History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 161

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 161

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).

Our Government agreed to subsist these Indians, by stipulation in thi treaty four years. but since the expiration of that time ( 1873), it has continued to feed them until up to the time of the making of the report of the secretary of the interior for 1875 it had expended1 for that purpose $3.395,000. The treaty was never approved by Congress

The statute which authorized the making of the treaty (vide 15s statutes it Lir c. [ 17. section 2), reads as follows :

"The commissioners are required to select a district of country for the In the when so selected and the selection approved by Congress, shall be and femin ( mit !! homes for said Indians," etc.

The treaty was not before the House. The Hou e never considere lar guet It was ratified by the Senate only, and therefore not approved by Con rene-in dir authorizing the commission to treat with the Indians required it to be; con so-called treaty did not become a law.

931

932

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

Authorities in point .- 1. A treaty, under the Constitution, is declared to be the supreme law of the land. This, unquestionably applies to all treaties wherever the treaty-making power, without the aid of Congress, can carry it into effect. Until this power is exercised, as where the appropriation of money is required, the treaty is not perfect. This results from the limitations of our Government. The action of no department of government can be regarded as law until it shall have all the sanctions required by the Constitution to make it such. As well might it be contended that an ordinary act of Congress, without the signa- ture of the President was a law ( vide 7th circuit of Michigan, 1852, Turner vs. American Baptist Missionary Union, 5 McLain, page 344).

Congress may repeal a treaty (first circuit of Massachusetts, 1855, Taylor vs. Morton, 2 Curtis. Circuit Court, page 454; 2 Black, page 486. An act of Congress can abrogate a treaty provided the subject matter is within the legislative power of Congress (United States vs. Tobacco Factory, I Dill).

This treaty then not having been approved by Congress, the House not having acted upon it, is not only voidable but void, and is not binding upon either party, and before 1 close these remarks I will try to satisfy you sir, that the Indians, allowing their acts to demonstrate their meaning, so regarded it. The authorities on this point are all one way. None can be found contravening the doctrine here laid down.

Again as to the title of the Indians to their reservations. The right of Indians in their land is that of occupancy alone. Possession, when abandoned, attaches itself to the fee without further grant (19 Wallace, U. S. vs. Cook, page 591). The fee is in the United States ; this is the title by which they hold their lands. It was so decided by the Supreme Court as early as 1823, in Johnson vs. McIntosh, S. Wheaton, page 574. The authority of this case has never been doubted.

The last point made in relation to the title of the Indians to their lands is not presented to sustain the doctrine in this case that the Indians have abandoned the reservations, because the facts will not sustain it. They have not, in accordance with legal technicality, abandoned it, but the truth is they have never occupied the Black Hills part of it for any purpose what- ever, and are now only standing guard at the portal thereof like the "dog in the manger," except that they may also satiate their blood-thirsty appetites in the warm gushing gore of inoffensive victims. This point is presented to show that the equities in this regard are all in the United States. The stipulations of the treaty have been broken on the part of the savages ; we are therefore under no obligations to support them or not to occupy this reservation.

For the sake of the argument only we will admit that the treaty was ratified according to law, and is binding upon the parties, and insist that it has been broken by the acts of the Indians in such a way that our Government is in no way under the least obligation to respect it, and it should be regarded by us as null and void.

I purpose now to ventilate this view of the question and inquire-have the Indians lived up to the obligations of the treaty on their part? By article II, among other things, the Indians agreed that "they will not attack any person at home or traveling, nor molest nor disturb any wagon trains, coaches, mules or cattle, of other persons; that they will not attempt to harm white persons, etc."

We are told by persons who boast of their Christian philanthropy and transcendent love for the Indian, that all of our troubles with these people, the robberies, murders they com- mit upon the whites, are the legitimate result of our tyranny and oppression of them. How convenient for philanthropic purposes and the advancement of human efforts to benefit these Indians, whether pretended or real, practical or impractical, this may be in excusing the barbarities of the savages, it lacks the essential quality of truth to sustain it, while it tends to engender a false and sickly sympathy in behalf of the Indian race and a prejudice toward our own.

