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Progress of the Commission.
OUR INDIAN TROUBLES.
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PROGRESS OF THE COMMISSION.
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A COUNCIL WITH FRIENDLY TRIBES.
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RASCALITIES OF INDIAN AGENTS.
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Locating Reservations for the Various Tribes.
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SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE HERALD.
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Movements of the Commission--Selecting Lands for Reservations--Rascalities of Indian Agents--General Sherman Doubtful of a Peaceful solution of the Troubles--A Talk with Indians-General Harney and the Savages.
Steamer Big John,}
Near Big Cheyenne River,}
Missouri River, August 27, 1867.}
We are now near the end of our journey so far as ascending the Missouri river is concerned, as it has been decided by the Commission to go no further at present than the mouth of the Big Cheyenne, some forty miles above Fort Sully. In this vicinity it is the purpose of the Commission to go on shore and examine the lands for a distance of several miles as to its adaptability for a reservation for Indians. Judging from the appearance of it from the boat, it would be better adapted for Indians to roam and hunt over than for any use it could be put to by white people for agricultural purposes. The soil along the banks of the river is dry and sandy and almost barren of grass and as far can be seen from the boat, so hilly and broken as to render its cultivation almost impossible. It is said that in the vicinity of the Big Cheyenne there is a large tract of bottom lands which will answer every purpose sought for, both as to quality of the land and as a hunting ground for the Indians.
Selecting the land, however, is a very small part of the work which the Commissioners have undertaken, as there are thousands upon thousands of miles of unoccupied land in the vast Territory of Dakota, and which will never be used or wanted by the whites. But the difficulty will be to persuade the Indians to leave the country where they have been raised and have hunted the buffalo, to migrate to a distant and unknown section and settle down in agricultural pursuits, concerning which they are wholly ignorant and for which they have no inclination. Unfortunately the country which the whites want for settlement and for mining purposes is the very country where the great majority of what are known as the hostile Indians have always inhabited. The country referred to is embraced in what is known as the Powder river country and along the banks of the Yellowstone river and the Black Hills. The Powder river country is represented as the most beautiful and fertile of any in the Far West, abounding in gold and other mineral wealth. The hostility of the Indians has rendered a thorough exploration of that section thus far impracticable; but enough has been learned of it to make it an impossibility to keep white adventurers from going there in pursuit of gold, and as long as this continues hostility with the Indians will continue, as the approach of civilization always has the effect of driving off the buffalo and other game upon which the Indian depends on for a livelihood; and knowing this to be the fact, the Indians defends his country and fights for what he considers an encroachment upon his rights upon the same principle as is adapted by all nations.
The first difficulty in the way of bringing about the desired change of home for the Indians will be in persuading them to meet the Commissioners in council. It is proposed to hold the council at Fort Laramie, distant several hundred miles from the headquarters of the hostile bands. There has been hardly six months of a year passed in the last five years but commissioners have been sent out from Washington for the avowed purpose of examining into Indian matters, but in reality to give a pleasure excursion to members of Congress or pets of the administration at the expense of the government. These commissioners have met the Indians at various places and times, sending them word that they have been sent out by their great grandfather at Washington to inquire into all their grievances and remedy existing evils. The Indians have come in to meet them at great trouble and inconvenience, stated their troubles, and have invariably been promised that their wrongs should be remedied at once. A few thousand dollars of generally worthless presents have been distributed among them, and the commissioners returned to Washington, reported progress, and that was the last ever heard of it until some other friends of the government desired to take another trip. This has been done so often and the Indians have been so persistently lied to and deceived that they have lost confidence in every one claiming to come in the name of their great grandfather at Washington who is in any way connected with the government.
On this account the present Commission, who are really in earnest in their endeavor to settle the difficulties and have the power to do so, will have much difficulty in persuading the influential and leading chiefs of the hostile Indians to come in to meet them, as they will be under the impression that it is nothing more than a repetition of previous farces and will have nothing to do with it.
It has been customary with previous commissions to tell the Indians that if they continued in their wicked ways and persisted in killing the whites their great grandfather would be very angry with them, and that his white soldiers would be sent out there in vast numbers to punish his red children, &c., &c. This song has been sung so often, and the white soldiers failed to come to time, and the successes of the Indians in every fight so uninterrupted, that they have begun to be very skeptical as regards the power of their great grandfather and the number of his white children. This will add to the difficulties in the way of this commission making peace with the Indians until they have been made to feel the power of the government and punished for past crimes.
