The Osages Making War
According to Regulations.
THE INDIAN WAR.
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The Osages Making War According to Regulations--Governor Crawford Favors a Prompt and Decisive War--He Proposes to Take Matters into His Own Hands if Congress does not Protect the Frontier.
St. Louis, July 6, 1867.
A Topeka despatch says the Osage Indians have left their reservation in the southern part of the State in regular war style, their rear picketed, and allowed no whites to approach their camp. Little Bear, the Chief of the Little Osages, says their agent, Snow, is never with them, and attributes the present disaffection of the tribe to him. Little Bear refused to go to the Plains with his band, and has no control over them. They said they were going to hunt buffaloes, but they stole eighty horses, and Brigadier General Kelly of the militia, who reports the above, believes they are on the war path.
Governor Crawford has written a long letter on the subject of Indian affairs, to Senator Ross, in which he says that the outrages will partially cease for a week or two, as the Indians who have been committing them are to meet Colonels Leavenworth and Wynkoop at Salt Plains, in the southern part of the State, to receive annuities, but as soon as they receive these goods they will return to robbing and murdering. The Governor deprecates the Peace Commissioner's plan, and says that war is the only way to settle the troubles. He makes strong appeals to Congress for aid, and charges some Indian agents and traders with gross misrepresentation in stating that their Indians are quiet and peaceable, when it is a notorious fact that they are murdering and scalping the whites wherever they are found. The Governor further says, five thousand persons have been killed during the past year, and declares if Congress will not protect the citizens, the Kansas railroad interests, and prevent the blockade of the routes of travel, he will take the matter into his own hands.
An Omaha despatch says that:--Several steamers on the Upper Missouri have been attacked by the Indians and five or six men killed.
A Wyandotte, Kansas, despatch says:--Thomas Parks, a contractor of the Pacific Railway, reports six attacks by the Indians on the railroad laborers west of Fort Harker within ten days, the last one at Wilson's station, on Monday. A white settlement on the Mulberry tributary of the Salina river had been attacked and the settlers driven away. Two women were killed and two young women taken captives.
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Increased Depredations on the Upper Missouri--The Sioux Overawing the Friendly Tribes
Washington, July 6, 1867.
Private information received here represents that the Indian depredations on the Upper Missouri are on the increase. The hostile Sioux have succeeded in overawing to a great extent the friendly Indians, and the consequence is that the lives of all white men in that country are in imminent danger.
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Indian Outrages--Expenses of the Government--Immense Indian and Army Shipments.
An Atchison (Kansas) correspondent of a Chicago journal writes, under date of June 26, as follows:--.
The prominent theme of discussion among outfitters and the emigrant community is the Indian war, and what is to come of it. The redskins remind me of nothing so much as enraged hornets, except that the figure is a light one for the subject. A recent Colorado paper gives a list of nearly sixty outrages, involving loss of property and life, in or near the borders of that Territory since December. It is in the minds and on the tongues of all. Every train goes heavily armed; in fact, there will be no crossing the Plains without escorts of the heaviest kind. Infantry are well enough inside a fortification, but outside, an Indian can ride all around them and be in no danger at all.
The Santa Fe Stage Company have lost already $60,000 by Indian depredations, and what amount will pay the losses of the other stage companies is to be yet ascertained. The Indians drive off their stock and attack the stages whenever they can get no more profitable plunder.
The military posts established along the routes which are to become the great national thoroughfares have been of little benefit--a mere pretext of protection beneficial chiefly to suttlers, contractors, Indian agents, and their partners in their swindles. These posts cost the government in 1864, $25,000,000, and in 1866, $57,000,000, of which $1,642,000 was expended for the payment of troops, while the subsistence Department absorbed $51,523,820, and Quartermaster $28,374,209, and from present indications $150,000,000 will not cover the expense of the last twelve months.
That your readers may have some idea of the immense amount of merchandise that has come to be included under the head of Indian annuity goods, let me refer to the consignment now passing through the hands of Mr. Thomas Murphy, superintendent of the Central Indian Agency at this place. They weigh nearly one hundred and fifty tons, and are of a total value of $300,000. They comprise calicoes, blankets and various other useful articles, as well as tobacco, pipes, and such like extras, are well put up in strong boxes, and make a very large bulk. Of these goods 35,876 lbs. are destined for the Navahoes, T. H. Dodd, agent, Fort Sumner, New Mexico; 19,970 lbs. are for the Utahs, A. B. Norton, agent, Albiquine, New Mexico; 55,726 lbs. for the Camanches and Kiowas, J. H. Leavenworth, agent, Salt Plains; 9,611 lbs. for the Eastern Shoshones, Luther Mann, agent, Fort Bridger; 25,864 lbs. for the Gaship Shoshones, F. H. Head, agent, Salt Lake; 10,691 lbs. for the Taboquache Utes, Lafayette Head, agent, Denver; 105,034 lbs. for the Apaches, Arapahoes and Cheyennes, Wynkoop, agent, Salt Plains; and 9,328 lbs. for the Utes and Apaches, at the Cimmarone Agency.