No reliance can be placed in the plighted faith of the North American Indian until he has become civilized and enlightened. The fictions of Cooper and Longfellow have no existence in fact; they are purely imaginary and meretricious. This want of fidelity is shown by their utter disregard of their treaty stipulations and in all their dealings with the white man. See what our Government has done for them, as I have before stated, by way of furnishing the subsistence. What have they done in return? From the day they fixed their cross to this treaty hitherto they have been engaged in predatory raids upon our frontier, robbing and murdering the white settlers, sparing neither age, nor sex, nor conditions in life, committing "such hellish torture as can only be suggested by savage lust." Hundreds, yes, I may with truthfulness say thousands, if we could ever arrive at the facts, of our western frontier settlers, whom this Government of ours is bound to protect, have fallen victims to the frightful forays of these barbarians. Human life and property have not been secure from the midnight incursions, the fatal rifle shot, the tomahawk and scalp- ing knife. More than two hundred American citizens, we know, while employed in lawful pursuits in the Northwest, and on ceded lands, too, have been murdered by the Sioux within the last seven years, and before the attempted occupation of the Black Hills by the whites. Miners, wood-choppers, steamboat men and others, have been ruthlessly murdered by them while in the quiet pursuit of their legitimate business, and our Government at the same time expending millions of dollars annually for the support of these same Sioux, without con- sideration therefor or expecting to be benefited thereby. In view of these facts (and

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

strange and horrible as it may appear). it is our frontier history. I ask what kind of a claim. if any, have they upon us? I have lived upon the frontier about twenty years, and have had an opportunity to know as much by ocular observation as a man who has never crossed, going westward, the Hudson or Mississippi rivers. Today Sitting Bull ant his associate chiefs, who were parties to this treaty, with their 300 warriors, from their strong- holds on the Yellowstone and Powder rivers, hundreds of miles from their reservation, shake their bloody girdles of white men's scalps, on some of which the human gor . las not yet coagulated, in the faces of your officers, and bid defiance to your laws and military authority.

Specifications against the Sioux .- In 1870 fifteen men were murdered by these Indians on the Missouri River just below Fort Peck. The steamer Key West, when navigating these waters in 1871, was fired into and the clerk was shot through the body. Ten men were murdered by them near the present site of Carroll, on the Missouri, Near Fort Lin- coln, Bismarck and Fort Berthold, annually since 1808, many white men have been killed by them. and in all over twenty-nine. In 1873. above and near Fort Rice, seven white men were slain by them. In the fall and winter of 1874-5, thirteen men were killed by Sitting Bull's party on the Yellowstone River. In Judith Basin twenty-four men were murdered by the Sioux between the years 1870 and 1875. Within the time last named more than one hundred persons have been killed by them on the North Platte and north of the C'mon Pacific Railroad, while all along the Missouri down as far as Running Water, white men have been killed by Indians nearly every year. The steamers navigating the Missouri River have been fired into every year since i89 by the Sioux lying in ambush, and their men have often been killed and wounded. No less than five boats carrying Government supplies on the upper Missouri were fired into in 1874 and several of the crew were killed and many wounded. A year has not passed since this treaty was made that they have not fired into the steamers navigating this river.

Now, sir, I ask anyone to point out to me a rational cause, an excuse even, for the per petration of these cowardly crimes, and then long and loud denunciation of the white man's inhumanity towards the Indians, and of the eulogies heaped upon the transcendal virtues and fidelity of these robbers and murderers. Again, the Government has paid to various parties since the conclusion of this treaty, on account of the depredations of these Indians on the property of our fellow citizens, the sum of $15.130.24, and it ought to have paid millions of dollars for this purpose, and that sum would not liquidate their indebtedness to us in this respect.

