are called on, "as a -matter of humanity and duty toward this helpless race, to make -every exertion in our power not to place much money at their -discretion." The Government is beginning very well in this direction, -it must be admitted, when it proposes to pay for Mississippi -Valley lands in Minnesota only two and a half cents per -acre. "Humanity and duty" allied could hardly do more at -one stroke than that.</p> - -<p class='c010'>We cannot ascribe to the same philanthropy, however, the -withholding from 1837 to 1850 the $3000 a year which the -treaty of 1837 provided should be expended "annually" as the -President might direct, and which was not expended at all, because -President after President directed that it should be applied -<a id='Page_149'></a>to educational purposes; and there being no evident and -easy way of expending it in that manner, it was allowed to -accumulate, until in 1850 it amounted, according to the report -of Governor Ramsey, of Minnesota, to $50,000. The governor -also thinks better than the United States Government does of -the country to be relinquished this year by the Sioux. He -says that it will be "settled with great rapidity, possessing as -it does from its situation considerable prospective commercial -as well as agricultural advantages." It was evidently very -cheap at two and a half cents an acre.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this same code of instructions by the Indian Bureau there -is a record of another instance of the Government's disregard -of treaty stipulations. At the time of the treaty of Prairie du -Chien, in 1850, the Sioux chiefs had requested that a certain -tract be set apart and bestowed upon the half-breeds of their -nation. This was provided for in the ninth Article of that -treaty; but the Government refused to give to the half-breeds -any title to this land, except "in the same manner as other Indian -titles are held." It was agreed, however, that the President -might "assign to any of said half-breeds, to be held by -him or them in fee-simple, any portion of said tract not exceeding -a section of six hundred and forty acres to an individual." -This tract of land was known as the "Half-breed Reservation -on Lake Tepin."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The half-breeds had made almost unintermitting efforts to -have these assignments made, but the Government had as constantly -refused to do it. The Indian Bureau now assigns two -reasons why this treaty stipulation was never fulfilled: 1st, -that "the half-breeds, or most of them, would be speculated -upon by designing persons, and cheated out of their reservations;" -2d, that, "on account of the quality of the lands, some -would necessarily have much better reservations than others, -which would engender dissatisfaction and heart-burning among -themselves as well as against the United States." The Bureau -<a id='Page_150'></a>felicitates itself that "the only title they now have to this -land, therefore, is that by which other Indians hold their lands, -viz., the occupant or usufruct right, and this they enjoy by the -permission of the United States." Such being the case, and -as the Government would probably never find it expedient and -advisable to make the assignment referred to, this tract, whatever -may be the character of the land, must be and would continue -comparatively worthless to them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nevertheless, it appears that in 1841 one of the three treaties -made with the Sioux, but not ratified, was with these very -half-breeds for this same "valueless" tract of 384,000 acres of -land; that they were to be paid $200,000 for it, and also to be -paid for all the improvements they had made on it; and that -the treaty commissioners are still instructed "to allow them for -it now whatever sum the commissioners deem it to be" fairly -worth; "under no circumstances," however, "to exceed the -sum stipulated in 1841." Putting this all into plain English, -it simply means that in 1830 the Government promised to let -a band of men take out tracts of land in fee-simple, and settle -down like other men on their homesteads; that for ten years -the men begged to do so, and were refused; that at the end of -ten years, thinking there was no hope of anything better, they -agreed to sell the whole tract back to the Government for -$200,000; that this bargain, also, the Government did not fulfil -(the treaties never being ratified), and nine years later was -found congratulating itself on the fact that, by reason of all -these unfulfilled agreements, the land was still "held only in the -same manner as other Indian titles are held"—<i>i.e.</i>, not "held" -at all—only used on sufferance of the Government, and could be -taken possession of at any time at the Government's pleasure. -(This matter was supposed to be finally settled in 1854 by a -law of Congress; but in 1856 the thing appears to have been -still unsettled. A commission had been sent out to investigate -it, and the report was that "the subject has been one of some -<a id='Page_151'></a>difficulty and intricacy; but the final report of the commissioners -has just been received, and steps will be taken at once -to cause the scrip to issue to the parties entitled thereto.")</p> - -<p class='c010'>A little farther on in this same notable document is a mention -of another tract, of which it is now "desirable to extinguish -the title." This was set apart by the tenth Article of -that same old treaty for the half-breeds of the Omahas, Otoes, -Iowas, and Yankton and Santee Sioux. This contains about -143,000 acres, but is "supposed to be of much less value than -that on Lake Tepin much less value than 'valueless;'" but -the "amount to be paid for it is left to the discretion" of the -commissioners.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this time the bands of the Medewakanton Sioux were occupying -a tract of over two hundred miles along the west shore -of the Mississippi, reaching also some twenty-five miles up the -St. Peter's. The Yanktons, Santees, and other bands lived high -up the St. Peter's, reaching over into the lands west of the Missouri, -out of reach of ordinary facilities of intercourse. These -bands were often in great distress for food, owing to the failure -of the buffalo. They never lost an occasion to send imploring -messages to the Great Father, urging him to help them. They -particularly ask for hoes, that they may plant corn. In his report -for 1850 the superintendent of the territory embracing -these Indians says: "The views of most of those who have -lived the longest among the Indians agree in one respect—that -is, that no great or beneficial change can take place in their -condition until the General Government has made them amenable -to local laws—laws which will punish the evil-disposed, -and secure the industrious in their property and individual -rights."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Superintendents, agents, commissioners, secretaries, all reiteratedly -recommending this one simple and necessary step -toward civilization—the Indians themselves by hundreds imploring -for titles to their farms, or at least "hoes"—why did -<a id='Page_152'></a>the United States Government keep on and on in its obstinate -way, feeding the Indian in gross and reckless improvidence -with one hand, plundering him with the other, and holding -him steadily down at the level of his own barbarism? Nay, -forcing him below it by the newly added vices of gambling -and drunkenness, and yet all the while boasting of its desire to -enlighten, instruct, and civilize him. It is as inexplicable as it -is infamous: a phenomenal thing in the history of the world.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the summer of 1851 the desired treaties were made, the -upper and lower bands of Sioux being treated with separately -at Traverse de Sioux and at Mendota. The upper bands were -soon disposed of, though "some few of them, having been -taught to read," had become impressed with the idea that their -country was of immense value, and at first demanded six million -dollars for the lands to be ceded. The treaty with the -lower bands—the Medawakantons and Wahpacootas—was "exceedingly -difficult of attainment" on account of, firstly, "their -proximity to the flourishing settlements on the east side of the -Mississippi producing necessarily frequent contact with the -whites, whose ideas of the great value of the country had been -imparted to these Indians; secondly, their great experience in -Indian diplomacy, being in the enjoyment already of liberal -annuities under former stipulations"—all these things rendered -them as "indifferent to the making of another treaty at -present as the whites on their borders were anxious that their -lands should be acquired." In consequence of this indomitable -common-sense on the part of the Indians the sessions of the -commissioners were tedious and long; not until a month had -passed did they prevail on these Indians to sign away the coveted -lands, "the garden-spot of the Mississippi Valley," and they -were obliged to more than treble the number of cents per acre -which they had been instructed to pay. For thirty-five millions -of acres of land they agreed to pay nominally $3,075,000, -which would be between eight and nine cents an acre. But as -<a id='Page_153'></a>$2,500,000 was to be held in trust, and only the interest at -five per cent, to be paid to the Indians, and this only for the -term of fifty years, at which time the principal was to revert -to the Government, it will be easily reckoned that the Indians -would receive, all told, only about six and one-quarter cents an -acre. And taking into account the great value of the relinquished -lands, and the price the Government would undoubtedly -obtain for them, it will be readily conceded that Governor -Ramsey was not too sanguine when he stated, in his report -to the Interior Department, that the "actual cost to the -Government of this magnificent purchase is only the sum paid -in hand" ($575,000).</p> - -<p class='c010'>The governor says that it was "by no means the purpose" -of the commission "to act other than justly and generously -toward the Indians;" that "a continuation of the payment of -large sums of interest annually would do them no further -good "after fifty years had expired, and would be "inconsistent -with sound governmental policy." He says that the Dakota -nation, although warlike, is "friendly to the whites," -and that it may be reasonably expected that, "by a judicious -expenditure of the civilization and improvement funds provided -for in these treaties," they will soon take the lead "in agriculture -and other industrial pursuits."</p> - -<p class='c010'>One of the provisions of this treaty forbade the introduction -of ardent spirits into the new reservation. This was put in in -accordance with the "earnest desire" of the chiefs, who requested -that "some stringent measures should be taken by the Government -to exclude all kinds of liquors from their new home."</p> - -<p class='c010'>By this treaty the four great bands of Minnesota Sioux were -all to be "consolidated together on one reservation in the upper -part of the Mississippi Valley." This region was thought to -be "sufficiently remote to guarantee" them against any pressure -from the white population for many years to come. Farms -were to be opened for them, mills and schools to be established, -<a id='Page_154'></a>and dwelling-houses erected. They were to have now a chance -to own "that domestic country called home, with all the living -sympathies and all the future hopes and projects which people -it." From this time "a new era was to be dated in the history -of the Dakotas: an era full of brilliant promise." The -tract of territory relinquished by them was "larger than the -State of New York, fertile and beautiful beyond description," -far the best part of Minnesota. It is "so far diversified in natural -advantages that its productive powers may be considered -almost inexhaustible. *** Probably no tract on the surface of -the globe is equally well watered. *** A large part is rich -arable land; portions are of unsurpassed fertility, and eminently -adapted to the production in incalculable quantities of the -cereal grains. The boundless plains present inexhaustible fields -of pasturage, and the river bottoms are richer than the banks -of the Nile. In the bowels of the earth there is every indication -of extensive mineral fields."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It would seem that the assertion made only a few lines before -this glowing paragraph—"to the Indians themselves the -broad regions which have been ceded are of inconsiderable -value"—could not be true. It would seem that for eight thousand -people, who, according to this same writer, "have outlived -in a great degree the means of subsistence of the hunter -state," and must very soon "resort to the pursuits of agriculture," -nothing could have been more fortunate than to have -owned and occupied thirty-five millions of acres of just such -land as this.</p> - -<p class='c010'>They appear to be giving already some evidence of a disposition -to turn this land to account. The reports from the different -farms and schools show progress in farming industry -and also in study. The farming is carried on with difficulty, -because there are only a few carts and ploughs, which must be -used in turn by the different farmers, and therefore must come -to some quite too late to be of use, and there is much quarrelling -<a id='Page_155'></a>among them owing to this trouble. Nevertheless, these -bands have raised over four thousand bushels of corn in the -year. There is also a great opposition to the schools, because -the Indians have been told that the accumulated fifty thousand -dollars which is due to them would be paid to them in cash if -it were not for the schools. Nevertheless, education is slowly -progressing; in this year fifty copies of a little missionary paper -called <i>The Dakota Friend</i> were subscribed for in the one -mission station of Lac qui Parle, and sixty scholars were enrolled -at the school. The blacksmith at St. Peter's reports that he -has made during the year 2506 pieces of one sort and another -for the Indians, and repaired 1430 more. Evidently a community -keeping blacksmiths so busy as this are by no means -wholly idle themselves.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is worth while to dwell upon these seemingly trivial details -at this point in the history of the Minnesota Sioux, because -they are all significant to mark the point in civilization -they had already reached, and the disposition they had already -shown toward industry before they were obliged to submit to -their first great removal. Their condition at the end of two -years from the ratification of these treaties is curtly told in the -official reports of the Indian Bureau:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The present situation of that portion of the Sioux Indians -parties to the treaties of July 23d and August 5th, 1851, is -peculiar, unfortunate, and to them must prove extremely injurious. -By these treaties they reluctantly parted with a very -large extent of valuable country, which it was of the greatest -importance to the Government to acquire. An insignificant -portion of it near its western boundary, not deemed necessary -or desirable for a white population for many years, if at all, -was agreed to be reserved and assigned to them for their future -residence. The Senate amended the treaties, striking out this -provision, allowing ten cents an acre in lieu of the reservations, -and requiring the President, with the assent of the Indians, if -<a id='Page_156'></a>they agreed to the amendments, to assign them such tracts of -country, beyond the limits of that ceded, as might be satisfactory -for their future home. To the amendments was appended -a proviso 'that the President may, by the consent of the Indians, -vary the conditions aforesaid, if deemed expedient.' -The Indians were induced to agree to the amendments; 'confiding -in the justice, liberality, and humanity of the President -and the Congress of the United States, that such tracts of -country will be set apart for their future occupancy and home -as will be to them acceptable and satisfactory.' Thus, not -only was the assent of the Indians made necessary to a country -being assigned to them without the limits of that ceded, -but, by the authority given to the President to vary the conditions -of the amendments to the treaties, he was empowered, -with the consent of the Indians, to place them upon the designated -reservations, or upon any other portion of the ceded territory, -'if deemed expedient.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"To avoid collisions and difficulties between the Indians and -the white population which rapidly commenced pouring into -the ceded country, it became necessary that the former should -vacate at least a large portion of it without delay, while there -was neither the time nor the means to make the requisite -explorations to find a suitable location for them beyond the -limits of the cession.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Under these pressing and embarrassing circumstances the -late President determined to permit them to remain five years -on the designated reservations, if they were willing to accept -this alternative. They assented, and many of them have been -already removed. However unavoidable this arrangement, it -is a most unfortunate one. The Indians are fully aware of its -temporary character, and of the uncertainty as to their future -position, and will consequently be disinclined and deterred -from any efforts to make themselves comfortable and improve -their condition. The inevitable result must be that, at the end -<a id='Page_157'></a>of the time limited, they will be in a far worse condition than -now, and the efforts and expenditures of years to infuse into -them a spirit of improvement will all have been in vain.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The large investments in mills, farms, mechanic shops, and -other improvements required by the treaties to be made for -their benefit, will be entirely wasted if the Indians are to remain -on their reservations only during the prescribed five years. -At the very period when they would begin to reap the full -advantage of these beneficial provisions they would have to -remove. Another unfortunate feature of this arrangement, if -temporary, is that the Indians will have expended the considerable -sums set apart in the treaties for the expenses of their -removal to a permanent home, and for subsistence until they -could otherwise provide it, leaving nothing for these important -and necessary purposes in the event of another emigration. -In view of these facts and considerations, no time should be -lost in determining upon some final and permanent arrangement -in regard to them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Governor of Minnesota also writes at this time: "The -doubtful tenure by which this tribe hold their supposed reservation -is well understood by their chiefs and headmen, and is -beginning to give deep dissatisfaction, and throwing daily more -and more obstacles in the way of their removal. This reservation -will not be wanted for white men for many years.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"There is not wood, or timber, or coal sufficient for the -purposes of civilization, except immediately on the St. Peter's -and its tributaries. From near the vicinity of the new agency -there commences a vast prairie of more than one hundred -miles in extent, entirely destitute of timber, and I feel confident -that we never shall be able to keep any very large number -of them at their new agency, or near there.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Already the fund set apart for the removal and subsistence -the first year of the Sissetons and Wah-pa-tons has been expended, -and all their provisions eaten up. Seventeen thousand -<a id='Page_158'></a>dollars and upward have been expended by Governor Ramsey, -and one year in advance of the time fixed by the treaty for -their removal. This expenditure was made while he was getting -them to sign the Senate amendments to the treaty of -1851, which they were very reluctant to do, and which not -more than half the chiefs have signed. These Indians want -the Government to confirm this reservation to them. I would -recommend that this be done as the only means to satisfy -them, and humanity demands it."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Here is a picture of a helpless people! Forced to give up -the "garden-spot of the State," and accept in its stead an "insignificant -tract, on the greater part of which there is not wood, -or timber, or coal sufficient for civilization;" and then, before -the ink of this treaty is dry, told that even from this insignificant -tract they must promise to move at the end of five years. -What words could characterize such a transaction between man -and man? There is not a country, a people, a community in -which it would be even attempted! Was it less base, or more, -being between a strong government and a feeble race?</p> - -<p class='c010'>From the infamy of accomplishing this purpose the United -States was saved. Remonstrances, and still more the resistance -of the Indians, prevailed, and in 1854 we find the poor creatures -expressing "much satisfaction" that the President has decreed -that they are to remain permanently on their "insignificant -tract."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Upper Missouri Sioux are still suffering and destitute; -a few of them cultivating little patches of ground, depending -chiefly on the chase, and on roots and wild berries; when these -resources fail there is nothing left for them but to starve, or to -commit depredations on white settlers. Some of the bands, -nevertheless, have scrupulously observed the stipulations of the -Fort Laramie treaty in 1851, show a "strong desire for improvement," -and are on the most friendly terms with the -whites. These peaceable and friendly bands are much distressed, -<a id='Page_159'></a>as well they may be, at the reckless course pursued by -others of their tribe. They welcome the presence of the soldiers -sent to chastise the offenders, and gladly render all the -service to them they can, even against their relatives and -friends.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1855 it is stated that "various causes have combined to -prevent the Minnesota Sioux from deriving, heretofore, much -substantial benefit from the very liberal provisions of the treaties -of 1851. Until after the reservations were permanently -assured to the Indians (1854) it would have been highly improper -to have made the expenditures for permanent improvements, -and since then the affairs of the agency have not been -free from confusion."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Large sums of money have been expended for these Sioux, -but they have been indolent, extravagant, intemperate, and have -wasted their means without improving, or seeming to desire to -improve their condition."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Both these statements are made in grave good faith; certainly -without any consciousness of their bearing on each other. -It is not stated, however, what specific means the Sioux could -have employed "to improve their condition," had they "desired" -to do so.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The summer of 1857 was one which will long be remembered -by the citizens of Minnesota. It was opened by terrible -massacres, which were all the work of a strolling outcast -band of Sioux, not more than fifteen in number. They had -been driven out of their tribe some sixteen years previous, and -had been ever since then leading a wandering and marauding -life. The beginning of the trouble was a trivial difficulty between -one of the white settlers on Rock River and an Indian. -The settler's dog bit the Indian, and the Indian shot the dog. -For this the white settlers beat the Indian severely, and then -went to the camp and by force took away all the guns of the -band. This was at a season of the year when to be without -<a id='Page_160'></a>guns meant simply to be without food, and the Indians were -reduced at once to a condition of great suffering. By some -means they either repossessed themselves of their guns or procured -others, and, attacking the settlement, killed all the inhabitants -except four women, whom they carried away with -them, and treated with the utmost barbarity. The inevitable -results of such horrors followed. The thousands of peaceable -Indians in Minnesota, who did not even know of this outrage, -were all held in one common terror and hatred by the general -public; only the very great firmness and discretion of the military -officers sent to deal with the outbreak saved Minnesota -from a general uprising and attack from all the Sioux bands, -who were already in a state of smouldering discontent by reason -of the non-payment of their annuities. However, they -obeyed the demands of the Government that they themselves -should pursue this offending band, and either capture or exterminate -it. They killed four, and took three prisoners, and -then returned "much jaded and worn," and said they could do -no more without the help of United States soldiers; and that -they thought they had now done enough to show their loyalty, -and to deserve the payment of their annuities. One of the -chiefs said: "The man who killed white people did not belong -to us, and we did not expect to be called to account for the -people of another band. We have always tried to do as our -Great Father tells us." Another said: "I am going to speak -of the treaty. For fifty years we were to be paid $50,000 per -annum. We were also promised $300,000 that we have not -seen. I wish to say to my Great Father we were promised -these things, but have not seen them yet. Why does not the -Great Father do as he promised?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>These hostilities were speedily brought to an end, yet the -situation was by no means reassuring for the Indians. But -one sentiment seemed to inspire the whole white population, -and this was the desire to exterminate the entire Indian race.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_161'></a>"For the present," writes the superintendent, "it is equally -important to protect the Indians from the whites as the whites -from the Indians and this in spite of the fact that all the -leading bands of the treaty Sioux had contributed warriors to -go in pursuit of the murderers, had killed or captured all they -could find, and stood ready to go again after the remaining -eight, if the United States troops would go also and assist them. -Spite of the exertions of one of the chiefs of the Lower Sioux, -"Little Crow," who, the superintendent says, labored with him -"night and day in organizing the party, riding continually between -the lower and upper agencies," so that they "scarcely -slept" till the war-party had set out on the track of the murderers; -spite of the fact that the whole body of the Sioux, without -exception, "received the intelligence with as much indignation -and disapprobation as the whites themselves, and did their -best to stand clear of any suspicion of or connection with the -affair—spite of all this, they were in continual danger of being -shot at sight by the terrified and unreasoning settlers. One -band, under the chief Sleepy Eyes, were returning to their -homes from a hunt; and while they were "wondering what -the panic among the whites meant" (they having heard nothing -of the massacre), were fired into by some of the militia -volunteers.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The next day a white settler was found killed near that spot—presumably -by some member of Sleepy Eyes' band. This -excitement slowly abated, and for the next four years a steady -improvement was visible in the Minnesota Sioux. Hundreds -of them threw aside the blanket—the distinctive badge of their -wild state; schools were well attended, and farms were well -tilled. That there was great hostility to this civilization, on -the part of the majority of the tribe, cannot be denied; but -that was only natural—the inevitable protest of a high-spirited -and proud race against abandoning all its race distinctions. -When we see the men of Lorraine, or of Montenegro, ready to -<a id='Page_162'></a>die for the sake merely of being called by the name of one -power rather than by that of another, we find it heroic, and -give them our sympathies; but when the North American Indian -is ready to die rather than wear the clothes and follow -the ways of the white man, we feel for him only unqualified -contempt, and see in his instinct nothing more than a barbarian's -incapacity to appreciate civilization. Is this just?</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1861 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, visiting these -Sioux, reports: "I was much surprised to find so many of the -Sioux Indians wearing the garb of civilization, many of them -living in frame or brick houses, some of them with stables or -out-houses, and their fields indicating considerable knowledge -of agriculture. Their condition," he says, "affords abundant -evidence of what may be accomplished among the Sioux Indians -by steadily adhering to a uniform, undeviating policy.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The number that live by agricultural pursuits is yet small -compared with the whole; but their condition is so much better -than that of the wild Indian, that they, too, are becoming convinced -that it is the better way to live; and many are coming -in, asking to have their hair cut, and for a suit of clothes, and -to be located on a piece of land where they can build a house -and fence in their fields."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Many more of them would have entered on the agricultural -life had the Government provided ways and means for them to -do so. In this same report is a mention of one settlement of -two thousand Indians at Big Stone Lake, who "have been -hitherto almost entirely neglected. These people complain -that they have lived upon promises for the last ten years, and -are really of opinion that white men never perform what they -promise. Many of them would go to work if they had any -reasonable encouragement."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The annuities are still in arrears. Every branch of the industries -and improvements attempted suffers for want of the promised -funds, and from delays in payments expected. The worst -<a id='Page_163'></a>result, however, of these delays in the fulfilment of treaty stipulations -was the effect on the Indians. A sense of wrong in -the past and distrust for the future was ever deepening in their -minds, and preparing them to be suddenly thrown by any small -provocation into an antagonism and hostility grossly disproportionate -to the apparent cause. This was the condition of the -Minnesota Sioux in the summer of 1862.<a id='r23' /><a href='#f23' class='c012'><sup>[23]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>The record of the massacres of that summer is scarcely equalled -in the history of Indian wars. Early in August some bands -of the Upper Sioux, who had been waiting at their agency nearly -two months for their annuity payments, and had been suffering -greatly for food during that time—so much so that "they -dug up roots to appease their hunger, and when corn was turned -out to them they devoured it uncooked, like wild animals"—became -desperate, broke into the Government warehouse, and took -some of the provisions stored there. This was the real beginning -of the outbreak, although the first massacre was not till -the 18th. When that began, the friendly Indians were powerless -to resist—in fact, they were threatened with their lives if -they did not join. Nevertheless, some of them rescued whole -families, and carried them to places of safety; others sheltered -and fed women and children in their own lodges; many fled, -leaving all their possessions behind—as much victims of the outbreak -as the Minnesota people themselves. For three days the -hostile bands, continually re-enforced, went from settlement to -settlement, killing and plundering. A belt of country nearly -two hundred miles in length and about fifty in width was entirely -abandoned by the population, who flocked in panic to -the towns and forts. Nearly a thousand were killed—men, -women, and children—and nameless outrages were committed -on many. Millions of dollars' worth of property were destroyed. -The outbreak was quickly quelled by military force, -<a id='Page_164'></a>and a large number of Indians captured. Many voluntarily -surrendered, bringing with them over two hundred whites that -they had taken prisoners. A military commission tried these -Indians, and sentenced over three hundred to be hung. All but -thirty-nine were reprieved and put into prison. The remainder -were moved to Dakota, to a barren desert, where for three years -they endured sufferings far worse than death. The remainder -escaped to the Upper Missouri region or to Canada.<a id='r24' /><a href='#f24' class='c012'><sup>[24]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>Minnesota, at a terrible cost to herself and to the United -States Government, was at last free from the presence of -Indians within her borders—Indians who were her enemies -only because they had been treated with injustice and bad -faith.</p> - -<p class='c010'>During this time the bands of Sioux in the Upper Missouri -region had been more or less hostile, and military force in continual -requisition to subdue them. Re-enforced by the Minnesota -refugees, they became more hostile still, and in the summer -of 1863 were in almost incessant conflict. In 1864 the -Governor of Dakota Territory writes to the Department that -the war is spreading into Nebraska and Kansas, and that if -provision is not made for the loyal treaty Indians in that region -before long, they also will join the hostiles. One band of -the Sioux—the Yanktons—has been persistently loyal, and rendered -great service through all the troubles. Fifty of these -Yankton Sioux had been organized by General Sibley into a -company of scouts, and had proved "more effective than twice -the number of white soldiers." The only cost to the Government -"of this service on the part of the Yanktons had been -fifty suits of condemned artillery uniforms, arms, and rations -in part to the scouts themselves."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1865 the Government, having spent about $40,000,000 -on these campaigns, began to cast about for cheaper, if not -<a id='Page_165'></a>more humane methods, and, partly at the instance of the Governor -of Dakota, who knew very well that the Indians desired -peace, sent out a commission to treat with them. There were -now, all told, some 14,000 Sioux in this region, nearly 2000 -being the refugees from Minnesota.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The report of this commission is full of significant statements. -There seems to be no doubt that the great majority of -the Indians are anxious for peace; but they are afraid to meet -the agents of the Government, lest they be in some way betrayed. -Such bands as are represented, however, gladly assent -to a treaty of peace and good-will. The commissioners speak -with great feeling of the condition of the loyal Yanktons. "No -improvements have been made on their lands, and the commissioners -were obliged to issue provisions to them to keep them -from starving. *** No crops met the eye, nor is there the -semblance of a school-house."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Yet by Article four of the treaty with the Yankton Sioux -the United States Government had agreed to expend $10,000 -in erecting a suitable building or buildings, and to establish -and maintain one or more normal labor schools; and it is to -be read in the United States Statutes at Large that in each of -the years 1860, 1861, 1862, and 1863, Congress appropriated -$65,000, as per treaty, for the benefit of the Yankton Sioux.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"With the exception of a few miserable huts, a saw-mill, -and a small amount of land enclosed, there are few vestiges of -improvement. *** They are reduced to the necessity of hunting -for a living, and, unless soon reassured and encouraged, -they will be driven to despair, and the great discontent existing -among them will culminate in another formidable Indian -war."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nine treaties were concluded by this commission with as -many different bands of Sioux, the Indians pledging themselves -to abstain from all hostilities with each other and with -the whites, and the Government agreeing to pay to the Indians -<a id='Page_166'></a>fifteen dollars a head per annum, and to all who will settle -down to farming twenty-five dollars a head.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the winter following these treaties all these Indians faithfully -kept their promises, in spite of terrible sufferings from -cold and from lack of food. Some of them were at the old -Crow Creek Reservation in Dakota, where they were "kept -from absolute starvation only by the issue to them of such -scanty supplies as could be spared from the stores at Fort -Sully, and from the agency." It is much to the credit of these -Indians that, in spite of their manifold sufferings, scarcely a -case of stealing occurred among them, they being determined -to keep their faith to the Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They will run like chickens to gather the offal from the -slop buckets that are carried from the garrison kitchens; while -they pass a pile of corn and hundreds of loose cattle without -touching a thing, except when told they may gather up the -grains of corn from the ground where the rats in their depredations -have let it fall from the sacks," says the report of one -of the commissioners.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the summer of 1865 still further treaties were concluded -with the Indians of the plains, and all the Sioux, with the exception -of those in the British possessions, were now pledged -to peace. This summer also saw the first recognition on the part -of the Government of its flagrant injustice toward the friendly -Minnesota Sioux who were moved to Crow Creek, Dakota, at -the time of the massacre. There were nearly one thousand of -these—mostly old men, women, and children—many of them -the widows and children of those who had been hung or were -in prison at Davenport. For three years they had been "quiet -and patient in their sufferings."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The two hundred prisoners in Davenport had also shown -"an excellent disposition and entire submission," although -many of them were known and proved to have been "absolutely -guiltless of any acts of hostility; and not only this, but -<a id='Page_167'></a>deserving of reward for the rescue of white captives." Certificates, -petitions, and letters showing these facts were forwarded -from Iowa to the Department, but the commissioner -says, in his report for 1866, that "they have been mislaid in their -passage through the various departments, and cannot be found!"</p> - -<p class='c010'>There was still another class of these Indians deserving of -help from the Government—some two hundred and fifty -friendly farmer Indians, who were living in 1862 quietly on -their farms, "who have acted as scouts for the Government; -who never committed any acts of hostility, nor fled with those -who did commit them," and have still remained friendly -through these four years, "while compelled to a vagabond life -by the indiscriminate confiscation of all their land and property."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The crops belonging to these farmer Indians were valued -at $125,000, and they had large herds of stock of all kinds, -fine farms, and improvements. The United States troops engaged -in suppressing the massacre, also the prisoners taken by -them—in all, some 3500 men—lived for fifty days on this -property."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Strong efforts were made by Bishop Whipple and others to -obtain from the Government some aid for these friendly Indians, -and the sum of $7500 was appropriated by Congress -for that purpose. The letter of Bishop Whipple, who was -requested to report on the division of this sum, is so eloquent -a summing up of the case of these Indians, that it ought to -be placed on permanent record in the history of our country. -He writes:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"There is positive injustice in the appropriation of so miserable -a pittance. *** A much larger sum would not pay the -amount which we honestly owe these men. The Government -was the trustee of the Upper and Lower Sioux. It held several -millions of dollars for their benefit—the joint property of the -tribes. These friendly Sioux had abandoned their wild life, -<a id='Page_168'></a>and adopted the dress, habits, and customs of civilization; and -in doing this, which placed them in open opposition to the -traditions of their tribes, they were pledged the protection of -the Government. By a mistaken policy, by positive neglect to -provide a government, by the perversion of funds due them for -the sale of one-half their reservations, by withholding their -annuities until two months after they were due (which was -caused by the use of a part of these funds for claims), by permitting -other causes of dissatisfaction to go on unheeded, we -provoked the hostility of the wild Indians, and it went on -until it ripened in massacre. These farmer Indians had been -pledged a patent for their farms: unless we violated our solemn -pledge, these lands were theirs by a title as valid as any title -could be. They had large crops, sufficient to support General -Sibley's army for a number of weeks. They lost all they had—crops, -stock, clothing, furniture. In addition to this, they -were deprived of their share in these annuities, and for four -years have lived in very great suffering. You can judge -whether $5000 shall be deemed a just reward<a id='r25' /><a href='#f25' class='c012'><sup>[25]</sup></a> for the bravery -and fidelity of men who, at the risk of their own lives, -were instrumental in saving white captives, and maintained -their friendship to the whites.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I submit to you, sir, and through you hope to reach all -who fear God and love justice, whether the very least we can -do for all the friendly Sioux is not to fulfil the pledges we -made years ago, and give to each of them a patent of eighty -acres of land, build them a house, and provide them cattle, -seeds, and implements of husbandry?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1866 all these Sioux were removed, and, in spite of the -<a id='Page_169'></a>protestations of the Nebraska citizens, settled on reservations -on the Niobrara River, in Northern Nebraska. It soon became -evident that this place was undesirable for a reservation, both -on account of its previous occupancy by the whites and scarcity -of timber.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the fall they removed again to the mouth of Bazile Creek. -Temporary buildings were again erected, and here they spent -the winters of 1866 and 1867. In February they were cheered -by the invitation sent their chiefs and headmen to visit -Washington. They went, feeling sure that they should get a -home for themselves and people. "All they got was a promise -that a commission should be sent out to visit them the -next year." They were told, however, to move to Breckenridge, -on the west bank of the Missouri, plant crops there, and were -promised that, if they liked the place, they should have it "secured -to them as a permanent home." Accordingly, the "agency -buildings" were once more removed, and two hundred acres of -land were planted. Before the crops were harvested the commission -arrived, and urged the Indians to move farther up -the Missouri. The Indians being averse to this, however, they -were allowed to remain, and told that if they would cultivate -the soil like white men—take lands in severalty—the Government -would assist them. The Indians gladly consented to this, -and signed a treaty to that effect. But in 1868 their agent -writes: "That treaty is not yet ratified, and, instead of assistance -to open farms, their appropriation has been cut down one -half. After paying for supplies purchased on credit last year, -it is entirely insufficient for clothing and subsistence, and -leaves nothing for opening farms, procuring cattle," etc. These -Indians, only five years previous, had been living on good -farms, and had $125,000 worth of stock, implements, etc. No -wonder their agent writes: "Leave them without a home a few -years longer, and you offer strong inducements for them to become -idle and worthless."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_170'></a>It is an intricate and perplexing task to attempt now to -follow the history of the different bands of the Sioux tribe -through all their changes of location and affiliation—some in -Dakota, some in Nebraska, and some on the Upper Arkansas -with the hostile Cheyennes and Arapahoes—signing treaties one -summer, and on the war-path the next—promised a home in -spring, and ordered off it before harvest—all the time more -and more hemmed in by white settlers, and more and more -driven out of their buffalo ranges by emigrations—liable at any -time to have bodies of United States soldiers swoop down on -them and punish whole bands for depredations committed by -a handful of men, perhaps of a totally distinct band—the wonder -is not that some of them were hostile and vindictive, but -that any of them remained peaceable and friendly. Bandied -about from civil authorities to military—the War Department -recommending "that all Indians not on fixed reservations be -considered at war," and proceeded against accordingly, and the -Interior Department neglecting to provide them with "fixed -reservations," or to define or enforce the boundaries of even -their temporary reservations—tricked, cheated on all sides—starving -half the time—there is not a tribe of all the persecuted -tribes of Indians that has a more piteous record than the -Sioux. Nevertheless, we find many of the bands, in 1870, advancing -in civilization. In the Yankton band nearly one hundred -children are in school, and eight hundred acres of land -are under cultivation. The Lower Yanktons are peaceful and -quiet, although they are near the Brulés, who are always roving -and hostile. The Sissetons and Wahpetons, who were by -a treaty of 1867 placed on reservations in Dakota, are "industrious, -and fast advancing in agricultural pursuits." Four -schools are in operation among them. The Yanktons are -"anxious to farm, and state that the Government has promised -to assist and teach them to farm; that they are and have been -ready for some time, but as yet the agent has not received any -<a id='Page_171'></a>instructions or funds to permit of their accomplishing their -desire."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Two events, important in the history of the Sioux tribe, happened -in 1869 and 1870. One was the visit of a delegation of -chiefs and headmen from several of the bands, under the leadership -of the chief Red Cloud, to Washington, Philadelphia, and -New York. They had thus an opportunity of relating all their -grievances, and of receiving the Government's declarations of -good intentions toward them. Red Cloud, after his return home, -became an ardent and determined advocate of peace and loyalty. -The other was the withdrawal of a portion of the Santee -Sioux from their band, for the purpose of taking up farms under -the Homestead Act, and becoming independent citizens. -The story of this experiment, and the manner in which it was -met by the United States Government, is best told in the words -of Dr. Williamson, a missionary, who had lived thirty-five years -among them, and who pleaded thus warmly for them in a letter -addressed to the Department in the summer of 1870: "Several -considerations have influenced the Dakotas in going to the Big -Sioux River: 1st. The soil and climate are more similar to -that to which they have been accustomed in Minnesota, their -former home, than is that of their reservation on the Missouri; -2d. Feeling that they were men capable of sustaining themselves -if a fair opportunity is afforded them, they felt that it -was degrading to live as sinecures and pensioners dependent -on Government for food and clothing; 3d. And chiefly a desire -to make homes for their families where they could be subjected -to, and protected by, the laws of the United States, the -same as all other men are. This they thought could not be the -case on their reservation.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"These Sioux were parties to the treaties made in 1851, by -which they and other bands ceded to the United States all the -best settled parts of Minnesota west of the Mississippi for less -than one-hundredth part of its present value, and much less -<a id='Page_172'></a>than the lands were worth to them as hunting-grounds. And -while as hunters they needed no protection of the law, they -knew that as agriculturists they could not live without it; and -they positively refused to sell their hunting-grounds till the -Commissioner of the United States promised that they should -be protected in their persons and property the same as white -men. Government never accorded to them this protection, -which, in the view of the Indians, was a very important consideration -in selling the lands. This neglect on the part of the -Government led to yearly complaints, and the massacres of -1862. *** These Sioux were most of them previous to the -war living in comfortable homes, with well-cultivated farms -and teams," and were receiving by annuity provisions, either in -money or the equivalent, about $50 a head annually, from interest -on their money invested in the bonds of the Government. -These Indians, in taking up their new homesteads, were -required by the Department to renounce, on oath, all claims on -the United States for annuities. Without doubt, citizenship -of the United States, the protection of our laws, is worth a -great sum; but is it wise or right in our Government to require -these natives of the country to purchase, at a price of several -thousands of dollars, that which is given without money or -price to every immigrant from Asia, Europe, or Africa that -asks for it?</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Besides their annuities, there is due them from the Government -the proceeds of the sale of their old reservation on the -Minnesota River, which is more than forty miles long and ten -wide; which, after paying expenses of survey and sale, are, according -to a law of the United States, to be expended in assisting -them to make homes elsewhere; and as these lands were -valued at $1.25 an acre and upward, and are rapidly selling, -the portion which will be due each of the Indians cannot be -less than $200 or $300—or $1000 for each family. The oath -required of them is supposed to bar them from any claim to -<a id='Page_173'></a>this also. Now, I cannot see how this decision of the Indian -Department is consistent either with justice or good policy, and -it is certainly inconsistent with both the spirit and letter of -Articles six and ten of a treaty between the United States of -America and different bands of Sioux Indians, concluded in -1868, and ratified and proclaimed February, 1869. *** What -I ask for them is that our Government restore to them a part -of what we took from them, and give them the same chance to -live and thrive which we give to all the other inhabitants of -our country, whether white or black. *** That some aid is -very necessary must be obvious to you, who know how difficult -it is for even white men, trained to work, and with several hundred -dollars in property, to open a new farm in this Western -wilderness. Their number is probably greater than you are -aware of. When I administered the Lord's Supper there on -the first Sabbath of this month, there were present seventy-seven -communicants of our church, besides quite a number of -other persons. *** It is owing to the Santee Sioux—partly to -those on the Big Sioux River, chiefly to those near Fort Wadsworth—that -in the last five years not a single white inhabitant -of Minnesota or Iowa has been murdered by the wild Indians, -while many have been cut off in every frontier State and Territory -south-west of the Missouri. So long as the Christian -Sioux can be kept on the frontier, the white settlements are -safe. *** In conclusion, I wish again to call your attention to -the fact that these Indians on the Big Sioux purchase citizenship -at a very great sum, and to entreat you to do all in your -power to secure for them that protection of person or property -for which they bargain, and without which nothing our Government -can do will make them prosperous or happy."</p> - -<p class='c010'>No attention was paid to this appeal; and the next year -the indefatigable missionary sent a still stronger one, setting -forth that this colony now numbered fifty families; had been -under the instruction of the American Board of Commissioners -<a id='Page_174'></a>for Foreign Missions for many years; had a church of one -hundred members; a native preacher, partly supported by -them; had built log-cabins on their claims, and planted farms, -"many of them digging up the ground with hoes and spades."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Dr. Williamson reiterates the treaty provisions under which he -claims that these Indians are entitled to aid. The sixth Article -of the treaty of 1868 closes as follows: "Any Indian or Indians -receiving a patent for land under the foregoing provisions, -shall thereby and henceforth become and be a citizen of the -United States, and be entitled to all the privileges and immunities -of such citizenship, and shall at the same time retain all -his rights and benefits accruing to Indians under this treaty."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This treaty goes on to provide most liberally for all Indians -adopting the civilized mode of life. Article eighth specially -provides for supplying them with seed and agricultural implements, -and this is what they most of all need.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The encouragement held forth in this treaty was one great -motive in leading these people to break tribal influences, so -deleterious to improvement, and adopt our democratic civilization. -Is it not base tyranny to disappoint them? They are -the first Sioux, if not the first Indians in the United States to -adopt the spirit and life of our American civilization. They -have of their own accord done just what the Government has -been for generations trying to get the Indians to do. And -now will the Government refuse this helping hand? To our -shame, it has for two years refused. And why? Because the -Indians said, "If we become civilized, it is necessary for us to -break up tribal relations, and settle down like white men."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1873 the Government at last yielded to this request, -and sent out oxen, wagons, ploughs, etc., enough to stock thirty -farms. In 1874, Dr. Williamson, having been appointed a -special agent for them, reports their progress: "They all live -in log-houses and wear citizens' dress. *** One hundred and -nineteen can read their own language fluently. They all go to -<a id='Page_175'></a>church regularly. They have broken one hundred and seventy-seven -acres of new prairie. Twenty new houses have been -built. *** They have cut and hauled two hundred cords of -wood, hauling some of it forty miles to market. *** They have -done considerable freighting with their teams, going sometimes -a hundred miles away. They have earned thirty-five hundred -dollars, catching small furs. *** One Indian has the contract -for carrying the mail through Flandreau, for which he receives -one thousand dollars a year. *** It is but a few miles from -Flandreau to the far-famed pipe-stone quarry, and these Indians -make many little sums by selling pipes, rings, ink-glasses, -etc., made of this beautiful red stone. *** They are anxious -to be taught how to make baskets, mats, cloth; and the young -men ask to be taught the blacksmith and carpenter trades."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This is a community that only five years before had pushed -out into an unbroken wilderness without a dollar of money, -without a plough, to open farms. "Without ploughs, they -had to dig the sod with their hoes, and at the same time make -their living by hunting. They suffered severe hardships, and -a number of their best men perished in snow-storms. Believing -they were carrying out the wishes of the Great Father, as -expressed in the treaty of 1868, to which they were parties, -they were disappointed when for three years no notice was -taken of them." There is something pathetic in the gratitude -they are said now to feel for the niggardly gift of a few oxen, -wagons, and ploughs. They have apparently given over all -hope of ever obtaining any of the money due them on account -of their lands sold in Minnesota. No further allusion is made -to it by Dr. Williamson.</p> - -<p class='c010'>From the Yankton Sioux this year comes a remarkable report: -"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 -<a id='Page_176'></a>the fact that the reservation is surrounded by ranches -where liquors of all kinds can be obtained." Is there another -village of two thousand inhabitants in the United States of -which this can be said?</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this year a commission was sent to treat with some of -the wilder bands of Sioux for the relinquishment of their right -to hunt and roam over a large part of their unneeded territory -in Kansas and Nebraska. Some of the chiefs consented. Red -Cloud's band refused at first; "but on being told that the right -would soon be taken from them," after a delay of two days -they "agreed to accept," merely stipulating that their share of -the twenty-five thousand dollars promised should be paid in -horses and guns. They insisted, however, on this proviso: -"That we do not surrender any right of occupation of the -country situated in Nebraska north of the divide, which is -south of and near to the Niobrara River and west of the one -hundredth meridian."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was a significant fact that, when these Sioux gave up this -hunting privilege, "they requested that nearly all the $25,000 -they received in compensation for this relinquishment should -be expended in cows, horses, harness, and wagons," says the -Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1875.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There are still some thousand or more of hostile Sioux roaming -about under the famous chief Sitting Bull—living by the -chase when they can, and by depredations when they must; -occasionally, also, appearing at agencies, and drawing rations -among the other Indians unsuspected. The remainder of the -bands are steadily working their way on toward civilization. -The Santees are a Christian community; they have their industrial-schools, -Sabbath-schools, and night-schools; they publish -a monthly paper in the Dakota tongue, which prints twelve -hundred copies. The Yanktons have learned to weave, and -have made cloth enough to give every Indian woman in the -tribe one good dress. The Flandreau citizen Sioux have a -<a id='Page_177'></a>Presbyterian church of one hundred and thirty-five members, -and pay half the salary of the native preacher. On the occasion -of an anniversary meeting of the Dakota missionaries -there, these people raised one hundred dollars to pay for their -entertainment. These three bands are far the most advanced, -but all the others are making steady progress.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1876 the news from the Sioux on the agencies is that, -owing to the failure of appropriations, the Indian Bureau had -been unable to send the regular supplies, and the Indians, being -in "almost a starving condition," had been induced, by the -"apparent purpose of the Government to abandon them to -starvation," to go north in large numbers, and join the hostile -camps of Sitting Bull. This was in the spring; again in midsummer -the same thing happened, and many of the Indians, -growing still more anxious and suspicious, left their agencies -to join in the war.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Congress would probably have paid little attention at this -time to the reading of this extract from "Kent's Commentaries:" -"Treaties of peace, when made by the competent power, -are obligatory on the whole nation. If the treaty requires the -payment of money to carry it into effect, and the money cannot -be raised but by an act of the legislature, the treaty is -morally obligatory upon the legislature to pass the law; and -to repeal it would be a breach of the public faith."</p> - -<p class='c010'>A disturbed and unsettled condition of things prevailed -at all the Sioux agencies, consequent on this state of things. -Companies of troops were stationed at all of them to guard -against outbreaks. Owing to lack of funds, the Yanktons -were obliged to give up their weaving and basket-making. -At the Standing Rock Agency, after the Indians had planted -eight hundred and seventy-two dollars' worth of seeds—of corn, -potatoes, and other vegetables—the grasshoppers came and devoured -them. "Many of these Indians, with their whole families, -stood all day in their fields fighting these enemies, and in -<a id='Page_178'></a>several places succeeded so far as to save a considerable part of -their crops." The Santees were made very anxious and unhappy -by fresh rumors of their probable removal. Public sentiment -at the East, knowing no difference between different tribes -of Sioux, regarded it as maudlin sentimentalism to claim for the -Santees any more rights than for the hostiles that had murdered -General Custer. One of the agents in Dakota writes:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The recent troubles in the Indian country, and the existing -uncertainty as to the future intentions of the Government -toward the Indians, occasion considerable uneasiness among -them. *** Reports are circulated that no further assistance -will be rendered by the Government, as the Great Council in -Washington refuses to furnish money unless the Indians are -turned over to the War Department. Every inducement is -held out to encourage secession from the agencies, and strengthen -the forces of the hostile camp. It is not surprising that, in -view of the non-arrival of supplies, and the recent order of the -War Department to arrest parties leaving and arriving, that -people less credulous than Indians would feel undecided and -uneasy. *** It must be remembered that the whole Sioux -nation is related, and that there is hardly a man, woman, or -child in the hostile camp who has not blood relations at one or -the other of the agencies."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Contrast the condition into which all these friendly Indians -are suddenly plunged now, with their condition only two years -previous: martial law now in force on all their reservations; -themselves in danger of starvation, and constantly exposed to the -influence of emissaries from their friends and relations, urging -them to join in fighting this treacherous government that had -kept faith with nobody—neither with friend nor with foe; -that made no discriminations in its warfare between friends and -foes; burning villages occupied only by women and children; -butchering bands of Indians living peacefully under protection -of its flag, as at Sand Creek, in Colorado—no wonder that -<a id='Page_179'></a>one of the military commander's official reports says, "The -hostile body was largely re-enforced by accessions from the various -agencies, where the malcontents were, doubtless, in many -cases, driven to desperation by starvation and the heartless -frauds perpetrated on them;" and that the Interior Department -is obliged to confess that, "Such desertions were largely due -to the uneasiness which the Indians had long felt on account -of the infraction of treaty stipulations by the white invasion -of the Black Hills, seriously aggravated at the most critical period -by irregular and insufficient issues of rations, necessitated -by inadequate and delayed appropriations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was at this time that Sitting Bull made his famous reply: -"Tell them at Washington if they have one man who speaks -the truth to send him to me, and I will listen to what he has -to say."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The story of the military campaign against these hostile -Sioux in 1876 and 1877 is to be read in the official records -of the War Department, so far as statistics can tell it. Another -history, which can never be read, is written in the hearts of -widowed women in the Sioux nation and in the nation of the -United States.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Before midsummer the Sioux war was over. The indomitable -Sitting Bull had escaped to Canada—that sanctuary of -refuge for the Indian as well as for the slave. Here he was -visited in the autumn by a commission from the United -States, empowered by the President to invite him with his -people to return, and be "assigned to agencies," and treated -"in as friendly a spirit as other Indians had been who had -surrendered." It was explained to him that every one of the -Indians who had surrendered had "been treated in the same -manner as those of your nation who, during all the past -troubles, remained peaceably at their agencies." As a great -part of those who had fled from these same agencies to join -Sitting Bull had done so because they were starving, and the -<a id='Page_180'></a>Government knew this (had printed the record of the fact in -the reports of two of its Departments), this was certainly a -strange phraseology of invitation for it to address to Sitting -Bull. His replies and those of his chiefs were full of scathing -sarcasm. Secure on British soil, they had for once safe freedom -of speech as well as of action, and they gave the United -States Commissioners very conclusive reasons why they chose -to remain in Canada, where they could "trade with the traders -and make a living," and where their women had "time to -raise their children."<a id='r26' /><a href='#f26' class='c012'><sup>[26]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>The commissioners returned from their bootless errand, and -the Interior Department simply entered on its records the statement -that "Sitting Bull and his adherents are no longer considered -wards of the Government." It also enters on the same -record the statement that "in the months of September and -October, 1876, the various Sioux agencies were visited by a -commission appointed under the Act of Congress, August 15th -of that year, to negotiate with the Sioux for an agreement to -surrender that portion of the Sioux Reservation which included -the Black Hills, and certain hunting privileges outside that reserve, -guaranteed by the treaty of 1868; to grant a right of -way across their reserve; and to provide for the removal of the -Red Cloud and Spotted Tail bands to new agencies on the Missouri -River. The commission were also authorized to take steps -to gain the consent of the Sioux to their removal to the Indian -Territory. *** The commission were successful in all the negotiations -with which they were charged, and the Indians made -every concession that was desired by the Government, although -we were engaged at that very time in fighting their relatives -and friends." The only comment needed on this last paragraph -is to suggest that a proper list of errata for that page -should contain: "For 'although' read 'because!'" "On behalf -of the United States the agreement thus entered into provided -<a id='Page_181'></a>for subsisting the Sioux on a stated ration until they -should become self-supporting; for furnishing schools, and all -necessary aid and instruction in agriculture and the mechanical -arts, and for the allotment of lands in severalty."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In accordance with this act, a commission was sent to select -a location on the Missouri River for the two new Sioux agencies -(the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail).</p> - -<p class='c010'>"For the former the site chosen is the junction of Yellow -Medicine and Missouri rivers, and at that point agency buildings -have just been erected," says the Report of the Indian -Bureau for 1877. "For the latter the old Ponca Reserve was -decided on, where the agency buildings, storehouses, one hundred -and fifty Indian houses, and five hundred acres of cultivated -fields, left vacant by the Poncas, offer special advantages -for present quarters."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The commissioner says: "The removal of fourteen thousand -Sioux Indians at this season of the year, a distance of three -hundred miles from their old agencies in Nebraska to their -new quarters near the Missouri River, is not a pleasant matter -to contemplate. Neither the present Secretary of the Interior -nor the present Commissioner of Indian Affairs is responsible -for the movement, but they have carried out the law faithfully -though reluctantly. The removal is being made in accordance -with the Act of August 15th, 1876. It is proper to say -here that I cannot but look on the necessity thus imposed by -law on the executive branch of the Government as an unfortunate -one, and the consequences ought to be remedied as -speedily as possible.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Let us for a moment consider that the Spotted Tail Agency -was in 1871 on the west bank of the Missouri River, where -the whites became exceedingly troublesome, and the river -afforded abundant facilities for the introduction of intoxicating -liquors. In 1874 the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies -were removed to what a subsequent survey proved to be -<a id='Page_182'></a>the State of Nebraska—the former agency one hundred and -sixty-five miles from Cheyenne, and the latter one hundred and -eight miles from Sidney, the nearest points on the Union Pacific -Railroad. Here the usual ill-fortune attending the removal -of these Indians was again exemplified in placing the agencies -on absolutely barren land, where there was no possibility of -cultivating the soil, no hope of their being enabled to become -self-supporting, and where they have of necessity been kept in -the hopeless condition of paupers."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the hope of placing these Indians upon arable land, -where they might become civilized and self-supporting, the -determination was hastily taken to remove them back to the -Missouri River. This step was taken without a proper examination -of other points on their reservation, where it is stated -that "a sufficient quantity of excellent wheat lands can be -found on either bank of the White River, and where there is -also timber sufficient in quantity and quality for all practical -purposes. *** The Indian chiefs, in their interview with the -President in September last, begged that they might not be -sent to the Missouri River, as whiskey-drinking and other -demoralization would be the consequence. This was the judgment -of the best men of the tribe; but the necessity was one -that the President could not control. The provisions and -supplies for the ensuing winter had been placed, according to -law, on the Missouri, and, owing to the lateness of the season, -it was impossible to remove them to the old agencies. Accordingly, -the necessities of the case compelled the removal of -these Indians in the midst of the snows and storms of early -winter, which have already set in."</p> - -<p class='c010'>If there were absolutely no other record written of the management -of Indian affairs by the Interior Department than -this one page of the history of these two bands of the Sioux -tribe, this alone would be enough to show the urgent need of -an entirely new system. So many and such hasty, ill-considered, -<a id='Page_183'></a>uninformed, capricious, and cruel decisions of arbitrary -power could hardly be found in a seven years' record of any -known tyrant; and there is no tyrant whose throne would not -have been rocked, if not upset, by the revolutions which would -have followed on such oppressions.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There is a sequel to this story of the removal of the Red -Cloud and Spotted Tail bands—a sequel not recorded in the -official reports of the Department, but familiar to many men -in the Western country. Accounts of it—some humorous, -some severe—were for some time floating about in Western -newspapers.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Red Cloud and Spotted Tail bands of Sioux consented -to go to the old Ponca Reserve only after being told that all -their supplies had been sent to a certain point on the Missouri -River with a view to this move; and it being too late to take -all this freight northward again, they would starve if they -stayed where they were. Being assured that they would be -allowed to go back in the spring, and having a written pledge -from General Crook (in whose word they had implicit faith) -that the Government would fulfil this promise, they at last -very reluctantly consented to go to the Ponca Reserve for -the winter. In the spring no orders came for the removal. -March passed, April passed—no orders. The chiefs sent -word to their friend, General Crook, who replied to them with -messages sent by a swift runner, begging them not to break -away, but to wait a little longer. Finally, in May, the Commissioner -of Indian Affairs went himself to hold a council -with them. When he rose to speak, the chief Spotted Tail -sprung up, walked toward him, waving in his hand the paper -containing the promise of the Government to return them to -White Clay Creek, and exclaimed, "All the men who come -from Washington are liars, and the bald-headed ones are the -worst of all! I don't want to hear one word from you—you -are a bald-headed old liar! You have but one thing to do here, -<a id='Page_184'></a>and that is to give an order for us to return to White Clay -Creek. Here are your written words; and if you don't give -this order, and everything here is not on wheels inside of ten -days, I'll order my young men to tear down and burn everything -in this part of the country! I don't want to hear anything -more from you, and I've got nothing more to say to -you:" and he turned his back on the commissioner and walked -away. Such language as this would not have been borne from -unarmed and helpless Indians; but when it came from a chief -with four thousand armed warriors at his back, it was another -affair altogether. The order was written. In less than ten -days everything was "on wheels," and the whole body of -these Sioux on the move to the country they had indicated; -and the Secretary of the Interior says, naïvely, in his Report -for 1868, "The Indians were found to be quite determined to -move westward, and the promise of the Government in that -respect was faithfully kept."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The reports from all the bands of Sioux for the past two -years have been full of indications of their rapid and encouraging -improvement. "The most decided advance in civilization -has been made by the Ogallalla and Brulé Sioux," -says the Report of the Indian Bureau for 1879. "Their -progress during the last year and a half has been simply -marvellous."</p> - -<p class='c010'>And yet this one band of Ogallalla Sioux has been moved, -since 1863, eight times. Is it not a wonder that they have -any heart to work, any hope of anything in the future?</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It is no longer a question," says this same report, "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; *** -there is a growing desire to live in houses; the demand for -agricultural implements and appliances, and for wagons and -<a id='Page_185'></a>harness for farming and freighting purposes, is constantly increasing."</p> - -<p class='c010'>That all this should be true of these wild, warlike Sioux, -after so many years of hardships and forced wanderings and -removals, is incontrovertible proof that there is in them a native -strength of character, power of endurance, and indomitable -courage, which will make of them ultimately a noble and superior -race of people, if civilization will only give them time to -become civilized, and Christians will leave them time and peace -to learn Christianity.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_186'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER VI.<br /> <br />THE PONCAS.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>In 1803 Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Clarke, of the First -United States Infantry, were commissioned by Congress to explore -the river Missouri from its mouth to its source, to "seek -the best water communication from thence to the Pacific -Ocean," and to enter into conference with all the Indian tribes -on their route, with a view to the establishment of commerce -with them. They report the "Poncars" as "the remnant of a -nation once respectable in point of numbers; they formerly resided -on a branch of the Red River of Lake Winnipeg; being -oppressed by Sioux, they removed to the west side of the Missouri, -on Poncar River, where they built and fortified a village, -and remained some years; but, being pursued by their ancient -enemies, the Sioux, and reduced by continual wars, they have -joined and now live with the Mahas (Omahas), whose language -they speak." Their numbers are estimated by Lewis and Clarke -as being only about two hundred, all told; but this small estimate -is probably to be explained by the fact that at this time -the tribe was away on its annual buffalo-hunt, and their village -had been so long empty and quiet that a buffalo was found -grazing there. A few years later the tribe is reckoned at four -hundred: in a census of the Indian tribes, taken by General -Porter in 1829, they are set down at six hundred. The artist -Catlin, who visited them a few years later, rated them a little -less. He gives an interesting account of the chief of the tribe, -named Shoo-de-ga-cha (Smoke), and his young and pretty wife, -Hee-la'h-dee (the Pure Fountain), whose portraits he painted. -<a id='Page_187'></a>He says: "The chief, who was wrapped in a buffalo-robe, is a -noble specimen of native dignity and philosophy. I conversed -much with him, and from his dignified manners, as well as from -the soundness of his reasoning; I became fully convinced that -he deserved to be the sachem of a more numerous and prosperous -tribe. He related to me with great coolness and frankness -the poverty and distress of his nation—and with the method of -a philosopher predicted the certain and rapid extinction of his -tribe, which he had not the power to avert. Poor, noble chief, -who was equal to and worthy of a greater empire! He sat on -the deck of the steamer, overlooking the little cluster of his -wigwams mingled among the trees, and, like Caius Marius -weeping over the ruins of Carthage, shed tears as he was descanting -on the poverty of his ill-fated little community, which -he told me had 'once been powerful and happy; that the buffaloes -which the Great Spirit had given them for food, and -which formerly spread all over their green prairies, had all been -killed or driven out by the approach of white men, who wanted -their skins; that their country was now entirely destitute of -game, and even of roots for food, as it was one continuous prairie; -and that his young men, penetrating the countries of their -enemies for buffaloes, which they were obliged to do, were cut -to pieces and destroyed in great numbers. That his people had -foolishly become fond of fire-water, and had given away everything -in their country for it; that it had destroyed many of -his warriors, and would soon destroy the rest; that his tribe -was too small and his warriors too few to go to war with the -tribes around them; that they were met and killed by the Sioux -on the north, by the Pawnees on the west, by the Osages and -Konzas on the south, and still more alarmed from the constant -advance of the pale faces—their enemies from the east—with -whiskey and small-pox, which already had destroyed four-fifths -of his tribe, and would soon impoverish and at last destroy the -remainder of them.' In this way did this shrewd philosopher -<a id='Page_188'></a>lament over the unlucky destiny of his tribe, and I pitied him -with all my heart."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The day before Catlin arrived at this village this old chief's -son—the young Hongs-kay-de—had created a great sensation -in the community by accomplishing a most startling amount -of bigamy in a single day. Being the chief's son, and having -just been presented by his father with a handsome wigwam -and nine horses, he had no difficulty whatever in ingratiating -himself with the fathers of marriageable daughters, and had, -with ingenious slyness, offered himself to and been accepted -by four successive fathers-in-law, promising to each of them -two horses—enjoining on them profound secrecy until a certain -hour, when he would announce to the whole tribe that -he was to be married. At the time appointed he appeared, -followed by some of his young friends leading eight horses. -Addressing the prospective father-in-law who stood nearest -him, with his daughter by his side, he said, "You promised me -your daughter: here are the two horses." A great hubbub -immediately arose; the three others all springing forward, angry -and perplexed, claiming his promises made to them. The -triumphant young Turk exclaimed, "You have all now acknowledged -your engagements to me, and must fulfil them. Here -are your horses." There was nothing more to be said. The -horses were delivered, and Hongs-kay-de, leading two brides in -each hand, walked off with great dignity to his wigwam.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This was an affair totally unprecedented in the annals of the -tribe, and produced an impression as profound as it could have -done in a civilized community, though of a different character—redounding -to the young prince's credit rather than to his -shame—marking him out as one daring and original enough -to be a "Big Medicine." Mr. Catlin says that he visited the -bridal wigwam soon afterward, and saw the "four modest little -wives seated around the fire, seeming to harmonize very well." -Of the prettiest one—"Mong-shong-shaw" (the Bending Willow)—he -<a id='Page_189'></a>took a portrait, and a very sweet-faced young woman -she is too, wrapped in a beautifully ornamented fur robe, much -handsomer and more graceful than the fur-lined circulars worn -by civilized women.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The United States' first treaty with this handful of gentle -and peaceable Indians was made in 1817. It was simply a -treaty of peace and friendship.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1825 another was made, in which the Poncas admit -that "they reside within the territorial limits of the United -States, acknowledge their supremacy, and claim their protection." -They also admit "the right of the United States to -regulate all trade and intercourse with them." The United -States, on their part, "agree to receive the Poncar tribe of Indians -into their friendship and under their protection, and to -extend to them from time to time such benefits and acts of -kindness as may be convenient, and seem just and proper to -the President of the United States."</p> - -<p class='c010'>After this there is little mention, in the official records of the -Government, of the Poncas for some thirty years. Other tribes -in the Upper Missouri region were so troublesome and aggressive -that the peaceable Poncas were left to shift for themselves -as they best could amidst all the warring and warring interests by -which they were surrounded. In 1856 the agent of the Upper -Platte mentions incidentally that their lands were being fast -intruded upon by squatters; and in 1857 another agent reports -having met on the banks of the Missouri a large band of Poncas, -who made complaint that all the Indians on the river were -receiving presents and they were overlooked; that the men from -the steamboats cut their trees down, and that white settlers -were taking away all their land. In 1858 the Commissioner -for Indian Affairs writes: "Treaties were entered into in -March and April last with the Poncas and Yankton Sioux, -who reside west of Iowa, for the purpose of extinguishing their -title to all the lands occupied and claimed by them, except -<a id='Page_190'></a>small portions on which to colonize and domesticate them. -This proceeding was deemed necessary in order to obtain such -control over these Indians as to prevent their interference with -our settlements, which are rapidly extending in that direction. -These treaties were duly laid before the Senate at its last regular -session, but were not, it is understood, finally acted on -by that body.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Relying on the ratification of their treaty, and the adoption -of timely measures to carry out its provisions in their favor -the Poncas proceeded in good faith to comply with its stipulations -by abandoning their settlements and hunting-grounds, -and withdrawing to the small tract reserved for their future -home. Being without a crop to rely upon, and having been -unsuccessful in their usual summer hunt, they were reduced to -a state of desperation and destitution. As nothing had been -done for them under the treaty, they concluded it was void, -and threatened to fall back upon their former settlements, some -of the most important of which had, in the mean time, been -taken possession of by numerous white persons."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Poncas never heard of Grotius or Vattel; but, in assuming -that the treaty was void because it was not fulfilled, they -only acted on the natural principles of the law of nations and -of treaties, as laid down by all authorities. Thucydides said: -"They are not the first breakers of a league who, being deserted, -seek for aid to others, but they that perform not by their -deeds what they have promised to do upon their oaths."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In consequence of this delay to fulfil the treaty provisions, -the Government was forced to step in at the last moment and -"incur a heavy expense" in furnishing the Poncas with food -enough to keep them from starving; and in 1859, under this -pressure, the Senate ratified the treaty. By it the Poncas -ceded and relinquished to the United States all the lands they -had ever owned or claimed, "wherever situate," except a small -tract between the Ponca and Niobrara rivers. In consideration -<a id='Page_191'></a>of this cession, the United States Government agreed "to protect -the Poncas in the possession of this tract of land, and -their persons and property thereon, during good behavior on -their part; to pay them annuities annually for thirty years—$12,000 -for the first five years, then $10,000 for ten years, -then $8000 for fifteen years; to expend $20,000 for their subsistence -during the first year, for building houses, etc.; to establish -schools, and to build mills, mechanics' shops, etc.; to -give $20,000 for the payment of the existing obligations of -the tribe."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Two years later the agent newly appointed to take charge of -the Poncas reports to the Department the amount of improvements -made on the reservation: "One saw and grist-mill; two -agency houses—story and a half houses—without inside lining -or plastering, 16 by 26 and 18 by 32 feet in size; six small -round log-houses (three with a small shed for a stable), a light -log-corral for cattle, and a canvas shed for storing under; and -about sixty acres of ground, broken, comprised all the improvements."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Evidently a very small part of the $20,000 had been spent -as yet. He did not find an Indian on the reservation. From -fear of the Sioux (who in 1860 had stolen from them more -than half the horses they owned) they had moved down the -Niobrara River, some twenty miles nearer the Missouri. It was -with the greatest difficulty that the agent induced them to return; -and after they did so, they huddled their tents close -about the agency buildings, and could not be induced to go -half a mile away unless accompanied by some of the white -employés.</p> - -<p class='c010'>As the agent had no food to feed them with, and no money -to buy any (spite of the appropriation of $20,000 for subsistence -and house-building), he induced them to go off on a hunt; -but in less than a month they came straggling back, "begging -for provisions for their women and children, whom they had -<a id='Page_192'></a>left on the plains half-starved, having been unable to find any -game, or any food except wild-turnips. Some of them went -to visit the Omahas, others the Pawnees, where they remained -until the little corn they had planted produced roasting-ears. -In the mean time those who were here subsisted mainly on -wild-cherries and plums and the wild-turnip, and traded away -most of their blankets and annuity goods for provisions."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1863 the reports are still more pitiful. "They started -on their summer hunt toward the last of May, immediately -after the first hoeing of their corn. At first they were successful -and found buffaloes; but afterward, the ground being occupied -by the Yanktons, who were sent south of the Niobrara -by the general commanding the district, and who were about -double the number, and with four times as many horses, they -soon consumed what meat they had cured, and were compelled -to abandon the chase. They commenced to return in the latter -part of July. They went away with very high hopes, and -reasonably so, of a large crop, but returned to see it all withered -and dried up. In the mean time the plains had been burnt -over, so that they could not discover the roots they are in the -habit of digging. Even the wild-plums, which grow on bushes -down in ravines and gullies, are withered and dried on the -limbs. The building I occupy was constantly surrounded by a -hungry crowd begging for food. *** I am warned by military -authority to keep the Poncas within the limits of the reservation; -but this is an impossibility. There is nothing within its -limits, nor can anything be obtained in sufficient quantity, or -brought here soon enough to keep them from starving. *** -The Poncas have behaved well—quite as well, if not better -than, under like circumstances, the same number of whites -would have done. I have known whole families to live for -days together on nothing but half-dried corn-stalks, and this -when there were cattle and sheep in their sight."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this time martial law was in force on many of the Indian -<a id='Page_193'></a>reservations, owing to the presence of roving bands of hostile -Sioux, driven from Minnesota after their outbreak there.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Poncas through all these troubles remained loyal and -peaceable, and were "unwavering in their fidelity to their -treaty," says the Indian Commissioner.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In December of this year what the governmental reports call -"a very unfortunate occurrence" took place in Nebraska. A -party of Poncas, consisting of four men, six women, three boys, -and two girls, returning from a visit to the Omahas, had -camped for the night about twelve miles from their own reservation. -In the night a party of soldiers from a military post -on the Niobrara River came to their camp, and began to insult -the squaws, "offering money with one hand, and presenting a -revolver with the other." The Indians, alarmed, pulled up -their lodge, and escaped to a copse of willows near by. The -soldiers fired at them as they ran away, and then proceeded to -destroy all their effects. They cut the lodge covers to pieces, -burnt the saddles and blankets, cut open sacks of beans, corn, -and dried pumpkin, and strewed their contents on the ground, -and went away, taking with them a skin lodge-covering, beaver-skins, -buffalo-robes, blankets, guns, and all the small articles. -The Indians' ponies were hid in the willows. Early -in the morning they returned with these, picked up all the corn -which had not been destroyed, and such other articles as they -could find, packed their ponies as best they might, and set off -barefooted for home. After they had gone a few miles they -stopped and built a fire to parch some corn to eat. Some of -the women and children went to look for wild-beans, leaving -three women and a child at the camp. Here the soldiers came -on them again. As soon as the Indians saw them coming they -fled. The soldiers fired on them, wounding one woman by -a ball through her thigh; another, with a child on her back, -by two balls through the child's thighs, one of which passed -through the mother's side. These women were fired on as -<a id='Page_194'></a>they were crossing the river on the ice. The soldiers then -took possession of the six ponies and all the articles at the -camp, and left. The squaws and children who were looking -for beans were half a mile below; a little dog belonging to -them barked and revealed their hiding-place in the willows. -The soldiers immediately turned on them, dismounted, and, -making up to them, deliberately shot them dead as they huddled -helplessly together—three women and a little girl!</p> - -<p class='c010'>One of the boys, a youth, ran for the river, pursued by the -soldiers. On reaching the river he dived into the water through -a hole in the ice; as often as he lifted his head they fired at -him. After they went away he crawled out and escaped to -the agency. One of the murdered women, the mother of this -boy, had three balls in her head and cheek, her throat cut, and -her head half-severed by a sabre-thrust; another, the youngest -woman, had her cloth skirt taken off and carried away, and all -her other clothes torn from her body, leaving it naked!</p> - -<p class='c010'>The men who did this deed belonged to Company B of the -Seventh Iowa Cavalry.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The outrage was promptly reported to the Department, and -the general commanding the Nebraska District detailed an -officer to examine into it. There was some correspondence between -the military authorities relative to it, but with no result; -and in the report of the next year the Indian Commissioner -says: "Attention was called last year to the fact that the murderers -of several of this loyal and friendly tribe had not been -discovered and punished. I trust that, as there seems to be no -probability that this will be done, a special appropriation may -be made for presents to the relatives of the deceased."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1865 a supplementary treaty was made with the Poncas, -extending their reservation down the Niobrara to the Missouri -River; and the Government agreed to pay them $15,000, for -the purpose of indemnifying them for the loss they had sustained -in this outrage and in others. For the ratification of -<a id='Page_195'></a>this treaty also they waited two years; and in 1867 the Superintendent -of the Dakota Territory says: "Schools would have -been in operation at the Ponca Agency before this time but for -the long delay in ratifying the supplementary treaty of 1865; -and now that this measure has fortunately been accomplished, -there can be no further necessity for delay, and it is confidently -believed another year will witness the foundation and rapid -progress of an English school at this agency."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This superintendent, having been in office only one year, was -probably not familiar with the provisions of the treaty of 1859 -with the Poncas, in which, by Article three, the United States -Government had promised "to establish and maintain for ten -years, at an annual expense not to exceed $5,000, one or more -manual labor schools for the education and training of the Ponca -youth in letters, agriculture, mechanics, and housewifery."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This educational annuity has but one more year to run, -whatever may have been done with it up to this time, it really -is now being spent on schools, and it seems a great pity that -it should soon cease. The Governor of Dakota, in 1868, evidently -thinks so too, for he writes to the Department, in the -autumn of 1868: "A school has been in successful operation -at this agency (the Ponca) for the past nine months, with an -average attendance of about fifty scholars, and with every evidence -of advancement in the primary department of an English -education. But just at this interesting period of its existence -we are notified by the agent that with this fiscal year all funds -for school as well as for agricultural purposes cease, agreeably -to the terms and conditions of their original treaty. This will -be a serious and irreparable calamity if not remedied by the -most generous action of the Government. If funds for this -purpose cannot be otherwise procured, the Poncas are willing -and anxious to transfer their old reservation to the Government -for a moderate extension of these important and indispensable -benefits."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_196'></a>The governor also says that in the past year the Poncas have -paid out of their annuity money for all the improvements which -had been made on lands occupied by certain white settlers, who -were ejected from their new reservation by the terms of the last -treaty.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the report for 1869 we read that the Ponca school has -been "discontinued for want of funds." The Department earnestly -recommends an appropriation of $25,000 to put it in -operation again. The new Governor of Dakota seconds the -recommendation, and regrets to say that, "for the enlightenment -of the 35,000 Indians embraced in the Dakota Superintendency, -there is not one school in operation."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1870 an appropriation of $5,000 was made by the Department -from a general educational fund, for the purpose of resuming -this school. The condition of the Poncas now is, on -the whole, encouraging; they are "not only willing, but extremely -anxious to learn the arts by which they may become -self-supporting, and conform to the usages of white men. With -the comparatively small advantages that have been afforded -them, their advancement has been very great."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the summer of 1869 they built for themselves sixteen -very comfortable log-houses; in the summer of 1870 they built -forty-four more; with their annuity money they bought cookstoves, -cows, and useful implements of labor. They worked -most assiduously in putting in their crops, but lost them all -by drought, and are in real danger of starvation if the Government -does not assist them. All this while they see herds of -cattle driven across their reservation to feed the lately hostile -Sioux—flour, coffee, sugar, tobacco, by the wagon-load, distributed -to them—while their own always peaceable, always loyal, -long-suffering tribe is digging wild roots to eat, and in actual -danger of starvation. Nevertheless they are not discouraged, -knowing that but for the drought they would have had ample -food from their farms, and they make no attempts to retaliate -<a id='Page_197'></a>on the Sioux for raiding off their horses and stock, because -they hope "that the Government will keep its faith with -them," and that suitable remuneration for these losses will be -made them, according to the treaty stipulations.</p> - -<p class='c010'>For the next two years they worked industriously and well; -three schools were established; a chapel was built by the Episcopal -mission; the village began to assume the appearance of -permanence and thrift; but misfortune had not yet parted -company with the Poncas. In the summer of 1873 the Missouri -River suddenly overflowed, washed away its banks hundreds -of yards back, and entirely ruined the Ponca village. -By working night and day for two weeks the Indians saved -most of the buildings, carrying them half a mile inland to be -sure of safety. The site of their village became the bed of the -main channel of the river; their cornfields were ruined, and -the lands for miles in every direction washed and torn up by -the floods.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"For nearly two weeks," the agent writes, "the work of salvage -from the ever-threatening destruction occupied our whole -available force night and day. We succeeded in carrying from -the river bank to near half a mile inland the whole of the -agency buildings, mechanics' houses, stabling, and sheds—more -than twenty houses—nearly every panel of fencing. -The Poncas worked well and long, often through the night; -and the fact that the disaster did not cost us ten dollars of actual -loss is to be attributed to their labor, continuous and persevering—working -sometimes over the swiftly-flowing waters, -terrible and turbid, on the edge of the newly-formed current -but a few inches below them, and into which a fall would have -been certain death, even for an Indian."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In one year after this disaster they had recovered themselves -marvellously; built twenty new houses; owned over a hundred -head of cattle and fifty wagons, and put three hundred acres of -land under cultivation (about three acres to each male in the -<a id='Page_198'></a>tribe). But this year was not to close without a disaster. -First came a drought; then three visitations of locusts, one -after the other, which so completely stripped the fields that -"nothing was left but a few prematurely dry stalks and -straw." One hundred young trees which had been set out—box-elder, -soft maple, and others—withered and died.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1875 the locusts came again, destroyed the corn and oats, -but left the wheat. Much of this crop, however, was lost, as -there was only one reaping-machine on the agency, and it -could not do all of the work. Many of the Indians saved a -part of their crop by cutting it with large butcher-knives; but -this was slow, and much of the wheat dried up and perished -before it could be harvested by this tedious process.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This year was also marked by a flagrant instance of the -helplessness of Indians in the courts. Two Poncas were waylaid -by a party of Santees, one of the Poncas murdered, and -the other seriously wounded. This occurred at the Yankton -Agency, where both parties were visiting. When the case was -brought up before the courts, a motion was made to quash the -indictment for want of jurisdiction, and the judge was obliged -to sustain the motion, there being under the present laws no -jurisdiction whatever "over crimes committed by one Indian -on the person or property of another Indian in the Indian -country."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1876 the project of consolidating all the Indians in the -United States upon a few reservations began to be discussed -and urged. If this plan were carried out, it would be the -destiny of the Poncas to go to the Indian Territory. It was -very gratuitously assumed that, as they had been anxious to -be allowed to remove to Nebraska and join the Omahas, they -would be equally ready to remove to Indian Territory—a -process of reasoning whose absurdity would be very plainly -seen if it were attempted to apply it in the case of white men.</p> - -<p class='c010'>After a series of negotiations, protestations, delays, and bewilderments, -<a id='Page_199'></a>the tribe at last gave what the United States Government -chose to call a "consent" to the removal. The story -of the influences, deceits, coercions brought to bear on these -unfortunate creatures before this was brought about, is one of -the most harrowing among the harrowing records of our dealings -with the Indians. A party of chiefs were induced, in the -first place, to go, in company with a United States inspector—Kemble -by name—to the Indian Territory, to see whether the -country would suit them. It was distinctly promised to them -that, if it did not suit them, they should then be permitted to -go to Washington and consult with the President as to some -further plan for their establishment.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The story of this journey and of its results is best told in -the words of one of the Ponca chiefs, Standing Bear. No official -document, no other man's narrative—no, not if a second -Homer should arise to sing it—could tell the story so well as -he tells it:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We lived on our land as long as we can remember. No -one knows how long ago we came there. The land was owned -by our tribe as far back as memory of men goes.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We were living quietly on our farms. All of a sudden -one white man came. We had no idea what for. This was -the inspector. He came to our tribe with Rev. Mr. Hinman. -These two, with the agent, James Lawrence, they made our -trouble.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They said the President told us to pack up—that we must -move to the Indian Territory.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The inspector said to us: 'The President says you must -sell this land. He will buy it and pay you the money, and give -you new land in the Indian Territory.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'We do not know your authority. You -have no right to move us till we have had council with the -President.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'When two persons wish to make a bargain, -<a id='Page_200'></a>they can talk together and find out what each wants, and -then make their agreement.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'We do not wish to go. When a man -owns anything, he does not let it go till he has received payment -for it.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'We will see the President first.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He said to us: 'I will take you to see the new land. If -you like it, then you can see the President, and tell him so. If -not, then you can see him and tell him so.' And he took all -ten of our chiefs down. I went, and Bright Eyes' uncle went. -He took us to look at three different pieces of land. He said -we must take one of the three pieces, so the President said. -After he took us down there he said: 'No pay for the land you -left.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'You have forgotten what you said before -we started. You said we should have pay for our land. -Now you say not. You told us then you were speaking truth.' -All these three men took us down there. The man got very -angry. He tried to compel us to take one of the three pieces -of land. He told us to be brave. He said to us: 'If you do -not accept these, I will leave you here alone. You are one -thousand miles from home. You have no money. You have -no interpreter, and you cannot speak the language.' And he -went out and slammed the door. The man talked to us from -long before sundown till it was nine o'clock at night.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'We do not like this land. We could -not support ourselves. The water is bad. How send us to -Washington, to tell the President, as you promised.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He said to us: 'The President did not tell me to take you -to Washington; neither did he tell me to take you home.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'You have the Indian money you took -to bring us down here. That money belongs to us. We would -like to have some of it. People do not give away food for -nothing. We must have money to buy food on the road.'</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_201'></a>"He said to us: 'I will not give you a cent.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'We are in a strange country. We cannot -find our way home. Give us a pass, that people may show -us our way.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He said: 'I will not give you any.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'This interpreter is ours. We pay him. -Let him go with us.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He said: 'You shall not have the interpreter. He is mine, -and not yours.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'Take us at least to the railroad; show -us the way to that.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"And he would not. He left us right there. It was winter. -We started for home on foot. At night we slept in hay-stacks. -We barely lived till morning, it was so cold. We had nothing -but our blankets. We took the ears of corn that had dried in -the fields; we ate it raw. The soles of our moccasins wore -out. We were barefoot in the snow. We were nearly dead -when we reached the Otoe Reserve. It had been fifty days. -We stayed there ten days to strengthen up, and the Otoes gave -each of us a pony. The agent of the Otoes told us he had received -a telegram from the inspector, saying that the Indian -chiefs had run away; not to give us food or shelter, or help in -any way. The agent said: 'I would like to understand. Tell -me all that has happened. Tell me the truth.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>(This Otoe agent afterward said that when the chiefs entered -his room they left the prints of their feet in blood on the -floor as they came in.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Then we told our story to the agent and to the Otoe chiefs—how -we had been left down there to find our way.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The agent said: 'I can hardly believe it possible that any -one could have treated you so. That inspector was a poor man -to have done this. If I had taken chiefs in this way, I would -have brought them home; I could not have left them there.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In seven days we reached the Omaha Reservation. Then -<a id='Page_202'></a>we sent a telegram to the President: asked him if he had authorized -this thing. We waited three days for the answer. -No answer came.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In four days we reached our own home. We found the -inspector there. While we were gone, he had come to our people -and told them to move.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Our people said: 'Where are our chiefs? What have you -done with them? Why have you not brought them back? -We will not move till our chiefs come back.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Then the inspector told them: 'To-morrow you must be -ready to move. If you are not ready you will be shot.' Then -the soldiers came to the doors with their bayonets, and ten -families were frightened. The soldiers brought wagons; they -put their things in and were carried away. The rest of the -tribe would not move.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"When we got there, we asked the inspector why he had -done this thing, and he got very angry.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Then we said to him: 'We did not think we would see -your face again, after what has passed. We thought never to -see your face any more. But here you are.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'This land is ours. It belongs to us. -You have no right to take it from us. The land is crowded -with people, and only this is left to us.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We said to him: 'Let us alone. Go away from us. If -you want money, take all the money which the President is to -pay us for twelve years to come. You may have it all, if you -will go and leave us our lands.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Then, when he found that we would not go, he wrote for -more soldiers to come.