The larger installment goes to Salt Plains, because the government has directed the Camanches, Kiowas, Arapahoes and Cheyennes, who are now at peace with the whites, and who have not been engaged in the recent troubles, but have taken refuge south of the line of division between the peaceable and the warlike tribes, to assemble at Salt Plains in the Cherokee country, and receive their annuity goods. Not a dollar's worth of the goods, in any case, is to be distributed to the tribes that have been engaged in the recent scenes of bloodshed, nor to those tribes who hold white prisoners and refuse to give them up. The orders on this point are of the most stringent character, and may result in delaying the distribution of the goods to those known by the military authorities to be at peace with the whites, and not in any degree inclined toward war.
The goods for Salt Plains, amounting to 160,760 pounds, were shipped by ox train on Saturday last. The train consisted of thirty-five wagons, each drawn by four or five yoke of cattle. It goes to Topeka, and thence through Southern Kansas to the Cherokee country, in the Indian territory. The distribution at Salt Plains will take place as soon after the arrival of the train as the necessary arrangements can be completed.
The enormous expense of all this national Yankee notion business, added to the expenses of the Indian bureau, salaries of agents, superintendents, transportation, annuities, and other expenses make the cost of a hairbreadth escape on a journey through the Indian territory, and the cost of an inferior military protection at certain points on the great routes, one of the most extravagant luxuries that the government ever furnished for those who are compelled to seek its protection. As long as corrupt Indian agents can coax the Indians into the belief that the troops are sent into their country for the express purpose of exterminating them, and that the protection of the whites is a mere pretext for getting troops in their county, just so long will there be an incessant Indian war, and the small parties, stage coaches and trains will be compelled to suffer from Indian depredations. One branch of the government, in league with contractors and swindlers, forcing a war upon the other branch for the sake of plunder and pecuniary profit. It is an easy matter to arrange plans for protection, but it will be done only by war, and we shall lose five men for every Indian killed from this time to winter, when the Indian agents, who have been storing their supplies and taking care of the government arms they have for presents, will hold a grand council. The sutlers will furnish them with all the powder they desire in exchange for greenbacks stolen, and furs, &c., which, with the rations annually dealt out to them, will keep them comfortable under the protection of some of the military posts until grass grows again, when another war will be inaugurated in order to keep our vast army employed at something useful, and keep them in an efficient state of drill and discipline. Had not the influence of the Indian bureau been so enormous, the Indians would now have been under the control of the War Department, where they properly belong.
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Locality of the Forts--Conduct of the War--The Question of Civilization.
A Kansas correspondent of the St. Louis Democrat writes:--.
Forming something resembling a right angle are the forts on the great plains, built by the government, filled with valuable stores and garrisoned by some three thousand men; their names are Kearny, McPherson, Sedgwick, Morgan, Mitchell, Sanders, Laramie, Reno, Phil Kearny and Buford. These forts, built at intervals of fifty miles, are garrisoned by infantry; two of the principal forts have a small detachment of cavalry, and are expected to protect the plains from the incursions of the savages.
In peaceful times these forts would be a decided and valuable acquisition to the great uninhabited plains of the West, but during the war, they are worthless as regards protection to the travellers. They are fit for depots where cavalry could obtain supplies in their operations against hostile tribes. It is a universal complaint that they, managed as they are, never afford timely and adequate aid to attacked trains. By the time intelligence could be transmitted to the commanders of posts the attacking party have risen up unexpectedly in some different quarter, so that even the most obtuse will readily perceive that they are useless incumbrances.
General Hancock, on his recent expedition, received convincing proofs that an Indian war was about to commence. His arrival in that country severed the confederation of tribes for hostile purposes, which ambitious young Indians desirous of obtaining great celebrity greatly deplored. The expeditionary force under Hancock did not create evil, but really did excellent service to the country. Designing men misrepresented him and his purposes; predicted an interminable war as the inevitable consequence; compared him to a fire-brand. Bah!
The war had already commenced, and Major General Hancock received his orders in black and white from Lieutenant General Sherman, his superior officer, which we know that Hancock obeyed to the very letter. On receiving his orders verbally from Sherman, Hancock said, "Oh, well, general, you have got to give me these orders in writing if you expect me to follow them;" and thus and thus were they made and obeyed accordingly. Hancock separated the Sioux and Cheyennes, who were prurient for war to the knife, from the vacillating Kiowa and Comanche. The Sioux and Cheyennes are at war with the whites; the Kiowas and Comanches are at peace. This we know to be so, and the unprejudiced reader will endorse our remarks.
