The Grant and Tappan Indian Policy.
The Grant and Tappan
Indian Policy.

THE GRANT AND TAPPAN INDIAN POLICY--GEN. CONNOR DENOUNCED--THE CONSPIRATORS STILL AT WORK--WILL THE PEOPLE AWAKE?

    EDITORS DAILY NEWS:--The evidences which the columns of your paper have afforded, during the past week, that the conspirators are still at work defaming the people of Colorado and her soldiers, is too palpable to require any asseveration from me. But lost in the excitement of the political campaign so near its close, so important a matter should not receive due thought, I desire to call the attention of your readers again to the Washington correspondence of the Chicago Tribune.
    This correspondent has kept a steady stream of abuse of the people of this Territory all summer long. He seems to be the great "Humanitarian" of the East. He very rarely says anything about negroes, although the Tribune is an ardent advocate of negro suffrage. Is it not singular that this one correspondent, who has never been across the Plains, who has no connection with the Indian Bureau, should get And(?) Sand Creek on the brain so bad? The only explanation of it, to my mind, is that Jack Wright has got his ear and his pen, and Jack you know has his little revenges to secure because his rascalities are exposed:
    "The late execution of the late barbarous orders of Gen. Connor and other bloodthirsty Indian fighters, that would have involved the Government in a costly war for years, will be stayed; and a system of treatment of the Indians more in accordance with justice and humanity, established. The volunteers now serving on the plains will be replaced by four thousand colored troops, whose freedom from the prejudices of the whites toward the Indians well qualifies them for carrying out this new policy. Most of these measures are due to the intelligent, earnest representations of Lieut. Col. Tappan, of the 1st Colorado volunteer cavalry, who has lately devoted himself most zealously to the advocacy before the proper authorities of the claims of the people of the far West to protection, and of the more humane and judicious policy toward the Indians.
    Last year Col. Tappan said to one of the officers engaged in the battle of Sand Creek: "---I am sorry you are mixed up in this thing, because I am going for old Chivington, and may have to hurt you in so doing. This was the starting point of the howl about Sand Creek. Joining in with political enemies of Chivington, how the conspirators rushed to Washington. Chivington had been defeated for Congress; "he was down at the bottom of the wheel; the battle of Sand Creek was turning the wheel, and which ever way it turned he must come up." They must stop it! It might make him a Brigadier General, and that would keep Tappan subordinate. If they could only disgrace him, then some other duck might be a Colonel and command a district! A Colonel Leavenworth had some old grievances to redress; he was called in. Maj. Wynkoop in defiance of the order of Gen. Curtis, that no treaty must be made with the Indians until they had suffered more,--made a treaty with them. Maj. Wynkoop in defiance of the order of Gen. Curtis, that nothing more than a little tobacco must be given the Indians to talk over, fed them from the government stores, at an expense of thousands of dollars weekly. Maj. Wynkoop who, in defiance of Field order No. 11, that no Indians should be permitted to come nearer than two miles to a military post, unless blindfolded, permitted an entire tribe to visit the Fort at all hours of day and night. Did he join the conspirators? Did Judge Bradford feel so sweetly towards the rival for Congress he had defeated, that he refused to join? Did Judge Bennet refuse? Did General Slough refuse to join in the foolish cry of "sustain the soldiers, but down with Old Chiv.?" Did not these worthies work even upon Maj. Anthony, smarting under fancied wrongs, to join them, and with partial success; but, when they discovered that he would not swear to what they wanted him to, but what was essentially necessary to their permanent success, did they not turn their venom and that of the Committee upon him?
    Did it ever occur to you that it requ[i]red united and systematic effort to damn Chivington? Was it possible to get Col. Tappan and his next friend appointed as the majority of the Commission to investigate Sand Creek, without a previous plan being agreed upon to bring it about?