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Then the soldiers came, and we locked our doors, and the -women and children hid in the woods. Then the soldiers -drove all the people the other side of the river, all but my -brother Big Snake and I. We did not go; and the soldiers -took us and carried us away to a fort and put us in jail. -<a id='Page_203'></a>There were eight officers who held council with us after we -got there. The commanding officer said: 'I have received -four messages telling me to send my soldiers after you. Now, -what have you done?'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Then we told him the whole story. Then the officer said: -'You have done no wrong. The land is yours; they had no -right to take it from you. Your title is good. I am here to -protect the weak, and I have no right to take you; but I am -a soldier, and I have to obey orders.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He said: 'I will telegraph to the President, and ask him -what I shall do. We do not think these three men had any -authority to treat you as they have done. When we own a -piece of land, it belongs to us till we sell it and pocket the -money.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Then he brought a telegram, and said he had received answer -from the President. The President said he knew nothing -about it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They kept us in jail ten days. Then they carried us back -to our home. The soldiers collected all the women and children -together; then they called all the chiefs together in council; -and then they took wagons and went round and broke -open the houses. When we came back from the council we -found the women and children surrounded by a guard of soldiers.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They took our reapers, mowers, hay-rakes, spades, ploughs, -bedsteads, stoves, cupboards, everything we had on our farms, -and put them in one large building. Then they put into the -wagons such things as they could carry. We told them that -we would rather die than leave our lands; but we could not -help ourselves. They took us down. Many died on the road. -Two of my children died. After we reached the new land, all -my horses died. The water was very bad. All our cattle -died; not one was left. I stayed till one hundred and fifty-eight -of my people had died. Then I ran away with thirty of -<a id='Page_204'></a>my people, men and women and children. Some of the children -were orphans. We were three months on the road. We -were weak and sick and starved. When we reached the Omaha -Reserve the Omahas gave us a piece of land, and we were in a -hurry to plough it and put in wheat. While we were working -the soldiers came and arrested us. Half of us were sick. We -would rather have died than have been carried back; but we -could not help ourselves."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nevertheless they were helped. The news of their arrest, -and the intention of the Government to take them back by -force to Indian Territory, roused excitement in Omaha. An -Omaha editor and two Omaha lawyers determined to test the -question whether the Government had a legal right to do it. -It seemed a bold thing, almost a hopeless thing, to undertake. -It has passed into a proverb that Providence is on the side -of the heaviest battalions: the oppressed and enslaved in all -ages have felt this. But there are times when a simple writ of -habeas corpus is stronger than cannon or blood-hounds; and -this was one of these times. Brought into the District Court -of the United States for the District of Nebraska, these Poncas -were set free by the judge of that court. Will not the name -of Judge Dundy stand side by side with that of Abraham -Lincoln in the matter of Emancipation Acts?</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Government attorney, the Hon. G. M. Lambertson, made -an argument five hours long, said to have been both "ingenious -and eloquent," to prove that an Indian was not entitled to the -protection of the writ of habeas corpus, "<i>not</i> being a person -or citizen under the law."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Judge Dundy took several days to consider the case, and -gave a decision which strikes straight to the root of the whole -matter—a decision which, when it is enforced throughout our -land, will take the ground out from under the feet of the horde -of unscrupulous thieves who have been robbing, oppressing, -and maddening the Indians for so long, that to try to unmask -<a id='Page_205'></a>and expose their processes, or to make clean their methods, is -a task before which hundreds of good men—nay, whole denominations -of good men—disheartened, baffled, and worn-out, -have given up.</p> - -<p class='c010'>When Standing Bear found that by the decision of Judge -Dundy he was really a free man, and could go where he -pleased, he made a speech which should never be forgotten or -left out in the history of the dealings of the United States -Government with the Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>After a touching expression of gratitude to the lawyers who -had pleaded his cause, he said: "Hitherto, when we have been -wronged, we went to war to assert our rights and avenge our -wrongs. We took the tomahawk. We had no law to punish -those who did wrong, so we took our tomahawks and went to -kill. If they had guns and could kill us first, it was the fate -of war. But you have found a better way. You have gone -into the court for us, and I find that our wrongs can be righted -there. Now I have no more use for the tomahawk. I want -to lay it down forever."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Uttering these words with eloquent impressiveness, the old -chief, stooping down, placed the tomahawk on the floor at his -feet; then, standing erect, he folded his arms with native dignity, -and continued: "I lay it down. I have no more use for -it. I have found a better way."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Stooping again and taking up the weapon, he placed it in -Mr. Webster's hands, and said: "I present it to you as a -token of my gratitude. I want you to keep it in remembrance -of this great victory which you have gained. I have no further -use for it. I can now seek the ways of peace."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The first use that Standing Bear made of his freedom was -to endeavor to procure the freedom of his tribe, and establish -their legal right to their old home in Dakota. Accompanied -by a young and well-educated Omaha girl and her brother as -interpreters, and by Mr. Tibbles, the champion and friend to -<a id='Page_206'></a>whom he owed his freedom, he went to the Eastern States, and -told the story of the sufferings and wrongs of his tribe to large -audiences in many of the larger cities and towns. Money was -generously subscribed everywhere for the purpose of bringing -suits to test the question of the Poncas' legal right to the lands -which the United States Government had by treaty ceded to -them in specified "townships," thus giving to them the same -sort of title which would be given to any corporation or individual.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Very soon this movement of Standing Bear and his companions -began to produce on the community a strong effect, -shown by the interest in their public meetings, and by expressions -of strong feeling in the newspapers. This attracted the -attention of the authorities at Washington. Letters were published -contradicting many of Standing Bear's assertions; statements -were circulated injurious to the reputation of all members -of the party. A careful observer of the whole course of -the Department of the Interior in this matter could not fail to -come to the conclusion that for some mysterious, unexplained, -and unexplainable reason the Department did not wish—in -fact, was unwilling—that the Ponca tribe should be reinstated -on its lands. Discussions on the matter grew warm. The -inspector who had been concerned in their removal published -long letters reflecting equally on the veracity of Standing Bear -and of the Secretary of the Interior. Standing Bear replied -in a few pithy words, which were conclusive in their proving -of the falsity of some of the inspector's statements. The Secretary, -also, did not think it beneath his dignity to reply in -successive newspaper articles to the inspector's reflections upon -him; but the only thing that was made clear by this means -was that either the Secretary or the inspector, or both, said -what was not true.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In Boston the interest in the Ponca case reached such a -height that a committee was appointed to represent the case in -<a id='Page_207'></a>Washington, and to secure legislation upon it. Standing Bear -and his party went to Washington, and, in spite of the secret -hostility of the Interior Department, produced a powerful impression -upon Congress. Senator Dawes, of Massachusetts, and -Senator Morgan, of Alabama, both became warm advocates of -their cause. The subject once started, case after case came up -for investigation; and the Congressional committees called for -evidence in regard to several of the more striking instances of -injustice to Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>White Eagle, one of the Ponca chiefs, who had lost his wife -and four children, and who was himself fast sinking under disease -developed by the malarial Indian Territory, came to Washington -and gave eloquent testimony in behalf of his tribe. The -physicians there predicted that he had not three months to live. -A bill was introduced into Congress for restoring to the Poncas -their old reservation in Dakota, and putting their houses, farms, -etc., in the same good condition they were at the time of their -removal.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The story of that removal was written out in full at the -time by the agent who superintended it. That he should forward -this report to the Department of the Interior was natural; -but that the Department of the Interior should have -been willing to publish it to the country, to have it on the -official record of its management of Indian affairs for the year -1877, is strange. It will make a fitting conclusion to this -sketch of the history of the Ponca tribe. The name of this -agent was E. A. Howard. He calls the report "Journal of the -March."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>May 21st.</i> Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to -Crayton, a distance of thirteen miles. Roads very heavy. The -child that died yesterday was here buried by the Indians, they -preferring to bury it than to have it buried by the white -people.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>May 22d.</i> Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to -<a id='Page_208'></a>Neligh, a distance of about twenty-five miles. The day was -cool, and, the road being high and comparatively good, the -travel was made without much inconvenience.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>May 23d.</i> The morning opened with light rain; but at -eight o'clock a terrific thunder-storm occurred of two hours' -duration, which was followed by steady rain throughout the -day, in consequence of which we remained in camp. During -the day a child died, and several women and children were -reported sick, and medical attendance and medicine were procured -for them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>May 24th.</i> Buried the child that died yesterday in the -cemetery at Neligh, giving it a Christian burial. Broke camp -at ten o'clock and marched about eight miles, crossing the Elk-horn -River about two miles below Oakdale Village. Were unable -to cross at Neligh, the road being about two feet under -water and the bridges being washed away. The road was fearfully -bad, and much time and labor were expended in making -the road and bridges at all passable over the Elk-horn flats, -where the crossing was effected.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>May 25th.</i> Broke camp at six o'clock and marched twenty -miles, to a point on Shell Creek. No wood at this place, and -none to be had except what little had been picked up and -brought in by the trains. Weather cold, damp, and dreary. -The Indians during the day behaved well, and marched splendidly.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>May 26th.</i> The morning opened with a heavy continuous -rain, which prevailed until ten o'clock. Broke camp at eleven -o'clock and marched eight miles farther down Shell Creek, -when it again commenced raining, and we went into camp. -The evening set in cold and rainy, and no wood to be had except -what was purchased of a settler.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>May 27th.</i> The morning opened cold, with a misty rain. -Rain ceased at half-past seven o'clock, and we broke camp at -eight and marched eight miles farther down Shell Creek, when, -<a id='Page_209'></a>a heavy thunder-storm coming on, we again went into camp. -Several of the Indians were here found to be quite sick, and -having no physician, and none being attainable, they gave us -much anxiety and no little trouble. The daughter of Standing -Bear, one of the chiefs, was very low of consumption, and moving -her with any degree of comfort was almost impossible, and -the same trouble existed in transporting all the sick.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>May 28th.</i> Last evening I gave orders to break camp at -five o'clock this morning, intending, if practicable, to reach Columbus -before night; but a heavy thunder-storm prevailed at -that time. Broke camp at seven o'clock. Marched seven miles, -when we came to a slough confluent to Shell Creek, which was -only made passable after two hours of active work in cutting -willow-brush and bringing a large quantity of wheat straw from -a distance of thirty rods, with which we covered the road thickly. -After crossing the slough we marched to a point on Shell Creek -and camped, having made about fourteen miles during the day.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>May 29th.</i> Broke camp at seven o'clock and crossed Shell -Creek. For about five miles the road led over a divide, and -was quite good; but in coming down on the flats, which extended -for five miles between the Bluffs and Columbus, we -found the roads for the entire distance almost impassable, owing -to the many deep, miry sloughs which cross the road, and -the generally flooded and yielding condition of the soil aside -from the sloughs. Teams had to be frequently doubled, in -order to get the wagons through. The difficulties were finally -overcome, and the train marched into Columbus at two o'clock, -and went into camp at Soap Fork, having made a march of -about ten miles, the march of five miles across the flats occupying -about seven hours. Major Walker, who had accompanied -us from the Niobrara River to this place with twenty-five soldiers, -under orders from the War Department, took leave of us, -and returned to Dakota."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was asserted again and again by the Secretary of the Interior, -<a id='Page_210'></a>and by the inspector, E. C. Kemble, that these Indians -were not removed by force—that they consented to go.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In another part of this same report this agent says:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"On the 15th" (six days before the "march" began) "I -held another council, which was largely attended by the chiefs, -headmen, and soldiers of the tribe, and which was of more than -four hours' duration. At this council the Indians maintained -that the Government had no right to move them from the reservation, -and demanded, as an inducement or equivalent for -them to give up the reservation and move to the Indian Territory—first, -the payment to them by the Government of the -sum of $3,000,000; and, second, that, before starting, I should -show to them the sum of $40,000 which they had been told -had been appropriated by the Government for their removal. -To all of which I replied positively in the negative, telling -them that I would not accede to nor consider any demands -that they might make; but that I would take under my consideration -reasonable requests that they might submit touching -their removal, and, as their agent, do what I could for them in -promoting their welfare; that I demanded that they should at -all times listen to my words; that they should go with me to -their new home; and that <i>they should without delay give me -their final answer whether they would go peaceably or by force</i>. -The Indians refused to give answer at this time; the council -closed without definite results; and the Indians dispersed with -a sullen look and determined expression."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This evidently was not the "consent" of which we have -heard. We come to it presently.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"On the following morning, however, May 16th, they sent -word to me, at an early hour, that they had considered my -words, and had concluded to go with me, and that they wanted -assistance in getting the old and infirm, together with their -property, over the Niobrara River, which was much swollen by -the rains and at a low temperature."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_211'></a>What a night must these helpless creatures have passed before -this "consent" was given! Seven hundred people, <i>more -than half of them women and children</i>; a farming people, not -armed with rifles, as the Ogallalla Sioux were, when, one year -later, on this same ground, the Chief Spotted Tail told Commissioner -Hayt that, if he did not give an order to have his -tribe on the way back to White Clay Creek in ten days, his -young men would go on the war-path at once; and the much-terrified -commissioner wrote the order then and there, and the -Sioux were allowed to go where they had chosen to go. Behold -the difference between the way our Government treats -the powerful and treats the weak! What could these Ponca -farmers do? They must, "without delay," give their "final -answer whether they would go peaceably or <i>by force</i>." What -did "<i>by force</i>" mean? It was "<i>by force</i>" that the Government -undertook to compel the Cheyennes to go to Indian -Territory; and in that Cheyenne massacre the Cheyenne men, -women, children, and babies were all shot down together!</p> - -<p class='c010'>What could these Ponca farmers do? What would any -father, brother, husband have done under the circumstances? -He would have "consented" to go.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The agent, as was wise, took them at their word, quickly, -and that very day, "at five o'clock <span class='fss'>P.M.</span>, had the entire tribe, -with their effects, across the river, off the reservation, and in -camp in Nebraska."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The agent should have said, "with part of their effects," for -it was only a part, and a very small part, that this helpless -<i>consenting</i> party were allowed to take with them. All their -agricultural implements and most of their furniture were left -behind.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It was a hard day's work," the getting the tribe and their -"effects" across the river, the agent says; "the river being -about forty rods wide, and the current so swift that it was -found impossible to move the goods across in any other way -<a id='Page_212'></a>than by packing them on the shoulders of the men, the quicksand -bottom rendering it unsafe to trust them on the backs -of animals; even the wagons having to be drawn across by -hand."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Let us dwell for a moment on this picture. Seven hundred -helpless, heart-broken people beginning their sad journey by -having to ford this icy stream with quicksands at bottom. -The infirm, the sick, the old, the infants, all carried "by packing -them on the shoulders of the men!" What a scene! The -Honorable Secretary of the Interior said, in one of the letters -in his newspaper controversy with the inspector in regard to -the accounts of this removal, that "the highly-colored stories -which are told about the brutal military force employed in -compelling their [the Poncas'] removal from Dakota to the -Indian Territory are sensational fabrications; at least, the official -record, which is very full, and goes into minute details, -does not in the least bear them out."</p> - -<p class='c010'>There was never any accusation brought against the "military -force" of "brutality" in this removal. The brutality -was on the part of the Government. The simple presence -of the "military force" was brutal. It meant but one thing. -The Indians understood it, and the Government intended that -they should understand it; and when the agent of the Government -said to these Indians that they must give him their "final -answer whether they would go peaceably or by force," he intended -that they should understand it. Has anybody any -doubt what were the orders under which that "military force" -was there? any doubt what it would have been the military -duty of Major Walker to have done in case the Poncas had -refused to "consent" to go?</p> - -<p class='c010'>And now let us return to the "Official Record," which is, -indeed, as the Honorable Secretary of the Interior says, "very -full,"and" goes into minute details," and let us see in how -much it will "bear us out;" and when we have done with this -<a id='Page_213'></a>"Official Record," let us ask ourselves if any imagination could -have invented so "highly-colored" a "story" as it tells.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 2d.</i> Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched seventeen -miles, going into camp near Ulysses. Roads in bad -condition.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 3d.</i> Had some trouble in getting started. Broke -camp at eleven o'clock and marched eight miles. Went into -camp on Blue River. Many people sick, one of whom was reported -in a dying condition. Had bad roads. Rained during -afternoon.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 4th.</i> Broke camp at six o'clock. Marched fifteen -miles, and went into camp on Lincoln Creek, near Seward.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 5th.</i> Broke camp at seven o'clock. Marched fourteen -miles, and went into camp near Milford. Daughter of -Standing Bear, Ponca chief, died at two o'clock, of consumption.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 6th.</i> Remained in camp all day, for the purpose of -obtaining supplies. Prairie Flower, wife of Shines White and -daughter of Standing Bear, who died yesterday, was here given -Christian burial, her remains being deposited in the cemetery at -Milford, Nebraska, a small village on Blue River.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In this connection I wish to take official knowledge and -recognition of the noble action performed by the ladies of -Milford, in preparing and decorating the body of the deceased -Indian woman for burial in a style becoming the highest civilization. -In this act of Christian kindness they did more to -ameliorate the grief of the husband and father than they could -have done by adopting the usual course of this untutored people -and presenting to each a dozen ponies. It was here that, -looking on the form of his dead daughter thus arrayed for the -tomb, Standing Bear was led to forget the burial-service of his -tribe, and say to those around him that he was desirous of -leaving off the ways of the Indian and adopting those of the -white men.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_214'></a>"<i>June 7th.</i> Quite a heavy rain during the afternoon. The -storm, most disastrous of any that occurred during the removal -of the Poncas under my charge, came suddenly upon us while -in camp on the evening of this day. It was a storm such as I -never before experienced, and of which I am unable to give an -adequate description. The wind blew a fearful tornado, demolishing -every tent in camp, and rending many of them into -shreds, overturning wagons, and hurling wagon-boxes, camp-equipages, -etc., through the air in every direction like straws. -Some of the people were taken up by the wind and carried as -much as three hundred yards. Several of the Indians were -quite seriously hurt, and one child died the next day from injuries -received, and was given Christian burial. The storm -caused a delay until the 8th for repairs, and for medical attendance -upon the injured.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 8th.</i> Broke camp at Milford and marched seven -miles. Roads very bad. Child died during the day.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 9th.</i> Put the child that died yesterday in the coffin -and sent it back to Milford, to be buried in the same grave with -its aunt, Prairie Flower. Broke camp at seven o'clock and -marched to within three miles of Crete.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 10th.</i> Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched one -mile beyond De Witt, where I employed a physician to visit -camp and prescribe for the sick. A woman had a thumb accidentally -cut off, which caused further commotion in the camp.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 12th.</i> Broke camp at seven o'clock and marched to -within two miles of Otoe Agency. Crossed Wolf Creek with -a part of the train, the crossing being very difficult; but the -Indians worked splendidly."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The Indians worked splendidly!" Is not this a well-nigh -incredible record of patience and long-suffering? These poor -creatures, marching from ten to twenty-five miles a day, for -twenty-two days, through muddy sloughs, swollen rivers, in -tempests and floods and dreary cold, leaving their wives and -<a id='Page_215'></a>their children dead by the way—dead of the sufferings of the -march—are yet docile, obedient, and "work splendidly!"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 13th.</i> After considerable time we succeeded in building -a bridge over Wolf Creek out of drift-timber, and succeeded -in crossing the balance of the train. Broke camp and -marched three miles, and went into camp again near Otoe -Agency.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 14th.</i> Water-bound, and had to remain in camp all -day waiting for creek to run down. The Otoe Indians came -out to see the Poncas, and gave them ten ponies.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 15th.</i> Still water-bound. Remained in camp all day.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 16th.</i> Broke camp at seven o'clock and reached Marysville, -Kansas, where we went into camp. During the march -a wagon tipped over, injuring a woman quite severely. Indians -out of rations, and feeling hostile."</p> - -<p class='c010'>What wonder that the Indians felt hostile? Hunger added -to all the rest of their direful misery!</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 18th.</i> Broke camp at seven o'clock. Marched nine -miles and went into camp at Elm Creek. Little Cottonwood -died. Four families determined to return to Dakota. I was -obliged to ride nine miles on horseback to overtake them, to -restore harmony, and settle difficulty in camp. Had coffin -made for dead Indian, which was brought to camp at twelve -o'clock at night from Blue Rapids. A fearful thunder-storm -during the night, flooding the camp-equipage."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This is a "highly-colored" story, indeed! The darkness; -the camp flooded by the driving rain; thunder and lightning; a -messenger arriving at midnight with a coffin; the four families -of desperate fugitives setting out to flee back to their homes! -What "sensational fabrication" could compete with this?</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 19th.</i> The storm of last night left the roads in an -impassable condition, and, in consequence, was obliged to remain -in camp all day. Buried Little Cottonwood in a cemetery -about five miles from camp. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_216'></a>"<i>June 25th.</i> Broke camp at six o'clock. Marched to a point -about fifteen miles farther up Deep Creek. Two old women -died during the day. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>June 30th.</i> Broke camp at six o'clock. Passed through -Hartford, and camped about six miles above Burlington. A -child of Buffalo Chief died during the day. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>July 2d.</i> Broke camp at six o'clock. Made a long march -of fifteen miles for Noon Camp, for reason that no water could -be got nearer. An Indian became hostile, and made a desperate -attempt to kill White Eagle, head chief of the tribe. For a -time every male in camp was on the war-path, and for about -two hours the most intense excitement prevailed, heightened by -continued loud crying by all the women and children."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This Indian, who is reported here as having "become hostile," -no doubt, tried to kill White Eagle for having allowed -the tribe to be brought into all this trouble. It is the general -feeling among the less intelligent members of a tribe that their -chiefs are bound, under all circumstances, to see that they come -to no harm.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<i>July 9th.</i> Broke camp at six o'clock, passing through Baxter -Springs at about one o'clock. Just after passing Baxter -Springs a terrible thunder-storm struck us. The wind blew a -heavy gale and the rain fell in torrents, so that it was impossible -to see more than four or five rods distant, thoroughly -drenching every person and every article in the train, making -a fitting end to a journey commenced by wading a river and -thereafter encountering innumerable storms.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"During the last few days of the journey the weather was -exceedingly hot, and the teams terribly annoyed and bitten by -green-head flies, which attacked them in great numbers. Many -of the teams were nearly exhausted, and, had the distance been -but little farther, they must have given out. The people were -all nearly worn out from the fatigue of the march, and were -heartily glad that the long, tedious journey was at an end, that -<a id='Page_217'></a>they might take that rest so much required for the recuperation -of their physical natures." Now let us see what provision -the Government had made for that "rest" and "recuperation," -surely "much required" and fairly earned. Not one dollar had -been appropriated for establishing them in their new home; not -one building had been put up. This people was set down in a -wilderness without one provision of any kind for their shelter.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It is a matter of astonishment to me," says Agent Howard -(p. 100 of this "Report"), "that the Government should have -ordered the removal of the Ponca Indians from Dakota to the -Indian Territory without having first made some provision for -their settlement and comfort. Before their removal was carried -into effect an appropriation should have been made by Congress -sufficient to have located them in their new home, by -building a comfortable home for the occupancy of every family -of the tribe. As the case now is, no appropriation has been -made by Congress except of a sum little more than sufficient -to remove them; and the result is that these people have been -placed on an uncultivated reservation, to live in their tents as -best they may, and await further legislative action."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This journal of Mr. Howard's is the best record that can ever -be written of the sufferings of the Poncas in their removal -from their homes. It is "highly colored;" but no one, however -much it may be for his interest to do so, can call it "a -sensational fabrication," or can discredit it in the smallest particular, -for it is an "official record," authorized and endorsed -by being published in the "Annual Report" of the Secretary -of the Interior.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The remainder of the Ponca tribe is still in Indian Territory, -awaiting anxiously the result of the efforts to restore to them -their old homes, and to establish the fact of their indisputable -legal right to them.<a id='r27' /><a href='#f27' class='c012'><sup>[27]</sup></a></p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_218'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER VII.<br /> <br />THE WINNEBAGOES.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>The Winnebagoes belonged to the Dakota family, but, so -far as can be known, were naturally a peace-loving people, and -had no sympathy with the more warlike tribes of their race. -The Algonquins gave them the name of Winnebagoes, or "people -of the salt-water;" and as the Algonquin word for salt-water -and stinking-water was the same, the French called them -"Les Puants," or "Stinkards." The Sioux gave them a more -melodious and pleasing name, "O-ton-kah," which signified -"The large, strong people."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Bancroft, in his account of the North American tribes, says: -"One little community of the Dakota (Sioux) family had penetrated -the territories of the Algonquins: the Winnebagoes -dwelling between Green Bay and the lake that bears their -name preferred to be environed by Algonquins than to stay in -the dangerous vicinity of their own kindred."</p> - -<p class='c010'>One of the earliest mentions that is found of this tribe, in -the diplomatic history of our country, is in the reports given -of a council held in July, 1815, at "Portage des Sioux," in -Missouri, after the treaty of Ghent. To this council the Winnebagoes -refused to send delegates; and their refusal was evidently -considered a matter of some moment. The commissioners -"appointed to treat with the North-western Indians" -at this time reported that they found "the Indians much divided -among themselves in regard to peace with the United -States." Some of them "spoke without disguise of their opposition -to military establishments on the Mississippi," and -<a id='Page_219'></a>many of them, "among whom were the Winnebagoes, utterly -refused to send deputies to the council." This disaffection -was thought by the commissioners to be largely due to the -influence of British traders, who plied the Indians with gifts, -and assured them that war would soon break out again between -the United States and Great Britain. It is probable, -however, that the Winnebagoes held themselves aloof from -these negotiations more from a general distrust of white men -than from any partisan or selfish leaning to the side of Great -Britain; for when Dr. Jedediah Morse visited them, only seven -years later, he wrote: "There is no other tribe which seems to -possess so much jealousy of the whites, and such reluctance to -have intercourse with them, as this."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Spite of this reluctance they made, in 1816, a treaty "of -peace and friendship with the United States," agreeing "to -remain distinct and separate from the rest of their nation or -tribe, giving them no assistance whatever until peace shall be -concluded between the United States and their tribe or nation." -They agreed also to confirm and observe all the lines of British, -French, or Spanish cessions of land to the United States.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1825 the United States Government, unable to endure -the spectacle of Indians warring among themselves, and massacring -each other, appears in the North-western country as an -unselfish pacificator, and compels the Sacs, Foxes, Chippewas, -and Sioux, including the Winnebagoes, to make a treaty of -peace and friendship with each other and with the United -States. The negotiations for this treaty occupied one month; -which does not seem a long time when one considers that the -boundaries of all the lands to be occupied by these respective -tribes were to be defined, and that in those days and regions -definitions of distance were stated in such phrases as "a half -day's march," "a long day's march," "about a day's paddle in -a canoe," "to a point where the woods come out into the -meadows," "to a point on Buffalo River, half way between its -<a id='Page_220'></a>source and its mouth." These were surely precarious terms -for peace to rest upon, especially as it was understood by all -parties that "no tribe shall hunt within the actual limits of -any other without their consent."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At the close of this treaty there occurred a curious incident, -which Schoolcraft calls "an experiment on the moral sense of -the Indians with regard to intoxicating liquors." "It had been -said by the tribes that the true reason for the Commissioners of -the United States speaking against the use of ardent spirits by -the Indians, and refusing to give it to them, was the fear of expense, -and not a sense of its bad effects. To show them that -the Government was above such a petty motive, the commissioners -had a long row of tin camp-kettles, holding several gallons -each, placed on the grass; and then, after some suitable -remarks, each kettle was spilled out in their presence. The -thing was ill-relished by the Indians, who loved the whiskey -better than the joke."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this time the lands of the Winnebagoes lay between the -Rock and the Wisconsin rivers, along the shore of Winnebago -Lake, and the Indians claimed that the whole lake belonged -to them. It was here that President Morse had found them -living in 1822. He gives the following graphic picture of their -pleasant home: "They have five villages on the Lake, and -fourteen on Rock River. The country has abundance of -springs, small lakes, ponds, and rivers; a rich soil, producing -corn and all sorts of grain. The lakes abound with fine-flavored, -firm fish." Of the Indians themselves, he says: "They -are industrious, frugal, and temperate. They cultivate corn, -potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, and beans, and are remarkably -provident. They numbered five hundred and eighty souls."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1827 a third treaty was signed by the Winnebagoes, -Chippewas, and Menomonies with the United States and with -each other. This treaty completed the system of boundaries -of their lands, which had been only partially defined by the two -<a id='Page_221'></a>previous treaties. Of these three treaties Schoolcraft says: -"These three conferences embody a new course and policy for -keeping the tribes in peace, and are founded on the most enlarged -consideration of the aboriginal right of fee-simple to -the soil. They have been held exclusively at the charge and -expense of the United States, and contain no cession of territory."</p> - -<p class='c010'>They were the last treaties of their kind. In 1828 the people -of Northern Illinois were beginning to covet and trespass -on some of the Indian lands, and commissioners were sent to -treat with the Indians for the surrender of such lands. The -Indians demurred, and the treaty was deferred; the United -States in the mean time agreeing to pay to the four tribes -$20,000, "in full compensation for all the injuries and damages -sustained by them in consequence of the occupation of -any part of the mining country."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1829 a benevolent scheme for the rescue of these hard-pressed -tribes of the North-western territory was proposed by -Mr. J. D. Stevens, a missionary at Mackinaw. He suggested -the formation of a colony of them in the Lake Superior region. -He says—and his words are as true to-day, in 1879, as they -were fifty years ago: "The Indian is in every view entitled to -sympathy. The misfortune of the race is that, seated on the -skirts of the domain of a popular government, they have no -vote to give. They are politically a nonentity. *** The whole -Indian race is not worth one white man's vote. If the Indian -were raised to the right of giving his suffrage, a plenty of -politicians on the frontiers would enter into plans to better -him; whereas now the subject drags along like an incubus in -Congress."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It did, indeed. Appropriations were sadly behindhand. The -promises made to the Indians could not be fulfilled, simply -because there was no money to fulfil them with. In 1829 a -Washington correspondent writes to Mr. Schoolcraft: "There -<a id='Page_222'></a>is a screw loose in the public machinery somewhere. In 1827 -we were promised $48,000 for the Indian service, and got -$30,000; in 1828 $40,000, and got $25,000." A little later -the Secretary of War himself writes: "Our annual appropriation -has not yet passed; and when it will, I am sure I cannot -tell."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1830 the all-engrossing topic of Congress is said to be -"the removal of the Indians. It occupies the public mind -throughout the Union, and petitions and remonstrances are -pouring in without number."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Meantime the Indians were warring among themselves, and -also retaliating on the white settlers who encroached upon their -lands. The inevitable conflict had begun in earnest, and in -September of 1832 the Winnebagoes were compelled to make -their first great cession of territory to the United States. In -exchange for it they accepted a tract west of the Mississippi, -and before the 1st of June, 1833, most of those who were living -on the ceded lands had crossed the river to their new -homes. Their title to this new country was not so good as -they probably supposed, for the treaty expressly stated that it -was granted to them "to be held as other Indian lands are -held."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Article three of this treaty said, "As the country hereby -ceded by the Winnebagoes is more extensive and valuable than -that given by the United States in exchange," the United States -would pay to the Winnebagoes $10,000 annually in specie for -twenty-seven years. The Government also promised to put up -buildings for them, send teachers, make various allowances for -stock, implements, tobacco, etc., and to furnish them with a -doctor.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Winnebagoes agreed to deliver up some of their number -who had murdered white settlers. Lands were granted by -patent to four Winnebagoes by name—two men and two -women; for what reason, does not appear in the treaty.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_223'></a>Five years later the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States -all their lands east of the Mississippi, and also relinquished -the right to occupy, "except for hunting," a portion of that -which they owned on the west side. For this cession and relinquishment -they were to receive $200,000; part of this sum -to be expended in paying their debts, the expense of their -removal and establishment in their new homes, and the rest -to be invested by the United States Government for their -benefit.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1846 the Winnebagoes were forced to make another treaty, -by which they finally ceded and sold to the United States -"all right, title, interest, claim, and privilege to all lands heretofore -occupied by them;" and accepted as their home, "to be -held as other Indian lands are held," a tract of 800,000 acres -north of St. Peter's, and west of the Mississippi. For this third -removal they were to be paid $190,000—$150,000 for the -lands they gave up, and $40,000 for relinquishing the hunting -privilege on lands adjacent to their own. Part of this was to -be expended in removing them, and the balance was to be "left -in trust" with the Government at five per cent. interest.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This reservation proved unsuited to them. The tribe were -restless and discontented; large numbers of them were continually -roaming back to their old homes in Iowa and Wisconsin, -and in 1855 they gladly made another treaty with the -Government, by which they ceded back to the United States -all the land which the treaty of 1846 had given them, and took -in exchange for it a tract eighteen miles square on the Blue -Earth River. The improved lands on which they had been -living, their mills and other buildings, were to be appraised -and sold to the highest bidder, and the amount expended in removing -them, subsisting them, and making them comfortable -in their new home. This reservation, the treaty said, should be -their "permanent home;" and as this phrase had never before -been used in any of their treaties, it is to be presumed that the -<a id='Page_224'></a>Winnebagoes took heart at hearing it. They are said to have -"settled down quietly and contentedly," and have gone to -work immediately, "ploughing, planting, and building."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The citizens of Minnesota did not take kindly to their new -neighbors. "An indignation meeting was held; a petition to -the President signed; and movements made, the object of all -which was to oust these Indians from their dearly-purchased -homes," says the Report of the Indian Commissioner for 1855.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Such movements, and such a public sentiment on the part of -the population surrounding them, certainly did not tend to encourage -the Winnebagoes to industry, or to give them any very -sanguine hopes of being long permitted to remain in their -"permanent home." Nevertheless they worked on, doing better -and better every year, keeping good faith with the whites -and with the Government, and trusting in the Government's -purpose and power to keep faith with them. The only serious -faults with which they could be charged were drunkenness and -gambling, and both of these they had learned of the white settlers. -In the latter they had proved to be apt scholars, often -beating professional gamblers at their own game.</p> - -<p class='c010'>They showed the bad effects of their repeated removals, -also, in being disposed to wander back to their old homes. -Sometimes several hundred of them would be roaming about -in Wisconsin. But the tribe, as a whole, were industrious, -quiet, always peaceable and loyal, and steadily improving. -They took hold in earnest of the hard work of farming; some -of them who could not get either horses or ploughs actually -breaking up new land with hoes, and getting fair crops out of -it. Very soon they began to entreat to have their farms settled -on them individually, and guaranteed to them for their -own; and the Government, taking advantage of this desire on -their part, made a treaty with them in 1859, by which part of -their lands were to be "allotted" to individuals in "severalty," -as they had requested, and the rest were to be sold, the -<a id='Page_225'></a>proceeds to be partly expended in improvements on their farms, -and partly to be "left in trust" with the Government. This -measure threw open hundreds of thousands of acres of land to -white settlers, and drew the belt of greedy civilization much -tighter around the Indians. Similar treaties to this had been -already made with some of the Sioux tribes and with others. -It was evident that "the surplus land occupied by the Indians -was required for the use of the increasing white population," -and that it was "necessary to reduce the reservations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>There is in this treaty of 1859 one extraordinary provision: -"In order to render unnecessary any further treaty engagements -or arrangements with the United States, it is hereby -agreed and stipulated that the President, with the assent of -Congress, shall have full power to modify or change any of -the provisions of former treaties with the Winnebagoes, in -such manner and to whatever extent he may judge to be necessary -and expedient for their welfare and best interest."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is impossible to avoid having a doubt whether the chiefs -and headmen of the Winnebago tribe who signed this treaty -ever heard that proviso. It is incredible that they could have -been so simple and trustful as to have assented to it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Prospects now brightened for the Winnebagoes. With -their farms given to them for their own, and a sufficient sum -of money realized by the sale of surplus lands to enable them -to thoroughly improve the remainder, their way seemed open -to prosperity and comfort. They "entered upon farming -with a zeal and energy which gave promise of a prosperous -and creditable future."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Every family in the tribe has more or less ground under -cultivation," says their agent. He reports, also, the minutes -of a council held by the chiefs, which tell their own story:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"When we were at Washington last winter, we asked our -Great Father to take $300,000 out of the $1,100,000, so that -we could commence our next spring's work. We do not want -<a id='Page_226'></a>all of the $1,100,000, only sufficient to carry on our improvements. -This money we ask for we request only as a loan; -and when our treaty is ratified, we want it replaced. We -want to buy cattle, horses, ploughs, and wagons; and this -money can be replaced when our lands are sold. We hope you -will get this money: we want good farms and good houses. -Many have already put on white man's clothes, and more of us -will when our treaty is ratified.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Father, we do not want to make you tired of talk, but -hope you will make a strong paper, and urgent request of our -Great Father in respect to our wishes."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1860 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs writes: "The -Winnebagoes continue steadily on the march of improvement. -*** The progress of the Winnebagoes in agricultural growths -is particularly marked with success. There have been raised -by individuals as high as sixty acres of wheat on a single farm. -*** The agent's efforts have been directed to giving to each -Indian his own allotment of land. *** Wigwams are becoming -as scarce as houses were two years ago. *** All Indians -who had horses ploughed and farmed their own lands. -*** The Indians were promised that new and comfortable -houses should be built for them. The treaty not yet being -ratified, I have no funds in my hands that could be made applicable -to this purpose. *** The greater part of the Indians -have entreated me to carry out the meaning of the commissioner -on his visit here, and the reasons for my not doing so do -not seem comprehensible to them. *** The school is in a -flourishing condition."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1861 the commissioner writes that the allotment of -lands in severalty to the Winnebagoes has been "substantially -accomplished;" but that the sales of the remaining lands have -not yet been made, owing to the unsettled condition of the -country, and therefore the funds on which the Indians were -depending for the improvements of their farms have not been -<a id='Page_227'></a>paid to them. They complain bitterly that the provisions of -the treaty of 1859 have not been fulfilled. "It has been two -years and a half since this treaty was concluded," says the -agent, "and the Indians have been told from one season to -another that something would be done under it for their benefit, -and as often disappointed, till the best of them begin to -doubt whether anything will be done. *** The Indians who -have had their allotments made are 'clamoring for their certificates.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>Drunkenness is becoming one of the serious vices of the -tribe. They are surrounded on all sides by white men who -traffic in whiskey, and who are, moreover, anxious to reduce -the Indians to as degraded a state as possible. "There are -some circumstances connected with the location of this tribe -which make it more difficult to protect them from the ravages -of liquor-selling than any other tribe. They are closely surrounded -by a numerous white population, and these people -feel very indignant because the Indians are settled in their -midst, and are disposed to make it as uncomfortable for them -to remain here as they can, hoping at some future time they -may be able to cause their removal."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The time was not far distant. In 1862 we find the Winnebagoes -in trouble indeed. A ferocious massacre of white settlers -by the Sioux had so exasperated the citizens of Minnesota, -that they demanded the removal of all Indians from the -State. The people were so excited that not an Indian could -step outside the limits of the reservation without the risk of -being shot at sight. The Winnebagoes had utterly refused to -join the Sioux in their attack on the whites, and had been -threatened by them with extermination in consequence of this -loyalty. Thus they were equally in danger from both whites -and Indians: their position was truly pitiable.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the Annual Report of the Interior Department for 1862 -the condition of things is thus described: "While it may be -<a id='Page_228'></a>true that a few of the Winnebagoes were engaged in the atrocities -of the Sioux, the tribe, as such, is no more justly responsible -for their acts than our Government would be for a pirate -who happened to have been born on our territory. Notwithstanding -this, the exasperation of the people of Minnesota -appears to be nearly as great toward the Winnebagoes as toward -the Sioux. They demand that the Winnebagoes as well -as the Sioux shall be removed from the limits of the State. -The Winnebagoes are unwilling to move. Yet the Minnesota -people are so excited that not a Winnebago can leave his reservation -without risk of being shot; and as they have never -received their promised implements of agriculture, and the -game on their reservation is exhausted, and their arms have -been taken from them, they are starving."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Their agent writes: "These Indians have been remaining -here in a continuous state of suspense, waiting for the Government -to cause the stipulations of the treaty of 1859 to be carried -into operation: such has been their condition for three -years and a half, and they do not understand why it is so. *** -The fact that a very few of the Winnebagoes were present -and witnessed, if they did not take part in, the massacre at the -Lower Sioux Agency, has caused the Winnebagoes themselves -to be universally suspected of disloyalty. *** The hostile feelings -of the white people are so intense, that I am necessitated -to use extra efforts to keep the Indians upon their own lands. -I have been notified by the whites that the Indians will be -massacred if they go out of their own country; and it is but a -few days since an Indian was killed while crossing the Mississippi -River, for no other reason than that he was an Indian, -and such is the state of public opinion that the murderer goes -unpunished."</p> - -<p class='c010'>As to the loyalty of the tribe, the agent says: "There is no -tribe of Indians more so." There is "no doubt of their loyalty -as a tribe. *** In consequence of a threat made by the -<a id='Page_229'></a>Sioux, immediately upon their outbreak, that they (the Sioux) -would exterminate the Winnebagoes unless they joined them -in a raid against the white people, the Winnebagoes have lived -in fear of an attack from the Sioux, and have almost daily -implored me for protection. *** To further assure them, I -requested of the Governor of the State that two companies of -United States infantry be stationed here in their midst, which -has allayed their fears. *** Notwithstanding the nearness of -the belligerent Sioux, and the unfriendly feelings of the white -people, and other unfortunate circumstances, I am confident -that my Indians will remain loyal to the last. *** They have -been informed that, notwithstanding their fidelity to the Government -and the people, the people of this State are memorializing -Congress to remove them out of the State—which they -consider very unjust under the circumstances, for they have -become attached to this location and would not leave it willingly, -and think their fidelity ought to entitle them to respect -and kind treatment."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The "popular demand" of the people of Minnesota triumphed. -In February, 1863, Congress passed an act authorizing -the "peaceful and quiet removal of the Winnebago Indians -from the State of Minnesota, and the settling of them on a -new reserve." It was determined to locate them "on the Missouri -River somewhere within a hundred miles of Fort Randall, -where it is not doubted they will be secure from any danger -of intrusion from whites." All their guns, rifles, and pistols -were to be taken from them, "securely boxed up," labelled -"with the names of their respective owners." The Department -impressed it on the agent in charge of the removal that it was -"absolutely necessary that no time should be lost in the emigrating -of these Indians." The hostile Sioux were to be -removed at the same time, and to a reservation adjoining the -reservation of the Winnebagoes. The reports of the Indian -Bureau for 1863 tell the story of this removal.<a id='r28' /><a href='#f28' class='c012'><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_230'></a>The commissioner says: "The case of the Winnebagoes is -one of peculiar hardship. I am still of the opinion that this -tribe was in no manner implicated in or responsible for the -cruel and wanton outbreak on the part of the Sioux; but its -consequences to the tribe have been as disastrous as unmerited. -In obedience to the Act of Congress, and the popular demand -of the people of Minnesota, they have been removed to a new -location upon the Missouri River, adjoining that selected for -the Sioux. Contrasting the happy homes, and the abundant -supply for all their wants which they have left behind them, -with the extreme desolation which prevails throughout the -country, including their present location, and their almost defenceless -state, as against the hostile savages in their vicinity, -their present condition is truly pitiable; and it is not surprising -that they have become to some extent discouraged, and are -dissatisfied with their new homes. It cannot be disguised that -their removal, although nominally peaceable and with their -consent, was the result of the overwhelming pressure of the -public sentiment of the community in which they resided; and -it is to be feared that it will be many years before their confidence -in the good faith of our Government, in its professed -desire to ameliorate and improve their condition, will be restored. -Their misfortunes and good conduct deserve our -sympathy."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Act of Congress above mentioned provides for the -peaceable removal of the Indians. In its execution some of -the members of the tribe were found unwilling to leave their -homes; and as there was neither the disposition nor the power -to compel them to accompany their brethren, they remained -upon their old reservation. The most of them are represented -as having entirely abandoned the Indian habits and customs, -and as being fully qualified by good conduct and otherwise -for civilized life. Many of them are enlisted in the -military service, and all are desirous of retaining possession -<a id='Page_231'></a>of the homes allotted to them under the provisions of their -treaty.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The trust lands belonging to the tribe have been placed in -the market, and from the amount already sold has been realized -$82,537.62. An appraisement has also been had of the lands -of the diminished reserve, and the same will soon be placed in -the market."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the Report of the Superintendent of the North-west Territory -for the same year is the following summing up of their -case: "The case of these Winnebago Indians is one of peculiar -hardship. Hurried from their comfortable homes in Minnesota, -in 1863, almost without previous notice, huddled together on -steamboats with poor accommodations, and transported to -the Crow Creek Agency in Dakota Territory at an expense to -themselves of more than $50,000, they were left, after a very -imperfect and hasty preparation of their new agency for their -reception, upon a sandy beach on the west bank of the Missouri -River, in a country remarkable only for the rigors of its -winter climate and the sterility of its soil, to subsist themselves -where the most industrious and frugal white man would -fail, five years out of six, to raise enough grain upon which to -subsist a family. The stern alternative was presented to this -unfortunate people, thus deprived of comfortable homes (on -account of no crime or misdemeanor of their own), of abandoning -this agency, or encountering death from cold or starvation. -They wisely chose the former; and after encountering hardships -and sufferings too terrible to relate, and the loss of several -hundred of their tribe by starvation and freezing, they -arrived at their present place of residence [the Omaha Agency] -in a condition which excited the active sympathy of all -who became acquainted with the story of their wrongs. There -they have remained, trusting that the Government would redeem -its solemn promise to place them in a position west of -the Missouri which should be as comfortable as the one which -they occupied in Minnesota.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_232'></a>"This tribe is characterized by frugality, thrift, and industry -to an extent unequalled by any other tribe of Indians in the -North-west. Loyal to the Government, and peaceable toward -their neighbors, they are entitled to the fostering care of the -General Government. The improvement of the homes which -they have voluntarily selected for their future residence will -place them in a short time beyond the reach of want, and take -from the Government the burden of supplying their wants at -an actual expense of $100,000."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was in May, 1863, that the Winnebagoes gathered at Fort -Snelling, ready for their journey. The chiefs are said to have -"acquiesced in the move as a matter of necessity, for the protection -of their people," but some of them "actually shed -tears on taking leave." Colonel Mix, who was in charge of -this removal, wrote to Washington, urgently entreating that -tents at least might be provided for them on their arrival at -their new homes in the wilderness. He also suggests that it is -a question whether they ought to be settled so near the hostile -Sioux, especially as just before leaving Minnesota some of the -tribe had "scalped three Sioux Indians, thinking it would propitiate -them in the kind regards of their Great Father at Washington, -and, as a consequence, they would perhaps be permitted -to remain in Minnesota."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The removal was accomplished in May and June. There -were, all told, 1945 of the Winnebagoes. They arrived to find -themselves in an almost barren wilderness—a dry, hard soil, -"too strong for ploughs;" so much so, that it was "difficult to -get a plough to run a whole day without breaking." A drought -had parched the grass, so that in many places where the previous -year several tons of good hay to an acre had been raised -there was not now "pasturage for a horse." The cottonwood -timber, all which could be procured, was "crooked, difficult to -handle, full of wind-shakes, rots, etc." The channel of the Missouri -River here was so "changeable," and the banks so low, -<a id='Page_233'></a>that it was "dangerous to get too near." They were obliged -therefore to settle half a mile away from the river. No wonder -that on July 1st the Winnebagoes are reported as "not -pleased with their location, and anxious to return to Minnesota, -or to some other place among the whites." They gathered together -in council, and requested Superintendent Thompson to -write to their Great Father for permission "to move among -the whites again. *** They have lived so long among the -whites that they are more afraid of wild Indians than the -whites are." The superintendent hopes, however, they will be -more contented as soon as he can get them comfortable buildings. -But on July 16th we find Brigadier-general Sulley, commander -of the North-western expedition against Indians, writing -to the Department in behalf of these unfortunate creatures. -General Sulley having been detained in camp near Crow Creek -on account of the low water, the chiefs had gone to him with -their tale of misery. "They stated that nothing would grow -here. They dare not go out to hunt for fear of other tribes, -and they would all starve to death. This I believe to be true, -without the Government intends to ration them all the time. -The land is sandy, dry, and parched up. *** The land is poor; -a low, sandy soil. I don't think you can depend on a crop of -corn even once in five years, as it seldom rains here in the summer. -*** I find them hard at work making canoes, with the -intention of quitting the agency and going to join the Omahas -or some other tribe down the river. They said they had been -promised to be settled on the Big Sioux River. *** I told -them they must stay here till they get permission from Washington -to move; that, if they attempted it, they would be fired -on by my troops stationed down the river."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This is a graphic picture of the condition of a band of two -thousand human beings, for whose "benefit" $82,537.62 had -just been realized from sale of their lands by the Government, -to say nothing of the property they owned in lands yet -<a id='Page_234'></a>unsold, and in annuity provisions of previous treaties to the -amount of over $1,000,000 capital! Is not their long suffering, -their patience, well-nigh incredible?</p> - -<p class='c010'>Spite of the dread of being fired on by the United States -troops, they continued to make canoes and escape in them from -this "new home" in the desert, and in October the Department -of the Interior began to receive letters containing paragraphs -like this: "I have also to report that small detachments -of Winnebagoes are constantly arriving in canoes, locating on -our reserve, and begging for food to keep them from starving."—<i>Agent -for Omaha Agency.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>These are the men who only one year before had been living -in comfortable homes, with several hundred acres of good -ground under cultivation, and "clamoring for certificates" of -their "allotted" farms—now shelterless, worse than homeless, -escaping by canoe-loads, under fire of United States soldiers, -from a barren desert, and "clamoring" for food at Indian -agencies!</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Department of the Interior promptly reports to the Superintendent -of Indian Affairs in Minnesota this "information," -and calls it "astounding." The Department had "presumed -that Agent Balcombe would adopt such measures as would induce -the Winnebagoes to remain upon their reservation," and -had "understood that ample arrangements had been made for -their subsistence." It, however, ordered the Omaha agent to -feed the starving refugees till spring, and it sent word to those -still remaining on the reservation that they must not "undertake -to remove without the consent of their Great Father, as it -is his determination that a home that shall be healthy, pleasant, -and fertile, shall be furnished to them at the earliest practicable -moment."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This was in the autumn of 1863. In one year no less than -1222 of the destitute Winnebagoes had escaped and made -their way to the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska. Here the -<a id='Page_235'></a>Superintendent of the Northern Superintendency held a council -with them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They expressed," he says, "a strong desire to have some -arrangement made by which they would be allowed to occupy -a portion of that reservation. It was represented that the -Omahas wished it also. *** I found that I could not gain -their consent to go back to their reservation, and I had no -means within my reach of forcing them back, even if I had -deemed it proper to do so." The superintendent recommended, -therefore, that they be subsisted where they were "until some -arrangement be made for their satisfaction, or some concert of -action agreed upon between the War Department and the Interior -Department by which they can be kept on their reservation -after they shall have been moved there."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In September of this same year the agent for the Winnebago -Reserve wrote that the absence of a protecting force had -been one of the reasons of the Indians leaving in such numbers. -"Both the Winnebagoes and Sioux who have stayed here -have lived in fear and trembling close to the stockade, and have -refused to separate and live upon separate tracts of land."</p> - -<p class='c010'>He gives some further details as to the soil and climate. -"The region has been subject, as a general rule, to droughts, -and the destructive visits of grasshoppers and other insects. -The soil has a great quantity of alkali in it; it is an excessively -dry climate; it very seldom rains, and dews are almost unknown -here: almost destitute of timber. *** It is generally -supposed that game is plenty about here. This is an erroneous -impression. There are but a very few small streams, an -entire absence of lakes, and an almost entire destitution of timber—the -whole country being one wilderness of dry prairie for -hundreds of miles around; hence there is but a very little -small game, fish, or wild fruit to be found. In former times -the buffalo roamed over this country, but they have receded, -and very seldom come here in any numbers. *** The Indians -<a id='Page_236'></a>must have horses to hunt them: horses they have not. The -Winnebagoes had some when they first arrived, but they were -soon stolen by the hostile Sioux."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Agent Balcombe must have led a hard life on this reservation. -Exposed to all the inconveniences of a remote frontier, -three hundred miles from any food-raising country; receiving -letters from the Interior Department expressing itself "astounded" -that he does not "induce the Indians in his charge to remain -on their reservation;" and letters from citizens, and petitions -from towns in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska, -imploring him to "gather up" all the wandering Winnebagoes -who have been left behind; unprovided with any proper -military protection, and surrounded by hostile Indians—no -wonder that he recommends to the Government "to remove -and consolidate" the different tribes of Indians into "one territory" -as soon as possible.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The effects of this sojourn in the wilderness upon the Winnebagoes -were terrible. Not only were they rendered spiritless -and desperate by sufferings, they were demoralized by being -brought again into conflict with the wild Sioux. They had -more than one skirmish with them, and, it is said, relapsed so -far into the old methods of their barbaric life that at one of -their dances they actually roasted and ate the heart of a Sioux -prisoner! Yet in less than a year after they were gathered together -once more on the Omaha Reservation, and began again -to have hopes of a "permanent home," we find their chiefs and -headmen sending the following petition to Washington:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<span class='sc'>Our Great Father at Washington, all greeting</span>,—From -the chiefs, braves, and headmen of your dutiful children -the Winnebagoes.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Father, we cannot see you. You are far away from us. -We cannot speak to you. We will write to you; and, Father, -we hope you will read our letter and answer us.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_237'></a>"Father: Some years ago, when we had our homes on -Turkey River, we had a school for our children, where many of -them learned to read and write and work like white people, and -we were happy.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Father: Many years have passed away since our school -was broken up; we have no such schools among us, and our -children are growing up in ignorance of those things that -should render them industrious, prosperous, and happy, and -we are sorry. Father: It is our earnest wish to be so situated -no longer. It is our sincere desire to have again established -among us such a school as we see in operation among your -Omaha children. Father: As soon as you find a permanent -home for us, will you not do this for us? And, Father, as we -would like our children taught the Christian religion, as before, -we would like our school placed under the care of the Presbyterian -Board of Foreign Missions. And last, Father, to show -you our sincerity, we desire to have set apart for its establishment, -erection, and support, all of our school-funds and whatever -more is necessary.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Father: This is our prayer. Will not you open your ears -and heart to us, and write to us?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>This letter was signed by thirty-eight of the chiefs and headmen -of the Winnebagoes.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In March, 1865, a new treaty was made between the United -States and this long-suffering tribe of Indians, by which, in -consideration of their "ceding, selling, and conveying" to the -United States all their right in the Dakota Reserve, the United -States agreed "to set apart for the occupation and future home -of the Winnebago Indians forever" a certain tract of 128,000 -acres in Nebraska—a part of the Omaha Reservation which the -Omahas were willing to sell. The United States also agreed to -erect mills, break land, furnish certain amounts of seeds, tools, -guns, and horses, oxen and wagons, and to subsist the tribe for -<a id='Page_238'></a>one year, as some small reparation for the terrible losses and -sufferings they had experienced. From this word "forever" -the Winnebagoes perhaps took courage.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At the time of their removal from Minnesota, among the -fugitives who fled back to Wisconsin was the chief De Carry. -He died there, two years later, in great poverty. He was very -old, but remarkably intelligent; he was the grandson of Ho-po-ko-e-kaw, -or "Glory of the Morning," who was the queen -of the Winnebagoes in 1776, when Captain Carver visited -the tribe. There is nothing in Carver's quaint and fascinating -old story more interesting than his account of the Winnebago -country. He stayed with them four days, and was entertained -by them "in a very distinguished manner." Indeed, if we -may depend upon Captain Carver's story, all the North-western -tribes were, in their own country, a gracious and hospitable -people. He says: "I received from every tribe of them the -most hospitable and courteous treatment, and am convinced -that, till they are contaminated by the example and spirituous -liquors of their more refined neighbors, they will retain this -friendly and inoffensive conduct toward strangers."</p> - -<p class='c010'>He speaks with great gusto of the bread that the Winnebago -women made from the wild maize. The soft young -kernels, while full of milk, are kneaded into a paste, the cakes -wrapped in bass-wood leaves, and baked in the ashes. "Better -flavored bread I never ate in any country," says the honest -captain.</p> - -<p class='c010'>He found the Winnebagoes' home truly delightful. The -shores of the lake were wooded with hickory, oak, and hazel. -Grapes, plums, and other fruits grew in abundance. The lake -abounded in fish; and in the fall of the year with geese, ducks, -and teal, the latter much better flavored than those found nearer -the sea, as they "acquire their excessive fatness by feeding -on the wild rice which grows so plentifully in these parts."</p> - -<p class='c010'>How can we bear to contrast the picture of this peace, -<a id='Page_239'></a>plenty, and gracious hospitality among the ancient Winnebagoes -with the picture of their descendants—only two generations -later—hunted, driven, starved? And how can we bear -to contrast the picture of the drunken, gambling Winnebago -of Minnesota with this picture which Captain Carver gives of -a young Winnebago chief with whom he journeyed for a few -days?</p> - -<p class='c010'>Captain Carver, after a four days' visit with the Winnebagoes, -and "having made some presents to the good old queen, -and received her blessing," went on his way. Two months -later, as he was travelling to the Falls of St. Anthony, he encountered -a young Winnebago chief going on an embassy to -some of the bands of the "Nadouwessies" (Sioux). This young -chief, finding that Captain Carver was about to visit the Falls, -agreed to accompany him, "his curiosity having been often excited -by the accounts he had received from some of his chiefs. -He accordingly left his family (for the Indians never travel without -their households) at this place under charge of my Mohawk -servant, and we proceeded together by land, attended only by -my Frenchman, to this celebrated place. We could distinctly -hear the noise of the water full fifty miles before we reached -the Falls; and I was greatly pleased and surprised when I approached -this astonishing work of nature; but I was not long -at liberty to indulge these emotions, my attention being called -off by the behavior of my companion. The prince had no -sooner gained the point that overlooks this wonderful cascade -than he began with an audible voice to address the Great Spirit, -one of whose places of residence he imagined this to be. -He told him that he had come a long way to pay his adorations -to him, and now would make him the best offerings in -his power. He accordingly threw his pipe into the stream; -then the roll that contained his tobacco; after these the bracelets -he wore on his arms and wrists; next an ornament that encircled -his neck, composed of beads and wires; and at last the -<a id='Page_240'></a>ear-rings from his ears; in short, he presented to his god every -part of his dress that was valuable. During this he frequently -smote his breast with great violence, threw his arms about, and -appeared to be much agitated. All this while he continued -his adorations, and at length concluded them with fervent petitions -that the Great Spirit would constantly afford us his protection -on our travels, giving us a bright sun, a blue sky, and -clear, untroubled waters; nor would he leave the place till we -had smoked together with my pipe in honor of the Great -Spirit.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I was greatly surprised at beholding an instance of such -elevated devotion in so young an Indian. *** Indeed, the whole -conduct of this young prince at once charmed and amazed me. -During the few days we were together his attention seemed to -be totally employed in yielding me every assistance in his -power, and even in so short a time he gave me innumerable -proofs of the most generous and disinterested friendship, so -that on our return I parted from him with the greatest reluctance."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1866 the report from the Winnebagoes is that they are -"improving;" manifest "a good degree of industry;" that the -health of the tribe is generally poor, but "as good as can be -expected when we remember their exposures and sufferings -during the last three years." The tribe has "diminished some -four or five hundred since they left Minnesota." One hundred -soldiers have returned, "who have served with credit to -themselves and to their tribe in the defence of their country." -No school has yet been established on the agency, and this is -said to be "their greatest want."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The superintendent writes: "The appropriations under the -late treaty have all been made, and the work of fitting up the -reservation is progressing. It affords me the highest personal -satisfaction to assure the Department that this deeply-wronged -and much-abused tribe will soon be in all respects comfortable -<a id='Page_241'></a>and self-sustaining. They entered upon their new reservation -late last May, and during the present year they have raised at -least twenty thousand bushels of corn."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1867 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs says: "The -Winnebagoes have a just claim against the Government on account -of their removal from Minnesota, the expenses of which -<i>were borne out of their own tribal funds</i>. The Government is -clearly bound in all honor to refund to them moneys thus -expended."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It would seem that there could have been no question in the -beginning as to who should pay the costs of such a removal as -that. It should not even have been a tax on the general Government, -but on the State of Minnesota, which demanded it—especially -as there was no shadow of doubt that the demand -was made—not because the citizens of Minnesota had any real -fear of the peaceable and kindly Winnebagoes (who were as -much in terror of the Sioux as they were themselves), but because -they "coveted the splendid country the Winnebagoes -were occupying, and the Sioux difficulties furnished the pretext -to get rid of them with the aid of Congressional legislation."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Some members of the tribe who remained in Minnesota -still claimed their "allotted" lands; "their share of all moneys -payable to the Winnebagoes under treaty stipulations, and that -their share of the funds of the tribe be capitalized and paid to -them in bulk; their peculiar relations as Indians be dissolved, -and they left to merge themselves in the community where -they have cast their lot." The commissioner urges upon the -Government compliance with these requests.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1868 a school was opened on the Winnebago Agency, -and had a daily attendance of one hundred and fifty scholars. -The tribe adopted a code of laws for their government, and -the year was one of peace and quietness, with the exception -of some dissatisfaction on the part of the Indians in regard to -three hundred cows, which, having been sent to the agency in -<a id='Page_242'></a>fulfilment of one of the provisions of the treaty, were nevertheless -ordered by the Indian Bureau to be "kept as Department -stock." The Indians very naturally held that they had a right -to these cows; nevertheless, they continued peaceable and contented, -in the feeling that they had "at last found a home," -where they might "hope to remain and cultivate the soil with -the feeling that it is theirs, and that their children will not in -a few days be driven from their well-tilled and productive -lands." They are, however, "growing exceedingly anxious for -the allotment of their lands in severalty."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1869 "preparations" were "being made for allotting the -lands to heads of families."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1870 "the allotment of land in severalty to the Indians has -been nearly completed, each head of a family receiving eighty -acres. *** The Indians anxiously look for the patents to these, -as many have already commenced making improvements. *** -At least thirty have broken four acres of prairie apiece, and -several have built houses. *** Three schools are in operation, -and four hundred acres of ground under cultivation."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this year comes also an interesting report from the stray -Winnebagoes left behind in Wisconsin. They and the stray -Pottawattomies? who are in the same neighborhood are "remarkably -quiet and inoffensive, giving no cause of complaint; -on the contrary, the towns and villages where they trade their -berries, maple-sugar, etc., are deriving considerable benefit from -them: a number have been employed in lumbering, harvesting, -and hop-picking. A number of mill-owners and lumbermen -have informed me that the Indians they have employed in their -business have been steady, good hands. *** There are nearly -one thousand of these Winnebagoes. Some of them have -bought land; others are renting it; and all express an anxiety -that the 'Great Father' should give them a reservation in this -region, and allow them to remain."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1871 the Nebraska Winnebagoes deposed their old chiefs, -<a id='Page_243'></a>and elected twelve new ones, to serve one year; these were -mainly from the younger members of the tribe who were in -favor of civilization and progress. This was an important step -toward breaking up the old style of tribal relations.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1872 we hear again from the "strays" in Wisconsin. The -whites having complained of them, Congress has appropriated -funds to move them to their respective tribes "west of the Mississippi;" -but the removal has not been undertaken "for various -reasons," and the commissioner doubts "whether it can be accomplished -without additional and severe legislation on the -part of Congress, as the Indians are attached to the country, -and express great repugnance to their contemplated removal -from it."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The poor creatures are not wanted anywhere. Spite of -their being "steady, good hands" for hired labor, and useful -to towns and villages in furnishing fruits and fish, the Wisconsin -people do not want them in their State. And the agent of the -Winnebago Reservation writes, earnestly protesting against their -being brought there. He thinks they are in moral tone far -below the Indians under his charge. Moreover, he says "the -prejudice in the surrounding country is such" that he believes -it would be bad policy to remove any "more Indians" there. -Nebraska does not like Indians any better than Wisconsin does, -or Minnesota did. He adds also that his Indians "would be -greatly stimulated to improve their claims if they could secure -the titles for them. They have waited three years since the -first allotments were made. It is difficult to make them believe -that it requires so long a time to prepare the patents, and -they are beginning to fear that they are not coming."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1873 the Winnebagoes are cited as a "striking example -of what can be accomplished in a comparatively short time in -the way of civilizing and Christianizing Indians. *** Their -beautiful tract of country is dotted over with substantially-built -cottages; the farmers own their wagons, horses, harness, -<a id='Page_244'></a>furniture of their houses—dress in civilized costume, raise -crops—and several hundred Winnebago men assisted the farmers -in adjoining counties during the late harvest in gathering -their grain crop, and proved themselves efficient and satisfactory -workmen."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the winter of 1874 the Wisconsin "strays" were moved -down to the Nebraska Reservation. They were discontented, -fomented dissatisfaction in the tribe, and in less than a year -more than half of them had wandered back to Wisconsin -again; a striking instance of the differences in the Government's -methods of handling different bands of Indians. The -thirty Poncas who ran away from Indian Territory were pursued -and arrested, as if they had been thieves escaping with -stolen property; but more than five hundred Winnebagoes, in -less than one year, stroll away from their reserve, make their -way back to Wisconsin, and nothing is done about it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1875 there are only two hundred and four of the Wisconsin -"strays" left on the Nebraska Reservation. All the others -are "back in their old haunts, where a few seem to be making -a sincere effort to take care of themselves by taking land under -the Homestead Act."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Nebraska Winnebagoes are reported as being "nearly -civilized;" all are engaged in civilized pursuits, "the men working -with their own hands, and digging out of the ground three-fourths -of their subsistence." They have raised in this year -20,000 bushels of corn, 5800 bushels of wheat, and 6000 bushels -of oats and vegetables. They have broken 800 acres of -new land, and have built 3000 rods of fencing. Nearly one-sixth -of the entire tribe is in attendance at schools. The system -of electing chiefs annually works well; the chiefs, in their -turn, select twelve Indians to serve for the year as policemen, -and they prove efficient in maintaining order.</p> - -<p class='c010'>What an advance in six years! Six years ago there were but -twenty-three homes and only 300 acres of land under cultivation -<a id='Page_245'></a>on the whole reservation; the people were huddled together -in ravines and bottom-lands, and were dying of disease -and exposure.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1876 the Winnebagoes are reported again as "fast emerging -from a condition of dependence upon their annual appropriations. -*** Each head of a family has a patent for eighty -acres of land. Many have fine farms, and are wholly supporting -themselves and families by their own industry. *** The -issue of rations has been discontinued, except to the Wisconsin -branch of the tribe and to the sick-list."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In what does this report differ from the report which would -be rendered from any small farming village in the United -States? The large majority "wholly supporting themselves -and their families by their own industry;" a small minority of -worthless or disabled people being fed by charity—<i>i.e.</i>, being -fed on food bought, at least in part, by interest money due on -capital made by sales of land in which they had a certain reckonable -share of ownership. Every one of the United States has -in nearly every county an almshouse, in which just such a class -of worthless and disabled persons will be found; and so crowded -are these almshouses, and so appreciable a burden is their support -on the tax-payers of State and county, that there are perpetual -disputes going on between the authorities of neighboring -districts as to the ownership and responsibility of individual -paupers: for the paupers in civilized almshouses are never -persons who have had proceeds of land sales "invested" for -their benefit, the interest to be paid to them "annually forever." -It is for nobody's interest to keep them paupers, or to -take care of them as such.</p> - -<p class='c010'>We now find the Winnebagoes once more quietly established -in comfortable homes—as they were, in their own primitive -fashion, in 1822, when Dr. Morse visited them on the shores -of their beautiful lake; as they were, after our civilized fashion, -in 1862, on the healthful and fertile up-lands of Minnesota. -<a id='Page_246'></a>In their present home they seem to have reason, at last, -to feel secure, to anticipate permanence, safety, and success. -Their lands have been allotted to them in severalty: each head -of a family has his patent for eighty acres. They are, in the -main, self-supporting.</p> - -<p class='c010'>How does the United States Government welcome this success, -this heroic triumph of a patient people over disheartening -obstacles and sufferings?</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior for -1876 the Secretary says: "As a matter of economy, the greatest -saving could be made by uniting all the Indians upon a few -reservations; the fewer, the better." He says that there is land -enough in the Indian Territory to give every Indian—man, -woman, and child—in the country seventy-five acres apiece. He -says, "The arguments are all in favor of the consolidation." -He then goes on to enumerate those arguments: "Expensive -agencies would be abolished; the Indians themselves can be -more easily watched over and controlled; evil-designing men -be the better kept away from them, and illicit trade and barter -in arms and ammunition and whiskey prevented. Goods could -be supplied at a greater saving; the military service relieved; -the Indians better taught, and friendly rivalry established among -them—those most civilized hastening the progress of those below -them; and <i>most of the land now occupied as reserves reverting -to the General Government, would be open to entry and -sale</i>."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Here are nine reasons given for removing all Indians to Indian -Territory. Five of these reasons ostensibly point to benefits -likely to accrue from this removal to the Indians. The -other four point to benefits likely to accrue to the Government; -the first three of these last are, simply, "saving;" the -fourth is the significant one, "gain"—"most of the land reverting -to the General Government would be open to entry and -sale."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_247'></a>It was before this necessity of opening Indian lands "to entry -and sale" that the Winnebagoes had been fleeing, from -1815 to 1863. It seems they are no safer now. There is evidently -as much reason for moving them out of Nebraska as -there was for moving them out of Wisconsin and Minnesota.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Secretary goes on to say: "As soon as the Indian is -taught to toil for his daily bread, and realize the sense of proprietorship -in the results of his labor, it cannot but be further -to his advantage to be able to appreciate that his labor is expended -upon his individual possessions and for his personal -benefit. *** The Indian must be made to see the practical advantage -to himself of his work, and feel that he reaps the full -benefit of it. Everything should teach him that he has a home; -*** a hearth-stone of his own, around which he can gather his -family, and in its possession be entirely secure and independent."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The logical relation of these paragraphs to the preceding one -is striking, and the bearing of the two together on the case of -the Winnebagoes is still more striking.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the same report the Commissioner for Indian Affairs -says: "If legislation were secured giving the President authority -to remove any tribe or band, or any portion of a tribe or -band, whenever in his judgment it was practicable, to any one -of the reservations named, and if Congress would appropriate -from year to year a sum sufficient to enable him to take advantage -of every favorable opportunity to make such removals, I -am confident that a few years' trial would conclusively demonstrate -the entire feasibility of the plan. I believe that all the -Indians in Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota, and a part at least -of those in Wyoming and Montana, could be induced to remove -to the Indian Territory."</p> - -<p class='c010'>He adds "that the Indian sentiment is opposed to such removal -is true," but he thinks that, "with a fair degree of persistence," -the removal "can be secured." No doubt it can.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Later in the same report, under the head of "Allotments in -<a id='Page_248'></a>Severalty," he says: "It is doubtful whether any high degree -of civilization is possible without individual ownership of land. -The records of the past, and the experience of the present, testify -that the soil should be made secure to the individual by -all the guarantees which law can devise, and that nothing less -will induce men to put forth their best exertions. It is essential -that each individual should feel that his home is his own; -*** that he has a direct personal interest in the soil on which -he lives, and that that interest will be faithfully protected for -him and for his children by the Government."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The commissioner and the secretary who wrote these clear -statements of evident truths, and these eloquent pleas for the -Indians' rights, both knew perfectly well that hundreds of Indians -had had lands "allotted to them" in precisely this way, -and had gone to work on the lands so allotted, trusting "that -that interest would be faithfully protected by the Government;" -and that these "allotments," and the "certificates" of -them, had proved to be good for nothing as soon as the citizens -of a State united in a "demand" that the Indians should be -moved. The commissioner and the secretary knew perfectly -well, at the time they wrote these paragraphs, that in this one -Winnebago tribe in Nebraska, for instance, "every head of a -family owned eighty acres of land," and was hard at work on -it—industrious, self-supporting, trying to establish that "hearth-stone" -around which, as the secretary says, he must "gather -his family, and in its possession be entirely secure and independent." -And yet the secretary and the commissioner advise -the moving of this Winnebago tribe to Indian Territory with -the rest: "all the Indians in Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota" -could probably be "induced to move," they say.</p> - -<p class='c010'>These quotations from this report of the Interior Department -are but a fair specimen of the velvet glove of high-sounding -phrase of philanthropic and humane care for the Indian, by -which has been most effectually hid from the sight of the -<a id='Page_249'></a>American people the iron hand of injustice and cruelty which -has held him for a hundred years helpless in its grasp.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this same year an agent on one of the Nebraska agencies -writes feelingly and sensibly:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Nothing has tended to retard the progress of this tribe in -the line of opening farms for themselves so much as the unsettlement -occasioned by a continued agitation of the subject of -selling their reservation and the removal of the tribe. *** The -improvement that has been made at this agency during the -past three years in the direction of developing among the Indians -the means of self-support, seems to have caused an uneasiness -that has been prolific of a great deal of annoyance, inasmuch -as it has alarmed this speculative element around us with -the fear that the same (continued) will eventually plant the Indians -on their present fertile land so firmly that they cannot -be removed, and thus they be deprived of the benefits of manipulating -the sale of their reservation."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nevertheless, the Winnebagoes keep on in their work—building -houses, school-buildings, many of them of brick -made on the ground.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this year (1876) they experienced a great injustice in the -passing of an Act of Congress fixing the total amount to be -expended for pay of employés at any one agency at not more -than $10,000. This necessitated the closing of the fine building -they had built at a cost of $20,000 for the purpose of an -industrial boarding-school.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this year's report their agent gives a resumé of the financial -condition of the tribe: "By treaty proclaimed June 16th, -1838, the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States all their -land east of the Mississippi, in consideration of which they -were to receive $1,100,000. The balance of this, after making -certain payments, was to be invested for their benefit, on which -the United States guaranteed to pay them an annual interest -of not less than five per cent.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_250'></a>"The Winnebagoes receive no support from the Government, -other than from the interest appropriated annually on -what remains of these funds. This in 1870 amounted to over -$50,000. Since then the half-breeds, numbering one hundred -and sixty persons, members of the tribe remaining in Minnesota -at the time of the removal of the Indians from that State in -1863, have, in accordance with the provisions of the act making -appropriations for the Indian service, approved March 3d, -1871, been paid their proportion of the principal of all Winnebago -funds, as shown on the books of the Treasury at that -time, including the proportion of $85,000, on which but five -more instalments of interest were to be paid, per fourth Article -treaty October 13th, 1846. In computing this proportion, -the whole number of the tribe considered as being entitled to -participate in the benefits of the tribal funds was 1531; which -number included only those located on the Winnebago reservation -in Nebraska at that time, in addition to the one hundred -and sixty already spoken of. By this Act of Congress -the Nebraska Winnebagoes, who comprise only that portion -of the tribe which has complied with treaty stipulations, and -quietly acquiesced in the demands of the Government, were -deprived of nearly one-eighth part of their accustomed support.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Other reductions were afterward made for the purchase of -a reservation adjoining the old one in this State, and for removing -to it the wandering bands of Winnebagoes in Wisconsin. -These were supposed to have numbered in all nearly one thousand -persons. They had not been in the habit of receiving any -attention or acknowledgment from the Government since they, -as a tribal organization, had declined to treat with it. Nearly -all of them objected to removing from Wisconsin to their new -reservation in Nebraska, and, as a natural consequence, soon -returned after being compelled to do so. At the present time -there are probably less than one hundred of the number remaining -here. For the past three years the sum to which the -<a id='Page_251'></a>Wisconsin Winnebagoes would have been entitled had they remained -on their reservation, amounting in all to $48,521 07, -has been set apart, awaiting such act of Congress as will give -relief in the premises; thus reducing the total amount received -per annum by that portion of the tribe living on the reservation -to but little more than one-half of what it was seven years -ago. It seems needless to say that they are very much dissatisfied -at this, and that when they refer to the subject I have some -difficulty in satisfying them as to the justice of the governmental -policy in setting apart funds (to be expended at some -future time) for the benefit of certain individuals who persist in -absenting themselves from their reservation, while others, who -are absent but a few months, are deprived of all advantages -from issues of supplies or payments that may have been made -during their absence."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This case is a good illustration of the working of the trustee -relation between the United States Government and its wards.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1877 we find the Secretary of the Interior still recommending -that the Indians be "gradually gathered together on -smaller reservations," to the end that "greater facilities be afforded -for civilization." He reiterates that "the enjoyment -and pride of individual ownership of property is one of the -most effective civilizing agencies," and recommends that "allotments -of small tracts of land should be made to the heads -of families on all reservations, to be held in severalty under -proper restrictions, so that they may have fixed homes."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The commissioner also recommends "a steady concentration -of the smaller bands of Indians on the larger reservations." -He calls attention again to the fact that there are 58,000 square -miles in the Indian Territory "set apart for the use of Indians, -and that there they can be fed and clothed at a greatly diminished -expense; and, better than all, can be kept in obedience, -and taught to become civilized and self-supporting."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1878 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs reports that a -<a id='Page_252'></a>bill has been drawn "providing for the removal and consolidation -of certain Indians in the States of Oregon, Colorado, Iowa, -Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and the Territories -of Washington and Dakota. *** A reduction of twenty-five -reservations and eleven agencies will thus be effected. *** -There will be restored to the public domain 17,642,455 acres -of land." He says that "further consolidations of like character -are not only possible, but expedient and advisable. *** -There is a vast area of land in the Indian Territory not yet occupied."</p> - -<p class='c010'>With the same ludicrous, complacent logic as before, he proceeds -to give as the reason for uprooting all these Indians from -the homes where they are beginning to thrive and take root, -and moving them again—for the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or -seventh time, as it may be—the fact that, "among the most -radical defects of the policy formerly pursued with the Indians, -has been the frequent changes in their location which have -been made. *** Permanent homes, sufficient aid to enable -them to build houses, cultivate the soil, and to subsist them -until they have harvested their first crops, will wean them entirely -from their old methods of life, and in the course of a -few years enable them to become entirely self-supporting. *** -Among the more forcible arguments which can be presented -in connection with this subject is the fact that the expenses -attending the removal and consolidation of the Indians, as herein -proposed, <i>will be more than met from the sale of lands vacated</i>. -*** Much of the land now owned by these Indians is -valuable only for its timber, and may be sold at an appraised -value for an amount far in excess of the price fixed by law, -and yet leave a large margin of profit to the purchaser into -whose hands the lands will fall. *** I can see no reason why -the Government should not avail itself of these facts, and in -effecting the consolidation of the Indians, and the opening of -the lands for settlement, sell the same for an amount sufficient -<a id='Page_253'></a>to support the Indians in their new locations, without any actual -drain on the Treasury in the future. *** The lands belong -to the Indians, and they are clearly entitled to receive the full -value of the same when sold."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this sentence we reach the high-water mark of the sophistry -and dishonesty of the Department's position. "The -lands belong to the Indians," but we will compel them to "restore -to the public domain" (<i>i.e.</i>, to give up to white settlers) -17,642,455 acres of them. The Indians "are clearly entitled -to receive the full value of the same when sold," but we will -compel them to expend that "full value" in removing to a -place where they do not want to go, opening new lands, building -new houses, buying new utensils, implements, furniture and -stock, and generally establishing themselves, "without any actual -drain on the Treasury" of the United States: and the -Department of the Interior "can see no reason why the Government -should not avail itself of these facts."</p> - -<p class='c010'>All this is proposed with a view to the benefit of the Indians. -The report goes on to reiterate the same old story that the Indians -must have "a perfect title to their lands;" that they have -come to feel that they are at any time liable to be moved, -"whenever the pressure of white settlers upon them may create -a demand for their lands," and that they "decline to make any -improvements on their lands, even after an allotment in severalty -has been made, until they have received their patents for -the same," and that even "after the issue of patents the difficulties -surrounding them do not cease." Evidently not, since, -as we have seen, it is now several years since every head of a -family among these Winnebagoes, whose "removal" the commissioner -now recommends, secured his "patent" for eighty -acres of land.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Finally, the commissioner says: "Every means that human -ingenuity can devise, legal or illegal, has been resorted to for -the purpose of obtaining possession of Indian lands." Of this -<a id='Page_254'></a>there would seem to be left no doubt in the mind of any intelligent -person, after reading the above quotations.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is not to be wondered that when the news of such schemes -as these reaches the Indians on their reservations great alarm -and discontent are the result. We find in the reports from -the Nebraska agencies for this year unmistakable indications -of disheartenment and anxiety. The Winnebagoes are reported -to be very anxious to be made citizens. A majority are in -favor of it, "provided the Government will adopt certain measures -which they consider necessary for the care and protection -of their property."</p> - -<p class='c010'>They have had a striking illustration of the disadvantage of -not being citizens, in an instance of the unpunished murder of -one of their number by a white man. The story is related by -the agent tersely and well, and is one of the notable incidents -in the history of the relation between the United States Government -and its wards.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Henry Harris, a Winnebago in good standing, an industrious -man and a successful farmer, was employed by Joseph -Smith, a white man, to cut wood on his land in Dakota County, -a short distance north of the reservation. While alone and -thus engaged, on the 29th of last January, Harris was shot -through the heart with a rifle-ball. I had his dead body taken -before the coroner of the county, and at the inquest held before -that officer it was shown, to the satisfaction of the jury -that rendered a verdict in accordance therewith, that the Indian -came to his death at the hands of one D. Balinska, who -had been for many years leading a hermit's life on a tract of -land that he owned adjoining the reservation, and who had -threatened Harris's life a few months before, when they quarrelled -about damages for corn destroyed by Balinska's horse. -There being snow on the ground at the time of the murder, -Balinska was tracked from his home to the place where, under -cover, he did the shooting; and his shot-pouch, containing a -<a id='Page_255'></a>moulded ball of the same weight as the one cut from the body -of the Indian, was found near by and identified. Notwithstanding -this direct evidence, which was laid before the Grand-jury -of Dakota County, that honorable body was unwilling to -find a 'true bill;' for the reason, as I understand, that it was only -an Indian that was killed, and it would not be popular to incur -the expense of bringing the case to trial. This is but another -illustration of the difficulty of punishing a white man for a -wrong committed against an Indian. I need hardly say that -the Indians, when comparing this murder with that of a white -man, committed eight years ago by five of their young men—who, -upon less direct evidence, were sentenced to imprisonment -in the State Penitentiary for life—are struck with the wonderful -difference in the application of the same law to whites and -Indians."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The report from the Winnebago Agency for 1879 tells the -story of the sequel to this unpunished murder of Henry Harris. -The agent says: "In my last report I referred to the murder -of one of our best Indian farmers by a white man, who was -afterward arrested and discharged without trial, though there -was no question as to his guilt. As a sequel to this, one white -man is known to have been killed last May by Holly Scott, a -nephew of the murdered Indian; and another white man is -supposed to have been killed by Eddy Priest and Thomas -Walker, two young Indians who have left for Wisconsin. The -murdered white men had temporarily stopped with the Indians. -Their antecedents are unknown, and they are supposed to have -belonged to the fraternity of tramps. Holly Scott was arrested -by the Indian police, and turned over to the authorities of Dakota -County for trial, the State Legislature having at its last -session extended the jurisdiction of that county over this reservation, -by what authority I am unable to say.