In flagrant violation of treaties solemnly entered into by the chiefs of the hostile tribes in 1866 with the government, they have commenced their depredations on the settlers in the Platte Valley and all through the western part of Dakota. What is to be done, and how is the war to be met? Only by the same rapid movements that characterized our Union troops during the latter part of the rebellion. Upon them hot and heavy; teach them that treaties are not to be trampled upon by them with impunity.
Some people lament and are sorrowful over the idea that a vast expenditure will necessarily arise out of this war. Let the territories be permitted to defend their own frontiers. They entreat that privilege, and we will wager that before two months the Indian war will have become a thing of the past. Regular officers, though brave and able men, cannot adapt themselves to the nomadic life and the wily man�uvres of the centaurs of the desert. It requires men qualified by experience and hard life to become equal antagonists to these ranging Ishmaelites.
There are at present at Fort McPherson six companies; Fort Sedgwick, four companies, Fort Morgan, one company; Fort Sanders, six companies; Fort Laramie, ten companies; Fort Casper, one company; a new fort established on the La Prete, three companies; a new fort to be permanently established at the Black Hills, fourteen companies; Fort Reno, four companies; Fort Phil. Kearny, five companies, and Fort C. F. Smith, four companies.
All these soldiers stationed at the above posts fail in preserving peace or affording protection to the emigrant. The Indian question is regarded by different persons from different standpoints. All agree that we must have peace, but in the manner of preserving peace there are wild and vague opinions expressed. Seemingly, the whole question is simple--the complicated Indian war easily quelled. If we adopt war let it be sharp, short and decisive. Send cavalry, volunteer cavalry, and in numbers equivalent to the arduous task undertaken.
A thousand or two are not enough. Fifteen thousand cavalry sweeping the country in fifteen different columns may come across the Indians in some out of the way place; and, of course, once met, the Indians are easily defeated. The regular troops can fight Indians if they ever have a chance; but the task which is extremely difficult is to find them--catch them first. To catch them we must perforce send men who are intimately acquainted with their irregular mode of warfare.
"Extermination" is a long word, but a longer task. To exterminate about one thousand tribes, the government must be prepared to call out five hundred thousand volunteers--three hundred thousand of which should be cavalry--for active work. In ten years we might hope to achieve the work, but at an awful sacrifice of lives. Civilization is an efficacious remedy for this constantly recurring Indian question. Time works wonders. Formerly it was firmly accredited that the Cherokees were untamable.
As early as 1760 they manifested their hostility to the whites by the massacring of the back settlers in Virginia. In the years 1776 and 1783 they were at war with the colonists in Georgia. The general government at last allowed them to reside in the country now known as the States of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. The whites encroached on their lands and continually annoyed them until it was decided to remove them west of the Mississippi. This removal was effected in 1837, since which time they have increased in population, advanced in intelligence and acquired wealth.
They possess a newspaper and printing press, the Bible in the Cherokee language, almanacs, hymns and other books of instruction. They have written laws, an organized government, a head chief, elected every four years, and a Judiciary, consisting of a supreme Court, Circuit and District Courts. So, also, the Delaware nation, or, as it calls itself, the Lenape, now living on the Delaware reservation in the southwestern part of Kansas, formerly the most powerful nation, the most ancient, and which the Indians call the "Grandfather Nation," now possess schools and conduct themselves as civilized people.
Beautiful farms, neat cottages, commodious schools and churches adorn their reservation. The Choctaws, Chickasaws, Ebawnees, Wyandottes, Pawnee, Pottawattomies, Kickapoos, Omahas and Kaws, are rapidly following in the train of civilized nations. Pleasing evidences of their industrious habits and natural intelligence meet the eye as the traveler journeys through their country. These nations so long groping in darkness, through the exertions of our indefatigable missionaries, have seen the light of the gospel, and instead of reveling in slaughter and blood, chant the praises of Manitou.
Even some of the barbarous Sioux, whose voices have always been for war, are becoming Christianized, and make commendable efforts at adopting the customs of civilized life. The cross of Christ they bear with admirable patience. They are hooted and scorned by the wild Sioux, and their willingness to adopt the ways of the pale face is construed as degeneracy. But receiving the kind aid and encouraged by the above missionaries, they steadily persevere in their praiseworthy endeavors.
Source:
Unknown, "The Indian War," New York Herald, Sunday, 7 July 1867, Page 3, Cols. 5-6.
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