    When Doolittle's Committee visited Fort Lyon, with Wyncoop, Col. Leavenworth, and the lying John Smith, as aids to investigate, did it not look something like a conspiracy that out of the hundreds of justifiers of Sand Creek not one was called before the Committee. Did it not look like conspiracy when one of the conspirators at Fort Lyon wrote to another conspirator in Denver: "Doolittle has gone to the Bosque Redondo. It is all right here. All the testimony was such as we wanted!" How about the effort to get Squires to swear he was hired by Chivington to murder Soule? How about the effort to make the authorities at Washington believe that Chivington or Byers had robbed the Denver Postoffice of the testimony in his case.
    And now they think they have damned Chivington. What next? The conspirators must have the places. A greater than Chivington too is in the way. The gallant Connor away up in the Powder River, his men starving--his horses dying by the hundred from exhaustion and thirst! He must be got rid of! He must be damned as well as Chivington. And so this young man Tappan must hold a council of war with General Grant! How we apples swim! The result of his misrepresentation of Colorado people is that "The execution of the late barbarous orders of Gen. CONNOR, and other BLOOD THIRSTY Indian fighters" must be stopped, and "the more humane and judicious policy" of the amiable, persuasive, sweet, cool Tappan must be adopted.
    Already the report is on the street that Tappan is to command the "four thousand negro troops whose freedom from the prejudices of the whites toward Indians, so well qualifies them for carrying out this new policy!" and certain persons in Denver are already figuring what their profits on contracts, under this new regime, will be--"for have we not denounced Sand Creek all the time at the top of our voices?"
    PEOPLE OF COLORADO! can you look quietly on at this game, while Ft. Laramie is invested with Indians--while the Wisconsin Ranch is burning--while Valley Station is beleagured--trains burned all along from Valley station to Alkali, and military officers telegraph back that "the Indians chased the coach to within a few miles of Fort Kearney?"
    Read again the letter from the extracts you recently published showing that Leavenworth and Wynkoop, and Smith are present at the treaty with the Cheyennes, and that the treaty is worded in the start with "owing to the inhuman, outrageous and cowardly conduct of Col. Chivington, a war has been brought about between the Indians and the U.S.!", &c. Do you not hear the conspirators chuckle together, "that damn Chivington!" and the United States are to pay for the Indians and brave boys killed at Sand Creek! and for the lodges burnt! and the wagon loads of silver dollars they brought away! and Ned Wynkoop is to be their agent! (How are you [at] draw poker?) And the letter winds up with "Let HENRY LEACH see this!"
    Does not your indignation run over? Need I recount the outrages of these Indians, or call to mind confession of their deeds of blood while asking for peace? a peace which was to last until Spring, only! Need I ask that this indignation be made to fall with crushing weight upon the conspirators who represented that until the battle of Sand Creek these Indians had been actuated only by the most friendly feelings towards the whites, that they were under the protection of the United States flag, and Major Anthony, who swears that the last communication but one he made to them was telling them to keep away from the fort, and the very last was in the shape of a volley? in return for which he received a message saying that "if that little red-eyed chief wanted a fight out of them, they would give him all he wanted if he would come up to their camp"--forty miles from Fort Lyon--where the boys who vanquished them found them entrenched in rifle pits!
    If the people of Colorado will only do their duty, the triumph of these fiendish conspirators, who in the name of "humanity" are seeking power, will be short indeed!


Source:

Unknown, "The Grant and Tappan Indian Policy," Daily Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Co., Monday, 6 November, 1865, p. 1.


Acknowledgement:

    I'd like to offer a very special thanks to Nancy Spencer, [email protected], of Denver, Colorado for digging this article out for me. Nancy found it for me, plus a host of others, quite a few years ago now. Unfortunately, I managed to mislay them, something that's been happening with increasing frequency lately as more and more material on the Wynkoops, and Ned in particular, comes to light. They somehow managed to surface recently and here they are now for your enjoyment or edification; take your pick.

    Thanks so much Nancy! I'm sorry about the long wait.

    All my best,

    Chris

Created August 30, 2003; Revised September 1, 2003
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