They have never attempted to utilize the country known as Black Hills; never hunted or fished therein, and had it not been for the restless mental activity of our citizens, which is ever seeking unexplored fields in science as well as in geography, and which gave to us the priceless treasures of California and the west coast, the silver of Nevada and Colorado, and acres of Texas, and developed in the Black Hills country golten treasures, these graceless paupers of the nation never would have dreamed of going into it. To them it had no attractions until the white man came and gave to them an easy chance to add to their decorations bleeding scalps, and we'll have they availed themselves of this golfen opportunity. And yet, sir, this race, these Indians, we have always carefully pr fecte 1. sheltered, fed; nay, more, invited here to this city, made them the guests of the nation feted and honored them in as ostentatious a manner as we have ever done to representa- tives of nations equal to us in all that makes a nation great. "industry and education." made them honored guests, while at their waists bung the sealps of our bell phileers - pioneers who felled the forests, bridged the streams and developed such states as ken tucky, Indiana, Illinois; yes, the entire grand West.

Sad to say, we are to have the perpetual heritage of a race devoid of all sentiment er principle ; senseless to any animation of joy except springing from an act of eriielty redolent with blood and echoing with the agonized ery of a tortured victim These are the "noble men of the forest," whom we are to pray for, pay for forever, while the williw . and orphans they make annually, weep, and starve, and die.

Sir, in the face of this and more so horrible that it cannot be spoken alouf only whispered among those who know of their atrocities. I would like to know if there can 1- any obligation, legally or morally, in justice or equity, whereby the "allegiance we the to God and our country," requires us to adhere to the treaty stipulations Would we have suffered, unless compelled vie et armis, from any nation such treatment ri eur citizener If a treaty did exist, who suffers from its violations? Most certainly the party who si ler it. When the pirates from Tripoli outraged our commercial pride the young nations 1 tated not a moment, and demanded and received prompt satisfaction sympathy, born in false teachings ; reared bevond the reach of the arrow and the tor Al must be taught to know that the pioneers have a right to live in quiet possession wrung from fickt and forest, blest by love of wife and caresses of children turbed by the yell, tomahawk and shot of "these treats wards of the nation '

Now, sir, these atrocities, depredations and murders were mit commit grade of the Indians, but were instigated and participated in by the beulen of the various tribes, many of whom had just returned from the sweet etter Washington's national hospitality These leaders were not ignorant of ties, but were conscious that if caught there was sufficient press af

934

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

enable them to escape punishment. Need I allude to the instances where conviction and sentence to death have been pardoned by appeal to the executive by those striving to do right, liave erred mightily. With these facts before us can any man say they have lived up to their treaty stipulations? No sir. Treaty or no treaty, we shall ever continue to take care of them. The Divine Master said to his chosen apostles: "The poor I leave with you." He must have meant, as to the United States, "Lo, the poor I leave with yon as a perpetual heritage." The Black Hills are of no use to them, as I have said before, neither as a hunting or fishing country; but to ns, in the west particularly, and to the entire nation, of incalculable valne. Opened up by our hardy and industrious people, soon a populous country will be known, and in a shorter space of time than Colorado, with her acknowledged wealth, will come a new state, to add light and beauty to the glorions constel- lation of states.

Pass this bill and you invite to a healthy, salubrious and fertile country the masses who are dying for want of space in your beautiful cities; deny it and you simply put blocks in front of the "car which westward takes its course." Pass it and you benefit the Indian in spite of himself, for then each one will possess in spite of himself more land than he can occupy and enjoy. Doing justice to our white settlers, to our anxious emigrant, to thousands in the Old World who want to come to our free land, will benefit them and in time it is to be hoped, remove them from "in puris naturalibus" condition to one where the Christian friends who are anxious to help them may hope of success.

The present status of the Black Hills .- That gold is in the Black Hills pioneers have known for more than thirty years. The geological survey of Professor Hayden over ten years ago established that fact. The explorations of Professor Jenney in 1875 were suffi- ciently thorough to establish beyond a doubt that valuable gold fields exist there. Within the last six months citizens of my territory have gone there comparatively poor, and have returned well off. That more than one hundred thousand dollars worth of gold dust has been taken out of these hills by the people of Dakota alone, been brought home and there sold, is a fact of which I have personal knowledge.

