History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 136

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

USA > South Dakota > History of Dakota Territory, volume I > Part 136

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The general had found that there was a wide distinction among the tribes, and cla me 1 that each tribe must be dealt with according to its nature, and that large discretion to supply food should be lodged with the President or some other power. Starvation will caus wer and the army cannot foresee or prevent these wars. All it can do, after the Indiins break out to plunder or steal and murder harmless families, is to pursue and capture then and conduct them back to their reservation and turn them loose to return to the salad Vol. 1-50

786

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

libitum. "The way to continual peace, the general urged, was through the Indian's stomach; but this would not incline him to habits of industry-force must be added if this was to be brought about."

COST OF PEACE OR WAR POLICY

It was far cheaper to keep peace with the Indians, but whether any policy could have been adopted at a date earlier than recorded, that would have pre- vented the occasional recurrence of outbreaks among the savages of such a serious nature as to demand the interposition of the army and a campaign of costly war, cannot be freely conceded. The army was the only power that could have brought the Sioux to sue for peace after the Little Crow outbreak in 1862, and the succeeding three years of war. The hostile Indians, brought to the verge of starvation, were glad to invoke the pardon of the Great Father. This they would not have done at the beginning of the outbreak, for that uprising was partially, at least, due to the belief among the Indians that owing to the great Civil war then prevailing, they had an opportunity to strike a blow that would drive the palefaces from the frontier and give the Indians back the lands they had ceded. Neither would the olive branch have been successful if presented to Sitting Bull, the terror of the Yellowstone country for a number of years.

One of the most potent factors in securing a footing for the Peace Policy with the better class, that is the more intelligent, but not therefore peace-loving, was the practical exhaustion of their hunting grounds and the growing scarcity of buffalo and other game upon which they had largely subsisted through many generations. The whites had peopled the land and the locomotive engines with their long trains of cars rumbling through the prairie combined with the shrill screech and whistle of the locomotive, had accomplished a large part in bringing the Indian to realize that if he would exist at all, he must exist as a civilized being.

The question of economy in past management of the Indians must be viewed from both the standpoint of peace and war to get a fair conclusion. There was no just way to measure the cost when a year of war was taken and compared with a year of peace. As a matter of course war was enormously expensive, and unavoidably so, but it was at times necessary in order to subdue the Indians and bring them into subjection, and would have been just as expensive had the campaigns been under control of the interior department. The waste of war is enormous; but a peace commission would probably have lost their scalps had they been sent among the hostiles with their olive branch in 1862, 1863 or 1864, or at any time prior to the complete overthrow of the Indians by the military, and the conviction forced upon them that death by starvation would be their portion if they could not find a way to make peace again with the Great Father. It could be no disparagement of the valuable services rendered by the army to show the excessive cost of a military campaign over that of a year of ordinary peace and quiet. Nevertheless, comparisons, based on the cost of Indian admin- istration were made by those in authority who measured the difference in cost unfairly in endeavoring to draw a parallel between the cost of war compared with that of peace; when to be just, the cost of war should have been added to the cost of peace, for the military campaign had been rendered necessary to subdue the hostility of the Indians which had been aroused and set aflame under the so-called peaceful administration of the department of the interior. A few years of peace was almost certain to be terminated by a war, which was the result of a half dozen causes-Indian depredations ; peculations of thieving Government employees ; failure to observe treaty stipulations, but seldom could the cause be traced to the door of the army.

The argument of cost was, however, a weighty one, though sometimes con- sidered from an erroneous or unfair point of view. It never failed to suggest itself when the Indian question was considered. The secretary of the interior

787

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

made use of it in the contest pending for the control of the Indian bureau, when in his report to the President he said :

If I were to waive all inquiry as to the material objections of a Christian nation, under such circumstances, I think it would be demonstrably clear that as a mere question of pecuniary economy it will be cheaper to feed every adult Indian now living, even to sleepy surfeiting, during his natural life, while his children are being educated to self-support by agriculture, than it would be to carry on a general Indian war for a single year. The shocking barbarities and mutilations of dead persons, prisoners, which are often referred to, are the usual accompaniment of Indian warfare. By preserving peace we may hope to avoid them, and I cannot believe it is beyond the wisdom and resources of a great Chris- tian nation like our own to give a peace policy a thorough trial.