The Commissioners have been endeavoring, in addition to their other duties on the trip, to get at some of the facts relative to the swindling operations charged upon superintendents and agents of Indians, and have taken considerable testimony upon the subject. That the Indians have been outrageously swindled is apparent, but the exact manner in which it has been done is not yet clear. From present appearances the thieving operations have not been confined to agents exclusively, but an investigation into the Washington Department might throw some light on the subject. That a "ring" exists, embracing a large number of persons both in and out of the Indian Bureau, is plain, and it should be the duty of the next Congress to institute a thorough inquiry into the whole affair. The report of the present commission will doubtless throw some light on the subject.
One singular fact was brought to light in the course of the examination of some witnesses during the trip, which goes to show the fatality attending nearly all steamboats loaded with Indian goods. It seems that they almost invariably strike a snag and are sunk, and that the Indians seldom receive their goods. One of the chiefs stated to council that he could not understand why all the boats came safely up the river except those loaded with their goods. Last spring the steamer Last Chance left St. Louis with sixty thousand dollars worth of Indian goods on board for the Upper Missouri Indians. When near Crow creek she struck a snag and was sunk. The goods are said to be in a too badly damaged condition to deliver to the Indians and are reported to be in a warehouse at Crow Creek Agency.
Another fact that seems a little difficult of explanation is, that traders in this country can only afford to give one good blanket for a buffalo robe, while Indian agents give two and three, which are worth in market from twelve to fifteen dollars each. That this has been done was testified to by a commander of a military post. The Department must be aware that a good, honest, reliable man cannot be hired to banish himself to this sandy desert and faithfully perform his duties upon a salary of $1,500 per year. It would no more than barely support him. If they do not mean to be cheated they should pay better salaries.
The following report of General Stanley upon this subject will be found of interest:--
"The civil administration of Indian affairs in this region is totally inefficient. As proof of this, the appropriations for the Quartermaster's and Commissary departments are made at the same time as those for the Indian department. The supplies for those departments on the river have been delivered two months ago. The Indian goods are not yet delivered. These goods were promised to the friendly Indians in June last. Some three thousand of them waited for six months in expectation of receiving these goods, and were finally compelled by starvation to leave for the buffalo region very much disappointed, and complaining of the bad faith of the officers in charge of their interests. No promises should ever be made to an Indian that cannot literally be fulfilled, nor should any threat be made which cannot surely be carried out. The Indian agents and superintendents do not live with the Indians, therefore they have no influence with them. The special agents of these Indians rarely come among them, and when he does, leaves a bad record, and the resident agent, Hanson, is a fixture at Fort Thompson, where the Indians cannot and do not, as a tribe, go. Finally--a sad subject--no appropriation by Congress for the benefit of the Indian can reach the Indian under the present system of responsibility. In my mind, the Indian agents are just as honest as any other class of men, but there is no check on them, and the code of the department, as perfectly understood by them, is that they have a perfect right to help themselves. In the neighboring Yankton agency, I have it from sharp business men who live at the place, and I believe it can be proven, that out of a yearly annuity payable to the Yanktons, of $60,000, they received less than $20,000. There is no help for this but to reorganize the whole system. No officer of the government can now inspect an invoice, and the Indian is to all intents a mute. Chaplains and schoolmasters are needed. Steamboats have run up this river since 1831, and yet the Indian of to-day is just the same as the Indian of 1831. These Indians here are not bad; on the contrary, with reasonable treatment, they are about the best set of people I ever had to deal with. As to military policy, I can put it into small compass. In my opinion we never shall succeed against the Indians until we accept the very policy the French were compelled to after sore experience in Algiers--viz., instead of small posts, defensive in nature, to establish large posts, (none less that a regiment), and offensive or prepared for the offensive at any day's notice. Two such posts, based on this river, and two such based on the Pacific railroads, would, in my opinion, soon bring the Indians of the plains to terms, provided the posts are commanded by officers of energy and spirit. The Cheyennes begged for peace after my regiment attacked and killed ten of them in 1857, and these same Sioux begged for peace after General Harney whipped them badly at Ash Hollow in 1855."
General Sherman does not seem to have implicit faith in the peaceful settlement of the Indian difficulties, and at times, when in council with the Indians, his countenance indicates an extreme disgust with the whole affair. At the close of the talk with the Indians he asked the leading chief the following questions:--
Question--How many people will settle on this reservation if we do all we can to help them?
Answer--Two hundred lodges altogether.
Question--You asked for four hundred barrels of pork, four hundred sacks of flour, coffee, sugar, &c. Was it for that particular band, or the whole Sioux nation?
Answer--For the nation that is going to settle there.
Question--Why don't you, if you settle there permanently, build houses?
Answer--We would if we could build them.
Question--Do you know that several tribes in California live in houses, like the white people?
Answer--Yes, we heard it last winter.
Question--Did you ask for twenty farmers[?]
Answer--Yes.
Question--How many ploughs do you want?
Answer--Don't know.
Question--How many yoke of cattle did you ask for?