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The effect of these murders was to unsettle the Indians, -nearly all industry being suspended for several weeks. They -<a id='Page_256'></a>feared that the white people would do as they did in Minnesota -in 1862, after the Sioux massacre, when the Winnebagoes -were driven from their homes in Minnesota. *** A number -of our most quiet and industrious men became alarmed, and -moved their families to Wisconsin, encouraged in so doing by -the hope of receiving from the Government a share of the -funds which have been set apart from the annual appropriations -during the past four years for the benefit of the Wisconsin -Winnebagoes, and which they suppose aggregate a large amount -which will soon be paid in cash."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This brings the story of the Winnebagoes down to the -present time. What its next chapter may be is saddening to -think. It is said by those familiar with the Nebraska Indians -that, civilized though they be, they will all make war to the -knife if the attempt is made by the Government to rob them -of their present lands on the plea again of offering them a -"permanent home." That specious pretence has done its last -duty in the United States service. No Indian is left now so -imbecile as to believe it once more.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Whether the Winnebagoes' "patents" in Nebraska would, -in such a case, prove any stronger than did their "certificates" -in Minnesota, and whether the Winnebagoes themselves, peaceable -and civilized though they be, would side with the United -States Government, or with their wronged and desperate brethren, -in such an uprising, it would be hard to predict.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_257'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> <br />THE CHEROKEES.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>The Cherokees were the Eastern Mountaineers of America. -Their country lay along the Tennessee River, and in the highlands -of Georgia, Carolina, and Alabama—the loveliest region -east of the Mississippi River. Beautiful and grand, with lofty -mountains and rich valleys fragrant with flowers, and forests of -magnolia and pine filled with the singing of birds and the melody -of streams, rich in fruits and nuts and wild grains, it was -a country worth loving, worth fighting, worth dying for, as -thousands of its lovers have fought and have died, white men -as well as red, within the last hundred years.</p> - -<p class='c010'>When Oglethorpe came with his cargo of Madeira wine and -respectable paupers from England in 1733, and lived in tents -in midwinter on the shores of the Savannah River, one of the -first conditions of safety for his colossal almshouse, in shape of -a new colony, was that all the Indians in the region should become -its friends and allies.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The reputation of his goodness and benevolence soon penetrated -to the fastnesses of their homes, and tribe after tribe -sent chiefs and headmen to greet him with gifts and welcome. -When the Cherokee chief appeared, Oglethorpe said to him, -"Fear nothing. Speak freely." "I always speak freely," answered -the mountaineer. "Why should I fear? I am now -among friends: I never feared, even among my enemies."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The principal intention of the English trustees who incorporated -the Georgia colony was to provide a home for worthy -persons in England who were "in decayed circumstances." -<a id='Page_258'></a>Among other great ends which they also avowed was "the -civilization of the savages." In one of Oglethorpe's first reports -to the trustees he says: "A little Indian nation—the only -one within fifty miles—is not only in amity, but desirous to be -subjects to his Majesty King George; to have lands given to -them among us, and to breed their children at our schools. -Their chief and his beloved man, who is the second man in the -nation, desire to be instructed in the Christian religion."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The next year he returned to England, carrying with him -eight Indian chiefs, to show them "so much of Great Britain -and her institutions as might enable them to judge of her power -and dignity. *** Nothing was neglected," we are told, "that -was likely to awaken their curiosity or impress them with a -sense of the power and grandeur of the nation." They were -received by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and by the Fellows -of Eton, and for a space of four months were hospitably entertained, -and shown all the great sights of London and its -vicinity.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes at home were much gratified by these attentions -paid to their representatives, and sent out to the trustees a very -curious missive, expressing their thanks and their attachment -to General Oglethorpe. This letter was the production of a -young Cherokee chief. It was written in black and red hieroglyphs -on a dressed buffalo-skin. Before it was sent to England -it was exhibited in Savannah, and the meaning of the -hieroglyphs translated by an interpreter in a grand gathering -of fifty Indian chiefs and all the principal people of Savannah. -Afterward the curious document was framed and hung up in -the Georgia Office in Westminster.</p> - -<p class='c010'>When the Wesleyan missionaries arrived in Georgia, two -years later, some of the chiefs who had made this visit to England -went to meet them, carrying large jars of honey and of -milk as gifts, to "represent their inclinations;" and one of the -chiefs said to Mr. Wesley, "I am glad you are come. When I -<a id='Page_259'></a>was in England I desired that some one would speak the Great -Word to me. I will go up and speak to the wise men of our -nation, and I hope they will hear. But we would not be made -Christians as the Spaniards make Christians; we would be -taught before we are baptized."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In those early days Wesley was an intolerant and injudicious -enthusiast. His missionary work in the Georgia Colony was -anything but successful in the outset, either among the whites -or the Indians, and there was ample justification for the reply -which this same Indian chief made later when urged to embrace -the doctrines of Christianity.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Why, these are Christians at Savannah. Those are Christians -at Frederica. Christians get drunk! Christians beat men! -Christians tell lies! Me no Christian!" On another occasion -Wesley asked him what he thought he was made for. "He -that is above," answered the chief, "knows what he made us -for. We know nothing; we are in the dark; but white men -know much. And yet white men build great houses, as if they -were to live forever. But white men cannot live forever. In a -little time white men will be dust as well as I."</p> - -<p class='c010'>For twenty years Oglethorpe's colony struggled on under -great difficulties and discouragements. Wars with France and -with Spain; tiresome squabbles with and among Methodist -missionaries, all combined to make Oglethorpe's position hard. -Again and again England would have lost her colony except -for the unswerving fidelity of the Indian allies; they gathered -by hundreds to fight for Oglethorpe. In one expedition -against the frontier, four hundred Creeks and six hundred -Cherokees set out in one day, under an urgent call for help -sent by Indian runners to their towns. His Indian friends -were the only friends Oglethorpe had who stood by him past -everything: nothing could shake their fidelity.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He is poor; he can give you nothing," said the St. Augustine -Spaniards to a Creek chief at this time; "it is foolish -<a id='Page_260'></a>for you to go to him:" and they showed to the Indian a fine -suit of scarlet clothes, and a sword, which they were about to -give to a chief of the Tennessees who had become their ally.</p> - -<p class='c010'>But the Creek answered, "We love him. It is true, he does -not give us silver; but he gives us everything we want that he -has. He has given me the coat off his back, and the blanket -from under him."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At last the trustees of the Georgia Colony lost patience: -very bitterly they had learned that paupers, however worthy, -are not good stuff to build new enterprises of. In eighteen -years the colony had not once furnished a sufficient supply of -subsistence for its own consumption: farms which had been -cultivated were going to ruin; and the country was rapidly degenerating -in every respect. Dishonest traders had tampered -with and exasperated the Indians, so that their friendliness -could no longer be implicitly trusted. For everything that -went wrong the English Company was held responsible, and -probably there were no happier men in all England on the 20th -of June, 1752, than were the Georgia trustees, who on that -day formally resigned their charter, and washed their hands of -the colony forever.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The province was now formed into a royal government, and -very soon became the seat of frightful Indian wars. The new -authorities neither understood nor kept faith with the Indians: -their old friend Oglethorpe had left them forever, and the same -scenes of treachery and massacre which were being enacted at -the North began to be repeated with heart-sickening similarity -at the South. Indians fighting Indians—fighting as allies to-day -with the French, to-morrow with the English; treaties -made, and broken as soon as made; there was neither peace -nor safety anywhere.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At last, in 1763, a treaty was concluded with the chiefs and -headmen of five tribes, which seemed to promise better things. -The Cherokees and Creeks granted to the King of England a -<a id='Page_261'></a>large tract of land, cleared off their debts with the sum paid for -it, and observed its stipulations faithfully for several years, until -peace was again destroyed, this time by no fault of the Indians, -in consequence of the revolt of the American Colonies -against Great Britain. The English loyalists in Georgia now -availed themselves of the Indians' old habit of allegiance to the -Crown. One of their leading agents took a Cherokee woman -as his mistress, placed her at the head of his table, gave her the -richest dress and equipage that the country could afford, and -distributed through her lavish gifts to all the Indians he could -reach. When war actually broke out he retreated with her -into the fastnesses of the Cherokee nation, where he swayed -them at his will. Attempts to capture him were repelled by -the Cherokees with ferocity. Prisoners taken by them at this -time were tortured with great cruelty; one instance is recorded -(in a journal kept by another prisoner, who escaped alive) of a -boy about twelve years of age who was suspended by the arms -between two posts, and raised about three feet from the ground. -"The mode of inflicting the torture was by light-wood splints -of about eighteen inches long, made sharp at one end and -fractured at the other, so that the torch might not be extinguished -by throwing it. After these weapons of death were -prepared, and a fire made for the purpose of lighting them, the -scene of horror commenced. It was deemed a mark of dexterity, -and accompanied by shouts of applause, when an Indian -threw one of these torches so as to make the sharp end stick -into the body of the suffering youth without extinguishing the -torch. This description of torture was continued for two hours -before the innocent victim was relieved by death."</p> - -<p class='c010'>These are sickening details, and no doubt will be instinctively -set down by most readers as proof of innate cruelty peculiar -to the Indian race. Let us, therefore, set side by side with -them the record that in this same war white men (British officers) -confined white men ("rebels") in prison-ships, starved, -<a id='Page_262'></a>and otherwise maltreated them till they died, five or six a day, -then threw their dead bodies into the nearest marsh, and had -them "<i>trodden down in the mud</i>—from whence they were soon -exposed by the washing of the tides, and at low-water the -prisoners beheld the carrion-crows picking the bones of their -departed companions!" Also, that white men (British officers) -were known at that time to have made thumb-screws out of -musket-locks, to torture Georgia women, wives of "rebels," to -force them to reveal the places where their husbands were in -hiding. Innate cruelty is not exclusively an Indian trait.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Cherokees had the worst of the fighting on the British -side during the Revolution. Again and again their towns were -burnt, their winter stores destroyed, and whole bands reduced -to the verge of starvation. At one time, when hard pressed by -the American forces, they sent to the Creeks for help; but the -shrewd Creeks replied, "You have taken the thorns out of our -feet; you are welcome to them." The Creeks, having given -only limited aid to the British, had suffered much less severely. -That any of the Indians should have joined the "rebel" cause -seems wonderful, as they had evidently nothing to gain by the -transfer of their allegiance to what must have appeared to -them for a long time to be the losing side in the contest. For -three years and a half Savannah was in the possession of the -British, and again and again they had control of the entire -State. And to show that they had no compunction about inciting -the Indians to massacres they left many a written record—such, -for instance, as this, which is in a letter written by -General Gage from Boston, June, 1775: "We need not be tender -of calling on the savages to attack the Americans."<a id='r29' /><a href='#f29' class='c012'><sup>[29]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>The first diplomatic relations of the United States Government -with the Cherokees were in the making of the treaty of -Hopewell, in 1785. At the Hopewell council the United States -<a id='Page_263'></a>commissioners said: "Congress is now the sovereign of all our -country which we now point out to you on the map. They -want none of your lands, nor anything else which belongs to -you; and as an earnest of their regard for you, we propose to -enter into articles of a treaty perfectly equal and conformable -to what we now tell you. *** This humane and generous act -of the United States will no doubt be received by you with -gladness, and held in grateful remembrance; and the more so, -as many of your young men, and the greater number of your -warriors, during the late war, were our enemies, and assisted the -King of Great Britain in his endeavors to conquer our country."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The chiefs complained bitterly of the encroachments of white -settlers upon lands which had been by old treaties distinctly reserved -to the Cherokees. They demanded that some of these -settlers should be removed; and when the commissioners said -that the settlers were too numerous for the Government to remove, -one of the chiefs asked, satirically, "Are Congress, who -conquered the King of Great Britain, unable to remove those -people?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>Finally, the chiefs agreed to accept payment for the lands -which had been taken. New boundaries were established, and -a general feeling of good-will and confidence was created. One -notable feature in this council was the speech of an Indian -woman, called the "war-woman of Chota." (Chota was the -Cherokees' city of refuge. All murderers were safe so long as -they lived in Chota. Even Englishmen had not disdained to -take advantage of its shelter; one English trader who had -killed an Indian, having fled, lived there for many months, his -own house being but a short distance away. After a time he -resolved to return home, but the headmen of the tribe assured -him that, though he was entirely safe there, he would surely be -killed if he left the town.) The chief who brought this "war-woman" -to the council introduced her as "one of our beloved -<a id='Page_264'></a>women who has borne and raised up warriors." She proceeded -to say, "I am fond of hearing that there is a peace, and I -hope you have now taken us by the hand in real friendship. I -have a pipe and a little tobacco to give the commissioners to -smoke in friendship. I look on you and the red people as my -children. Your having determined on peace is most pleasing -to me, for I have seen much trouble during the late war. I am -old, but I hope yet to bear children who will grow up and people -our nation, as we are now to be under the protection of -Congress, and shall have no disturbance."</p> - -<p class='c010'>A brief summary of the events which followed on the negotiation -of this treaty may be best given in the words of a report -made by the Secretary of War to the President four years -later. In July, 1789, General Knox writes as follows of the -Cherokees: "This nation of Indians, consisting of separate -towns or villages, are seated principally on the head-waters of -the Tennessee, which runs into the Ohio. Their hunting-grounds -extend from the Cumberland River along the frontiers -of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and part of Georgia.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The frequent wars they have had with the frontier people -of the said States have greatly diminished their number. The -commissioners estimated them in November, 1785, at 2000 -warriors, but they were estimated in 1787 at 2650; yet it is -probable they may be lessened since by the depredations committed -on them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The United States concluded a treaty with the Cherokees -at Hopewell, on the Keowee, the 28th of November, 1785, -which is entered on the printed journals of Congress April -17th, 1786. The negotiations of the commissioners on the -part of the United States are hereunto annexed, marked A. It -will appear by the papers marked B. that the State of North -Carolina, by their agent, protested against the said treaty as infringing -and violating the legislative rights of that State.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"By a variety of evidence which has been submitted to the -<a id='Page_265'></a>last Congress, it has been proved that the said treaty has been -entirely disregarded by the white people inhabiting the frontiers, -styling themselves the State of Franklin. The proceedings -of Congress on the 1st of September, 1788, and the proclamation -they then issued on this subject, will show their -sense of the many unprovoked outrages committed against the -Cherokees.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The information contained in the papers marked C., from -Colonel Joseph Martin, the late agent to the Cherokees, and -Richard Winn, Esq., will further evince the deplorable situation -of the Cherokees, and the indispensable obligation of the United -States to vindicate their faith, justice, and national dignity.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The letter of Mr. Winn, the late superintendent, of the -1st of March, informs that a treaty will be held with the Cherokees -on the third Monday of May, at the Upper War-ford on -French Broad River. But it is to be observed that the time -for which both he and Colonel Joseph Martin, the agent to the -Cherokees and Chickasaws, were elected has expired, and therefore -they are not authorized to act on the part of the Union. -If the commissioners appointed by North Carolina, South Carolina, -and Georgia, by virtue of the resolve of Congress of the -26th of October, 1787, should attend the said treaty, their proceedings -thereon may soon be expected. But, as part of the -Cherokees have taken refuge within the limits of the Creeks, -it is highly probable they will be under the same direction; -and, therefore, as the fact of the violation of the treaty cannot -be disputed, and as the commissioners have not power to replace -the Cherokees within the limits established in 1785, it is -not probable, even if a treaty should be held, as stated by Mr. -Winn, that the result would be satisfactory."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This is the summing up of the situation. The details of it -are to be read in copious volumes of the early history of Tennessee, -North and South Carolina, and Georgia—all under the -head of "Indian Atrocities." To very few who read those -<a id='Page_266'></a>records does it occur that the Indians who committed these -"atrocities" were simply ejecting by force, and, in the contests -arising from this forcible ejectment, killing men who had -usurped and stolen their lands—lands ceded to them by the -United States Government in a solemn treaty, of which the -fifth Article was as follows:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"If any citizen of the United States or other person, not being -an Indian, shall attempt to settle on any of the lands westward -or southward of the said boundaries which are hereby -allotted to the Indians for their hunting-grounds, or having -already settled and will not remove from the same within six -months after the ratification of this treaty, such person shall -forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Indians -<i>may punish him or not as they please</i>."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is evident that it is necessary to go back to the days of -the first treaties with our Indians to possess ourselves of the -first requisites for fair judgment of their conduct toward white -men. What would a community of white men, situated precisely -as these Cherokees were, have done? What did these -very Southern colonists themselves do to Spaniards who encroached -on their lands? Fought them; killed them; burnt -their houses over their heads, and drove them into the sea!</p> - -<p class='c010'>In a later communication in the same year to the President, -the Secretary says: "The disgraceful violation of the treaty of -Hopewell with the Cherokees requires the serious consideration -of Congress. If so direct and manifest contempt of the authority -of the United States be suffered with impunity, it will -be in vain to attempt to extend the arm of the Government to -the frontiers. The Indian tribes can have no faith in such imbecile -promises, and the lawless whites will ridicule a government -which shall on paper only make Indian treaties and regulate -Indian boundaries."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The President, thus entreated, addressed himself to the Senate, -and asked their advice. He recapitulated the facts as set -<a id='Page_267'></a>forth by General Knox, "that upward of five hundred families -are settled on the Cherokee lands," and asks,</p> - -<p class='c010'>"1st. Is it the judgment of the Senate that overtures shall be -made to the Cherokees to arrange a new boundary, so as to -embrace the settlements made by the white people since the -treaty of Hopewell in November, 1785?</p> - -<p class='c010'>"2d. If so, shall compensation to the amount of $—— annually, -or of $—— in gross, be made to the Cherokees for the -land they shall relinquish, holding the occupiers of the land -accountable to the United States for its value?</p> - -<p class='c010'>"3d. Shall the United States stipulate solemnly to guarantee -the new boundary which may be arranged?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Senate thereupon resolved that the President should, -at his discretion, cause the Hopewell treaty to be carried out, -or make a new one; but, in case a new one was made, the -"Senate do advise and consent solemnly to guarantee the -same."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Accordingly, in July, 1791, a new treaty—the treaty of -Holston—was made with the Cherokees, new boundaries established, -and $1000 a year promised to the tribe for the lands -relinquished.</p> - -<p class='c010'>By the seventh Article of this treaty the United States "solemnly -guarantee to the Cherokee nation all their lands not -hereby ceded:" the eighth Article reiterates the old permission -that if any citizen of the United States or other person (not an -Indian) shall settle on the Cherokees' lands, the Cherokees may -punish him as they please. Article ninth says that no citizen -or inhabitant of the United States shall hunt or destroy game -on the Cherokee lands, or go into the Cherokee country without -a passport from the governor or some other authorized -person.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The next year the Cherokees sent an embassy to Philadelphia -to ask for an increase of $500 in their annuity. One of the -chiefs said that he had told Governor Blunt the year before -<a id='Page_268'></a>that he would not consent to selling the lands for $1000 a -year. "It would not buy a breech-clout for each of my nation;" -which was literally true.</p> - -<p class='c010'>To this additional annuity the Senate consented, and with -this the chiefs said they were "perfectly satisfied." But they -begged for the ploughs, hoes, cattle, etc., which had been promised -in the treaty. They said, "Game is going fast away from -among us. We must plant corn and raise cattle, and we want -you to assist us."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1794 it was necessary to make another treaty, chiefly to -declare that the Holston treaty was in "full force and binding." -It had not been "fully carried into execution by reason -of misunderstandings," it was said. This was very true; white -settlers had gone where they pleased, as if it did not exist; -Cherokees had murdered them, as they were, by their treaty, -explicitly permitted to do. The whites had retaliated by -unprovoked attacks on friendly Indians, and the Indians had -retaliated again. The exasperated Indians implored Congress -to protect them: the still more exasperated whites demanded -of Congress to protect them. The Secretary of War writes -despairingly, that "The desire of too many frontier white -people to seize by force or fraud on the neighboring Indian -lands continues to be an unceasing cause of jealousy and -hatred on the part of the Indians; and it would appear, upon -a calm investigation, that until the Indians can be quieted -on this point, and rely with confidence on the protection of -their lands by the United States, no well-grounded hope of -tranquillity can be entertained."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this miserable manner, unjust equally to the white men -and to the Indians, affairs went on for several years, until in -1801 it became absolutely necessary that in some way a definite -understanding of boundaries, and an authoritative enforcement -of rights on both sides, should be brought about; accordingly, -commissioners were sent by the President "to obtain the consent -<a id='Page_269'></a>of the Cherokees" to new grants of land and establishment -of boundaries. The instructions given to these commissioners -are remarkable for their reiterated assertion of the Indians' -unquestioned right to do as they please about ceding these -lands. Such phrases as these: "Should the Indians refuse to -cede to the United States any of the above-designated lands," -and "you will endeavor to prevail upon them to cede," and -"you will endeavor to procure the consent of the Indians," are -proof of the fulness of the recognition the United States Government -at that time gave of the Indians' "right of occupancy;" -also of the realization on the part of the Government that -these Indian nations were powers whose good-will it was of importance -to conciliate. "It is of importance," the instructions -say, "that the Indian nations generally should be convinced of -the certainty in which they may at all times rely upon the -friendship of the United States, and that the President will -never abandon them or their children;" and, "It will be incumbent -on you to introduce the desires of the Government in -such a manner as will permit you to drop them, as you may -find them illy received, without giving the Indians an opportunity -to reply with a decided negative, or raising in them unfriendly -and inimical dispositions. You will state none of them -in the tone of demands, but in the first instance merely mention -them as propositions which you are authorized to make, and -their assent to which the Government would consider as new -testimonials of their friendship."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nevertheless, the Cherokees did reply with "a decided negative." -They utterly refused to cede any more lands, or to give -their consent to the opening of any more roads through their -territory. But it only took four years to bring them to the -point where they were ready to acquiesce in the wishes of the -Government, and to make once more the effort to secure to -themselves an unmolested region, by giving up several large -tracts of land and a right of way on several roads. In 1805 they -<a id='Page_270'></a>concluded another treaty, ceding territory for which the United -States thought it worth while to pay $15,000 immediately, and -an annuity of $3000.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Ten years later (in 1816) they gave up all their lands in -South Carolina, and the United States became surety that -South Carolina should pay to them $5000 for the same. In -the autumn of the same year they made still another cession of -lands to the United States Government, for which they were to -have an annuity of $6000 a year for ten years, and $5000 as -compensation for the improvements they surrendered.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1817 an important treaty was concluded, making still -further cessions of lands, and defining the position of a part of -the Cherokee nation which had moved away, with the President's -permission, to the Arkansas River in 1809. The eighth -Article of this treaty promises that the United States will give -to every head of an Indian family residing on the east side of -the Mississippi, who may wish to become a citizen, "a reservation -of six hundred and forty acres of land, in which they will -have a life estate, with a reversion in fee-simple to their children."</p> - -<p class='c010'>What imagination could have foreseen that in less than -twenty years the chiefs of this Cherokee nation would be -found piteously pleading to be allowed to remain undisturbed -on these very lands? In the whole history of our Government's -dealings with the Indian tribes, there is no record so -black as the record of its perfidy to this nation. There will -come a time in the remote future when, to the student of -American history, it will seem well-nigh incredible. From the -beginning of the century they had been steadily advancing in -civilization. As far back as 1800 they had begun the manufacture -of cotton cloth, and in 1820 there was scarcely a family -in that part of the nation living east of the Mississippi but -what understood the use of the card and spinning-wheel. Every -family had its farm under cultivation. The territory was -<a id='Page_271'></a>laid off into districts, with a council-house, a judge, and a marshal -in each district. A national committee and council were -the supreme authority in the nation. Schools were flourishing -in all the villages. Printing-presses were at work.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Their territory was larger than the three States of Massachusetts, -Rhode Island, and Connecticut combined. It embraced -the North-western part of Georgia, the North-east of Alabama, -a corner of Tennessee and of North Carolina. They were enthusiastic -in their efforts to establish and perfect their own -system of jurisprudence. Missions of several sects were established -in their country, and a large number of them had professed -Christianity, and were living exemplary lives.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There is no instance in all history of a race of people passing -in so short a space of time from the barbarous stage to the -agricultural and civilized. And it was such a community as -this that the State of Georgia, by one high-handed outrage, -made outlaws!—passing on the 19th of December, 1829, a -law "to annul all laws and ordinances made by the Cherokee -nation of Indians;" declaring "all laws, ordinances, orders, and -regulations of any kind whatever, made, passed, or enacted by -the Cherokee Indians, either in general council or in any other -way whatever, or by any authority whatever, null and void, and -of no effect, as if the same had never existed; also, that no Indian, -or descendant of any Indian residing within the Creek or -Cherokee nations of Indians, shall be deemed a competent witness -in any court of this State to which a white man may be a -party."</p> - -<p class='c010'>What had so changed the attitude of Georgia to the Indians -within her borders? Simply the fact that the Indians, finding -themselves hemmed in on all sides by fast thickening white -settlements, had taken a firm stand that they would give up no -more land. So long as they would cede and cede, and grant -and grant tract after tract, and had millions of acres still left to -cede and grant, the selfishness of white men took no alarm; -<a id='Page_272'></a>but once consolidated into an empire, with fixed and inalienable -boundaries, powerful, recognized, and determined, the Cherokee -nation would be a thorn in the flesh to her white neighbors. -The doom of the Cherokees was sealed on the day when -they declared, once for all, officially as a nation, that they would -not sell another foot of land. This they did in an interesting -and pathetic message to the United States Senate in 1822.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Georgia, through her governor and her delegates to Congress, -had been persistently demanding to have the Cherokees compelled -to give up their lands. She insisted that the United -States Government should fulfil a provision, made in an old -compact of 1802, to extinguish the Indian titles within her -limits as soon as it could be peaceably done. This she demanded -should be done now, either peaceably or otherwise.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We cannot but view the design of those letters," says this -message, "as an attempt bordering on a hostile disposition toward -the Cherokee nation to wrest from them by arbitrary -means their just rights and liberties, the security of which is -solemnly guaranteed to them by these United States. *** We -assert under the fullest authority that all the sentiments expressed -in relation to the disposition and determination of the -nation never to cede another foot of land, are positively the -production and voice of the nation. *** There is not a spot -out of the limits of any of the States or Territories thereof, -and within the limits of the United States, that they would -ever consent to inhabit; because they have unequivocally determined -never again to pursue the chase as heretofore, or to -engage in wars, unless by the common call of the Government -to defend the common rights of the United States. *** The -Cherokees have turned their attention to the pursuits of the -civilized man: agriculture, manufactures, and the mechanic arts -and education are all in successful operation in the nation at -this time; and while the Cherokees are peacefully endeavoring -to enjoy the blessings of civilization and Christianity on the -<a id='Page_273'></a>soil of their rightful inheritance, and while the exertions and -labors of various religious societies of these United States are -successfully engaged in promulgating to them the words of -truth and life from the sacred volume of Holy Writ, and under -the patronage of the General Government, they are threatened -with removal or extinction. *** We appeal to the magnanimity -of the American Congress for justice, and the protection of -the rights and liberties and lives of the Cherokee people. We -claim it from the United States by the strongest obligation -which imposes it on them—by treaties: and we expect it from -them under that memorable declaration, 'that all men are created -equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain -inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and -the pursuit of happiness.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>The dignified and pathetic remonstrances of the Cherokee -chiefs, their firm reiterations of their resolve not to part with -their lands, were called by the angry Georgian governor "tricks -of vulgar cunning," and "insults from the polluted lips of outcasts -and vagabonds;" and he is not afraid, in an official letter -to the Secretary of War, to openly threaten the President that, -if he upholds the Indians in their rejection of the overtures for -removal, the "consequences are inevitable," and that, in resisting -the occupation of the Cherokee lands by the Georgians, he -will be obliged to "make war upon, and shed the blood of -brothers and friends."</p> - -<p class='c010'>To these Cherokees Mr. Jefferson had written, at one time -during his administration, "I sincerely wish you may succeed -in your laudable endeavors to save the remnant of your nation -by adopting industrious occupations, and a government of regular -law. In this you may always rely on the counsel and assistance -of the United States."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1791 he had written to General Knox, defining the United -States' position in the matter of Indian lands: "Government -should firmly maintain this ground, that the Indians have a -<a id='Page_274'></a>right to the occupation of their lands independent of the States -within whose chartered lines they happen to be; that until -they cede them by treaty, or other transaction equivalent to -treaty, no act of a State can give a right to such lands. *** -The Government is determined to exert all its energy for the -patronage and protection of the rights of the Indians."</p> - -<p class='c010'>And the year before General Washington had said to the -Six Nations: "In future you cannot be defrauded of your -lands. No State or person can purchase your lands unless at -some public treaty held under the authority of the United -States. The General Government will never consent to your -being defrauded; but it will protect you in all your just -rights. *** You possess the right to sell, and the right of refusing -to sell your lands. *** The United States will be true -and faithful to their engagements."</p> - -<p class='c010'>What could Cherokee men and women have thought when, -only thirty years later, they found this United States Government -upholding the State of Georgia in her monstrous pretensions -of right to the whole of their country, and in her infamous -cruelties of oppression toward them? when they found -this United States Government sending its agents to seduce and -bribe their chiefs to bargain away their country; even stooping -to leave on the public records of official instructions to a commissioner -such phrases as these: "Appeal to the chiefs and influential -men—not together, but apart, at their own houses;" -"make offers to them of extensive reservations in fee-simple, -and other rewards, to obtain their acquiescence;" "the more -careful you are to secure from even the chiefs the official character -you bear, the better;" "enlarge on the advantage of their -condition in the West: there the Government would protect -them." This the Secretary of War called "moving on them in -the line of their prejudices."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In a report submitted to the War Department in 1825 by -Thomas L. McKenney is a glowing description of the Cherokee -<a id='Page_275'></a>country and nation at that time: "The country is well watered; -abundant springs of pure water are found in every part; a -range of majestic and lofty mountains stretch themselves across -it. The northern part is hilly and mountainous; in the southern -and western parts there are extensive and fertile plains, -covered partly with tall trees, through which beautiful streams -of water glide. These plains furnish immense pasturage, and -numberless herds of cattle are dispersed over them; horses are -plenty; numerous flocks of sheep, goats, and swine cover the -valleys and the hills. On Tennessee, Ustanula, and Canasagi -rivers Cherokee commerce floats. The climate is delicious and -healthy; the winters are mild; the spring clothes the ground -with the richest scenery; flowers of exquisite beauty and variegated -hues meet and fascinate the eye in every direction. In -the plains and valleys the soil is generally rich, producing Indian-corn, -cotton, tobacco, wheat, oats, indigo, and sweet and -Irish potatoes. The natives carry on considerable trade with -the adjoining States; some of them export cotton in boats -down the Tennessee to the Mississippi, and down that river to -New Orleans. Apple and peach orchards are quite common, -and gardens are cultivated, and much attention paid to them. -Butter and cheese are seen on Cherokee tables. There are -many public roads in the nation, and houses of entertainment -kept by natives. Numerous and flourishing villages are seen -in every section of the country. Cotton and woollen cloths are -manufactured: blankets of various dimensions, manufactured -by Cherokee hands, are very common. Almost every family in -the nation grows cotton for its own consumption. Industry -and commercial enterprise are extending themselves in every -part. Nearly all the merchants in the nation are native Cherokees. -Agricultural pursuits engage the chief attention of the -people. Different branches in mechanics are pursued. The -population is rapidly increasing. *** White men in the nation -enjoy all the immunities and privileges of the Cherokee people, -<a id='Page_276'></a>except that they are not eligible to public offices. *** The -Christian religion is the religion of the nation. Presbyterians, -Methodists, Baptists, and Moravians are the most numerous -sects. Some of the most influential characters are members of -the Church, and live consistently with their professions. The -whole nation is penetrated with gratitude for the aid it has received -from the United States Government, and from different -religious societies. Schools are increasing every year; learning -is encouraged and rewarded; the young class acquire the -English, and those of mature age the Cherokee system of learning. -*** Our relations with all nations are of the most friendly -character. We are out of debt, and our public revenue is in -a flourishing condition. Besides the amount arising from imports, -perpetual annuity is due from the United States in consideration -of lands ceded in former periods. Our system of -government, founded on republican principles by which justice -is equally distributed, secures the respect of the people. New -Town, pleasantly situated in the centre of the nation, and at -the junction of the Canasagi and Gusuwati, two beautiful -streams, is the seat of government. The legislative power is -vested in what is denominated in native dialect Tsalagi Tinilawige, -consisting of a national committee and council. Members -of both branches are chosen by and from the people for -a limited period. In New Town a printing-press is soon to be -established; also a national library and museum. An immense -concourse of people frequent the seat of government when the -Tsalagi Tinilawige is in session, which takes place once a -year.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The success which has attended the philological researches -of one in the nation whose system of education has met with -universal approbation among the Cherokees certainly entitles -him to great consideration, and to rank with the benefactors of -man. His name is Guess, and he is a native and unlettered -Cherokee; but, like Cadmus, he has given to his people the -<a id='Page_277'></a>alphabet of their language. It is composed of eighty-six characters, -by which in a few days the older Indians, who had despaired -of deriving an education by means of the schools, and -who are not included in the existing school system, may read -and correspond."<a id='r30' /><a href='#f30' class='c012'><sup>[30]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>Never did mountaineers cling more desperately to their -homes than did the Cherokees. The State of Georgia put the -whole nation in duress, but still they chose to stay. Year by -year high-handed oppressions increased and multiplied; military -law reigned everywhere; Cherokee lands were surveyed, -and put up to be drawn by lottery; missionaries were arrested -and sent to prison for preaching to Cherokees; Cherokees were -sentenced to death by Georgia juries, and hung by Georgia -executioners. Appeal after appeal to the President and to -Congress for protection produced only reiterated confessions -of the Government's inability to protect them—reiterated proposals -to them to accept a price for their country and move -away. Nevertheless they clung to it. A few hundreds went, -but the body of the nation still protested and entreated. There -is nothing in history more touching than the cries of this people -to the Government of the United States to fulfil its promises -to them. And their cause was not without eloquent advocates. -When the bill for their removal was before Congress, -Frelinghuysen, Sprague, Robbins, Storrs, Ellsworth, Evans, -Huntington, Johns, Bates, Crockett, Everett, Test—all spoke -warmly against it; and, to the credit of Congress be it said, -the bill passed the Senate by only one majority.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Rev. Jeremiah Evarts published a series of papers in the -<i>National Intelligencer</i> under the signature of William Penn, -in which he gave a masterly analysis and summing up of the -case, recapitulated the sixteen treaties which the Government -had made with the Cherokees, all guaranteeing to them their -<a id='Page_278'></a>lands, and declared that the Government had "arrived at the -bank of the Rubicon," where it must decide if it would or -would not save the country from the charge of bad faith. -Many of his eloquent sentences read in the light of the present -time like prophecies. He says, "in a quarter of a century the -pressure upon the Indians will be much greater from the -boundless prairies, which must ultimately be subdued and inhabited, -than it would ever have been from the borders of the -present Cherokee country;" and asks, pertinently, "to what -confidence would such an engagement be entitled, done at the -very moment that treaties with Indians are declared not to -be binding, and for the very reason that existing treaties are -not strong enough to bind the United States." Remonstrances -poured in upon Congress, petitions and memorials from religious -societies, from little country villages, all imploring the -Government to keep its faith to these people.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Cherokees' own newspaper, <i>The Phœnix</i>, was filled at -this time with the records of the nation's suffering and despair.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The State of Georgia has taken a strong stand against us, -and the United States must either defend us and our rights -or leave us to our foe. In the latter case she will violate her -promise of protection, and we cannot in future depend upon -any guarantee to us, either here or beyond the Mississippi.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"If the United States shall withdraw their solemn pledges -of protection, utterly disregard their plighted faith, deprive us -of the right of self-government, and wrest from us our land, -then, in the deep anguish of our misfortunes, we may justly -say there is no place of security for us, no confidence left that -the United States will be more just and faithful toward us -in the barren prairies of the West than when we occupied the -soil inherited from the Great Author of our existence."</p> - -<p class='c010'>As a last resort the Cherokees carried their case before the -Supreme Court, and implored that body to restrain the State -of Georgia from her unjust interference with their rights. -<a id='Page_279'></a>The reports of the case of the Cherokee Nation <i>vs.</i> the State of -Georgia fill a volume by themselves, and are of vital importance -to the history of Indian affairs. The majority of the judges -decided that an Indian tribe could not be considered as a foreign -nation, and therefore could not bring the suit. Judge -Thompson and Judge Story dissented from this opinion, and -held that the Cherokee tribe did constitute a foreign nation, and -that the State of Georgia ought to be enjoined from execution -of its unjust laws. The opinion of Chancellor Kent coincided -with that of Judges Thompson and Story. Chancellor Kent -gave it as his opinion that the cases in which the Supreme -Court had jurisdiction would "reach and embrace every controversy -that can arise between the Cherokees and the State of -Georgia or its officers under the execution of the act of Georgia."</p> - -<p class='c010'>But all this did not help the Cherokees; neither did the -fact of the manifest sympathy of the whole court with their -wrongs. The technical legal decision had been rendered -against them, and this delivered them over to the tender -mercies of Georgia: no power in the land could help them. -Fierce factions now began to be formed in the nation, one for -and one against the surrender of their lands. Many were ready -still to remain and suffer till death rather than give them up; -but wiser counsels prevailed, and in the last days of the year -1835 a treaty was concluded with the United States by twenty -of the Cherokee chiefs and headmen, who thereby, in behalf -of their nation, relinquished all the lands claimed or possessed -by them east of the Mississippi River.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The preamble of this treaty is full of pathos: "<i>Whereas</i>, -The Cherokees are anxious to make some arrangement with the -Government of the United States whereby the difficulties they -have experienced by a residence within the settled parts of the -United States under the jurisdiction and laws of the State governments -may be terminated and adjusted; and with a view -to reuniting their people in one body, and securing a permanent -<a id='Page_280'></a>home for themselves and their posterity in the country -selected by their forefathers without the territorial limits of -the State sovereignties, and where they can establish and enjoy -a government of their choice, and perpetuate such a state of -society as may be most consonant with their views, habits, and -condition, and as may tend to their individual comfort and -their advancement in civilization."</p> - -<p class='c010'>By this treaty the Cherokees gave up a country "larger than -the three States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut -combined, and received therefor five millions of dollars -and seven millions of acres of land west of the Mississippi." -This the United States "guaranteed, and secured to be conveyed -in patent," and defined it by exact boundaries; and, "in addition -to the seven millions of acres of land thus provided for -and bounded," the United States did "further guarantee to -the Cherokee nation a perpetual outlet west, and a free and unmolested -use of all the country west of the western boundary -of said seven millions of acres, as far west as the sovereignty -of the United States and their rights of soil extend."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The fifth Article of this treaty is, "The United States hereby -covenant and agree that the lands ceded to the Cherokee -nation in the foregoing article shall in no future time, without -their consent, be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction -of any State or Territory."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the sixth Article is this promise: "The United States -agree to protect the Cherokee nation from domestic strife and -foreign enemies, and against intestine wars between the several -tribes."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Even after this treaty was made a great part of the nation -refused to sanction it, saying that it did not represent their -wish; they would never carry it out; hundreds refused to receive -any longer either money or supplies from the United -States agents, lest they should be considered to have thereby -committed themselves to the treaty.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_281'></a>In 1837 General Wool wrote from the Cherokee country -that the people "uniformly declare that they never made the -treaty in question. *** So determined are they in their opposition -that not one of all those who were present, and voted in -the council held but a day or two since at this place, however -poor or destitute, would receive either rations or clothing from -the United States, lest they might compromise themselves in -regard to the treaty. These same people, as well as those in -the mountains of North Carolina, during the summer past preferred -living on the roots and sap of trees rather than receive -provisions from the United States. Thousands, I have been -informed, had no other food for weeks."</p> - -<p class='c010'>For two years—to the very last moment allowed them by -the treaty—they clung to their lands, and at last were removed -only by military force. In May, 1838, General Scott was ordered -to go with a sufficient military force to compel the removal. -His proclamation "to the Cherokee people remaining in -North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama" opens thus:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"<span class='sc'>Cherokees</span>,—The President of the United States has sent -me with a powerful army to cause you, in obedience to the -treaty of 1835, to join that part of your people who are already -established on the other side of the Mississippi. Unhappily -the two years which were allowed for the purpose you -have suffered to pass away without following, and without making -any preparation to follow; and now, or by the time that -this solemn address shall reach your distant settlements, the -emigration must be commenced in haste, but I hope without -disorder. I have no power, by granting a further delay, to -correct the error that you have committed. The full-moon of -May is already on the wane, and before another shall have -passed away every Cherokee man, woman, and child in those -States must be in motion to join their brethren in the West."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tone of this proclamation, at once firm and kindly, could -not fail to profoundly impress the unfortunate people to whom -<a id='Page_282'></a>it was addressed. "My troops," said the humane and sympathizing -general, "already occupy many positions in the country -that you are to abandon, and thousands and thousands are approaching -from every quarter, to render resistance and escape -alike hopeless. All those troops, regular and militia, are your -friends. Receive them and confide in them as such; obey -them when they tell you that you can remain no longer in this -country. Soldiers are as kind-hearted as brave, and the desire -of every one of us is to execute our painful duty in mercy. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Chiefs, headmen, and warriors, will you then, by resistance, -compel us to resort to arms? God forbid. Or will you by -flight seek to hide yourselves in mountains and forests, and -thus oblige us to hunt you down? Remember that in pursuit -it may be impossible to avoid conflicts. The blood of the -white man or the blood of the red man may be spilt; and if -spilt, however accidentally, it may be impossible for the discreet -and humane among you or among us to prevent a general -war and carnage. Think of this, my Cherokee brethren! I -am an old warrior, and have been present at many a scene of -slaughter; but spare me, I beseech you, the horror of witnessing -the destruction of the Cherokees. Do not even wait for -the close approach of the troops, but make such preparations -for emigration as you can, and hasten to this place, to Ross's -Landing, or to Guinter's Landing, where you will be received -in kindness by officers selected for the purpose. *** This is -the address of a warrior to warriors. May its entreaties be -kindly received, and may the God of both prosper the Americans -and Cherokees, and preserve them long in peace and -friendship with each other."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The reply of the council of the Cherokee nation to this proclamation -is worthy to be put on record. They make no further -protest against going; they simply ask the privilege of -undertaking the whole charge of the removal themselves. They -say: "The present condition of the Cherokee people is such -<a id='Page_283'></a>that all dispute as to the time of emigration is set at rest. Being -already severed from their homes and their property, their -persons being under the absolute control of the commanding -general, and being altogether dependent on the benevolence -and humanity of that high officer for the suspension of their -transportation to the West at a season and under circumstances -in which sickness and death were to be apprehended to an -alarming extent, all inducements to prolong their stay in this -country are taken away. And however strong their attachment -to the homes of their fathers may be, their interests and their -wishes are now to depart as early as may be consistent with -their safety."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The council therefore submitted to General Scott several -propositions: 1st. "That the Cherokee nation will undertake -the whole business of removing their people to the west of the -river Mississippi." Their estimates of cost, and arrangement -as to time, intervals, etc., were wise and reasonable. To their -estimate of $65,880 as the cost for every thousand persons -transported General Scott objected, thinking it high. He said -that he was "confident" that it would be found that out of -every thousand there would be "at least five hundred strong -men, women, boys, and girls not only capable of marching -twelve or fifteen miles a day, but to whom the exercise would -be beneficial; and another hundred able to go on foot half -that distance daily." He also objected to the estimate of the -ration at sixteen cents as too high.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The council replied that they believed the estimate reasonable, -"having the comfortable removal of our people solely in -view, and endeavoring to be governed, as far as that object will -allow, by the rates of expenditure fixed by the officers of the -Government. After the necessary bedding, cooking-utensils, -and other indispensable articles of twenty persons—say, four or -five families—are placed in a wagon, with subsistence for at least -two days, the weight already will be enough to exclude, in our -<a id='Page_284'></a>opinion, more than a very few persons being hauled. The -great distance to be travelled, liability to sickness on the way -of grown persons, and the desire of performing the trip in as -short a time as possible, induce us still to think our estimate of -that item not extravagant. *** Whatever may be necessary in -the emigration of our people to their comfort on the way, and -as conducive to their health, we desire to be afforded them; at -the same time it is our anxious wish, in the management of -this business, to be free at all times from the imputation of extravagance." -They added that the item of soap had been forgotten -in their first estimate, and must now be included, at the -rate of three pounds to every hundred pounds of rations.</p> - -<p class='c010'>General Scott replied, "as the Cherokee people are exclusively -interested in the cost as well as the comfort of the removal," -he did not feel himself at liberty to withhold his sanction from -these estimates. In the report of the Indian Commissioner, -also, it is stated that "the cost of removal, according to the -Indian estimate, is high;" but the commissioner adds, "as -their own fund pays it, and it was insisted on by their own -confidential agents, it was thought it could not be rejected."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Noble liberality! This nation of eighteen thousand industrious, -self-supporting people, compelled at the point of the -bayonet to leave their country and seek new homes in a wilderness, -are to be permitted, as a favor, to spend on their journey -to this wilderness as much of their own money as they -think necessary, and have all the soap they want.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The record which the United States Government has left in -official papers of its self-congratulations in the matter of this -Cherokee removal has an element in it of the ludicrous, spite -of the tragedy and shame.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Says the Secretary of War: "The generous and enlightened -policy evinced in the measures adopted by Congress toward -that people during the last session was ably and judiciously -carried into effect by the general appointed to conduct their -<a id='Page_285'></a>removal. The reluctance of the Indians to relinquish the land -of their birth in the East, and remove to their new homes in -the West, was entirely overcome by the judicious conduct of -that officer, and they departed with alacrity under the guidance -of their own chiefs. The arrangements for this purpose made -by General Scott, in compliance with his previous instructions, -although somewhat costly to the Indians themselves, met the -entire approbation of the Department, as it was deemed of the -last importance that the Cherokees should remove to the West -voluntarily, and that upon their arrival at the place of their -ultimate destination they should recur to the manner in which -they had been treated with kind and grateful feelings. Humanity -no less than good policy dictated this course toward -these children of the forest; and in carrying out in this instance -with an unwavering hand the measures resolved upon by the -Government, in the hope of preserving the Indians and of maintaining -the peace and tranquillity of the whites, it will always -be gratifying to reflect that this has been effected not only -without violence, but with every proper regard for the feelings -and interests of that people."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Commissioner of Indian Affairs says, in his report: "The -case of the Cherokees is a striking example of the liberality of -the Government in all its branches. *** A retrospect of the -last eight months in reference to this numerous and more than -ordinarily enlightened tribe cannot fail to be refreshing to well-constituted -minds."</p> - -<p class='c010'>A further appropriation had been asked by the Cherokee -chiefs to meet the expense of their removal (they not thinking -$5,000,000 a very munificent payment for a country as large -as all Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut together), -and Congress had passed a law giving them $1147.67 more, -and the commissioner says of this: "When it is considered -that by the treaty of December, 1835, the sum of $5,000,000 -was stipulated to be paid them as the full value of their lands, -<a id='Page_286'></a>after that amount was declared by the Senate of the United -States to be an ample consideration for them, the spirit of this -whole proceeding cannot be too much admired. By some the -measure may be regarded as just; by others generous: it perhaps -partook of both attributes. If it went farther than naked -justice could have demanded, it did not stop short of what -liberality approved. *** If our acts have been generous, they -have not been less wise and politic. A large mass of men have -been conciliated; the hazard of an effusion of human blood -has been put by; good feeling has been preserved, and we have -quietly and gently transported eighteen thousand friends to the -west bank of the Mississippi."</p> - -<p class='c010'>To dwell on the picture of this removal is needless. The -fact by itself is more eloquent than pages of detail and description -could make it. No imagination so dull, no heart so -hard as not to see and to feel, at the bare mention of such an -emigration, what horrors and what anguish it must have involved. -"Eighteen thousand friends!" Only a great magnanimity -of nature, strengthened by true Christian principle, -could have prevented them from being changed into eighteen -thousand bitter enemies.</p> - -<p class='c010'>For some years after this removal fierce dissensions rent the -Cherokee nation. The party who held that the treaty of 1835 -had been unfair, and that the nation still had an unextinguished -right to its old country at the East, felt, as was natural, a -bitter hatred toward the party which, they claimed, had wrongfully -signed away the nation's lands. Several of the signers of -the treaty, influential men of the nation, were murdered. Party-spirit -ran to such a height that the United States Government -was compelled to interfere; and in 1846, after long negotiations -and dissensions, a new treaty was made, by the terms -and concessions of which the anti-treaty party were appeased, -a general amnesty provided for, and comparative harmony restored -to the nation.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_287'></a>The progress of this people in the ten years following this -removal is almost past belief. In 1851 they had twenty-two -primary schools, and had just built two large houses for a -male and female seminary, in which the higher branches of -education were to be taught. They had a temperance society -with three thousand members, and an auxiliary society in each -of the eight districts into which the country was divided. -They had a Bible Society and twelve churches; a weekly newspaper, -partly in English, partly in Cherokee; eight district -courts, two circuit courts, and a supreme court. Legislative -business was transacted as before by the national council and -committee, elected for four years. Nearly one thousand boys -and girls were in the public schools.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1860 the agitation on the subject of slavery began to -be felt, a strong antislavery party being organized in the nation. -There were stormy scenes also in that part of the country -nearest the Kansas line. For several years white settlers -had persisted in taking up farms there, and the Cherokees had -in vain implored the Government to drive them away. The -officer at last sent to enforce the Cherokees' rights and dislodge -the squatters was obliged to burn their cabins over their heads -before they would stir, so persuaded were they of the superior -right of the white man over the Indian. "The only reason -the settlers gave for not heeding the notices was that they had -been often notified before to quit the reservation; and, no steps -having been taken to enforce obedience, they supposed they -would be allowed to remain with like security in this instance."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It is surprising," says the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, -"to see the growing disposition on the part of our citizens to -wholly disregard our treaty obligations with Indian tribes within -our borders; and it is to be hoped that in future their rights -will be held more sacred, or that the Government will in every -instance promptly see that they are observed and respected."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the first year of the Civil War a large number of the -<a id='Page_288'></a>Cherokees took up arms on the rebel side. That this was not -from any love or liking for the Southern cause, it would seem, -must be evident to any one who believed that they were -possessed of memories. The opportunity of fighting against -Georgians could not but have been welcome to the soul of a -Cherokee, even if he bought it at the price of fighting on the -side of the government which had been so perfidious to his nation. -Their defection was no doubt largely due to terror. The -forts in their vicinity were surrendered to the rebels; all United -States troops were withdrawn from that part of the country. -They had no prospect of protection from the Government, and, -as if to leave them without one incentive to loyalty, the Government -suspended the payment of their annuities.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Confederate Government stepped in, artfully promising -to pay what the Northern Government refused. It would have -taken a rare loyalty, indeed, to have stood unmoved in such -circumstances as these; yet thousands of the Indians in Indian -Territory did remain loyal, and fled for their lives to avoid being -pressed into the rebel service; almost half of the Creek -nation, many Seminoles, Chickasaws, Quapaws, Cherokees, and -half a dozen others—over six thousand in all—fled to Kansas, -where their sufferings in the winter of 1862 were heart-rending.</p> - -<p class='c010'>That the Cherokees did not lightly abandon their allegiance -is on record in the official history of the Department of the -Interior. The Report of the Indian Bureau for 1863 says: -"The Cherokees, prior to the Rebellion, were the most numerous, -intelligent, wealthy, and influential tribe of this superintendency -(the southern). For many months they steadily resisted -the efforts made by the rebels to induce them to abandon -their allegiance to the Federal Government; but being wholly -unprotected, and without the means of resistance, they were -finally compelled to enter into treaty stipulations with the rebel -authorities. This connection was, however, of short duration, -for upon the first appearance of United States forces in their -<a id='Page_289'></a>country an entire regiment of Indian troops, raised ostensibly -for service in the rebel army, deserted and came over to us, -and have ever since been under our command, and upon all occasions -have proved themselves faithful and efficient soldiers." -In the course of the next year, however, many more joined the -rebels: it was estimated that between six and seven thousand -of the wealthier portion of the nation co-operated in one way -or another with the rebels. The result was that at the end of -the war the Cherokee country was ruined.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In the Cherokee country," says the Report of the Indian -Bureau for 1865, "where the contending armies have moved -to and fro; where their foraging parties have gone at will, -sparing neither friend nor foe; where the disloyal Cherokees -in the service of the rebel government were determined that -no trace of the homesteads of their loyal brethren should remain -for their return; and where the swindling cattle-thieves -have made their ill-gotten gains for two years past, the scene -is one of utter desolation."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The party feeling between the loyal and disloyal Cherokees -ran as high as it did between the loyal and disloyal whites, and -it looked for a time as if it would be as impossible to make -the two opposing parties in the Cherokee nation agree to live -peaceably side by side with each other, as it would to make discharged -soldiers from Georgia and from Maine settle down in -one village together. But after long and troublesome negotiations -a treaty was concluded in 1866, by which all the necessary -points seemed to be established of a general amnesty and -peace.</p> - -<p class='c010'>That the Indians were at a great disadvantage in the making -of these new treaties it is unnecessary to state. The peculiarity -of the Government's view of their situation and rights is most -näively stated in one of the reports for 1862. Alluding to the -necessity of making at no very distant time new treaties with -all these Southern tribes, one of the Indian superintendents -<a id='Page_290'></a>says: "While the rebelling of a large portion of most of these -tribes abrogates treaty obligations, and places them at our -mercy, the very important fact should not be forgotten that -the Government first wholly failed to keep its treaty stipulations -with those people, and in protecting them, by withdrawing -all the troops from the forts in Indian Territory, and leaving -them at the mercy of the rebels. It is a well-known fact -that self-preservation in many instances compelled them to -make the best terms they could with the rebels."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nevertheless they are "at our mercy," because their making -the "best terms they could with the rebels abrogates treaty -obligations." The trite old proverb about the poorness of rules -that do not work both ways seems to be applicable here.</p> - -<p class='c010'>With a recuperative power far in advance of that shown by -any of the small white communities at the South, the Cherokees -at once addressed themselves to rebuilding their homes -and reconstructing their national life. In one year they established -fifteen new schools, set all their old industries going, and -in 1869 held a large agricultural fair, which gave a creditable -exhibition of stock and farm produce. Thus a second time -they recovered themselves, after what would seem to be well-nigh -their destruction as a people. But the Indian's fate of -perpetual insecurity, alarm, and unrest does not abandon them. -In 1870 they are said to be "extremely uneasy about the security -of their possession of the lands they occupy." When -asked why their high-schools are not re-established, reforms introduced -into the administration of justice, desirable improvements -undertaken, the reply inevitably comes, "We expect to -have our lands taken away: what is the use of all that when -our doom as a nation is sealed?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Distrust is firmly seated in their minds. National apathy -depresses them, and until they realize a feeling of assurance -that their title to their lands will be respected, and that treaties -are an inviolable law for all parties, the Cherokees will not -<a id='Page_291'></a>make the efforts for national progress of which they are capable."</p> - -<p class='c010'>When their delegates went to Washington, in 1866, to make -the new treaty, they were alarmed by the position taken by -the Government that the nation, as a nation, had forfeited its -rights. They were given to understand that "public opinion -held them responsible for complicity in the Rebellion; and, although -they could point to the fact that the only countenance -the rebels received came from less than one-third of the population, -and cite the services of two Cherokee regiments in the -Union cause, it was urged home to them that, before being rehabilitated -in their former rights by a new treaty, they were -not in a position to refuse any conditions imposed. Such language -from persons they believed to possess the power of injuring -their people intimidated the Cherokee delegates. They -sold a large tract in South-eastern Kansas at a dollar an acre -to an association of speculators, and it went into the possession -of a railroad company. They also acceded, against the wishes -of the Cherokee people, to a provision in the treaty granting -right of way through the country for two railroads. This excited -great uneasiness among the Indians."</p> - -<p class='c010'>And well it might. The events of the next few years amply -justified this uneasiness. The rapacity of railroad corporations -is as insatiable as their methods are unscrupulous. The -phrase "extinguishing Indian titles" has become, as it were, -a mere technical term in the transfer of lands. The expression -is so common that it has probably been one of the -agencies in fixing in the minds of the people the prevalent impression -that extinction is the ultimate and inevitable fate of -the Indian; and this being the case, methods and times are -not, after all, of so much consequence; they are merely foreordained -conditions of the great foreordained progression of -events. This is the only explanation of the unconscious inhumanity -of many good men's modes of thinking and speaking in -<a id='Page_292'></a>regard to the Indians being driven from home after home, and -robbed of tract after tract of their lands.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the Report of the Indian Bureau for 1875 is an account -of a remnant of the Cherokee tribe in North Carolina: "They -number not far from seventeen hundred, and there are probably -in other parts of North Carolina, and scattered through -Georgia and Tennessee, between three and four hundred more. -These Cherokees have had an eventful history. When the -main portion of the tribe was compelled to remove west of the -Mississippi they fled to the mountains, and have steadily refused -to leave their homes. The proceeds of their lands, which -were sold in accordance with a treaty with the main body of -the Cherokees, have been mainly expended in the purchase of -lands, and providing funds for the Western Cherokees. At -various times previous to the year 1861 the agent for the -Eastern Cherokees, at their request, purchased lands with their -funds, upon which they might make their homes. These purchases, -though probably made with good intent, carelessly left -the title in their agent personally, and not in trust. By this -neglect, when subsequently the agent became insolvent, all their -lands were seized and sold for his debts. By special legislation -of Congress their case has been brought before the courts of -North Carolina, and their rights to a certain extent asserted, -and they are enabled to maintain possession of their lands; -and, by the use of their own funds in extinguishing liens, are -now in possession of above seventy thousand acres of fair arable, -timber, and grazing lands. They have shown themselves -capable of self-support, and, I believe, have demonstrated the -unwisdom of removing Indians from a country which offers -to them a home, and where a white man could make a living. -This is shown by the fact that they are now, though receiving -scarcely any Government aid, in a more hopeful condition, -both as to morals, and industry, and personal property, than -the Cherokees who removed West."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_293'></a>The Report of the Indian Bureau for 1876 fully bears out -this statement. The North Carolina Cherokees have, indeed, -reason to be in a more hopeful condition, for they have their -lands secured to them by patent, confirmed by a decision of -State courts; but this is what the Department of the Interior -has brought itself to say as to the Western Cherokees' lands, -and those of all other civilized tribes in the Indian Territory: -"By treaty the Government has ceded to the so-called civilized -tribes—the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles—a -section of country altogether disproportionate in -amount to their needs. *** The amount susceptible of cultivation -must be many-fold greater than can ever be cultivated by -the labor of the Indians. But the Indians claim, it is understood, -that they hold their lands by sanctions so solemn that it -would be a gross breach of faith on the part of the Government -to take away any portion thereof without their consent; -and that consent they apparently propose to withhold."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Let us set side by side with this last paragraph a quotation -from the treaty by virtue of which "the Indians claim, it is -understood, that they hold" these lands, which they now "apparently -propose to withhold." We will not copy it from the -original treaty; we will copy it, and a few other sentences with -it, from an earlier report of this same Department of the Interior. -Only so far back as 1870 we find the Department in a -juster frame of mind toward the Cherokees. "A large part of -the Indian tribes hold lands to which they are only fixed by -laws that define the reservations to which they shall be confined. -It cannot be denied that these are in a great measure -dependent on the humanity of the American people. *** But -the Cherokees, and the other civilized Indian nations no less, -hold lands in perpetuity by titles defined by the supreme law -of the land. The United States agreed 'to possess the Cherokees, -and to guarantee it to them forever,' and that guarantee -'was solemnly pledged of seven million acres of land.' The -<a id='Page_294'></a>consideration for this territory was the same number of acres -elsewhere located. The inducement to the bargain set forth in -the treaty was 'the anxious desire of the Government of the -United States to secure to the Cherokee nation of Indians a -permanent home, and which shall, under the most solemn guarantee -of the United States, be and remain theirs forever—a -home that shall never in all future time be embarrassed by having -extended around it the lines or placed over it the jurisdiction -of a Territory or State, or be pressed upon by the extension -in any way of the limits of any existing State.' To assure -them of their title, a patent for the Territory was issued."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This was the view of the Department of the Interior in 1870. -In 1876 the Department says that affairs in the Indian Territory -are "complicated and embarrassing, and the question is -directly raised whether an extensive section of country is to be -allowed to remain for an indefinite period practically an uncultivated -waste, or whether the Government shall determine to -reduce the size of the reservation."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The phrase "whether the Government shall determine to -reduce the size of the reservation" sounds much better than -"whether the Government shall rob the Indians of a few millions -of acres of land;" but the latter phrase is truth, and the -other is the spirit of lying.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The commissioner says that the question is a difficult one, -and should be "considered with calmness, and a full purpose -to do no injustice to the Indians." He gives his own personal -opinion on it "with hesitancy," but gives it nevertheless, that -"public policy will soon require the disposal of a large portion -of these lands to the Government for the occupancy either of -other tribes of Indians or of white people. There is a very -general and growing opinion that observance of the strict letter -of treaties with Indians is in many cases at variance with their -own best interests and with sound public policy." He adds, -however, that it must not be understood from this recommendation -<a id='Page_295'></a>that it is "the policy or purpose of this office to in any -way encourage the spirit of rapacity which demands the throwing -open of the Indian Territory to white settlement." He -says, "the true way to secure its perpetual occupancy by Indians -is to fill it up with other Indians, to give them lands in -severalty, and to provide a government strong and intelligent -enough to protect them effectually from any and all encroachments -on the part of the whites."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Comment on these preposterously contradictory sentences -would be idle. The best comment on them, and the most fitting -close to this sketch of the Cherokee nation, is in a few -more quotations from the official reports of the Indian Bureau.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Of this people, from whom the Department of the Interior -proposes, for "public policy," to take away "a large portion" -of their country, it has published within the last three years -these records:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It has been but a few years since the Cherokees assembled -in council under trees or in a rude log-house, with hewed logs -for seats. Now the legislature assembles in a spacious brick -council-house, provided with suitable committee-rooms, senate -chamber, representative hall, library, and executive offices, which -cost $22,000.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Their citizens occupy neat hewed double log-cabins, frame, -brick, or stone houses, according to the means or taste of the -individual, with ground adorned by ornamental trees, shrubbery, -flowers, and nearly every improvement, including orchards -of the choicest fruits. Some of these orchards have -existed for nearly twenty years, and are now in a good, fruitful -condition. Their women are usually good house-keepers, and -give great attention to spinning and weaving yarns, jeans, and -linsey, and make most of the pants and hunter-jackets of the -men and boys. The farmers raise most of their own wool and -cotton, and it is not an uncommon sight, in a well-to-do Cherokee -farmer's house, to see a sewing-machine and a piano.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_296'></a>"They have ample provision for the education of all their -children to a degree of advancement equal to that furnished -by an ordinary college in the States. They have seventy-five -common day-schools, kept open ten months in the year, in the -different settlements. For the higher education of their young -men and women they have two commodious and well-furnished -seminaries, one for each sex; and, in addition to those already -mentioned, they have a manual labor school and an orphan -asylum. The cost of maintaining these schools the past year -(1877) was, as reported by the superintendent of public instruction, -$73,441.65, of which $41,475 was paid as salary to -teachers.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They have twenty-four stores, twenty-two mills, and sixty-five -smith-shops, owned and conducted by their own citizens.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Their constitution and laws are published in book form; -and from their printing-house goes forth among the people in -their own language, and also in English, the <i>Cherokee Advocate</i>, -a weekly paper, which is edited with taste and ability.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They have (and this is true also of the Choctaws, Creeks, -Chickasaws, and Seminoles) a constitutional government, with -legislative, judicial, and executive departments, and conducted -upon the same plan as our State governments, the entire expenses -of which are paid out of their own funds, which are derived -from interest on various stocks and bonds—the invested -proceeds of the sale of their lands, and held in trust by the -Government of the United States—which interest is paid the -treasurers of the different nations semi-annually, and by them -disbursed on national warrants issued by the principal chief -and secretary, and registered by the auditors.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They are an intelligent, temperate, and industrious people, -who live by the honest fruits of their labor, and seem ambitious -to advance both as to the development of their lands and -the conveniences of their homes. In their council may be -found men of learning and ability; and it is doubtful if their -<a id='Page_297'></a>rapid progress from a state of wild barbarism to that of civilization -and enlightenment has any parallel in the history of the -world. What required five hundred years for the Britons to -accomplish in this direction they have accomplished in one hundred -years."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Will the United States Government determine to "reduce -the size of the reservation?"</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_298'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER IX.<br /> <br />MASSACRES OF INDIANS BY WHITES.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>I.—<i>The Conestoga Massacre.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>When the English first entered Pennsylvania messengers -from the Conestoga Indians met them, bidding them welcome, -and bringing gifts of corn and venison and skins. The whole -tribe entered into a treaty of friendship with William Penn, -which was to last "as long as the sun should shine or the -waters run into the rivers."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The records of Pennsylvania history in the beginning of the -eighteenth century contain frequent mention of the tribe. In -1705 the governor sent the secretary of his council, with a delegation -of ten men, to hold an interview with them at Conestoga, -for purposes of mutual understanding and confidence. -And in that same year Thomas Chalkley, a famous Quaker -preacher, while sojourning among the Maryland Quakers, was -suddenly seized with so great a "concern" to visit these Indians -that he laid the matter before the elders at the Nottingham -meeting; and, the idea being "promoted" by the elders, -he set off with an interpreter and a party of fourteen to make -the journey. He says: "We travelled through the woods -about fifty miles, carrying our provisions with us; and on the -journey sat down by a river and spread our food on the grass, -and refreshed ourselves and horses, and then went on cheerfully -and with good-will and much love to the poor Indians. -And when we came they received us kindly, treating us civilly -in their way. We treated about having a meeting with them -in a religious way; upon which they called a council, in which -<a id='Page_299'></a>they were very grave, and spoke, one after another, without -any heat or jarring. Some of the most esteemed of their -women speak in their councils."</p> - -<p class='c010'>When asked why they suffered the women to speak, they -replied that "some women were wiser than some men." It -was said that they had not for many years done anything without -the advice of a certain aged and grave woman, who was always -present at their councils. The interpreter said that she -was an empress, and that they gave much heed to what she -said. This wise queen of Conestoga looked with great favor -on the Quakers, the interpreter said, because they "did not -come to buy or sell, or get gain;" but came "in love and respect" -to them, "and desired their well-doing, both here and -hereafter." Two nations at this time were represented in this -Conestoga band—the Senecas and the Shawanese.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The next year the governor himself, anxious to preserve -their inalienable good-will, and to prevent their being seduced -by emissaries from the French, went himself to visit them. -On this occasion one of the chiefs made a speech, still preserved -in the old records, which contains this passage: "Father, -we love quiet; we suffer the mouse to play; when the woods -are rustled by the wind, we fear not; when the leaves are disturbed -in ambush, we are uneasy; when a cloud obscures your -brilliant sun, our eyes feel dim; but when the rays appear, they -give great heat to the body and joy to the heart. Treachery -darkens the chain of friendship; but truth makes it brighter -than ever. This is the peace we desire."</p> - -<p class='c010'>A few years later a Swedish missionary visited them, and -preached them a sermon on original sin and the necessity of a -mediator. When he had finished, an Indian chief rose and replied -to him; both discourses being given through an interpreter. -The Swede is said to have been so impressed with the Indian's -reasoning that, after returning to Sweden, he wrote out -his own sermon and the Indian's reply in the best Latin at his -<a id='Page_300'></a>command, and dedicated the documents to the University of -Upsal, respectfully requesting them to furnish him with some -arguments strong enough to confute the strong reasonings of -this savage.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Our forefathers," said the chief, "were under a strong -persuasion (as we are) that those who act well in this life will -be rewarded in the next according to the degrees of their virtues; -and, on the other hand, that those who behave wickedly -here will undergo such punishments hereafter as were proportionate -to the crimes they were guilty of. This has been -constantly and invariably received and acknowledged for a -truth through every successive generation of our ancestors. It -could not, then, have taken its rise from fable; for human fiction, -however artfully and plausibly contrived, can never gain -credit long among people where free inquiry is allowed, which -was never denied by our ancestors. *** Now we desire to propose -some questions. Does he believe that our forefathers, -men eminent for their piety, constant and warm in their pursuit -of virtue, hoping thereby to merit eternal happiness, were -all damned? Does he think that we who are zealous imitators -in good works, and influenced by the same motives as we are, -earnestly endeavoring with the greatest circumspection to tread -the path of integrity, are in a state of damnation? If that be his -sentiment, it is surely as impious as it is bold and daring. *** -Let us suppose that some heinous crimes were committed by -some of our ancestors, like to that we are told of another -race of people. In such a case God would certainly punish -the criminal, but would never involve us that are innocent in -the guilt. Those who think otherwise must make the Almighty -a very whimsical, evil-natured being. *** Once more: -are the Christians more virtuous, or, rather, are they not more -vicious than we are? If so, how came it to pass that they -are the objects of God's beneficence, while we are neglected? -Does he daily confer his favors without reason and with so -<a id='Page_301'></a>much partiality? In a word, we find the Christians much -more depraved in their morals than we are; and we judge -from their doctrine by the badness of their lives."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is plain that this Indian chief's speech was very much -Latinized in the good Swede's hands; but if the words even -approached being a true presentation of what he said, it is -wonderful indeed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1721 His Excellency Sir William Keith, Bart., Governor -of the Province of Pennsylvania, went with an escort of eighty -horsemen to Conestoga, and spent several days in making a -treaty with the representatives of the Five Nations, "the Indians -of Conestoga and their friends." He was entertained at -"Captain Civility's cabin." When he left them, he desired -them to give his "very kind love and the love of all our people -to your kings and to all their people." He invited them -to visit him in Philadelphia, saying, "We can provide better for -you and make you more welcome. People always receive their -friends best at their own homes." He then took out a coronation -medal of the King, and presented it to the Indian in these -words: "That our children when we are dead may not forget -these things, but keep this treaty between us in perpetual remembrance, -I here deliver to you a picture in gold, bearing the -image of my great master, the King of all the English. And -when you return home, I charge you to deliver this piece into -the hands of the first man or greatest chief of all the Five Nations, -whom you call Kannygoodk, to be laid up and kept as -a token to our children's children that an entire and lasting -friendship is now established forever between the English in -this country and the great Five Nations."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At this time the village of Conestoga was described as lying -"about seventy miles west of Philadelphia. The land thereabout -being exceeding rich, it is now surrounded with divers fine -plantations and farms, where they raise quantities of wheat, -barley, flax, and hemp, without the help of any dung."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_302'></a>The next year, also, was marked by a council of great significance -at Conestoga. In the spring of this year an Indian -called Saanteenee had been killed by two white men, brothers, -named Cartledge. At this time it was not only politic but -necessary for the English to keep on good terms with as many -Indians as possible. Therefore, the old record says, "Policy -and justice required a rigid inquiry" into this affair, and the -infliction of "exemplary punishment."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Accordingly, the Cartledges were arrested and confined in -Philadelphia, and the high-sheriff of Chester County went, with -two influential men of the province, to Conestoga, to confer -with the Indians as to what should be done with them. The -Indians were unwilling to decide the matter without advice -from the Five Nations, to whom they owed allegiance. A -swift runner (Satcheecho) was, therefore, sent northward with -the news of the occurrence; and the governor, with two of his -council, went to Albany to hear what the Five Nations had to -say about it. What an inconceivable spectacle to us to-day: -the governments of Pennsylvania and New York so fully recognizing -an Indian to be a "person," and his murder a thing -to be anxiously and swiftly atoned for if possible!</p> - -<p class='c010'>Only a little more than a hundred and fifty years lie between -this murder of Saanteenee in Conestoga and the murder of Big -Snake on the Ponca Reservation in 1880. Verily, Policy has -kept a large assortment of spectacles for Justice to look through -in a surprising short space of time.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On the decision of the king and chiefs of the Five Nations -hung the fate of the murderers. Doubtless the brothers Cartledge -made up their minds to die. The known principles of -the Indians in the matter of avenging injuries certainly left -them little room for hope. But no! The Five Nations took -a different view. They "desired that the Cartledges should -not suffer death, and the affair was at length amicably settled," -says the old record. "One life," said the Indian king, "on -<a id='Page_303'></a>this occasion, is enough to be lost. There should not two -die."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This was in 1722. In 1763 there were only twenty of these -Conestoga Indians left—seven men, five women, and eight children. -They were still living in their village on the Shawanee -Creek, their lands being assured to them by manorial gift; but -they were miserably poor—earned by making brooms, baskets, -and wooden bowls a part of their living, and begged the rest. -They were wholly peaceable and unoffending, friendly to their -white neighbors, and pitifully clinging and affectionate, naming -their children after whites who were kind to them, and striving -in every way to show their gratitude and good-will.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Upon this little community a band of white men, said by -some of the old records to be "Presbyterians," from Paxton, -made an attack at daybreak on the 14th of December. They -found only six of the Indians at home—three men, two women, -and a boy. The rest were away, either at work for the white -farmers or selling their little wares. "These poor defenceless -creatures were immediately fired upon, stabbed, and hatcheted -to death; the good Shebaes, among the rest, cut to pieces in his -bed. All of them were scalped and otherwise horribly mangled, -then their huts were set on fire, and most of them burnt down."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Shebaes was a very old man, having assisted at the second -treaty held with Mr. Penn, in 1701, and ever since continued a -faithful friend to the English. He is said to have been an exceeding -good man, considering his education; being naturally -of a most kind, benevolent temper."</p> - -<p class='c010'>From a manuscript journal kept at this time, and belonging -to the great-granddaughter of Robert Barber, the first settler in -Lancaster County, are gathered the few details known of this -massacre. "Some of the murderers went directly from the -scene of their crime to Mr. Barber's house. They were strangers -to him; but, with the hospitality of those days, he made -a fire for them and set refreshments before them.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_304'></a>"While they warmed themselves they inquired why the -Indians were suffered to live peaceably here. Mr. Barber said -they were entirely inoffensive, living on their own lands and -injuring no one. They asked what would be the consequence -if they were all destroyed. Mr. Barber said he thought they -would be as liable to punishment as if they had destroyed so -many white men. They said <i>they</i> were of a different opinion, -and in a few minutes went out. In the mean time two sons of -Mr. Barber's, about ten or twelve years old, went out to look -at the strangers' horses, which were hitched at a little distance -from the house.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"After the men went the boys came in, and said that they -had tomahawks tied to their saddles which were all bloody, -and that they had Christy's gun. Christy was a little Indian -boy about their own age. They were much attached to him, -as he was their playmate, and made bows and arrows for -them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>While the family were talking over this, and wondering -what it could mean, a messenger came running breathless to -inform them of what had happened. Mr. Barber went at once -to the spot, and there he found the murdered Indians lying -in the smouldering ruins of their homes, "like half-consumed -logs." He, "with some trouble, procured their bodies, to administer -to them the rights of sepulture."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It was said that at the beginning of the slaughter an Indian -mother placed her little child under a barrel, charging it -to make no noise, and that a shot was fired through the barrel -which broke the child's arm, and still it kept silent."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The magistrates of Lancaster, shocked, as well they might -be, at this frightful barbarity, sent messengers out immediately, -and took the remaining Indians, wherever they were found, -brought them into the town for protection, and lodged them -in the newly-erected workhouse or jail, which was the strongest -building in the place. The Governor of Pennsylvania issued a -<a id='Page_305'></a>proclamation, ordering all judges, sheriffs, and "all His Majesty's -liege subjects in the province," to make every effort to -apprehend the authors and perpetrators of this crime, also -their abettors and accomplices. But the "Paxton Boys" held -magistrates and governor alike in derision. Two weeks later -they assembled again, fifty strong, rode to Lancaster, dismounted, -broke open the doors of the jail, and killed every Indian -there.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"When the poor wretches saw they had no protection nigh, -nor could possibly escape, and being without the least weapon -of defence, they divided their little families, the children clinging -to their parents. They fell on their faces, protested their -innocence, declared their love to the English, and that in their -whole lives they had never done them injury. And in this -posture they all received the hatchet. Men, women, and children -were every one inhumanly murdered in cold blood. *** -The barbarous men who committed the atrocious act, in defiance -of government, of all laws, human and divine, and to the -eternal disgrace of their country and color, then mounted their -horses, huzzaed in triumph, as if they had gained a victory, -and rode off unmolested. *** The bodies of the murdered -were then brought out and exposed in the street till a hole -could be made in the earth to receive and cover them. But -the wickedness cannot be covered, and the guilt will lie on the -whole land till justice is done on the murderers. The blood -of the innocent will cry to Heaven for vengeance."</p> - -<p class='c010'>These last extracts are from a pamphlet printed in Philadelphia -at the time of the massacre; printed anonymously, -because "so much had fear seized the minds of the people" -that neither the writer nor the printer dared to give "name or -place of abode."</p> - -<p class='c010'>There are also private letters still preserved which give accounts -of the affair. A part of one from William Henry, of -Lancaster, to a friend in Philadelphia, is given in "Rupp's History -<a id='Page_306'></a>of Lancaster County." He says, "A regiment of Highlanders -were at that time quartered at the barracks in the -town, and yet these murderers were permitted to break open -the doors of the city jail and commit the horrid deed. The -first notice I had of the affair was that, while at my father's -store near the court-house, I saw a number of people running -down-street toward the jail, which enticed me and other lads -to follow them. At about six or eight yards from the jail we -met from twenty-five to thirty men, well mounted on horses, -and with rifles, tomahawks, and scalping-knives, equipped for -murder. I ran into the prison-yard, and there, oh, what a horrid -sight presented itself to my view! Near the back door of -the prison lay an old Indian and his squaw, particularly well -known and esteemed by the people of the town on account of -his placid and friendly conduct. His name was Will Soc. -Around him and his squaw lay two children, about the age of -three years, whose heads were split with the tomahawk and -their scalps taken off. Toward the middle of the jail-yard, -along the west side of the wall, lay a stout Indian, whom I particularly -noticed to have been shot in his breast. His legs -were chopped with the tomahawk, his hands cut off, and finally -a rifle-ball discharged in his mouth, so that his head was blown -to atoms, and the brains were splashed against and yet hanging -to the wall for three or four feet around. This man's hands -and feet had been chopped off with a tomahawk. In this -manner lay the whole of them—men, women, and children—spread -about the prison-yard, shot, scalped, hacked, and cut to -pieces."</p> - -<p class='c010'>After this the Governor of Pennsylvania issued a second -proclamation, still more stringent than the first, and offering a -reward of $600 for the apprehension of any three of the -ringleaders.</p> - -<p class='c010'>But the "Paxton Boys" were now like wild beasts that had -tasted blood. They threatened to attack the Quakers and all -<a id='Page_307'></a>persons who sympathized with or protected Indians. They -openly mocked and derided the governor and his proclamations, -and set off at once for Philadelphia, announcing their -intention of killing all the Moravian Indians who had been -placed under the protection of the military there.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Their march through the country was like that of a band of -maniacs. In a private letter written by David Rittenhouse at -this time, he says, "About fifty of these scoundrels marched by -my workshop. I have seen hundreds of Indians travelling the -country, and can with truth affirm that the behavior of these -fellows was ten times more savage and brutal than theirs. -Frightening women by running the muzzles of guns through -windows, hallooing and swearing; attacking men without the -least provocation, dragging them by the hair to the ground, and -pretending to scalp them; shooting dogs and fowls: these are -some of their exploits."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is almost past belief that at this time many people justified -these acts. An Episcopalian clergyman in Lancaster wrote -vindicating them, "bringing Scripture to prove that it was -right to destroy the heathen;" and the "Presbyterians think -they have a better justification—nothing less than the Word -of God," says one of the writers on the massacre.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"With the Scriptures in their hands and mouths, they can -set at naught that express command, 'Thou shalt do no murder,' -and justify their wickedness by the command given to -Joshua to destroy the heathen. Horrid perversion of Scripture -and religion, to father the worst of crimes on the God of -Love and Peace!" It is a trite saying that history repeats itself; -but it is impossible to read now these accounts of the -massacres of defenceless and peaceable Indians in the middle -of the eighteenth century, without the reflection that the record -of the nineteenth is blackened by the same stains. What -Pennsylvania pioneers did in 1763 to helpless and peaceable -Indians of Conestoga, Colorado pioneers did in 1864 to helpless -<a id='Page_308'></a>and peaceable Cheyennes at Sand Creek, and have threatened -to do again to helpless and peaceable Utes in 1880. The -word "extermination" is as ready on the frontiersman's tongue -to-day as it was a hundred years ago; and the threat is more -portentous now, seeing that we are, by a whole century of -prosperity, stronger and more numerous, and the Indians are, -by a whole century of suffering and oppression, fewer and -weaker. But our crime is baser and our infamy deeper in the -same proportion.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Close upon this Conestoga massacre followed a "removal" -of friendly Indians—the earliest on record, and one whose -cruelty and cost to the suffering Indians well entitle it to a -place in a narrative of massacres.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Everywhere in the provinces fanatics began to renew the -old cry that the Indians were the Canaanites whom God had -commanded Joshua to destroy; and that these wars were a -token of God's displeasure with the Europeans for permitting -the "heathen" to live. Soon it became dangerous for a Moravian -Indian to be seen anywhere. In vain did he carry one -of the Pennsylvania governor's passports in his pocket. He -was liable to be shot at sight, with no time to pull his passport -out. Even in the villages there was no safety. The devoted -congregations watched and listened night and day, not knowing -at what hour they might hear the fatal warwhoop of hostile -members of their own race, coming to slay them; or the -sudden shots of white settlers, coming to avenge on them outrages -committed by savages hundreds of miles away.</p> - -<p class='c010'>With every report that arrived of Indian massacres at the -North, the fury of the white people all over the country rose -to greater height, including even Christian Indians in its unreasoning -hatred. But, in the pious language of a narrative -written by one of the Moravian missionaries, "God inclined -the hearts of the chief magistrates to protect them. November -6th an express arrived from Philadelphia, bringing an order -<a id='Page_309'></a>that all the baptized Indians from Nain and Wechquetank -should be brought to Philadelphia, and be protected in that city, -having first delivered up their arms."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Two days later both these congregations set out on their sad -journey, weeping as they left their homes. They joined forces -at Bethlehem, on the banks of the Lecha, and "entered upon -their pilgrimage in the name of the Lord, the congregation of -Bethlehem standing spectators, and, as they passed, commending -them to the grace and protection of God, with supplication -and tears."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Four of the Moravian missionaries were with them, and some -of the brethren from Bethlehem accompanied them all the way, -"the sheriff, Mr. Jennings, caring for them as a father."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The aged, the sick, and the little children were carried in -wagons. All the others, women and men, went on foot. The -November rains had made the roads very heavy. As the weary -and heart-broken people toiled slowly along through the -mud, they were saluted with curses and abuse on all sides. As -they passed through the streets of Germantown a mob gathered -and followed them, taunting them with violent threats of -burning, hanging, and other tortures. It was said that a party -had been organized to make a serious attack on them, but was -deterred by the darkness and the storm. Four days were consumed -in this tedious march, and on the 11th of November -they reached Philadelphia. Here, spite of the governor's positive -order, the officers in command at the barracks refused -to allow them to enter. From ten in the forenoon till three -in the afternoon there the helpless creatures stood before the -shut gate—messengers going back and forth between the -defiant garrison and the bewildered and impotent governor; -the mob, thickening and growing more and more riotous hour -by hour, pressing the Indians on every side, jeering them, reviling -them, charging them with all manner of outrages, and -threatening to kill them on the spot. The missionaries, bravely -<a id='Page_310'></a>standing beside their flock, in vain tried to stem or turn the -torrent of insult and abuse. All that they accomplished was -to draw down the same insult and abuse on their own heads.