A possible wrong impression may be gathered from this comment of the secretary. While the Peace Policy was probably less costly, if undisturbed by war, it should be kept in mind that the Peace Policy did not do away with the employment of troops. The Government was compelled to maintain an army to enforce the Peace Policy with its industrial feature. The Indians did not take kindly or readily to the alternative that they must work or starve; and when these conditions were insisted upon, the Government understood that it had a force of troops (and the Indians also knew ) at a dozen different military posts in the Indian country who could compel obedience and at the same time protect the settlements from offensive retaliatory measures on the part of the Indians.

The military authorities should not be held responsible for the causes which brought on the Indian wars; and acts of imprudence in their official intercourse with the Indians were seldom alleged. It may be seriously questioned whether the Sioux Indians would have accepted any arrangement that obliged them to abandon the chase, and become in a measure self-supporting, with its attendant conversion to civilized methods of living, at any time prior to the Civil war. So long as they had land to hunt and roam over and to treat for, they were never in a mood to consent to any restriction of their native liberties. It was condi- tions of this nattire that were difficult to surmount-that prevented the applica- tion of the power of the Government to force them to abandon their wild life which of itself meant everything but peace and industry. The army it would seem had ever been the mainstay of peace-and none knew this better than the Indians. Without the army in the background, where the Indians could almost feel its power, it is extremely doubtful whether the Indians would have agreed to a peaceful relinquishment of the Black Hills.

It is doubtful whether the Government, or even the peace societies, would for a moment have considered making the proposition to the Indians involving their change of life from free hunters, trappers and warriors to the more arduous and disagreeable pursuits of civilization, without considering the power it possessed in its military arm, which was strategically distributed all through the Indian country, in permanent forts and camps, and never better qualified and prepared from actual experience, to prevent hostilities and quell insurrections.

The object, and the sole object, in maintaining this costly army on the frontier, was the control of the Indians, therefore the cost of the peace policy must include the expense of maintaining the army at Forts Randall, Thompson, Hale, Sully, Bennett, Rice, Yates, Totten, Lincoln, Stephenson, Buford, Union. Ellis, Phil Kearney, Meade, Pembina. Abercrombie, Laramie, and Niobrarah, not to mention a number of camps established for patrol stations.

When everything is considered it will probably be found that the cost of the peace or industrial policy was not a dominant factor in its favor. It was approved because it was the most humane and better suited the principles and purposes of a Christian nation : but more important from a material view, it held out the substantial promise to uplift the nations of savages whom the Government had contended with for nearly a century, place them upon a plane where they could be a useful element in the citizenship of the country, and in process of time relieve the Government and the country of the care of the Indian

788

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

altogether, by educating and disciplining him to support and maintain himself as white people do. There is no longer a reasonable doubt that the policy will work out in this way-it being only a question of time-rather indefinite-when the Indians will all be numbered among the industrial and self-supporting peoples of this country, and the blanketed or naked warrior, and his tepee, will be only a tradition.

ADDITION TO THE BIG SIOUX RESERVE

On the IIth of January, 1875, President Grant issued a proclamation with- drawing a large area of lands in Dakota, from market. The lands thus set aside were ostensibly for the use of the Indians whose colossal reservation covered the whole territory west of the Missouri, but those Indians were not expected to occupy them or use them in any way. The purpose of the Governi- ment was for the time being to place the country along the Missouri on the east side under the control of the interior department, and thus prevent its occupation and settlement by the whites, although a considerable settlement had already been effected in Charles Mix, Brule and Buffalo counties; and as by the withdrawal and annexation of the traet to the Sioux reservation it would be Indian land and subject to control by the Interior Department, it was expected that it would put a stop to the surreptitious introduction of intoxicating liquors into the Indian country. The lands withdrawn were thuis described in President Grant's proclamation :

Commencing on the east bank of the Missouri River, where the forty-sixth parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence east with said parallel of latitude to the ninety-ninth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich; thence south with said meridian to the east bank of the Missouri River ; thence up and with the east bank of the Missouri River to the place of beginning. Said lands are hereby set apart for the use of the several tribes of the Sioux Indians, as an addition to their present reservation in said territory.