The sentiment which is founded on the great popular idea of inalienable rights, inherent in the bosom of every man who has felled the forests and peopled the plains from one ocean to the other, attempted to open the Black Hills in 1874 and 1875. Squads of men were there inoffensively, quietly, taking the anriferous metal from the "auriferous gulchies which furrow its mountain slopes." Whereupon a military order was issued to "put ont" these men therefrom, and as they were seemingly slow in getting out, many of them were arrested, confined in military prisons and other bastiles for months, and in numerous instances their wagons and subsistence destroyed by fire. Such acts on the part of those who consummated them were without anthority of law, and an outrage upon the rights of peaceful citizens.

But since the explorations of Professor Jenney, and within a few months, the Black Hills have become occupied by a large population of the bone and sinew, the bold and hardy yeomanry of our country. It is estimated that there are at least eight thousand men there pursuing the even tenor of their way, tilling the soil, planting crops, fencing their lands, building houses, making homes for the beloved ones left behind them, and who are anxiously waiting for the blissful moment of reunion with their brave husbands and fathers, and until recently without any interference from our Government. But the Indians wanting new relays for their girdles, and in strict accordance with their custom for the last hundred years, were continually murdering innocent men, women and children, outside of their reservation in the Territory of Wyoming and elsewhere, and committing such nameless crimes the contemplation of which makes humanity's warm life-blood congeal at its source and stand still in its fastnesses, caused this order to emanate:

Headquarters Army, Washington, D. C., May 26, 1876. I have just been to the President with Governor Thayer. After reading the papers and some discussion, the President said the people who had gone to the Black Hills of Dakota, inside the Sioux Reservation, or who may hereafter go there, are there wrongfully, and they should be notified of the fact; but the Government is engaged in certain measures that will probably result in opening up the country to occupation and settlement. In the meantime the Indians should not be allowed to scalp and kill anybody, and you are author- ized to afford protection to all persons who are conveying food and stores for the people already there. I understand that arrangements are now in progress with Red Cloud and Spotted Tail to treat, and meantime the agency Indians should be kept near the agencies. If satisfactory arrangements are not concluded, the new order will be made as to whites who have intruded on the Sioux Reservation.

W. T. SHERMAN, General.

About four weeks ago the United States Indian agent at the Cheyenne Indian Agency on the Missouri River addressed a letter to the honorable commissioner of Indian affairs, stating that three friendly Indians had heen killed by men going to the Black Hills over the Fort Pierre route, and that an Indian war was inevitable if travel thereon was not interrupted. Thereupon the following order was issued :

935

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

St. Paul, Minn., June 2, 1876. To the Commanding Officer at Fort Sully, D. T .:

In compliance with instructions from the general of the army, just received from the lieutenant-general, you are directed to take such steps as will prevent emigrants from going to the Black Hills over the Fort Pierre route, and you are further directed to use the troops at your command to enforce these instructions to the best of your ability.

By command of GENERAL TERRY, RUGGLES, Acting Adjutant-General.

Pursuant to which order the commanding officer at Fort Sully stopped all provision trains and men en route for the Black Hills, and forbade their crossing the river there. In a short time hundreds of tons of freight were landed there destined for the gold region, and hundreds of men in charge of the same, but were detained or turned back by the mil- tary authorities. This fact being made known to the Government, this order was issued :

Headquarters Army, Washington, D. C., June 8, 1870.

General P. H. Sheridan, Chicago, Illinois :

Judge Kidder, of Dakota, represents that there are about one hundred tons of pro- visions at Fort Pierre, ready for the Black Hills, and that the commanding officer forbids their going. We have just seen the President, who consents that these provisions may be hauled out, but that no escort can be given. You may instruct accordingly.

The commanding officer should see that the parties who go out with the train are armed and prepared to defend the train and to prevent its falling into the hands of hostile Indians. Judge Kidder has been very zealous in this matter in the interest of his territory. W. T. SHERMAN.