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nothing but the Indians' marvellous patience and silence -saved them from being murdered by this exasperated mob. -To the worst insults they made no reply, no attempt at retaliation -or defence. They afterward said that they had comforted -themselves "by considering what insult and mockery our Saviour -had suffered on their account."</p> - -<p class='c010'>At last, after five hours of this, the governor, unable to compel -the garrison to open the barracks, sent an order that the -Indians should be taken to Province Island, an island in the -Delaware River joined to the main-land by a dam. Six miles -more, every mile in risk of their lives, the poor creatures walked. -As they passed again through the city, thousands followed -them, the old record says, and "with such tumultuous -clamor that they might truly be considered as sheep among -wolves."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Long after dark they reached the island, and were lodged in -some unused buildings, large and comfortless. There they kept -their vesper service, and took heart from the fact that the verse -for the day was that verse of the beautiful thirty-second psalm -which has comforted so many perplexed souls: "I will teach -thee in the way thou shalt go."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Here they settled themselves as best they could. The missionaries -had their usual meetings with them, and humane people -from Philadelphia, "especially some of the people called -Quakers," sent them provisions and fuel, and tried in various -ways to "render the inconvenience of their situation less -grievous."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Before they had been here a month some of the villages -they had left were burnt, and the riotous Paxton mob, which -had murdered all the peaceful Conestoga Indians, announced its -intention of marching on Province Island and killing every Indian -<a id='Page_311'></a>there. The Governor of Pennsylvania launched proclamation -after proclamation, forbidding any one, under severest -penalties, to molest the Indians under its protection, and offering -a reward of two hundred pounds for the apprehension of -the ringleaders of the insurgents. But public sentiment was -inflamed to such a degree that the Government was practically -powerless. The known ringleaders and their sympathizers -paraded contemptuously in front of the governor's house, -mocking him derisively, and not even two hundred pounds -would tempt any man to attack them. In many parts of Lancaster -County parties were organized with the avowed intention -of marching on Philadelphia and slaughtering all the Indians -under the protection of the Government. Late on the -29th of December rumors reached Philadelphia that a large -party of these rioters were on the road; and the governor, at -daybreak the next day, sent large boats to Province Island, -with orders to the missionaries to put their people on board as -quickly as possible, row to Leek Island, and await further orders. -In confusion and terror the congregations obeyed, and -fled to Leek Island. Later in the day came a second letter -from the governor, telling them that the alarm had proved a -false one. They might return to Province Island, where he -would send them a guard; and that they would better keep -the boats, to be ready in case of a similar emergency.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They immediately returned with joy to their former habitation," -says the old record, "comforted by the text for the -day—'The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart -trusted in him' (Ps. xxviii., 7)—and closed this remarkable -year with prayer and thanksgiving for all the proofs of the -help of God in so many heavy trials."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Four days later the missionaries received a second order for -instant departure. The reports of the murderous intentions of -the rioters being confirmed, and the governor seeing only too -clearly his own powerlessness to contend with them, he had resolved -<a id='Page_312'></a>to send the Indians northward, and put them under the -protection of the English army, and especially of Sir William -Johnson, agent for the Crown among the Northern Indians. -No time was to be lost in carrying out this plan, for at any moment -the mob might attack Province Island. Accordingly, at -midnight of January 4th, the fugitives set out once more, passed -through Philadelphia, undiscovered, to the meeting-house -of the Moravian Brethren, where a breakfast had been provided -for them. Here they were met by the commissary, Mr. -Fox, who had been detailed by the governor to take charge of -their journey. Mr. Fox, heart-stricken at their suffering appearance, -immediately sent out and bought blankets to be distributed -among them, as some protection against the cold. -Wagons were brought for the aged, sick, blind, little children, -and the heavy baggage; and again the pitiful procession took -up its march. Again an angry mob gathered fast on its steps, -cursing and reviling in a terrible manner, only restrained by -fear from laying violent hands on them. Except for the protection -of a military escort they would scarcely have escaped -murderous assault.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At Amboy two sloops lay ready to transport them to New -York; but just as they reached this place, and were preparing -to go on shore, a messenger arrived from the Governor of -New York with angry orders that not an Indian should set -foot in that territory. Even the ferry-men were forbidden, -under heavy penalties, to ferry one across the river.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The commissioner in charge of them, in great perplexity, -sent to the Governor of Pennsylvania for further orders, placing -the Indians, meantime, in the Amboy barracks. Here they -held their daily meetings, singing and praying with great unction, -until finally many of their enemies were won to a hearty -respect and sympathy for them; even soldiers being heard to -say, "Would to God all the white people were as good Christians -as these Indians."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_313'></a>The Pennsylvania governor had nothing left him to do but -to order the Indians back again, and, accordingly, says the -record, "The Indian congregation set out with cheerfulness -on their return, in full confidence that the Lord in his good -providence, for wise purposes best known to himself, had ordained -their travelling thus to and fro. This belief supported -them under all the difficulties they met with in their journeys -made in the severest part of winter."</p> - -<p class='c010'>They made the return journey under a large military escort, -one party in advance and one bringing up the rear. This escort -was composed of soldiers, who, having just come from Niagara, -where they had been engaged in many fights with the -North-western savages, were at first disposed to treat these defenceless -Indians with brutal cruelty; but they were soon disarmed -by the Indians' gentle patience, and became cordial and -friendly.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The return journey was a hard one. The aged and infirm -people had become much weakened by their repeated hardships, -and the little children suffered pitiably. In crossing some of -the frozen rivers the feeble ones were obliged to crawl on their -hands and feet on the ice.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On the 24th of January they reached Philadelphia, and were -at once taken to the barracks, where almost immediately mobs -began again to molest and threaten them. The governor, thoroughly -in earnest now, and determined to sustain his own honor -and that of the province, had eight heavy pieces of cannon -mounted and a rampart thrown up in front of the barracks. -The citizens were called to arms, and so great was the excitement -that it is said even Quakers took guns and hurried to the -barracks to defend the Indians; and the governor himself went -at midnight to visit them, and reassure them by promises of protection.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On February 4th news was received that the rioters in large -force were approaching the city. Hearing of the preparations -<a id='Page_314'></a>made to receive them, they did not venture to enter. On the -night of the 5th, however, they drew near again. The whole -city was roused, church-bells rung, bonfires lighted, cannon -fired, the inhabitants waked from their sleep and ordered to -the town-house, where arms were given to all. Four more cannon -were mounted at the barracks, and all that day was spent -in hourly expectation of the rebels. But their brave boasts -were not followed up by action. Seeing that the city was in -arms against them, they halted. The governor then sent a delegation -of citizens to ask them what they wanted.</p> - -<p class='c010'>They asserted, insolently, that there were among the Indians -some who had committed murders, and that they must be given -up. Some of the ringleaders were then taken into the barracks -and asked to point out the murderers. Covered with confusion, -they were obliged to admit they could not accuse one Indian -there. They then charged the Quakers with having taken -away six and concealed them. This also was disproved, and -finally the excitement subsided.</p> - -<p class='c010'>All through the spring and summer the Indians remained -prisoners in the barracks. Their situation became almost insupportable -from confinement, unwholesome diet, and the mental -depression inevitable in their state. To add to their misery -small-pox broke out among them, and fifty-six died in the -course of the summer from this loathsome disease.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We cannot describe," said the missionaries, "the joy and -fervent desire which most of them showed in the prospect of -seeing their Saviour face to face. We saw with amazement the -power of the blood of Jesus in the hearts of poor sinners." -This was, no doubt, true; but there might well have entered -into the poor, dying creatures' thoughts an ecstasy at the mere -prospect of freedom, after a year of such imprisonment and -suffering.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At last, on December 4th, the news of peace reached Philadelphia. -On the 6th a proclamation was published in all the -<a id='Page_315'></a>newspapers that war was ended and hostilities must cease. The -joy with which the prisoned Indians received this news can -hardly be conceived. It "exceeded all descriptions," says the -record, and "was manifested in thanksgivings and praises to -the Lord."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was still unsafe, however, for them to return to their old -homes, which were thickly surrounded by white settlers, who -were no less hostile now at heart than they had been before the -proclamation of peace. It was decided, therefore, that they -should make a new settlement in the Indian country on the -Susquehanna River. After a touching farewell to their old -friends of the Bethlehem congregation, and a grateful leave-taking -of the governor, who had protected and supported them -for sixteen months, they set out on the 3d of April for their -new home in the wilderness. For the third time their aged, -sick, and little children were placed in overloaded wagons, for -a long and difficult journey—a far harder one than any they -had yet taken. The inhospitalities of the lonely wilderness -were worse than the curses and revilings of riotous mobs. -They were overtaken by severe snow-storms. They camped -in icy swamps, shivering all night around smouldering fires of -wet wood. To avoid still hostile whites they had to take -great circuits through unbroken forests, where each foot of -their path had to be cut tree by tree. The men waded streams -and made rafts for the women and children. Sometimes, when -the streams were deep, they had to go into camp, and wait till -canoes could be built. They carried heavy loads of goods for -which there was no room in the wagons. Going over high, -steep hills, they often had to divide their loads into small parcels, -thus doubling and trebling the road. Their provisions -gave out. They ate the bitter wild potatoes. When the children -cried with hunger, they peeled chestnut-trees, and gave -them the sweet-juiced inner bark to suck. Often they had no -water except that from shallow, muddy puddles. Once they -<a id='Page_316'></a>were environed by blazing woods, whose fires burnt fiercely for -hours around their encampment. Several of the party died, -and were buried by the way.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"But all these trials were forgotten in their daily meetings, -in which the presence of the Lord was most sensibly and comfortably -felt. These were always held in the evening, around -a large fire, in the open air."</p> - -<p class='c010'>They celebrated a "joyful commemoration" of Easter, and -spent the Passion-week "in blessed contemplation" of the -sufferings of Jesus, whose "presence supported them under all -afflictions, insomuch that they never lost their cheerfulness -and resignation" during the five long weeks of this terrible -journey.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On the 9th of May they arrived at Machwihilusing, and -"forgot all their pain and trouble for joy that they had reached -the place of their future abode. *** With offers of praise -and thanksgiving, they devoted themselves anew to Him who -had given them rest for the soles of their feet."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"With renewed courage" they selected their home on the -banks of the Susquehanna, and proceeded to build houses. -They gave to the settlement the name of Friedenshutten—a -name full of significance, as coming from the hearts of these -persecuted wanderers: Friedenshutten—"Tents of Peace."</p> - -<p class='c010'>If all this persecution had fallen upon these Indians because -they were Christians, the record, piteous as it is, would be only -one out of thousands of records of the sufferings of Christian -martyrs, and would stir our sympathies less than many another. -But this was not the case. It was simply because they were -Indians that the people demanded their lives, and would have -taken them, again and again, except that all the power of the -Government was enlisted for their protection. The fact of -their being Christians did not enter in, one way or the other, -any more than did the fact that they were peaceable. They -were Indians, and the frontiersmen of Pennsylvania intended -<a id='Page_317'></a>either to drive all Indians out of their State or kill them, just -as the frontiersmen of Nebraska and of Colorado now intend -to do if they can. We shall see whether the United States -Government is as strong to-day as the Government of the Province -of Pennsylvania was in 1763; or whether it will try first -(and fail), as John Penn did, to push the helpless, hunted creatures -off somewhere into a temporary makeshift of shelter, for a -temporary deferring of the trouble of protecting them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Sixteen years after the Conestoga massacre came that of -Gnadenhütten, the blackest crime on the long list; a massacre -whose equal for treachery and cruelty cannot be pointed out in -the record of massacres of whites by Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>II.—<i>The Gnadenhütten Massacre.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>In the year 1779 the congregations of Moravian Indians living -at Gnadenhütten, Salem, and Schonbrun, on the Muskingum -River, were compelled by hostile Indians to forsake their villages -and go northward to the Sandusky River. This movement -was instigated by the English, who had become suspicious -that the influence of the Moravian missionaries was -thrown on the side of the colonies, and that their villages were -safe centres of information and supplies. These Indians having -taken no part whatever in the war, there was no pretext for -open interference with them; but the English agents found it -no difficult matter to stir up the hostile tribes to carry out -their designs. And when the harassed congregations finally -consented to move, the savages who escorted them were commanded -by English officers.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The savages drove them forward like cattle," says an old -narrative; "the white brethren and sisters in the midst, surrounded -by the believing Indians." "One morning, when the -latter could not set out as expeditiously as the savages thought -proper, they attacked the white brethren, and forced them to -set out alone, whipping their horses forward till they grew -<a id='Page_318'></a>wild, and not even allowing mothers time to suckle their children. -The road was exceeding bad, leading through a continuance -of swamps. Sister Zeisberger fell twice from her horse, -and once, hanging in the stirrup, was dragged for some time; -but assistance was soon at hand, and the Lord preserved her -from harm. Some of the believing Indians followed them as -fast as possible, but with all their exertions did not overtake -them till night."</p> - -<p class='c010'>For one month these unfortunate people journeyed through -the wilds in this way. When they reached the Sandusky -Creek the savages left them to take care of themselves as best -they might. They were over a hundred miles from their -homes, "in a wilderness where there was neither game nor provisions." -Here they built huts of logs and bark. They had -neither beds nor blankets. In fact, the only things which the -savages had left them were their utensils for making maple -sugar. It was the middle of October when they reached Sandusky. -Already it was cold, and the winter was drawing near. -In November Governor De Peyster, the English commander at -Fort Detroit, summoned the missionaries to appear before him -and refute the accusations brought against their congregations -of having aided and abetted the colonies.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The missionaries answered that they doubted not in the -least but that very evil reports must have reached his ears, as -the treatment they had met with had sufficiently proved that -they were considered as guilty persons, but that these reports -were false. *** That Congress, indeed, knew that they were -employed as missionaries to the Indians, and did not disturb -them in their labors; but had never in anything given them -directions how to proceed."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The governor, convinced of the innocence and single-heartedness -of these noble men, publicly declared that "he felt great -satisfaction in their endeavors to civilize and Christianize the -Indians, and would permit them to return to their congregations." -<a id='Page_319'></a>He then gave them passports for their journey back -to Sandusky, and appended a permission that they should perform -the functions of their office among the Christian Indians -without molestation.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This left them at rest so far as apprehensions of attack from -hostile Indians were concerned; but there still remained the -terrible apprehension of death by starvation and cold. Deep -snows lay on the ground. Their hastily-built huts were so -small that it was impossible to make large fires in them. Their -floors being only the bare earth, whenever a thaw came the -water forced itself up and then froze again. Cattle died for -lack of food, and their carcasses were greedily devoured; nursing -children died for want of nourishment from their starving -mothers' breasts; the daily allowance of corn to each adult -was one pint, and even this pittance it was found would not -last till spring.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nevertheless, "they celebrated the Christmas holidays with -cheerfulness and blessing, and concluded this remarkable year -with thanks and praise to Him who is ever the Saviour of his -people. But, having neither bread nor wine, they could not -keep the communion."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Meantime the corn still stood ungathered in their old fields -on the Muskingum River. Weather-beaten, frozen, as it was, -it would be still a priceless store to these starving people. The -project of going back there after it began to be discussed. -It was one hundred and twenty-five miles' journey; but food -in abundance lay at the journey's end. Finally it was decided -that the attempt should be made. Their first plan was to -hide their families in the woods at some distance from the -settlements lest there might be some danger from hostile -whites. On their way, however, they were met by some of -their brethren from Schonbrun, who advised them to go back -openly into their deserted towns, assuring them that the -Americans were friendly to them now. They accordingly did -<a id='Page_320'></a>so, and remained for several weeks at Salem and Gnadenhütten, -working day and night gathering and husking the weather-beaten -corn, and burying it in holes in the ground in the -woods for future supply. On the very day that they were to -have set off with their packs of corn, to return to their starving -friends and relatives at Sandusky, a party of between one -and two hundred whites made their appearance at Gnadenhütten. -Seeing the Indians scattered all through the cornfields, -they rode up to them, expressing pleasure at seeing -them, and saying that they would take them into Pennsylvania, -to a place where they would be out of all reach of persecution -from the hostile savages or the English. They represented -themselves as "friends and brothers, who had purposely -come out to relieve them from the distress brought on them -on account of their being friends to the American people. -*** The Christian Indians, not in the least doubting their -sincerity, walked up to them and thanked them for being so -kind; while the whites again gave assurances that they would -meet with good treatment from them. They then advised -them to discontinue their work and cross over to the town, in -order to make necessary arrangements for the journey, as they -intended to take them out of the reach of their enemies, and -where they would be supplied abundantly with all they stood -in need of."</p> - -<p class='c010'>They proposed to take them to Pittsburg, where they -would be out of the way of any assault made by the English -or the savages. This the Indians heard, one of their missionaries -writes, "with resignation, concluding that God would -perhaps choose this method to put an end to their sufferings. -Prepossessed with this idea, they cheerfully delivered their -guns, hatchets, and other weapons to the murderers, who promised -to take good care of them, and in Pittsburg to return -every article to its rightful owner. Our Indians even showed -them all those things which they had secreted in the woods, -<a id='Page_321'></a>assisted in packing them up, and emptied all their beehives for -these pretended friends."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the mean time one of the assistants, John Martin by -name, went to Salem, ten miles distant, and carried the good -news that a party of whites had come from the settlements to -carry them to a place of safety and give them protection. -"The Salem Indians," says the same narrative, "did not hesitate -to accept of this proposal, believing unanimously that God -had sent the Americans to release them from their disagreeable -situation at Sandusky, and imagining that when arrived -at Pittsburg they might soon find a safe place to build a settlement, -and easily procure advice and assistance from Bethlehem."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Some of the whites expressed a desire to see the village of -Salem, were conducted thither, and received with much friendship -by the Indians. On the way they entered into spiritual -conversation with their unsuspecting companions, feigning -great piety and discoursing on many religious and scriptural -subjects. They offered also to assist the Salem Indians in -moving their effects.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the mean time the defenceless Indians at Gnadenhütten -were suddenly attacked, driven together, bound with ropes, -and confined. As soon as the Salem Indians arrived, they -met with the same fate.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The murderers then held a council to decide what should -be done with them. By a majority of votes it was decided to -kill them all the next day. To the credit of humanity be it -recorded, that there were in this band a few who remonstrated, -declared that these Indians were innocent and harmless, and -should be set at liberty, or, at least, given up to the Government -as prisoners. Their remonstrances were unavailing, and, -finding that they could not prevail on these monsters to spare -the Indians' lives, "they wrung their hands, calling God to -witness that they were innocent of the blood of these Christian -<a id='Page_322'></a>Indians. They then withdrew to some distance from the -scene of slaughter."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The majority were unmoved, and only disagreed as to the -method of putting their victims to death. Some were for -burning them alive; others for tomahawking and scalping -them. The latter method was determined on, and a message -was sent to the Indians that, "as they were Christian Indians, -they might prepare themselves in a Christian manner, for they -must all die to-morrow."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The rest of the narrative is best told in the words of the -Moravian missionaries: "It may be easily conceived how great -their terror was at hearing a sentence so unexpected. However, -they soon recollected themselves, and patiently suffered -the murderers to lead them into two houses, in one of which -the brethren were confined and in the other the sisters and -children. *** Finding that all entreaties to save their lives -were to no purpose, and that some, more blood-thirsty than -others, were anxious to begin upon them, they united in begging -a short delay, that they might prepare themselves for -death, which request was granted them. Then asking pardon -for whatever offence they had given, or grief they had occasioned -to each other, they knelt down, offering fervent prayers -to God their Saviour and kissing one another. Under a flood -of tears, fully resigned to his will, they sung praises unto him, -in the joyful hope that they would soon be relieved from -all pains and join their Redeemer in everlasting bliss. *** -The murderers, impatient to make a beginning, came again -to them while they were singing, and, inquiring whether they -were now ready for dying, they were answered in the affirmative, -adding that they had commended their immortal souls to -God, who had given them the assurance in their hearts that he -would receive their souls. One of the party, now taking up -a cooper's mallet which lay in the house, saying, 'How exactly -this will answer for the purpose,' began with Abraham, and -<a id='Page_323'></a>continued knocking down one after another until he counted -fourteen that he had killed with his own hands. He now -handed the instrument to one of his fellow-murderers, saying: -'My arm fails me. Go on in the same way. I think I have -done pretty well.' In another house, where mostly women -and children were confined, Judith, a remarkably pious aged -widow, was the first victim. After they had finished the horrid -deed they retreated to a small distance from the slaughterhouses; -but, after a while, returning again to view the dead -bodies, and finding one of them (Abel), although scalped and -mangled, attempting to raise himself from the floor, they so -renewed their blows upon him that he never rose again. *** -Thus ninety-six persons magnified the name of the Lord by -patiently meeting a cruel death. Sixty-two were grown persons -and thirty-four children. Many of them were born of -Christian parents in the society, and were among those who in -the year 1763 were taken under the protection of the Pennsylvania -Government at the time of the riots of the Paxton -Boys. *** Two boys, about fourteen years of age, almost -miraculously escaped from this massacre. One of them was -scalped and thrown down for dead. Recovering himself, he -looked around; but, with great presence of mind, lay down -again quickly, feigning death. In a few moments he saw the -murderers return, and again bury their hatchets in the head of -Abel, who was attempting to rise, though scalped and terribly -mangled. As soon as it was dark, Thomas crept over the dead -bodies and escaped to the woods, where he hid himself till night. -The other lad, who was confined in the house with the women, -contrived unnoticed to slip through a trap-door into the cellar, -where he lay concealed through the day, the blood all the -while running down through the floor in streams. At dark -he escaped through a small window and crept to the woods, -where he encountered Thomas, and the two made their way together, -after incredible hardships, to Sandusky. To describe the -<a id='Page_324'></a>grief and terror of the Indian congregation on hearing that so -large a number of its members was so cruelly massacred is impossible. -Parents wept and mourned for the loss of their children, -husbands for their wives, and wives for their husbands, -children for their parents, sisters for brothers, and brothers for -sisters. But they murmured not, nor did they call for vengeance -on the murderers, but prayed for them. And their -greatest consolation was a full assurance that all their beloved -relatives were now at home in the presence of the Lord, and in -full possession of everlasting happiness."</p> - -<p class='c010'>An account of this massacre was given in the <i>Pennsylvania -Gazette</i>, of April 17th, 1782. It runs as follows:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The people being greatly alarmed, and having received intelligence -that the Indian towns on the Muskingum had not -moved, as reported, a number of men, properly provided, collected -and rendezvoused on the Ohio, opposite the Mingo Bottom, -with a desire to surprise the above towns.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"One hundred men swam the river, and proceeded to the -towns on the Muskingum, where the Indians had collected a -large quantity of provisions to supply their war-parties. They -arrived at the town in the night, undiscovered, attacked the Indians -in their cabins, and so completely surprised them that -they killed and scalped upward of ninety—but a few making -their escape—about forty of whom were warriors, the rest old -women and children. About eighty horses fell into their hands, -which they loaded with the plunder, the greatest part furs and -skins, and returned to the Ohio without the loss of a man."</p> - -<p class='c010'>III.—<i>Massacres of Apaches.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>In less than one hundred years from this Gnadenhütten massacre -an officer of the United States Army, stationed at Camp -Grant, in Arizona Territory, writes to his commanding officer the -following letter:</p> - -<div class='c011'><a id='Page_325'></a>"Camp Grant, Arizona Territory, May 17th, 1871.</div> - -<p class='c010'>"<span class='sc'>Dear Colonel</span>,—Thanks for your kind letter of last week. -If I could see you and have a long talk, and answer all your -questions, I could come nearer giving you a clear idea of the -history of the Indians at this post than by any written account. -Having had them constantly under my observation for nearly -three months, and the care of them constantly on my mind, -certain things have become so much a matter of certainty to -me that I am liable to forget the amount of evidence necessary -to convince even the most unprejudiced mind that has not -been brought in contact with them. I will, however, try and -give you a connected account, and if it proves not sufficiently -full in detail, you may be sure all its positive statements will -be sustained by the testimony of all competent judges who -have been at this post and cognizant of the facts.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Sometime in February a party of five old women came -in under a flag of truce, with a letter from Colonel Greene, -saying they were in search of a boy, the son of one of the -number taken prisoner near Salt River some months before. -This boy had been well cared for, and had become attached to -his new mode of life, and did not wish to return. The party -were kindly treated, rationed while here, and after two days -went away, asking permission to return. They came in about -eight days, I think, with a still larger number, with some articles -for sale, to purchase manta, as they were nearly naked. -Before going away they said a young chief would like to come -in with a party and have a talk. This I encouraged, and in a -few days he came with about twenty-five of his band. He -stated in brief that he was chief of a band of about one hundred -and fifty of what were originally the Aravapa Apaches; -that he wanted peace; that he and his people had no home, -and could make none, as they were at all times apprehensive -of the approach of the cavalry. I told him he should go to -the White Mountains. He said, 'That is not our country, neither -<a id='Page_326'></a>are they our people. We are at peace with them, but never -have mixed with them. Our fathers and their fathers before -them have lived in these mountains, and have raised corn in -this valley. We are taught to make mescal, our principal article -of food, and in summer and winter here we have a never-failing -supply. At the White Mountains there is none, and -without it now we get sick. Some of our people have been -in at Goodwin, and for a short time at the White Mountains; -but they are not contented, and they all say, "Let us go to the -Aravapa and make a final peace, and never break it."'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I told him I had no authority to make any treaty with him, -or to promise him that he would be allowed a permanent home -here, but that he could bring in his hand, and I would feed -them, and report his wishes to the Department commander. -In the mean time runners had been in from two other small -bands, asking the same privileges and giving the same reasons. -I made the same reply to all, and by about the 11th of March -I had over three hundred here. I wrote a detailed account -of the whole matter, and sent it by express to Department -Head-quarters, asking for instructions, having only the general -policy of the Government in such cases for my guidance. After -waiting more than six weeks my letter was returned to -me without comment, except calling my attention to the fact -that it was not briefed properly. At first I put them in camp, -about half a mile from the post, and counted them, and issued -their rations every second day. The number steadily increased -until it reached the number of five hundred and ten.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Knowing, as I did, that the responsibility of the whole -movement rested with me, and that, in case of any loss to the -Government coming of it, I should be the sufferer, I kept them -continually under my observation till I came not only to know -the faces of the men, but of the women and children. They -were nearly naked, and needed everything in the way of clothing. -I stopped the Indians from bringing hay, that I might -<a id='Page_327'></a>buy of these. I arranged a system of tickets with which to pay -them and encourage them; and to be sure that they were properly -treated, I personally attended to the weighing. I also -made inquiries as to the kind of goods sold them, and prices. -This proved a perfect success; not only the women and children -engaged in the work, but the men. The amount furnished by -them in about two months was nearly 300,000 pounds.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"During this time many small parties had been out with -passes for a certain number of days to burn mescal. These parties -were always mostly women, and I made myself sure by noting -the size of the party, and from the amount of mescal brought -in, that no treachery was intended. From the first I was determined -to know not only all they did, but their hopes and intentions. -For this purpose I spent hours each day with them -in explaining to them the relations they should sustain to the -Government, and their prospects for the future in case of either -obedience or disobedience. I got from them in return much -of their habits of thought and rules of action. I made it a -point to tell them all they wished to know, and in the plainest -and most positive manner. They were readily obedient, and remarkably -quick of comprehension. They were happy and contented, -and took every opportunity to show it. They had sent -out runners to two other bands which were connected with them -by intermarriages, and had received promises from them that -they would come in and join them. I am confident, from all I -have been able to learn, that but for this unlooked-for butchery, -by this time we would have had one thousand persons, and at -least two hundred and fifty able-bodied men. As their number -increased and the weather grew warmer, they asked and obtained -permission to move farther up the Aravapa to higher -ground and plenty of water, and opposite to the ground they -were proposing to plant. They were rationed every third day. -Captain Stanwood arrived about the first of April, and took -command of the post. He had received, while <i>en route</i>, verbal -<a id='Page_328'></a>instructions from General Stoneman to recognize and feed any -Indians he might find at the post as prisoners of war. After -he had carefully inspected all things pertaining to their conduct -and treatment, he concluded to make no changes, but had become -so well satisfied of the integrity of their intentions that -he left on the 24th with his whole troop for a long scout in -the lower part of the Territory. The ranchmen in this vicinity -were friendly and kind to them, and felt perfectly secure, and -had agreed with me to employ them at a fair rate of pay to -harvest their barley. The Indians seemed to have lost their -characteristic anxiety to purchase ammunition, and had, in many -instances, sold their best bows and arrows. I made frequent -visits to their camp, and if any were absent from count, made -it my business to know why.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Such was the condition of things up to the morning of the -30th of April. They had so won on me that, from my first -idea of treating them justly and honestly, as an officer of the -army, I had come to feel a strong personal interest in helping -to show them the way to a higher civilization. I had come -to feel respect for men who, ignorant and naked, were still -ashamed to lie or steal; and for women who would work cheerfully -like slaves to clothe themselves and children, but, untaught, -held their virtue above price. Aware of the lies industriously -circulated by the puerile press of the country, I was content -to know I had positive proof they were so.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I had ceased to have any fears of their leaving here, and -only dreaded for them that they might be at any time ordered -to do so. They frequently expressed anxiety to hear from the -general, that they might have confidence to build for themselves -better houses; but would always say, 'You know what we want, -and if you can't see him you can write, and do for us what you -can.' It is possible that, during this time, individuals from here -had visited other bands; but that any number had ever been -out to assist in any marauding expedition I know is false. On -<a id='Page_329'></a>the morning of April 30th 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 Captain 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 the two interpreters, mounted, to the Indian -camp, with orders to tell the chiefs the exact state of things, -and for them to bring their entire party inside the post. As I -had no cavalry, and but about fifty infantry (all recruits), and -no other officer, I could not leave the post to go to their defence. -My messengers returned in about an hour with intelligence -that they could find no living Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Their camp was burning, and the ground strewed with their -dead and mutilated women and children. I immediately mounted -a party of about twenty soldiers and citizens, and sent them -with the post surgeon with a wagon to bring in the wounded, -if any could be found. The party returned late in the afternoon, -having found no wounded, and without having been able -to communicate with any of the survivors. Early the next -morning I took a similar party with spades and shovels, and -went out and buried the dead immediately in and about the -camp. I had, the day before, offered the interpreters, or any -one who would do so, $100 to go to the mountains and communicate -with them, and convince them that no officer or soldier -of the United States Government had been concerned in -the vile transaction; and, failing in this, 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 -we were at the work, many of them came to the spot and -indulged in expressions of grief too wild and terrible to be -described.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"That evening they began to come in from all directions, singly -and in small parties, so changed as hardly to be recognizable -in the forty-eight hours during which they had neither eaten -<a id='Page_330'></a>nor slept. Many of the men, whose families had all been killed, -when I spoke to them and expressed 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 if I were their last hope on earth. Children, who two days -before had been full of frolic, kept at a distance, expressing -wondering horror.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I did what I could: I fed them, talked to them, and listened -patiently to their accounts. I sent horses to the mountains -to bring in two badly wounded women, one shot through -the left leg, one with an arm shattered. These were attended -to, and are doing well, and will recover.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Their camp was surrounded and attacked at daybreak. -So sudden and unexpected was it, that I found a number of -women shot while asleep beside their bundles of hay, which -they had collected to bring in on that morning. The wounded -who were unable to get away had their brains beaten out -with clubs or stones, while some were shot full of arrows after -having been mortally wounded by gun-shots. The bodies were -all stripped. Of the number buried, one was an old man, and -one was a well-grown boy; all the rest women and children. -Of the whole number killed and missing—about one hundred -and twenty-five—only eight were men. It has been said that -the men were not there: they were all there. On the 28th -we counted one hundred and twenty-eight men, a small number -being absent for mescal, all of whom have since been in. -I have spent a good deal of time with them since the affair, -and have been astonished at their continued unshaken faith in -me, and their perfectly clear understanding of their misfortune. -They say, 'We know there are a great many white men -and Mexicans who do not wish us to live at peace. We know -that the Papagos would never have come out against us at -this time unless they had been persuaded to do so.' What -<a id='Page_331'></a>they do not understand is, while they are at peace and are -conscious of no wrong intent, that they should be murdered.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"One of the chiefs said: 'I no longer want to live; my -women and children 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 their throats; 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 governor we never have and never shall -see.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"About their captives they say: 'Get them back for us. -Our little boys will grow up slaves, and our girls, as soon as -they are large enough, will be diseased prostitutes, to get -money for whoever owns them. 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 gave to you, and we look to you, who can write and talk -and have soldiers, to get them back.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I assure you it is no easy task to convince them of my -zeal when they see so little being done. I have pledged my -word to them that I never would rest, day or night, until they -should have justice, and just now I would as soon leave the -army as to be ordered away from them, or be obliged to order -them away from here. But you well know the difficulties in -the way. You know that parties who would engage in murder -like this could and would make statements and multiply affidavits -without end in their justification. I know you will use -your influence on the right side. I believe, with them, this -may be made either a means of making good citizens of them -and their children, or of driving them out to a hopeless war of -extermination. They ask to be allowed to live here in their -old homes, where nature supplies nearly all their wants. They -ask for a fair and impartial trial of their faith, and they ask -<a id='Page_332'></a>that all their captive children may be returned to them. Is -their demand unreasonable?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>This letter was written to Colonel T. G. C. Lee, U.S.A., by -Lieut. Royal E. Whitman, 3d U.S. Cavalry. It is published -in the Report of the Board of Indian Commissioners for 1871. -There is appended to it the following affidavit of the post -surgeon at Camp Grant:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"On this 16th day of September, 1871, personally appeared -Conant B. Brierley, who, being duly sworn according to law, -deposeth and saith: 'I am acting-assistant surgeon, U.S.A., -at Camp Grant, Arizona, where I arrived April 25th, 1871, and -reported to the commanding officer for duty as medical officer. -Some four hundred Apache Indians were at that time held as -prisoners of war by the military stationed at Camp Grant, and -during the period intervening between April 25th and 30th I -saw the Indians every day. They seemed very well contented, -and were busily employed in bringing in hay, which they sold -for manta and such little articles as they desired outside the -Government ration. April 29th Chiquita and some of the -other chiefs were at the post, and asked for seeds and for some -hoes, stating that they had ground cleared and ready for planting. -They were told that the garden-seeds had been sent for, -and would be up from Tucson in a few days. They then left, -and I saw nothing more of them until after the killing.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"'Sunday morning I heard a rumor that the Indians had -been attacked, and learned from Lieutenant Whitman that he -had sent the two interpreters to the Indian camp to warn the -Indians, and bring them down where they could be protected, -if possible. The interpreters returned and stated that the attack -had already been made and the Indians dispersed, and -that the attacking party were returning.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"'Lieutenant Whitman then ordered me to go to the Indian -camp to render medical assistance, and bring down any wounded -I might find. I took twelve men and a wagon, and proceeded -<a id='Page_333'></a>without delay to the scene of the murder. On my arrival -I found that I should have but little use for the wagon -or medicine. The work had been too thoroughly done. The -camp had been fired, and the dead bodies of twenty-one women -and children were lying scattered over the ground; those -who had been wounded in the first instance had their brains -beaten out with stones. Two of the squaws had been first ravished, -and then shot dead. One infant of some two months -was shot twice, and one leg nearly hacked off. *** I know -from my own personal observations that, during the time the -Indians were in, after my arrival, they were rationed every -three days, and Indians absent had to be accounted for; their -faces soon became familiar to me, and I could at once tell when -any strange Indian came in.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"'And I furthermore state that I have been among nearly -all the tribes on the Pacific coast, and that I have never seen -any Indians who showed the intelligence, honesty, and desire -to learn manifested by these Indians. I came among them -greatly prejudiced against them; but, after being with them, I -was compelled to admit that they were honest in their intentions, -and really desired peace.</p> - -<div class='c011'>"'C. B. Brierley,</div> -<div class='c011'>"'Acting Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A.'"</div> - -<hr class='c014' /> - -<p class='c010'>This is not the only instance of cruel outrage committed by -white men on the Apaches. In the Report of the Board of -Indian Commissioners for 1871 is the following letter from -one of the Arizona pioneers, Mr. J. H. Lyman, of Northampton, -Mass. Mr. Lyman spent the years of 1840-'41 among the -Apaches, and thus briefly relates an occurrence which took -place at a time when they were friendly and cordial to all -Americans going among them:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The Indians were then, as now, hostile to the Mexicans of -Sonora, and they were constantly making raids into the State -<a id='Page_334'></a>and driving off the cattle. The Mexicans feared them, and -were unable to meet them man to man. At that time American -trappers found the beaver very abundant about the head-waters -of the Gila River, among those rich mountain valleys -where the Apaches had, and still have, their secure retreats. -At the time I speak of there were two companies of trappers -in that region. One of the companies, about seventeen men, -was under a captain named Johnson. The other company consisted -of thirty men, I think. I was trapping on another head -of the Gila, several miles north. The valleys were full of -Apaches, but all peaceful toward the white men, both Indians -and whites visiting each other's camps constantly and fearlessly, -with no thought of treachery or evil. Besides the -Mexicans, the only enemies of the Apaches were the Piutes -and Navajoes, in the north-west. But here in their fastnesses -they felt safe from all foes.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"One day Johnson concluded to go down into Sonora on -a spree, as was occasionally the way with mountain-men. He -there saw the Governor of Sonora, who, knowing that he had -the confidence of the Indians, offered him an ounce of gold -for every Apache scalp he would bring him. The bargain was -struck. Johnson procured a small mountain howitzer, and then, -with supplies for his party, returned to his camp. Previous to -entering it he loaded his howitzer with a quantity of bullets. -On approaching the valley he was met by the Indians, who -joyfully welcomed him back, and proceeded at once to prepare -the usual feast. While they were boiling and roasting their -venison and bear meat, and were gathered in a small group -around the fire, laughing and chatting in anticipation of the -pleasure they expected in entertaining their guests, Johnson -told those of his party who had remained behind of the offer -of the governor, and with such details of temptation as easily -overcame any scruples such men might have.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"As they were all armed with rifles, which were always in -<a id='Page_335'></a>hand day and night, together with pistols in belt, they needed -no preparation. The howitzer, which the Indians might have -supposed to be a small keg of whiskey, was placed on the -ground and pointed at the group of warriors, squaws, and little -children round the fire, watching the roasting meal.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"While they were thus engaged, with hearts full of kindly -feelings toward their white friends, Johnson gave the signal. -The howitzer was discharged, sending its load of bullets scattering -and tearing through the mass of miserable human beings, -and nearly all who were not stricken down were shot by -the rifles. A very few succeeded in escaping into the ravine, -and fled over the dividing ridge into the northern valleys, -where they met others of their tribe, to whom they told the -horrible story.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The Apaches at once showed that they could imitate their -more civilized brothers. Immediately a band of them went in -search of the other company of trappers, who, of course, were -utterly unconscious of Johnson's infernal work. They were -attacked, unprepared, and nearly all killed; and then the story -that the Apaches were treacherous and cruel went forth into -all the land, but nothing of the wrongs they had received."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Is it to be wondered at that the Apaches became one of the -most hostile and dangerous tribes on the Pacific coast?</p> - -<p class='c010'>These are but four massacres out of scores, whose history, if -written, would prove as clearly as do these, that, in the long -contest between white men and Indians, the Indian has not -always been the aggressor, and that treachery and cruelty are -by no means exclusively Indian traits.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_336'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER X.<br /> <br />CONCLUSION.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>There are within the limits of the United States between -two hundred and fifty and three hundred thousand Indians, -exclusive of those in Alaska. The names of the different -tribes and bands, as entered in the statistical tables of the Indian -Office Reports, number nearly three hundred. One of the -most careful estimates which have been made of their numbers -and localities gives them as follows: "In Minnesota and States -east of the Mississippi, about 32,500; in Nebraska, Kansas, -and the Indian Territory, 70,650; in the Territories of Dakota, -Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, 65,000; in Nevada and -the Territories of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, -84,000; and on the Pacific slope, 48,000."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Of these, 130,000 are self-supporting on their own reservations, -"receiving nothing from the Government except interest -on their own moneys, or annuities granted them in consideration -of the cession of their lands to the United States."<a id='r31' /><a href='#f31' class='c012'><sup>[31]</sup></a></p> - -<p class='c010'>This fact alone would seem sufficient to dispose forever of -the accusation, so persistently brought against the Indian, that -he will not work.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Of the remainder, 84,000 are partially supported by the -Government—the interest money due them and their annuities, -as provided by treaty, being inadequate to their subsistence -on the reservations where they are confined. In many -cases, however, these Indians furnish a large part of their support—the -<a id='Page_337'></a>White River Utes, for instance, who are reported by -the Indian Bureau as getting sixty-six per cent. of their living -by "root-digging, hunting, and fishing;" the Squaxin band, in -Washington Territory, as earning seventy-five per cent., and the -Chippewas of Lake Superior as earning fifty per cent. in the -same way. These facts also would seem to dispose of the accusation -that the Indian will not work.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There are about 55,000 who never visit an agency, over -whom the Government does not pretend to have either control -or care. These 55,000 "subsist by hunting, fishing, on roots, -nuts, berries, etc., and by begging and stealing;" and this also -seems to dispose of the accusation that the Indian will not -"work for a living." There remains a small portion, about -31,000, that are entirely subsisted by the Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There is not among these three hundred bands of Indians -one which has not suffered cruelly at the hands either of the -Government or of white settlers. The poorer, the more insignificant, -the more helpless the band, the more certain the cruelty -and outrage to which they have been subjected. This is -especially true of the bands on the Pacific slope. These Indians -found themselves of a sudden surrounded by and caught up in -the great influx of gold-seeking settlers, as helpless creatures -on a shore are caught up in a tidal wave. There was not time -for the Government to make treaties; not even time for communities -to make laws. The tale of the wrongs, the oppressions, -the murders of the Pacific-slope Indians in the last thirty -years would be a volume by itself, and is too monstrous to be -believed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It makes little difference, however, where one opens the record -of the history of the Indians; every page and every year -has its dark stain. The story of one tribe is the story of all, -varied only by differences of time and place; but neither time -nor place makes any difference in the main facts. Colorado is -as greedy and unjust in 1880 as was Georgia in 1830, and Ohio -<a id='Page_338'></a>in 1795; and the United States Government breaks promises -now as deftly as then, and with an added ingenuity from long -practice.</p> - -<p class='c010'>One of its strongest supports in so doing is the wide-spread -sentiment among the people of dislike to the Indian, of impatience -with his presence as a "barrier to civilization," and distrust -of it as a possible danger. The old tales of the frontier -life, with its horrors of Indian warfare, have gradually, by two -or three generations' telling, produced in the average mind -something like an hereditary instinct of unquestioning and unreasoning -aversion which it is almost impossible to dislodge or -soften.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There are hundreds of pages of unimpeachable testimony on -the side of the Indian; but it goes for nothing, is set down as -sentimentalism or partisanship, tossed aside and forgotten.</p> - -<p class='c010'>President after president has appointed commission after -commission to inquire into and report upon Indian affairs, and -to make suggestions as to the best methods of managing them. -The reports are filled with eloquent statements of wrongs done -to the Indians, of perfidies on the part of the Government; -they counsel, as earnestly as words can, a trial of the simple -and unperplexing expedients of telling truth, keeping promises, -making fair bargains, dealing justly in all ways and all -things. These reports are bound up with the Government's Annual -Reports, and that is the end of them. It would probably -be no exaggeration to say that not one American citizen out of -ten thousand ever sees them or knows that they exist, and yet -any one of them, circulated throughout the country, read by -the right-thinking, right-feeling men and women of this land, -would be of itself a "campaign document" that would initiate -a revolution which would not subside until the Indians' -wrongs were, so far as is now left possible, righted.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1869 President Grant appointed a commission of nine -men, representing the influence and philanthropy of six leading -<a id='Page_339'></a>States, to visit the different Indian reservations, and to "examine -all matters appertaining to Indian affairs."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the report of this commission are such paragraphs as the -following: "To assert that 'the Indian will not work' is as -true as it would be to say that the white man will not work.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Why should the Indian be expected to plant corn, fence -lands, build houses, or do anything but get food from day to -day, when experience has taught him that the product of his -labor will be seized by the white man to-morrow? The most -industrious white man would become a drone under similar -circumstances. Nevertheless, many of the Indians" (the commissioners -might more forcibly have said 130,000 of the Indians) -"are already at work, and furnish ample refutation of -the assertion that 'the Indian will not work,' There is no -escape from the inexorable logic of facts.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The history of the Government connections with the Indians -is a shameful record of broken treaties and unfulfilled -promises. The history of the border white man's connection -with the Indians is a sickening record of murder, outrage, robbery, -and wrongs committed by the former, as the rule, and -occasional savage outbreaks and unspeakably barbarous deeds -of retaliation by the latter, as the exception.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Taught by the Government that they had rights entitled -to respect, when those rights have been assailed by the rapacity -of the white man, the arm which should have been raised -to protect them has ever been ready to sustain the aggressor.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The testimony of some of the highest military officers of -the United States is on record to the effect that, in our Indian -wars, almost without exception, the first aggressions have been -made by the white man; and the assertion is supported by every -civilian of reputation who has studied the subject. In addition -to the class of robbers and outlaws who find impunity -in their nefarious pursuits on the frontiers, there is a large -class of professedly reputable men who use every means in -<a id='Page_340'></a>their power to bring on Indian wars for the sake of the profit -to be realized from the presence of troops and the expenditure -of Government funds in their midst. They proclaim death to -the Indians at all times in words and publications, making no -distinction between the innocent and the guilty. They irate -the lowest class of men to the perpetration of the darkest -deeds against their victims, and as judges and jurymen shield -them from the justice due to their crimes. Every crime committed -by a white man against an Indian is concealed or palliated. -Every offence committed by an Indian against a white -man is borne on the wings of the post or the telegraph to the -remotest corner of the land, clothed with all the horrors which -the reality or imagination can throw around it. Against such -influences as these the people of the United States need to be -warned."</p> - -<p class='c010'>To assume that it would be easy, or by any one sudden -stroke of legislative policy possible, to undo the mischief and -hurt of the long past, set the Indian policy of the country right -for the future, and make the Indians at once safe and happy, -is the blunder of a hasty and uninformed judgment. The notion -which seems to be growing more prevalent, that simply -to make all Indians at once citizens of the United States would -be a sovereign and instantaneous panacea for all their ills and -all the Government's perplexities, is a very inconsiderate one. -To administer complete citizenship of a sudden, all round, to -all Indians, barbarous and civilized alike, would be as grotesque -a blunder as to dose them all round with any one medicine, -irrespective of the symptoms and needs of their diseases. It -would kill more than it would cure. Nevertheless, it is true, -as was well stated by one of the superintendents of Indian -Affairs in 1857, that, "so long as they are not citizens of the -United States, their rights of property must remain insecure -against invasion. The doors of the federal tribunals being -barred against them while wards and dependents, they can -<a id='Page_341'></a>only partially exercise the rights of free government, or give to -those who make, execute, and construe the few laws they are -allowed to enact, dignity sufficient to make them respectable. -While they continue individually to gather the crumbs that -fall from the table of the United States, idleness, improvidence, -and indebtedness will be the rule, and industry, thrift, -and freedom from debt the exception. The utter absence of -individual title to particular lands deprives every one among -them of the chief incentive to labor and exertion—the very -mainspring on which the prosperity of a people depends."</p> - -<p class='c010'>All judicious plans and measures for their safety and salvation -must embody provisions for their becoming citizens as -fast as they are fit, and must protect them till then in every -right and particular in which our laws protect other "persons" -who are not citizens.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There is a disposition in a certain class of minds to be -impatient with any protestation against wrong which is unaccompanied -or unprepared with a quick and exact scheme of -remedy. This is illogical. When pioneers in a new country -find a tract of poisonous and swampy wilderness to be reclaimed, -they do not withhold their hands from fire and axe -till they see clearly which way roads should run, where good -water will spring, and what crops will best grow on the redeemed -land. They first clear the swamp. So with this -poisonous and baffling part of the domain of our national affairs—let -us first "clear the swamp."</p> - -<p class='c010'>However great perplexity and difficulty there may be in the -details of any and every plan possible for doing at this late -day anything like justice to the Indian, however hard it may -be for good statesmen and good men to agree upon the things -that ought to be done, there certainly is, or ought to be, no -perplexity whatever, no difficulty whatever, in agreeing upon -certain things that ought not to be done, and which must -cease to be done before the first steps can be taken toward -<a id='Page_342'></a>righting the wrongs, curing the ills, and wiping out the disgrace -to us of the present condition of our Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Cheating, robbing, breaking promises—these three are clearly -things which must cease to be done. One more thing, also, -and that is the refusal of the protection of the law to the -Indian's rights of property, "of life, liberty, and the pursuit -of happiness."</p> - -<p class='c010'>When these four things have ceased to be done, time, statesmanship, -philanthropy, and Christianity can slowly and surely -do the rest. Till these four things have ceased to be done, -statesmanship and philanthropy alike must work in vain, and -even Christianity can reap but small harvest.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_343'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>APPENDIX.</h2> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>I.<br /> <br />THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>The following letters were printed in the <i>New York Tribune</i> in -the winter of 1879. They are of interest, not only as giving a -minute account of one of the most atrocious massacres ever perpetrated, -but also as showing the sense of justice which is to be -found in the frontiersman's mind to-day. That men, exasperated -by atrocities and outrages, should have avenged themselves with -hot haste and cruelty, was, perhaps, only human; but that men -should be found, fifteen years later, apologizing for, nay, justifying -the cruel deed, is indeed a matter of marvel.</p> -<p class='c008'>LETTER I.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In June, 1864, Governor Evans, of Colorado, sent out a circular -to the Indians of the Plains, inviting all friendly Indians to come -into the neighborhood of the forts, and be protected by the United -States troops. Hostilities and depredations had been committed -by some bands of Indians, and the Government was about to -make war upon them. This circular says:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In some instances they (the Indians) have attacked and killed -soldiers, and murdered peaceable citizens. For this the Great -Father is angry, and will certainly hunt them out and punish -them; but he does not want to injure those who remain friendly -to the whites. He desires to protect and take care of them. For -this purpose I direct that all friendly Indians keep away from -those who are at war, and go to places of safety. Friendly Arapahoes -and Cheyennes belonging to the Arkansas River will go to -Major Colby, United States Agent at Fort Lyon, who will give -them provisions and show them a place of safety."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In consequence of this proclamation of the governor, a band of -<a id='Page_344'></a>Cheyennes, several hundred in number, came in and settled down -near Fort Lyon. After a time they were requested to move to -Sand Creek, about forty miles from Fort Lyon, where they were -still guaranteed "perfect safety" and the protection of the Government. -Rations of food were issued to them from time to time. -On the 27th of November, Colonel J. M. Chivington, a member -of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Denver, and Colonel of the -First Colorado Cavalry, led his regiment by a forced march to -Fort Lyon, induced some of the United States troops to join him, -and fell upon this camp of friendly Indians at daybreak. The -chief, White Antelope, always known as friendly to the whites, -came running toward the soldiers, holding up his hands and crying -"Stop! stop!" in English. When he saw that there was no -mistake, that it was a deliberate attack, he folded his arms and -waited till he was shot down. The United States flag was floating -over the lodge of Black Kettle, the head chief of the tribe; -below it was tied also a small white flag as additional security—a -precaution Black Kettle had been advised by United States officers -to take if he met troops on the Plains. In Major Wynkoop's -testimony, given before the committee appointed by Congress to -investigate this massacre, is the following passage:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Women and children were killed and scalped, children shot -at their mothers' breasts, and all the bodies mutilated in the most -horrible manner. *** The dead bodies of females profaned in -such a manner that the recital is sickening, Colonel J. M. Chivington -all the time inciting his troops to their diabolical outrages."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Another man testified as to what he saw on the 30th of November, -three days after the battle, as follows:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I saw a man dismount from his horse and cut the ear from -the body of an Indian, and the scalp from the head of another. I -saw a number of children killed; they had bullet-holes in them; -one child had been cut with some sharp instrument across its side. -I saw another that both ears had been cut off. *** I saw several -of the Third Regiment cut off fingers to get the rings off them. -I saw Major Sayre scalp a dead Indian. The scalp had a long -tail of silver hanging to it."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Robert Bent testified:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I saw one squaw lying on the bank, whose leg had been broken. -A soldier came up to her with a drawn sabre. She raised -her arm to protect herself; he struck, breaking her arm. She -rolled over, and raised her other arm; he struck, breaking that, -<a id='Page_345'></a>and then left her without killing her. I saw one squaw cut open, -with an unborn child lying by her side."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Major Anthony testified:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"There was one little child, probably three years old, just big -enough to walk through the sand. The Indians had gone ahead, -and this little child was behind, following after them. The little -fellow was perfectly naked, travelling in the sand. I saw one man -get off his horse at a distance of about seventy-five yards and -draw up his rifle and fire. He missed the child. Another man -came up and said, 'Let me try the son of a b——. I can hit him.' -He got down off his horse, kneeled down, and fired at the little -child, but he missed him. A third man came up, and made a -similar remark, and fired, and the little fellow dropped."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians were not able to make much resistance, as only a -part of them were armed, the United States officers having required -them to give up their guns. Luckily they had kept a few.</p> - -<p class='c010'>When this Colorado regiment of demons returned to Denver -they were greeted with an ovation. <i>The Denver News</i> said: "All -acquitted themselves well. Colorado soldiers have again covered -themselves with glory;" and at a theatrical performance given in -the city, these scalps taken from Indians were held up and exhibited -to the audience, which applauded rapturously.</p> - -<p class='c010'>After listening, day after day, to such testimonies as these I -have quoted, and others so much worse that I may not write and -<i>The Tribune</i> could not print the words needful to tell them, the -committee reported: "It is difficult to believe that beings in the -form of men, and disgracing the uniform of United States soldiers -and officers, could commit or countenance the commission -of such acts of cruelty and barbarity;" and of Colonel Chivington: -"He deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly -massacre, which would have disgraced the veriest savage among -those who were the victims of his cruelty."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This was just fifteen years ago, no more. Shall we apply the -same rule of judgment to the white men of Colorado that the -Government is now applying to the Utes? There are 130,000 inhabitants -of Colorado; hundreds of them had a hand in this -massacre, and thousands in cool blood applauded it when it was -done. There are 4000 Utes in Colorado. Twelve of them, desperate, -guilty men, have committed murder and rape, and three -or four hundred of them did, in the convenient phrase of our -diplomacy, "go to war against the Government;" <i>i.e.</i>, they attempted, -by force of arms, to restrain the entrance upon their own -<a id='Page_346'></a>lands—lands bought, owned and paid for—of soldiers that the -Government had sent there, to be ready to make way upon them, -in case the agent thought it best to do so! This is the plain English -of it. This is the plain, naked truth of it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>And now the Secretary of the Interior has stopped the issue of -rations to 1000 of these helpless creatures; rations, be it understood, -which are not, and never were, a charity, but are the Utes' -rightful dues, on account of lands by them sold; dues which the -Government promised to pay "annually forever." Will the American -people justify this? There is such a thing as the conscience -of a nation—as a nation's sense of justice. Can it not be roused -to speak now? Shall we sit still, warm and well fed, in our -homes, while five hundred women and little children are being -slowly starved in the bleak, barren wildernesses of Colorado? -Starved, not because storm, or blight, or drouth has visited their -country and cut off their crops; not because pestilence has laid -its hand on them and slain the hunters who brought them meat, -but because it lies within the promise of one man, by one word, -to deprive them of one-half their necessary food for as long a term -of years as he may please; and "the Secretary of the Interior cannot -consistently feed a tribe that has gone to war against the -Government."</p> - -<p class='c010'>We read in the statutes of the United States that certain things -may be done by "executive order" of the President. Is it not -time for a President to interfere when hundreds of women and -children are being starved in his Republic by the order of one -man? Colonel J. M. Chivington's method was less inhuman by -far. To be shot dead is a mercy, and a grace for which we would -all sue, if to be starved to death were our only other alternative.</p> - -<div class='c011'>H. H.</div> -<p class='c010'>New York, Jan 31st, 1880.</p> - -<hr class='c014' /> - -<p class='c010'>This letter drew from the former editor of the <i>Rocky Mountain -News</i>, a Denver newspaper, the following reply:</p> - -<p class='c010'>LETTER II.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>To the Editor of the Tribune</i>:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Sir</span>,—In your edition of yesterday appears an article, under the -above caption, which arraigns the people of Colorado as a community -of barbarous murderers, and finally elevates them above -the present Secretary of the Interior, thereby placing the latter -gentleman in a most unenviable light if the charges averred be -true. "The Sand Creek Massacre" of 1864 is made the text and -<a id='Page_347'></a>burden of the article; its application is to the present condition -of the White River band of Utes in Colorado. Quotations are -given from the testimony gathered, and the report made thereon -by a committee of Congress charged with a so-called investigation -of the Sand Creek affair. That investigation was made for a -certain selfish purpose. It was to break down and ruin certain -men. Evidence was taken upon one side only. It was largely -false, and infamously partial. There was no answer for the defence.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians assembled at Sand Creek -were not under the protection of a United States fort. A few of -them had been encamped about Fort Lyon and drawing supplies -therefrom, but they had gradually disappeared and joined the -main camp on Dry Sandy, forty miles from the fort, separated -from it by a waterless desert, and entirely beyond the limit of its -control or observation. While some of the occupants were still, -no doubt, occasional visitors at the fort, and applicants for supplies -and ammunition, most of the warriors were engaged in raiding -the great Platte River Road, seventy-five miles farther north, -robbing and burning trains, stealing cattle and horses, robbing -and destroying the United States mails, and killing white people. -During the summer and fall they had murdered over fifty of the -citizens of Colorado. They had stolen and destroyed provisions -and merchandise, and driven away stock worth hundreds of -thousands of dollars. They had interrupted the mails, and for -thirty-two consecutive days none were allowed to pass their lines. -When satiated with murder and arson, and loaded with plunder, -they would retire to their sacred refuge on Sand Creek to rest -and refresh themselves, recruit their wasted supplies of ammunition -from Fort Lyon—begged under the garb of gentle, peaceful -savages—and then return to the road to relieve their tired comrades, -and riot again in carnage and robbery. These are facts; -and when the "robbers' roost" was cleaned out, on that sad -but glorious 27th day of November, 1864, they were sufficiently -proven. Scalps of white men not yet dried; letters and photographs -stolen from the mails; bills of lading and invoices of -goods; bales and bolts of the goods themselves, addressed to -merchants in Denver; half-worn clothing of white women and -children, and many other articles of like character, were found in -that poetical Indian camp, and recovered by the Colorado soldiers. -They were brought to Denver, and those were the scalps -exhibited in the theatre of that city. There was also an Indian -<a id='Page_348'></a>saddle-blanket entirely fringed around the edges with white -women's scalps, with the long, fair hair attached. There was -an Indian saddle over the pommel of which was stretched skin -stripped from the body of a white woman. Is it any wonder that -soldiers flushed with victory, after one of the hardest campaigns -ever endured by men, should indulge—some of them—in unwarranted -atrocities after finding such evidence of barbarism, and -while more than forty of their comrades were weltering in their -own blood upon the field?</p> - -<p class='c010'>If "H. H." had been in Denver in the early part of that summer, -when the bloated, festering bodies of the Hungate family—father, -mother, and two babes—were drawn through the streets -naked in an ox-wagon, cut, mutilated, and scalped—the work of -those same red fiends who were so justly punished at Sand Creek; -if, later, "H. H." had seen an upright and most estimable business -man go crazy over the news of his son's being tortured to death -a hundred miles down the Platte, as I did; if "H. H." had seen -one-half the Colorado homes made desolate that fateful season, -and a tithe of the tears that were caused to flow, I think there -would have been one little word of excuse for the people of Colorado—more -than a doubtful comparison with an inefficient and -culpable Indian policy. Bear in mind that Colorado had no railroads -then. Her supplies reached her by only one road—along -the Platte—in wagons drawn by oxen, mules, or horses. That -line was in full possession of the enemy. Starvation stared us in -the face. Hardly a party went or came without some persons being -killed. In some instances whole trains were cut off and destroyed. -Sand Creek saved Colorado, and taught the Indians the -most salutary lesson they had ever learned. And now, after fifteen -years, and here in the shadow of the Nation's Capitol, with -the spectre of "H. H.'s" condemnation staring me in the face, I -am neither afraid nor ashamed to repeat the language then used -by <i>The Denver News</i>: "All acquitted themselves well. Colorado -soldiers have again covered themselves with glory."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Thus much of history is gone over by "H. H." to present in -true dramatic form the deplorable condition of the White River -Utes, 1000 in number, who are now suffering the pangs of hunger -and the discomfort of cold in the wilds of Western Colorado, -without any kind agent to issue rations, provide blankets, or -build fires for them. It is really too bad. A painful dispensation -of Providence has deprived them of their best friend, and -they are desolate and bereaved. He placed his life and its best -<a id='Page_349'></a>efforts, his unbounded enthusiasm for their good, his great Christian -heart—all at their service. But an accident befell him, and -he is no more. The coroner's jury that sat upon his remains -found that his dead body had a barrel stave driven into his -mouth, a log-chain around his neck, by which it had been -dragged about like a dead hog, and sundry bullet-holes through -his body. The presumption was that from the effect of some one -of these accidents he died; and, alas! he is no longer to serve out -weekly rations to his flock of gentle Utes. There is no sorrow -over his death or the desolation it wrought, but there is pity, -oceans of pity, for the Indians who are hungry and cold. True, -at the time he died they took the flour, the pork, and salt, and -coffee, and sugar, and tobacco, and blankets, and all the other -supplies that he would have issued to them through all this long -winter had he lived. With his care these would have lasted until -spring, and been sufficient for their wants; but, without it, -"H. H." is suspicious that they are all gone, and yet it is but just -past the middle of winter. Can "H. H." tell why this is thus? -It is also true that they drove away the large herd of cattle from -the increase of which that same unfortunate agent and his predecessors -had supplied them with beef for eleven years past, and yet -the consumption did not keep pace with the natural increase. -They took them all, and are presumed to have them now. True, -again, they had at the beginning of winter, or at the period of the -melancholy loss of their best friend, about 4000 horses that were -rolling fat, and three acres of dogs—not bad food in an emergency, -or for an Indian thanksgiving feast—some of which should -still remain.</p> - -<p class='c010'>THE WHOLE WHITE RIVER BAND GUILTY.</p> - -<p class='c010'>But "H. H." intimates that there is an alleged excuse for withholding -rations from these poor, persecuted red angels. "Twelve" -of them have been bad, and the tyrant at the head of the Interior -Department is systematically starving all of the 1000 who constitute -the band, and their 4000 horses, and 1800 cattle, and three -acres of dogs, and six months' supplies, because those twelve bad -Indians cannot conscientiously pick themselves out and be offered -up as a burnt-offering and a sacrifice to appease the wrath of an -outraged and partly civilized nation. This is the present indictment, -and the Secretary and the President are commanded to -stand up and plead "Guilty or not guilty, but you know you are -guilty, d—n you." Now I challenge and defy "H. H.," or any -<a id='Page_350'></a>other person living, to pick out or name twelve White River male -Utes, over sixteen years of age, who were <i>not</i> guilty, directly or -indirectly, as principals or accomplices before the fact, in the -Thornburgh attack or in the Agency massacre. I know these -Indians well enough to know that these attacks were perfectly -understood and deliberately planned. I cannot be made to believe -that a single one of them, of common-sense and intelligence, -was ignorant of what was to take place, and that knowledge extended -far beyond the White River band. There were plenty of -recruits from both the Los Pinos and the Uintah bands. In withholding -supplies from the White River Utes the Secretary of the -Interior is simply obeying the law. He cannot, except upon his -own personal responsibility, issue supplies to a hostile Indian -tribe, and the country will hold him accountable for a departure -from his line of duty. Inferentially the Indians are justified by -"H. H." in their attack upon Thornburgh's command. Their -object was to defend "their own lands—lands bought, owned, -and paid for." Bought of whom, pray? Paid for by whom? -To whom was payment made? The soldiers were making no -attack; they contemplated none. The agent had no authority -to order an attack. He could not proclaim war. He could have -no control whatever over the troops. But his life was in danger. -The honor of his family was at stake. He asked for protection. -"H. H." says he had no right to it. His life and the honor of -his aged wife and of his virgin daughter are gone, and "H. H." -is the champion of fiends who wrought the ruin.</p> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Wm. N. Byers.</span></div> -<p class='c010'>Washington, D. C., Feb. 6th, 1880.</p> - -<hr class='c014' /> - -<p class='c010'>The most fitting reply to the assertions in this extraordinary -document was by still further citations from the sworn testimony -given before the Congressional committees—evidence with which -volumes could have been filled.</p> - -<p class='c010'>LETTER III.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>To the Editor of the Tribune</i>:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Sir</span>,—In reply to the letter in Sunday's <i>Tribune</i>, headed "The -Starving Utes," I would like to place before the readers of <i>The -Tribune</i> some extracts from sworn testimony taken in Colorado -on the subject of the Sand Creek massacre. The writer of this -letter says:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians assembled at Sand -Creek were not under the protection of a United States fort."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_351'></a>The following testimony is that of Lieutenant Craven, Senate -Document, vol. ii., 1866-67, p. 46:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I had some conversation with Major Downing, Lieutenant -Maynard, and Colonel Chivington. I stated to them my feelings -in regard to the matter—that I believed it to be murder—and -stated the obligations that we of Major Wynkoop's command -were under to those Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"To Colonel Chivington I know I stated that Major Wynkoop -had pledged his word as an officer and man to those Indians, and -that all officers under him were indirectly pledged in the same -manner that he was, and that I felt that it was placing us in -very embarrassing circumstances to fight the same Indians that -had saved our lives, as we all felt that they had.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Colonel Chivington's reply was that he believed it to be right -and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians -that would kill women and children; and, 'damn any one that -was in sympathy with Indians;' and, 'such men as Major Wynkoop -and myself had better get out of the United States service.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>This conversation was testified to by other witnesses. Major -Wynkoop, it will be remembered, was the officer in command at -Fort Lyon when this band of Cheyennes and Arapahoes came in -there to claim protection, in consequence of the governor's proclamation, -saying that,</p> - -<p class='c010'>"All friendly Arapahoes and Cheyennes, belonging on the Arkansas -River, will go to Major Colby, United States Indian Agent -at Fort Lyon, who will give them provisions and show them a -place of safety."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Major Wynkoop was succeeded in the command of Fort Lyon -by Major Anthony, who continued for a time to issue rations to -these Indians, as Major Wynkoop had done; but after a time he -called them together and told them he could not feed them any -longer; they would better go where they could hunt. <i>He selected -the place to which they were to move on Sandy Creek.</i> They obeyed, -and he gave back to them some of the arms which had been taken -away. They were moved to Sandy Creek, about forty miles from -Fort Lyon, partly "for fear of some conflict between them and -the soldiers or emigrants," Fort Lyon being on a thoroughfare of -travel. One of the chiefs—One Eye—was hired by Major Anthony -at $125 a month "to obtain information for the use of the -military authorities. Several times he brought news to the fort -of proposed movements of hostile Indians." This chief was -killed in the massacre.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_352'></a>This is the testimony of Captain Soule, First Colorado Cavalry:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Did you protest against attacking those Indians?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I did."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Who was your commanding officer?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Major Anthony."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Did you inform Major Anthony of the relations existing with -Black Kettle?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I did. He knew the relations. I frequently talked to him -about it."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"What answer did Major Anthony make to your protests?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He said that we were going to fight the hostile Indians at -Smoky Hill. He also said that he was in for killing all Indians, -and that he had only been acting friendly with them until he -could get a force large enough to go out and kill all of them."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This is the testimony of S. E. Brown:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Colonel Chivington in a public speech said his policy was to -kill and scalp all, little and big: nits made lice."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Governor Hunt testified as follows: [Governor Hunt was one -of the earliest settlers in Colorado. He was United States Marshal, -Delegate to Congress, and afterward Governor of the Territory.]</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We have always regarded Black Kettle and White Antelope -as the special friends of the white man ever since I have been in -this country."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Do you know of any acts of hostility committed by them or -with their consent?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"No, sir, I do not."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Did you ever hear any acts of hostility attributed to them by -any one?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"No, sir." ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>The following extract is:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The regiment, when they marched into Denver, exhibited -Indian scalps."</p> - -<p class='c010'>This is from the official report of Major Wynkoop, major commanding -Fort Lyon.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In conclusion, allow me to say that, from the time I held the -consultation with the Indian chiefs on the head-waters of Smoky -Hill up to the date of this massacre by Colonel Chivington, not -one single depredation had been committed by the Cheyenne and -Arapahoe Indians. The settlers of the Arkansas Valley had returned -to their ranches, from which they had fled, had taken in -their crops, and had been resting in perfect security under assurances -<a id='Page_353'></a>from myself that they would be in no danger for the present. -Since this last horrible murder by Colonel Chivington the -country presents a scene of desolation. All communication is -cut off with the States, except by sending large bodies of troops, -and already over a hundred whites have fallen victims to the -fearful vengeance of these betrayed Indians."</p> - -<div class='c011'>January 15th, 1865.</div> - -<hr class='c014' /> - -<p class='c010'>The writer of this letter says, in regard to the investigation of -the Sand Creek massacre by the Congressional committee, that -"evidence was taken upon one side only," and "there was no -answer for the defence."</p> - -<p class='c010'>A large part of the testimony is sworn evidence, given by the -Governor of Colorado, by Colonel J. M. Chivington himself, who -planned and executed the massacre, and by Major Anthony, who -accompanied him with troops from Fort Lyon. The writer of -this article says that "the investigation was made for a certain -selfish purpose, *** to break down and ruin certain men."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The names of Senator Foster, Senator Doolittle, and "honest -Ben Wade "are the best refutation of this statement. It will be -hard to impeach the trustworthiness of reports signed by these -names, and one of these reports says:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It is difficult to believe that beings in the form of men, and -disgracing the uniform of United States soldiers and officers, -could commit or countenance the commission of such acts of -cruelty and barbarity."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Of Colonel Chivington, it says:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly -massacre, which would have disgraced the veriest savage among -those who were the victims of his cruelty."</p> - -<p class='c010'>And of Major Anthony:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The testimony of Major Anthony, who succeeded an officer -disposed to treat these Indians with justice and humanity, is sufficient -of itself to show how unprovoked and unwarranted was this -massacre. He testifies that he found these Indians camped near -Fort Lyon when he assumed command of that fort; that they professed -their friendliness to the whites, and their willingness to do -whatever he demanded of them; that they delivered their arms -up to him; that they went to and encamped on the place designated -by him; that they gave him information from time to time -of acts of hostility which were meditated by other hostile bands, -and in every way conducted themselves properly and peaceably; -<a id='Page_354'></a>and yet he says it was fear and not principle which prevented his -killing them while they were completely in his power; and, when -Colonel Chivington appeared at Fort Lyon on his mission of -murder and barbarity, Major Anthony made haste to accompany -him with men and artillery."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The writer of this letter says that the evidence given in this -"so-called investigation" was "largely false and infamously partial." -If this were the case, why did not all persons so "infamously" -slandered see to it that before the year ended their own -version of the affair should reach, if not the general public, at -least the Department of the Interior? Why did they leave it -possible for the Secretary of the Interior to incorporate in his -Annual Report for 1865—to be read by all the American people—these -paragraphs?</p> - -<p class='c010'>"No official account has ever reached this office from its own -proper sources of the most disastrous and shameful occurrence, -the massacre of a large number of men, women, and children of -the Indians of this agency (the Upper Arkansas) by the troops -under the command of Colonel Chivington of the United States -Volunteer Cavalry of Colorado. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"When several hundred of them had come into a place designated -by Governor Evans as a rendezvous for those who would -separate themselves from the hostile parties, these Indians were -set upon and butchered in cold blood by troops in the service of -the United States. The few who escaped to the northward told -a story which effectually prevented any more advances toward -peace by such of the bands as were well disposed."</p> - -<p class='c010'>And why did the Government of the United States empower -General Sanborn, in the Council held October 12th, 1865, with the -Arapahoes and Cheyennes, including the remnants of bands that -had escaped from the Sand Creek massacre, to formally and officially -repudiate the action of the United States soldiers in that -massacre? General Sanborn said, in this council:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We all feel disgraced and ashamed when we see our officers -or soldiers oppressing the weak, or making war on those who are -at peace with us. *** We are willing, as representatives of the -President, to restore all the property lost at Sand Creek, or its -value. *** He has sent out his commissioners to make reparation, -as far as we can. *** So heartily do we repudiate the actions of -our soldiers that we are willing to give to the chiefs in their own -right 320 acres of land each, to hold as his own forever, and to -each of the children and squaws who lost husbands or parents; -<a id='Page_355'></a>we are also willing to give 160 acres of land as their own, to keep -as long as they live."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The writer of this letter, quoting the statement from a previous -article in <i>The Tribune</i>, that the White River Utes, in their attack -on Major Thornburgh's command, fought "to defend their own -lands—lands bought, owned, and paid for," asks:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Bought of whom, pray? Paid for by whom? To whom was -payment made?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Bought" of the United States Government, thereby recognizing -the United States Government's right to "the sovereignty -of the soil" as superior to the Indians' "right of occupancy."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Paid for" by the Ute Indians, by repeated "relinquishments" -of said "right of occupancy" in large tracts of valuable lands; -notably by the "relinquishment," according to the Brunot Treaty -of 1873, of 4,000,000 acres of valuable lands, "unquestionably -rich in mineral deposits."—<i>Annual Report of the Secretary of the -Interior for 1873</i>, p. 464.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"To whom was payment made?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>To the United States Government, which has accepted and -ratified such exchanges of "right of occupancy" for "right of -sovereignty," and such sales of "right of occupancy" for large -sums of money by repeated and reiterated treaties.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Secretary of the Interior has incorporated in his Annual -Report for 1879 (in the report on Indian Affairs, p. 36) the -following paragraphs:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Let it be fully understood that the Ute Indians have a good -and sufficient title to 12,000,000 acres of land in Colorado, and -that these Indians did not thrust themselves in the way of the -white people, but that they were originally and rightfully possessors -of the soil, and that the land they occupy has been -acknowledged to be theirs by solemn treaties made with them by -the United States.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It will not do to say that a treaty with an Indian means -nothing. It means even more than the pledge of the Government -to pay a bond. It is the most solemn declaration that -any government of any people ever enters into. Neither will -it do to say that treaties never ought to have been made with -Indians. That question is now not in order, as the treaties -have been made, and must be lived up to whether convenient or -otherwise.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"By beginning at the outset with the full acknowledgment of -the absolute and indefeasible right of these Indians to 12,000,000 -<a id='Page_356'></a>acres in Colorado, we can properly consider what is the best -method of extinguishing the Indian title thereto without injustice -to the Indians, and without violating the plighted faith of -the Government of the United States."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The writer of this letter says:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In withholding supplies from the White River Utes, the -Secretary of the Interior is simply obeying the law. He cannot, -except upon his own personal responsibility, issue supplies to a -hostile Indian tribe."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Secretary Schurz has published, in the Annual Report of the -Department of the Interior for 1879, the following paragraph in -regard to this case of the White River Utes:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The atrocity of the crimes committed should not prevent -those individuals who are innocent from being treated as such, -according to Article 17 of the treaty, viz.: <i>Provided</i>, that if any -chief of either of the confederated bands make war against the -United States, or in any manner violate this treaty in any essential -part, said chief shall forfeit his position as chief, and all rights -to any of the benefits of this treaty; but, <i>provided further</i>, any -Indian of either of these confederated bands who shall remain at -peace, and abide by the terms of this treaty in all its essentials, -shall be entitled to its benefits and provisions, notwithstanding -his particular chief and band have forfeited their rights thereto."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The writer of this letter says, in allusion to the murders and -outrages committed by some of the White River Utes, that "H. H. -is the champion of the fiends who wrought the ruin." Have the -readers of <i>The Tribune</i> so understood my protests against the -injustice of punishing the innocent for the crimes of the guilty?</p> - -<div class='c011'>H. H.</div> -<p class='c010'>New York, Feb. 22d, 1880.</p> - -<hr class='c014' /> - -<p class='c010'>This letter was followed by a card from Mr. Byers, reiterating -some of his assertions; and by a second short letter, which closed -the discussion.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>To the Editor of the Tribune</i>:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Sir</span>,—I ask only a little space for reference to the communication -of "H. H." in to-day's <i>Tribune</i>. It is asked, "If the investigation -of the Sand Creek affair was so unfair, why did not the -people of Colorado correct the false impression by presenting -their own version of the case?" The answer is that the case -was prejudged, and we were denied a hearing in our defence.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_357'></a>The inference is conveyed in to-day's article that Indian hostilities -on the plains were provoked by and followed after the Sand -Creek massacre. We, who were so unfortunate as to be citizens -of Colorado at the time, know that a very great majority of the -savage atrocities of that period occurred before the battle of Sand -Creek. We know that the Sand Creek Indian camp was the -common rendezvous of the hostile bands who were committing -those atrocities. We know that comparatively few occurred afterward. -No amount of special pleading, no reiteration of partial -statements, and withholding of more important truths, will change -the facts so well known to the earlier settlers of Colorado.</p> - -<p class='c010'>I deny that the Utes have either bought or paid for any land. -They have relinquished for a consideration a certain portion of -the land they formerly claimed, and still retain the other portion. -I deny, also, that only twelve of the White River Utes are guilty -and the great mass of them innocent. The contrary is the fact.</p> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Wm. N. Byers.</span></div> -<p class='c010'>New York, Feb. 24th, 1880.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>To the Editor of the Tribune</i>:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Sir</span>,—In reply to the assertion that the perpetrators of the Sand -Creek massacre were "denied a hearing in their defence," I wish -to state to the readers of <i>The Tribune</i> that, in addition to the Congressional -committees from whose reports I have already quoted, -there was appointed a Military Commission to investigate that -massacre. This commission sat seventy-three days, in Denver -and at Fort Lyon. Colonel J. M. Chivington called before it, in -his "defence," all the witnesses he chose, and gave notice on -the seventy-third day of the commission's sitting that he did not -"wish to introduce any more witnesses for the defence." He -also had (and used) the privilege of cross-examining every witness -called by the commission. The evidence given before this -commission occupies over two hundred pages of Volume II., Senate -Documents for 1866-'67.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In reply to the assertion that "a great majority of the savage -atrocities of that period occurred before" the massacre at Sand -Creek, and that "comparatively few occurred after," I will give -to the readers of <i>The Tribune</i> one extract from the report of the -Indian Peace Commission of 1868. Alluding to the Sand Creek -massacre, the report says:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It scarcely has its parallel in the records of Indian barbarity. -Fleeing women, holding up their hands and praying for mercy, -<a id='Page_358'></a>were shot down; infants were killed and scalped in derision; -men were tortured and mutilated in a manner that would put to -shame the savages of interior Africa. No one will be astonished -that a war ensued which cost the Government $30,000,000, and -carried conflagration and death into the border settlements. -During the spring and summer of 1865 no less than 8000 troops -were withdrawn from the effective forces engaged in the Rebellion -to meet this Indian war."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Commissioners who made this report were N. J. Taylor, -President; J. B. Henderson, John B. Sanborn, William T. Sherman, -Lieutenant-general; William S. Harvey, Brevet Major-general; -Alfred H. Terry, Brevet Major-general; C. C. Augur, Brevet -Major-general; S. F. Tappan.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In reply to the assertion that the Utes have not "either bought -or paid for any land," I will ask such of <i>The Tribune</i> readers as -are interested in the subject to read the "Brunot Treaty," made -September 13th, 1873, "between Felix R. Brunot, Commissioner -for the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and men" of the -seven confederated bands of Utes. It is to be found in the report -of the Department of the Interior for 1873, p. 454.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In conclusion of the discussion as to the Sand Creek massacre, -I will relate one more incident of that terrible day. It has not -been recorded in any of the reports. It was told in Colorado, to -one of the members of the Senate Committee at the time of their -investigation: One of the squaws had escaped from the village, -and was crouching behind some low sage brush. A frightened -horse came running toward her hiding-place, its owner in hot -pursuit. Seeing that the horse was making directly for her shelter, -and that she would inevitably be seen, and thinking that possibly -if she caught the horse, and gave him back to the owner, -she might thus save her life, she ran after the horse, caught it, -and stood holding it till the soldier came up. Remembering that -with her blanket rolled tight around her she might possibly be -taken for a man, as she put into the soldier's hand the horse's bridle, -with the other hand she threw open her blanket enough to -show her bosom, that he might see that she was a woman. He -put the muzzle of his pistol between her breasts and shot her -dead; and afterward was "not ashamed" to boast of the act. It -was by such deeds as this that "the Colorado soldiers acquitted -themselves well, and covered themselves with glory."</p> -<div class='c011'>H. H.</div> -<p class='c010'>New York, Feb. 28th, 1880.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_359'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>II.<br /> <br />THE PONCA CASE.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'><i>Extract from Treaty with the Poncas, giving them Dakota Lands.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>"<span class='sc'>Art. II.</span>—In consideration of the cession or release of that -portion of the reservation above described by the Ponca tribe of -Indians to the Government of the United States, the Government -of the United States, by way of rewarding them for their constant -fidelity to the Government thereof, and with a view of returning -to the said tribe of Ponca Indians their old burying-grounds and -cornfields, hereby cede and relinquish to the tribe of Ponca Indians -the following described fractional townships, to wit, township -thirty-one (31), north range, seven (7) west; also fractional -township thirty-two (32), north ranges, six (6), seven (7), eight (8), -nine (9), and ten (10) west; also fractional township thirty-three -(33), north ranges, seven (7) and eight (8) west; and also all that -portion of township thirty-three (33), north ranges, nine (9) and -ten (10) west, lying south of Ponca Creek; and also all the islands -in the Niobrara or Running Water River lying in front of lands -or townships above ceded by the United States to the Ponca tribe -of Indians."</p> - -<p class='c010'>A correspondence which was held with the Secretary of the -Interior in the winter of 1879, in regard to the Poncas, is so excellent -an illustration of the methods and policy of the Interior -Department that it is worth while to give it at length here.</p> - -<p class='c010'>FIRST LETTER.</p> - -<p class='c010'>MRS. JACKSON TO SECRETARY SCHURZ.</p> - -<div class='c011'>New York, Friday, Jan. 9th, 1880.</div> - -<p class='c010'><i>To the Secretary of the Interior</i>:</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Dear Sir</span>,—I have received from a Boston lady a letter which -has so important a bearing on the interests of the Poncas that I -take the liberty of asking you to read and reply to the following -extracts. I send them to you with the writer's permission:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In Boston most of those who are likely to give most largely -and feel most strongly for the Indians have confidence in Secretary -Schurz. They think that so far he has shown himself their -friend, and they feel unprepared to help any plan with regard to -the Indians which he opposes. The greatest service which could -<a id='Page_360'></a>be rendered to the Indian cause at present would be given, therefore, -by some one sufficiently interested to obtain an answer who -would write to Secretary Schurz, and request him, on the part of -the Indians, either to aid them by publicly and cordially endorsing -this effort of the Poncas to secure their legal rights in the -courts, or else to give his reasons against this attempt, in so clear -a form that one could understand them. If there are good reasons, -there can be no ground for keeping them secret, and the -public has a right to know them. If not, no man can call himself -a friend of the Indians who throws cold water on the present -interest of the public in this matter.