Answer--Six yoke for each band.
Question--Can you use ponies for ploughing or cultivating?
Answer--No.
Question--Why don't you cut wood and sell it to steamboats?
Answer--I want to learn. I want to learn to cut wood, plant corn, &c.
Question--Do you object to steamboats running up this river?
Answer--I don't object because they bring us provisions. I am going to try and raise corn, and don't care for the boats. I want to raise corn and pumpkin, so that when my people come to see me they will see how good it tastes, and finally get them all in. We also want a blacksmith, so that when we break a chain or anything it can be mended.
General Sherman saw an Indian riding a government horse, and directed that the Indian should be halted to examine him, but the Indian was too quick, and rode off into the woods, carrying a good sized package of presents. The General said if he had his way there should not a d----d Indian receive a single present or annuity until they had delivered up every dollars' worth of property stolen from the government. The horse was stolen a short time since from Fort Randall.
General Harney, who has the reputation in New England of being such a cruel and relentless foe of the Indian, is directly the opposite, and were he long among them, they would beg every dollar he has in the world. Two chiefs succeeded yesterday in coaxing him into giving them a yoke of oxen apiece, and last evening he was called upon by two young squaws, who were each the recipients of a five dollar greenback upon their departure. His kindness of heart often makes him a dupe of these cunning savages.
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A Big Powwow with Friendly Chiefs--What They Think about Settling on Reservations--If They Can Get Agricultural Instruments They Will Work--Speeches of Gen. Sanborn and Senator Henderson--The Indians Charge Their Agents with Cheating Them--Presents Given and a Grand Squaw Dance.
Fort Sully, Dakota Territory, Sept. 1, 1867.
We have just returned from the mouth of the Big Cheyenne river, the turning round point of the Indian Commission, and are now headed down the stream.
The Big Cheyenne empties into the Missouri river about forty miles above Fort Sully and distant from St. Louis sixteen hundred miles. Along the banks of the Missouri in the vicinity of the Big Cheyenne we found what in this country of sandy and barren hills is considered fair bottom land, sufficiently well watered to raise corn and potatoes, and enough in quantity to subsist all the Indians in this vicinity who can be persuaded to leave off their nomadic life and settle down to agricultural pursuits.
Taking all things into consideration this tract of land, reaching from Fort Sully to the mouth of the Big Cheyenne is, in the opinion of the Commission, the best adapted for the purpose of any they have seen.
It is certainly a good selection in one respect, and that is, if they can persuade any of our red brothers to settle there they will be very little troubled by white settlers coming among them, as there are no indications of minerals anywhere in that region, and the country for farming purposes is the most unattractive of any I have ever seen. The best idea I have heard of the reservation was conveyed in the reply of an old resident of the country, who was being examined by the Commission as to whether any large number of Indians could be subsisted upon this reservation. "Yes," he replied, "if the government fed them." However, the Indians seem to be satisfied with it, and are anxious to try the experiment of living like white people by cultivating the soil, and may, possibly, in the course of a few years be able to raise enough to live upon.
It is better to locate them here, if possible, than to fix upon the fertile and well wooded country in the vicinity of the Black Hills, for the whites are determined to have that section, so rich in mineral wealth and adapted to all the requirements of civilization, and there could never be peace between the two races. The sanction of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and, perhaps, the ratification by the Senate, will be necessary before the present selection becomes final.
Upon our arrival last night at the landing, distant two miles from Fort Sully, we found a large number of Indians, of both sexes and all ages, assembled on the bank of the river to meet us. Upon our way up the river rumors had been sent out to all the tribes in this vicinity to assemble them and meet us here on our return to hold a council.
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Outrages at Plain Creek Station, on the Pacific Railroad--A Train Thrown from the Track by Indians--Several Persons Killed and Scalped--A Boat Fired Into at Fort Rice.
Chicago, August 7, 1867.
A special despatch from Omaha to-day says that the freight train on the Union Pacific Railroad was thrown from the track last night at Plain creek station by the Indians. The engineer, fireman and brakemen were all killed. The merchandise was burned. It is also reported that three or four of the men at the station were killed. This outrage is supposed to have been committed by Spotted Tail's band, who have been feeding at the public expense for some time.
The steamer Silver Lake, arrived here from Fort Benton, reports that she was fired into by Indians forty miles above Fort Rice. One of the crew was wounded.
Another despatch from Omaha says the Indians attacked the freight train near Plain creek last night, and threw it from the track by piling ties upon the road, and killed and scalped seven of the train men, and set fire to the train, destroying it entirely, and threw the slaughtered bodies into the flames.
Source:
Unknown, [attributed to Henry Morton Stanley,] "Our Indian Troubles," New York Herald, Tuesday, 24 September 1867, Page 4, Cols. 1-6.
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