The commanding officer of Fort Sully being "hard of hearing," or very slow, or not knowing the order was issued, had not, up to the 20th of June, permitted the provisions to be hauled out, when forbearance ceasing to be a virtue, an order enlarging his instruc- tions was issued in these words :

Headquarters of the Army, Washington, June 20th, 1876. General Philip H. Sheridan, commanding Division of Missouri, Chicago, 111 .:

In regard to the route to the Black Hills from Fort Pierre, you may instruct that well organized trains may go out and return with provisions, but they can have no military escort. The trains must take their own risk. Instruct the officers accordingly. W. T. SHERMAN, General.

Of the result of this order I am not informed. Newspapers inform us that-

"We have good evidence that the route to Custer City from Cheyenne is now guarded against Indian depredations by Companies K of the Third Infantry, and H of the Twenty third Infantry, and that General Sheridan was promised adequate military guard for the Sidney route. We have also good evidence that Captain Tolman's company of the First Infantry is now patroling the Missouri River in the vicinity of Fort Pierre for the purpose of preventing all travel from Southern Dakota to the hills."

Colonel Townsend, commanding Fort Laramie, announces, among other things that-

"Two companies of cavalry will constantly patrol the road between this post and Custer City for the protection of travelers."

It appears then, relying upon these orders and this information, that there is only one ingress and egress to the Black Hills, and that is by the way of the Union Pacific Railroad. In connection with these facts } desire to state another, that to get to the Black Hills from Fort Pierre via the Union Pacific Railroad the emigrants at Fort Pierre will have to travel over one thousand miles farther than to go direct from there, it being in m Fort Pierre only 150 miles to Custer City. Chicago is over three hundred miles nearer the Black Hills via Yankton, Dakota, than it is by way of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the road through the former territory is very much better This extra distance then, in order to enjoy the Lovely scenery of the gold-bearing hills and the ecstasy of anticipated riches, must be travele 1 over not only by the good people of Dakota, but by the people of Minnesota, Wie mein and other states east of the Missouri River and north of the azd parallel.

This I call an outrage upon these people too grievous to be borne. We are win' to submit to any general order controlling alike the people on both sides of the Bhi We are willing to be excluded from them if all are, but we cannot consent to saltily wir selves, belittle our intelligence, and smother that inherent right of ju tire ante lity which is implanted in the bosom of every man by him who from the Haiun ng the scales of justice in equipoise, by remaining silent or passive when rt has been perpetrated in a manner that is known to a gazing world.

936

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

The Fort Pierre ronte should be opened at once or the Cheyenne route should be closed. This would be meting out even handed justice. The closing of this route and the protec- tion of the route from Cheyenne and Fort Laramie by the military, is such an exhibition of favoritism in favor of the latter routes, and the injustice is so flagrant that the people of Dakota feel that they have a right to speak in language that will not be misunderstood, and demand that justice be done them by being placed upon an equality with those residing south and west of the Black Hills.

Only one way to get into the Black Hills? I have been taught to believe that I can start from any place and go to any other place in the world. But I give that up now. One is obliged to start either at Cheyenne, Sidney or Fort Laramie to get into the Black Hills.

It has now transpired that three Indians were not killed, or any Indians, in the vicinity of Fort Pierre, or any Indians east of the Black Hills, by persons going there, as stated to the commissioner of Indian affairs by the Cheyenne agent, and that the agent was misin- formed in relation thereto, or he wilfully wrote to the commissioner what was not true, which latter I hesitate to believe. But, believing in the good intentions of those who admin- ister this Government, and their desire to strictly mete out justice to all, I do not hesitate to say that I believe, when the facts in this regard are known to them as I know them, that the order closing the Fort Pierre route will be revoked, or another made closing those from the Union Pacific Railroad. With either we shall be content.

To the unsophisticated these last remarks of mine might seem to be "aliunde," and not pertinent to the issue, but when it is understood that all the facts which surround this reservation should be properly considered before coming to a determination in the premises, and that Dakotans and others east of us who have traveled that way have not only had a fire in front but a fire in the rear, it is a matter of absolute necessity, in order to have ample justice done to ns, to state the whole case as it really exists, "without fear, favor or affection."

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 161

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