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Secretary Schurz has already stated that it was not worth -while to sue for the Ponca lands, as the Poncas are better off -where they now are; but Secretary Schurz cannot deny that it is -worth ten times $10,000 to prove that if the Government seizes -land given to the Indians forever by solemn compact, the latter -can by the courts recover it. Secretary Schurz has also said that -a bill to give the Indians land in severalty is already before Congress. -If he wishes that bill to pass he must know that it is only -by help of the people that the ignorance, apathy, and greed which -are accountable for the shameful record of the past can be overcome; -and that, whatever his sentiments toward these particular -Poncas, he cannot afford to throw aside the interest they have -excited.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"For a hundred years the Indians have been the victims of -fraud and oppression on the part of the Government. Will anything -put an end to it but to give the Indians the legal right to -protect themselves? Promises and plans will not do it, for who -can assure their performance? Secretary Schurz's position is a -strange one, and the public are waiting and watching to see what -it means. Is it possible that he is satisfied to have 250,000 human -beings, with valuable possessions (however uncivilized), held -as absolute slaves, with no rights, and at the mercy of a government -like ours, whose constant changes, to say the least, render -most improbable the wise, equitable, and humane treatment he -recommends in his report—and when the distance of the Indian -from the personal interests of all but those States which have a -personal interest in possessing his lands makes the assistance of -Congress in such treatment still more unlikely? I cannot but -believe that he has allowed himself to be driven into an opposition -he does not really feel; and that he will yet have the -magnanimity to forget any criticism on his own acts, and take -<a id='Page_361'></a>the lead with those who would try to give the Indians a permanent -defence against the vicissitudes of party and the greed of -men.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I will not forget to add that if the three thousand and odd -hundreds of dollars needed to complete the ten thousand required -to pay the costs of the Ponca suits cannot be raised in the -great city of New York, I will myself guarantee to raise it in Boston -in twenty-four hours if Secretary Schurz will openly endorse -the plan."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The matter stands, therefore, in this shape: If you can say that -you approve of the Poncas bringing the suits they wish to bring -for the recovery of their lands, all the money for which they ask -can be placed in their hands immediately. The writer of the -above letter assured me that she would herself give the entire -sum if there were any difficulty in raising it. If you do not approve -of the Poncas bringing these suits, or making an effort to -bring them, are you willing to give the reasons of your disapproval? -It would be a great satisfaction to those Boston friends -of yours whose action in this matter turns solely on your decision, -if these reasons could be stated in clear and explicit form.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Yours respectfully,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Helen Jackson</span>.</div> - -<p class='c010'>SECRETARY SCHURZ TO MRS. JACKSON.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Jan. 17th, 1880.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Dear Madam</span>,—I should certainly have answered your letter -of the 9th instant more promptly had I not been somewhat overburdened -with official business during the past week. I hope -you will kindly pardon the involuntary delay.</p> - -<p class='c010'>As I understand the matter, money is being collected for the -purpose of engaging counsel to appear for the Poncas in the -courts of the United States, partly to represent them in the case of -an appeal from Judge Dundy's <i>habeas corpus</i> decision, and partly -to procure a decision for the recovery of their old reservation on -the Missouri River. I believe that the collection of money for -these purposes is useless. An appeal from Judge Dundy's <i>habeas -corpus</i> decision can proceed only from the Government, not -from the Poncas, for the simple reason that the decision was in -favor of the latter. An appeal was, indeed, entered by the United -States District-attorney at Omaha immediately after the decision -had been announced. Some time ago his brief was submitted to -me. On examining it, I concluded at once to advise the attorney-general -of my opinion that it should be dropped, as I could not -<a id='Page_362'></a>approve the principles upon which the argument was based. The -attorney-general consented to instruct the district-attorney accordingly, -and thus Judge Dundy's decision stands without further -question on the part of the Government. Had an appeal -been prosecuted, and had Judge Dundy's decision been sustained -by the court above, the general principles involved in it would -simply have been affirmed without any other practical effect than -that already obtained. This matter is therefore ended.</p> - -<p class='c010'>As to the right of the Poncas to their old reservation on the -Missouri, the Supreme Court has repeatedly decided that an Indian -tribe cannot sue the United States or a State in the federal -courts. The decisions are clear and uniform on this point. -Among lawyers with whom I discussed this matter, I have not -found a single one who entertained a different view; but I did -find among them serious doubts as to whether a decision, even if -the Poncas could bring suits, would be in their favor, considering -the facts in the case. But, inasmuch as such a suit cannot be -brought at all, this is not the question. It is evidently idle to -collect money and to fee attorneys for the purpose of doing a -thing which cannot be done. Had the disinterested friends of -the Indians who are engaged in this work first consulted lawyers -on the question of possibility, they would no doubt have come to -the same conclusion.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The study I have given to the Indian question in its various -aspects, past and present, has produced in my mind the firm conviction -that the only certain way to secure the Indians in their -possessions, and to prevent them from becoming forever a race of -homeless paupers and vagabonds, is to transform their tribal title -into individual title, inalienable for a certain period; in other -words, to settle them in severalty, and give them by patent an -individual fee-simple in their lands. Then they will hold their -lands by the same title by which white men hold theirs, and they -will, as a matter of course, have the same standing in the courts, -and the same legal protection of their property. As long as they -hold large tracts in the shape of reservations, only small parts of -which they can make useful to themselves and to others, the -whole being held by the tribe in common, their tenure will always -be insecure. It will grow more and more so as our population -increases, and the quantity of available land diminishes. We -may call this an ugly and deplorable fact, but it is a fact for all -that. Long experience shows that the protests of good people -in the name of justice and humanity have availed but very little -<a id='Page_363'></a>against this tendency, and it is useless to disguise and unwise to -overlook it, if we mean to do a real service to the Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>For this reason I attach much more importance to the passage -of legislation providing for the settlement of the Indians in severalty, -and giving them individual title in fee-simple, the residue of -their lands not occupied by them to be disposed of for their benefit, -than to all the efforts, however well intended, to procure judicial -decisions which, as I have shown, cannot be had. I am -glad to say that the conversations I have had with senators and -representatives in Congress on the policy of settling the Indians -in severalty have greatly encouraged my hope of the success of -the "severalty bill" during the present session.</p> - -<p class='c010'>I need not repeat here what I said in a letter to Mr. Edward -Atkinson, which you may possibly have seen some time ago in -the Boston papers, about the necessity of educating Indian children. -You undoubtedly understand that as well as I do, and I -hope you will concur in my recommendation that the money collected -for taking the Ponca case into the courts, which is impossible -of accomplishment, and as much more as can be added, be -devoted to the support and enlargement of our Indian schools, -such as those at Hampton and Carlisle. Thus a movement which -undoubtedly has the hearty sympathy of many good men and -women, but which at present seems in danger of being wasted on -the unattainable, may be directed into a practical channel, and -confer a real and lasting benefit on the Indian race.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Very respectfully yours,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>C. Schurz</span>.</div> - -<p class='c010'>Mrs. <span class='sc'>Helen Jackson</span>, New York.</p> - -<p class='c010'>MRS. JACKSON'S SECOND LETTER.</p> -<div class='c011'>Brevoort House, New York, Thursday, Jan. 22d, 1880.</div> - -<p class='c010'><i>Hon. Carl Schurz</i>:</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Dear Sir</span>,—Your letter of the 17th instant is at hand. If I -understand this letter correctly, the position which you take is -as follows: That there is in your opinion, and in the opinion of -the lawyers whom you have consulted on the subject, no way of -bringing before the courts the suits for the prosecution of which -money has been and is being contributed by the friends of the -Poncas; that the reason you do not approve of this movement -is that "it is evidently idle to collect money and to fee attorneys -for the purpose of doing a thing which cannot be done." This is -<a id='Page_364'></a>the sole reason which I understand you to give for discountenancing -the collection of money for these suits. Am I correct in this? -And are we to infer that it is on this ground and no other that -you oppose the collection of money for this purpose? Are we to -understand that you would be in favor of the Poncas recovering -their lands by process of law, provided it were practicable?</p> - -<p class='c010'>You say, also, that you hope I will "concur" in your "recommendation -that the money collected for taking the Ponca case -into the courts shall be devoted to the support and enlargement -of our Indian schools." May I ask how it would be, in your opinion, -possible to take money given by thousands of people for one -specific purpose and use it for another different purpose? You -say, "Had the friends of the Indians who are engaged in this -work first consulted lawyers on the question of possibility, they -would, no doubt, have come to the same conclusion." Had the -friends of the Indians engaged in this work, and initiated this -movement without having consulted lawyers, it would have been -indeed foolish. But this was not the case. Lawyers of skill and -standing were found ready to undertake the case; and the matter -stands therefore to-day precisely as it stood when I wrote to -you on the 17th instant. All the money which is thought to be -needed for carrying the Ponca case before the courts can be raised -in twenty-four hours in Boston, if you can say that you approve -of the suits being brought. If your only objection to the movement -is the one objection which you have stated, namely, that it -would be futile, can you not say that, if lawyers of standing are -ready to undertake the case, you would be glad to see the attempt -made in the courts, and the question settled? If it is, as -you think, a futile effort, it will be shown to be so. If it is, as the -friends and lawyers of the Poncas think, a practicable thing, a -great wrong will be righted.</p> - -<p class='c010'>You say that "to settle them (the Indians) in severalty, and -give them by patent an individual fee-simple in their lands," will -enable them to "hold their lands by the same title by which white -men hold theirs," and that "then they will, as a matter of course, -have the same standing in the courts and the same legal protection -of their property." May I ask you if any bill has been -brought before Congress which is so worded as to secure these -ends? My only apology for troubling you again is my deep interest -in the Indians, and in the Ponca case especially.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Yours truly,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Helen Jackson</span>.</div> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_365'></a>REPLY OF SECRETARY SCHURZ TO THE SECOND LETTER.</p> -<div class='c011'>Washington, D.C., Jan. 26th, 1880.</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Dear Madam</span>,—In reply to your letter of the 22d instant, I beg -leave to say that if an Indian tribe could maintain an action in -the courts of the United States to assert its rights, I should object -to it just as little as I would object to the exercise of the -same privilege on the part of white men. What I do object to is -the collection of money from philanthropic and public-spirited -persons, ostensibly for the benefit of the Indians, but in fact for -the benefit of attorneys and others who are to be paid for again -testing a question which has been tested more than once, and has -been decided by the Supreme Court so clearly and comprehensively -that further testing seems utterly futile. You say that -there are lawyers of skill and standing ready to undertake the -case. Of course there are such. You can find lawyers of skill -and standing to undertake for a good fee any case, however hopeless: -that is their business. But I am by no means of your opinion -that, whether it be futile or not, the experiment should be -tried once more, and for this purpose the collection of money -should be further encouraged. It cannot be said in this case that -if the attempt will not help it will not hurt. There seems to be -now a genuine and active interest in the Indian question springing -up. Many sincere friends of the Indian are willing to spend -time and money for the promotion of their welfare. Such a -movement can do great good if wisely guided in the direction -of attainable objects; but if it be so conducted that it can result -only in putting money into the pockets of private individuals, -without any benefit to the Indians, the collapse will be as hurtful -as it seems to be inevitable. It will not only be apt to end a -movement which, if well directed, might have become very useful, -but it will also deter the sincere friends of the Indians who -contributed their means in the hope of accomplishing something -from further efforts of that kind, so that we may find it very difficult, -for a long time at least, to engage this active sympathy again. -Confidence once abused does not revive very quickly. This is my -view of the case. You ask me "how it would be possible to take -money given by thousands of people for one specific purpose, and -use it for another and different purpose," meaning the support of -Indian schools. It would, in my opinion, be far better to lay the -matter in its true aspect frankly before the contributors, and to -<a id='Page_366'></a>ask them for their consent to the change of purpose, than to throw -away the money for a purpose which cannot be accomplished.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In reply to your inquiry whether any bill has been brought before -Congress providing for the settlement of the Indians in severalty, -and for conferring upon the individual title in fee-simple -to the lands allotted to them, I am glad to say that several bills -of this kind have been introduced in both the Senate and the -House, and are now before the respective committees on Indian -affairs for consideration. If such a bill passes, of which there is -great hope, the Indian, having a fee title by patent to the piece -of land which he individually, not as a member of a tribe, holds -as his own, will stand in the eye of the law just like any other -owner of property in his individual right, and, as a matter of -course, will have the same standing in court. This will do more -in securing the Indian in the practical enjoyment of his property -than anything else I can think of, and it has long been my endeavor -to bring about just this result. I trust we shall obtain -the desired legislation during the present session of Congress.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Very respectfully yours,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>C. Schurz</span>.</div> - -<p class='c010'>Mrs. <span class='sc'>Helen Jackson</span>, New York.</p> - -<hr class='c014' /> - -<p class='c010'>The evasive and inconclusive character of these replies of the -Secretary provoked much comment, and gave rise to a very wide-spread -and natural impression that he was for some reason or -other averse to the restoration to the Poncas of their old homes. -The letters were reviewed by one of the editors of the <i>New York -Times</i> in a paper so admirable that the letters ought not to be -printed without it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>CIVIL RIGHTS IN ACRES.</p> - -<p class='c010'>(From the <i>New York Times</i>, February 21st, 1880.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>"As most of the readers of the <i>Times</i> already know, friends of -the Ponca Indians are endeavoring to have the tribe restored to -their old reservation in Dakota. Or, more strictly speaking, it is -proposed that their reservation shall be restored to them. The -lands occupied by the Poncas were ceded to them by the United -States by solemn treaty. By a cruel and wicked blunder, which -no man has attempted to explain, those lands were ceded to the -Sioux. But the Sioux did not want the lands, and they have -never occupied them unto this day. To this robbery of the tribe -was added the destruction of their houses, movable property, and -farms. A citizen of the United States would have redress in the -<a id='Page_367'></a>courts for such an outrage as this. An Indian has no legal status. -He is merely a live and particularly troublesome animal, in the -eye of the law. But, while the Poncas were trying to get back -on their lands, they were arrested by order of the Secretary of -the Interior, on the charge of running away from the agency to -which they had been sent by the Government when their lands -were taken from them. It is not necessary to add words to intensify -this accumulation of criminal folly and wrong. Certain -citizens of Nebraska, hearing of the injustice which was being -perpetrated on the Poncas, raised funds, and had the chiefs -brought before United States District Judge Dundy on a writ of -<i>habeas corpus</i>, to inquire why they were thus restrained of their -liberty. Judge Dundy decided that an Indian was 'a person' -within the meaning of the <i>Habeas Corpus</i> Act, and that these -persons were unlawfully held in duress.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It was thought that the United States would appeal from -this dictum, but no appeal was taken, much to the disappointment -of the friends of the Indians, as it was hoped that a decision -could be reached to show whether the Indian was or was not so -far clothed with the privilege of a citizen that he could have a -standing in the courts of law. Accordingly, the public-spirited -and philanthropic persons who had espoused the cause of the -Poncas resolved to make up a case, which, carried to the United -States Supreme Court, should determine once and forever this -moot point. To this end money has been raised by subscription, -by special gift, and by contributions taken at public meetings in -various parts of the country. A lady residing in Boston, moved -by the pitiful condition of the Indians, who tried to struggle toward -civilization, offered to supply all the money which was lacking -toward the expenses of the suit, provided Secretary Schurz -would give some public assurances that he favored this manner -of determining the case, or would give his reasons against this -attempt. The lady's proposition was sent to Mrs. Helen Hunt -Jackson, whose disinterested and efficient labors in behalf of the -deeply-wronged Poncas had already attracted attention. Mrs. -Jackson forwarded to Secretary Schurz the whole statement. -Thereupon an interesting correspondence ensued. This correspondence -has been printed in the Boston papers, presumably by -direction of Secretary Schurz.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In reply to the request to say whether he approves of the -movement to carry the Ponca case to the Supreme Court, in order -that the tribe may recover their old reservation, the Secretary -<a id='Page_368'></a>says that this would be useless, as the courts have repeatedly decided -that an Indian tribe cannot sue the United States. Unfortunately, -Mr. Schurz does not cite these cases, but we must take -it for granted that he knows what he is talking about. He adds -that he has taken the advice of lawyers, who coincide with him -in this opinion. As a suit cannot be brought at all, according to -the Secretary and his legal advisers, it would be idle to collect -money for this purpose; and the Secretary suggests that, if the -disinterested friends of the Indians had consulted lawyers before -they began their work, they would be of his opinion as to the -futility of the attempt. This, of course, leaves the impression -that the Secretary withholds his approval of the movement to -secure legal rights for the Poncas, though he does not say so in -express terms. His reason for not approving the attempt is that -it will do no good. His solution to the Indian problem, as it is -vaguely called, is to settle the Indians in severalty, breaking up -their tribal organization, and giving to each individual his lands -in fee-simple. This, the Secretary thinks, will enable them to -hold their lands by the same title as that by which white men -hold theirs, and, 'as a matter of course, they will have the same -standing in the courts' as white men. It is to be regretted that -the Secretary did not pause here long enough to show how the -giving to an Indian of 160 acres of land can clothe him with civil -rights which he does not now possess, and which the Secretary -thinks that the courts cannot give him. For this reason, however, -Mr. Schurz is greatly in favor of legislation providing for the settlement -of the Indians in severalty, various bills to accomplish -which, he says, are in preparation. As for the money raised -already, the Secretary suggests that since, in his opinion, it would -be misspent in obtaining judicial decision, it might be used in the -education of Indian children.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Replying to this, Mrs. Jackson asks if the Secretary would be -in favor of the Poncas recovering their lands by process of law, -provided that could be done. To this direct and very important -inquiry we regret to notice that the Secretary finds himself unable -to reply, although, in a letter immediately following this, he -does say that if an Indian tribe could maintain an action at law in -the courts to assert its rights, he would no more object to it than -he would to a white man's doing the same thing. As to the suggestion -that the money collected for the expenses of legal proceedings -be used for educational purposes, Mrs. Jackson asks the -Secretary how it would be possible to take money given for one -<a id='Page_369'></a>specific purpose and use it for another and wholly different purpose. -Mr. Schurz rejoins that the consent of the donors may -first be obtained; but he forgets that it would be impossible -to canvass the country to ascertain the wishes of thousands of -unknown givers to this fund. Referring to the intimation that -the friends of the Indians had not taken legal counsel in this -matter, and that the Secretary had, Mrs. Jackson observes that -they did take such counsel, and that an omission to do so would -have been indeed foolish.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It will be observed that the Secretary's objection to the attempt -to secure civil rights is its futility; and, in answer to Mrs. -Jackson's statement that the friends of the Indians have sought -the opinions of lawyers in this case, he replies that one 'can find -lawyers of skill and standing to undertake, for a good fee, any -case, however hopeless.' To those who might think that this is -unjustly severe on the legal profession, it should be said that Mr. -Schurz has been by profession a lawyer, and should know what -he is talking about. And we must presume that Mr. Schurz's -profound knowledge of the law, which is fortified by the opinions -of eminent legal men, induces him to consider the whole case -closed in advance of its submission to the courts. It would be -interesting, however, to know if the Secretary's lawyers of skill -and standing are less easily influenced by the prospect of a 'good -fee' than the lawyers of skill and standing consulted by the -friends of the Poncas. The exceedingly able opinion of Secretary -Schurz, we find, is that it is useless to give the Indian a -standing in the courts through judicial decisions, as he can -readily secure this by accepting from the Government of the -United States a deed of 160 acres of land."</p> - -<p class='c010'>CONDITION OF THE PONCAS IN THE SUMMER OF 1880.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Standing Bear and his party, after their release by the decision -of Judge Dundy, settled on an island in the Niobrara River, -which was a part of their old reservation, and had fortunately -been overlooked when the United States Government took forcible -possession of the rest of their land and presented it to the -Sioux. Here they were joined by other fugitives of their tribe -till the number reached about one hundred and thirty. A committee -which had been organized in Omaha for their relief -supplied them with farming implements, and they went industriously -to work. This committee published in July, 1880, a -report containing the following paragraphs:</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_370'></a>"We consider the treatment of the Ponca Indians as one of the -most heart-sickening chapters in our national record of Indian -wrongs, and we are determined to spare no effort to restore to -them their stolen homes and rights, and to relieve the American -people of the stigma of this terrible wrong.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The Senate of the United States during the past winter -appointed a select committee 'to ascertain and report the circumstances -of the removal of the Ponca Indians from their reservation, -and whether the said Indians are not entitled to be -restored thereto.' This Senate Committee devoted a long time to -a thorough and patient investigation of this whole Ponca case, -and reported that the Poncas had been 'forced, without authority -of law, from their homes to the Indian Territory,' and reported also -a bill for their restoration to their former reservation, and recommending -'that $50,000 be appropriated for the purpose of taking -the Poncas back, and restoring their now dilapidated homes.'</p> - -<p class='c010'>"This able report of the United States Senate says that 'in -dealing with one of the most peaceable and orderly and well-disposed -of all the tribes of Indians, the Government has violated -in the most flagrant manner their rights of property, and disregarded -their appeals to the honor and justice of the United States, -and the dictates of humanity.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>The report also says that "the committee can find no language -sufficiently strong to condemn the whole proceeding, and trace -to it all the troubles which have come upon the Poncas, and the -hardships and sufferings which have followed them since they -were taken from their old reservation and placed in their present -position in the Indian Territory."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Omaha Ponca Relief Committee need no better vindication -of their action in behalf of this distressed and outraged -people than these strong and weighty words of a committee of -United States Senators, composed of representative men of both -political parties.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Omaha Committee consisted of Bishop Clarkson, of Nebraska, -chairman; Rev. A. F. Sherrill, Rev. W. I. Harsha, Leavitt -Burnham, W. M. Yates, and P. L. Perine.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At the request of this committee, Mr. T. H. Tibbles in June -went to the Indian Territory to visit the Poncas (of whom only -about 400 were left alive). He was authorized "to assure them -of the interest and efforts of humane people all over the country -in their behalf, and to notify them that the Omaha Committee -were ready to assist them in any practical way to return to their -<a id='Page_371'></a>old homes, from which they had been unjustly and inhumanly -ejected."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Mr. Tibbles succeeded in visiting the Poncas, although the -Government agent interfered with him in many ways, and finally -arrested him by authority of an order from Washington to arrest -any member of the Omaha Committee who came upon the reservation. -He was insulted by the agent, taken by force out of the -reservation, and threatened with much more severe treatment if -he ever returned.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This high-handed outrage on a free citizen of the United States -aroused indignation throughout the country. The comments of -the Press on the occurrence showed that people were at last -waking up to a sense of the tyrannical injustice of the Indian -Department. The <i>New York Tribune</i> said, editorially:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The Indian Department may as well understand at once that -the Ponca case has passed out of their control. It is a matter of -simple justice which the people are determined to see righted. -*** No petty Indian agent has the legal right to imprison, maltreat, -and threaten the life of any citizen totally guiltless of -offence beyond that of working to give these serfs of the Government -the standing of human beings. *** It is the Government -of this great Republic, where all men are free and equal, -that holds these Poncas prisoners on a tract where to remain is -death. They are innocent of any crime except that they have -been robbed of their land, and that they ask to bring suit, as a -black man or convict could do, in the courts for its recovery."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Mr. Tibbles reported the condition of the Poncas in Indian -Territory as "deplorable in the extreme. They live in constant -dread and fear, and are as much imprisoned as if they were in a -penitentiary." They seem "to have lost all hope, are broken-hearted -and disconsolate. With one or two exceptions, they are -making no effort to help themselves. Their so-called farms are -miserable little patches, to which they pay very little attention. -One of them said to me, 'If the Government forces me to stay -here, it can feed me. I had a good farm back at our old home, -and if I was back there I would farm again; I have no heart to -work here.' The one hundred and fifteen who are back on the -old reservation have a much larger amount of land under cultivation -than the whole four hundred who are in Indian Territory. -They have kept their crops in good condition, and are full of -energy and hope."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Government Agency for the Poncas having been transferred -<a id='Page_372'></a>to the Indian Territory, the annuities due the tribe were -of course paid there, and that portion of the tribe which had fled -back to Dakota received nothing. Moreover, the Indian Bureau -issued an order forbidding any Ponca who should leave the Indian -Territory to take with him any kind of property whatsoever, -under penalty of being arrested for stealing. As they could -not take their families on the long, hard journey to Dakota -without food or means of transportation, this order kept them -imprisoned in Indian Territory as effectually as a military guard -could have done.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Government employés in charge of them reported, meanwhile, -that they had "made up their minds to live and die where -they are. *** There exists a feeling of contentment in the tribe -that will make it very difficult for any one to induce them to leave -their present home," says a general press despatch, presumably -dictated by the Indian Bureau, and sent throughout the country -on July 15th.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It seems an insult to people's common-sense to suppose that -this statement would be believed, close on the heels of the general -order for the arrest of all fleeing Poncas who should dare to take -with them out of the Indian Territory one dollar's worth of property. -A very superfluous piece of legislation, surely, for a community -so "contented" that it would be "difficult for any one to -induce them to leave their homes."</p> - -<p class='c010'>THE LEGAL ASPECT OF THE CASE.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The chivalric and disinterested attorneys who had had the -charge of the Ponca case from the outset, were not to be intimidated -by the threats nor outwitted by the expedients of the Indian -Bureau. The ingenious devices practised by the Department -of the Interior to hinder the getting service of summons -upon the defendants in the suits necessary to recover the Poncas' -lands, make by themselves a shameful chapter, which will some -day be written out. But on the 13th of July the attorneys were -able to report to the Omaha Committee as follows:</p> - -<p class='c010'>REPORT OF THE ATTORNEYS.</p> -<div class='c011'>Omaha, July 13th, 1880.</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><i>To Omaha Ponca Indian Committee</i>:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>In response to the inquiry of one of your members as to the -condition of the suits instituted by us to liberate Standing Bear -and his associate from the custody of the military, and to recover -<a id='Page_373'></a>possession of the Ponca reservation, we make the following -statement:</p> - -<p class='c010'>On April 8th, 1879, was filed by us the petition in the case of -United States <i>ex rel.</i> Ma-chu-nah-zha (Standing Bear) <i>et al.</i> <i>vs.</i> -George Crook, a Brigadier-general of the Army of the United -States and Commander of the Department of the Platte, in the -U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, for a writ of -<i>habeas corpus</i> for the release of Standing Bear and his companions. -This cause was tried about the first of May, 1879, and Standing -Bear and his companions were restored to their liberty. Thereupon -the U. S. District-attorney took the case to the United -States Circuit Court for this District by appeal, and about May -19th, upon hearing before Mr. Justice Miller, Associate Justice of -the Supreme Court of the United States, was there continued, and -on January 5th, 1880, the appeal was dismissed on the motion of -the U. S. District-attorney.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On April 3d, 1880, was commenced by us the case of Ponca -tribe of Indians <i>vs.</i> Makh-pi-ah-lu-ta, or Red Cloud, in his own -behalf, and in behalf of the Sioux nation of Indians, in the U. S. -Circuit Court for the District of Nebraska, and on May 18th, -1880, we commenced in the same court the case of Ponca tribe -of Indians <i>vs.</i> Sioux nation of Indians. These cases were commenced, -and are being prosecuted by us, to recover possession of -and establish the title of the Ponca tribe of Indians to so much -of their old reservation as lies within the limits of Nebraska. -Great delay was made necessary in the commencement of these -cases, and the ones subsequently commenced in Dakota, of which -we below make mention, owing to difficulties in getting service -of summons upon the defendants. On May 22d, 1880, service of -summons was had on the defendants in both cases, and some -action will be taken therein at the next term of the court.</p> - -<p class='c010'>About the 20th of May, 1880, there were commenced in Dakota -other suits in the name of the Ponca tribe of Indians, and -against the Sioux nation of Indians, and against certain of their -chiefs, to settle and establish the title of the Ponca tribe of Indians -to so much of their old reservation as lies within the limits -of Dakota. Service has been had in these cases, and the several -suits mentioned will be prosecuted by us with all convenient -speed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>We might add that we also have in charge the case of John -Elk <i>vs.</i> Charles Wilkins, in the U. S. Circuit Court for this District, -which is being prosecuted by us to determine the rights of -<a id='Page_374'></a>Indians under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of -the United States.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Respectfully submitted,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>A. J. Poppleton</span>,</div> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Jno. L. Webster</span>.</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>III.<br /> <br />TESTIMONIES TO INDIAN CHARACTER.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>"Early in 1800 the Governor of the North-west Territory, in his -message to the assembly, invited their attention to the condition -of the Indians. He observed that, irrespective of the principles -of religion and justice, it was the interest and should be the policy -of the United States to be at peace with them; but that could -not continue to be the case if the treaties existing between them -and the Government were broken with impunity by the inhabitants -of the Territory. He referred to the well-known fact that -while the white men loudly complained of every injury committed -by the Indians, however trifling, and demanded immediate -reparation, they were daily perpetrating against them injuries -and wrongs of the most provoking and atrocious nature, for -which the perpetrators had not been brought to justice. *** He -stated that the number of those unfortunate people who had been -murdered since the peace of Greenville was sufficient to produce -serious alarm for the consequences. He added, further, that a -late attempt to bring to punishment a white man, who was clearly -proved to have killed two adult Indians and wounded two of -their children, had proved abortive."—<span class='sc'>Burnet's</span> <i>Notes on North-west -Territory</i>.</p> - -<p class='c010'>CHARACTER OF NORTH-WESTERN INDIANS.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Among other falsehoods it has been asserted confidently, but -without a shadow of argument or fact to sustain the assertion, -that they cannot be brought to a state of civilization, or be induced -to form communities and engage in the pursuits of agriculture -and the arts, in consequence of some physical difference -between them and the Anglo-Saxon race. This hypothesis is -contradicted by experience, which has abundantly shown that the -two races, when placed in the same situation, and acted upon by -the same causes, have invariably resorted to the same expedients -and pursued the same policy.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_375'></a>"This averment is sustained by a reference to the white people -who have been taken prisoners in childhood and brought up -among the Indians. In every such case the child of civilization -has become the ferocious adult of the forest, manifesting all the -peculiarities, tastes, and preferences of the native Indian. His -manners, habits, propensities, and pursuits have been the same, -so that the most astute philosophical observer has not been able -to discover any difference between them, except in the color of -the skin, and in some instances even this has been removed by -long exposure to the elements, and the free use of oils and paints."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The many instances which there are on record of cases in -which persons taken captive by the Indians, while young, have -utterly refused in later life to return to their relatives and homes, -go to confirm this statement of Judge Burnet's.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On the other hand, he says: "The attempts that have been -made at different times to improve the minds and cultivate the -morals of these people have always been attended by success.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"On an unprejudiced comparison between the civilized educated -white man and the civilized educated Indian, all this theory -of an organic constitutional difference between the European -and the native Indian vanishes.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In what respect have Ross, Boudinot, Hicks, Ridge, and others -differed from the educated men of our own race? Inasmuch -then as the reclaimed educated Indian becomes assimilated to the -white man, and the European brought up from infancy among -the Indians becomes identified with them, this alleged difference -cannot be real, it must be imaginary.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The fact is, the difficulty of civilizing the natives of this continent -is neither greater nor less than that which retarded the -improvement of the barbarous nations of Europe two thousand -years ago. *** Men uncivilized have always delighted in the -chase, and had a propensity to roam; both history and experience -prove that nothing but necessity, arising from such an increase -of population as destroys the game, has ever induced men -to settle in communities, and rely on the cultivation of the earth -for subsistence. In the progress of civilization the chase has -given way to the pastoral state, and that has yielded to agriculture -as the increase of numbers has rendered it necessary.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"As soon as the Cherokees and the Wyandots were surrounded -by a white population, and their territory was so contracted as -to cut off their dependence on hunting and fishing, they became -farmers, and manifested a strong desire to cultivate the arts; and -<a id='Page_376'></a>this would have been the choice of the whole Indian race if the -policy of the Government had permitted it!</p> - -<p class='c010'>"It is not just to consider the natives of this country as a distinct -and inferior race because they do not generally imitate us, -when we not only remove every consideration that could induce -them to do so, but in fact render it impossible. What motive -of ambition was there to stimulate them to effort, when they were -made to feel that they held their country as tenants at will, liable -to be driven off at the pleasure of their oppressors?</p> - -<p class='c010'>"As soon as they were brought to a situation in which necessity -prompted them to industry, and induced them to begin to -adopt our manners and habits of life, the covetous eye of the -white man was fixed on their incipient improvements, and they -received the chilling notice that they must look elsewhere for -permanent homes.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"At the time our settlements were commencing north-west of -the Ohio, the Indians were its acknowledged owners and sovereigns; -the Government claimed no right either of occupancy or -soil, except as they obtained it by purchase."</p> - -<p class='c010'>(On the 31st of July, 1793, the United States Commissioners said -to the assembled chiefs of the North-western tribes, in a council -held at the home of one Captain Elliott, on the Detroit River: -"By the express authority of the President of the United States, -we acknowledge the property, or right of soil to the great country -above described, to be in the Indian nations as long as they -desire to occupy it; we claim only the tracts before particularly -mentioned, and the right of pre-emption granted by the King, as -before explained.")</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The entire country from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi was -admitted to be theirs, and a more delightful, fertile valley cannot -be found on the earth. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Unconscious of the ruinous consequences that were to follow -their intimacy with white men, they ceded to the American Government -large and valuable portions of the country at nominal -prices. Those lands were rapidly settled by Americans, in whose -purity and friendship the unsuspecting natives had great confidence; -nor did they awake from that delusion till their habits of -sobriety and morality had been undermined, and the vices engendered -by intemperance and idleness had contaminated every -tribe. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Their subsistence became precarious; their health declined; -their self-respect, their dignity of character, and the heroism inherited -<a id='Page_377'></a>from their ancestors were lost. They became in their own -estimation a degraded, dependent race. The Government, availing -itself of their weakness and want of energy, succeeded by -bribes and menaces in obtaining the best portions of their country, -and eventually in driving them from the land of their birth -to a distant home in an unknown region.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"This distressing chapter of aboriginal history began at the -treaty of Greenville, in 1795, and terminated in less than fifty -years. The writer of these notes witnessed its commencement, -progress, and close."—<span class='sc'>Burnet's</span> <i>Notes on North-west Territory</i>.</p> - -<p class='c010'>NEZ PERCÉS AND FLAT-HEADS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They were friendly in their dispositions, and honest to the -most scrupulous degree in their intercourse with the white men. -*** Simply to call these people religious would convey but a faint -idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion which pervades the -whole of their conduct. Their honesty is immaculate; and their -purity of purpose and their observance of the rites of their religion -are most uniform and remarkable. They are certainly more -like a nation of saints than a horde of savages."—<span class='sc'>Captain Bonneville's</span> -<i>Narrative</i>, <i>revised by</i> <span class='sc'>W. Irving</span>.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I fearlessly assert to the world, and I defy contradiction, that -the North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a -highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with an -intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being and the -universe—in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives with -the apprehension before him of a future state, when he expects -to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has gained -or forfeited in this world.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I never saw any other people who spend so much of their -lives in humbling themselves before and worshipping the Great -Spirit as these tribes do, nor any whom I would not as soon suspect -of insincerity and hypocrisy.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Self-denial and self-torture, and almost self-immolation, are -continual modes of appealing to the Great Spirit for his countenance -and forgiveness.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"To each other I have found these people kind and honorable, -and endowed with every feeling of parental, filial, and conjugal -affection that is met with in more enlightened communities."—<span class='sc'>Catlin's</span> -<i>North American Indians</i>.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Mr. Catlin spent eight years among the Indians more than -forty years ago. He travelled among the wildest of them, lived -<a id='Page_378'></a>with them in the freest intimacy, and this is his verdict as to their -native traits, when uncontaminated by white men and whiskey.</p> - -<p class='c010'>As long ago as 1724, the Jesuit Father Lafitau wrote of the -Indians, and stated that to his own experience he added that of -Father Garnier, who had lived sixty years among them: "They -are possessed," says he, "of sound judgment, lively imagination, -ready conception, and wonderful memory. All the tribes retain -at least some trace of an ancient religion, handed down to them -from their ancestors, and a form of government. They reflect -justly upon their affairs, and better than the mass of the people -among ourselves. They prosecute their ends by sure means; -they evince a degree of coolness and composure which would -exceed our patience; they never permit themselves to indulge -in passion, but always, from a sense of honor and greatness of -soul, appear masters of themselves. They are high-minded and -proud; possess a courage equal to every trial, an intrepid valor, -the most heroic constancy under torments, and an equanimity -which neither misfortunes nor reverses can shake. Toward each -other they behave with a natural politeness and attention, entertaining -a high respect for the aged, and a consideration for their -equals which appears scarcely reconcilable with that freedom and -independence of which they are so jealous. They make few professions -of kindness, but yet are affable and generous. Toward -strangers and the unfortunate they exercise a degree of hospitality -and charity which might put the inhabitants of Europe to -the blush."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Father Lafitau does not disguise the fact that the Indians have -great faults. He says they are "suspicious and vindictive, cruel -to their enemies."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Père Lallemant, a missionary among the Hurons, says: "In -point of intellect they are not at all inferior to the natives of -Europe; I could not have believed that, without instruction, nature -could have produced such ready and vigorous eloquence, or -such a sound judgment in their affairs as that which I have so -much admired among the Hurons. I admit that their habits and -customs are barbarous in a thousand ways; but, after all, in matters -which they consider as wrong, and which their public condemns, -we observe among them less criminality than in France, -although here the only punishment of a crime is the shame of -having committed it."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In a history of New France, published in 1618, it is stated of -the Indians that "they are valorous, faithful, generous, and humane; -<a id='Page_379'></a>their hospitality is so great that they extend it to every -one who is not their enemy. They speak with much judgment -and reason, and, when they have any important enterprise to undertake, -the chief is attentively listened to for two or three hours -together, and he is answered point to point, as the subject may -require."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1656 the Jesuit missionaries among the Iroquois reported: -"Among many faults caused by their blindness and barbarous -education, we meet with virtues enough to cause shame among -the most of Christians. Hospitals for the poor would be useless -among them, because there are no beggars; those who have are -so liberal to those who are in want, that everything is enjoyed -in common. The whole village must be in distress before any -individual is left in necessity."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Captain Carver, who travelled in 1766 among the wildest tribes, -describes them as "cruel, barbarous, and revengeful in war, persevering -and inflexible in pursuit of an enemy, sanguinary in their -treatment of prisoners, and sparing neither age nor sex." On the -other hand, he found them temperate in their mode of living, patient -of hunger and fatigue, sociable and humane to all whom -they looked on as friends, and ready to share with them the last -morsel of food they possessed, or to expose their lives in their defence. -In their public character he describes them as "possessing -an attachment to their nation unknown to the inhabitants of -any other country, combining as if actuated by one soul against -a common enemy, never swayed in their councils by selfish or -party views, but sacrificing everything to the honor and advantage -of their tribe, in support of which they fear no danger, and -are affected by no sufferings. They are not only affectionately -attached, indeed, to their own offspring, but are extremely fond -of children in general. They instruct them carefully in their own -principles, and train them up with attention in the maxims and -habits of their nation. Their system consists chiefly in the influence -of example, and impressing on them the traditionary histories -of their ancestors. When the children act wrong, their -parents remonstrate and reprimand but never chastise them."—<i><span class='sc'>Halkett's</span> -Hist. Notes.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>The very idea of corporal punishment of little children seems -to have been peculiarly obnoxious to the native North American. -In the "Relation de Nouvelle France," published in 1633, there -is a curious story of an incident which took place at Quebec. A -party of Indians, watching a French drummer-boy beat his drum, -<a id='Page_380'></a>pressed more closely around him than he liked, and he struck one -of the Indians in the face with his drum-stick so sharply that the -blow drew blood. The Indians, much offended, went to the interpreter -and demanded apologies and a present, according to -their custom. "No," said the interpreter, "our custom is to -punish the offender; we will punish the boy in your presence." -When the Indians saw the child stripped for the flogging they -began immediately to beg for his pardon; but as the soldiers continued -their preparations for whipping the lad, one of the Indians -suddenly stripped himself and threw his robe over the boy, -crying out, "Scourge me, if you choose, but do not strike the -boy!" The good Father Le Jeune, who tells this story, adds that -this unwillingness of the Indians to see any child chastised "will -probably occasion trouble to us in the design we have to instruct -their youth."</p> - -<p class='c010'>As far back as 1587 we find evidence that the Indians were -not without religion. Thomas Hariot, an employé of Sir Walter -Raleigh's, writing from the Virginia colony, says of the Virginia -Indians: "Theye beleeve that there are many gods, which theye -call Mantaoc, but of different sorts and degrees; one onely chief -and Great God, which hath been from all eternitie; who, as theye -affirme, when hee proposed to make the world, made first other -gods of a principall order, to bee as means and instruments to -bee used in the creation and government to folow; and after the -sunne, moone, and starres as pettie gods, and the instruments of -the other order more principall."</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In general," says Hunter, "a day seldom passes with an -elderly Indian, or others who are esteemed wise and good, in -which a blessing is not asked, or thanks returned to the Giver -of Life, sometimes audibly, but more generally in the devotional -language of the heart."</p> - -<p class='c010'>All the employés of the North-west Fur Company bear the -same testimony to the fidelity and honesty of the Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>General H. Sibley once said to Bishop Whipple that for thirty -years it had been the uniform boast of the Sioux in every council -that they had never taken the life of a white man.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_381'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>IV.<br /> <br />OUTRAGES COMMITTED ON INDIANS BY WHITES.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>In Captain Bonneville's narrative of five years spent in the -Rocky Mountains are many instances of cruel outrages committed -by whites upon Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"One morning one of his trappers, discovering that his traps -had been carried off in the night, took a horrid oath that he -would kill the first Indian he should meet, innocent or guilty. -As he was returning with his comrades to camp, he beheld two -unfortunate Root Diggers seated on the bank, fishing; advancing -upon them, he levelled his rifle, shot one on the spot, and flung -his bleeding body into the stream.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"A short time afterward, when this party of trappers were -about to cross Ogden's River, a great number of Shoshokies, or -Root Diggers, were posted on the opposite bank, when they imagined -they were there with hostile intent; they advanced upon -them, levelled their rifles, and killed twenty-five of them on the -spot. The rest fled to a short distance, then halted and turned -about, howling and whining like wolves, and uttering most piteous -wailings. The trappers chased them in every direction. -The poor wretches made no defence, but fled in terror; nor does -it appear from the accounts of the boasted victors that a weapon -had been wielded by the Indians throughout the affair."</p> - -<p class='c010'>There seemed to be an emulation among these trappers which -could inflict the greatest outrages on the natives. They chased -them at full speed, lassoed them like cattle, and dragged them till -they were dead.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At one time, when some horses had been stolen by the Riccarees, -this same party of trappers took two Riccaree Indians -prisoners, and declared that, unless the tribe restored every horse -that had been stolen, these two Indians, who had strayed into the -trappers' camp without any knowledge of the offence committed, -should be burnt to death.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"To give force to their threat, a pyre of logs and fagots was -heaped up and kindled into a blaze. The Riccarees released one -horse and then another; but, finding that nothing but the relinquishment -of all their spoils would purchase the lives of the captives, -they abandoned them to their fate, moving off with many -parting words and howlings, when the prisoners were dragged to -<a id='Page_382'></a>the blazing pyre and burnt to death in sight of their retreating -comrades.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Such are the acts that lead to terrible recriminations on the -part of the Indians. Individual cases of the kind dwell in the -recollections of whole tribes, and it is a point of honor and conscience -to avenge them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The records of the wars between the early settlers of Virginia -and New England and the natives exhibit cruelties on both sides -that make one shudder. *** When the Indian would tear the -scalp from the crown of the scarcely yet dead victim, and mutilate -the body, could he be expected to reform those cruelties -when he saw the white man in his turn cut off the heads of his -people, and mutilate and quarter their bodies, as was done with -King Philip's, whose head, after being cut off, was sent to Plymouth -and hung up there on a gibbet, where it remained twenty -years, while one of his hands was sent to Boston as a trophy, his -body being quartered and hung upon four trees?"—<i><span class='sc'>M'Forley's</span> -History and Travels.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>FROM REPORT OF THE INDIAN BUREAU FOR 1854.</p> - -<div class='c011'>"Port Orford, Oregon Territory, February 5th, 1854.</div> - -<p class='c010'>"I grieve to report to you that a most horrid massacre, or -rather an out-and-out barbarous murder, was perpetrated on a -portion of the Nason tribe, residing at the mouth of the Coquille -River, on the morning of the 28th of January last, by a party of -forty miners. Before giving you the result of my examination -and my own conclusions, I will give you the reasons which that -party assign in justification of their acts.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"They avow that, for some time past, the Indians at the mouth -of the Coquille have been insolent; that they have been in the -habit of riding the horses of white men without permission; that -of late they have committed many thefts, such as stealing paddles -and many other articles the property of white men; that one of -their number recently discharged his gun at the ferry-house; and -that but a few days prior to the attack on the Indians, the chief, -on leaving the ferry-house, where he had just been fed, fired his -gun at a party of four white men standing near the door of the -house. They further state that, on the 27th of January, they sent -for the chief to come in for a talk; that he not only refused to -come in, but sent back word that he would kill white men if they -came to his home; that he meant to kill all the white men he -could; that he was determined to drive the white men out of his -<a id='Page_383'></a>country; that he would kill the men at the ferry, and burn their -houses. Immediately after this conversation with the chief, the -white men at and near the ferry-house assembled, and deliberated -on the necessity of an immediate attack on the Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The result of their deliberation, with the full proceedings of -their meeting, is herein enclosed. At the conclusion, a courier -was despatched to the upper mines for assistance. A party of -about twenty responded to the call, and arrived at the ferry-house -on the evening preceding the morning of the massacre. On the -arrival of this re-enforcement the proceedings of the meeting first -held were reconsidered, and unanimously approved.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"At the dawn of day on the morning of the 28th of January -the party of the ferry, joined by about twenty men from the upper -mines, organized, and, in three detachments, marched upon the -Indian ranches, and consummated a most inhuman slaughter. A -full account of what they term 'a fight' you will find in the report -which their captain, George H. Abbott, forwarded to me on -the day of the massacre.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The Indians were roused from sleep to meet their death, with -but feeble show of resistance. They were shot down as they were -attempting to escape from their houses; fifteen men and one -squaw killed; two squaws badly wounded. On the part of the -white men, not even the slightest wound was received. The -houses of the Indians, with but one exception, were fired, and entirely -destroyed. Thus was committed a massacre too inhuman -to be readily believed. Now for my examination of this horrid -affair.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"On the morning of the 29th of January I left Port Orford for -the Coquille. We arrived at the ferry-house early in the evening -of that day. Early in the morning of the day after my arrival I -sent for the chief, who immediately came in, attended by about -thirty of his people. The chief, as well as his people, was so -greatly alarmed—apparently apprehensive that the white men -would kill them even in my presence—that it was with a good -deal of difficulty that I could induce him to express his mind -freely. He seemed only anxious to stipulate for peace and the -future safety of his people; and to procure this he was willing to -accept any terms that I might dictate. The chief was evidently -afraid to complain of or censure the slaughterers of his tribe, and -for a time replied to all the charges made against him with hesitancy. -After repeated assurances of protection, he finally answered -to the point every interrogatory. I asked him if he had at any -<a id='Page_384'></a>time fired at the man at the ferry-house. 'No!' was his prompt -reply. At the time he was said to have fired at the white man, -he declared with great earnestness that he shot at a duck in the -river, at a distance of some two hundred yards from the ferry-house, -when on his way home, and possibly the ball of his gun -might have bounded from the water. My subsequent observation -of the course of the river, and the point from which he was said -to have fired, convinced me that his statement was entitled to the -fullest credit. His statement is confirmed by the doubt expressed -by one of the party at whom he was said to have fired.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The white men making the accusation only heard the whizzing -of a bullet. This was the only evidence adduced in proof of -the chief having fired at them. I asked the chief if he, or if to his -knowledge any of his people, had ever fired at the ferry-house. To -this he answered, 'No.' He most emphatically denied ever sending -threatening language to the men at the ferry, but admitted -that some of his people had. He also admitted that some of his -tribe had stolen from white men, and that they had used their -horses without permission. He did not deny that his heart had -been bad toward white men, and that he had hoped they would -leave his country. He promised to do all I required of him. If I -desired, he said he would leave the home of his fathers and take -his people to the mountains; but, with my permission and protection, -he would prefer remaining in the present home of his people.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Everything I asked or required of him he readily assented -to, promising most solemnly to maintain on his part permanent -friendly relations with white men. My interview with the tribe -occupied about two hours. During the entire council they listened -with most profound attention, evidently being determined -to fasten on their minds all that fell from my lips. At the conclusion -of the council I requested the chief to send for all the -guns and pistols in the possession of his men. You will be surprised -when I tell you that all the guns and pistols in the hands -of the Indians at the ranches amounted to just five pieces, two of -which were unserviceable; as to powder and ball, I do not believe -they had five rounds. Does this look like being prepared for -war? Can any sane man believe those Indians, numbering not -over seventy-five, all told, including women and children, had concocted -a plan to expel from their country some three hundred -whites? Such a conclusion is too preposterous to be entertained -for a moment. There was no necessity for resorting to such extreme -measures. I regard the murder of those Indians as one of -<a id='Page_385'></a>the most barbarous acts ever perpetrated by civilized men. But -what can be done? The leaders of the party cannot be arrested, -though justice loudly demands their punishment. Here we have -not even a justice of the peace; and as to the military force -garrisoned at Fort Orford, it consists of four men. If such murderous -assaults are to be continued, there will be no end of Indian -war in Oregon."—<i><span class='sc'>F. M. Smith</span>, Sub-Agent.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>The Simon Kenton referred to in the following narrative was -an experienced Indian fighter, and commanded a regiment in the -war of 1812.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In the course of the war of 1812 a plan was formed by some -of the militia stationed at Urbana, Ohio, to attack an encampment -of friendly Indians, who had been threatened by the hostile tribes, -and were invited to remove with their families within our frontier -settlements as a place of safety, under an assurance that they -should be protected. Kenton remonstrated against the movement -as being not only mutinous, but treacherous and cowardly. -He vindicated the Indian character against the false charges -which were alleged in justification of the outrage they were -about to perpetrate, and warned them against the infamy they -would incur by destroying a defenceless band of men, women, -and children, who had been induced to place themselves in their -power by a solemn promise of protection.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"He appealed to their humanity, their honor, and their duty as -soldiers. He contrasted his knowledge of the character of those -unfortunate people with their ignorance of it. He told them that -he had endured suffering and torture at their hands again and -again, but that it was in time of war, when they were defending -their wives and children, and when he was seeking to destroy -and exterminate them; and that, under those circumstances, he -had no right to complain, and never did complain. But, said he, -in time of peace they have always been kind, faithful friends, and -generous, trustworthy men.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Having exhausted the means of persuasion without effect, and -finding them still resolved on executing their purpose, he took a -rifle and called on them to proceed at once to the execution of the -foul deed—declaring with great firmness that he would accompany -them to the encampment, and shoot down the first man who -attempted to molest it. 'My life,' said he, 'is drawing to a close: -what remains of it is not worth much;' but, much or little, he was -resolved that, if they entered the Indian camp, it should be done -by passing over his corpse. Knowing that the old veteran would -<a id='Page_386'></a>fulfil his promise, their hearts failed them; not one ventured to -take the lead; their purpose was abandoned, and the Indians were -saved."—<i><span class='sc'>Burnet</span> on the North-west Territory.</i></p> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>V.<br /> <br />EXTRACTS<br /> <br />FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION SENT TO TREAT WITH<br />THE SIOUX CHIEF, SITTING BULL, IN CANADA.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>The commission consisted of Brigadier-general Terry, Hon. A. -G. Lawrence, and Colonel Corbin, secretary. After one month's -journey, <i>via</i> Omaha, Nebraska, Helena, Montana, and Fort Benton, -these gentlemen were met on the Canadian boundary by a -Canadian officer with a mounted escort, who conducted them to -Fort Walsh, when they were met by Sitting Bull and the other -chiefs.</p> - -<p class='c010'>General Terry recapitulated to them the advantages of being at -peace with the United States, the kindly treatment that all -surrendered prisoners had received, and said: "The President -invites you to come to the boundary of his and your country, and -there give up your arms and ammunition, and thence to go to the -agencies to which he will assign you, and there give up your -horses, excepting those which are required for peace purposes. -Your arms and horses will then be sold, and with all the money -obtained for them cows will be bought and sent to you."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is mortifying to think that representatives of the United -States should have been compelled gravely to submit in a formal -council proposals so ludicrous as these. The Indians must have -been totally without sense of humor if they could have listened -to them without laughter. Sitting Bull's reply is worthy of being -put on record among the notable protests of Indian chiefs against -the oppressions of their race.</p> - -<p class='c010'>He said: "For sixty-four years you have kept me and my people, -and treated us bad. What have we done that you should -want us to stop? We have done nothing. It is all the people -on your side that have started us to do all these depredations. -We could not go anywhere else, and so we took refuge in this -country. *** I would like to know why you came here. In the -first place I did not give you the country; but you followed me -from one place to another, so I had to leave and come over to -<a id='Page_387'></a>this country. *** You have got ears, and you have got eyes to -see with them, and you see how I live with these people. You -see me. Here I am. If you think I am a fool, you are a bigger -fool than I am. This house is a medicine house. You come here -to tell us lies, but we don't want to hear them. I don't wish any -such language used to me—that is, to tell me lies in my Great -Mother's house. This country is mine, and I intend to stay here -and to raise this country full of grown people. See these people -here. We were raised with them" (again shaking hands with the -British officers). "That is enough, so no more. *** The part of -the country you gave me you ran me out of. *** I wish you to -go back, and to take it easy going back."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The-one-that-runs-the-Ree, a Santee chief, said: "You didn't -treat us well, and I don't like you at all. *** I will be at peace -with these people as long as I live. This country is ours. We -did not give it to you. You stole it away from us. You have -come over here to tell us lies, and I don't propose to talk much, -and that is all I have to say. I want you to take it easy going -home. Don't go in a rush."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Nine, a Yankton, said: "Sixty-four years ago you got our -country, and you promised to take good care of us and keep us. -You ran from one place to another killing us and fighting us. *** -You did not treat us right over there, so we came back over here. -*** I come in to these people here, <i>and they give me permission to -trade with the traders</i>. <i>That is the way I make my living.</i> Everything -I get I buy from the traders. I don't steal anything. *** -I am going to live with these people here."</p> - -<p class='c010'>So profound a contempt did the Indians feel for this commission -that they allowed a squaw to address it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A squaw, named The-one-that-speaks-once, wife of The-man-that-scatters-the-bear, -said: "I was over at your country. I -wanted to raise my children there, but you did not give me any -time. I came over to this country to raise my children, and have -a little peace" (shaking hands with the British officers); "that is -all I have to say to you. I want you to go back where you came -from. These are the people that I am going to stay with and -raise my children with."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians having risen, being apparently about to leave the -room, the interpreter was directed to ask the following questions: -"Shall I say to the President that you refuse the offers that he -has made to you? Are we to understand that you refuse those -offers?" Sitting Bull answered: "I could tell you more, but that -<a id='Page_388'></a>is all I have to tell. If we told you more, you would not pay -any attention to it. This part of the country does not belong to -your people. You belong on the other side, this side belongs -to us."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Crow, shaking hands, and embracing Colonel McLeod, and -shaking hands with the other British officers, said: "This is the -way I will live in this part of the country. *** <i>These people that -don't hide anything</i>, they are all the people I like. *** Sixty-four -years ago I shook hands with the soldiers, and ever since that I -have had hardships. I made peace with them; and ever since -then I have been running from one place to another to keep out -of their way. *** Go to where you were born, and stay there. I -came over to this country, and my Great Mother knows all about -it. She knows I came over here, and she don't wish anything of -me. We think, and all the women in the camp think, we are -going to have the country full of people. *** I have come back -in this part of the country again to have plenty more people, to -live in peace, and raise children."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians then inquired whether the commission had anything -more to say, and the commission answered that they had -nothing more to say, and the conference closed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The commission, with a naïve lack of comprehension of the -true situation of the case, go on to say that "they are convinced -that Sitting Bull and the bands under him will not seek to return -to this country at present. It is believed that they are restrained -from returning," partly by their recollection of the severe -handling they had by the military forces of the United States in -the last winter and spring, and partly "by their belief that, for -some reason which they cannot fathom, the Government of the -United States earnestly desires that they shall return. *** In -their intense hostility to our Government, they are determined to -contravene its wishes to the best of their ability." It would seem -so—even to the extent of foregoing all the privileges offered -them on their return—the giving up of all weapons—the exchanging -of their horses for cows—and the priceless privilege of being -shut up on reservations, off which they could not go without being -pursued, arrested, and brought back by troops. What a depth -of malignity must be in the breasts of these Indians, that to gratify -it they will voluntarily relinquish all these benefits, and continue -to remain in a country where they must continue to hunt, -and make their own living on the unjust plan of free trade in -open markets!</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_389'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>VI.<br /> <br />ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE OLD GRIEVANCES OF<br />THE SIOUX.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>INTERVIEW BETWEEN RED IRON, CHIEF OF THE SISSETON SIOUX, -AND GOVERNOR RAMSEY, IN DECEMBER, 1852.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Claims had been set up by the Indian traders for $400,000 of -the money promised to the Sioux by the treaties of 1851 and -1852. The Indians declared that they did not owe so much. -Governor Ramsey endeavored to compel Red Iron to sign a receipt -for it; he refused. He said his tribe had never had the -goods. He asked the governor to appoint arbitrators—two white -men and one Indian; it was refused. He then said that he would -accept three white men as arbitrators, if they were honest men: -this was refused.</p> - -<p class='c010'>An eye-witness has sketched the appearance of the chief on -that occasion, and the interview between him and the governor: -The council was crowded with Indians and white men when -Red Iron was brought in, guarded by soldiers. He was about -forty years old, tall and athletic; about six feet high in his moccasins, -with a large, well-developed head, aquiline nose, thin compressed -lips, and physiognomy beaming with intelligence and -resolution. He was clad in the half-military, half-Indian costume -of the Dakota chiefs. He was seated in the council-room without -greeting or salutation from any one. In a few minutes the governor, -turning to the chief in the midst of a breathless silence, by -the aid of an interpreter, opened the council.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Governor Ramsey asked: "What excuse have you for not coming -to the council when I sent for you?"</p> - -<p class='c010'>The chief rose to his feet with native grace and dignity, his -blanket falling from his shoulders, and purposely dropping the -pipe of peace, he stood erect before the governor with his arms -folded, and right hand pressed on the sheath of his scalping-knife; -with firm voice he replied:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"I started to come, but your braves drove me back."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Gov.</i> "What excuse have you for not coming the second time -I sent for you?"</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Red Iron.</i> "No other excuse than I have given you."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Gov.</i> "At the treaty I thought you a good man, but since you -<a id='Page_390'></a>have acted badly, and I am disposed to break you. I do break -you."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Red Iron.</i> "You break me! My people made me a chief. My -people love me. I will still be their chief. I have done nothing -wrong."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Gov.</i> "Why did you get your braves together and march around -here for the purpose of intimidating other chiefs, and prevent -their coming to the council?"</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Red Iron.</i> "I did not get my braves together, they got together -themselves to prevent boys going to council to be made chiefs, -to sign papers, and to prevent single chiefs going to council at -night, to be bribed to sign papers for money we have never got. -We have heard how the Medewakantons were served at Mendota; -that by secret councils you got their names on paper, and took -away their money. We don't want to be served so. My braves -wanted to come to council in the daytime, when the sun shines, -and we want no councils in the dark. We want all our people -to go to council together, so that we can all know what is done."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Gov.</i> "Why did you attempt to come to council with your -braves, when I had forbidden your braves coming to council?"</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Red Iron.</i> "You invited the chiefs only, and would not let the -braves come too. This is not the way we have been treated before; -this is not according to our customs, for among Dakotas -chiefs and braves go to council together. When you first sent -for us, there were two or three chiefs here, and we wanted to -wait till the rest would come, that we might all be in council together -and know what was done, and so that we might all understand -the papers, and know what we were signing. When we -signed the treaty the traders threw a blanket over our faces and -darkened our eyes, and made us sign papers which we did not -understand, and which were not explained or read to us. We -want our Great Father at Washington to know what has been -done."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Gov.</i> "Your Great Father has sent me to represent him, and -what I say is what he says. He wants you to pay your old debts, -in accordance with the paper you signed when the treaty was -made, and to leave that money in my hands to pay these debts. -If you refuse to do that I will take the money back."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Red Iron.</i> "You can take the money back. We sold our land -to you, and you promised to pay us. If you don't give us the -money I will be glad, and all our people will be glad, for we will -have our land back if you don't give us the money. That paper -<a id='Page_391'></a>was not interpreted or explained to us. We are told it gives -about 300 boxes ($300,000) of our money to some of the traders. -We don't think we owe them so much. We want to pay all our -debts. We want our Great Father to send three good men here -to tell us how much we do owe, and whatever they say we will -pay; and that's what all these braves say. Our chiefs and all our -people say this." All the Indians present responded, "Ho! ho!"</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Gov.</i> "That can't be done. You owe more than your money -will pay, and I am ready now to pay your annuity, and no more; -and when you are ready to receive it, the agent will pay you."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Red Iron.</i> "We will receive our annuity, but we will sign no -papers for anything else. The snow is on the ground, and we -have been waiting a long time to get our money. We are poor; -you have plenty. Your fires are warm. Your tepees keep out the -cold. We have nothing to eat. We have been waiting a long -time for our moneys. Our hunting-season is past. A great many -of our people are sick, for being hungry. We may die because -you won't pay us. We may die, but if we do we will leave our -bones on the ground, that our Great Father may see where his -Dakota children died. We are very poor. We have sold our -hunting-grounds and the graves of our fathers. We have sold -our own graves. We have no place to bury our dead, and you -will not pay us the money for our lands."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The council was broken up, and Red Iron was sent to the guard-house, -where he was kept till next day. Between thirty and -forty of the braves of Red Iron's band were present during this -arrangement before the governor. When he was led away, they -departed in sullen silence, headed by Lean Bear, to a spot a quarter -of a mile from the council-house, where they uttered a succession -of yells—the gathering signal of the Dakotas. Ere the -echoes died away, Indians were hurrying from their tepees toward -them, prepared for battle. They proceeded to the eminence -near the camp, where mouldered the bones of many warriors. -It was the memorable battle-ground, where their ancestors had -fought, in a conflict like Waterloo, the warlike Sacs and Foxes, -thereby preserving their lands and nationality. Upon this field -stood two hundred resolute warriors ready to do battle for their -hereditary chief. Lean Bear, the principal brave of Red Iron's -band, was a large, resolute man, about thirty-five years of age, -and had great influence in his nation.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Here, on their old battle-ground, Lean Bear recounted the -brave deeds of Red Iron, the long list of wrongs inflicted on the -<a id='Page_392'></a>Indians by the white men, and proposed to the braves that they -should make a general attack on the whites. By the influence -of some of the half-breeds, and of white men who were known -to be friendly to them, Lean Bear was induced to abandon his -scheme; and finally, the tribe, being starving, consented to give -up their lands and accept the sum of money offered to them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"Over $55,000 of this treaty money, paid for debts of the -Indians, went to one Hugh Tyler, a stranger in the country, -'for getting the treaties through the Senate, and for necessary -disbursements in securing the assent of the chiefs.'"</p> - -<p class='c010'>Five years later another trader, under the pretence that he was -going to get back for them some of this stolen treaty money, obtained -their signature to vouchers, by means of which he cheated -them out of $12,000 more. At this same time he obtained a -payment of $4,500 for goods he said they had stolen from him. -Another man was allowed a claim of $5,000 for horses he said -they had stolen from him.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In 1858 the chiefs were taken to Washington, and agreed to -the treaties for the cession of all their reservation north of the -Minnesota River, under which, as ratified by the Senate, they -were to have $166,000; but of this amount they never received -one penny till four years afterward, when $15,000 in goods were -sent to the Lower Sioux, and these were deducted out of what was -due them under former treaties."—<i>History of the Sioux War</i>, by -<span class='sc'>Isaac V. D. Heard</span>.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This paragraph gives the causes of the fearful Minnesota massacre, -in which eight hundred people lost their lives.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The treaty expressly provided that no claims against the Indians -should be paid unless approved by the Indians in open -council. No such council was held. A secret council was held -with a few chiefs, but the body of the Indians were ignorant of -it. There was a clause in this treaty that the Secretary of the -Interior might use any funds of the Indians for such purposes of -civilization as his judgment should dictate. Under this clause -the avails of over six hundred thousand acres of land were taken -for claims against the Indians. Of the vast amount due to the -Lower Sioux, only a little over $800 was left to their credit in -Washington at the time of the outbreak. Moreover, a portion of -their annual annuity was also taken for claims.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_393'></a>REMOVAL OF THE SIOUX AND WINNEBAGOES FROM MINNESOTA -in 1863.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The guard that accompanied these Indians consisted of four -commissioned officers, one hundred and thirty-five soldiers, and -one laundress; in all, one hundred and forty persons. The number -of Santee Sioux transported was thirteen hundred and eighteen. -For the transportation and subsistence of these Indians -and the guard there was paid the sum of $36,322.10.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The number of Winnebagoes transported was nineteen hundred -and forty-five; for their transportation and subsistence there -was paid the farther sum of $56,042.60—making the whole amount -paid the contractors $92,364.70.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The Sioux were transported from Fort Snelling to Hannibal, -Missouri, on two steamboats. One of the boats stopped there, -and the Indians on it crossed over to St. Joseph, on the Missouri -River, by rail. The other boat continued to the junction of the -Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and thence up the latter to St. -Joseph; and here the Indians that crossed over by rail were put -upon the boat, and from thence to Crow Creek all of them were -on one boat. They were very much crowded from St. Joseph to -Crow Creek. Sixteen died on the way, being without attention or -medical supplies. All the Indians were excluded from the cabin -of the boat, and confined to the lower and upper decks. It was -in May, and to go among them on the lower deck was suffocating. -They were fed on hard bread and mess pork, much of it -not cooked, there being no opportunity to cook it only at night -when the boat laid up. They had no sugar, coffee, or vegetables. -Confinement on the boat in such a mass, and want of proper food, -created much sickness, such as diarrhœa and fevers. For weeks -after they arrived at Crow Creek the Indians died at the rate of -from three to four per day. In a few weeks one hundred and -fifty had died, mainly on account of the treatment they had received -after leaving Fort Snelling."—<i><span class='sc'>Maneypenny</span>, Our Indian -Wards.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>FOOD OF THE INDIANS AT CROW CREEK, DAKOTA, IN THE WINTER -OF 1864.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"During the summer the Indians were fed on flour and pork; -they got no beef till fall. They suffered for want of fresh beef as -well as for medical supplies. In the fall their ration began to fail; -and the issue was gradually reduced; and the Indians complained -<a id='Page_394'></a>bitterly. *** The beef furnished was from the cattle that hauled -the supplies from Minnesota. These cattle had travelled over -three hundred miles, hauling the train, with nothing to eat but -the dry prairie grass, there being no settlements on the route -they came. The cattle were very poor. Some died or gave out -on the trip, and such were slaughtered, and the meat brought in -on the train for food for the Indians. About the 1st of January, -1864, near four hundred of the cattle were slaughtered. Except -the dry prairie grass, which the frost had killed, these cattle had -no food from the time they came to Crow Creek until they were -slaughtered. A part of the beef thus made was piled up in the -warehouse in snow, and the remainder in like manner packed in -snow outside. This beef was to keep the Indians until the coming -June. The beef was black, and very poor—the greater part -only skin and bone. Shortly after the arrival of the train from -Minnesota the contractors for supplying the Indians with flour -took about one hundred head of the oxen, selecting the best of -them, yoked them up, and sent them with wagons to Sioux City, -some two hundred and forty miles, to haul up flour. This train -returned in February, and these oxen were then slaughtered, and -fed to the Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"In January the issue of soup to the Indians commenced. It was -made in a large cotton-wood vat, being cooked by steam carried -from the boiler of the saw-mill in a pipe to the vat. The vat was -partly filled with water, then several quarters of beef chopped up -were thrown into it, and a few sacks of flour added. The hearts, -lights, and entrails were added to the compound, and in the beginning -a few beans were put into the vat; but this luxury did -not continue long. This soup was issued every other day—to the -Santee Sioux one day, the alternate day to the Winnebagoes. It -was very unpalatable. On the day the Indians received the soup -they had no other food issued to them. They were very much -dissatisfied, and said they could not live on the soup, when those -in charge told them if they could live elsewhere they had better -go, but that they must not go to the white settlements. Many of -them did leave the agency, some going to Fort Sully, others to -Fort Randall, in search of food. From a description of this nauseous -mess called soup, given by Samuel C. Haynes, then at Fort -Randall, and assistant-surgeon in the military service, it is seen -that the Indians had good cause to leave Crow Creek. He states -that there were thrown into the vat 'beef, beef-heads, entrails of -the beeves, some beans, flour, and pork. I think there were put -<a id='Page_395'></a>into the vat two barrels of flour each time, which was not oftener -than once in twenty-four hours. This mass was then cooked by -the steam from the boiler passing through the pipe into the vat. -When that was done, all the Indians were ordered to come with -their pails and get it. It was dipped out to the Indians with a -long-handled dipper made for the purpose. I cannot say the -quantity given to each. It was about the consistency of very -thin gruel. The Indians would pour off the thinner portion and -eat that which settled at the bottom. As it was dipped out of -the vat, some of the Indians would get the thinner portions and -some would get some meat. I passed there frequently when it -was cooking, and was often there when it was being issued. It -had a very offensive odor. It had the odor of the contents of the -entrails of the beeves. I have seen the settlings of the vat after -they were through issuing it to the Indians, when they were -cleaning the vat, and the settlings smelled like carrion—like decomposed -meat. Some of the Indians refused to eat it, saying -they could not, it made them sick.'"—<i><span class='sc'>Maneypenny</span>, Our Indian -Wards.</i></p> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>VII.<br /> <br />LETTER FROM SARAH WINNEMUCCA,<br /> <br />AN EDUCATED PAH-UTE WOMAN.</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div><i>To Major H. Douglas, U. S. Army</i>:</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Sir</span>,—I learn from the commanding officer at this post that you -desire full information in regard to the Indians around this place, -with a view, if possible, of bettering their condition by sending -them on the Truckee River Reservation. All the Indians from here -to Carson City belong to the Pah-Ute tribe. My father, whose -name is Winnemucca, is the head chief of the whole tribe; but he -is now getting too old, and has not energy enough to command, -nor to impress on their minds the necessity of their being sent on -the reservation. In fact, I think he is entirely opposed to it. He, -myself, and most of the Humboldt and Queen's River Indians -were on the Truckee Reservation at one time; but if we had -stayed there, it would be only to starve. I think that if they had -received what they were entitled to from the agents, they would -never have left them. So far as their knowledge of agriculture -extends, they are quite ignorant, as they have never had the opportunity -<a id='Page_396'></a>of learning; but I think, if proper pains were taken, -that they would willingly make the effort to maintain themselves -by their own labor, providing they could be made to believe that -the products were their own, for their own use and comfort. It is -needless for me to enter into details as to how we were treated -on the reservation while there. It is enough to say that we were -confined to the reserve, and had to live on what fish we might be -able to catch in the river. If this is the kind of civilization awaiting -us on the reserves, God grant that we may never be compelled -to go on one, as it is much preferable to live in the mountains -and drag out an existence in our native manner. So far as living -is concerned, the Indians at all military posts get enough to eat -and considerable cast-off clothing.</p> - -<p class='c010'>But how long is this to continue? What is the object of the -Government in regard to Indians? Is it enough that we are at -peace? Remove all the Indians from the military posts and place -them on reservations such as the Truckee and Walker River Reservations -(as they were conducted), and it will require a greater -military force stationed round to keep them within the limits than -it now does to keep them in subjection. On the other hand, if -the Indians have any guarantee that they can secure a permanent -home on their own native soil, and that our white neighbors can -be kept from encroaching on our rights, after having a reasonable -share of ground allotted to us as our own, and giving us the required -advantages of learning, I warrant that the savage (as he is -called to-day) will be a thrifty and law-abiding member of the -community fifteen or twenty years hence.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Sir, if at any future time you should require information regarding -the Indians here, I will be happy to furnish the same if I can.</p> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Sarah Winnemucca.</span></div> - -<p class='c010'>Camp McDermitt, Nevada, April 4th, 1870.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>VIII.<br /> <br />LAWS OF THE DELAWARE NATION OF INDIANS.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>[Adopted July 21st, <span class='fss'>A.D.</span> 1866.]</p> -<p class='c008'>The chiefs and councillors of the Delaware tribe of Indians -convened at their council-house, on the reservation of said tribe, -adopted July 21st, 1866, the following laws, to be amended as -they think proper:</p> -<p class='c008'><a id='Page_397'></a><span class='sc'>Article I.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Section 1.</i> A national jail shall be built on the public grounds, -upon which the council-house is now situated.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 2.</i> Any person who shall steal any horse, mule, ass, or -cattle of any kind, shall be punished as follows: For the first -offence the property of the offender shall be sold by the sheriff, to -pay the owner of the animal stolen the price of said animal, and -all costs he may sustain in consequence of such theft. But if the -offender has no property, or if his property be insufficient to pay -for the animal stolen, so much of his annuity shall be retained as -may be necessary to pay the owner of said animal, as above directed, -and no relative of said offender shall be permitted to assist -him in paying the penalties of said theft. For the second offence -the thief shall be sent to jail for thirty-five days, and shall pay all -costs and damages the owner may sustain on account of said theft. -For the third offence the thief shall be confined in jail three -months, and shall pay all costs and damages, as above provided.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 3.</i> If any person shall steal a horse beyond the limits of the -reserve, and bring it within the limits thereof, it shall be lawful -for the owner to pursue and reclaim the same upon presenting -satisfactory proof of ownership, and, if necessary, receive the assistance -of the officers of the Delaware nation. <i>And it is further -provided</i>, that such officials as may from time to time be clothed -with power by the United States agent may pursue such offender -either within or without the limits of the reserve.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 4.</i> Whoever shall ride any horse without the consent of the -owner thereof shall, for the first offence, pay the sum of ten dollars -for each day and night that he may keep the said animal; -and for the second offence shall be confined in jail for the term of -twenty-one days, besides paying a fine of ten dollars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 5.</i> Whoever shall reclaim and return any such animal to -the rightful owner, other than the wrong-doer, as in the last section -mentioned, shall receive therefor the sum of two and fifty-hundredths -dollars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 6.</i> In all cases of theft, the person or persons convicted of -such theft shall be adjudged to pay all costs and damages resulting -therefrom; and in case of the final loss of any animal stolen, -then the offender shall pay the price thereof in addition to the -costs and damages, as provided in a previous section.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 7.</i> Whoever shall steal any swine or sheep shall, for the -first offence, be fined the sum of fifteen dollars; ten of which -<a id='Page_398'></a>shall be paid to the owner of the sheep or swine taken, and five -dollars to the witness of the theft; for the second offence the -thief shall, in addition to the above penalty, be confined in jail -for twenty-eight days; and for the third offence the thief shall be -confined four weeks in jail, and then receive a trial, and bear such -punishment as may be adjudged upon such trial.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 8.</i> Whoever shall steal a fowl of any description shall, for -the first offence, pay to the owner of such animal the sum of five -dollars; for the second offence, in addition to the above penalty, -the thief shall be confined in jail for twenty-one days. The witness -by whom such theft shall be proven shall be entitled to receive -such reasonable compensation as may be allowed to him, to -be paid by the offender.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 9.</i> A lawful fence shall be eight rails high, well staked and -ridered. If any animal shall break through or over a lawful -fence, as above defined, and do any damage, the owner of the -enclosure shall give notice thereof to the owner of such animal, -without injury to the animal. The owner of such animal shall -therefore take care of the same, and prevent his doing damage; -but should he neglect or refuse so to do, the animal itself shall be -sold to pay for the damage it may have done. But if the premises -be not enclosed by a lawful fence, as above defined, the owner -of the enclosure shall receive no damages; but should he injure -any animal getting into such enclosure, shall pay for any damage -he may do such animal.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 10.</i> Every owner of stock shall have his or her brand or -mark put on such stock, and a description of the brand or mark -of every person in the tribe shall be recorded by the national -clerk.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Article II.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 1.</i> Whoever shall maliciously set fire to a house shall, for -the first offence, pay to the owner of such house all damages -which he may sustain in consequence of such fire; and, in addition -thereto, for the second offence shall be confined in jail for -the term of twenty-one days.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 2.</i> Should human life be sacrificed in consequence of any -such fire, the person setting fire as aforesaid shall suffer death by -hanging.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 3.</i> It shall be unlawful for any person to set on fire any -woods or prairie, except for the purpose of protecting property, -and then only at such times as shall permit the person so setting -the fire to extinguish the same.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_399'></a><i>Sec. 4.</i> Whoever shall violate the provisions of the last preceding -section shall, for the first offence, be fined the sum of five -dollars, and pay the full value of all property thereby destroyed; -for the second offence, in addition to the penalty above described, -the offender shall be confined in jail for the term of thirty-five -days; and for the third offence the same punishment, except that -the confinement in jail shall be for the period of three months.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 5.</i> Any person living outside of the reserve cutting hay -upon the land of one living on the reserve, shall pay to the owner -of such land the sum of one dollar per acre, or one-half of the hay -so cut.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 6.</i> No person shall sell any wood on the reserve, except said -wood be first cut and corded.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Article III.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 1.</i> Whoever shall find any lost article shall forthwith return -the same to the owner, if he can be found, under the penalty -imposed for stealing such article, for a neglect of such duty.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 2.</i> Whoever shall take any article of property without permission -of its owner shall pay the price of the article so taken, -and receive such punishment as the judge in his discretion may -impose.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Article IV.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 1.</i> Whoever shall take up any animal on the reserve as a -stray shall, within one week, have the description of such animal -recorded in the stray-book kept by the council.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 2.</i> If the owner of said stray shall claim the same within -one year from the day on which the description was recorded, he -shall be entitled to take it, after duly proving his property, and -paying at the rate of five dollars per month for the keeping of -such animal.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 3.</i> The title to any stray, duly recorded, and not claimed -within one year from the date of such record, shall rest absolutely -in the person taking up and recording the same.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 4.</i> Whoever shall take up a stray, and refuse or neglect to -record a description of the same, as provided in Section 1 of this -Article, shall be deemed to have stolen such animal, if the same -be found in his possession, and shall suffer the penalties inflicted -for stealing like animals. The stray shall be taken from him, and -remain at the disposal of the council, and a description of the same -shall be recorded in the stray-book.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_400'></a><span class='sc'>Article V.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 1.</i> If a person commit murder in the first degree, he shall, -upon conviction, suffer the penalty of death; but if the evidence -against him be insufficient, or if the killing be done in self-defence, -the person doing the killing shall be released.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 2.</i> Whoever shall, by violence, do bodily harm to the person -of another shall be arrested, and suffer such punishment as -may on trial be adjudged against him; and should death result -from such bodily harm done to the person of another, the offender -shall be arrested, and suffer such punishment as may be adjudged -against him.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 3.</i> Whoever shall wilfully slander an innocent party shall -be punished for such slander at the discretion of the judge.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 4.</i> Whoever, being intoxicated or under the influence of -liquor, shall display at the house of another, in a dangerous or -threatening manner, any deadly weapons, and refuse to desist -therefrom, being commanded so to do, and put up such weapons, -either by the owner of the house or by any other person, shall for -the first offence be fined the sum of five dollars, and pay all damages -which may accrue; for the second offence shall be confined -in jail twenty-one days, and pay a fine of ten dollars, and pay all -damages which may accrue; and for the third offence shall be -imprisoned in the jail for thirty-five days, be fined twenty dollars, -and pay all damages as aforesaid.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 5.</i> Officers shall be appointed to appraise all damages -accruing under the last preceding section, who shall hear all -the evidence, and render judgment according to the law and the -evidence.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 6.</i> Whoever shall, being under the influence of liquor, -attend public worship or any other public meeting, shall first -be commanded peaceably to depart; and if he refuses, it shall be -the duty of the sheriff to arrest and confine such person until he -becomes sober; and the offender shall pay a fine of five dollars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 7.</i> It shall be the duty of the sheriff to attend all meetings -for public worship.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 8.</i> No member of the Delaware nation shall be held liable -for any debts contracted in the purchase of intoxicating liquors.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 9.</i> The United States Agent and the chiefs shall have power -to grant license to bring merchandise to the national payment -ground for sale to so many traders as they may think proper for -the interest of the nation.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_401'></a><i>Sec. 10.</i> It shall be unlawful for any one person to bring any -kind of drinks, except coffee, on the payment ground; and any -person who shall offend against this section shall forfeit his drinkables -and his right to remain on the payment ground.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 11.</i> It shall be unlawful for any one person to bring within -the reserve more than one pint of spirituous liquors at any one -time. For the first offence against this section the offender shall -forfeit his liquors, and pay a fine of five dollars; for the second -offence he shall forfeit his liquors, and pay a fine of ten dollars; -and for the third offence he shall forfeit his liquors, and be fined -the sum of twenty-five dollars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 12.</i> Any person who shall find another in possession of -more than one pint of liquor at one time upon the reserve may -lawfully spill and destroy the same, and shall use such force as -may be necessary for such purpose. Should the owner resist, and -endeavor to commit bodily harm upon the person engaged in -spilling or destroying said liquor, he shall be taken into custody -by the sheriff, and be punished as an offender against the law.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 13.</i> The sheriff may lawfully compel any man or any number -of men, ministers of the Gospel excepted, to assist in capturing -any person who shall violate these laws.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 14.</i> Whoever shall offer resistance to any capture or arrest -for violating any of the provisions of these laws shall be punished, -not only for the original offence for which he was arrested, but -also for resisting an officer.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Article VI.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 1.</i> All business affecting the general interest of the nation -shall be transacted by the council in regular sessions.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 2.</i> All personal acts of chiefs, councillors, or private individuals, -in such matters as affect the general interest of the nation, -shall be considered null and void.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 3.</i> Whoever shall violate the last preceding section by undertaking, -in a private capacity and manner, to transact public -and national business, shall be imprisoned in the national jail -for a period not less than six months nor more than one year, and -shall forfeit his place of office or position in the nation; which -place or position shall be filled by the appointment of other suitable -persons.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 4.</i> Councillors shall be appointed who shall take an oath -faithfully to perform their duties to the nation, and for neglect -of such duties others shall be appointed to fill their places.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_402'></a><i>Sec. 5.</i> Should a councillor go on a journey, so that it is impossible -for him to attend the meetings of the council regularly, he -may appoint a substitute who shall act for him in his absence.