Included in the tract so withdrawn was the northwest corner of Charles Mix County ; the west two-thirds of Brule County including Brule City ; nearly all of Buffalo County : all of Hughes, Sully, Hyde, and more than one-half of Hand County : all of Walworth, Potter, and Campbell counties, and nearly all of Faulk, Edmunds, and McPherson counties, in the southern part of the terri- tory; and the southern portion of McIntosh and Emmons County, now in North Dakota. This occurred about a year before the Black llills treaty was negotiated, and gave to the Sioux nation the country above described and all of the later State of South Dakota west of the Missouri River, and all of the later State of North Dakota south of the Cannon Ball River-or nearly one-half of the Territory of Dakota.

A later order made a further addition to the reservation on the north, as follows :

EXECUTIVE MANSION, D. C., Marchi 16, 1875.

It is hereby ordered that the tract of country, in the Territory of Dakota, lying within the following described boundaries, viz .: "Commencing at a point where the 102d degree of west longitude intersects the forty-sixth parallel of north latitude; thence north on said 102d degree of longitude to the south bank of the Cannon Ball River; thence down and with the south bank of said river to a point on the east side of the Missouri River, opposite the mouth of said Cannon Ball River : thence down and with the east bank of the Missouri River to the mouth of Beaver River; thence up and with the south bank of Beaver River to the 100th degree of west longitude; thence south and with the said rooth degree of longitude to the forty-ninth degree of north latitude ; thence west with said parallel of latitude to the place of beginning," be and the same is hereby withdrawn from sale, and set apart for the use of the several tribes of Sioux Indians, as an addition to their present reservation in said territory.

U. S. GRANT, President.

By command of Brigadier General Terry. O. D. GREENE, Assistant Adjutant General.

The purpose of this order, and a similar one affecting lands in the North, withdrawing from sale and setting apart the same for the use of the Sioux

789

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

Indians, was stated by Edw. P. Smith, commissioner of Indian affairs, to aid in the suppression of the liquor traffic with the Indians on the Missouri River ; but the order was not to affect the existing rights of any persont resident within the limits of the territory withdrawn. The order was to be rescinded as soon as the cause of it was abated.

All the lands so withdrawn by executive order were restored to the public domain by proclamation of President Hayes, under date of August 9, 1879.

The lands included the country embraced in the territory north of the Yankton reservation to the forty-seventh parallel, and cast of the ninety-ninth meridian of longitude; taking in the counties of Logan, Emmons, Campbell, Potter, Walworth, Sully, Faulk, a large part of Iland, Edmunds, McPherson, Brule and portions of Ilughes, Hyde, Buffalo and Charles Mix counties.

CHAPTER LXII

CHIEF STRIKE-THE-REE MAKES A SPEECH

HON. WILLIAM WELCH AND OTHERS VISIT INDIANS-INDIAN TREATS WITH INDIAN -THE INDIAN TALKS-THE OTIS TREATY-COMMISSIONER SMITH AND THE YANKTONS-STRIKE-THE-REE'S VIEWS, AND THOSE OF OTHER FAMOUS SACHEMS -IMPORTANCE OF BLISTERED HANDS.