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 6.</i> Certain days shall be set apart for council and court -days.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 7.</i> The chiefs and councillors shall appoint three sheriffs, -at a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per annum each; one -clerk, at one hundred dollars per annum; and one jailer, at a salary -of one hundred dollars per annum, whose salary shall be due -and payable half-yearly; and in case either of the above officers -shall neglect or refuse to perform any of the duties of his office, -he shall forfeit his salary, and his office shall be declared vacant, -and another shall be appointed to fill the office.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 8.</i> The chiefs and councillors shall semi-annually, in April -and October, make an appropriation for national expenses, which -appropriation shall be taken from the trust fund, or any other due -the Delawares, and paid to the treasury.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 9.</i> There shall be a treasurer appointed annually, on the -first day of April, whose duty it shall be to receive and disburse -all moneys to be used for national purposes; but the treasurer -shall pay out money only on order of chiefs and councillors, and -for his services shall be paid five per cent. on the amount disbursed.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Article VII.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 1.</i> It shall be lawful for any person, before his or her death, -to make a will, and thereby dispose of his or her property as he -or she may desire.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 2.</i> If a man dies, leaving no will to show the disposal of his -property, and leaves a widow and children, one-fourth of his property -shall be set aside for the payment of his debts. Should the -property so set aside be insufficient to pay all his debts in full, it -shall be divided among his creditors <i>pro rata</i>, which <i>pro rata</i> payment -shall be received by his creditors in full satisfaction of all -claims and demands whatever.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 3.</i> If the property so set apart for the payment of debts -is more than sufficient to pay all debts, the remainder shall be -equally divided among the children.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 4.</i> The widow shall be entitled to one-third of the property -not set aside for the payment of debts.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 5.</i> If a man dies, leaving no widow or children, his debts -shall first be paid out of the proceeds of his personal property, -<a id='Page_403'></a>and the remainder, if any, with the real estate, shall be given to -the nearest relative.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 6.</i> Whoever shall take or receive any portion of the property -belonging to the widow and orphans, shall be punished as -if he had stolen the property.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 7.</i> The council shall appoint guardians for orphan children -when they deem it expedient so to do.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Article VIII.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 1.</i> If a white man marry a member of the nation, and accumulate -property by such marriage, said property shall belong to -his wife and children; nor shall he be allowed to remove any -portion of such property beyond the limits of the reserve.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 2.</i> Should such white man lose his wife, all the property -shall belong to the children, and no subsequent wife shall claim -any portion of such property.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 3.</i> Should such white man die in the nation, leaving no -children, all his property shall belong to his wife, after paying -his debts.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 4.</i> Should such white man lose his wife, and have no children, -one-half of the personal property shall belong to him, and -the other half shall belong to his wife's nearest relatives.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 5.</i> Should such white man be expelled from the reserve, -and the wife choose to follow her husband, she shall forfeit all -her right and interest in the reserve.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Article IX.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 1.</i> No member of the nation shall lease any grounds to -persons not members of the nation.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 2.</i> Should a white man seek employment of any member -of the nation, he shall first give his name to the United States -Agent, and furnish him with a certificate of good moral character, -and also a statement of the time for which he is employed, and -the name of his employer.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 3.</i> The employed shall pay all hired help according to -agreement.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 4.</i> Any person or persons violating any of the provisions -of these laws on the reserve shall be punished as therein provided.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 5.</i> All white men on the reserve disregarding these laws -shall also be expelled from the reserve.</p> -<p class='c008'><a id='Page_404'></a><span class='sc'>Article X.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sec. 1.</i> Whoever shall forcibly compel any woman to commit -adultery, or who shall commit a rape upon a woman, shall, for the -first offence, be fined the sum of fifty dollars, and be imprisoned -in jail for thirty-five days; for the second offence he shall be fined -one hundred dollars, and be confined three months in the national -jail; and for the third offence he shall be punished as the court -shall see proper.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>IX.<br /> <br />ACCOUNT OF THE CHEROKEE WHO INVENTED THE<br />CHEROKEE ALPHABET.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>"Sequoyah, a Cherokee Indian, instead of joining the rude -sports of Indian boys while a child, took great delight in exercising -his ingenuity by various mechanical labors. He also assisted -in the management of his mother's property, consisting of -a farm and cattle and horses. In his intercourse with the whites -he became aware that they possessed an art by which a name impressed -upon a hard substance might be understood at a glance -by any one acquainted with the art. He requested an educated -half-breed, named Charles Hicks, to write his name; which being -done, he made a die containing a fac-simile of the word, -which he stamped upon all the articles fabricated by his mechanical -ingenuity. From this he proceeded to the art of drawing, in -which he made rapid progress before he had the opportunity of -seeing a picture or engraving. These accomplishments made the -young man very popular among his associates, and particularly -among the red ladies; but it was long before incessant adulation -produced any evil effect upon his character. At length, however, -he was prevailed upon to join his companions, and share in the -carouse which had been supplied by his own industry. But he -soon wearied of an idle and dissipated life, suddenly resolved to -give up drinking, and learned the trade of a blacksmith by his -own unaided efforts. In the year 1820, while on a visit to some -friends in a Cherokee village, he listened to a conversation on the -art of writing, which seems always to have been the subject of -great curiosity among the Indians. Sequoyah remarked that he -did not regard the art as so very extraordinary, and believed he -could invent a plan by which the red man might do the same -<a id='Page_405'></a>thing. The company were incredulous; but the matter had long -been the subject of his reflections, and he had come to the conclusion -that letters represented words or ideas, and being always -uniform, would always convey the same meaning. His first plan -was to invent signs for words; but upon trial he was speedily -satisfied that this would be too cumbrous and laborious, and he -soon contrived the plan of an alphabet which should represent -sounds, each character standing for a syllable. He persevered in -carrying out his intention, and attained his object by forming -eighty-six characters.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"While thus employed he incurred the ridicule of his neighbors, -and was entreated to desist by his friends. The invention, however, -was completely successful, and the Cherokee dialect is now -a written language; a result entirely due to the extraordinary -genius of Sequoyah. After teaching many to read and write, he -left the Cherokee nation in 1822 on a visit to Arkansas, and -introduced the art among the Cherokees who had emigrated to -that country; and, after his return home, a correspondence was -opened in the Cherokee language between the two branches of -the nation. In the autumn of 1823 the General Council bestowed -upon him a silver medal in honor of his genius, and as an expression -of gratitude for his eminent public services."—<i>North American -Review.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>"We may remark, with reference to the above, that as each letter -of this alphabet represents one of eighty-six sounds, of which -in various transpositions the language is composed, a Cherokee -can read as soon as he has learned his alphabet. It is said that -a clever boy may thus be taught to read in a single day."—<i>The -Saturday Magazine</i>, London, April, 1842.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>X.<br /> <br />PRICES PAID BY WHITE MEN FOR SCALPS.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>"In the wars between France and England and their colonies, -their Indian allies were entitled to a premium for every -scalp of an enemy. In the war preceding 1703 the Government -of Massachusetts gave twelve pounds for every Indian scalp. -In 1722 it was augmented to one hundred pounds—a sum sufficient -to purchase a considerable extent of American land. On -the 25th of February, 1745, an act was passed by the American -colonial legislature, entitled 'An Act for giving a reward for -<a id='Page_406'></a>scalps.'"—<i>Sketches of the History, Manners, and Customs of the -North American Indians, by <span class='sc'>James Buchanan</span>, 1824.</i></p> - -<p class='c010'>"There was a constant rivalry between the Governments of -Great Britain, France, and the United States as to which of them -should secure the services of the barbarians to scalp their white -enemies, while each in turn was the loudest to denounce the -shocking barbarities of such tribes as they failed to secure in -their own service; and the civilized world, aghast at these horrid -recitals, ignores the fact that nearly every important massacre -in the history of North America was organized and directed by -agents of some one of these Governments."—<i><span class='sc'>Gale</span>, Upper Mississippi.</i></p> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>XI.<br /> <br />EXTRACT FROM TREATY WITH CHEYENNES, IN 1865.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'><span class='sc'>Art.</span> 6th of the treaty of Oct. 14th, 1865, between the United -States and the chiefs and headmen representing the confederated -tribes of the Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The United States being desirous to express its condemnation -of, and as far as may be repudiate the gross and wanton outrages -perpetrated against certain bands of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians -by Colonel J. M. Chivington, in command of United States -troops, on the 29th day of November, 1864, at Sand Creek, in -Colorado Territory, while the said Indians were at peace with the -United States and under its flag, whose protection they had by -lawful authority been promised and induced to seek, and the -Government, being desirous to make some suitable reparation for -the injuries thus done, will grant 320 acres of land by patent to -each of the following named chiefs of said bands, *** and will -in like manner grant to each other person of said bands made a -widow, or who lost a parent on that occasion, 160 acres of land. -*** The United States will also pay in United States securities, -animals, goods, provisions, or such other useful articles as may in -the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior be deemed best adapted -to the respective wants and conditions of the persons named -in the schedule hereto annexed, they being present and members -of the bands who suffered at Sand Creek on the occasion aforesaid, -the sums set opposite their names respectively, as a compensation -for property belonging to them, and then and there destroyed -or taken from them by the United States troops aforesaid."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_407'></a>One of the Senate amendments to this treaty struck out the -words "by Colonel J. M. Chivington, in command of United States -troops." If this were done with a view of relieving "Colonel J. -M. Chivington" of obloquy, or of screening the fact that "United -States troops" were the instruments by which the murders were -committed, is not clear. But in either case the device was a -futile one. The massacre will be known as "The Chivington -Massacre" as long as history lasts, and the United States must -bear its share of the infamy of it.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>XII.<br /> <br />WOOD-CUTTING BY INDIANS IN DAKOTA.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>In his report for 1877 the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in -Dakota says: "Orders have been received to stop cutting of wood -by Indians, to pay them for what they have already cut, to take -possession of it and sell it. This I am advised is under a recent -decision which deprives Indians of any ownership in the wood -until the land is taken by them in severalty. If agents do not enforce -these orders, they lay themselves liable. If they do enforce -them, the Indians are deprived of what little motive they have for -labor. In the mean time, aliens of all nations cut wood on Indian -lands, sell to steamboats, fill contracts for the army and for Indian -agencies at high prices. *** Cutting wood is one of the -very few things an Indian can do in Dakota at this time."</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>XIII.<br /> <br />SEQUEL TO THE WALLA WALLA MASSACRE.</h2> -</div> -<p class='c008'>[This narrative was written by a well-known army officer, correspondent of the -<i>Army and Navy Journal</i>, and appeared in that paper Nov. 1st, 1879.]</p> -<p class='c008'>The history of that affair (the Walla Walla Massacre) was never -written, we believe; or, if it was, the absolute facts in the case were -never given by any unprejudiced person, and it may be interesting -to not a few to give them here. The story, as told by our -Washington correspondent, "Ebbitt," who was a witness of the -scenes narrated, is as follows:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The first settlements in Oregon, some thirty years ago, were -<a id='Page_408'></a>made by a colony of Methodists. One of the principal men -among them was the late Mr. or Governor Abernethy, as he was -called, as he was for a short time the prominent Governor of Oregon. -He was the father-in-law of our genial Deputy Quartermaster-general -Henry C. Hodges, an excellent man, and he must not -be remembered as one of those who were responsible for the shocking -proceedings which we are about to relate. A minister by the -name of Whitman, we believe, had gone up to the Walla Walla -region, where he was kindly received by the Cayuse and other -friendly Indians, who, while they did not particularly desire to -be converted to the Christian faith as expounded by one of Wesley's -followers, saw no special objection to the presence of the -missionary. So they lived quietly along for a year or two; then -the measles broke out among the Indians, and a large number of -them were carried off. They were told by their medicine men -that the disease was owing to the presence of the whites, and Mr. -Whitman was notified that he must leave their country. Filled -with zeal for the cause, and not having sense enough to grasp the -situation, he refused to go.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"At this time the people of the Hudson's Bay Company had -great influence with all the Indians in that region, and the good -old Governor Peter Skeen Ogden was the chief factor of the Company -at Fort Vancouver. He was apprised of the state of feeling -among the Indians near the mission by the Indians themselves, -and he was entreated by them to urge Whitman to go away, for -if he did not he would surely be killed. The governor wrote up -to the mission advising them to leave, for a while at least, until -the Indians should become quiet, which they would do as soon -as the measles had run its course among them. His efforts were -useless, and sure enough one day in 1847, we believe, the mission -was cleaned out, the missionary and nearly all of those connected -with it being killed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"An Indian war follows. This was carried on for some months, -and with little damage, but sufficient for a claim by the territory -upon the General Government for untold amounts of money. Two -or three years later, when the country had commenced to fill up -with emigration, and after the regiment of Mounted Riflemen and -two companies of the First Artillery had taken post in Oregon, -the people began to think that it would be well to stir up the -matter of the murder of the Whitman family. General Joseph -Lane had been sent out as governor in 1849, and he doubtless -thought it would be a good thing for him politically to humor -<a id='Page_409'></a>the people of the territory. Lane was a vigorous, resolute, Western -man, who had been a general officer during the Mexican war, -and he then had Presidential aspirations. So the governor came -to Fort Vancouver, where the head-quarters of the department -were established, under Colonel Loring, of the Mounted Rifles, -and procured a small escort, with which he proceeded to hunt -up the Indians concerned in the massacre, and demand their surrender. -By this time the Indians had begun to comprehend the -power of the Government; and when the governor found them, -and explained the nature of his mission, they went into council to -decide what was to be done. After due deliberation, they were -convinced that if they were to refuse to come to any terms they -would be attacked by the soldiers, of whom they then had deadly -fear, and obliged to abandon their country forever. So they -met the governor, and the head chief said that they had heard -what he had to say. It was true that his people had killed the -whites at the mission, but that they did so for the reason that -they really thought that a terrible disease had been brought -among them by the whites; that they had begged them to go -away from them, for they did not wish to kill them, and that -they only killed them to save their own lives, as they thought. -He said that for this the whites from down the Columbia had -made war upon them, and killed many more of their people than -had been killed at the mission, and they thought they ought to be -satisfied. As they were not, three of their principal men had volunteered -to go back with the governor to Oregon City to be tried -for the murder. This satisfied the governor, and the men bid -farewell to their wives and little ones and to all their tribe, for -they very well knew that they would never see them again. -They knew that they were going among those who thirsted for -their blood, and that they were going to their death, and that -death the most ignominious that can be accorded to the red man, -as they were to be hung like dogs.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The governor and his party left. The victims gave one long -last look at the shore as they took the little boat on the Columbia, -but no word of complaint ever came from their lips. When they -arrived at Fort Vancouver we had charge of these Indians. They -were not restrained in any way—no guard was ever kept over -them, for there was no power on earth that could have made them -falter in their determination to go down to Oregon City, and die -like men for the salvation of their tribe.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"At Oregon City these men walked with their heads erect, and -<a id='Page_410'></a>with the bearing of senators, from the little boat, amidst the jibes -and jeers of a brutal crowd, to the jail which was to be the last -covering they would ever have over their heads.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"The trial came on, the jury was empanelled, and Captain -Claiborne, of the Mounted Rifles, volunteered to defend the Indians, -who were told that they were to have a fair trial, and that -they would not be punished unless they were found guilty. To -all this they paid no heed. They said it was all right, but they -did not understand a word of what they were compelled to listen -to for several days, and they cared nothing for the forms of the -law. They had come to die, and when some witnesses swore that -they recognized them as the very Indians who killed Whitman—all -of which was explained to them—not a muscle of their faces -changed, although it was more than suspected that the witnesses -were never near the mission at the time of the massacre. The -trial was over, and, of course, the Indians were condemned to be -hanged. Without a murmur or sigh of regret, and with a dignity -that would have impressed a Zulu with profound pity, these -men walked to the gallows and were hung, while a crowd of -civilized Americans—men, women, and children of the nineteenth -century—looked on and laughed at their last convulsive -twitches.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"We have read of heroes of all times, but never did we read -of or believe that such heroism as these Indians exhibited could -exist. They knew that to be accused was to be condemned, and -they would be executed in the civilized town of Oregon City just -as surely as would a poor woman accused of being a witch have -been executed in the civilized and Christian town of Salem, in the -good State of Massachusetts, two hundred years ago.</p> - -<p class='c010'>"A generation has passed away since the execution or murder -of these Indians at Oregon City. Governor Lane still lives, not as -ex-President, but as a poor but vigorous old man down in the -Rogue River Valley. The little nasty town of Oregon City was -the scene of a self-immolation as great as any of which we read -in history, and there were not three persons there who appreciated -it. The accursed town is, we hear, still nastier than ever, -and the intelligent jury—no man of whom dared to have a word -of pity or admiration for those poor Indians—with the spectators -of that horrid scene, are either dead and damned, or they are sunk -in the oblivion that is the fate of those who are born without -souls."</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_411'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>XIV.<br /> <br />AN ACCOUNT</h2> -</div> -<div class='lg-container-b c001'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>OF THE NUMBERS, LOCATION, AND SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL</div> - <div class='line'>CONDITION OF EACH IMPORTANT TRIBE AND BAND OF INDIANS</div> - <div class='line'>WITHIN THE UNITED STATES, WITH THE EXCEPTION</div> - <div class='line'>OF THOSE DESCRIBED IN THE PREVIOUS PAGES.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>[From the Report of Francis A. Walker, United States Commissioner of Indian -Affairs for the year 1872.]</p> -<p class='c008'>The Indians within the limits of the United States, exclusive -of those in Alaska, number, approximately, 300,000.</p> - -<p class='c010'>They may be divided, according to their geographical location -or range, into five grand divisions, as follows: in Minnesota, and -States east of the Mississippi River, about 32,500; in Nebraska, -Kansas, and the Indian Territory, 70,650; in the Territories of -Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, 65,000; in Nevada, and -the Territories of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, -84,000; and on the Pacific slope, 48,000. *** As regards their -means of support and methods of subsistence, they may be divided -as follows: those who support themselves upon their own -reservations, receiving nothing from the Government except interest -on their own moneys, or annuities granted them in consideration -of the cession of their lands to the United States, number -about 130,000; those who are entirely subsisted by the Government, -about 31,000; those in part subsisted, 84,000,—together, -about 115,000; those who subsist by hunting and fishing, upon -roots, nuts, berries, etc., or by begging and stealing, about 55,000.</p> - -<p class='c010'>TRIBES EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.</p> - -<p class='c010'>NEW YORK.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians of New York, remnants of the once powerful -"Six Nations," number 5070. They occupy six reservations in -the State, containing in the aggregate 68,668 acres. Two of -these reservations, viz., the Alleghany and Cattaraugus, belonged -originally to the Colony of Massachusetts; but, by sale and assignment, -passed into the hands of a company, the Indians holding a -perpetual right of occupancy, and the company referred to, or -the individual members thereof, owning the ultimate fee. The -same state of facts formerly existed in regard to the Tonawanda -<a id='Page_412'></a>reserve; but the Indians who occupy it have purchased the ultimate -fee of a portion of the reserve, which is now held in trust -for them by the Secretary of the Interior. The State of New -York exercises sovereignty over these reservations. The reservations -occupied by the Oneidas, Onondagas, and Tuscaroras -have been provided for by treaty stipulations between the Indians -and the State of New York. All six reserves are held and -occupied by the Indians in common. While the Indian tribes -of the continent, with few exceptions, have been steadily decreasing -in numbers, those of New York have of late more than -held their own, as is shown by an increase of 100 in the present -reports over the reported number in 1871, and of 1300 over the -number embraced in the United States census of 1860. On the -New York reservations are twenty-eight schools; the attendance -during some portions of the past year exceeding 1100; the daily -average attendance being 608. Of the teachers employed, fifteen -are Indians, as fully competent for this position as their white -associates. An indication of what is to be accomplished in the -future, in an educational point of view, is found in the successful -effort, made in August last, to establish a teacher's institute -on the Cattaraugus Reservation for the education of teachers specially -for Indian schools. Thirty-eight applicants attended, and -twenty-six are now under training. The statistics of individual -wealth and of the aggregate product of agricultural and other industry -are, in general, favorable; and a considerable increase in -these regards is observed from year to year. Twenty thousand -acres are under cultivation; the cereal crops are good; while noticeable -success has been achieved in the raising of fruit.</p> - -<p class='c010'>MICHIGAN.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The bands or tribes residing in Michigan are the Chippewas of -Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River; the Ottawas and Chippewas; -the Pottawattomies of Huron; and the L'Anse band of -Chippewas.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The Chippewas</i> of Saginaw, Swan Creek, and Black River, numbering -1630, and the Ottawas and Chippewas, 6039, are indigenous -to the country. They are well advanced in civilization; have, -with few exceptions, been allotted lands under treaty provisions, -for which they have received patents; and are now entitled to all -the privileges and benefits of citizens of the United States. Those -to whom no allotments have been made can secure homesteads -under the provisions of the Act of June 10th, 1872. All treaty -<a id='Page_413'></a>stipulations with these Indians have expired. They now have -no money or other annuities paid to them by the United States -Government. The three tribes first named have in all four schools, -with 115 scholars; and the last, two schools, with 152 scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The Pottawattomies</i> of Huron number about fifty.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The L'Anse</i> band of Chippewas, numbering 1195, belong with -the other bands of the Chippewas of Lake Superior. They occupy -a reservation of about 48,300 acres, situated on Lake Superior, -in the extreme northern part of the State. But few of them -are engaged in agriculture, most of them depending for their subsistence -on hunting and fishing. They have two schools, with an -attendance of fifty-six scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The progress of the Indians of Michigan in civilization and industry -has been greatly hindered in the past by a feeling of uncertainty -in regard to their permanent possession and enjoyment -of their homes. Since the allotment of land, and the distribution -of either patents or homestead certificates to these Indians (the -L'Anse or Lake Superior Chippewas, a people of hunting and -fishing habits, excepted), a marked improvement has been manifested -on their part in regard to breaking land and building -houses. The aggregate quantity of land cultivated by the several -tribes is 11,620 acres—corn, oats, and wheat being the chief products. -The dwellings occupied consist of 244 frame and 835 log-houses. -The aggregate population of the several tribes named -(including the confederated "Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pottawattomies," -about 250 souls, with whom the Government made a final -settlement in 1866 of its treaty obligations) is, by the report of -their agent for the current year, 9117—an increase over the number -reported for 1871 of 402; due, however, perhaps as much to -the return of absent Indians as to the excess of births over deaths. -In educational matters these Indians have, of late, most unfortunately, -fallen short of the results of former years; for the reason -mainly that, their treaties expiring, the provisions previously existing -for educational uses failed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>WISCONSIN.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The bands or tribes in Wisconsin are the Chippewas of Lake -Superior, the Menomonees, the Stockbridges, and Munsees, the -Oneidas, and certain stray bands (so-called) of Winnebagoes, Pottawattomies, -and Chippewas.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The Chippewas</i> of Lake Superior (under which head are included -the following bands: Fond du Lac, Boise Forte, Grand -<a id='Page_414'></a>Portage, Red Cliff, Bad River, Lac de Flambeau, and Lac Court -D'Oreille) number about 5150. They constitute a part of the -Ojibways (anglicized in the term Chippewas), formerly one of the -most powerful and warlike nations in the north-west, embracing -many bands, and ranging over an immense territory, extending -along the shores of Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior to the -steppes of the Upper Mississippi. Of this great nation large numbers -are still found in Minnesota, many in Michigan, and a fragment -in Kansas.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The bands above mentioned by name are at present located on -several small reservations set apart for them by treaties of September -30th, 1854, and April 7th, 1866, in Wisconsin and Minnesota, -comprising in all about 695,290 acres. By Act of Congress -of May 29th, 1872, provision was made for the sale, with the consent -of the Indians, of three of these reservations, <i>viz.</i>, the Lac de -Flambeau and Lac Court D'Oreille in Wisconsin, and the Fond -du Lac in Minnesota; and for the removal of the Indians located -thereon to the Bad River Reservation, where there is plenty of -good arable land, and where they can be properly cared for, and -instructed in agriculture and mechanics.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The greater part of these Indians at present lead a somewhat -roving life, finding their subsistence chiefly in game hunted by -them, in the rice gathered in its wild state, and in the fish afforded -by waters conveniently near. Comparatively little is done in -the way of cultivating the soil. Certain bands have of late been -greatly demoralized by contact with persons employed in the construction -of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the line of which runs -near one (the Fond du Lac) of their reservations. Portions of -this people, however, especially those situated at the Bad River -Reservation, have begun to evince an earnest desire for self-improvement. -Many live in houses of rude construction, and raise -small crops of grain and vegetables; others labor among the -whites; and a number find employment in cutting rails, fence-posts, -and saw-logs for the Government. In regard to the efforts -made to instruct the children in letters, it may be said that, without -being altogether fruitless, the results have been thus far meagre -and somewhat discouraging. The majority of the parents profess -to wish to have their children educated, and ask for schools; -but when the means are provided and the work undertaken, the -difficulties in the way of success to any considerable extent appear -in the undisciplined character of the scholars, which has to be -overcome by the teacher without parental co-operation, and in -<a id='Page_415'></a>the great irregularity of attendance at school, especially on the -part of those who are obliged to accompany their parents to the -rice-fields, the sugar-camps, or the fishing-grounds.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The Menomonees</i> number 1362, and are located on a reservation -of 230,400 acres in the north-eastern part of Wisconsin. They -formerly owned most of the eastern portion of the State, and, by -treaty entered into with the Government on the 18th of October, -1848, ceded the same for a home in Minnesota upon lands that -had been obtained by the United States from the Chippewas; -but, becoming dissatisfied with the arrangement, as not having -accorded them what they claimed to be rightfully due, subsequently -protested, and manifested great unwillingness to remove. -In view of this condition of affairs, they were, by the President, -permitted to remain in Wisconsin, and temporarily located upon -the lands they now occupy, which were secured to them by a -subsequent treaty made with the tribe on the 12th of May, 1854. -This reservation is well watered by lakes and streams, the latter -affording excellent power and facilities for moving logs and lumber -to market; the most of their country abounding with valuable -pine timber. A considerable portion of the Menomonees have -made real and substantial advancement in civilization; numbers -of them are engaged in agriculture; others find remunerative employment -in the lumbering camp established upon their reservation, -under the management of the Government Agent, while a few -still return at times to their old pursuits of hunting and fishing.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Under the plan adopted by the Department in 1871, in regard -to cutting and selling the pine timber belonging to these Indians, -2,000,000 feet have been cut and driven, realizing $23,731, of which -individual Indians received for their labor over $3000, the treasury -of the tribe deriving a net profit of five dollars per thousand feet. -The agent estimates that, for labor done by the Indians upon the -reservation, at lumbering, and for work outside on railroads, during -the past year, about $20,000 has been earned and received, -exclusive of the labor rendered in building houses, raising crops, -making sugar, gathering rice, and hunting for peltries. The work -of education upon the reservations has been of late quite unsatisfactory, -but one small school being now in operation, with seventy -scholars, the average attendance being fifty.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The Stockbridges and Munsees</i>, numbering 250, occupy a reservation -of 60,800 acres adjoining the Menomonees. The Stockbridges -came originally from Massachusetts and New York. After -several removals, they, with the Munsees, finally located on -<a id='Page_416'></a>their present reservation. Under the provisions of the Act of -February 6th, 1871, steps are now being taken to dispose of all -of their reservation, with the exception of eighteen sections best -adapted for agricultural purposes, which are reserved for their -future use. They have no treaty stipulations with the United -States at the present time; nor do they receive any annuities of -any kind from the Government. These tribes—indeed it may be -said this tribe (the Stockbridges), for of the Munsees there probably -remain not more than half a dozen souls—were formerly -an intelligent, prosperous people, not a whit behind the most advanced -of the race, possessed of good farms, well instructed, and -industrious. Unfortunately for them, though much to the advantage -of the Government, which acquired thereby a valuable -tract of country for white settlement, they removed, in 1857, to -their present place of abode. The change has proved highly detrimental -to their interests and prospects. Their new reservation, -the greater part poor in soil and seriously affected by wet seasons -and frequent frosts, has never yielded them more than a meagre -subsistence. Many have for this reason left the tribe, and have -been for years endeavoring to obtain a livelihood among the -whites, maintaining but little intercourse with those remaining -on the reservation, yet still holding their rights in the tribal property. -The result has been bickerings and faction quarrels, prejudicial -to the peace and advancement of the community. More -than one-half of the present membership of the tribe, from both -the "citizen" and the "Indian" parties, into which it has been -long divided, are reported by the agent as having decided to -avail themselves of the enrolment provisions in the Act of Congress -of February, 1871, before referred to, by which they will -finally receive their share of the tribal property, and become citizens -of the United States. Those who desire to retain their tribal -relation under the protection of the United States may, under -the act adverted to, if they so elect by their council, procure a -new location for their future home. The school interests and religious -care of this people are under the superintendence of Mr. -Jeremiah Slingerland, a Stockbridge of much repute for his intelligence, -and his success in the cause of the moral and educational -improvement of his people.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The Oneidas</i>, numbering 1259, have a reservation of 60,800 acres -near Green Bay. They constitute the greater portion of the tribe -of that name (derived from Lake Oneida, where the tribe then -resided), formerly one of the "Six Nations." ***</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_417'></a>MINNESOTA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians residing within the limits of Minnesota, as in the -case of those of the same name living in Wisconsin, heretofore noticed, -constitute a portion of the Ojibway or Chippewa nation, -and comprise the following bands: Mississippi, Pillager, Winnebagoshish, -Pembina, Red Lake, Boise Forte, Fond du Lac, and -Grand Portage. The last three bands, being attached to the -agency for the Chippewas of Lake Superior, have been treated -of in connection with the Indians of Wisconsin. The five first-named -bands number in the aggregate about 6455 souls, and occupy, -or rather it is intended they shall ultimately occupy, ample -reservations in the central and northern portion of the State, -known as the White Earth, Leech Lake, and Red Lake reservations, -containing altogether about 4,672,000 acres—a portion of -which is very valuable for its pine timber. *** -<i>Mississippi Bands.</i>—These Indians reside in different localities. -Most of them are on their reservation at White Earth; others are -at Mille Lac, Gull Lake, and some at White Oak Point reservations. -Upon the first-named reservation operations have been -quite extensive in the erection of school-buildings, dwelling-houses, -shops, and mills, and in breaking ground. At one time -during the past summer there was a prospect of an abundant -yield from 300 acres sown in cereals; but, unfortunately, the -grasshoppers swept away the entire crop; and a second crop of -buckwheat and turnips proved a failure. The Indians on this -reservation are well-behaved, and inclined to be industrious. -Many of them are engaged in tilling the soil, while others are -learning the mechanical arts; and they may, as a body, be said -to be making considerable progress in the pursuits of civilized -life. About one-half of the Indians at Gull Lake have been removed -to White Earth: the remainder are opposed to removal, -and will, in their present feeling, rather forfeit their annuities -than change their location. The Mille Lac Chippewas, who continue -to occupy the lands ceded by them in 1863, with reservation -of the right to live thereon during good behavior, are indisposed -to leave their old home for the new one designed for them -on the White Earth Reservation. Only about twenty-five have -thus far been induced to remove. Their present reservation is -rich in pine lands, the envy of lumber dealers; and there is a -strong pressure on all sides for their early removal. They should -have help from the Government, whether they remain or remove; -<a id='Page_418'></a>and this could be afforded to a sufficient extent by the sale for -their benefit of the timber upon the lands now occupied by them. -Probably the Government could provide for them in no better way.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The White Oak Point Chippewas</i> were formerly known as Sandy -Lake Indians. They were removed in 1867 from Sandy Lake and -Rabbit Lake to White Oak Point, on the Mississippi, near the -eastern part of the Leech Lake Reservation. This location is unfavorable -to their moral improvement and material progress, from -its proximity to the lumber camps of the whites. Thus far the -effort made to better their condition, by placing them on farming -land, has proved a failure. The ground broken for them has -gone back into grass, and their log-houses are in ruins, the former -occupants betaking themselves to their wonted haunts. It -would be well if these Indians could be induced to remove to the -White Earth Reservation.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At Red Lake the Indians have had a prosperous year: good -crops of corn and potatoes have been raised, and a number of -houses built. This band would be in much better circumstances -were they possessed of a greater quantity of arable lands. That -to which they are at present limited allows but five acres, suitable -for that use, to each family. It is proposed to sell their timber, -and with the proceeds clear lands, purchase stock, and establish -a manual-labor school.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The Pembina</i> bands reside in Dakota Territory, but are here -noticed in connection with the Minnesota Indians, because of -their being attached to the same agency. They have no reservation, -having ceded their lands by treaty made in 1863, but claim -title to Turtle Mountain in Dakota, on which some of them resided -at the time of the treaty, and which lies west of the line of -the cession then made. They number, the full-bloods about 350, -and the half-breeds about 100. They lead a somewhat nomadic -life, depending upon the chase for a precarious subsistence, in -connection with an annuity from the Government of the United -States.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>The Chippewas</i> of Minnesota have had but few educational advantages; -but with the facilities now being afforded, and with the -earnest endeavors that are now being put forth by their agent -and the teachers employed, especially at White Earth, it is expected -that their interests in this regard will be greatly promoted. -At White Earth school operations have been quite successful; so -much so, that it will require additional accommodations to meet -the demands of the Indians for the education of their children. -<a id='Page_419'></a>The only other school in operation is that at Red Lake, under the -auspices of the American Indian Mission Association.</p> - -<p class='c010'>INDIANA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There are now in Indiana about 345 Miamis, who did not go -to Kansas when the tribe moved to that section under the treaty -of 1840. They are good citizens, many being thrifty farmers, giving -no trouble either to their white neighbors or to the Government. -There is also a small band called the Eel River band of -Miamis, residing in this State and in Michigan.</p> - -<p class='c010'>NORTH CAROLINA, TENNESSEE, AND GEORGIA.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Cherokees.</i>—There are residing in these States probably about -1700 Cherokees, who elected to remain, under the provisions respecting -Cherokees averse to removal, contained in the twelfth article -of the treaty with the Cherokees of 1835. Under the Act of -July 29th, 1848, a <i>per capita</i> transportation and subsistence fund -of $53.33 was created and set apart for their benefit, in accordance -with a census-roll made under the provisions of said act; the -interest on which fund, until such time as they shall individually -remove to the Indian country, is the only money to which those -named in said roll, who are living, or the heirs of those who have -deceased, are entitled. This interest is too small to be of any benefit; -and some action should be taken by Congress, with a view -of having all business matters between these Indians and the Government -settled, by removing such of them west as now desire to -go, and paying those who decline to remove the <i>per capita</i> fund -referred to. The Government has no agent residing with these -Indians. In accordance with their earnestly expressed desire to -be brought under the immediate charge of the Government, as its -wards, Congress, by law approved July 27th, 1868, directed that -the Secretary of the Interior should cause the Commissioner of -Indian Affairs to take the same supervisory charge of them as of -other tribes of Indians; but this practically amounts to nothing, -in the absence of means to carry out the intention of the law with -any beneficial result to the Indians. The condition of this people -is represented to be deplorable. Before the late Rebellion they -were living in good circumstances, engaged, with all the success -which could be expected, in farming, and in various minor industrial -pursuits. Like all other inhabitants of this section, they -suffered much during the war, and are now, from this and other -causes, much impoverished.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_420'></a>FLORIDA.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Seminoles.</i>—There are a few Seminoles, supposed to number -about 300, still residing in Florida—being those, or the descendants -of those, who refused to accompany the tribe when it removed -to the West many years ago. But little is known of their -condition and temper.</p> - -<p class='c010'>NEBRASKA, KANSAS, AND THE INDIAN TERRITORY.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes residing in Nebraska, Kansas, and the Indian Territory -are divided as follows: in Nebraska, about 6485; in Kansas, -1500; in the Indian Territory, 62,465.</p> - -<p class='c010'>NEBRASKA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians in Nebraska are the Santee Sioux, Winnebagoes -Omahas, Pawnees, Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri, Iowas, and the -Otoes and Missourias. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Omahas.</i>—The Omahas, a peaceable and inoffensive people, numbering -969, a decrease since 1871 of fifteen, are native to the country -now occupied by them, and occupy a reservation of 345,600 -acres adjoining the Winnebagoes. They have lands allotted to -them in severalty, and have made considerable advancement in -agriculture and civilization, though they still follow the chase to -some extent. Under the provisions of the Act of June 10th, 1872, -steps are being taken to sell 50,000 acres of the western part of -their reservation. The proceeds of the sale of these lands will -enable them to improve and stock their farms, build houses, etc., -and, with proper care and industry, to become in a few years entirely -self-sustaining. A few cottages are to be found upon this -reservation. There are at present three schools in operation on -this reservation, with an attendance of 120 scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Pawnees.</i>—The Pawnees, a warlike people, number 2447, an increase -for the past year of eighty-three. They are located on a -reservation of 288,000 acres, in the central part of the State. They -are native to the country now occupied by them, and have for -years been loyal to the Government, having frequently furnished -scouts for the army in operations against hostile tribes or marauding -bands. Their location, so near the frontier, and almost in constant -contact with the Indians of the plains, with whom they have -been always more or less at war, has tended to retard their advancement -in the arts of civilization. They are, however, gradually -<a id='Page_421'></a>becoming more habituated to the customs of the whites, are -giving some attention to agriculture, and, with the disappearance -of the buffalo from their section of the country, will doubtless -settle down to farming and to the practice of mechanical arts in -earnest. The Act of June 10th, 1872, heretofore referred to, provides -also for the sale of 50,000 acres belonging to the Pawnees, -the same to be taken from that part of their reservation lying -south of Loup Fork. These lands are now being surveyed; and -it is believed that, with the proceeds of this sale, such improvements, -in the way of building houses and opening and stocking -farms, can be made for the Pawnees as will at an early day induce -them to give their entire time and attention to industrial pursuits. -There are two schools in operation on the reservation—one -a manual-labor boarding-school, the other a day-school, with -an attendance at both of 118 scholars. Provision was also made -by Congress, at its last session, for the erection of two additional -school-houses for the use of this tribe.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri.</i>—These Indians, formerly a portion -of the same tribe with the Indians now known as the Sacs and -Foxes of the Mississippi, emigrated many years ago from Iowa, -and settled near the tribe of Iowas, hereafter to be mentioned. -They number at the present time but eighty-eight, having been -steadily diminishing for years. They have a reservation of about -16,000 acres, lying in the south-eastern part of Nebraska and the -north-eastern part of Kansas, purchased for them from the Iowas. -Most of it is excellent land; but they have never, to any considerable -extent, made use of it for tillage, being almost hopelessly -disinclined to engage in labor of any kind, and depending principally -for their subsistence, a very poor one, upon their annuity, -which is secured to them by the treaty of October 31st, 1837, and -amounts to $7870. By Act of June 10th, 1872, provision was made -for the sale of a portion or all of their reservation, the proceeds of -such sale to be expended for their immediate use, or for their removal -to the Indian Territory or elsewhere. They have consented -to the sale of their entire reservation; and, so soon as funds -shall have been received from that source, steps will be taken to -have them removed to the Indian Territory south of Kansas.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Iowas.</i>—These Indians, numbering at present 225, emigrated -years ago from Iowa and North-western Missouri, and now have a -reservation adjoining the Sacs and Foxes of the Missouri, containing -about 16,000 acres. They belong to a much better class of -Indians than their neighbors the Sacs and Foxes, being temperate, -<a id='Page_422'></a>frugal, industrious, and interested in the education of their -children. They were thoroughly loyal during the late rebellion, -and furnished a number of soldiers to the Union army. Many of -them are good farmers; and as a tribe they are generally extending -their agricultural operations, improving their dwellings, and -adding to their comforts. A large majority of the tribe are anxious -to have their reservation allotted in severalty; and, inasmuch -as they are not inclined to remove to another locality, it would -seem desirable that their wishes in this respect should be complied -with. One school is in operation on the reservation, with -an attendance of sixty-eight scholars, besides an industrial home -for orphans, supported by the Indians themselves.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Otoes and Missourias.</i>—These Indians, numbering 464, an increase -of fourteen over last year, were removed from Iowa and -Missouri to their present beautiful and fertile reservation, comprising -160,000 acres, and situated in the southern part of Nebraska. -Until quite recently they have evinced but little disposition -to labor for a support, or in any way to better their miserable -condition; yet cut off from their wonted source of subsistence, -the buffalo, by their fear of the wild tribes which have taken -possession of their old hunting-grounds, they have gradually been -more and more forced to work for a living. Within the last three -years many of them have opened farms and built themselves -houses. A school has also been established, having an attendance -of ninety-five scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'>KANSAS.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians still remaining in Kansas are the Kickapoos, Pottawattomies -(Prairie band), Chippewas and Munsees, Miamis, and -the Kansas or Kaws.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Kickapoos.</i>—The Kickapoos emigrated from Illinois, and are -now located, to the number of 290, on a reservation of 19,200 -acres, in the north-eastern part of the State. During the late -war a party of about one hundred, dissatisfied with the treaty -made with the tribe in 1863, went to Mexico, upon representations -made to them by certain of their kinsmen living in that republic -that they would be welcomed and protected by the Mexican -Government; but, finding themselves deceived, attempted to -return to the United States. Only a few, however, succeeded in -reaching the Kickapoo Agency. The Kickapoos now remaining -in Mexico separated from the tribe more than twenty years ago, -and settled among the southern Indians in the Indian Territory, -<a id='Page_423'></a>on or near the Washita River, whence they went to Mexico where -they still live, notwithstanding the efforts of the Government of -late to arrange with Mexico for their removal to the Indian Territory, -and location upon some suitable reservation. Their raids -across the border have been a sore affliction to the people of Texas; -and it is important that the first promising occasion should -be taken to secure their return to the United States, and their establishment -where they may be carefully watched, and restrained -from their depredatory habits, or summarily punished if they persist -in them. The Kickapoos remaining in Kansas are peaceable -and industrious, continuing to make commendable progress in the -cultivation of their farms, and showing much interest in the education -of their children. Under the provisions of the treaty of -June 28th, 1862, a few of these Indians have received lands in severalty, -for which patents have been issued, and are now citizens -of the United States. Two schools are in operation among these -Indians, with a daily average attendance of thirty-nine scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Pottawattomies.</i>—The Prairie band is all of this tribe remaining -in Kansas, the rest having become citizens and removed, or most -of them, to the Indian Territory. The tribe, excepting those in -Wisconsin heretofore noticed, formerly resided in Michigan and -Indiana, and removed to Kansas under the provisions of the treaty -of 1846. The Prairie band numbers, as nearly as ascertained, -about 400, and is located on a reserve of 77,357 acres, fourteen -miles north of Topeka. Notwithstanding many efforts to educate -and civilize these Indians, most of them still cling tenaciously to -the habits and customs of their fathers. Some, however, have -recently turned their attention to agricultural pursuits, and are -now raising stock, and most of the varieties of grain produced by -their white neighbors. They are also showing more interest in -education than formerly—one school being in operation on the -reservation, with an attendance of eighty-four scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Chippewas and Munsees.</i>—Certain of the Chippewas of Saginaw, -Swan Creek, and Black River, removed from Michigan under the -treaty of 1836; and certain Munsees, or Christian Indians, from -Wisconsin under the treaty of 1839. These were united by the -terms of the treaty concluded with them July 16th, 1859. The -united bands now number only fifty-six. They own 4760 acres -of land in Franklin County, about forty miles south of the town -of Lawrence, holding the same in severalty, are considerably advanced -in the arts of life, and earn a decent living, principally by -agriculture. They have one school in operation, with an attendance -<a id='Page_424'></a>of sixteen scholars. These Indians at present have no treaty -with the United States; nor do they receive any assistance -from the Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Miamis.</i>—The Miamis of Kansas formerly resided in Indiana, -forming one tribe with the Miamis still remaining in that State, -but removed in 1846 to their present location, under the provisions -of the treaty of 1840.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Owing to the secession of a considerable number who have allied -themselves with the Peorias in the Indian Territory, and also -to the ravages of disease consequent on vicious indulgences, especially -in the use of intoxicating drinks, this band, which on -its removal from Indiana embraced about five hundred, at present -numbers but ninety-five. These have a reservation of 10,240 acres -in Linn and Miami Counties, in the south-eastern part of Kansas, -the larger part of which is held in severalty by them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in immediate charge, in -his report for this year says the Miamis remaining in Kansas are -greatly demoralized, their school has been abandoned, and their -youth left destitute of educational advantages. Considerable trouble -has been for years caused by white settlers locating aggressively -on lands belonging to these Indians, no effort for their extrusion -having been thus far successful.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Kansas or Kaws.</i>—These Indians are native to the country they -occupy. They number at present 593; in 1860 they numbered -803. Although they have a reservation of 80,640 acres of good -land in the eastern part of the State, they are poor and improvident, -and have in late years suffered much for want of the actual -necessaries of life. They never were much disposed to labor, depending -upon the chase for a living, in connection with the annuities -due from the Government. They have been growing steadily -poorer; and even now, in their straitened circumstances, and under -the pressure of want, they show but little inclination to engage -in agricultural pursuits, all attempts to induce them to work -having measurably proved failures. Until quite recently they -could not even be prevailed upon to have their children educated. -One school is now in operation, with an attendance of about forty-five -scholars. By the Act of May 8th, 1872, provision was made -for the sale of all the lands owned by these Indians in Kansas, -and for their removal to the Indian Territory. Provision was -also made, by the Act of June 5th, 1872, for their settlement within -the limits of a tract of land therein provided to be set apart -for the Osages. Their lands in Kansas are now being appraised -<a id='Page_425'></a>by commissioners appointed for the purpose, preparatory to their -sale.</p> - -<p class='c010'>INDIAN TERRITORY.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians at present located in the Indian Territory—an extensive -district, bounded north by Kansas, east by Missouri and -Arkansas, south by Texas, and west by the one hundredth meridian, -designated by the commissioners appointed under Act of Congress, -July 20th, 1867, to establish peace with certain hostile tribes, -as one of two great Territories (the other being, in the main, the -present Territory of Dakota, west of the Missouri) upon which -might be concentrated the great body of all the Indians east of -the Rocky Mountains—are the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, -Creeks, Seminoles, Senecas, Shawnees, Quapaws, Ottawas of Blanchard's -Fork and Roche de Bœuf, Peorias, and confederated Kaskaskias, -Weas and Piankeshaws, Wyandottes, Pottawattomies, Sacs -and Foxes of the Mississippi, Osages, Kiowas, Comanches, the Arapahoes -and Cheyennes of the south, the Wichitas and other affiliated -bands, and a small band of Apaches long confederated with -the Kiowas and Comanches. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Choctaws and Chickasaws.</i>—These tribes are for certain national -purposes confederated. The Choctaws, numbering 16,000—an increase -of 1000 on the enumeration for 1871—have a reservation of -6,688,000 acres in the south-eastern part of the Territory; and -the Chickasaws, numbering 6000, own a tract containing 4,377,600 -acres adjoining the Choctaws on the west. These tribes originally -inhabited the section of country now embraced within the State -of Mississippi, and were removed to their present location in accordance -with the terms of the treaties concluded with them, respectively, -in 1820 and 1832. The remarks made respecting the -language, laws, educational advantages, industrial pursuits, and -advancement in the arts and customs of civilized life of the Cherokees -will apply in the main to the Choctaws and Chickasaws. -The Choctaws have thirty-six schools in operation, with an attendance -of 819 scholars; the Chickasaws eleven, with 379 scholars. -The Choctaws, under the treaties of November 16th, 1805, -October 18th, 1820, January 20th, 1825, and June 22d, 1855, receive -permanent annuities as follows: in money, $3000; for support -of government, education, and other beneficial purposes, -$25,512 89; for support of light-horsemen, $600; and for iron -and steel, $320. They also have United States and State stocks, -held in trust for them by the Secretary of the Interior, to the -amount of $506,427 20, divided as follows: on account of "Choctaw -<a id='Page_426'></a>general fund," $454,000; of "Choctaw school fund," $52,427 20. -The interest on these funds, and the annuities, etc., are turned -over to the treasurer of the nation, and expended under the direction -of the National Council in the manner and for the objects -indicated in each case. The Chickasaws, under Act of February -25th, 1799, and treaty of April 28th, 1866, have a permanent annuity -of $3000. They also have United States and State stocks, -held in trust for them by the Secretary of the Interior, to the -amount of $1,185,947 03-2/3—$183,947 03-2/3 thereof being a "national -fund," and $2000 a fund for "incompetents." The interest on -these sums, and the item of $3000 first referred to, are paid over -to the treasurer of the nation, and disbursed by him under the -direction of the National Council, and for such objects as that -body may determine.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Creeks.</i>—The Creeks came originally from Alabama and Georgia. -They numbered at the latest date of enumeration 12,295, and have -a reservation of 3,215,495 acres in the eastern and central part -of the territory. They are not generally so far advanced as the -Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, but are making rapid -progress, and will doubtless in a few years rank in all respects -with their neighbors, the three tribes just named. The Creeks, -by the latest reports, have thirty-three schools in operation; one -of which is under the management of the Methodist Mission Society, -and another supported by the Presbyterians. The number -of scholars in all the schools is 760. These Indians have, under -treaties of August 7th, 1790, June 16th, 1802, January 24th, 1826, -August 7th, 1856, and June 14th, 1866, permanent annuities and -interest on moneys uninvested as follows: in money, $68,258 40; -for pay of blacksmiths and assistants, wagon-maker, wheelwright, -iron and steel, $3250; for assistance in agricultural operations, -$2000; and for education, $1000. The Secretary of the Interior -holds in trust for certain members of the tribe, known as "orphans," -United States and State bonds to the amount of $76,999 66, -the interest on which sum is paid to those of said orphans who -are alive, and to the representatives of those who have deceased.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Seminoles.</i>—The Seminoles, numbering 2398, an increase of 190 -over the census of 1871, have a reservation of 200,000 acres adjoining -the Creeks on the west. This tribe formerly inhabited -the section of country now embraced in the State of Florida. -Some of them removed to their present location under the provisions -of the treaties of 1832 and 1833. The remainder of the tribe, -instigated by the former chief, Osceola, repudiated the treaties, -<a id='Page_427'></a>refused to remove, and soon after commenced depredating upon -the whites. In 1835 these depredations resulted in war, which -continued seven years, with immense cost of blood and treasure. -The Indians were at last rendered powerless to do further injury, -and, after efforts repeated through several years, were finally, with -the exception of a few who fled to the everglades, removed to a -reservation in the now Indian territory. In 1866 they ceded to -the United States, by treaty, the reservation then owned by them, -and purchased the tract they at present occupy. They are not so -far advanced in the arts of civilized life as the Cherokees, Choctaws, -Chickasaws, and Creeks, but are making rapid progress in -that direction, and will, it is confidently believed, soon rank with -the tribes named. They cultivate 7600 acres; upon which they -raised during the past year 300,000 bushels of corn, and 6000 -bushels of potatoes. They live in log-houses, and own large -stocks of cattle, horses, and hogs. The schools of the Seminoles -number four, with an attendance of 169 scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'>They receive, under treaties made with them August 7th, -1856, and March 21st, 1866, annuities, etc., as follows: interest on -$500,000, amounting to $25,000 annually, which is paid to them -as annuity; interest on $50,000, amounting to $2500 annually, for -support of schools; and $1000, the interest on $20,000, for the -support of their government.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Senecas and Shawnees.</i>—The Senecas, numbering 214, and the -Shawnees, numbering ninety, at the present time, removed, some -thirty-five or forty years ago, from Ohio to their present location -in the north-eastern corner of the territory. They suffered severely -during the Rebellion, being obliged to leave their homes and fly -to the north, their country being devastated by troops of both -armies. Under the provisions of the treaty of 1867, made with -these and other tribes, the Senecas, who were then confederated -with the Shawnees, dissolved their connection with that tribe, -sold to the United States their half of the reservation owned by -them in common with the Shawnees, and connected themselves -with those Senecas who then owned a separate reservation. The -Shawnees now have a reservation of 24,960 acres, and the united -Senecas one of 44,000 acres. These tribes are engaged in agriculture -to a considerable extent. They are peaceable and industrious. -Many are thrifty farmers, and in comfortable circumstances. -They have one school in operation, with an attendance -of thirty-six scholars, which includes some children of the Wyandottes, -which tribe has no schools.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_428'></a><i>Quapaws.</i>—These Indians number at the present time about -240. They are native to the country, and occupy a reservation -of 104,000 acres in the extreme north-east corner of the territory. -They do not appear to have advanced much within the past few -years. In common with other tribes in that section, they suffered -greatly by the late war, and were rendered very destitute. Their -proximity to the border towns of Kansas, and the facilities thereby -afforded for obtaining whiskey, have tended to retard their -progress; but there has recently been manifested a strong desire -for improvement; and with the funds derived from the sale of a -part of their lands, and with the proposed opening of a school -among them, better things are hoped for in the future.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Ottawas.</i>—The Ottawas of Blanchard's Fork and Roche de -Bœuf number, at the present time, 150. They were originally -located in Western Ohio and Southern Michigan, and were removed, -in accordance with the terms of the treaty concluded with -them in 1831, to a reservation within the present limits of Kansas. -Under the treaty of 1867 they obtained a reservation of 24,960 -acres, lying immediately north of the western portion of the -Shawnee Reservation. They have paid considerable attention to -education, are well advanced in civilization, and many of them -are industrious and prosperous farmers. They have one school, -attended by fifty-two scholars. The relation of this small band to -the Government is somewhat anomalous, inasmuch as, agreeably to -provisions contained in the treaties of 1862 and 1867, they have -become citizens of the United States, and yet reside in the Indian -country, possess a reservation there, and maintain a purely tribal -organization. They removed from Franklin Co., Kansas, in 1870.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Peorias</i>, <i>etc.</i>—The Peorias, Kaskaskias, Weas, and Piankeshaws, -who were confederated in 1854, and at that time had a total population -of 259, now number 160. They occupy a reservation of -72,000 acres, adjoining the Quapaw Reservation on the south and -west. Under treaties made with these tribes in 1832, they removed -to a tract within the present limits of Kansas, where they -remained until after the treaty of 1867 was concluded with them, -in which treaty provision was made whereby they obtained their -present reservation. These Indians are generally intelligent, well -advanced in civilization, and, to judge from the statistical reports -of their agent, are very successful in their agricultural operations, -raising crops ample for their own support. With the Peorias are -about forty Miamis from Kansas. They have one school in operation, -with an attendance of twenty-nine scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_429'></a><i>Wyandottes.</i>—The Wyandottes number at the present time 222 -souls. Ten years ago there were 435. They occupy a reservation -of 20,000 acres, lying between the Seneca and Shawnee reservations. -This tribe was located for many years in North-western -Ohio, whence they removed, pursuant to the terms of the treaty -made with them in 1842, to a reservation within the present limits -of Kansas. By the treaty made with them in 1867 their present -reservation was set apart for those members of the tribe who -desired to maintain their tribal organization, instead of becoming -citizens, as provided in the treaty of 1855. They are poor, and, -having no annuities and but little force of character, are making -slight progress in industry or civilization. They have been lately -joined by members of the tribe, who, under the treaty, accepted -citizenship. These, desiring to resume their relations with their -people, have been again adopted into the tribe.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Pottawattomies.</i>—These Indians, who formerly resided in Michigan -and Indiana, whence they removed to Kansas, before going -down into the Indian Territory numbered about 1600. They have, -under the provisions of the treaty of 1861 made with the tribe, -then residing in Kansas, become citizens of the United States. By -the terms of said treaty they received allotments of land, and their -proportion of the tribal funds, with the exception of their share -of certain non-paying State stocks, amounting to $67,000, held in -trust by the Secretary of the Interior for the Pottawattomies. Having -disposed of their lands, they removed to the Indian Territory, -where a reservation thirty miles square, adjoining the Seminole -Reservation on the west, had been, by the treaty of 1867, provided -for such as should elect to maintain their tribal organization. It -having been decided, however, by the Department that, as they -had all become citizens, there was consequently no part of the -tribe remaining which could lay claim, under treaty stipulations, -to the reservation in the Indian Territory, legislation was had by -Congress at its last session—Act approved May 23d, 1872—by -which these citizen Pottawattomies were allowed allotments of -land within the tract originally assigned for their use as a tribe, -to the extent of 160 acres to each head of family, and to each -other person twenty-one years of age, and of eighty acres to each -minor. Most if not all of them are capable of taking care of -themselves; and many of them are well-educated, intelligent, and -thrifty farmers.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Absentee Shawnees.</i>—These Indians, numbering 663, separated -about thirty years ago from the main tribe, then located in Kansas, -<a id='Page_430'></a>and settled in the Indian Territory, principally within the -limits of the thirty miles square tract heretofore referred to in the -remarks relative to the Pottawattomies, where they engaged in -farming, and have since supported themselves without assistance -from the Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sacs and Foxes.</i>—The Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi number -at the present time 463. In 1846 they numbered 2478. They -have a reservation of 483,340 acres, adjoining the Creeks on the -west, and between the North Fork of the Canadian and the -Red Fork of the Arkansas Rivers. They formerly occupied large -tracts of country in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri, whence they -removed, by virtue of treaty stipulations, to a reservation within -the present limits of Kansas. By the terms of the treaties of -1859 and 1868 all their lands in Kansas were ceded to the United -States, and they were given in lieu thereof their present reservation. -These Indians, once famous for their prowess in war, have -not, for some years, made any marked improvement upon their -former condition. Still they have accomplished a little, under -highly adverse circumstances and influences, in the way of opening -small farms and in building houses, and are beginning to -show some regard for their women by relieving them of the burdens -and labors heretofore required of them. There is hope of -their further improvement, although they are still but one degree -removed from the Blanket or Breech-clout Indians. They have -one school in operation, with an attendance of only about twelve -scholars. Three hundred and seventeen members of these tribes, -after their removal to Kansas, returned to Iowa, where they were -permitted to remain, and are now, under the Act of March 2d, -1867, receiving their share of the tribal funds. They have purchased -419 acres of land in Tama County, part of which they are -cultivating. They are not much disposed to work, however, on -lands of their own, preferring to labor for the white farmers in -their vicinity, and are still much given to roving and hunting.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Osages.</i>—The Osages, numbering 3956, are native to the general -section of the country where they now live. Their reservation is -bounded on the north by the south line of Kansas, east by the -ninety-sixth degree of west longitude, and south and west by -the Arkansas River, and contains approximately 1,760,000 acres. -They still follow the chase, the buffalo being their main dependence -for food. Their wealth consists in horses (of which they -own not less than 12,000) and in cattle.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches.</i>—These tribes, confederated under -<a id='Page_431'></a>present treaty stipulations, formerly ranged over an extensive -country lying between the Rio Grande and the Red River. As -nearly as can be ascertained, they number as follows: Kiowas, -1930; Comanches, 3180; and Apaches, 380. They are now located -upon a reservation secured to them by treaty made in 1867, -comprising 3,549,440 acres in the south-western part of the Indian -Territory, west of and adjoining the Chickasaw country. -Wild and intractable, these Indians, even the best of them, have -given small signs of improvement in the arts of life; and, substantially, -the whole dealing of the Government with them thus -far has been in the way of supplying their necessities for food -and clothing, with a view to keeping them upon their reservation, -and preventing their raiding into Texas, with the citizens of -which State they were for many years before their present establishment -on terms of mutual hatred and injury. Some individuals -and bands have remained quiet and peaceable upon their reservation, -evincing a disposition to learn the arts of life, to engage -in agriculture, and to have their children instructed in letters. -To these every inducement is being held out to take up land, and -actively commence tilling it. Thus far they have under cultivation -but 100 acres, which have produced the past year a good -crop of corn and potatoes. The wealth of these tribes consists in -horses and mules, of which they own to the number, as reported -by their agent, of 16,500, a great proportion of the animals notoriously -having been stolen in Texas.</p> - -<p class='c010'>However, it may be said, in a word, of these Indians, that their -civilization must follow their submission to the Government, and -that the first necessity in respect to them is a wholesome example, -which shall inspire fear and command obedience. So long as -four-fifths of these tribes take turns at raiding into Texas, openly -and boastfully bringing back scalps and spoils to their reservation, -efforts to inspire very high ideas of social and industrial life -among the communities of which the raiders form so large a part -will presumably result in failure.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Arapahoes and Cheyennes of the South.</i>—These tribes are native -to the section of country now inhabited by them. The Arapahoes -number at the present time 1500, and the Cheyennes 2000. By -the treaty of 1867, made with these Indians, a large reservation -was provided for them, bounded on the north by Kansas, on the -east by the Arkansas River, and on the south and west by the -Red Fork of the Arkansas. They have, however, persisted in a -refusal to locate on this reservation; and another tract, containing -<a id='Page_432'></a>4,011,500 acres, north of and adjoining the Kiowa and Comanche -Reservation, was set apart for them by Executive order of -August 10th, 1869. By Act of May 29th, 1872, the Secretary of -the Interior was authorized to negotiate with these Indians for -the relinquishment of their claim to the lands ceded to them by -the said treaty, and to give them in lieu thereof a "sufficient and -permanent location" upon lands ceded to the United States by -the Creeks and Seminoles in treaties made with them in 1866. -Negotiations to the end proposed were duly entered into with -these tribes unitedly; but, in the course of such negotiations, it -has become the view of this office that the tribes should no longer -be associated in the occupation of a reservation. The Arapahoes -are manifesting an increasing disinclination to follow farther -the fortunes of the Cheyennes, and crave a location of their own. -Inasmuch as the conduct of the Arapahoes is uniformly good, and -their disposition to make industrial improvement very decided, it -is thought that they should now be separated from the more turbulent -Cheyennes, and given a place where they may carry out -their better intentions without interruption, and without the access -of influences tending to draw their young men away to folly -and mischief. With this view a contract, made subject to the -action of Congress, was entered into between the Commissioner -of Indian Affairs and the delegation of the Arapahoe tribe which -visited Washington during the present season (the delegation being -fully empowered thereto by the tribe), by which the Arapahoes -relinquish all their interest in the reservation granted them -by the treaty of 1867, in consideration of the grant of a reservation -between the North Fork of the Canadian River and the Red -Fork of the Arkansas River, and extending from a point ten miles -east of the ninety-eighth to near the ninety-ninth meridian of -west longitude. Should this adjustment of the question, so far -as the Arapahoes are concerned, meet the approval of Congress, -separate negotiations will be entered into with the Cheyennes, -with a view to obtaining their relinquishment of the reservation -of 1867, and their location on some vacant tract within the same -general section of the Indian Territory.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A considerable number of the Arapahoes are already engaged -in agriculture, though at a disadvantage; and, when the question -of their reservation shall have been settled, it is confidently believed -that substantially the whole body of this tribe will turn -their attention to the cultivation of the soil. Two schools are -conducted for their benefit at the agency, having an attendance -<a id='Page_433'></a>of thirty-five scholars. Of the Cheyennes confederated with the -Arapahoes, the reports are less favorable as to progress made in -industry, or disposition to improve their condition. Until 1867 -both these tribes, in common with the Kiowas and Comanches, -were engaged in hostilities against the white settlers in Western -Kansas; but since the treaty made with them in that year they -have, with the exception of one small band of the Cheyennes, remained -friendly, and have committed no depredations.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Wichitas</i>, <i>etc.</i>—The Wichitas and other affiliated bands of -Keechies, Wacoes, Towoccaroes, Caddoes, Ionies, and Delawares, -number 1250, divided approximately as follows: Wichitas, 299; -Keechies, 126; Wacoes, 140; Towoccaroes, 127; Caddoes, 392; -Ionies, 85; Delawares, 81. These Indians, fragments of once important -tribes originally belonging in Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, -and the Indian Territory, were all, excepting the Wichitas and -Delawares, removed by the Government from Texas, in 1859, to -the "leased district," then belonging to the Choctaws and Chickasaws, -where they have since resided, at a point on the Washita -River near old Fort Cobb. They have no treaty relations with -the Government, nor have they any defined reservation. They -have always, or at least for many years, been friendly to the -whites, although in close and constant contact with the Kiowas -and Comanches. A few of them, chiefly Caddoes and Delawares, -are engaged in agriculture, and are disposed to be industrious. -Of the other Indians at this agency some cultivate small patches -in corn and vegetables, the work being done mainly by women; -but the most are content to live upon the Government. The Caddoes -rank among the best Indians of the continent, and set an example -to the other bands affiliated with them worthy of being -more generally followed than it is. In physique, and in the virtues -of chastity, temperance, and industry, they are the equals of -many white communities.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A permanent reservation should be set aside for the Indians of -this agency; and, with proper assistance, they would doubtless in -a few years become entirely self-sustaining. But one school is in -operation, with an attendance of eighteen scholars. These Indians -have no annuities; but an annual appropriation of $50,000 -has for several years been made for their benefit. This money is -expended for goods and agricultural implements, and for assistance -and instruction in farming, etc.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_434'></a>DAKOTA, MONTANA, WYOMING, AND IDAHO.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes residing in Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho -are divided as follows: in Dakota, about 28,000; Montana, 30,000; -Wyoming, 2000; and Idaho, 5000. The present temporary location -of the Red Cloud Agency has, however, drawn just within -the limits of Wyoming a body of Indians varying from 8000 to -9000, who are here, and usually reckoned as belonging to Dakota.</p> - -<p class='c010'>DAKOTA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians within the limits of Dakota Territory are the -Sioux, the Poncas, and the Arickarees, Gros Ventres, and Mandans. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Arickarees, Gros Ventres, and Mandans.</i>—These tribes number -2200, and have a reservation set apart for their occupancy by Executive -order of April 12th, 1870, comprising 8,640,000 acres, situated -in the north-western part of Dakota and the eastern part -of Montana, extending to the Yellowstone and Powder rivers. -They have no treaty with the Government, are now and have always -been friendly to the whites, are exceptionally known to the -officers of the army and to frontiersmen as "good Indians," and -are engaged to some extent in agriculture. Owing to the shortness -of the agricultural season, the rigor of the climate, and the -periodical ravages of grasshoppers, their efforts in this direction, -though made with a degree of patience and perseverance not -usual in the Indian character, have met with frequent and distressing -reverses; and it has from time to time been found necessary -to furnish them with more or less subsistence to prevent -starvation. They are traditional enemies of the Sioux; and the -petty warfare maintained between them and the Sioux of the -Grand River and Cheyenne River Agencies—while, like most -warfare confined to Indians alone, it causes wonderfully little loss -of life—serves to disturb the condition of these agencies, and to -retard the progress of all the parties concerned. These Indians -should be moved to the Indian Territory, south of Kansas, where -the mildness of the climate and the fertility of the soil would -repay their labors, and where, it is thought, from their willingness -to labor and their docility under the control of the Government, -they would in a few years become wholly self-supporting. -The question of their removal has been submitted to them, and -they seem inclined to favor the project, but have expressed a desire -to send a delegation of their chiefs to the Indian Territory, -<a id='Page_435'></a>with a view of satisfying themselves as to the desirableness of the -location. Their wishes in this respect should be granted early -next season, that their removal and settlement may be effected -during the coming year. Notwithstanding their willingness to -labor, they have shown but little interest in education. Congress -makes an appropriation of $75,000 annually for goods and -provisions, for their instruction in agricultural and mechanical -pursuits, for salaries of employés, and for the education of their -children, etc.</p> - -<p class='c010'>MONTANA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indian tribes residing within the limits of Montana are the -Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegans, the Gros Ventres of the Prairie, -the Assinaboines, the Yanktonais, Santee and Teton (so-called) -Sioux, a portion of the Northern Arapahoes and Cheyennes, the -River Crows, the Mountain Crows, the Flat-heads, Pend d'Oreilles -and Kootenays, and a few Shoshones, Bannocks, and Sheep-eaters, -numbering in the aggregate about 32,412. They are all, or nearly -all, native to the regions now occupied by them respectively.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The following table will exhibit the population of each of these -tribes, as nearly as the same can be ascertained:</p> - -<table class='table2' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='72%' /> -<col width='27%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegans</td> - <td class='c006'>7500</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Assinaboines</td> - <td class='c006'>4790</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Gros Ventres</td> - <td class='c006'>1100</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Santee, Yanktonais, Uncpapa, and Cut-head Sioux, at Milk River Agency</td> - <td class='c006'>2625</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>River Crows</td> - <td class='c006'>1240</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Mountain Crows</td> - <td class='c006'>2700</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Flat-heads</td> - <td class='c006'>460</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Pend d'Oreilles</td> - <td class='c006'>1000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Kootenays</td> - <td class='c006'>320</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Shoshones, Bannocks, and Sheep-eaters</td> - <td class='c006'>677</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Roving Sioux, commonly called Teton Sioux, including those gathered during 1872 at and near Fort Peck (largely estimated)</td> - <td class='c006'>8000</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'></td> - <td class='c006'>--------</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Estimated total</td> - <td class='c006'>30,412</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class='c010'>The number of Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes roaming in -Montana, who, it is believed, have co-operated with the Sioux under -Sitting Bull, in their depredations, is not known: it is probably -less than 1000.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegans (located at the Blackfeet -Agency, on the Teton River, about seventy-five miles from Fort -Benton), the Gros Ventres, Assinaboines, the River Crows, about -1000 of the Northern Arapahoes and Cheyennes, and the Santee -and Yankton Sioux (located at the Milk River Agency, on the -Milk River, about one hundred miles from its mouth), occupy -<a id='Page_436'></a>jointly a reservation in the extreme northern part of the Territory, -set apart by treaties (not ratified) made in 1868 with most -of the tribes named, and containing about 17,408,000 acres. The -Blackfeet, Bloods, and Piegans, particularly the last-named band, -have been, until within about two years, engaged in depredating -upon the white settlers. The Indians at the Milk River Agency, -with the exception of the Sioux, are now, and have been for several -years, quiet and peaceable. The Sioux at this agency, or -most of them, were engaged in the outbreak in Minnesota in -1862. On the suppression of hostilities they fled to the northern -part of Dakota, where they continued roaming until, in the fall -of 1871, they went to their present location, with the avowed intention -of remaining there. Although they had been at war for -years with the Indians properly belonging to the Milk River Agency, -yet, by judicious management on the part of the agent of the -Government stationed there, and the influence of some of the most -powerful chiefs, the former feuds and difficulties were amicably -arranged; and all parties have remained friendly to each other -during the year past. The Indians at neither the Blackfeet nor -the Milk River Agency show any disposition to engage in farming; -nor have they thus far manifested any desire for the education -of their children. They rely entirely upon the chase and -upon the bounty of the Government for their support. They, -however, quite scrupulously respect their obligation to preserve -the peace; and no considerable difficulty has of late been experienced, -or is anticipated, in keeping them in order. The Blackfeet, -Bloods, and Piegans have an annual appropriation of $50,000 -made for their benefit; the Assinaboines, $30,000; the Gros Ventres -of the Prairie, $35,000; the River Crows, $30,000. These -funds are used in furnishing the respective tribes with goods and -subsistence, and generally for such other objects as may be deemed -necessary to keep the Indians quiet.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Mountain Crows.</i>—These Indians have a reservation of 6,272,000 -acres, lying in the southern part of the Territory, between the Yellowstone -River and the north line of Wyoming Territory. They -have always been friendly to the whites, but are inveterate enemies -of the Sioux, with whom they have for years been at war. -By the treaty of 1868—by the terms of which their present reservation -was set apart for their occupancy—they are liberally supplied -with goods, clothing, and subsistence. But few of them -are engaged in farming, the main body relying upon their success -in hunting, and upon the supplies furnished by the Government -<a id='Page_437'></a>for their support. They have one school in operation, with an attendance, -however, of only nine scholars. By the treaty of May -7th, 1868, provision is made by which they are to receive for a -limited number of years the following annuities, etc., viz.: in -clothing and goods, $22,723 (twenty-six instalments due); in -beneficial objects, $25,000 (six instalments due); in subsistence, -$131,400 (one instalment due). Blacksmiths, teachers, physician, -carpenter, miller, engineer, and farmer are also furnished for their -benefit, at an expense to the Government of $11,600.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Flat-heads</i>, <i>etc.</i>—The Flat-heads, Pend d'Oreilles, and Kootenays -have a reservation of 1,433,600 acres in the Jocko Valley, situated -in the north-western part of the Territory, and secured to them -by treaty of 1855. This treaty also provided for a reservation in -the Bitter-root Valley, should the President of the United States -deem it advisable to set apart another for their use. The Flat-heads -have remained in the last-named valley; but under the provisions -of the Act of June 5th, 1872, steps are being taken for their -removal to the Jocko Reservation. Many of these Indians are engaged -in agriculture; but, as they receive little assistance from -the Government, their progress in this direction is slow. They -have one school in operation, with an attendance of twenty-seven -scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Shoshones</i>, <i>etc.</i>—The Shoshones, Bannocks, and Sheep-eaters are -at present located about twenty miles above the mouth of the -Lemhi Fork of the Salmon River, near the western boundary of -the Territory. They have shown considerable interest in agriculture, -and many of them are quite successful as farmers. They -have no reservation set apart for them, either by treaty or by Executive -order. They are so few in number that it would probably -be better to remove them, with their consent, to the Fort Hall -Reservation in Idaho, where their brethren are located, than to -provide them with a separate reservation. They have no schools -in operation. An annual appropriation of $25,000 is made for -these Indians, which sum is expended for their benefit in the purchase -of clothing, subsistence, agricultural implements, etc.</p> - -<p class='c010'>WYOMING.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians in this Territory, with the exception of the Sioux -and Northern Arapahoes and Cheyennes, mentioned under the -heads of Dakota and Montana, respectively, are the eastern band -of Shoshones, numbering about 1000. The Shoshones are native -to the country. Their reservation in the Wind River Valley, -<a id='Page_438'></a>containing 2,688,000 acres, was set apart for them by treaty of -1868.</p> - -<p class='c010'>But little advancement in civilization has been made by these -Indians, owing to their indisposition to labor for a living, and to -the incessant incursions into their country of the Sioux and the -Northern Arapahoes and Cheyennes, with which tribes they have -for many years been at war. The losses sustained from these incursions, -and the dread which they inspire, tend to make the Shoshones -unsettled and unwilling to remain continuously on the reservation. -They therefore spend most of the year in roaming and -hunting, when they should be at work tilling the soil and improving -their lands. There is one school at the agency, having an attendance -of ten scholars, in charge of an Episcopal missionary as -teacher.</p> - -<p class='c010'>IDAHO.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indian tribes in Idaho are the Nez Percés, the Boisé and -Bruneau Shoshones, and Bannocks, the Cœur d'Alênes, and Spokanes, -with several other small bands, numbering in the aggregate -about 5800 souls. ***</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Shoshones and Bannocks.</i>—These Indians, numbering 1037—the -former 516 and the latter 521—occupy a reservation in the south-eastern -part of the Territory, near Fort Hall, formerly a military -post. This reservation was set apart by treaty of 1868 and Executive -order of July 30th, 1869, and contains 1,568,000 acres. The -Shoshones on this reservation have no treaty with the Government. -Both bands are generally quiet and peaceable, and cause -but little trouble; are not disposed to engage in agriculture, and, -with some assistance from the Government, depend upon hunting -and fishing for subsistence. There is no school in operation on -the reservation.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Cœur d'Alênes</i>, <i>etc.</i>—The Cœur d'Alênes, Spokanes, Kootenays, -and Pend d'Oreilles, numbering about 2000, have no treaty with -the United States, but have a reservation of 256,000 acres set -apart for their occupancy by Executive order of June 14th, 1867, -lying thirty or forty miles north of the Nez Percés Reservation. -They are peaceable, have no annuities, receive no assistance from -the Government, and are wholly self-sustaining. These Indians -have never been collected upon a reservation, nor brought under -the immediate supervision of an agent. So long as their country -shall remain unoccupied, and not in demand for settlement by the -whites, it will scarcely be desirable to make a change in their location; -but the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, -<a id='Page_439'></a>which will probably pass through or near their range, may make -it expedient to concentrate them. At present they are largely -under the influence of Catholic missionaries of the Cœur d'Alêne -Mission.</p> - -<p class='c010'>COLORADO, NEW MEXICO, UTAH, ARIZONA, AND NEVADA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes residing in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, -and Nevada are divided as follows: in Colorado, about 3800; -New Mexico, 19,000; Utah, 10,000; Arizona, 25,000; and Nevada, -13,000.</p> - -<p class='c010'>COLORADO.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians residing in Colorado Territory are the Tabequache -band of Utes, at the Los Pinos Agency, numbering 3000, and the -Yampa, Grand River, and Uintah bands of the White River Agency, -numbering 800. They are native to the section which they -now inhabit, and have a reservation of 14,784,000 acres in the -western part of the Territory, set apart for their occupancy by -treaty made with them in 1868. The two agencies above named -are established on this reservation, the White River Agency being -in the northern part, on the river of that name, and the other in -the south-eastern part. This reservation is much larger than is -necessary for the number of Indians located within its limits; -and, as valuable gold and silver mines have been, or are alleged -to have been, discovered in the southern part of it, the discoveries -being followed by the inevitable prospecting parties and miners, -Congress, by Act of April 23d, 1872, authorized the Secretary of -the Interior to enter into negotiations with the Utes for the extinguishment -of their right to the south part of it.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A few of these Indians, who have declined to remove to and remain -upon the reservation, still roam in the eastern part of the -Territory, frequently visiting Denver and its vicinity, and causing -some annoyance to the settlers by their presence, but committing -no acts of violence or extensive depredations. The Indians of -Colorado have thus far shown but little interest in the pursuits -of civilized life or in the education of their children. A school -is in operation at the Northern or White River Agency, with an -attendance of forty scholars. Steps are also being taken to open -one at the southern or Los Pinos Agency.</p> - -<p class='c010'>NEW MEXICO.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes residing and roaming within the limits of New Mexico -are the Navajoes, the Mescalero, Gila, and Jicarilla bands of -<a id='Page_440'></a>Apaches; the Muache, Capote, and Weeminuche bands of Utes; -and the Pueblos.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Navajoes.</i>—The Navajoes now number 9114, an increase of 880 -over last year's enumeration. Superintendent Pope considers this -increase to be mainly due to the return, during the year, of a -number who had been held in captivity by the Mexicans. They -have a reservation of 3,328,000 acres in the north-western part of -New Mexico and north-eastern part of Arizona, set apart for them -by treaty of 1868. These Indians are natives of the section of -the country where they are now located. Prior to 1864 no less -than seven treaties had been made with these tribes, which were -successively broken on their part, and that, with but one exception, -before the Senate could take action on the question of their -ratification. In 1864 the Navajoes were made captives by the -military, and taken to the Bosque Redondo Reservation, which -had been set apart for the Mescalero Apaches, where they were -for a time held as prisoners of war, and then turned over to this -Department. After the treaty of 1868 had been concluded, they -were removed to their present location, where they have, as a tribe, -remained quiet and peaceable, many of them being engaged in -agriculture and in raising sheep and goats. Of these they have -large flocks, numbering 130,000 head, which supply them not -only with subsistence, but also with material from which they -manufacture the celebrated, and for warmth and durability unequalled, -Navajo blanket. They also have a stock of 10,000 -horses. These Indians are industrious, attend faithfully to their -crops, and even put in a second crop when the first, as frequently -happens, is destroyed by drought or frost. One school is in operation -on the reservation, with an attendance of forty scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Mescalero Apaches.</i>—These Indians, numbering about 830, are -at present located—not, however, upon a defined reservation secured -to them—near Fort Stanton, in the eastern part of the Territory, -and range generally south of that point. Prior to 1864 -they were located on the Bosque Redondo Reservation, where -they were quiet and peaceable until the Navajoes were removed -to that place. Being unable to live in harmony with the newcomers, -they fled from the reservation, and until quite recently -have been more or less hostile. They are now living at peace -with the whites, and conducting themselves measurably well. -They have no schools, care nothing apparently about the education -of their children, and are not to any noticeable extent engaged -in farming, or in any pursuit of an industrial character. -<a id='Page_441'></a>These Indians have no treaty with the United States; nor do -they receive any annuities. They are, however, subsisted in part -by the Government, and are supplied with a limited quantity of -clothing when necessary. In addition to the Mescaleros proper, -Agent Curtis reports as being embraced in his agency other Indians, -called by him Aguas Nuevos, 440; Lipans, 350 (probably -from Texas); and Southern Apaches, 310, whose proper home is -no doubt upon the Tularosa Reservation. These Indians, the -agent remarks, came from the Comanche country to his agency -at various dates during the past year.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Gila (sometimes called Southern) Apaches.</i>—This tribe is composed -of two bands, the Mimbres and Mogollons, and number -about 1200. They are warlike, and have for years been generally -unfriendly to the Government. The citizens of Southern New -Mexico, having long suffered from their depredatory acts, loudly -demanded that they be removed; and to comply with the wish -of the people, as well as to prevent serious difficulties and possibly -war, it was a year or two since decided to provide the Indians -with a reservation distant from their old home, and there establish -them. With a view to that end a considerable number of -them were collected early last year at Cañada Alamosa. Subsequently, -by Executive order dated November 9th, 1871, a reservation -was set apart for them with other roving bands of Apaches -in the Tularosa Valley, to which place 450 of them are reported -to have been removed during the present year by United States -troops. These Indians, although removed against their will, were -at first pleased with the change, but, after a short experience of -their new home, became dissatisfied; and no small portion left -the reservation to roam outside, disregarding the system of passes -established. They bitterly object to the location as unhealthy, -the climate being severe and the water bad. There is undoubtedly -much truth in these complaints. They ask to be taken back -to Cañada Alamosa, their own home, promising there to be peaceable -and quiet. Of course nothing can be said of them favorable -to the interests of education and labor. Such of these Indians as -remain on the reservation are being fed by the Government. They -have no treaty with the United States; nor do they receive annuities -of any kind.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Jicarilla Apaches.</i>—These Indians, numbering about 850, have -for several years been located with the Muache Utes, about 650 in -number, at the Cimarron Agency, upon what is called "Maxwell's -Grant," in North-eastern New Mexico. They have no treaty relations -<a id='Page_442'></a>with the Government; nor have they any reservation set -apart for them. Efforts were made some years ago to have them, -with the Utes referred to, remove to the large Ute Reservation in -Colorado, but without success. The Cimarron Agency, however, -has lately been discontinued; and these Apaches will, if it can -be effected without actual conflict, be removed to the Mescalero -Agency at Fort Stanton. Four hundred Jicarilla Apaches are also -reported as being at the Tierra Amarilla Agency.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Muache, Weeminuche, and Capote Utes.</i>—These bands—the Muache -band, numbering about 650, heretofore at the Cimarron -Agency, and the other two bands, numbering 870, at the Abiquiu -Agency—are all parties to the treaty made with the several bands -of Utes in 1868. It has been desired to have these Indians remove -to their proper reservation in Colorado; but all efforts to -this end have thus far proved futile. The discontinuance of the -Cimarron Agency may have the effect to cause the Muaches to -remove either to that reservation or to the Abiquiu Agency, now -located at Tierra Amarilla, in the north-western part of the territory. -These three bands have generally been peaceable, and -friendly to the whites. Recently, however, some of them have -shown a disposition to be troublesome; but no serious difficulty -is apprehended. None of them appear disposed to work for a -subsistence, preferring to live by the chase and on the bounty of -the Government; nor do they show any inclination or desire to -have their children educated, and taught the habits and customs -of civilized life. Declining to remove to and locate permanently -upon the reservation set apart for the Utes in Colorado, they receive -no annuities, and participate in none of the benefits provided -in the treaties of 1863 and 1868 with the several bands of -Ute Indians referred to under the head of "Colorado."</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Pueblos.</i>—The Pueblos, so named because they live in villages, -number 7683. They have 439,664 acres of land confirmed to -them by Act of Congress of December 22d, 1858, the same consisting -of approved claims under old Spanish grants. They have -no treaty with the United States, and receive but little aid from -the Government. During the past two years efforts have been -made, and are still being continued, to secure the establishment -of schools in all the villages of the Pueblos, for the instruction -of their children in the English language. Five such schools are -now being conducted for their benefit.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The history of the Pueblos is an interesting one. They are the -remains of a once powerful people, and in habits and modes of -<a id='Page_443'></a>life are still clearly distinguished from all other aborigines of the -continent. The Spanish invaders found them living generally in -towns and cities. They are so described by Spanish historians -as far back as 1540. They early revolted, though without success, -against Spanish rule; and in the struggle many of their -towns were burnt, and much loss of life and property occasioned. -It would seem, however, that, in addition to the villagers, -there were others at that time living dispersed, whose reduction -to Pueblos was determined upon and made the subject of a decree -by Charles V. of Spain, in 1546, in order chiefly, as declared, -to their being instructed in the Catholic faith. Under the Spanish -Government schools were established at the villages; the -Christian religion was introduced, and impressed upon the people, -and the rights of property thoroughly protected. By all -these means a high degree of civilization was secured, which was -maintained until after the establishment of Mexican independence; -when, from want of Government care and support, decay -followed, and the Pueblos measurably deteriorated, down to the -time when the authority of the United States was extended over -that country: still they are a remarkable people, noted for their sobriety, -industry, and docility. They have few wants, and are simple -in their habits and moral in their lives. They are, indeed, -scarcely to be considered Indians, in the sense traditionally attached -to that word, and, but for their residence upon reservations -patented to these bands in confirmation of ancient Spanish -grants, and their continued tribal organization, might be regarded -as a part of the ordinary population of the country. There -are now nineteen villages of these Indians in New Mexico. Each -village has a distinct and organized government, with its governor -and other officers, all of whom are elected annually by the people, -except the <i>cacique</i>, a sort of high-priest, who holds his office -during life. Though nominally Catholics in religion, it is thought -that their real beliefs are those of their ancestors in the days of -Montezuma.</p> - -<p class='c010'>UTAH.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes residing wholly or in part within the limits of Utah -are the North-western, Western, and Goship bands of Shoshones; -the Weber, Yampa, Elk Mountain, and Uintah bands of Utes; the -Timpanagos, the San Pitches, the Pah-Vents, the Piedes, and She-be-rechers—all, -with the exception of the Shoshones, speaking -the Ute language, and being native to the country inhabited by -them.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_444'></a><i>North-western, Western, and Goship Shoshones.</i>—These three bands -of Shoshones, numbering together about 3000, have treaties made -with the Government in 1863. No reservations were provided to -be set apart for them by the terms of said treaties, the only provision -for their benefit being the agreement on the part of the -United States to furnish them with articles, to a limited extent -and for a limited term, suitable to their wants as hunters or -herdsmen. Having no reservations, but little can be done for -their advancement. They live in North-western Utah and North-eastern -Nevada, and are generally inclined to be industrious, many -of them gaining a livelihood by working for the white settlers, -while others cultivate small tracts of land on their own account.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Weber Utes, numbering about 300, live in the vicinity of -Salt Lake City, and subsist by hunting, fishing, and begging. -The Timpanagos, numbering about 500, live south of Salt Lake -City, and live by hunting and fishing. The San Pitches, numbering -about 300, live, with the exception of some who have gone to -the Uintah Valley Reservation, in the country south and east of -the Timpanagos, and subsist by hunting and fishing. The Pah-Vents -number about 1200, and occupy the Territory south of the -Goships, cultivate small patches of ground, but live principally -by hunting and fishing. The Yampa Utes, Piedes, Piutes, Elk -Mountain Utes, and She-be-rechers live in the eastern and southern -parts of the Territory. They number, as nearly as can be estimated, -5200; do not cultivate the soil, but subsist by hunting -and fishing, and at times by depredating in a small way upon the -white settlers. They are warlike and migratory in their habits, -carrying on a petty warfare pretty much all the time with the -southern Indians. These bands of Utes have no treaties with the -United States: they receive no annuities, and but very little assistance -from the Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Uintah Utes, numbering 800, are now residing upon a reservation -of 2,039,040 acres in Uintah Valley, in the north-eastern -corner of the Territory, set apart for the occupancy of the Indians -in Utah by Executive order of October 3d, 1861, and by Act of -Congress of May 5th, 1864. This reservation comprises some of -the best farming land in Utah, and is of sufficient extent to maintain -all the Indians in the Territory. Some of the Indians located -here show a disposition to engage in agriculture, though -most of them still prefer the chase to labor. No steps have yet -been taken to open a school on the reservation. The Uintah -Utes have no treaty with the United States; but an appropriation -<a id='Page_445'></a>averaging about $10,000 has been annually made for their -civilization and improvement since 1863.</p> - -<p class='c010'>ARIZONA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes residing in the Territory of Arizona are the Pimas -and Maricopas, Papagoes, Mohaves, Moquis, and Orivas Pueblos, -Yumas, Yavapais, Hualapais, and different bands of the Apaches. -All are native to the districts occupied by them, respectively.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Pimas and Maricopas.</i>—These, said to have been in former years -"Village" or "Pueblo" Indians, number 4342, and occupy a reservation -of 64,000 acres, set apart for them under the Act of February -28th, 1859, and located in the central part of the Territory, -on the Gila River. They are, and always have been, peaceful and -loyal to the Government; are considerably advanced, according -to a rude form of civilization, and being industrious, and engaged -quite successfully, whenever the conditions of soil and climate -are favorable, in farming operations, are nearly self-sustaining. -The relations of these bands with the neighboring whites are, -however, very unfavorable to their interests; and the condition -of affairs is fast growing worse. The difficulty arises out of the -fact of the use, and probably the improvident use, by the whites -above them, of the water of the Gila River, by which they are deprived -of all means of irrigating their lands. Much dissatisfaction -is manifested on this account; and the result is, so far, that -many of the Indians have left the reservation, and gone to Salt -River Valley, where they are making a living by tilling the soil, -not, however, without getting into trouble at this point also with -the settlers.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Pimas and Maricopas are greatly interested in the education -of their children. Two schools are in operation on the reservation, -with an attendance of 105 scholars. These tribes have no -treaty with the United States, and receive but little assistance -from the Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Papagoes.</i>—These Indians, numbering about 5000, are of the -same class, in some respects, as the Pueblos in New Mexico, living -in villages, cultivating the soil, and raising stock for a support. -They have no reservation set apart for their occupancy, but inhabit -the south-eastern part of the Territory. Many of them have -embraced Christianity; and they are generally well-behaved, quiet, -and peaceable. They manifest a strong desire to have their children -educated; and steps to this end have been taken by the -Department. These Indians have no treaty relations with the -<a id='Page_446'></a>United States, and receive no assistance from the Government. -The expediency of assigning to the Papagoes a reservation, and -concentrating them where they can be brought within the direct -care and control of the Government, is under consideration by the -Department. There seems to be no reason to doubt that, if so established, -and once supplied with implements and stock, they -would become in a short time not only self-sustaining but prosperous.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Mohaves.</i>—These Indians have a reservation of 75,000 acres, -located on the Colorado River, and set apart for them and other -tribes in the vicinity of said river, under the Act of March 3d, -1865. The Mohaves number about 4000, of whom only 828 are -on the reservation, the rest either roaming at large or being fed -at other reservations in the Territory. An irrigating canal has -been built for them at great expense; but farming operations -have not as yet proved very successful. Over 1100 acres, however, -are being cultivated by the Indians. The crops consist of -corn, melons, and pumpkins. These Indians show but little progress -in civilization. The parents objecting to the education of -their children, no schools have been put in operation on the reservation, -as they could be conducted only on a compulsory system. -The Mohaves have no treaty stipulations with the United -States; but they are partly subsisted, and are largely assisted in -their farming operations, from the general incidental fund of the -Territory.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Yumas.</i>—These Indians number probably 2000. They inhabit -the country near the mouth of the Colorado River, but belong to -the reservation occupied by the Mohaves. They refuse, however, -to remove to the reservation, and gain a scanty subsistence by -planting, and by cutting wood for steamers plying on the river. -Many of them remain about Arizona City, performing menial -services for the whites, and gratifying their inveterate passion for -gambling. They have no treaty with the United States, and receive -but little assistance from the Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Hualapais.</i>—These Indians, numbering about 1500, inhabit the -country near the Colorado River, north of the Mohaves, ranging -a considerable distance into the interior. They have been, and -still are, more or less hostile. Those who are quiet and peaceable -are, with members of other bands of Indians, being fed by the -Government at Camps McDowell, Beal's Spring, and Date Creek.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Yavapais and Apaches.</i>—These Indians are estimated to number -from 8000 to 12,000, the lower estimate being the more reasonable. -<a id='Page_447'></a>Their ranging-grounds are in the central, northern, and eastern -parts of the Territory. Most of them have long been hostile -to the Government, committing numerous robberies and murders. -Earnest efforts have been made during the past year to settle them -on reservations, three of which, viz., Camp Apache, Camp Grant, -and Camp Verde, were set apart for their occupancy by Executive -order dated November 9th, 1871. These efforts, however, have -not resulted very successfully; the Indians occasionally coming -upon the reservations in large numbers, but leaving without permission, -and, indeed, defiantly, whenever so disposed, oftentimes -renewing their depredations before their supplies of government -rations are exhausted. Many of the bands of this tribe (if it can -be called a tribe; habits, physical structure, and language all -pointing to a great diversity in origin among the several bands) -are seemingly incorrigible, and will hardly be brought to cease -their depredations and massacres except by the application of -military force.</p> - -<p class='c010'>NEVADA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes residing in Nevada are Pah-Utes, Piutes, Washoes, -Shoshones, and Bannocks, and are native to the districts inhabited -by them respectively.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Pah-Utes.</i>—These Indians, numbering about 6000, inhabit the -western part of the State. Two reservations have been set apart -for them—one known as the Walker River, the other as the Pyramid -Lake Reservation, containing each 320,000 acres. These Indians -are quiet, and friendly to the whites—are very poor, and -live chiefly upon fish, game, seeds, and nuts, with such assistance -as the Government from time to time renders them. They show -considerable disposition to labor; and those on the reservations, -especially the Walker River Reservation, are cultivating small -patches of ground. The Pyramid Lake Reservation affords, in -addition, excellent fishing, and the surrounding settlements a -ready market for the catch over and above what the Indians require -for their own consumption. No schools have been established -for these Indians. They have no treaty relations with the -Government, and receive no annuities.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Piutes.</i>—The Piutes, numbering probably 2500, inhabit the -south-eastern part of the State. They have no reservation set -apart for them; nor have they any treaty with the United States. -They roam about at will, are very destitute, and obtain a living -principally by pilfering from the whites, although a few of them -are engaged in a small way in farming. But very little can be -<a id='Page_448'></a>done for these Indians by the Government in their present unsettled -condition. They should be brought upon one of the reservations -set apart for the Indians in Nevada, or upon the Uintah Reservation -in Utah, where they could receive suitable care and proper -instruction in the arts of civilized life.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Washoes.</i>—These Indians, numbering about 500, are a poor, miserable, -and debauched people, and spend most of their time among -the white settlements, where they gain some supplies of food and -clothing by menial services. They have no reservation and no -treaty, are not in charge of any agent of the Government; and -vice and disease are rapidly carrying them away.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Shoshones.</i>—The Shoshones are a portion of the North-western, -Western, and Goship bands, referred to under the head of "Utah." -Those roaming or residing in the eastern part of Nevada number -about 2000. The remarks made respecting their brethren in Utah -will equally apply to them.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Bannocks.</i>—The Bannocks, roaming in the north-eastern part of -the State, number, probably, 1500, and are doubtless a portion of -the people of that name ranging in Eastern Oregon and Southern -Idaho. They have no treaty with the Government, nor any reservation -set apart for them, and are not in charge of any United -States agent. They should, if possible, be located upon the Fort -Hall Reservation in Idaho, where some steps could be taken to -advance them in civilization.</p> - -<p class='c010'>THE PACIFIC SLOPE.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians on the Pacific slope are divided as follows: in -Washington Territory, about 14,000; in Oregon, 12,000; in California, -22,000.</p> - -<p class='c010'>WASHINGTON TERRITORY.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes residing in Washington Territory are the Nisqually, -Puyallup, and other confederate tribes; the D'Wamish and other -allied bands; the Makahs, the S'Klallams, the Qui-nai-elts and -Qui-leh-utes, the Yakamas, the Chehalis, and other allied tribes, -and the Colville, Spokanes, Cœur d'Alênes, Okanagans, and others.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Nisqually, Puyallup, and others.</i>—These Indians, numbering -about 1200, have three reservations, containing, as per treaty of -1854, 26,776 acres, situated on the Nisqually and Puyallup Rivers, -and on an island in Puget Sound. Some of these Indians are engaged -<a id='Page_449'></a>in farming, and raise considerable wheat, also potatoes and -other vegetables. Many are employed by the farmers in their -vicinity; while others still are idle and shiftless, spending their -time wandering from place to place. One school is in operation -on the Puyallup Reservation, with an attendance of eleven -scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>D'Wamish and others.</i>—The D'Wamish and other allied tribes -number 3600, and have five reservations, containing in all 41,716 -acres, set apart by treaty made with them in 1855, and located at -as many points on Puget Sound. Many of these Indians, particularly -those residing on the Lummi Reservation, are industrious -farmers, raising all the produce necessary for their support, and -owning a large number of cattle, horses, hogs, etc.; while others -are either employed by the neighboring white farmers or engaged -in lumbering on their own account. They are generally Christianized, -most of them members of the Catholic Church. One school, -with fifty-seven scholars, is in operation on the Tulalip Reservation, -where all the Government buildings are located. This school -has had a remarkable degree of success, as reported by the agent -and by disinterested visitors.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Makahs.</i>—These Indians number 604, and have a reservation of -12,800 acres, set apart by treaty made with them in 1855, and located -at the extreme north-west corner of the Territory. They -are a bold, hardy race, not inclined to till the soil for a support, -but depending principally upon fishing and the taking of fur-seal -for their livelihood. One school is in operation among them, -with an attendance of sixteen scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>S'Klallams.</i>—These Indians, numbering 919, have a reservation -of 4000 acres, set apart by treaty made with them in 1855, and -located on what is known as "Hood's Canal." Some of them are -engaged, in a small way, in farming; and others are employed in -logging for the neighboring saw-mills. Their condition generally -is such that their advancement in civilization must necessarily -be slow. A school has been established on the reservation, and is -attended by twenty-two scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Qui-nai-elts, Qui-leh-utes, Hohs, and Quits.</i>—These Indians number -520, and have a reservation of 25,600 acres, in the extreme -eastern part of the Territory, and almost wholly isolated from -white settlements, set apart under a treaty made with them July -1st, 1855. But one of the four tribes mentioned, the Qui-nai-elts, -live upon the reservation: the others reside at different points -along the coast, northward from the reservation. These declare -<a id='Page_450'></a>that they never agreed to sell their country, and that they never -knowingly signed any treaty disposing of their right to it. The -bottom land on the reservation is heavily timbered, and a great -deal of labor is required to clear it; but, when cleared, it produces -good crops. Many of the Indians, though in the main -fish-eaters (the Qui-nai-elt River furnishing them with salmon in -great abundance), are cultivating small patches, and raise sufficient -vegetables for their own use. One school is in operation on -the reservation, with an attendance of fifteen scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Yakamas.</i>—The Yakamas number 3000, and have a reservation -in the southern part of the Territory, containing 783,360 acres, set -apart for them by treaty of June 9th, 1855. These Indians belong -to numerous bands, confederated under the title of Yakamas. -Many of them, under the able management of their present agent, -have become noticeably advanced in civilization, and are good -farmers or skilled mechanics. The manual-labor school at the -Yakama Agency has been a complete success, and of incalculable -benefit in imparting to the children a practical knowledge of -farming and of the different mechanical arts. Their principal -wealth is in horses, of which they own 12,000. The fact that the -reservation for these Indians is located east of the Cascade Mountains, -away from all contact with the whites, has doubtless tended, -in a great measure, to make this what it is—the model agency -on the Pacific slope: though to this result the energy and devotion -of Agent Wilbur have greatly contributed. Churches have -been built on the reservation, which are well attended, the services -being conducted by native preachers. There are at present two -schools, with an attendance of forty-four scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Chehalis and others, Remnants of Tribes, and Parties to no Treaty -with the Government.</i>—These Indians number about 600, and have -a reservation of 4322 acres in the eastern part of the territory, set -apart for them by Executive order of July 8th, 1864. A considerable -portion of the land in this reservation is excellent for agricultural -purposes; and quite extensive crops are being raised by -the Indians of the Chehalis tribe. None of the other tribes for -whom the reservation was intended reside upon it, declining to -do so for the reason that they do not recognize it as their own, -and fear to prejudice their claims to other lands by so doing.</p> - -<p class='c010'>All these Indians have horses and cattle in abundance. They -are industrious; and, being good field-hands, those of them who -do not farm on their own account find ready employment from -the surrounding farmers, their services always commanding the -<a id='Page_451'></a>highest wages. Having no treaty relations with the Government, -no direct appropriations are made for their benefit. They, however, -receive some assistance from the general incidental fund of -the Territory. The Indians herein referred to as not living upon -the reservation are of the Cowlitz, Chinook, Shoalwater Bay, and -Humboldt tribes. They profess to desire a home at the mouth of -the Humboldt and Coinoose rivers, where they originated.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Colville and other Tribes.</i>—These Indians, numbering 3349, occupy -the north-eastern portion of the territory. They have no treaty -relations with the Government, and, until the present year, have -had no reservation set apart for them. They are now, however, -to be established, under an order of the President of July 2d, -1872, in the general section of the Territory where they now are, -upon a tract which is bounded on the south and east by the Columbia -River, on the west by the Okinakane River, and on the -north by British Columbia. The tribes for whom this reservation -is designed are known as Colvilles, Okinakanes, San Poels, Lake -Spokanes, Cœur d'Alênes, Calispells, and Methows. Some of these -Indians, however, have settled upon valuable tracts of land, and -have made extensive improvements, while others, to a considerable -number, have begun farming in a small way at various points -within the district from which it is proposed to remove their respective -tribes. It is doubtful whether these individuals will voluntarily -remove to the reservation referred to, which is some distance -west of their present location. It is proposed, therefore, to -allow such as are engaged in farming to remain where they are, -if they so desire. Owing to the influx of whites into the country -thus claimed or occupied by these Indians, many of them have -been crowded out; and some of them have had their own unquestionable -improvements forcibly wrested from them. This for -a time during the past summer caused considerable trouble, and -serious difficulties were apprehended; but thus far peace has -been preserved by a liberal distribution among them of agricultural -implements, seeds, blankets, etc. No funds are appropriated -specially for these Indians, such supplies and presents as are given -them being furnished from the general incidental fund of the -Territory.</p> - -<p class='c010'>OREGON.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes residing in Oregon are the Umatillas, Cayuses, Walla-Wallas, -Wascoes, Molels, Chasta Scotans, Coosas, Alseas, Klamath, -Modocs, and Wal-pah-pee Snakes, besides numerous other small -bands. They are all native to the country. On account of the -<a id='Page_452'></a>great number of small tribes and bands in this State—the number -of tribes and bands parties to the same treaty being in some cases -as high as ten or fifteen—these Indians will be treated of, and the -remarks concerning them will be made, under the heads of the -agencies at which they are respectively located.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Umatilla Agency.</i>—The tribes located at this agency are the -Umatillas, Cayuses, and a portion of the Walla-Wallas, and number -837. They have a reservation of 512,000 acres, situated in -the north-eastern part of the State, set apart for them by treaty -of June 9th, 1855. This reservation is very fertile, and, as usual -in such cases, has attracted the cupidity of the whites. A proposition -was made last year, under the authority of Congress, to -have the Indians take land in severalty, or sell and remove to -some other reservation. The Indians, however, in the exercise -of their treaty rights, refused to accede to this proposition. -These Indians are successfully engaged in agricultural operations, -are nearly self-supporting, and may be considered, comparatively -speaking, wealthy. It is gratifying to state that the introduction -of whiskey by whites upon this reservation, and its sale to the Indians, -has, during the last year, received a decided check through -the vigilance of Agent Cornoyer in causing the arrest and trial of -four citizens for a violation of the law in this respect. All the -parties charged were convicted, and are now in prison. This is -especially worthy of note, from the fact that it is always exceedingly -difficult to obtain convictions for such dealing with Indians -in any section of the country. There is one school in operation -on the reservation, with an attendance of twenty-seven -scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Warm Spring Agency.</i>—The Indians at this agency, known as -the "Confederated Tribes and Bands of Indians in Middle Oregon," -comprise seven bands of the Walla-Walla and Wasco tribes, -numbering 626. They have a reservation of 1,024,000 acres, located -in the central part of the State, set apart for them by the -treaty of June 25th, 1855. Though there is but little really good -land in this reservation, many of the Indians, by reason of their -industry, have succeeded measurably in their farming operations, -and may be considered as self-sustaining. In morals they have -greatly improved; so that polygamy, the buying and selling of -wives, gambling, and drunkenness have ceased to be common -among them, as in the past. There are some, however, who are -disposed to wander off the reservation and lead a vagabond life. -But little advancement has been made in education among these -<a id='Page_453'></a>Indians. One school is in operation at the agency, with an attendance -of fifty-one scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Grand Ronde Agency.</i>—The Indians at this agency comprise the -Molalla, Clackama, Calapooia, Molel, Umpqua, Rogue River, and -other bands, seventeen in all, with a total population of 870. The -reservation upon which these bands are located is in the northwestern -part of the State. It contains 69,120 acres, and was set -apart for their occupation by treaty of January 22d, 1855, with -the Molallas, Clackamas, etc., and by Executive order of June -30th, 1857. Some portions of this reservation are well adapted -to grain-raising, though much of it is rough and heavily timbered. -An allotment of land in severalty has been directed to be -made, much to the gratification and encouragement of the tribes. -These Indians are inclined to industry, and show commendable -zeal in cultivating their farms, growing crops which compare favorably -with those of their white neighbors. Their customs and -habits of life also exhibit a marked improvement. One school is -in operation, with an attendance of fifty scholars.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Siletz Agency.</i>—The Indians at this agency are the Chasta Scotans -and fragments of fourteen other bands, called, generally, -coast-tribes, numbering altogether about 2500. These Indians, -including those at the Alsea Sub-agency, have a reservation of -1,100,800 acres set apart for them by treaty of August 11th, 1855; -which treaty, however, has never been ratified, although the reservation -is occupied by the Indians. They were for a long time -much averse to labor for a support; but recently they have shown -more disposition to follow agriculture, although traditionally accustomed -to rely chiefly upon fish for food. Many already have -their farms well fenced and stocked, with good, comfortable dwellings -and out-houses erected thereon. There is no reason why -they should not, in time, become a thoroughly prosperous people. -The failure to make allotments of land in severalty, for which -surveys were commenced in 1871, has been a source of much uneasiness -to the Indians, and has tended to weaken their confidence -in the good intentions of the Government. One school is in operation -on the reservation, with an attendance of twenty scholars. -None of the tribes or bands at this agency have any treaty relations -with the United States, unless it may be a few members of -the Rogue River band, referred to under the head of the Grand -Ronde Agency.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Alsea Sub-agency.</i>—The Indians at this sub-agency are the Alseas, -Coosas, Sinselans, and a band of Umpquas, numbering in all -<a id='Page_454'></a>300, located within the limits of the reservation referred to under -the head of the Siletz Agency. The remarks made about the Indians -at the Siletz Agency will generally apply to the Indians of -this sub-agency. The Coosas, Sinselans, and Umpquas are making -considerable advancement in agriculture, and, had they advantages -of instruction, would rapidly acquire a proficiency in -the simpler mechanical branches of industry. The Alseas are not -so tractable, and exhibit but little desire for improvement. All -the assistance they receive from the Government is supplied out -of the limited amount appropriated for the general incidental expenses -of the service in Oregon.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Klamath Agency.</i>—The Indians belonging to this agency are -the Klamaths and Modocs, and the Yahooskin and Wal-pah-pee -bands of Snakes, numbering altogether about 4000, of whom only -1018 are reported at the agency. They have a reservation containing -768,000 acres, set apart for them by the treaty of October -14th, 1864, and by Executive order of March 14th, 1871, situated -in the extreme southern portion of the State. This reservation is -not well adapted to agriculture. The climate is cold and uncertain; -and the crops are consequently liable to be destroyed by -frosts. It is, however, a good grazing country. Although this -reservation is, comparatively speaking, a new one, the Indians located -upon it are making commendable progress, both in farming -operations and in lumbering. A part of the Modocs, who belong -by treaty to this agency, and who were at one time located upon -the reservation, have, on account of their troubles with the Klamaths—due -principally to the overbearing disposition of the latter—left -the agency, and refuse to return to it. They desire to -locate upon a small reservation by themselves. Under the circumstances -they should be permitted to do this, or else be allowed -to select a tract on the Malheur Reservation. There is no -school at present in operation for these Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Malheur Reservation.</i>—This reservation, set apart by Executive -order of September 12th, 1872, is situated in the south-eastern -part of the State. Upon this it is the intention of the Department -eventually to locate all the roving and straggling bands, in -Eastern and South-eastern Oregon, which can be induced to settle -there. As no funds are at the disposal of the Department with -which to make the necessary improvements, and to provide temporary -subsistence for Indians removed, the work has not yet -been fairly commenced. The Indians who should be collected -upon this reservation are now a constant source of annoyance to -<a id='Page_455'></a>the white settlers. They hang about the settlements and military -posts, begging and stealing; and, unless some prompt measures -be taken to bring them under the care and control of an -agent of the Government, serious trouble may result at any time. -Congress should make the necessary appropriation during the -coming session to maintain an agent for these Indians, to erect -the agency buildings, and to provide subsistence for such as may -be collected and may remain upon the reservation.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Indians not upon Reservations.</i>—There are a number of Indians, -probably not less than 3000, "renegades," and others of roving -habits, who have no treaty relations with the Government, and -are not in charge of any agent. The tribal names of some of these -are the Clatsops, Nestucals, Tillamooks, Nehalims, Snakes, and Nez -Percés. The "renegades," such in fact, and so called, roam on the -Columbia River, and are of considerable annoyance to the agents -at Warm Springs and Umatilla: others, the Snakes, 200 in number, -are upon the edge of the Grand Ronde Reservation. These -live by hunting and fishing, and profess to desire to have lands -allotted to them, and a school provided for their children. The -Nez Percés, belonging in Idaho, to the estimated number of 200, -are found in Wallowa Valley, in the eastern part of the State. -They claim that they were not parties to the treaty with the Nez -Percé tribe years ago; that the valley in which they live has always -belonged to them; and they strenuously oppose its settlement -by the whites.</p> - -<p class='c010'>CALIFORNIA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tribes in California are the Ukie, Pitt River, Wylackie, -Concon, Redwood, Humboldt, Hoonsolton, Miscott, Siah, Tule, -Tejon, Coahuila, King's River, and various other bands and -tribes, including the "Mission Indians," all being native to the -country.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Round Valley Agency.</i>—The Indians belonging to this agency -are the Ukies, Concons, Pitt Rivers, Wylackies, and Redwoods, -numbering in all 1700. The number has been increased during -the past year by bringing in 1040 Indians collected in Little Lake -and other valleys. A reservation containing 31,683 acres has been -set apart, per Act of April 8th, 1864, and Executive order of March -30th, 1870, in the western and northern part of the State, for these -Indians, and for such others as may be induced to locate thereon. -The lands in the reservation are very fertile; and the climate admits -of a widely varied growth of crops. More produce being -raised than is necessary for the subsistence of the Indians, the -<a id='Page_456'></a>proceeds derived from the sale of the surplus are used in purchasing -stock and work animals, and for the further improvement of -the reservation. Several of the Indians are engaged in cultivating -gardens, while others work as many as twenty-five or thirty -acres on their own account.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians on this reservation are uniformly quiet and peaceable, -notwithstanding that they are much disturbed by the white -trespassers. Suits, by direction of the Department, were commenced -against such trespassers, but without definite results as -yet; the Attorney-general having directed the United States District-attorney -to suspend proceedings. Of this reservation the Indian -Department has in actual possession and under fence only -about 4000 acres; the remainder being in the possession of settlers, -all clamorous for breaking up the reservation and driving -the Indians out.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians at this reservation have shown no especial disposition -to have their children educated; and no steps were taken to -that end until in the summer of 1871, when a school was commenced. -There is now one school in operation, with an attendance -of 110 scholars. These Indians have no treaties with the -Government; and such assistance as is rendered them in the -shape of clothing, etc., is from the money appropriated for the -general incidental expenses of the Indian service in the State.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Hoopa Valley Agency.</i>—The Indians belonging to this agency -are the Humboldts, Hoonsoltons, Miscotts, Siahs, and several other -bands, numbering 725.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A reservation was set apart, per Act of April 8th, 1864, for these -and such other Indians in the northern part of the State as might -be induced to settle thereon. This reservation is situated in the -north-western part of the State, on both sides of the Trinity River, -and contains 38,400 acres. As a rule, sufficient is raised on the -reservation to supply the wants of the Indians. These Indians -are quiet and peaceable, and are not disposed to labor on the reservation -in common, but will work industriously when allowed to -do so on their own individual account. One school is in operation -on the reservation, with an attendance of seventy-four scholars. -Having no treaty relations with the United States, and, consequently, -no regular annuities appropriated for their benefit, the general -incidental fund of the State is used so far as may be necessary, and -so far as the amount appropriated will admit, to furnish assistance -in the shape of clothing, agricultural implements, seeds, etc. Besides -these, their agent has a general supervisory control of certain -<a id='Page_457'></a>Klamath Indians, who live adjacent to the reservation and along -the banks of the Klamath River. These formerly belonged to a -reservation bearing their name, which was, years ago, abandoned -in consequence of the total destruction by flood of agency buildings -and improvements. They now support themselves chiefly by -hunting and fishing, and by cultivating small patches in grain and -vegetables.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Tule River Farm, or Agency.</i>—The Indians located at this point -are the Tules and Manaches, numbering 374. These Indians are -gradually improving, are quite proficient in all kinds of farm-work, -and show a good disposition to cultivate the soil on their -own account. There is one school in operation at the Tule River -Farm, with an attendance of thirty-seven scholars. About sixty -miles from the agency reside several hundred King's River Indians, -who are in a wretched and destitute condition. They desire -to be attached to the agency, and have in the past received -occasional supplies of food from it.</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Indians not on Reservations.</i>—In addition to the Indians located -at the three agencies named, there are probably not less than -20,000, including the Mission Indians (so called), the Coahuilas, -Owen's River, and others, in the southern part of the State; and -those on the Klamath, Trinity, Scott, and Salmon rivers, in the -northern part. The Mission Indians, having been for the past -century under the Catholic missions established on the California -coast, are tolerably well advanced in agriculture, and compare -favorably with the most highly civilized tribes of the east. The -Coahuilas, and others inhabiting the south-eastern and eastern -portions of the State, and those in the north, support themselves -by working for white settlers, or by hunting, fishing, begging, and -stealing, except, it may be, a few of the northern Indians, who go -occasionally to the reservations and the military posts in that section -for assistance in the way of food.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There are also about 4000 Owen's River and Manache Indians -east of the Sierras, whom the settlers would gladly see removed -to a reservation, and brought under the care of an agent. The -Department has under consideration the propriety of establishing -a new reservation, upon which shall be concentrated these and -numerous other Indians, in which event the Tule River Agency -could advantageously be discontinued.</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <a id='Page_458'></a> - <h2 class='c004'>XV.</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>REPORT</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>ON THE CONDITION AND NEEDS OF THE MISSION INDIANS OF</div> - <div>CALIFORNIA, MADE BY SPECIAL AGENTS HELEN JACKSON AND</div> - <div>ABBOT KINNEY, TO THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c015'>Colorado Springs, Col., July 13th, 1883.</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Sir</span>,—In compliance with our instructions bearing dates November -28th, 1882, and January 12th, 1883, we have the honor -to submit to you the following report on the subject of the Mission -Indians in Southern California.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The term "Mission Indians" dates back over one hundred -years, to the time of the Franciscan missions in California. It -then included all Indians who lived in the mission establishments, -or were under the care of the Franciscan Fathers. Very -naturally the term has continued to be applied to the descendants -of those Indians. In the classification of the Indian Bureau, -however, it is now used in a somewhat restricted sense, embracing -only those Indians living in the three southernmost counties -of California, and known as Serranos, Cahuillas, San Luisenos, -and Dieguinos; the last two names having evidently come from -the names of the southernmost two missions, San Luis Rey and -San Diego. A census taken in 1880, of these bands, gives their -number as follows:</p> - -<table class='table3' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='57%' /> -<col width='42%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Serranos</td> - <td class='c006'>381</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Cahuillas</td> - <td class='c006'>675</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>San Luisenos</td> - <td class='c006'>1,120</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Dieguinos</td> - <td class='c006'>731</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'></td> - <td class='c006'>-------</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Total</td> - <td class='c006'>2,907</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class='c010'>This estimate probably falls considerably short of the real numbers, -as there are no doubt in hiding, so to speak, in remote and -inaccessible spots, many individuals, families, or even villages, -that have never been counted. These Indians are living for the -most part in small and isolated villages; some on reservations set -apart for them by Executive order; some on Government land -not reserved, and some upon lands included within the boundaries -of confirmed Mexican grants.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_459'></a>Considerable numbers of these Indians are also to be found on -the outskirts of white settlements, as at Riverside, San Bernardino, -or in the colonies in the San Gabriel Valley, where they -live like gypsies in brush huts, here to-day, gone to-morrow, eking -out a miserable existence by days' works, the wages of which -are too often spent for whiskey in the village saloons. Travellers -in Southern California, who have formed their impressions of the -Mission Indians from these wretched wayside creatures, would be -greatly surprised at the sight of some of the Indian villages in the -mountain valleys, where, freer from the contaminating influence -of the white race, are industrious, peaceable communities, cultivating -ground, keeping stock, carrying on their own simple manufactures -of pottery, mats, baskets, &c., and making their living,—a -very poor living, it is true; but they are independent and self-respecting -in it, and ask nothing at the hands of the United -States Government now, except that it will protect them in the -ownership of their lands,—lands which, in many instances, have -been in continuous occupation and cultivation by their ancestors -for over one hundred years.</p> - -<p class='c010'>From tract after tract of such lands they have been driven out, -year by year, by the white settlers of the country, until they can -retreat no farther; some of their villages being literally in the -last tillable spot on the desert's edge or in mountain fastnesses. -Yet there are in Southern California to-day many fertile valleys, -which only thirty years ago were like garden spots with these -same Indians' wheat-fields, orchards, and vineyards. Now, there -is left in these valleys no trace of the Indians' occupation, except -the ruins of their adobe houses; in some instances these houses, -still standing, are occupied by the robber whites who drove them -out. The responsibility for this wrong rests, perhaps, equally -divided between the United States Government, which permitted -lands thus occupied by peaceful agricultural communities to be -put "in market," and the white men who were not restrained -either by humanity or by a sense of justice, from "filing" homestead -claims on lands which had been fenced, irrigated, tilled, -and lived on by Indians for many generations. The Government -cannot justify this neglect on the plea of ignorance. Repeatedly, -in the course of the last thirty years, both the regular agents in -charge of the Mission Indians and special agents sent out to investigate -their condition have made to the Indian Bureau full -reports setting forth these facts.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1873 one of these special agents, giving an account of the -<a id='Page_460'></a>San Pasquale Indians, mentioned the fact that a white man had -just pre-empted the land on which the greater part of the village -was situated. He had paid the price of the land to the register -of the district land office, and was daily expecting his patent from -Washington. "He owned," the agent says, "that it was hard -to wrest from these well-disposed and industrious creatures the -homes they had built up; but," said he, "if I had not done it, -somebody else would; for all agree that the Indian has no right -to public lands." This San Pasquale village was a regularly organized -Indian pueblo, formed by about one hundred neophytes -of the San Luis Rey Mission, under and in accordance with the -provisions of the Secularization Act in 1834. The record of its -founding is preserved in the Mexican archives at San Francisco. -These Indians had herds of cattle, horses, and sheep; they raised -grains, and had orchards and vineyards. The whole valley in -which this village lay was at one time set off by Executive order -as a reservation, but by the efforts of designing men the order -was speedily revoked; and no sooner has this been done than the -process of dispossessing the Indians began. There is now, on -the site of that old Indian pueblo, a white settlement numbering -35 voters. The Indians are all gone,—some to other villages; -some living near by in cañons and nooks in the hills, from which, -on the occasional visits of the priest, they gather and hold services -in the half-ruined adobe chapel built by them in the days -of their prosperity.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This story of the San Pasquale Indians is only a fair showing -of the experiences of the Mission Indians during the past fifty -years. Almost without exception they have been submissive and -peaceable through it all, and have retreated again and again to -new refuges. In a few instances there have been slight insurrections -among them, and threatenings of retaliation; but in the -main their history has been one of almost incredible long suffering -and patience under wrongs.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1851 one of the San Luiseno bands, the Aqua Caliente -Indians, in the north part of San Diego County, made an attack -on the house of a white settler, and there was for a time great fear -of a general uprising of all the Indians in the country. It is probable -that this was instigated by the Mexicans, and that there was -a concerted plan for driving the Americans out of the country. -The outbreak was easily quelled, however; four of the chiefs were -tried by court-martial and shot by order of General Heintzelman, -and in January of the following year a treaty was made -<a id='Page_461'></a>with the San Luiseno and Dieguino Indians, setting off for them -large tracts of land. This treaty was made by a United States -commissioner, Dr. Wozencraft, and Lieutenant Hamilton, representing -the Army, and Col. J. J. Warner, the settler whose house -had been attacked. The greater part of the lands which were by -this treaty assigned to the Indians are now within the boundaries -of grants confirmed and patented since that time; but there are -many Indian villages still remaining on them, and all Indians -living on such lands are supposed to be there solely on the tolerance -and at the mercy of the owners of said ranches, and to be -liable to ejectment by law. Whether this be so or not is a point -which it would seem to be wise to test before the courts. It is -certain that in the case of all these Mission Indians the rights -involved are quite different from and superior to the mere "occupancy" -right of the wild and uncivilized Indian.</p> - -<p class='c010'>At the time of the surrender of California to the United States -these Mission Indians had been for over seventy years the subjects, -first of the Spanish Government, secondly of the Mexican. They -came under the jurisdiction of the United States by treaty provisions,—the -treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, between the United -States and Mexico, in 1848. At this time they were so far civilized -that they had become the chief dependence of the Mexican -and white settlers for all service indoors and out. In the admirable -report upon these Indians made to the Interior Department in -1853, by the Hon. B. D. Wilson, of Los Angeles, are the following -statements:—</p> - -<p class='c010'>"These same Indians had built all the houses in the country, planted -all the fields and vineyards. Under the Missions there were masons, carpenters, -plasterers, soap-makers, tanners, shoe-makers, blacksmiths, -millers, bakers, cooks, brick-makers, carters and cart-makers, weavers -and spinners, saddlers, shepherds, agriculturalists, horticulturalists, -vineros, vaqueros; in a word, they filled all the laborious occupations -known to civilized society."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The intentions of the Mexican Government toward these Indians -were wise and humane. At this distance of time, and in -face of the melancholy facts of the Indians' subsequent history, -it is painful to go over the details of the plans devised one short -half-century ago for their benefit. In 1830 there were in the -twenty-one missions in California some 20,000 or 30,000 Indians, -living comfortable and industrious lives under the control of the -Franciscan Fathers. The Spanish colonization plan had, from the -<a id='Page_462'></a>outset, contemplated the turning of these mission establishments -into pueblos as soon as the Indians should have become sufficiently -civilized to make this feasible. The Mexican Government, carrying -out the same general plan, issued in 1833 an act, called the -Secularization Act, decreeing that this change should be made. -This act provided that the Indians should have assigned to them -cattle, horses, and sheep from the mission herds; also, lands for -cultivation. One article of Governor Figueroa's regulations for the -carrying out of the Secularization Act provided that there should -be given to every head of a family, and to all above twenty-one -years of age, though they had no family, a lot of land not exceeding -400 varas square, nor less than 100. There was also to be -given to them in common, enough land for pasturing and watering -their cattle. Another article provided that one-half the cattle -of each mission school should be divided among the Indians of -that mission in a proportionable and equitable manner; also one-half -of the chattels, instruments, seeds, &c. Restrictions were to -be placed on the disposition of this property. The Indians were -forbidden "to sell, burden, or alienate under any pretext the -lands given them. Neither can they sell the cattle." The commissioners -charged with the carrying out of these provisions were -ordered to "explain all the arrangements to the Indians with -suavity and patience;" to tell them that the lands and property -will be divided among them so that each one may "work, maintain, -and govern himself without dependence on any one." It -was also provided that the rancherias (villages) situated at a distance -from the missions, and containing over twenty-five families, -might, if they chose, form separate pueblos, and the distribution -of lands and property to them should take place in the same manner -provided for those living near the missions.</p> - -<p class='c010'>These provisions were in no case faithfully carried out. The -administration of the Missions' vast estates and property was too -great a temptation for human nature, especially in a time of revolution -and misrule. The history of the thirteen years between -the passing of the Secularization Act and the conquest of California -is a record of shameful fraud and pillage, of which the Indians -were the most hapless victims. Instead of being permitted each -one to work, maintain, and govern himself without dependence -on any one, as they had been promised, their rights to their plats -of land were in the majority of cases ignored; they were forced -to labor on the mission lands like slaves; in many instances they -were hired out in gangs to cruel masters. From these cruelties -<a id='Page_463'></a>and oppressions they fled by hundreds, returning to their old wilderness -homes. Those who remained in the neighborhood of the -pueblos became constantly more and more demoralized, and were -subjected to every form of outrage. By a decree of the Los Angeles -aqumiento, about the time of our taking possession of California, -all Indians found without passes, either from the alcalde -of the pueblos in which they lived, or from their "masters [significant -phrase], were to be treated as horse-thieves and enemies." -At this time there were, according to Mr. Wilson's report, whole -streets in Los Angeles where every other house was a grog-shop -for Indians; and every Saturday night the town was filled with -Indians in every stage of intoxication. Those who were helpless -and insensible were carried to the jail, locked up, and on Monday -morning bound out to the highest bidders at the jail gates. "The -Indian has a quick sense of justice," says Mr. Wilson; "he can -never see why he is sold out to service for an indefinite period for -intemperance, while the white man goes unpunished for the same -thing, and the very richest and best men, to his eye, are such as -tempt him to drink, and sometimes will pay him for his labor in -no other way." Even the sober and industrious and best skilled -among them could earn but little; it having become a custom to -pay an Indian only half the wages of a white man.</p> - -<p class='c010'>From this brief and necessarily fragmentary sketch of the position -and state of the Mission Indians under the Mexican Government, -at the time of the surrender of California to the United -States, it will be seen that our Government received by the treaty -of Guadalupe Hidalgo a legacy of a singularly helpless race in a -singularly anomalous position. It would have been very difficult, -even at the outset, to devise practicable methods of dealing justly -with these people, and preserving to them their rights. But with -every year of our neglect the difficulties have increased and the -wrongs have been multiplied, until now it is, humanly speaking, -impossible to render to them full measure of justice. All that is -left in our power is to make them some atonement. Fortunately -for them, their numbers have greatly diminished. Suffering, hunger, -disease, and vice have cut down more than half of their numbers -in the last thirty years; but the remnant is worth saving. -Setting aside all question of their claim as a matter of atonement -for injustice done, they are deserving of help on their own merits. -No one can visit their settlements, such as Aqua Caliente, Saboba, -Cahuilla Valley, Santa Ysabel, without having a sentiment of respect -and profound sympathy for men who, friendless, poor, without -<a id='Page_464'></a>protection from the law, have still continued to work, planting, -fencing, irrigating, building houses on lands from which -long experience has taught them that the white man can drive -them off any day he chooses. That drunkenness, gambling, -and other immoralities are sadly prevalent among them, cannot -be denied; but the only wonder is that so many remain honest -and virtuous under conditions which make practically null and -void for them most of the motives which keep white men honest -and virtuous.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Having thus given as brief a presentation as possible of the -general situation and nature of these Indians, we will proceed to -state what, to the best of our judgment, are the steps which ought -to be taken by the United States Government in their behalf. -The descriptions of the most important villages we visited, and -the detailed accounts of circumstances and situations on which -our suggestions are based, are given for convenience of reference -in separate exhibits.</p> - -<p class='c010'>1st. The first and most essential step, without which there is -no possibility of protecting these Indians or doing anything intelligently -for them, is the determining, resurveying, rounding out, -and distinctly marking, their reservations already existing. The -only way of having this done accurately and honestly, is to have -it done by a surveyor who is under the orders and constant supervision -of an intelligent and honest commissioner; not by an independent -surveyor who runs or "floats" reservation lines where -he and his friends or interested parties choose, instead of where -the purpose of the United States Government, looking to the -Indians' interests, had intended. There have been too many -surveys of Indian reservations in Southern California of this sort. -(See Exhibits C, H, I, J, L.) All the reservations made in 1876—and -that comprises nearly all now existing—were laid off by -guess, by the surveyor in San Diego, on an imperfect county map. -These sections, thus guessed at by the surveyor, were reported -by the commissioner to the Interior Department, set aside by -Executive order, and ordered to be surveyed. When the actual -survey came to be made, it was discovered that in the majority of -cases the Indian villages intended to be provided for were outside -the reservation lines, and that the greater part of the lands set -apart were wholly worthless. The plats of these reservations -are in the surveyor-general's office at San Francisco. On each -of them was marked by the surveyor an additional line in color, -showing what tracts ought to be added to take in the Indian -<a id='Page_465'></a>villages and fields. So far as we could learn, no action was taken -in regard to these proposed additions.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The reservation lines, when thus defined, should be marked -plainly and conspicuously by monuments and stakes, leaving no -room for doubt. A plat of each reservation should then be given -to the Indians living on it. It was pathetic, in our visits to village -after village, to hear the Indians' request reiterated for this thing,—"a -paper to show to the white men where their lands were." -Every fragment of writing they had ever received, which could -by any possibility bear on their title to their lands, they had carefully -preserved; old tattered orders from Army officers thirty years -back, orders from justices of the peace, &c., all worthless of course, -but brought forward with touching earnestness to show us. In -no single instance had the reservation lines ever been pointed out -to them. One band, the Sequan Indians, who had never seen -any agent, said they had been told that they were on a reservation, -but they did not know if it were true or not. They had -been obliged to give up keeping stock, because they could not -find any place where the whites would let them pasture cattle. -(See Exhibit J.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>There are some settlements of Indians on Government lands not -set off as reservations, in some instances not surveyed. These -tracts should all be surveyed, their boundaries marked, and the -lands withdrawn from market to be permanently set aside for the -Indians' use. We use the term "rounding out" in regard to -these reservations chiefly on account of the complication which -results from their being in some cases within the limit of railroad -grants, and made subsequent to those grants. Some are actually -within the limits of the Southern Pacific Railroad grant; others -will be within the limits of the Texas Pacific grant, should that -be confirmed. The odd sections thus belonging to the railroads -should be secured to the Indians. There are also a few claims to -lands within reservation boundaries, which are legal on account -of their having been made before the reservations were set off. -These should be extinguished. (See Exhibit O.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>2d. All white settlers now on reservations should be removed. -For the last four years stray settlers have been going in upon reservation -tracts. This is owing to the lack of boundary definitions -and marks as aforesaid, also to the failure of the surveys to locate the -reservations so as to take in all the ground actually occupied by -Indian villages. Thus, in many instances, the Indians' fields and -settlements have been wrested from them, and they in their turn -<a id='Page_466'></a>have not known where they could or could not go. There is not -a single reservation of any size which is free from white settlers. -It would seem that agents in charge of these Indians should have -been authoritatively instructed in no case to allow squatters to -settle on lands known to be within reservation lines, whether they -were occupied by Indians or not. (See Exhibits H, I, O.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>The amount of land set off in Indian reservations in Southern -California appears by the record to be very large, but the proportion -of it which is really available is very small. San Diego -County itself is four-fifths desert and mountain, and it is no -exaggeration to say that the proportion of desert and mountain -in the reservation is even larger than this. By thus resurveying, -rounding out, and freeing from white settlers the present reservations, -adding to them all Government lands now actually in occupation -by Indians, there will be, according to the best of our -judgment, nearly land enough for the accommodation of all the -Mission Indians except those whose settlements are on grants.</p> - -<p class='c010'>3d. In regard to this latter class, <i>i.e.</i>, those whose villages are -now within the boundaries of confirmed grants, the Government -has to choose between two courses of action,—either to remove -them and make other provision for them, or to uphold and defend -their right to remain where they are. In support of the latter -course we believe a strong case could be made out, and we have -secured from one of the ablest firms in Southern California a -written legal opinion on this point. (See Exhibit A.) It seems -clear that this contest should be made by the Government itself. -It is impossible for these poverty-stricken and ignorant people to -undertake on their own account and at their own expense the -legal settlement of this matter. It would be foolish to advise it; -inhuman to expect it. A test case could be made which would -settle the question for all. (See Exhibit B.) In case the decision -be favorable to the Indians remaining, the ranch owners -should then be called on to mark off the boundaries of the Indians' -lands according to the California State law covering such cases. -(See Exhibit R.) Whether the lands thus reverting to the Indians -could properly be considered as Government lands or not, -would be a question to be determined. Probably the surest way -of securing them for the Indians' permanent use would be to consider -them as such and have them defined as reservations by act -of Congress.</p> - -<p class='c010'>4th. And this brings us to our fourth recommendation, which -is, that all these Indians' reservations, those already set off by -<a id='Page_467'></a>Executive order, and all new ones made for them, whether of -Government lands now in their occupation, or of lands which -may be hereafter by legal process reclaimed for them from the -grant lands on which they are now living, be patented to the -several bands occupying them; the United States to hold the patent -in trust for the period of twenty-five years; at the expiration -of that time the United States to convey the same by patent to -said Indians, as has been done for the Omaha Indians. The insecurity -of reservations made merely by Executive order is apparent, -and is already sadly illustrated in Southern California by the -history of the San Pasquale Reservation, that of Aqua Caliente, -and others. The insecurity of reservations set apart by act of -Congress is only a degree less. The moment it becomes the interest -and purpose of white men in any section of the country to -have such reservation tracts restored to the public domain, the -question of its being done is only a question of influence and -time. It is sure to be done. The future of these industrious, -peaceable, agricultural communities ought not to be left a single -day longer than is necessary, dependent on such chances; chances -which are always against and never for Indians' interests in the -matter of holding lands. The best way and time of allotting -these Indians' lands to them in severalty must be left to the decision -of the Government, a provision being incorporated in their -patent to provide for such allotments from time to time as may -seem desirable, and agents and commissioners being instructed -to keep the advantages of this system constantly before the Indians' -minds. Some of them are fit for it now, and earnestly -desire it, but the majority are not ready for it. The communal -system, on which those now living in villages use their lands, -satisfies them, and is apparently administered without difficulty. -It is precisely the same system as that on which the pueblo lands -were cultivated by the early Spanish settlers in Southern California. -They agree among themselves to respect each other's right -of occupancy; a man's right to a field this year depending on his -having cultivated it last year, and so on. It seems not to occur -to these Indians that land is a thing to be quarrelled over.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the village of Aqua Caliente, one of the most intelligent of -the young men was so anxious to show us his fields that we went -with him a little distance outside the village limits to see them. -He had some eight acres in grain, vine, and fruit trees. Pointing -first in one direction, then in another, he indicated the places -where his ground joined other men's ground. There was no line -<a id='Page_468'></a>of demarcation whatever, except it chanced to be a difference -of crops. We said to him, "Alessandro, how do you know which -is your land and which is theirs?" He seemed perplexed, and -replied, "This was my mother's land. We have always had it." -"But," we persisted, "suppose one of these other men should want -more land and should take a piece of yours?" "He couldn't," -was all the reply we could get from Alessandro, and it was plain -that he was greatly puzzled by the suggestion of the possibility -of neighbors trespassing on each other's cultivated fields.</p> - -<p class='c010'>5th. We recommend the establishment of more schools. At -least two more are immediately needed, one at the Rincon, and -one at Santa Ysabel. (See Exhibits G, L.) As the reservations -are gradually cleared, defined and assured for the Indians' occupancy, -hundreds of Indians who are now roving from place to -place, without fixed homes, will undoubtedly settle down in the -villages, and more schools will be needed. It is to be hoped, also, -that some of the smaller bands will unite with the larger ones, for -the sake of the advantages of the school and other advantages of -a larger community. The isolated situation of many of the -smaller settlements is now an insuperable difficulty in the way of -providing education for all the children. These Indians are all -keenly alive to the value of education. In every village that we -visited we were urged to ask the Government to give them a -school. In one they insisted upon ranging the children all in -rows, that we might see for ourselves that there were children -enough to justify the establishing of a school.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In this connection we would suggest that if a boarding and industrial -school, similar to those at Hampton and Carlisle, could -be established in Southern California, it would be of inestimable -value, and would provide opportunities for many children who, -owing to the isolation of their homes, could not be reached in -any other way.</p> - -<p class='c010'>We would further suggest that, in our judgment, only women -teachers should be employed in these isolated Indian villages. -There is a great laxity of morals among these Indians; and in the -wild regions where their villages lie, the unwritten law of public -sentiment, which in more civilized communities does so much to -keep men virtuous, hardly exists. Therefore the post of teacher -in these schools is one full of temptations and danger to a man. -(See Exhibit M.) Moreover, women have more courage and self-denying -missionary spirit, sufficient to undertake such a life, and -have an invaluable influence outside their school-rooms. They go -<a id='Page_469'></a>familiarly into the homes, and are really educating the parents as -well as the children in a way which is not within the power of any -man, however earnest and devoted he may be.</p> - -<p class='c010'>We would also suggest that great good might be accomplished -among these Indians by some form of itinerary religious and -educational labor among them. In the list of assignments of Indian -agencies to different religious denominations, as given in -the report of the Indian Bureau for 1882, the Mission Agency is -assigned to the Evangelical Lutheran; but we could not learn -that this denomination had done any work among them. So far -as the Mission Indians have any religion at all they are Catholics. -In many of the villages are adobe chapels, built in the time of -the missions, where are still preserved many relics of the mission -days, such as saints' images, holy-water kettles, &c. In these -chapels on the occasions of the priest's visits the Indians gather -in great numbers, women sometimes walking two days' journey, -bringing their babies on their backs to have them baptized. -There are also in several of the villages old Indians, formerly -trained at the missions, who officiate with Catholic rites at funerals, -and on Sundays repeat parts of the Mass. As these Indians -are now situated in isolated settlements so far apart, and -so remote from civilized centres, the only practicable method of -reaching them all would be by some form of itinerary labor. A -fervent religious and practical teacher, who should spend his time -in going from village to village, remaining in each a few days or -weeks, as the case might be, would sow seed which would not -cease to grow during the intervals of his absence. If he were -a man of sound common-sense and knowledge of laws of life, -fitted to instruct the Indians in matters of hygiene, cleanliness, -ventilation, &c., and in a few of the simple mechanical arts, as -well as in the doctrines of religion and morality, he would do -more for the real good of these people at present than can be -accomplished by schools.</p> - -<p class='c010'>6th. The suggestion of the value of itinerary labor among the -Indians leads to our next recommendation, which we consider -of great importance, <i>viz.</i>, that it should be made the duty of any -Government agent in charge of the Mission Indians to make a -round of inspection at least twice a year, visiting each village or -settlement however small. In no other way can anything like a -proper supervision of these Indians' interests be attained. This -proof of the Government's intention to keep a sharp eye on all -that might occur in relation to the Indians would have a salutary -<a id='Page_470'></a>moral effect, not only on the Indians, but on the white settlers -in their neighborhood. It would also afford the means of dealing -with comparative promptitude with the difficulties and troubles -continually arising. As it is now, it is not to be wondered at -that the Indians feel themselves unprotected and neglected, and -the white settlers feel themselves safe in trespassing on Indians' -property or persons. In some of the villages, where pre-emption -claims have been located within the last four years, no agent has -ever been. It is safe to say, that had an agent been on the -ground each year, with the proper authority to take efficient -measures, much of the present suffering and confusion would -have been prevented. In the case, for instance, of the Los Coyotes -village, filed on a few months ago (see Exhibit F), there was -no reason why those lands should not have been set apart for the -Indians long ago, had their situation been understood; so in the -San Ysidro case, and others. The whole situation of an agent in -regard to the Mission Indians is totally different from that of -ordinary agency on a reservation. The duties of an Indian -agent on a reservation may be onerous, but they are in a sense -simple. His Indians are all together, within comparatively narrow -limits, and, so to speak, under his hand, and dependent -largely on the Government. The Mission Indians, on the contrary, -are scattered in isolated settlements thirty, forty, a hundred -miles away from the agency headquarters, many of them in -regions difficult of access. Moreover, the Indians are in the main -self-supporting and independent. Protection or oversight worth -anything to them can only be given by a systematic method of -frequent visitation.</p> - -<p class='c010'>What is true in this respect of the agent's work is, if possible, -still truer of the physician's. If there is to be an agency physician -for the Mission Indians at all, he should be a young, strong, -energetic man, who is both able and willing to make at least -four circuits a year through the villages, and who will hold himself -bound to go when called in all cases of epidemics, serious illness, -or accidents occurring among Indians within one day's -journey of the agency headquarters. Whatever salary it is necessary -to pay to secure such service as this should be paid, or -else the office of agency physician to the Mission Indians should -be abolished. Anything less than this is a farce and a fraud.</p> - -<p class='c010'>7th. We recommend that there be secured the appointment -of a lawyer, or a law firm in Los Angeles, to act as special United -States attorney in all cases affecting the interests of these Indians. -<a id='Page_471'></a>They have been so long without any protection from the law that -outrages and depredations upon them have become the practice -in all white communities near which they live. Indians' stock is -seized, corraled and held for fines, sometimes shot, even on the -Indians' own reservations or in the public domain. In seasons -of dearth roving stockmen and shepherds drive their herds and -flocks into Indians' grain-fields, destroying their subsistence for -a whole year. Lands occupied by Indians or by Indian villages -are filed on for homestead entry precisely as if they were vacant -lands. This has been more than once done without the Indians -receiving any warning until the sheriff arrived with the writ for -their ejectment. The Indians' own lives are in continual danger, -it being a safe thing to shoot an Indian at any time when only -Indian witnesses are present. (See Exhibits C, E.) It is plain -that all such cases as these should be promptly dealt with by -equal means. One of the greatest difficulties in the position of -the Mission Indians' agent is, that in all such cases he is powerless -to act except through the at best slow and hitherto unsatisfactory -channel of reporting to the Interior Department. He is -in the embarrassing position of a guardian of wards with property -and property rights, for the defence of which he is unable to -call in prompt legal assistance. In instances in which the Indians -themselves have endeavored to get redress through the -courts, they have in the majority of cases—to the shame of the -Southern California bar be it spoken—been egregiously cheated. -They are as helpless as children in the hands of dishonest, unscrupulous -men. We believe that the mere fact of there being -such a United States legal authority near at hand to act for the -Indians would in a short time, after a few effective illustrations -of its power, do away with the greater proportion of the troubles -demanding legal interference.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The question of the rights of Indians living on grant lands to -remain there will, if the Department decides to test it by law, -involve some litigation, as it will no doubt be contested by the -ranch owners; but this point once settled, and the Indians secured -in the ownership of their lands, a very few years will see the end -of any special need of litigation in their behalf. We recommend -in this connection and for this office the firm of Brunson & Wells, -of Los Angeles. We have obtained from this firm a clear and -admirable opinion on these Indians' right to their present homes -(see Exhibit A), and we know them to be of high standing at -the bar and to have a humane sympathy for Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_472'></a>8th. We recommend that there should be a judicious distribution -of agricultural implements among these Indians. No village -should be omitted. Wagons, harness, ploughs, spades, and -hoes are greatly needed. It is surprising to see what some of -these villages have accomplished with next to no implements. In -the Santa Ysabel village the Indians had three hundred acres in -wheat; there were but three old broken ploughs in the village, no -harness, and no wagon. (See Exhibit G.) There is at present -much, and not unfounded, sore feeling in some of the villages -which have thus far received no help of this kind, while others -of the villages have been supplied with all that was needed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>9th. There should always be provided for the Mission Indians' -agency a small fund for the purchase of food and clothing for the -very old and sick in times of especial destitution. The Mission -Indians as a class do not beg. They are proud-spirited, and -choose to earn their living. They will endure a great deal before -they will ask for help. But in seasons of drought or when their -little crops have, for any cause, failed, there is sometimes great -distress in the villages. Last winter the Cahuillas, in the Cahuilla -Valley (see Exhibit C), were for many weeks without sufficient -food. The teacher of their school repeatedly begged them -to let her write to the agent for help, but they refused. At last -one night the captain and two of the head men came to her room -and said she might write. They could no longer subdue the -hunger. She wrote the letter; the next morning at daylight the -Indians were at her door again. They had reconsidered it, they -said, and they would not beg. They would rather starve, and -they would not permit her to send the letter.</p> - -<p class='c010'>10th. The second and third special points on which we were -instructed to report to the Department were, whether there still -remains in Southern California any Government land suitable for -an Indian reservation, and if not, in case lands must be bought for -that purpose, what lands can be most advantageously purchased. -There is no Government land remaining in Southern California in -blocks of any size suitable for either white or Indian occupancy. -The reason that the isolated little settlements of Indians are being -now so infringed upon and seized, even at the desert's edge and in -stony fastnesses of mountains, is that all the good lands—<i>i.e.</i>, -lands with water or upon which water can be developed—are -taken up.</p> - -<p class='c010'>We recommend two purchases of land,—one positively, the -other contingently. The first is the Pauma Ranch, now owned -<a id='Page_473'></a>by Bishop Mora, of Los Angeles. (See Exhibit P.) This ranch, -lying as it does between the Rincon and Pala Reservations on the -north and south, and adjoining the La Jolla Reservation, affords -an admirable opportunity to consolidate a large block of land for -Indian occupancy. It is now, in our opinion, a desirable tract. -While it is largely hilly and mountainous, there is considerable -good sheep and cattle pasturing on it, and a fair amount of bottom -land for cultivation along the river. The price asked for it -is, as lands are now selling in Southern California, low. If the -already existing reservations are cleared of whites, unified, and -made ready for Indian occupancy, and the Government lands now -in actual occupation by Indians be assured to them, the addition -of this Pauma Ranch will be, in our opinion, all that will be required -to make comfortable provision for all the Indians, except -those living within the boundaries of confirmed grants.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Should the Department decide to remove all these and provide -them with new homes, we recommend the purchase of the Santa -Ysabel ranch. (See Exhibit Q.) The purchase of this ranch for -an Indian reservation was recommended to the Government some -years ago, but it was rejected on account of the excessive price -asked for it. It is now offered to the Government for $95,000. -During the past ten years the value of lands in Southern California -has in many places quadrupled; in some it is worth more -than twenty times what it was then. We have no hesitation in -saying that it is not now possible to buy an equally suitable tract -for any less money. The ranch contains 17,719.40 acres; is -within the rain belt of San Diego County, is well watered, and, -although it is largely mountainous, has good pasture, some -meadow land, and some oak timber. It is, moreover, in the -region to which the greater proportion of these Indians are -warmly attached and in the vicinity of which most of them are -now living. One large Indian village is on the ranch. (See Exhibit -G.) Father Ubach, the Catholic priest of San Diego, who -has known these Indians for seventeen years, says of it, "it is -the only tract to which human power can force these Indians to -remove." We recommend this purchase only as a last resort in -the event of the Department's being compelled to provide new -homes for all the Indians now living within the boundaries of -confirmed grants.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In conclusion, we would make the suggestion that there are -several small bands of Mission Indians north of the boundaries -of the so-called Mission Indians' agency, for whom it would seem -<a id='Page_474'></a>to be the duty of the Government to care as well as for those -already enumerated. One of these is the San Carlos Indians, -living near the old San Carlos Mission at Monterey. There are -nearly one hundred of these, and they are living on lands which -were given to them before the Secularization Act in 1834. These -lands are close to the boundaries of the ranch San Francisquito -of Monterey. These boundaries have been three times extended, -each time taking in a few more acres of the Indians' lands, until -now they have only ten or twelve acres left. There are also some -very destitute Indians living in the neighborhood of the San Antonio -Mission, some sixty miles south of Monterey, and of San -Miguel, forty miles farther south, and of Santa Juez near Santa -Barbara. These Indians should not be overlooked in arrangements -made for the final establishing of the Mission Indians in -Southern California.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Hoping that these recommendations may be approved by the -Department, we are,</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Very respectfully yours,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Helen Jackson</span>.</div> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Abbot Kinney</span>.</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Hon. H. Price</span>, Commissioner of Indian Affairs</p> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c004'>INDEX OF EXHIBITS.</h2> -</div> -<table class='table4' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='6%' /> -<col width='67%' /> -<col width='25%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c005'></td> - <td class='c005'></td> - <td class='c006'>Page</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>A.</td> - <td class='c005'>Legal brief of Brunson & Wells</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_475'>475</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>B.</td> - <td class='c005'>Saboba</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_479'>479</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>C.</td> - <td class='c005'>Cahuilla Reservation</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_481'>481</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>D.</td> - <td class='c005'>Warner's Ranch Indians</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_485'>485</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>E.</td> - <td class='c005'>San Ysidros</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_488'>488</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>F.</td> - <td class='c005'>Los Coyotes</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_490'>490</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>G.</td> - <td class='c005'>Santa Ysabel</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_492'>492</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>H.</td> - <td class='c005'>Mesa Grande</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_494'>494</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>I.</td> - <td class='c005'>Capitan Grande</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_496'>496</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>J.</td> - <td class='c005'>Sequan</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_500'>500</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>K.</td> - <td class='c005'>The Conejos</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_501'>501</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>L.</td> - <td class='c005'>Pala and neighborhood, including Rincon, Pauma, and La Jolla</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_502'>502</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>M.</td> - <td class='c005'>Pachanga</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_504'>504</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>N.</td> - <td class='c005'>The Desert Indians</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_506'>506</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr><td class='c007' colspan='3'>O. San Gorgonio Reservation 508</td></tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>P.</td> - <td class='c005'>Pauma Ranch and the proposal for its sale to the U. S. Government</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_512'>512</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Q.</td> - <td class='c005'>Proposition for sale of Santa Ysabel Ranch to the U. S. Government</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_513'>513</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>R.</td> - <td class='c005'>Copy of California State law for the government and protection of Indians</td> - <td class='c006'><a href='#Page_513'>513</a></td> - </tr> -</table> -<p class='c008'><a id='Page_475'></a><span class='sc'>Exhibit A.</span></p> - -<div class='c011'>Los Angeles, Cal., May 12th, 1883.</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Sir</span>,—In response to your verbal request asking our opinion as to -the following questions, <i>viz.</i>:—</p> - -<p class='c010'>1st. Have civilized Indians and those who are engaged in agriculture -or labor of any kind, and also those who are known as Pueblos or -Rancheros Indians in California, a right to occupy and possess lands -which they and their predecessors had continuously occupied, possessed, -and enjoyed while said lands were under the jurisdiction of the Mexican -Government, up to and at the date of the ratification of the treaty -Guadalupe Hidalgo between the United States and the Mexican Republic, -March, 1848, notwithstanding that said lands so occupied and -enjoyed by the Indians aforesaid had been while they were so occupying -and possessing the same, by the proper Spanish and Mexican -authorities before the ratification of said treaty granted to certain -Spanish and Mexican citizens, and since the acquisition by the United -States of the territory embracing said lands so granted been by the -United States confirmed, surveyed, and patented to the grantees or -their legal representatives?</p> - -<p class='c010'>2d. Has the United States Government the right to condemn lands -within the State of California for the purpose of giving Indians homes -thereon?</p> - -<p class='c010'>We have the honor to submit the following as our reply and answer -to the above interrogatories. Before and at the date of the treaty of -Guadalupe Hidalgo, all the territory now known as California was a -part of and under the jurisdiction of the Mexican Republic. We do -not regard it as necessary, in order to answer the questions propounded, -to give a history of the land-laws of Spain and Mexico, -nor the method of acquiring land prior to August 18th, 1824.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On August 18th, 1824, the Mexican Congress enacted a general -colonization law, prescribing the mode of granting lands throughout -the Mexican territory. This law was limited and defined by a series -of regulations ordained by the Mexican Government, November 21st, -1828. By these laws and regulations, which have ever since continued -in force, the governors of Territories were authorized to grant, with -certain specified exceptions, vacant land. By the fundamental laws of -1824, the regulations of 1824, and the regulations of the departmental -legislature consistent therewith, all Mexican grants in California have -been determined; and by this has been determined the validity of -every grant of land in California. (Lesse & Vallejo <i>vs.</i> Clark, 3 -Cal. 17.) The limitations, as well as the fundamental laws mentioned, -provided that in making grants or distribution of land (such as -are now known as Mexican grants),—</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_476'></a>1st. It must be vacant land, and, if occupied by Indians, then without -prejudice to them.</p> - -<p class='c010'>2d. That such land as would be granted to the damage and injury of -the Indians should be returned to the rightful owners.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Mexican Government reserved from private grant all lands -occupied and possessed by the Indians. Great care was taken to make -strict reservation of such land; and by law no valid grant of land occupied -or possessed by Indians could be made so as to dispossess them. -When California was ceded to the United States, the rights of property -of its citizens remained unchanged. By the law of nations those -rights were sacred and inviolable, and the obligations passed to the -new government to protect and maintain them. The term property, -as applied to lands, embraces all titles, legal or equitable, perfect or -imperfect. (Teschemacher <i>vs.</i> Thompson, 18 Cal. 12.) The United -States never had, and does not now possess, any power under or by -virtue of said treaty whereby it could or can confer upon a citizen -holding and claiming property granted by the Mexican Government -other or different property rights than those conferred by such Government, -and such as were possessed, enjoyed, and held by him while -under the jurisdiction of such government. It cannot abridge or enlarge -the right to enjoy and to possess property held by virtue of Mexican -law at the date of said treaty, nor can it deprive persons of any -right to property which belonged to them at the date of said treaty.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A mere grant of land by the Mexican governor without compliance -by the grantee with the further requisitions of the Mexican laws forms -but an inchoate title, and the land passed to the United States, which -hold it subject to the trust imposed by the treaty and the equities of -the grantee. <i>The execution of the trust is a political power.</i> (Lesse <i>vs.</i> -Clark, 3 Cal. 17.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>By the fundamental laws of 1824, the regulation of 1828, and the -regulation of the departmental legislature, one condition was that in -making private grants of lands the lands granted must be vacant lands. -Lands occupied by and in possession of Indians were not such vacant -lands; for by the same laws and regulations it was provided that such -grants must be without prejudice or damage to the Indians, and that -such land granted to the damage and injury of the Indians should be -returned to the rightful owners. (New Code, law 9, title 12, book 4.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Mexican authorities recognized the rights of Indians to hold, -enjoy, and possess lands, and there are of record a number of grants -made by the Mexican authorities to Indians. They not only had the -right to receive grants of land under the Mexican laws, but also to -convey the lands so granted. (United States <i>vs.</i> Sinnol, Hoffman's -Reports, 110.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>It will be observed that at the date when private grants of land were -made with some regard for law, the limitation and conditions required -by law to be observed were inserted in such grants, <i>viz.</i>: L.C., No. 342-6, -<a id='Page_477'></a>S. D., 398; L. C., No. 254-219, S. D., 228-407; L. C., No. 740-372, N. D., -208; L. C., No. 326-359, N. D., 389; Hoffman's Report Land Cases, pp. -35 <i>et seq.</i>; Surveyor-General's letter, dated San Francisco, March 14, -1883, and addressed to Mrs. William S. Jackson.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians and their descendants, who occupied and now occupy -lands within the grants above named, as well as grants containing -claims of a similar character, are in our opinion possessed and seized of -the lands which were and have been and now are in their possession; -and they can hold the same against persons claiming the same by virtue -of a United States patent, issued upon a confirmed Mexican grant. -This leaves to be answered the following question: Can the Indians -hold lands for which a United States patent has issued conditioned as -set out in the first question, provided no conditions or limitations are -contained or expressed in the grant? This is a question beset and surrounded -by many difficulties; nor do we deem it necessary to do more -than refer to restrictions and limitations contained in the laws of -Mexico concerning private grants of lands upon which Indians were -residing,—lands which were occupied by them. It is certain that if -such lands were granted by a Mexican official, and the authorities -omitted to recite the conditions and limitations required by law, and -reserve from the operation of such grant such lands as the law conditioned -could not be conveyed by such grant, such a grant would and -could not take it out of the operation of the law. It could not defeat -the rights of those whose rights attached by reason of law. If the -officers of the Mexican Government to whom was confided the trust -exceeded their authority as regulated by the solemnities and formalities -of the law, the courts are bound to take notice of it, and cannot -shield those claiming under such title from the necessary consequence -of ignorance, carelessness, or arbitrary assumption of power. (Lesse & -Vallejo <i>vs.</i> Clark, 3 Cal. 17.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is now necessary to inquire how far and to what extent will the -issuance to the grantee of the United States patent change or modify -this rule. We shall not discuss, as we do not deem it necessary, the -decision of the United States Supreme Court, that "a United States -patent cannot be attached collaterally, but may be by a direct proceeding," -as we did not regard these decisions as in any way affecting the -question submitted and now before us.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In 1851, March 3d, Congress passed an act entitled "An act to ascertain -and settle the private land-claims in the State of California." By -said statute it was enacted "that it shall be the duty of the commission -herein provided for to ascertain and report to the Secretary of the Interior -the tenure by which the Mission lands are held, and those held by -civilized Indians, and those who are engaged in agriculture or labor of -any <i>kind</i>, and also those which are <i>occupied</i> and cultivated by Pueblos -or Rancheros Indians." (U. S. Statutes at Large, vol. ix. p. 634, -<a id='Page_478'></a>sec. 16, Little & Brown's ed.) We have no means of ascertaining -whether such a report was made, or, if made, its contents. We have -no doubt the commission did their duty and complied with the law, and -that their report will be found on file in the Department of the Interior. -This report, if in our hands, would greatly aid us in reaching a correct -conclusion. By the same act it is further provided that the patent of -the United States issued to parties holding Mexican grants are conclusive -between the United States and the said claimants only, and shall -not affect the interest of that person. (<i>Ib.</i> p. 634.) If the report of -the commission established the fact that the Indians were residing upon -and occupying lands within the boundaries of claimed grants, which -grants have no conditions or limitation inserted therein, that they -claimed such lands by virtue of the laws of Mexico, this evidence, -with such other evidence as we understand can be furnished, is in our -opinion enough to establish under the law, as we regard it, a right in -the Indians to hold and occupy such lands against the confirmee or -patentee. If, however, no such report has been made, we are of the -opinion, if conclusive evidence can be furnished proving that these -Indians were in possession of these lands at the time these grants were -made by the Mexican authorities, that they continued in possession, and -were in possession at the date of the treaty, and have since continued -in possession, the law will entitle them to hold such land against all -persons claiming under the patent.</p> - -<p class='c010'>We answer the second question propounded as follows:—</p> - -<p class='c010'>By the fifth amendment to the Constitution of the United States it -is provided: *** "Nor shall private property be taken for public use -without just compensation." Would the taking of lands belonging to -citizens for the purpose of giving the same to Indians be such a public -use as is contemplated by the Constitution? We are of the opinion it -would not. (Walther <i>vs.</i> Warner, 25 Mo. 277; Board of Education <i>vs.</i> -Hockman, 48 Mo. 243; Buffalo & New York Railroad Company <i>vs.</i> -Brannan, 9 N.Y. 100; Bradley <i>vs.</i> New York, &c. Railroad Company, 21 -Conn. 294; Fisher <i>vs.</i> Horicon Iron Work, &c. Company, 10 Wis. 354; -New Orleans & Railroad Company <i>vs.</i> Railroad Company, 53 Ala. -211; Conn <i>vs.</i> Horrigan, 2 Allen, 159; Chambers <i>vs.</i> Sattuler, 40 Cal. -497; Railroad Company <i>vs.</i> City of Stockton, 41 Cal. 149; Channel -Company <i>vs.</i> Railroad Company, 51 Cal. 269; Gilmer <i>vs.</i> Lime Point, -18 Cal. 229; Conn <i>vs.</i> Tewksbury, 11 Metcalf, 55; Manufacturing Company -<i>vs.</i> Head, 56 N.H. 386; Olmstead <i>vs.</i> Camp, 33 Conn. 532; Buckman -<i>vs.</i> Saratoga Railroad Company, 3 Paige Ch. 45; Memphis Freight -Company <i>vs.</i> Memphis, 4 Cold. 419; Enfield Toll Bridge Company <i>vs.</i> -Hartford Railroad Company, 17 Conn. 42.)</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>We are, very respectfully,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Brunson & Wells</span>, Attorneys-at-Law.</div> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Abbot Kinney</span>, Esq., Los Angeles, Cal.</div> -<p class='c008'><a id='Page_479'></a><span class='sc'>Exhibit B.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>SABOBA.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Saboba is the name of a village of Indians of the Serrano tribe, one -hundred and fifty-seven in number, living in the San Jacinto Valley, -at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains, in San Diego County. The -village is within the boundaries of a Mexican grant, patented to the -heirs of J. Estudillo, January 17th, 1880. The greater part of the -grant has been sold to a company which, in dividing up its lands, -allotted the tract where the Saboba village lies to one M. R. Byrnes, -of San Bernardino, who proposes to eject the Indians unless the United -States Government will buy his whole tract of seven hundred acres at -an exorbitant price. The Saboba village occupies about two hundred -acres, the best part of Mr. Byrnes's tract. The Indians have lived in -the place for over a hundred years. They have adobe houses, fenced -fields and orchards, and irrigating ditches. There is in the village a -never-failing spring, with a flow of about twenty-five miner's inches. -It is claimed by the Indians that the first surveys did not take in their -village. This is probably true; the resurveying of grants and "floating" -their lines so as to take in lands newly discovered to be of value, -and leave out others discovered to be worthless, being a common practice -in California. In a country where water is gold, such a spring as -these Saboba Indians owned could not long escape notice or be left -long in the undisturbed possession of Indians. These Indians support -themselves now, and have always done so, by farming, and by going -out in organized bands as sheep-shearers and vintagers. They are industrious -and peaceable, and make in good seasons a fairly comfortable -living. They formerly kept stock, but since the new occupancy, -allotting and fencing of the valley, have been obliged to give it up. -There is a Government school in this village, numbering from thirty -to forty pupils, who have made remarkable progress in their studies. -The school is taught by a Pennsylvania lady, formerly a teacher of -the freedmen. Her gentleness and refinement have exerted an influence -all through the village, and her self-denying labors among the -people in times of sickness and suffering have been the work of a missionary -rather than of a teacher. The following letters were written -by two of the children in this school, both under fourteen years of -age. They were written without the teacher's knowledge or aid, and -brought to her with the request that she would send them. The handwritings -are clear and good:—</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>To the President of the United States</i>:</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Mr. President</span>: <span class='sc'>Dear Sir</span>,—I wish to write a letter for you, and I will try -to tell you some things. The white people call San Jacinto rancho their land, -<a id='Page_480'></a>and I don't want them to do it. We think it is ours, for God gave it to us -first. Now I think you will tell me what is right, for you have been so good -to us, giving us a school and helping us. Will you not come to San Jacinto -some time to see us, the school, and the people of Saboba village? Many of -the people are sick, and some have died. We are so poor that we have not -enough good food for the sick, and sometimes I am afraid that we are all going -to die. Will you please tell what is good about our ranches, and come soon -to see us?</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Your friend,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Ramon Cavavi</span>.</div> - -<p class='c010'><i>Mrs. Jackson</i>:</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>My dear Friend</span>,—I wish to write you a letter about the American people -that want to drive us away from our own village of Saboba. I don't know -what they can be about. I don't know why they do so. My teacher told me -she was very sorry about the town, and then my teacher said, I think they -will find a good place for you if you have to go; but I do hope they will not -drive you away. Then it will be very good for all the people of Saboba. It -is a very good town for the people. They have all the work done on their -gardens, and they are very sorry about the work that is done. My work is -very nicely done also. The people are making one big fence to keep the cows -and the horses off their garden.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Your true friend,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Antonio Leon</span>.</div> - -<p class='c010'>These Saboba Indians are greatly dispirited and disheartened at the -prospect of being driven out of their homes, and feel that the Government -ought to protect them. The captain of the village, a very sensible -and clear-headed man, said, "If the Government says we must -go, we must; but we would rather die right here than move." The -right of these Indians to the tract they have so long occupied and cultivated -is beyond question. That this right could be successfully -maintained in the courts is the opinion of the law firm of Brunson & -Wells, whose admirable paper covering all cases of this kind is given -herewith. (See exhibit.)</p> - -<p class='c010'>We found three miles from this village on Government land a narrow -cañon called Indian Cañon, in which half a dozen Indian families -were living. The cañon is but five or six miles long and very narrow; -but it has a small, never-failing brook in it, and some good bottom -land, on which the Indians had excellent wheat crops growing. The -sides of it are moderately well wooded. It was surprising that so desirable -a nook had been overlooked or omitted by the surveyors of the -San Jacinto Ranch. We wrote to the Department immediately, recommending -its being set aside for Indians' use. In another beautiful -cañon, also with a never-failing stream running through it, we found -living the old chief, Victoriano, nearly one hundred years old. The -spot was an oasis of green, oak and willow trees, a wheat field, and -apricot orchard and vineyard, the latter planted by Victoriano's father. -<a id='Page_481'></a>This place has been given by Victoriano to his grandson, who we were -told is taking steps to secure it to himself under the Indian Homestead -Act.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Exhibit C.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>THE CAHUILLA RESERVATION.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Cahuilla Valley is about forty miles from Saboba, high up -among the peaks and spurs of the San Jacinto Mountains; a wild, -barren, inaccessible spot. The Cahuilla village, situated here, was -one of the most interesting that we visited, and the Indians seemed a -clear-headed, more individual and independent people than any other -we saw. This is partly due to their native qualities, the tribe having -been originally one of the most warlike and powerful in the country, -as is indicated by their name, which signifies "master." The isolation -of this village has also tended to keep these Indians self-respecting and -independent. There is no white settlement within ten miles, there -being comparatively little to tempt white men into these mountain-fastnesses. -The population of the village numbers from one hundred -and fifty to two hundred. The houses are of adobe, thatched with -reeds; three of the houses have shingled roofs, and one has the luxury -of a floor. These Indians make the greater part of their living by -stock-raising. They also send out a sheep-shearing band each year. -They have sixteen fields, large and small, under cultivation, and said -they would have had many more except for the lack of ploughs, there -being but one plough for the whole village. They raise wheat, barley, -corn, squashes, and watermelons. Sometimes the frost kills the corn, -and occasionally the grasshoppers descend on the valley, but aside -from these accidents their crops do well. All through the village were -to be seen their curious outdoor granaries—huge baskets made of -twisted and woven twigs and set up on poles. The women were neatly -dressed, the children especially so, and the faces of all, men, women, -and children, had an animation and look of intellectual keenness -very uncommon among the Southern California Indians. On the outskirts -of the village is a never-failing hot spring. In this water the -Indians, old and young, are said to be continually bathing. It was -the Indians' impression that the lines of their reservation ran directly -through the centre of this hot spring. They had been told so by some -white men, but they know nothing certainly. The lines had never -been shown to them. On subsequent examination at the surveyor-general's -office in San Francisco we discovered that this spring and -the village itself are entirely outside the reservation lines; also that -another Indian settlement called Duasno, a few miles distant, and -<a id='Page_482'></a>intended to have been included in the reservation, is outside the lines. -The Cahuilla Reservation stands recorded as containing twenty-six -sections of land; so far as we could judge of the region, it seemed to -us a generous estimate to say that there might be possibly five hundred -acres of cultivatable land in it. In good years there would be considerable -pasturage on the sides of the mountains; but far the greater part -of the tract is absolutely worthless, being bare and stony mountains. -The Cahuillas, however, are satisfied with it. They love the country, -and would not exchange it for fertile valleys below. They said that -they would be perfectly contented if the Government would only mark -their land off for them, and set up boundaries so that they could know -where they might keep their own stock and keep the white men's stock -out. All they asked for in addition to this was some harnesses, wagons, -and agricultural implements, especially ploughs. Of these last the -captain reiterated, and was not satisfied till he saw the figures written -down, that ten was the smallest number that would be sufficient for -the village.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A few rods from the hot spring there stood a good adobe house, shut -up, unoccupied. The history of this house is worth telling, as an illustration -of the sort of troubles to which Indians in these remote regions, -unprotected by the Government, and unable to protect themselves, are -exposed. Some eight years ago the Cahuillas rented a tract of their -land as pasture to two Mexicans named Machado. These Machados, -by permission of the Indians, built this adobe house, and lived in it -when looking after their stock. At the expiration of the lease the -house was to be the property of the Indians. When the Machados -left they said to the Cahuilla captain, "Here is your house." The -next year another man named Thomas rented a pasture tract from the -Indians and also rented this house, paying for the use of it for two -years six bulls, and putting into it a man named Cushman, who was -his overseer. At the end of the two years Thomas said to the Cahuillas, -"Here is your house; I now take my cattle away." But the man -Cushman refused to move out of the house; said it was on railroad -land which he had bought of the railroad company. In spite of the Indians' -remonstrances he lived on there for three or four years. Finally -he died. After his death his old employer, Thomas, who had once -rented this very house from the Indians, came forward, claimed it as -his own, and has now sold it to a man named Parks. Through all this -time the Indians committed no violence on the trespassers. They -journeyed to Los Angeles to find out from the railroad company -whether Cushman owned the land as he said, and were told that he -did not. They laid the matter before their agent, but he was unable -to do anything about it. It would seem of the greatest importance in -the case of this reservation, and of all others similarly placed, that the -odd section claimed or owned by the railroad companies should be -<a id='Page_483'></a>secured and added to the permanent reservation. Much further trouble -will in this way be saved.