William Welch, Esq., of Philadelphia, Doctor Paddock and Colonel Kemble, composing the executive committee on Indian affairs of the Episcopal Church, with Mrs. Rumney, a devoted missionary, were engaged in investigating the condition and progress made by the Indians at Crow Creek, Cheyenne, and Lower Brule agencies, during the summer of 1872. For the purpose of showing the nature and scope of the authority possessed by the representatives of Christian denominations in Indian affairs at that time, which is referred to in the excerpt from President Grant's message already quoted, the following report by Mr. Welch is given. From this it appears that not only the management of Indian affairs in a general way, including their religious instruction, but all matters affecting the welfare and rights of the red people was under the jurisdiction of the Episcopal denomination in Dakota :

While finding the Indians in a peaceful mood and their general condition encouraging, the committee stated that the four following causes of annoyance naturally disturb the Indians, who, Mr. W. stated, had been wronged "so often that they are suspicious of every white man until his friendship has been tested :"

First-The proposed expedition to the Black Hills for the purpose of taking, by vio- lence, property held by the Indians under a title as sacred as any that can be given by the Government of the United States. (This expedition had been forming at Sioux City in 1872, but as a public enterprise had been abandoned because of a prohibitory edict from the army authorities.)

Second-The Indians allege that the telegraph line to Fort Sully was placed on their lands without consent being first obtained, and some cases where Indians sold telegraph poles they had been deprived of part of the purchase price. As this telegraph line is impor- tant to the Government, the Indians should be paid or their irritation will increase and they will continue to break the glass insulators. As telegraph lines often precede railroads, these Indians fear that a railroad up the Missouri is also to be forced upon them.

Third-The Indians very properly claim that they should be conferred with and an equitable arrangement made with them before the Northern Pacific Railroad crosses the Missouri River and drives the game, upon which they subsist, from the fertile valleys of the streams, including the Yellowstone and its tributaries. The Peace Commission Treaty of 1868 stipulates that a railroad may go through the neutral ground north of the forty-sixth parallel, yet it also agrees that no person shall dwell in or pass through that region without the consent of the Indians having been first obtained.

Fourth-The just complaints of very high prices that were charged by their traders for supplies we adjusted by promising competitive trading stores. In some instances twice and three times as high a price was charged for the same article on the Upper Missouri as was paid by the same Indians in the lower agencies. The Indians also complain that no good cattle have been furnished them, although promised by the Peace Commission and stipulated for in the treaty. Another cause of complaint will be removed as the agents of the reserva- tions under care of the Episcopal church are directed to enforce Christian marriage or to eject from the reservation any white man who takes a wife after the Indian fashion, whether he be high or low, rich or poor. Our agents have in many instances, at the risk of their lives, closed up or destroyed whisky ranches on or near the reservations. Steam- boat owners are asked to prevent the landing or vending of intoxicating liquors near the

790

791

IHISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

reservations. In the sensitive condition of the Indians, before the important questions enumerated are settled, a drunken brawl may stir up an Indian war.

INDIANS TREAT WITH INDIAN

One of the first fruits of the peace policy, and in pursuance of the stipulation in the treaties, was that the Indians would endeavor to live in peace among themselves ; and furthermore encouraged thereto by Col. Elmer Otis, command- ing at Fort Rice, D. T., and a wise and prudent commander, a treaty of amity was concluded in the summer of 1870, between certain northern tribes composed in part of the Sioux or Dakota nation of Indians, and the Arickarees, Gros Ventres and Mandans, three smaller nations, not Sioux, whose local habitation was at Fort Berthold. A deadly hostility had existed between these nations for many generations, in fact their traditions revealed no period when they were not enemies ; but under the influence of such measure of civilization as they had imbibed from association with the whites, and moved thereto by their late treaties to abstain from war with each other, aided by the prudent counsel of the Christian commander mentioned, they now have become willing subjects of the Great Father and the white Government subsisting largely on the generous store of supplies furnished them by the white man's Government-were persuaded that it was for their welfare and best interests to cease fighting among them- selves, since by fighting they had nothing whatever to gain but everything to lose, for a victory brought them nothing but the empty satisfaction that they were for the time stronger than their opponents, and their wars had never been fruitful of anything but more war, and constant anxiety and vigilance. The Indians admitted that peace would be better for them; and in July, 1870, a grand peace council was assembled at Fort Stephenson, a few miles from Fort Berthold, to which place Colonel Otis conducted fifty of the chiefs and headmen represent- ing the various Dakota tribes who inhabited the northern part of the territory, and here the representatives of the three nations above mentioned, met them.