</p> - -<p class='c010'>An incident which had occurred on the boundaries of the Cahuilla -Reservation a few weeks before our arrival there is of importance as -an illustration of the need of some legal protection for the Indians in -Southern California. A Cahuilla Indian named Juan Diego had built -for himself a house and cultivated a small patch of ground on a high -mountain ledge a few miles north of the village. Here he lived alone -with his wife and baby. He had been for some years what the Indians -call a "locoed" Indian, being at times crazy; never dangerous, but -yet certainly insane for longer or shorter periods. His condition was -known to the agent, who told us that he had feared he would be obliged -to shut Juan up if he did not get better. It was also well known -throughout the neighboring country, as we found on repeated inquiry. -Everybody knew that Juan Diego was "locoed." (This expression -comes from the effect a weed of that name has upon horses, making -them wild and unmanageable.) Juan Diego had been off to find work -at sheep-shearing. He came home at night riding a strange horse. -His wife exclaimed, "Why, whose horse is that?" Juan looked at -the horse, and replied confusedly, "Where is my horse, then?" The -woman, much frightened, said, "You must take that horse right back; -they will say you stole it." Juan replied that he would as soon as he -had rested; threw himself down and fell asleep. From this sleep he -was awakened by the barking of the dogs, and ran out of the house to -see what it meant. The woman followed, and was the only witness of -what then occurred. A white man, named Temple, the owner of the -horse which Juan had ridden home, rode up, and on seeing Juan poured -out a volley of oaths, levelled his gun and shot him dead. After Juan -had fallen on the ground Temple rode closer and fired three more shots -in the body, one in the forehead, one in the cheek, and one in the wrist, -the woman looking on. He then took his horse, which was standing -tied in front of the house, and rode away. The woman, with her baby -on her back, ran to the Cahuilla village and told what had happened. -This was in the night. At dawn the Indians went over to the place, -brought the murdered man's body to the village, and buried it. The -excitement was intense. The teacher, in giving us an account of the -affair, said that for a few days she feared she would be obliged to -close her school and leave the village. The murderer went to the -nearest justice of the peace and gave himself up, saying that he had -in self-defence shot an Indian. He swore that the Indian ran towards -him with a knife. A jury of twelve men was summoned, who visited -the spot, listened to Temple's story, pronounced him guiltless, and the -judge so decided. The woman's testimony was not taken. It would -have been worthless if it had been, so far as influencing that jury's -minds was concerned. Her statement was positive that Juan had no -<a id='Page_484'></a>knife, nor weapon of any kind; sprang up from his sleep and ran out -hastily to see what had happened, and was shot almost as soon as he -had crossed the threshold of the door. The district attorney in San -Diego, on being informed by us of the facts in the case, reluctantly -admitted that there would be no use whatever in bringing a white man -to trial for murder of an Indian under such circumstances, with only -Indian testimony to convict him. This was corroborated, and the -general animus of public feeling vividly illustrated to us by a conversation -we had later with one of the jurors in the case, a fine, open-hearted, -manly young fellow, far superior in education and social -standing to the average Southern California ranchman. He not only -justified Temple's killing the Indian, but said he would have done the -same thing himself. "I don't care whether the Indian had a knife or -not," he said; "that didn't cut any figure at all the way I looked at it. -Any man that'd take a horse of mine and ride him up that mountain -trail, I'd shoot him whenever I found him. Stockmen have just got -to protect themselves in this country." The fact that Juan had left -his own horse, a well-known one, in the corral from which he had -taken Temple's; that he had ridden the straight trail to his own door, -and left the horse tied in front of it, thus making it certain that he -would be tracked and caught, weighed nothing in this young man's -mind. The utmost concession that he would make was finally to say, -"Well, I'll agree that Temple was to blame for firin' into him after he -was dead. That was mean, I'll allow."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The account of our visit to the Cahuilla Reservation would be incomplete -without a brief description of the school there. It numbers -from forty to fifty scholars, and is taught by a widow who, with her -little daughter ten years of age, lives in one small room built on at the -end of the school-house. Part of the room is curtained off into a recess -holding bed, washstand, and bureau. The rest of the room is a sitting-room, -kitchen, store-room, and barely holds the cooking-stove, table, -and chairs. Here alone, with her little daughter, in a village of near -two hundred Indians, ten miles from any white man's home, this brave -woman has lived more than a year, doing a work of which the hours -spent in the school-room are the smallest part. The Indians come to -her with every perplexity and trouble; call on her for nursing when -they are ill, for food when they are destitute. If she would allow it -her little room could always be crowded with women, and men also, -eager to watch and learn. The Cahuillas have good brains, are keen, -quick, and persevering. The progress that these children have made -in the comparatively short time since their school was opened was far -beyond that ordinarily made by white children in the same length of -time. Children who two years ago did not know a letter, read intelligently -in the second and third readers, spelled promptly and with remarkable -accuracy, and wrote clear and legible hands, their copy-books -<a id='Page_485'></a>being absolutely free from blots or erasures; some of the older pupils -went creditably through a mental arithmetic examination, in which -the questions were by no means easy to follow. They sang songs in -fair tune and time, and with great spirit, evidently enjoying this part -of the exercises more than all the rest. We had carried to them a -parcel of illustrated story-books, very kindly contributed by some of -the leading publishers in New York and Boston, and the expression of -the rows of bright dark eyes as the teacher held up book after book -was long to be remembered. The strain on the nervous system of -teachers in such positions as this can hardly be estimated by ordinary -standards. The absolute isolation, the ceaseless demand, the lack, not -only of the comforts, but of many of the necessities of life, all mount -up into a burden which it would seem no woman could long endure. -Last winter there was a snow-storm in the Cahuilla Valley lasting two -days and nights. A fierce wind drove the dry snow in at every crevice -of the poorly built adobe house, like sand in a sand-storm. The first -day of the storm the school had to be closed early in the day, as the -snow fell so fast on books and slates nothing could be done. The last -night of the storm the teacher and her little girl spent the entire night -in shovelling snow out of the room. They would pile it in a blanket, -open the door, empty the blanket, and then resume shovelling. They -worked hard all night to keep pace with the storm. When the snowing -stopped the school-room was drifted full, and for many days after -was wet and damp. It would seem as if the school term in such -places as this ought not to be over eight months in the year. The -salaries, however, should not be reduced, for they are barely living salaries -now, every necessary of life being procured at a great disadvantage -in these wild regions. One of these teachers told us she had -been obliged to give an Indian $1 to ride to the nearest store and bring -her one dollar's worth of sugar. It was the opinion of the Cahuilla -teacher (a teacher of experience at the East before her marriage) that -the Indians would accomplish more in eight months than in the nine. -The strain upon them also is too great—of the unwonted confinement -and continuous brain work. Should this change be made the vacation -should be so arranged as to be taken at the sheep-shearing season, at -which times all the schools are much broken up by the absence of the -elder boys.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Exhibit D.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>THE WARNER'S RANCH INDIANS.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The tract known as Warner's Ranch lies in the northern part of San -Diego County, about forty miles from the Cahuilla Valley. It contains -two grants, the San José del Valle and the Valle de San José; the first -<a id='Page_486'></a>containing between 26,000 and 27,000 acres, confirmed to J. J. Warner, -patented January 16th, 1880; the second, containing between 17,000 -and 18,000 acres, confirmed to one Portilla, patented January 10th, -1880. The whole property is now in the possession of Governor -Downey, of Los Angeles. There are said to be several conflicting -claims yet unsettled. The ranch is now used as a sheep and stock -ranch, and is of great value. It is a beautiful region, well watered -and wooded. There are within its boundaries five Indian villages, of -San Luisenos and Diegmons—Aqua Caliente, Puerta de la Cruz, Puerta -de San José, San José, and Mataguay. The last four are very small, -but Aqua Caliente has long been the most flourishing and influential -village in the country. It was formerly set apart as a reservation, but -the executive order was cancelled January 17th, 1880, immediately -after the patenting of the San José del Valle Ranch, within the boundaries -of which it was then claimed that the village lay, although to the -best information we could get the first three surveys of that ranch did -not take the village in. The aged captain of the Aqua Caliente Indians -still preserves a paper giving a memorandum of the setting off -of this reservation of about 1,120 acres for this people. It was by -executive order, 1875. He also treasures several other equally worthless -papers—a certificate from a San Diego judge that the Indians are -entitled to their lands; a memorandum of a promise from General -Kearney, who assured them that in consideration of their friendliness -and assistance to him they should retain their homes without molestation, -"although the whole State should fill with white men." It is -not to be wondered at that these Aqua Caliente Indians find it difficult -to-day to put any faith in white men's promises.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It will be seen from the above brief statement of the situation that -they have an exceedingly strong claim on the Government for protection -in their right to their lands. Since the restoration of their village -and fields "to the public domain," the patenting of the ranches and -their sale to Governor Downey, the Indians have been in constant -anxiety and terror. Governor Downey has been considerate and -humane in his course toward them, and toward all the Indians on his -estate. And his superintendent also is friendly in his treatment of -them, permitting them all the liberty he can consistently with his duty to -the ranch. He finds their labor invaluable at sheep-shearing time, and -is able throughout the year to give them occasional employment. But -the Indians know very well that according to the usual course of things -in San Diego County they are liable any day to be ejected by process -of law; and it is astonishing that under the circumstances they have -so persevered in their industries of one sort and another. They have -a good number of fields under cultivation. They also make saddle -mats and hats out of fibrous plants; the women make baskets and lace. -It is said to be the most industrious village in the county; the old -<a id='Page_487'></a>captain dealing severely with any Indian found idle. They have also -a small revenue from the hot springs, from which the village takes -its name. These bubble up in a succession of curious stone basins in -the heart of the village. They are much resorted to in summer by -rheumatic and other patients, who rent the Indians' little adobe houses -and pay them a small tax for the use of the waters. The Indians -themselves at these times move into bush huts in a valley or cañon -some two miles above the village, where their chief cultivated fields -lie. They were very earnest to know from us if we would advise their -planting more of this ground. They said they would have planted -it all except that they were afraid of being driven away. This upper -valley and these planting fields were said to be on Government land; -but on examination of the surveyor's plats in the Los Angeles land office, -we could find no field notes to indicate their location. These Indians -have in use another valley called Lost Valley, some fifteen miles from -their village high up in the mountains, and reached only by one very -steep trail. Here they keep their stock, being no longer able to pasture -it below. They were touchingly anxious to have us write down the -numbers of cattle, horses, sheep, each man had, and report to Washington, -that the President might see how they were all trying to work. -There are probably from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred -and fifty head of cattle owned in the village, about fifty horses, and -one hundred sheep.</p> - -<p class='c010'>There is here a Government school, taught by a young German lady -of excellent education and much enthusiasm in her work. At great -cost and risk she has carried her piano up into these wilds, and finds it -an invaluable assistance in training and influencing her pupils. It -was a scene not to be forgotten, when after their exercises in reading, -arithmetic, &c., in all of which they showed a really wonderful proficiency, -the children crowded into the teacher's little room and sang -their songs to the piano accompaniment, played by her with spirit and -feeling. "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty," was the -song they seemed to like best; all unaware how little applicable to -their own situation were its strains of exultant joy and freedom. In -this one tiny room adjoining the school-room this young lady lives, -sleeps, prepares her own food, frequently having a "cooking class" of -Indian women, whom she is teaching to make soups, bread, &c., and to -do fine washing. It is impossible to put too much appreciative sympathy -on these women teachers in Indian schools in Southern California. -Their situation and their work are unique in isolation and difficulty.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The other Indian villages on Warner's Ranch do not demand separate -description, consisting of not more than half a dozen houses each, and -numbering only from fifteen to thirty Indians. Each village, however, -has its own captain, and its cultivated fields, orchards, &c., to which -the Indians are profoundly attached, and from which it would be very -<a id='Page_488'></a>hard to induce them to move, spite of their poverty, and the difficulty -of making a living, as they are now placed.</p> - -<p class='c010'>During our stay at Warner's Ranch, the captain of the San José -village had an experience which will illustrate the helplessness of these -Indian farmers in Southern California. He had on a piece of Government -land, a short distance from his village, a fenced wheat-field of -some fifty acres; it was his chief dependence for his year's support. -Going away one day, he left his aged father in charge at home; the old -man wandered away, and during his absence one of the roving sheep-herders, -of whom the country is full, broke down the fence, turned in -his flock, and when Domingo came home at night the whole field was -eaten close to the ground. Hearing of our being at the superintendent's -house, Domingo came over to ask if we could help him in the -matter. The quiet, matter-of-course way in which he told the story -was more impressive than any loudness of complaint would have been. -He said very simply, "What can I do for food this winter?" Mr. -Kinney rode over to the village, saw the field, and after some trouble -found the herder, who, much frightened, said he did it by his master's -orders. This master, an Italian, lived some twenty miles away; the nearest -justice of the peace, sixteen miles. On seeing the justice we found -that nothing could be done in the way of securing damages from the -sheep-owner until two white men, residents of the county, should -inspect the premises and estimate the damages. Domingo rode sixteen -miles in the night in a fierce storm of sleet and rain, with letters from -us to white men on the ranch, asking them to do this. He was back -again at daylight with a note from one of them, saying that he could -not induce a man to go with him. Finally, the justice, at our request, -hired two men at days' wages to go and inspect the Indian's field. -They estimated the damages at about one-tenth of the real amount, -and thus we were obliged to leave the matter. We afterwards received -a letter from the Italian stating that he had settled with Domingo, but -not mentioning the sum paid. It was plain that except for our taking -hold of the affair the Indian would never have recovered a cent. This -is by no means an exceptional instance.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Exhibit E.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>THE SAN YSIDRO INDIANS.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the San Ysidro Cañon, about eight miles from Warner's Ranch, -has been living from time immemorial a band of San Luiseno Indians, -numbering from fifty to seventy-five, and called by the name of their -cañon. We first saw the captain of these Indians in Los Angeles, in -the office of the United States Court Commissioner, Mr. H. T. Lee, of -<a id='Page_489'></a>whose kindness and humane sympathy in dealing with all Indian matters -which come under his notice it is not out of place here to make -grateful mention. This Captain Pablo, with two of his head men, had -walked a three days' journey to Los Angeles to see if he could get any -help in the matter of lands which had been wrested from his people. -His story was a pitiful one. Some six years ago a white man named -Chatham Helm had come in at the head of their cañon, three miles -above the site of their village, taken up a homestead claim there, -cutting off the greater part of their water supply, and taking some of -their cultivated fields, and leaving them restricted room for their stock. -Since that time they had been growing poorer and poorer, but had -managed to live by cultivating lands below the village near the mouth -of the cañon, where there was another small stream. But now a new -squatter had appeared below them, and filed on all the remaining lands, -including the site of the village itself. The man Helm, above them, -had patented his lands, built a good house, and was keeping considerable -stock. The Indians could have no water except what he permitted -to come down the cañon. Three years ago one of their number had -been shot dead by Helm, who was set free on the usual plea of self-defence. -Since then the Indians had been in continual terror. The -new squatter had threatened them with the same fate if they came -near his enclosures. Between these two squatters the Indian village -was completely hemmed in and cut off, and starvation stared them -in the face. In fact, in the course of the last winter one little girl had -actually died for want of food. Their countenances corroborated the -tale. They were gaunt with hunger and full of despair. It would -exceed the limits of this paper to give a full report of the interview -with these Indians. It will not soon be forgotten by any one taking -part in it,—the solemn tones in which the Indians replied to the interpreter's -questions, the intent and imploring gaze with which they -studied all our faces and listened to all the words unintelligible to them -in which we spoke with one another.</p> - -<p class='c010'>It was finally decided to forward to the Interior Department the -affidavits of these Indians, setting forth the manner in which they had -been robbed of their lands, and requesting that Cloos's entry be held -for cancellation, and that Helm's patent be reopened. It was found, -on looking the matter up in Washington, that several years ago this -cañon had been withdrawn from market with a view to having it set -off as a reservation for the Indians living in it, but the matter had -slipped everybody's mind. On visiting the San Ysidro Cañon ourselves -a few weeks later, we found that Cloos, taking time by the forelock, -had sold out his homestead claim, his house, and what he was pleased -to call his "improvements," for $600 to a poor old widow, Mrs. Pamela -Hagar by name. We found Mrs. Hagar, with her son, on the ground, -preparing to go into the bee business. She appeared very little surprised -<a id='Page_490'></a>at hearing that the claim she had bought was a questionable one, -remarking: "Well, I mistrusted something was wrong; Cloos seemed -in such a hurry to get his money." This woman appeared nearly as -helpless as the Indians themselves. The deed she had taken from -Cloos was not acknowledged; she had not got it recorded; her name -was misspelled in it; and the enumeration of the sections, &c., in it -did not agree with the list in the land office certificate. She begged us -to ask the Government to refund to her the sum she had paid to Cloos, -and signed by her mark a paper saying she would accept it. It is a -small sum, and as the poor old woman made the transaction in good -faith, knowing nothing about the Indians' presence on the place, it -would seem not unreasonable that she should be paid. The next -morning Cloos himself appeared on the scene, very angry and resentful. -He said he had "a perfect right to file on that land;" that -"Indians were not citizens" and "had no right to public lands," and -that "the stockmen of San Diego County were not going to stand the -Indians' killing their stock much longer;" that "the Government -ought to put the Indians all together somewhere and take care of -them," and that "there'd be a big fight with Indians in San Diego -County before long, we might rest assured of that;" and much more -of the same sort, which would not be worth repeating, except that it -is a good illustration of the animus of the greater portion of Southern -California ranchmen towards Indians. A few days after this we were -gladdened by the news from Washington that Cloos's filing was held -for cancellation, and that the Attorney-General had ordered proceedings -to be begun in San Francisco for the vacating of Chatham Helm's -patent. A few instances of such promptitude as this would change -the whole status of the South California Indians, giving courage to -them, and, what is still more important, making it clear to the perception -of white men that the Indians' rights are no longer to be disregarded -as they have been.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Exhibit F.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>THE LOS COYOTES.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Five miles up from the head of the San Ysidro Cañon, to be reached -only by a steep and narrow trail, lies a small valley on the desert side -of the mountains. It is little more than a pocket on a ledge. From -its rim one looks down directly into the desert. Few white men have -ever penetrated to it, and the Indians occupying it have been hitherto -safe, by reason of the poverty and inaccessibility of their home. No -agent has ever visited them; they have supported themselves by keeping -stock and cultivating their few acres of land. There are not more -<a id='Page_491'></a>than eighty acres all told in the valley. About three weeks before our -arrival at Warner's Ranch a man named Jim Fane, a comrade of -Helm, who had usurped the San Ysidro Cañon, having, no doubt, -learned through Helm of the existence of the Los Coyotes Valley, appeared -in the village and offered the Indians $200 for their place. -They refused to sell, upon which he told them that he had filed on the -land, should stay in any event, and proceeded to cut down trees and build -a corral. It seems a marvellous forbearance on the part of a community -numbering twenty-six able-bodied men and twenty-one women not -to take any forcible measures to repel such an intruder as this. But the -South California Indians have learned by long experience that in any -contest with white men they are sure to be found in the wrong. Not -an Indian laid violent hands on Fane. He seems to have gone about -as safely in the heart of this Indian village, which he was avowedly -making ready to steal, as if he had been in an empty wilderness. Mr. -Kinney found him there, hard at work, his belt full of cartridges and -pistols. He was a rough fellow, at first disposed to be defiant and -blustering, but on being informed of the Department's action in the -case of Cloos's filing, he took a milder tone, and signed a paper saying -that he would take $75 for his "improvements." Later in the day, -after consulting with his friend Helm, he withdrew the paper and announced -his determination to stay in the valley. On inquiry at the -land office at Los Angeles we found that his filing had been returned -to him for correction of errors. We were therefore in time to secure -the stopping of all further proceedings on his part through the land -office. Nothing, however, but authorized and authoritative action on -the part of the agent representing the Interior Department will stop -his proceedings on the ground. Just before leaving California we received -an urgent letter from the Los Coyotes' captain, saying that Fane -was still there—still cutting down their trees and building corrals.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians of this band are robust, active, and finely made, more -nearly in the native health and strength of the race than any other -band in the country. The large proportion of children also bore testimony -to their healthful condition, there being thirty-five children to -twenty-one women and twenty-six men. The captain had the lists -of his people kept by three lines of notches on a stick, a new notch -being made for each birth and crossed out for each death. They could -count only up to five. Everything beyond that was "many." Their -houses were good, built of hewn pine timber with thatched roofs made -from some tough fibrous plant, probably the yucca. Each house had -a thatched bower in front of it and stood in a fenced enclosure. These -Indians raise beans, pumpkins, wheat, barley, and corn. They have -twenty-five head of cattle and more horses. They say they have lived -in this valley always, and never desire to leave it. The only things -they asked for were a harness, chain, coulter, and five ploughs. They -have now one plough.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_492'></a>This village is one of the best illustrations of our remarks on the -need of itinerary labor among the Mission Indians. Here is a village -of eighty-four souls living in a mountain fastness which they so love -they would rather die than leave it, but where the ordinary agencies -and influences of civilization will never reach, no matter how thickly -settled the regions below may come. A fervent religious and practical -teacher spending a few weeks each year among these Indians might -sow seed that would never cease growing during the intervals of his -absence.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Exhibit G.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>THE SANTA YSABEL RANCH.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Santa Ysabel Ranch is adjoining to Warner's Ranch. It is a -well-wooded, well-watered, beautiful country, much broken by steep -and stony mountains. The original grant of this ranch was confirmed -March 17th, 1858, to one José Ortego and the heirs of Edward Stokes. -The patent was issued May 14th, 1872. It is now owned by a Captain -Wilcox, who has thus far not only left undisturbed the Indian village -within the boundaries of his estate, but has endeavored to protect the -Indians by allowing to the ranch lessee a rebate of $200 yearly on the -rent on account of the Indians' occupancy. There is in the original -grant of this ranch the following clause: "The grantees will leave free -and undisturbed the agricultural lands which the Indians of San Diego -are actually occupying."</p> - -<p class='c010'>We found on arriving at the Santa Ysabel village that an intelligent -young Indian living there had recently been elected as general over -the Dieguino Indians in the neighborhood. He showed to us his papers -and begged us to wait till he could have all his captains gathered to -meet us. Eight villages he reported as being under his control,—Santa -Ysabel, Mesa Grande, Mesa Chilquita, San José, Mataguay, La Puerta, -Laguna, and Anaha. He was full of interest and inquiry and enthusiasm -about his people. "I want know American way," he said in -his broken English. "I want make all my people like American people. -How I find out American laws? When white men lose cow, -lose pig, they come here with pistol and say we must find or give up -man that stole. How we know? Is that American law? We all -alone out here. We got nobody show us. Heap things I want ask -about. I make all my people work. We can't work like American -people; we ain't got work with; we ain't got wagon, harness; three -old broked ploughs for all these people. What we want, some man -right here to go to. While you here white man very good; when you -go away trouble same as before."</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_493'></a>There are one hundred and seventy-one Indians in this village. -They are very poor. Many of their houses are of tule or brush, their -clothes were scanty and ragged, some of the older men wearing but a -single garment. That they had not been idle their big wheat-field -proved; between three and four hundred acres fenced and the wheat -well up. "How do you divide the crops?" we asked. "Every man -knows his own piece," was the reply. They sell all of this wheat that -they can spare to a storekeeper some three miles away. Having no -wagon they draw the wheat there on a sort of sledge or wood triangle, -about four feet long, with slats across it. A rope is tied to the apex -of this, then fastened to the horn of a saddle on a horse ridden by a -man, who steers the sledge as best he may. The Indians brought this -sledge to show us, to prove how sorely they needed wagons. They -also made the women bring out all the children and arrange them in -rows, to show that they had enough for a school, repeating over and -over that they had many more, but they were all out digging wild -roots and vegetables. "If there was not great many them, my people -die hungry," said the general; "them most what we got eat." -It is a sore grievance to these Santa Ysabel Indians that the Aqua -Caliente Indians, only twenty miles away, have received from the -Government a school, ploughs, wagons, &c., while nothing whatever -has been done for them. "Them Aqua Caliente Indians got everything," -said the general; "got hot springs too; make money on them -hot springs; my people got no chance make money."</p> - -<p class='c010'>On the second day of our stay in this region we saw four of the -young general's captains, those of Puerta San Felipe, San José, Anaha, -and Laguna. In Puerta San Felipe are sixty-four people. This village -is on a confirmed grant, the "Valle de San Felipe," confirmed to Felipe -Castillo. The ranch is now leased to a Frenchman, who is taking -away the water from the Indian village, and tells the captain that the -whole village belongs to him, and that if anybody so much as hunts -a rabbit on the place he will put him in prison. These people are in -great destitution and trouble, being deprived of most of their previous -means of support. The Anaha captain reported fifty-three people in -his village. White men had come in and fenced up land on both sides -of him. "When he plants his wheat and grain the white men run -their hogs into the fields;" and "when the white men find anything -dead they come to him to make him tell everything about it, and he -has not got anything to tell." The San José captain had a similar -story. The Laguna captain was a tall, swarthy, well-to-do-looking -Indian, so unlike all the rest that we wondered what there could have -been in his life to produce such a difference. He said nobody troubled -him. He had good land, plenty of water, raised grain and vegetables, -everything he wanted except watermelons. His village contained -eleven persons; was to be reached only by a steep trail, the last four -miles. We expressed our pleasure at finding one Indian captain and -<a id='Page_494'></a>village that were in no trouble and wanted for nothing. He smiled -mysteriously, as we afterward recalled, and reiterated that nobody -troubled him. The mystery was explained later, when we discovered -accidentally in San Diego that this Laguna village had not escaped, -as we supposed, the inroads of white men, and that the only reason -that the Laguna Indians were not in trouble was that they had peaceably -surrendered half their lands to a white man, who was living -amicably among them under a sort of contract or lease.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Exhibit H.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>MESA GRANDE.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Mesa Grande lies high up above the Santa Ysabel village and fifteen -miles west of it. The tract adjoins the Santa Ysabel Ranch, and -is, as its name indicates, a large table-land. There was set off here -in 1876 a large reservation, intended to include the Mesa Grande Indian -village, and also a smaller one of Mesa Chilquita; but, as usual, the -villages were outside of the lines, and the lands reserved were chiefly -worthless. One of the settlers in the neighborhood told us he would -not take the whole reservation as a gift and pay the taxes on it. The -situation of the Indians here is exceedingly unfortunate and growing -more and more so daily. The good Mesa Grande lands, which they -once owned and occupied, and which should have been secured to them, -have been fast taken up by whites, the Indians driven off, and, as the -young general said, "all bunched up till they haven't got any room." -Both the Mesa Chilquita and Mesa Grande plateaus are now well -under cultivation by whites, who have good houses and large tracts -fenced in.</p> - -<p class='c010'>They have built a good school-house, which we chanced to pass at -the hour of recess, and noting Indian faces among the children, stopped -to inquire about them. There were, out of twenty-seven scholars, -fifteen Indians or half-breeds, some of them the children of Indians -who had taken up homesteads. We asked the teacher what was the -relative brightness of the Indian and white children. Supposing that -we shared the usual prejudice against Indians, the teacher answered -in a judiciously deprecating tone, "Well, really there isn't so much -difference between them as you would suppose." "In favor of which -race?" we asked. Thus suddenly enlightened as to our animus in -the matter, the teacher changed his tone, and said he found the Indian -children full as bright as the whites; in fact, the brightest scholar he -had was a half-breed girl.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_495'></a>On the census list taken of Indians in 1880 Mesa Grande and Mesa -Chilquita are reported as having, the first one hundred and three -Indians, the second twenty-three. There are probably not so many -now, the Mesa Chilquita tract being almost wholly in possession of -the whites. The Mesa Grande village has a beautiful site on a small -stream, in a sort of hill basin, surrounded by higher hills. The houses -are chiefly adobe, and there is on one of the slopes a neat little adobe -chapel, with a shingled roof nearly done, of which the Indians were -very proud. There were many fields of grain and a few fruit orchards. -The women gathered around our carriage in eager groups, insisting -on shaking hands, and holding up their little children to shake hands -also. They have but once seen an agent of the Government, and -any evidence of real interest in them and their welfare touches them -deeply.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The condition of the Indians in this district is too full of complications -and troubles to be written out here in detail. A verbatim copy of -a few of our notes taken on the spot will give a good picture of the -situation.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Chrysanto, an Indian, put off his farm two months ago by white man named -Jim Angel, with certificate of homestead from Los Angeles land office. Antonio -Douro, another, put off in same way from his farm near school-house. -He had built good wooden house; the white man took that and half his land. -He was ploughing when the white man came and said, "Get out! I have -bought this land." They have been to the agent. They have been ten times, -till they are tired to go. Another American named Hardy ran an Indian off -his farm, built a house on it; then he sold it to Johnson, and Johnson took a -little more land; and Johnson sold it to Stone, and he took still more. They -used to be well fixed, had plenty of stock and hundreds of horses. Now they -are all penned up, and have had to pay such fines they have got poor. Whites -take their horses and cattle and corral them and make them pay 25 cents, 50 -cents to get them out. "Is that American law?" they asked; "and if it -is law for Indians' horses, is it not same for white men's horses?" But -one Indian shut up some of the white men's horses that came on his land, and -the constable came and took them all away and made the Indian pay money. -The Americans so thick now they want all the Indians away; so, to make them -go, they keep accusing them of stealing.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This is a small tithe of what we were told. It was pitiful to see -the hope die out of the Indians' faces as they laid grievance after -grievance before us, and we were obliged to tell them we could do -nothing, except to "tell the Government." On our way back to Santa -Ysabel we were waylaid by several Indians, some of them very aged, -each with the same story of having been driven off or being in imminent -danger of being driven off his lands.</p> - -<p class='c010'>On the following day we had a long interview with one of the white -settlers of Mesa Grande, and learned some particulars as to a combination -into which the Mesa Grande whites had entered to protect -<a id='Page_496'></a>themselves against cattle and horse thieves. The young Indian general -was present at this interview. His boots were toeless; he wore -an old gingham shirt and ragged waistcoat, but his bearing was full -of dignity. According to the white man's story, this combination was -not a vigilance committee at all. It was called "The Protective -League of Mesa Grande," and had no special reference to Indians in -any way. According to the Indian general's story it was a vigilance -committee, and all the Indians knew very well that their lives were -in danger from it. The white man protested against this, and reiterated -his former statements. To our inquiry why, if the league were -for the mutual protection of all cattle-owners in the region, the captains -of the Indian villages were not invited to join it, he replied that -he himself would have been in favor of that, but that to the average -white settler in the region such a suggestion would be like a red rag -to a bull; that he himself, however, was a warm friend to the Indians. -"How long you been friend to Indians?" asked the boy-general, -with quiet sarcasm. We afterwards learned by inquiry of -one of the most influential citizens of a neighboring town, that this -protective league was in fact nothing more or less than a vigilance -committee, and that it meant short shrift to Indians; but being betrayed -by one of its members it had come to an untimely end, to the -great relief of all law-abiding people in the vicinity. He also added -that the greater part of the cattle and horse stealing in the region was -done by Mexicans and whites, not by Indians.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Whether it is possible for the Government to put these Mesa Grande -Indians into a position to protect themselves, and have anything like -a fair chance to make their living in their present situation, is a question; -but that it ought to be done, if possible, is beyond question. It -is grievous to think that this fine tract of land so long owned and -occupied by these Indians, and in good faith intended by the Government -to be set aside for their use, has thus passed into other hands. -Even if the reservation tract, some three hundred acres, has been by -fraudulent representations restored to the public domain, and now -occupied by a man named Clelland, who has taken steps to patent it, -the tract by proper investigation and action could probably be reclaimed -for the Indians' use.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Exhibit I.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>CAPITAN GRANDE.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Capitan Grande is the name of the cañon through which the San -Diego River comes down from the Cuyamaca Mountains, where it -takes its rise. The cañon is thirty-five miles from the city of San -<a id='Page_497'></a>Diego; is fifteen miles long, and has narrow bottom lands along the -river, in some places widening out into good meadows. It is in parts -beautifully wooded and full of luxuriant growths of shrubs and vines -and flowering plants. In 1853 a band of Dieguino Indians were, by -the order of Lieutenant Magruder, moved from San Diego to this -cañon (see Paper No. 1, appended hereto). These Indians have continued -ever since to live there, although latterly they have been so -much pressed upon by white settlers that their numbers have been -reduced. A large reservation, showing on the record nineteen full -sections, was set off here, in 1876, for these Indians. It is nearly all -on the bare sides of the mountain walls of the cañon. As usual, the -village site was not taken in by the lines. Therefore white settlers -have come in and the Indians been driven away. We were informed -that a petition was in circulation for the restoration to the public -domain of a part of this reservation. We could not succeed in finding -a copy of this petition; but it goes without saying that any such petition -means the taking away from the Indians the few remaining bits -of good land in their possession. There are now only about sixty -Indians left in this cañon. Sixteen years ago there were from one -hundred and fifty to two hundred—a flourishing community with -large herds of cattle and horses and good cultivated fields. It is not -too late for the Government to reclaim the greater part of this cañon -for its rightful owners' use. The appended affidavits, which we forwarded -to Washington, will show the grounds on which we earnestly -recommended such a course.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Paper No. 1.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>Copy of Colonel Magruder's order locating the Indians in Capitan Grande.</p> - -<div class='c011'>Mission San Diego, February 1st, 1853.</div> - -<p class='c010'>Permission is hereby given to Patricio and Leandro, alcalde and captain, to -cultivate and live at the place called Capitan Grande, about four leagues to -the south and east of Santa Ysabel, as it is with extreme difficulty that these -Indians can gain a subsistence on the lands near the mission in consequence -of the want of sufficient water for irrigation. It is understood that this spot, -called, as above, Capitan Grande, is a part of the public domain. All persons -are hereby warned against disturbing or interfering with the said Indians, or -their people, in the occupation or cultivation of said lands. Any complaints -in reference to said cultivation or to the right of occupancy must be laid before -the commanding officer of this post, in the absence of the Indian agent for this -part of the country.</p> -<div class='c011'>(Signed by Colonel Magruder.)</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><a id='Page_498'></a><span class='sc'>Paper No. 2.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>Copy of affidavit of the captain of Capitan Grande Indians and one of his -head men.</p> - -<div class='c011'>State of California, County of San Diego:</div> - -<p class='c010'>In the application of Daniel C. Isham, James Meade, Mary A. Taylor, -and Charles Hensley.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Ignacio Curo and Marcellino, being duly sworn by me through an interpreter, -and the words being interpreted to each and every one of them, each for -himself deposes and says:</p> - -<p class='c010'>I am an Indian belonging to that portion of the Dieguino Indians under -the captainship of Ignacio Curo, and residing in the rancheria of Capitan -Grande, being also a part and portion of the Indian people known as Mission -Indians; our said rancheria was located at Capitan Grande, where we all now -reside in <span class='fss'>A. D.</span> 1853, by an order issued by Colonel Magruder, of the United -States Army, located at the post of San Diego on February 1st of said year, -1853. That since that time we and our families have resided on and possessed -said lands. That said lands are included in township 14 south, range 2 east, -of San Bernardino meridian in San Diego County, State of California.</p> - -<p class='c010'>That affiants are informed and believe that Daniel C. Isham, James Meade, -Mary A. Taylor, and Charles Hensley have each of them filed in the land office -of Los Angeles their application for pre-emption or homestead of lands included -in the lands heretofore possessed by affiants, and now occupied by the -rancheria of affiants as a home for themselves and families. That said affiants -and their tribe have constantly occupied and partly cultivated the land -so claimed by said Isham, Meade, Taylor, and Hensley since the year 1853. -That they nor their tribe have ever signed any writing yielding possession or -abandoning their rights to said lands; but that said parties heretofore mentioned -are attempting by deceit, fraud, and violence to obtain said lands from -affiants and the Government of the United States. Affiants therefore pray -that the land officers of the United States Government will protect them in -their right, and stay all proceedings on the part of said claimants until the -matter is thoroughly investigated and the rights of the respective parties -adjudicated.</p> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Ignacio Curo</span>, his + mark.</div> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Marcellino</span>, his + mark.</div> - -<p class='c010'>Witness: <span class='sc'>M. A. Luce</span>.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div><span class='sc'>Paper No. 3.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c008'>Copy of affidavit of Anthony D. Ubach, in regard to Capitan Grande Indians, - and in the matter of the application of Daniel Isham, James Meade, Mary - A. Taylor, and Charles Hensley.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Anthony D. Ubach, being first duly sworn, on oath deposes and says: I am -now, and have been continuously for the last seventeen years, Catholic pastor -at San Diego, and have frequently made official visitations to the various Indian -<a id='Page_499'></a>villages or rancherias in said county; that I have frequently during said -time visited the Capitan Grande Rancheria, on the San Diego River, in said -county of San Diego; that when I first visited said rancheria, some seventeen -years ago, the Indians belonging to the rancheria cultivated the valley below -the falls on the San Diego River and herded and kept their stock as far up as -said falls; that I know the place now occupied and claimed by the above-named -applicants, and each of them, and also the place occupied and claimed -by Dr. D. W. Strong; that from the time I first visited said rancheria until the -lands were occupied by the aforesaid white men said lands were occupied, cultivated, -and used by the Indians of Capitan Grande Rancheria as a part of their -rancheria; that upon one occasion I acted as interpreter for Capitan Ignacio -Curo in a negotiation between said Capitan Ignacio and D. W. Strong, and -that said Strong at that time rented from said Ignacio a portion of the rancheria -lands for bee pasture; I also know that Capt. A. P. Knowles and A. S. -Grant also rented the lands from the Indians of the rancheria when they first -located there.</p> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Anthony D. Ubach.</span></div> - -<p class='c010'>San Diego, State of California.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Paper No. 4.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>Copy of the deposition of J. S. Manasse in the matter of the Capitan Grande -Indians and the application of Daniel Isham, James Meade, Mary A. Taylor, -and Charles Hensley.</p> - -<div class='c011'>State of California, San Diego County:</div> - -<p class='c010'>J. S. Manasse, being first duly sworn, on oath deposes and says: I am now, -and have been continuously since the year 1853, a resident of said county of -San Diego; that I have known these certain premises on the San Diego River, -said county, known as the Capitan Grande Rancheria, since the year 1856; -that at that time and for many years thereafter the Indians belonging to said -Capitan Grande Rancheria occupied and cultivated their fields as far up as -the falls on the San Diego River; that the premises now occupied by the -above-named applicants were so occupied and cultivated by the Indians belonging -to said rancheria during the time aforesaid; I know that about one -year ago Capt. A. P. Knowles paid rent to Ignacio Curo for a portion of the -land now claimed by the above-named applicant, Charles Hensley; also that -when I first knew of the rancheria and for many years thereafter the Indians -of that rancheria owned and kept there a considerable number of cattle, -horses, and sheep.</p> -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>J. S. Manasse.</span></div> - -<p class='c010'>The lands above referred to as claimed by Dr. D. W. Strong were -patented by him September 15th, 1882. They include all the lands -formerly cultivated by the Indians and used for stock pasturage at the -head of the cañon. When, at the expiration of his first year's lease of -the tract for bee pasturage, the Indians asked if he wished to renew -the lease he informed them that he should stay and file on the land. -His lines are as follows: N. E. 1/4 of N. E. 1/4, S. 1/2 of N. E. 1/4, and N. W. -1/4 of S. E. 1/4, Sec. 2, T. 14 S., R. 2 E., S. B. M., Home. No. 969.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_500'></a>Charles Hensley's homestead entry is as follows: No. 986, March -29th, 1882. S. 1/2 of N. W. 1/4 and W. 1/2 of S. W. 1/4, Sec. 22, T. 14 S., -R. 2 E., S. B. M. This is on the original site of the Indian village, -and Hensley is living in Capitan Ignacio Curo's house, for which, after -being informed that he had to leave it at any rate and might as well -get a little money for it, Ignacio took a small sum of money.</p> - -<p class='c010'>James Meade's entry, which included Mary Taylor's interest, is as -follows: No. 987, March 29th, 1882. N. 1/2 of N. W. 1/4 and N. 1/2 of N. E. 1/4, -Sec. 22, T. 14 S., R. 2 E., S. B. M. Captain Knowles's lines we did -not ascertain. He claims and in one way or another occupies several -tracts in the cañon.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Exhibit J.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>THE SEQUAN INDIANS.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Sequan Indians are a small band of Dieguino Indians living in -a rift of the hills on one side of the Sweetwater Cañon, about twenty -miles from San Diego. There are less than fifty of them all told. -They are badly off, having for the last ten years been more and more -encroached on by white settlers, until now they can keep no cattle, -and have little cultivable land left. There is a small reservation of -one section set off for them, but the lines were never pointed out to -them, and they said to us they did not know whether it were true that -they had a reservation or not. They had heard also that there was -an agent for the Indians, but they did not know whether that were -true or not. As nearly as we could determine, this village is within -the reservation lines; and if it is, some of the fields which have been -recently taken away from the Indians by the whites must be also. -They had the usual bundle of tattered "papers" to show, some of -which were so old they were hardly legible. One of them was a certificate -from a justice of the peace in San Diego, setting forth that -this justice, by virtue of power in him vested by the California State -law, did—</p> - -<p class='c010'>"permit hereby all these Indians to occupy peaceably and without disturbance -all the certain land and premises heretofore occupied and held by these -Indians aforesaid, including all their right and title to all other necessary privileges -thereto belonging, mainly the water necessary for the irrigation of their -lands."</p> - -<p class='c010'>These Indians are much dispirited and demoralized, and wretchedly -poor. Probably the best thing for them would be, in case the Capitan -Grande Cañon is cleared of whites and assured to the Indians, to remove -there and join the Capitan Grande band.</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_501'></a><span class='sc'>Exhibit K.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>THE CONEJOS.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Conejos are of the Dieguino tribe. Their village is said to be -partly on the Capitan Grande Reservation. One man familiar with -the region told us that the reservation line ran through the centre of -the Conejos village. The village is reached only by a nine-miles horseback -trail, and we did not visit it. The captain came to San Diego to -see us, and we also learned many particulars of the village from an intelligent -ranchwoman who has spent eleven summers in its vicinity. -There are thirty-two men, twenty-six women, and twenty-two children -in the band. They have good fields of wheat, and raise corn, squashes, -and beans; yet there is not a plough in the village. The captain is very -strenuous in his efforts to make all his Indians work. When strange -Indians come to the village to visit, they also are set to work. No one -is allowed to remain longer than three days without lending a hand at -the village labor. They are a strong and robust band. They say they -have always lived in their present place. The captain asked for ploughs, -harnesses, and "all things to work with," also for some clothes for his -very old men and women. He also begged to be "told all the things -he ought to know;" said no agent had ever visited them, and "no one -ever told them anything."</p> - -<p class='c010'>In many of their perplexities they are in the habit of consulting -Mrs. Gregory, and she often mounts her horse and rides nine miles to -be present at one of their councils. Not long ago one of their number, -a very young Indian, having stabbed a white man living near Julian, -was arrested, put in jail, and in imminent danger of being lynched by -the Julian mob. They were finally persuaded, however, to give him -up to his tribe to be tried and punished by them. Mrs. Gregory was -sent for to be present at the trial. The facts in the case were, that the -Irishman had attempted to take the young Indian's wife by force. The -husband interfering, the Irishman, who was drunk, fired at him, upon -which the Indian drew his knife and stabbed the Irishman. Mrs. -Gregory found the young Indian tied up in the snow, a circle of Indians -sitting around him. Recounting the facts, the captain said to -Mrs. Gregory, "Now, what do you think I ought to do?" "Would -you think he deserved punishment if it were an Indian he had stabbed -under the same circumstances?" asked Mrs. Gregory. "Certainly -not," was the reply, "we should say he did just right." "I think so -too," said Mrs. Gregory; "the Irishman deserved to be killed." But -the captain said the white people would be angry with him if no punishment -were inflicted on the young man; so they whipped him and -banished him from the rancheria for one year. Mrs. Gregory said that -<a id='Page_502'></a>during the eleven years that they had kept their cattle ranch in the -neighborhood of this village, but one cow had ever been stolen by the -Indians; and in that instance the Indians themselves assisted in tracking -the thief, and punished him severely.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Exhibit L.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>PALA AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD.</p> - -<p class='c010'>In the days of the prosperity of the San Luis Rey Mission, Pala -was one of its chief appanages. It lies an easy day's journey from -San Luis Rey, in the valley of the San Luis Rey River. It has also a -little stream of its own, the Pala Creek. It is a beautiful spot, surrounded -by high hills, with wooded spars, and green bits of meadow -here and there. The ruins of the old mission buildings are still standing, -and services are held several times a year in the dilapidated chapel. -It has always been a favorite spot with the San Luis Rey Indians, -some five or six hundred of whom are living in the region. The chief -settlements are Pala, Pauma, Apeche, La Jolla, and Rincon. At Pala, -La Jolla, and Rincon are reservations. Of the Pala Reservation some -tracts have been restored to the public domain, to be patented to whites. -The remainder of this reservation, so far as we could learn its location, -contains very little good land, the greater part of it being in the wash -of the creek. The Rincon Reservation is better, being at the head of -the valley, directly on the river, walled in to the south by high mountains. -It is, as its name signifies, in a corner. Here is a village of -nearly two hundred Indians; their fields are fenced, well irrigated, -and under good cultivation in grains and vegetables. They have stock—cattle, -horses, and sheep. As we drove into the village, an Indian -boy was on hand with his hoe to instantly repair the break in the embankment -of the ditches across which we were obliged to drive. These -Indians have been reported to us as being antagonistic and troublesome, -having refused to have a Government school established there. Upon -inquiry of them we found that the latter fact was true. They said -they wanted a title to their lands, and till they had that they did not -wish to accept anything from the Government; that the agent had -promised it to them again and again, but that they had now lost faith -in ever getting it. The captain said: "The commissioners come one -day and tell us we own the lands and fields; the next day comes somebody -and measures, and then we are out of our houses and fields, and -have to live like dogs." On the outskirts of this village is living a -half-breed, Andrew Scott, who claims some of the Indians' fields and -cuts off part of their water supply. He is reported as selling whiskey -<a id='Page_503'></a>to them, and in this and other ways doing them great harm. It is not -improbable that he would be found to be within the reservation lines.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Between the Rincon and Pala lies the Pauma village. It is on the -Pauma Ranch, the purchase of which for Indian occupancy we have -recommended to the Government. This ranch is now rented, and the -Indians are much interfered with by the lessee, who is naturally reluctant -to lose the profit off a single acre of the land. There is in the -original grant of the Pauma Ranch the following clause: "They shall -have free the arable lands now occupied by the Indians who are established -thereon, as also the lands they may need for their small quantity -of live stock."</p> - -<p class='c010'>The La Jolla region we were unable to visit. The Indian village -is said to be outside the reservation lines. There is a claim against -this tract, and the La Jolla captain told us that the parties representing -it had said to him that they were coming in with sheep next year, -and would drive all the Indians out. Upon inquiry at the surveyor-general's -office in San Francisco in regard to the La Jolla tract, we -learned that there is a record on file in the archives of that department -purporting to show that there was a grant made in favor of the Indians -of San Luis Rey, Pablo, and José Apis, for a tract of land named La -Jolla, in the immediate vicinity of the Valle de San José, dated November -7th, 1845, signed by Pio Pico; deposited in the archives January -31st, 1878. From Mr. Chauncey M. Hayes, a resident of San Luis -Rey, the agent of the Pauma Ranch, we received the following letter -on the subject of La Jolla:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"La Jolla was granted November 7th, 1845, by the Mexican Government -to José and Pablo Apis Indians, Expediente No. 242, and is recorded in the -surveyor-general's office, in book No. 4, p. 17. It was not presented to the -land commissioner in 1858, and remained without any action being taken. -Col. Cave J. Couts, now deceased, bought the interest of the grantees, and a -contract was afterwards made between Judge E. D. Sawyer, of San Francisco, -and himself to secure its approval by a special act of Congress. About three -years ago an act was passed approving the grant for about 8,848 acres, reserving -therefrom all lands then occupied. If this included Indians, there would -not be much of La Jolla left."</p> - -<p class='c010'>It is evident that this is a claim which should be closely investigated. -The probabilities are that it would not bear such investigation. In Pala -some of the Indians had been ejected from their homes under circumstances -of great cruelty and injustice; affidavits setting forth the facts -in their case were forwarded by us to Washington (see Paper No. 1, -appended hereto). It is to be hoped that the Indians can be reinstated -in their homes. If the Pauma Ranch be purchased for Indian occupancy, -as we recommend, it will, with the present reservation tracts of -the Rincon, Pala, and La Jolla, make a sizable block of land, where -<a id='Page_504'></a>the Indians will be comparatively free from white intrusion, and where -they will have a good chance to support themselves by agriculture and -stock-raising.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Paper No. 1, appended to Exhibit L.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>Affidavit of the claims of Arthur Golsh, Gaetano Golsh, and others, to a certain -piece of land in township of Pala.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Patricio Soberano and Felipe Joqua, being duly sworn by me through an -interpreter, and the words hereof being interpreted to each and every one of -them, each for himself deposes and says: I am an Indian belonging to that -portion of the San Luisenos Indians under the captainship of José Antonio Sal, -and belonging in the rancheria of Pala. I have occupied the land in question -ever since my childhood, together with Geromino Lugo and Luis Ardillo, our -wives and families numbering in all twenty-nine persons. I have resided -on the land in question continuously until December, 1882. About five years -ago one Arthur Golsh rented of Luis Ardillo a portion of said land for three -months at a rental of $5 per month. After this, said Golsh claimed the property -of Ardillo and of the three other Indians; ordered them to leave; used -threats; on one occasion aimed a pistol at Patricio Soberano. He then proceeded -to file on the land, and obtained a patent for the land, while these -Indians were still residing upon it. The said Indians had upon the said land -four houses, one of which is adobe, various enclosed fields, and a long ditch -for bringing irrigation water to the said lands. In spite of the threats of -Arthur Golsh and others, we continued to occupy the lands until December, -1882, when we were informed by Agent S. S. Lawson that if we did not leave -voluntarily we would be put off by the sheriff.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Said affiants therefore pray that said land be returned to the said Indians -by the United States Government.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Signed by Patricio Soberano and Felipe Joqua in presence of the justice of -the peace, in Pala.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Exhibit M.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>THE PACHANGA INDIANS.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This little band of Indians is worthy of a special mention. They -are San Luisenos, and formerly lived in the Temecula Valley, where -they had good adobe houses and a large tract of land under cultivation. -The ruins of these houses are still standing there, also their -walled graveyard full of graves. There had been a settlement of -Indians in this Temecula Valley from time immemorial, and at the -time of the secularization of the missions many of the neophytes of -San Luis Rey returned thither to their old home. At the time of the -<a id='Page_505'></a>outbreak of the Aqua Caliente Indians, in 1851, these Temecula Indians -refused to join in it and moved their families and stock to Los Angeles -for protection. Pablo, their chief at that time, was a man of some -education, could read and write, and possessed large herds of cattle -and horses. This Temecula Valley was a part of the tract given to -the San Luisenos and Dieguinos by the treaty of January 3d, 1853, referred -to in the body of this report. (See page 460.) In 1873 a decree -of ejectment against these Indians was obtained in the San Francisco -courts without the Indians' knowledge. The San Diego Union of -September 23d, 1875, says on the subject:</p> - -<p class='c010'>"For forty years these Indians have been recognized as the most thrifty -and industrious Indians in all California. For more than twenty years past -these Indians have been yearly told by the United States commissioners and -agents, both special and general, as well as by their legal counsel, that they -could remain on these lands. Now, without any previous knowledge by them -of any proceedings in court, they are ordered to leave their lands and homes. -The order of ejectment has been served on them by the sheriff of San Diego -County. He is not only commanded to remove these Indians, but to take -of their property whatever may be required to pay the costs incurred in -the suit."</p> - -<p class='c010'>Comment on the extracts would be superfluous. There is not often -so much of history condensed in the same number of newspaper paragraphs. -A portion of these Temecula Indians, wishing to remain as -near their old homes and the graves of their dead as possible, went -over in the Pachanga cañon, only three miles distant. It was a barren, -dry spot; but the Indians sunk a well, built new houses, and went to -work again. In the spring of 1882, when we first visited the place, -there was a considerable amount of land in wheat and barley, and a -little fencing had been done. In July, 1882, the tract was set off by -Executive order as a reservation for these Indians. In the following -May we visited the valley again. Our first thought on entering it was, -Would that all persons who still hold to the belief that Indians will not -work could see this valley. It would be hardly an extreme statement -to say that the valley was one continuous field of grain. At least four -times the amount of the previous year had been planted. Corrals had -been built, fruit orchards started; one man had even so far followed -white men's example as to fence in his orchard a piece of the road -which passed his place. The whole expression of the place had -changed; so great a stimulus had there been to the Indians in even -the slight additional sense of security given by the Executive order -setting off their valley as a reservation. And, strangely enough, as if -Nature herself had conspired at once to help and to avenge these -Indians in the Temecula Valley from which they had been driven -out, the white men's grain crops were thin, poor, hardly worth cutting; -while the Indians' fields were waving high and green—altogether the -<a id='Page_506'></a>best wheat and barley we had seen in the county. It is fortunate that -this little nook of cultivable land was set aside as a reservation. Had -it not been it would have been "filed on" before now by the whites in -the region, who already look with envy and chagrin on the crops the -Indian exiles have wrested from land nobody thought worth taking up.</p> - -<p class='c010'>A Government school has been opened here within the past year, -and the scholars have made good progress. We found, however, much -unpleasant feeling among the Indians in regard to the teacher of this -school, owing to his having a few years before driven off four Indian -families from their lands at Pala, and patented the lands to himself. -There were also other rumors seriously affecting his moral character -which led us to make the suggestion in regard to the employment of -female teachers in these Indian schools. (See report recommendation.) -As one of the Indians forcibly said, to set such men as this over schools -was like setting the wolf to take care of the lambs.</p> - -<p class='c010'>These Pachanga Indians had, before the setting aside of their tract -as a reservation, taken steps towards the securing of their cañon, and -the dividing it among themselves under the provisions of the Indian -Homestead Act. They were counselled to this and assisted in it by -Richard Eagan, of San Juan Capistrano, well known as a good friend -of the Indians. They have expressed themselves as deeply regretting -that they were persuaded to abandon this plan and have the tract set -off as a reservation. They were told that they could in this way get -their individual titles just as securely and without cost. Finding that -they have no individual titles, and cannot get them, they are greatly -disappointed. It would seem wise to allow them as soon as possible to -carry out their original intention. They are quite ready and fit for it.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Exhibit N.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>THE DESERT INDIANS.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Indians known as the Desert Indians are chiefly of the Cahuilla -tribe, and are all under the control of an aged chief named Cabezon, -who is said to have more power and influence than any Indian now -living in California. These Indians' settlements are literally in the -desert; some of them being in that depressed basin, many feet below -sea-level, which all travellers over the Southern Pacific Railroad will -recollect. There is in this desert one reservation, called Aqua Caliente, -of about 60,000 acres. From the best information that we can get this -is all barren desert land, with only one spring in it. These Desert -Indians are wretchedly poor, and need help perhaps more than any -others in Southern California. We were unable to visit these Indians -<a id='Page_507'></a>personally, but were so fortunate as to induce Capt. J. G. Stanley, a -former Indian agent for the Mission Indians and a warm friend of -theirs, to go out in our stead and report to us on their condition. His -report is herewith given:—</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Mrs. H. H. Jackson</i>:</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Madam</span>,—In compliance with your request I proceeded to the Cabezon -Valley, and have endeavored, as far as was possible with the limited time at -my command, to ascertain the present condition and actual necessities of these -Indians that still inhabit that portion of the Colorado Basin known as the -Cabezon Valley, that being also the name of the head chief, who, from the -best information that can be obtained, is not less than ninety and probably -one hundred years old, and who still has great influence with all the Indians -in that region. I found it impracticable to visit all the rancherias, and -accordingly sent out runners and called a council of all the Indians of all -the villages, to be held at a point on the railroad known as Walter's Station, -that being the most central point. The next day there were present in -council about one hundred Indians, including the captains of all the rancherias -and the old chief Cabezon. Having been special agent under the -old superintendent system, and well acquainted with the Indians, I was received -by them with the greatest cordiality. I read and interpreted your -letter to Cabezon, and also explained that you were not able to visit them in -person on account of ill health. The Indians, through their spokesman or -interpreter, then stated their cause of complaint. First, that Mr. Lawson -had never visited their villages nor taken any interest in their welfare; that -he had allowed his interpreter, Juan Morengo, to take the advantage of them; -that Juan Morengo had made a contract for them with a man in San Bernardino -to cut wood on land claimed by the Indians for the railroad company, -he taking the lion's share on the profits, and agreeing to pay them every -Saturday in money; that Juan Morengo took some $200 belonging to the -Indians and appropriated it to his own use; that the contractor did not pay -as agreed, but wished the Indians to take poor flour and other articles at a -great price. There may be some exaggeration of the causes of complaint, -but it is evident that no one has looked after the rights of these Indians. -The Indians have stopped cutting the wood, and they say the contractor -tells them he will send others to cut wood if they will not do it. If I understand -rightly this is Government land, and no one has a right to cut the -timber. It is true, it is mesquite timber, and they profess to cut only the -dry trees, but the mesquite is invaluable to the Indians. It not only makes -their fires, but its fruit supplies them with a large amount of subsistence. -The mesquite bean is used green and dry, and at the present time is their -principal article of food. Moreover, without the mesquite tree the valley -would be an absolute desert. The wood (the dead trees) could be made a -source of employment and profitable revenue to the Indians if cut with proper -regulations, but the present mode is destruction to the timber, and benefits -but few of the Indians. I have extended my remarks on this subject, as I -think it very important. If the wood is to be cut the Indians should be supplied -with wagons and harness that they may do all the work of delivering -<a id='Page_508'></a>the wood and get the profit of their labor. I would suggest that it is very -important that a tract of country be segregated and set apart for these Indians. -There is a vast amount of desert land in their country, but there are spots in -it that have been occupied by them for hundreds of years where wheat, corn, -melons, and other farm products can be grown. There is very little running -water, but water is so near the surface that it can be easily developed. The -Indians appear to know nothing of any lands being set apart for them, but -claim the whole territory they have always occupied. I think that to avoid -complications something should be done for these Indians immediately to -protect their interests. At present there are eight villages or rancherias, each -with its own captain, but all recognizing old Cabezon as head chief. I ascertained -from each captain the number belonging to his village, and I found the -aggregate to be 560 souls. These Indians are not what are called Christianized -Indians. They never belonged to the missions and have never been -received into any church. They believe in spirits and witchcraft. While I -was among them I was told by a white man that the Indians intended to kill -one of their number because he had bewitched a man and made him sick. I -asked the interpreter about it. He acknowledged it to be true, but said they -only intended to frighten him so that he would let the man alone. I told him -it would be wrong to kill the Indian, and he said they would not do it. They -are very anxious to have schools established amongst them, and are willing to -all live in one village if a suitable place can be selected. I shall offer as my -opinion that immediate steps should be taken to set apart lands for these -Indians, that they be permitted to cut wood for sale only on the public lands -in Cabezon Valley, that no one be permitted to cut any green timber in the -valley, that two strong wagons and harness for twelve horses be furnished (or -loaned) to the Indians for the purpose of hauling wood only, that lumber be -furnished to make sheds for said wagons and harness. The Indians have -horses of their own.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>All of which is respectfully submitted.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>J. G. Stanley.</span></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Exhibit O.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>THE SAN GORGONIO RESERVATION.</p> - -<p class='c010'>This is the only reservation of any size or value in Southern California. -It lies in the San Gorgonio Pass, between the San Bernardino -and San Jacinto Mountains. The Southern Pacific Railroad passes -throughout it. It is a large tract, including a considerable proportion -of three townships. It is in an exposed situation, open to the desert -winds, and very hot in summer. A small white settlement, called -Banning, lies in this district. Most of the titles to these settlements -are said to have been acquired before the reservation was set off. We -received from the settlers in Banning the following letter:</p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_509'></a><i>To Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Kinney, Commissioners, &c.</i>:</p> - -<p class='c010'>At a public meeting of all the residents on the lands reserved for Indian -purposes, held at Banning, in San Gorgonio Pass, San Bernardino County, -California, it was resolved that a delegation from our inhabitants be appointed -to proceed to San Bernardino, and lay before the commissioners a statement -of the existing status of the lands reserved for Indian purposes as affecting -the citizens resident on those townships known as 2 and 3 S., R. 1 E., -and 2 S., R. 2 E., in San Bernardino meridian. Believing that it is of the -utmost importance that you should become conversant with facts affecting the -condition and future well-being of the Indians whom it is designed to place -upon these lands, we respectfully request a hearing. Among those facts -as affecting the residents directly, and more remotely the Indians, are the -following:</p> - -<p class='c010'>There is in San Gorgonio Township, of which these lands are a part, a population -of two hundred and fifty souls. In township 3 S., R. 1 E., is the village -of Banning, which is the business centre of the surrounding country, and -has an immediately surrounding population numbering fifty souls. It has -post and express offices, railroad depot, district school, church organization, -general merchandise store, the flume of the San Gorgonio Fluming Company, -two magistrates; and during the last year there was sold or shipped from this -place alone fully 20,000 bushels of wheat and barley, over 200 tons of baled -hay, a large amount of honey, butter, eggs, poultry, live stock, &c., besides -200 cords of wood. Although more than half of the area of this township is -in the mountains and uninhabited, from the remaining portion which is surveyed -land, there is at this time fully 1,200 acres in grain, and the value of -the improved property is over $50,000, exclusive of railroad property. Vested -interests have been acquired to all the water available for irrigation under the -code of laws existing in this State. Wells have repeatedly been dug without -success in this township. United States patents to lands were granted in this -township long anterior to the Executive order reserving the lands for Indian -purposes, and since then the population has not increased. No Indian has, -within the memory of man, resided in this township. There are not over -two entire sections of land in the entire area left available for cultivation; -and on these, without abundance of water, no one could possibly succeed in -earning a livelihood. One of these sections was occupied and was abandoned, -the attempt to raise a cereal crop having failed. The extreme aridity of the -climate renders the successful growth of cereals problematical, even when -summer fallowing is pursued, and the amount of human casualty possessed -by the average Indian does not usually embrace the period of two years. To -intersperse Indians between white settlers who own the railroad land or odd -sections and the remaining portions of the Government sections, where a "no -fence" law exists, as here, would not be conducive to the well-being of the -Indians, and would result in a depreciation of our property alike needless and -disastrous. In township 2 S., R. 2 E., there are not over eighty acres available,—that -in Weaver Creek cañon, where the water was acquired and utilized -before the Executive order and the legal right well established. In -township 2 S., R. 1 E., settlements were made many years before the issue of -the order of reservation, especially on odd-numbered sections or railroad lands -as then supposed to be, and these bona-fide settlers have acquired claims in -<a id='Page_510'></a>equity to their improvements. On one ranch in this township,—that of -Messrs. Smith & Stewart, who have cultivated and improved the mesa or -bench lands,—there was produced several thousand sacks of grain; but this -involved such an outlay of capital and knowledge, beside experience in grain-growing -such as Indians do not possess. In this township, embracing the -three mentioned, there are upward of forty voters; and these unanimously -and respectfully ask you to grant us a hearing, when we can reply to any -interrogatories you may be pleased to make. If you will kindly name the -time when to you convenient, the undersigned will at once wait upon you.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>W. K. Dunlap</span>,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Ben. W. Smith</span>,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>S. Z. Millard</span>,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Welwood Murray</span>,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Geo. C. Egan</span>,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>D. A. Scott</span>,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='sc'>G. Scott</span>.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>There is upon this San Gorgonio Reservation a considerable amount -of tillable land. There are also on it several small but good water-rights. -One of these springs, with the adjacent land, is occupied by -an Indian village, called the Potrero, numbering about sixty souls,—an -industrious little community, with a good amount of land fenced -and under cultivation. These Indians are in great trouble on account -of their stock, the approaches to their stock-ranges having been by -degrees all fenced off by white settlers, leaving the Indians no place -where they can run their cattle without risk of being corralled and -kept till fines are paid for their release. All the other springs except -this one are held by white settlers, who with one exception, we were -informed, have all come on within the past five years. They claim, -however, to have bought the rights of former settlers. One of the -largest blocks of this reservation lies upon the San Bernardino Mountain, -and is a fair stock-range. It is now used for this purpose by a -man named Hyler. The next largest available block of land on the -reservation is now under tillage by the dry system by the firm of -Smith & Stewart. There is also a bee-ranch on the reservation, belonging -to Herron & Wilson. One of the springs and the land adjacent -are held by a man named Jost. He is on unsurveyed land, but -claims that by private survey he has ascertained that he is on an odd-numbered -section, and has made application to the railroad for the same. -He requested us to submit to the Department his estimate of the value -of his improvements. It is appended to this exhibit. It seems plain -from the above facts, and from the letter of the Banning gentleman, -that a considerable number of Indians could be advantageously placed -on this reservation if the whites were removed. It would be necessary -to acquire whatever titles there may be to tracts included in the -reservation; also to develop the water by the construction of reservoirs, -<a id='Page_511'></a>&c., probably to purchase some small water-rights. Estimating -roughly, we would say by an expenditure of from $30,000 to $40,000 -this reservation could be rounded out and put into readiness for Indians. -It ought to be most emphatically stated and distinctly understood -that without some such preparation as this in the matter of water-rights -and channels the Indians cannot be put there. It is hardly possible -for one unfamiliar with the Southern California country to fully -understand how necessary this is. Without irrigation the greater portion -of the land is worthless, and all arrangements for developing, -economizing, and distributing water are costly. This is an objection -to the San Gorgonio Reservation. There are two others. The Indians -for the most part have an exceeding dislike to the region, and will never -go there voluntarily,—perhaps only by force. The alternative of railroad -sections with the sections of the reservations will surely lead to -troubles in the future between the white settlers and the Indians. -These are serious objections; but it is the only large block of land the -Government has left available for the purpose of Indian occupancy.</p> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Paper No. 1, appended to Exhibit O.</span></div> - -<p class='c010'>Claim of C. F. Jost and wife for improvements in San Gorgonio Reservation, -Banning, San Bernardino County.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Settled on section 25, township 2 S., R. 1 E., S. B. M., San Bernardino -County, in May, 1875. Bought out other white settlers. Hold railroad permission -to settle on land; of date, November, 1875.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>IMPROVEMENTS.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<table class='table5' summary=''> -<colgroup> -<col width='72%' /> -<col width='27%' /> -</colgroup> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>House</td> - <td class='c006'>$300.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Barn</td> - <td class='c006'>150.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Milk-house</td> - <td class='c006'>50.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Meat-house</td> - <td class='c006'>50.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Granary</td> - <td class='c006'>50.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Potato-house and cellar</td> - <td class='c006'>50.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Chicken-house</td> - <td class='c006'>20.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Two board flumes</td> - <td class='c006'>50.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Two water-dams</td> - <td class='c006'>20.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Honey-house</td> - <td class='c006'>10.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Wire fencing</td> - <td class='c006'>300.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Other fencing</td> - <td class='c006'>200.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>One hundred and seventy fruit trees (mostly bearing this year)</td> - <td class='c006'>400.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Breaking up sod land and draining land</td> - <td class='c006'>200.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'>Amount paid to first white settler for claim (no improvements)</td> - <td class='c006'>250.00</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'></td> - <td class='c006'>--------</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='c005'></td> - <td class='c006'>$2,100.00</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_512'></a>On the 1st of June I will have $50 worth of seed-potatoes in the ground, -and labor, $100. It is necessary to plough the ground three times to properly -prepare it for potatoes. This crop in December of the same year is worth -$500 to $600 in the markets. Have about seventy stands of bees, worth, say -$300, which if I am moved will be a dead loss.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Exhibit P.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'>THE PAUMA RANCH.</p> - -<p class='c010'>The Pauma Ranch lies on the San Luis Rey River, between the -Rincon and Pala Reservations. It contains three leagues of land, -largely upland and mesa, good for pasturage and dry farming. It can -be irrigated by bringing water from the San Luis Rey River. There -is some timber on it; also some bottom-lands along the river and along -the Pauma Creek. The ranch is the property of Bishop Mora, who -made to us the following proposition for its sale:</p> - -<p class='c010'>For the sum of $31,000 in gold coin of the United States of North America, -I am disposed to sell to the Government of the United States, for the -benefit of the Mission Indians, the ranch called "Pauma Ranch, in the County -of San Diego," containing three leagues of land, more or less, reserving to -myself and to my assignees, 1st, two acres of land whereon the present Indian -chapel stands; 2d, 320 acres on one half-section on the south side of the public -road leading to Pala, whereon the frame house stands formerly belonging to -Joaquin Amat. Terms, cash on delivery of deed of sale. This offer is made -with the proviso that the transaction is to be concluded on or before the 31st -day of October of the present year.</p> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Francis Mora</span>,</div> -<div class='c011'>Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles.</div> - -<p class='c010'>Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara County, May 14th, 1883.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Upon being informed by us that this condition of time of sale would -make it impossible for us to secure these lands for the Indians, the -Bishop, in the following note, waived that condition:—</p> - -<div class='c011'>San Luis Obispo, May 21st, 1883.</div> - -<p class='c010'><i>Mrs. William S. Jackson</i>:</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Dear Mrs. Jackson</span>,—Your favor of the 17th instant has been received. -I feel heartily thankful for the interest you take in behalf of our Indians, and -do with pleasure waive the condition as regards to the time, and will let the -offer stand until the proposed bill has been voted on by Congress; provided, -however, that the purchase can be brought to a close during spring or summer -<a id='Page_513'></a>of the year 1884, and subject to one year's lease, which will conclude December -31st, 1884, because I must try, <i>pendente transactione</i>, to get enough to pay -taxes.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Hoping you will reach home in good health,</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Yours, affectionately,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Francis Mora</span>,</div> -<div class='c011'>Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles.</div> - -<p class='c010'>It should be distinctly understood that Bishop Mora in making this -offer, and generously allowing it to stand open for so long a time, is -influenced by a warm desire for the welfare of the Indians.</p> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Exhibit Q.</span></div> - -<p class='c010'>PROPOSITION FOR THE SALE OF THE SANTA YSABEL RANCH TO THE -UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.</p> - -<div class='c011'>Los Angeles, Cal., May 19th, 1883.</div> - -<p class='c010'><i>Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson and Abbot Kinney, Esq., -Special Commissioners to the Mission Indians</i>:</p> - -<p class='c010'>Should the U. S. Government wish to purchase the Santa Ysabel -rancho, in San Diego County, California, containing 4 leagues of land, -or about 18,000 acres, we will sell said rancho for the sum of ninety-five -thousand dollars ($95,000), gold coin.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Respectfully,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Hartshorne & Wilcox</span>,</div> -<div class='c011'>By <span class='sc'>E. F. Spence</span>, Agent.</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='sc'>Exhibit R.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>An Act</span> for the government and protection of Indians, passed by the California -State legislature April 22d, 1850.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Section 1.</span> Justices of the peace shall have jurisdiction in all cases -of complaints by, for, or against Indians in their respective townships -in this State.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='sc'>Sec. 2.</span> Persons and proprietors of lands on which Indians are residing -shall permit such Indians peaceably to reside on such lands unmolested -in the pursuit of their usual avocations for the maintenance -of themselves and their families; provided the white person or proprietor -in possession of such lands may apply to a justice of the peace -<a id='Page_514'></a>in the township where the Indians reside to set off to such Indians a -certain amount of land, and on such application the justice shall set off -a sufficient amount of land for the necessary wants of such Indians, -including the site of their village or residence if they so prefer it, and -in no case shall such selection be made to the prejudice of such Indians; -nor shall they be forced to abandon their homes or villages -where they have resided for a number of years; and either party feeling -themselves aggrieved can appeal to the county court from the decision -of the justice, and then, when divided, a record shall be made of -the lands so set off in the court so dividing them; and the Indians shall -be permitted to remain thereon until otherwise provided for.</p> - -<hr class='c014' /> - -<p class='c010'>This act has never been repealed, nor, so far as we could learn, complied -with in a single instance. To-day it would be held as of no value -in the California courts.</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> -<div class='footnotes'> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c016'>FOOTNOTES:</h2> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. </span>Peters, United States Statutes at Large, vol. vii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f2'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. </span>Peters.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f3'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. </span>Peters, United States Statutes at Large, vol. vii.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f4'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. </span>Worcester <i>vs.</i> State of Georgia, 6 Peters, 515.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f5'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. </span>United States <i>vs.</i> Clark, 9 Peters, 168.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f6'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r6'>6</a>. </span>Clark <i>vs.</i> Smith, 13 Peters.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f7'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r7'>7</a>. </span>See Appendix, Art. X.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f8'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r8'>8</a>. </span>It is superfluous to say that these provisions were never carried out.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f9'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r9'>9</a>. </span>See Appendix, Art. 8.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f10'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r10'>10</a>. </span>See Appendix, Arts. I. and XI.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f11'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r11'>11</a>. </span><a id='Page_89'></a>Gen. Harney, on being asked by Bishop Whipple if Black Kettle were -a hostile Indian, replied, laying his hand on his heart, "I have worn this -uniform fifty-five years. He was as true a friend of the white man as I am."</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f12'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r12'>12</a>. </span>On October 27th of this year Black Kettle and his entire band were -killed by Gen. Custer's command at Antelope Hills, on the Wichita River.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f13'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r13'>13</a>. </span>See Appendix, Art. XIII.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f14'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r14'>14</a>. </span>Report of the Secretary of the Interior for 1873.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f15'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r15'>15</a>. </span>Witness the murder of Big Snake on the Ponca Reservation, Indian -Territory, in the summer of 1879.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f16'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r16'>16</a>. </span>Annual Report of the Indian Commissioner for 1878, p. 69.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f17'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r17'>17</a>. </span>Annual Report of the Indian Commissioner for 1878, p. 33.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f18'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r18'>18</a>. </span>Same Report, p. 34.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f19'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r19'>19</a>. </span>Treaty of Prairie du Chien.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f20'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r20'>20</a>. </span>For this relinquishment the Government gave to the Lower Sioux presents -to the amount of $400, and to the upper bands $530 in goods.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f21'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r21'>21</a>. </span>Never ratified.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f22'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r22'>22</a>. </span>"Chrysostom was of opinion, and not without reason, that, in contracts, -as often as we strive earnestly to buy anything for less than it is worth, -or to have more than our just measure or weight, there was in that fact a -kind of theft."—<span class='sc'>Grotius</span> <i>on Contracts</i>.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f23'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r23'>23</a>. </span>See Appendix, Art. VI.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f24'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r24'>24</a>. </span>All the Winnebagoes were removed from Minnesota at the same time.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f25'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r25'>25</a>. </span>Two thousand five hundred of the seven thousand five hundred dollars -had been especially set aside by the Government (unjust in its rewards -as in its punishments) for Chief Other Day, who was really less deserving -than many others.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f26'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r26'>26</a>. </span>See Appendix, Art. V.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f27'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r27'>27</a>. </span>See Appendix, Art. II., for later facts in the history of the Poncas.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f28'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r28'>28</a>. </span>See Appendix, Art. VI.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f29'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r29'>29</a>. </span>See Appendix, Art. X.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f30'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r30'>30</a>. </span>See Appendix, Art. IX.</p> -</div> -<div class='footnote' id='f31'> -<p class='c010'><span class='label'><a href='#r31'>31</a>. </span>A Annual Report of Indian Commissioner for 1872.</p> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c008'>Punctuation has been normalized.</p> - -<p class='c010'>Variations in spelling hyphenation and accentuation were -maintained.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c003'> - <div><a id='Page_515'></a><span class='large'>HELEN JACKSON'S WRITINGS.</span></div> - <div class='c002'>A KEY TO "RAMONA."</div> - <div class='c002'><span class='xlarge'><span class='sc'>A Century of Dishonor.</span></span></div> - <div class='c002'>A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings</div> - <div>with some of the Indian Tribes.</div> - <div class='c002'>A New Edition. 12mo. pp. 514. Cloth. $1.50.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>Mrs. Jackson devoted a whole year of her life to writing and compiling -materials for "A Century of Dishonor," and while thus engaged she mentally -resolved to follow it with a story which should have for its <i>motif</i> the cause of the -Indian. After completing her "Report on the Condition and Needs of the -Mission Indians of California" (see Appendix, p. 458) she set herself down to -this task, and "Ramona" is the result. This was in New York in the winter -of 1883-84, and while thus engaged she wrote her publisher that she seemed to -have the whole story at her fingers' ends, and nothing but physical impossibility -prevented her from finishing it at a sitting. Alluding to it again on her death-bed, -she wrote: "I did not write 'Ramona;' it was written through me. My -life-blood went into it,—all I had thought, felt, and suffered for five years on the -Indian question."</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>The report made by Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Kinney is grave, concise, and -deeply interesting. It is added to the Appendix of this new edition of her book. -In this California journey Mrs. Jackson found the materials for "Ramona," the -Indian novel, which was the last important work of her life, and in which nearly -all the incidents are taken from life. In the report of the Mission Indians will -be found the story of the Temecula removal, and the tragedy of Alessandro's -death, as they appear in "Ramona."—<i>Boston Daily Advertiser.</i></span></p> - -<hr class='c014' /> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>Mrs. Jackson's Letter of Gratitude to the President.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'>The following letter from Mrs. Jackson to the President was -written by her four days before her death, Aug. 12, 1885:—</p> - -<p class='c010'><i>To</i> <span class='sc'>Grover Cleveland</span>, <i>President of the United States</i>:</p> - -<p class='c010'>Dear Sir,—From my death-bed I send you a message of heartfelt thanks for -what you have already done for the Indians. I ask you to read my "Century -of Dishonor." I am dying happier for the belief I have that it is your hand that -is destined to strike the first steady blow toward lifting this burden of infamy -from our country, and righting the wrongs of the Indian race.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>With respect and gratitude,</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c011'><span class='sc'>Helen Jackson</span>.</div> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of -price, by the publishers</i>,</p> - -<div class='c011'>ROBERTS BROTHERS, <span class='sc'>Boston</span>.</div> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_516'></a><span class='large'>RAMONA. A Story.</span> 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50. -(50th thousand.)</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'><i>The Atlantic Monthly</i> says of the author that she is "a Murillo in literature," -and that the story "is one of the most artistic creations of American -literature." Says a lady: "To me it is the most distinctive piece of work we -have had in this country since 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and its exquisite finish of -style is beyond that classic." "The book is truly an American novel," says -the <i>Boston Advertiser</i>. "Ramona is one of the most charming creations of -modern fiction," says <span class='sc'>Charles D. Warner</span>. "The romance of the story is -irresistibly fascinating," says <i>The Independent</i>. "The best novel written by a -woman since George Eliot died, as it seems to me, is Mrs. Jackson's 'Ramona,'" -says <span class='sc'>T. W. Higginson</span>.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>ZEPH. A Posthumous Story.</span> 12mo. Cloth. -Price, $1.25.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>Those who think that all the outrage and wrong are on the side of the man, -and all the suffering and endurance on the side of the woman, cannot do better -than read this sad and moving sketch. It is written by a woman; but never, I -think, have I heard of more noble and self-sacrificing conduct than that of the -much-tried husband in this story, or conduct more vile and degrading than that -of the woman who went by the name of his wife. Such stories show how much -both sexes have to forgive and forget. The author, who died before she could -complete this little tale of Colorado life, never wrote anything more beautiful for -its insight into human nature, and certainly never anything more instinct with -true pathos. A writer of high and real gifts as a novelist was lost to the world -by the untimely death of Mrs. Jackson.—<i>The Academy, London.</i></span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>BETWEEN WHILES. A Collection of Stories.</span> -12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.25.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>Mrs. Helen Jackson's publishers have collected six of her best short stories -into this volume. Most of them appeared in magazines in the last year or two -of her life. "The Inn of the Golden Pear," the longest and by far the strongest -of them all, is, however, entirely new to the public.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>Outside of her one great romance ("Ramona"), the author has never appealed -to the human heart with more simple and beautiful certainty than in these delightful -pictures.—<i>Bulletin, San Francisco.</i></span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>Mrs. Helen Jackson's "Little Bel's Supplement," the touching story of a -young schoolmistress in Prince Edward's Island, is not likely to be forgotten by -any one who has read it. The high and splendid purpose that directed the -literary work of "H. H.," and which is apparent in nearly everything that came -from her pen, was supported by a peculiar power, unerring artistic taste, and -a pathos all her own. This charming tale and one about the Adirondacks and -a child's dream form part of the contents of this posthumous volume, to which, -on her death-bed, she gave the beautiful title "Between Whiles." It is worthy -to be placed alongside of her most finished pieces.—<i>Commercial Advertiser, -New York.</i></span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>MERCY PHILBRICK'S CHOICE.</span> 16mo. -Cloth. Price, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>HETTY'S STRANGE HISTORY.</span> 16mo. -Cloth. Price, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>These two stories were originally published anonymously, having been written -for the "No Name Series" of novels, in which they had a large popularity.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_517'></a><span class='large'>BITS OF TRAVEL.</span> Square 18mo. Cloth, red -edges. Price, $1.25.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>The volume has few of the characteristics of an ordinary book of travel. -It is entertaining and readable, from cover to cover; and when the untravelled -reader has finished it, he will find that he knows a great deal more about life in -Europe—having seen it through intelligent and sympathetic eyes—than he -ever got before from a dozen more pretentious volumes.—<i>Hartford Courant.</i></span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>BITS OF TRAVEL AT HOME.</span> Square 18mo. -Cloth, red edges. Price, $1.50.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>The descriptions of American scenery in this volume indicate the imagination -of a poet, the eye of an acute observer of Nature, the hand of an artist, and -the heart of a woman.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>H. H.'s choice of words is of itself a study of color. Her picturesque diction -rivals the skill of the painter, and presents the woods and waters of the -Great West with a splendor of illustration that can scarcely be surpassed by the -brightest glow of the canvas. Her intuitions of character are no less keen than -her perceptions of Nature.—<i>N. Y. Tribune.</i></span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>GLIMPSES OF THREE COASTS</span>: California -and Oregon; Scotland and England; Norway, -Denmark, and Germany. 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.50.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>Helen Hunt Jackson has left another monumental memorial of her literary -life in the volume entitled "Glimpses of Three Coasts," which is just published -and includes some fourteen papers relating to life in California and Oregon, in -Scotland and England, and on the North Shore of Europe in Germany, Denmark, -and Norway. The sketches are marked by that peculiar charm that -characterizes Mrs. Jackson's interpretations of Nature and life. She had the -divining gift of the poet; she had the power of philosophic reflection; and these, -with her keen observation and swift sympathies and ardent temperament, make -her the ideal interpreter of a country's life and resources.—<i>Traveller, Boston.</i></span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>BITS OF TALK ABOUT HOME MATTERS.</span> -Square 18mo. Cloth, red edges. Price, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>"Bits of Talk" is a book that ought to have a place of honor in every household; -for it teaches, not only the true dignity of parentage, but of childhood. -As we read it, we laugh and cry with the author, and acknowledge that, since the -child is father of the man, in being the champion of childhood, she is the champion -of the whole coming race. Great is the rod, but H. H. is not its prophet!—<span class='sc'>Mrs. -Harriet Prescott Spofford</span>, <i>in Newburyport Herald</i>.</span></p> - -<p class='c010'><a id='Page_518'></a><span class='large'>POEMS</span>: Complete, comprising "Verses by H. H." -and "Sonnets and Lyrics." Square 18mo. Red edges, -price, $1.50; white cloth, gilt, $1.75.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>Shortly after the publication of "Verses" Ralph Waldo Emerson -walked into the office of the publishers and inquired for the "Poems of -H. H." While he was looking at it the attendant ventured to remark -that H. H. was called our greatest woman poet. "The 'woman' might -well be omitted," was the only reply of the Concord philosopher. He -was then engaged in compiling his poetical anthology (Parnassus), in the -preface to which he says: "The poems of a lady who contents herself -with the initials H. H. in her book, published in Boston (1874), have a -rare merit of thought and expression, and will reward the reader for the -careful attention which they require."</span></p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='xlarge'>JUVENILES.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>BITS OF TALK, in Verse and Prose.</span> For -Young Folks. Square 18mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>It is just such a book as children will enjoy, made up as it is of a variety of -attractive reading, short stories, fairy tales, parables, and poems, with here and -there a chapter of good advice, given in such a taking way without a bit of -goody talk, that the children will find it pleasant to take, little as they like advice -after the usual fashion.—<i>Worcester Spy.</i></span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>NELLY'S SILVER MINE.</span> A Story of Colorado -Life. With Illustrations. 16mo. Cloth. Price, -$1.50.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>"Nelly's Silver Mine" is one of those stories which, while having the noble -simplicity and freshness whereby the young are captivated, is full of a thought -and wisdom which command for it the attention of all.—<i>Philadelphia Inquirer.</i></span></p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='large'>CAT STORIES.</span> Containing "Letters from a Cat," -"Mammy Tittleback and her Family," and "The Hunter -Cats of Connorloa," bound in one volume. Small -4to. Cloth. Price, $2.00; or, each volume separately, -$1.25.</p> - -<p class='c010'><span class='small'>The subject is attractive, for there is nothing children take a more real interest -in than cats; and the writer has had the good sense to write neither above -nor below her subject. The type is large, so that those for whom the book is -intended may read it themselves.... For details we must refer all interested -to the story itself, which seems to us written with admirable verisimilitude.—<i>London -Academy.</i></span></p> - -<p class='c010'><i>Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of -the price, by the publishers</i>,</p> - -<div class='c011'>ROBERTS BROTHERS, <span class='sc'>Boston</span>.</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's A Century of Dishonor, by Helen Hunt Jackson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CENTURY OF DISHONOR *** - -***** This file should be named 50560-h.htm or 50560-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/5/6/50560/ - -Produced by readbueno, Jan-Fabian Humann and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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