At the opening of the council, Colonel Otis addressed the Indian delegates through an interpreter, saying :

Friends-We cannot speak your language. I wish we could; so we have to speak to you through interpreters. I have left my station, where duty calls me, to do what I can to estab- lish peace between you. A short time ago the Sioux came to Fort Rice, and declared their willingness to make peace with all people, both whites and Indians. I thought that they were sincere, so came with them to this post. We came here not with any intention of praise, but because we thought it our duty to do what we could to bring about a peace between two such warlike and hostile nations as you have proved yourselves to be towards each other. If you agree upon terms and make peace with each other, I will do what 1 can to carry out the stipulations to the best of my ability. While I am in the country 1 shall hold myself responsible for the action of these Sioux, and if they deceive me I will punish them. I don't want to take up the time of the council. I want you to give all the time possible to talk among yourselves. The officers assembled here are friends to all of you; they have your good at heart.

Captain Clifford, the military Indian agent, for the time being of the Upper Missouri Indians, then addressed the council, saying :

In behalf of the Rees, Mandans and Gros Ventres, I must say that they have kept the peace with the whites for twenty-six years. When I came here last year they all told that they would not do anything without my advice and consent. This promise they have faith- fully kept. They have never left on a hunting or a war expedition without my approval As an evidence of the manner in which they kept their promise, one of them was accused of shooting at a soldier, when the commanding officer at Fort Stephenson requested that the man should be given up. The Indians used every effort to discover the man, but were unsuc- cessful. If they made a treaty, I am willing to become responsible for their actions.

"Two Bears." the famous head-chief of the Yanktonnais Sioux, then took the platform, and said :

792

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

I am very much pleased to see the white faces so kind. I have long ago made a treaty with whites, and am now ready to make peace with your people (the Rees, etc.). I sent for you to come down to my camp, but you did not come, so we came up to see you, and are willing to shake hands and smoke with you, and make a treaty of peace. I am tired of war; my people are tired of war. We want to live in peace with all men. Our Father has told 11s that the Great Spirit will not prosper us if we are enemies of each other, and we have found this true. We would frequently starve if it was not for the whites. We have all received food and clothing from them, and now that the buffalo and antelope are scarce, we would starve if the whites would not take care of us. (Here the Indian audience gave their approval with a number of energetic exclamations of "How! How!")

The next speaker was White Shield, the orator of the other nations, Sans Arcs, Mandans, and Gros Ventres, a very dignified, and stately man, who spoke as follows:

I greet the officers, and to these Sioux I wish to say that they have been the aggressors, and should propose their terms first. They have come here. Let them state what they want. We did not send for them. They came voluntarily to us. We have nothing to say until we hear them. If they want peace, why don't they keep their young men at home, and not send them to kill our people and steal our horses? Why don't they stay at home, and not send war parties upon our lands to kill our game and steal our property? ("How! How!" from the party of the second part.)

This called the Yanktonnais chief, Two Bears, again to his feet, when he made this statement :

My friends, I have a desire to make a peace. I can only speak for my own people. My tribes are scattered over a vast country. I cannot be responsible for all their acts when they are so far away from my home; but if any of my young men do anything wrong, I will at once inform the commanding officer and give up the offender for punishment. Our fathers advised us to make peace with the white faces, and advised us to keep that peace; but some of our people are fools. They go on the warpath without the knowledge of their chiefs, and commit horrible crimes. The whole tribe is blamed for it, but if we make a peace, I will deliver those bad men to the white officers. You see, friends, but few of our people are present, but we that are here shake hands and smoke; that means the whole Sioux Nation. Some of the young men, who are fools, will start a war party from the Yankton or Cheyenne Agency. They will call at all the agencies until they collect quite a considerable band, and then make war on any party they meet. We, their chief men, do not allow this, but they are led off by the young men with bad hearts and bad spirits. We are sorry for it. It makes our hearts feel bad to see how foolish they are.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 136

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198