THE HOW AND THE WHY OF INDIAN WARS
I have tried to set forth the character and motives of the primitive
Indian as they were affected by contact with civilization. In a word,
demoralization was gradual but certain, culminating in the final loss of
his freedom and confinement to the reservation under most depressing
conditions. It must be borne in mind that there has been scarcely any
genuine wild life among us for the past thirty-five years. Sitting
Bull's band of Sioux were the last real hostiles of their tribe to
surrender, in 1880, and Geronimo's Apaches followed in 1886.
It is important to understand the underlying causes of Indian wars.
There are people to-day who believe that the Indian likes nothing better
than going on the warpath, killing and scalping from sheer native
cruelty and lust for blood. His character as a man of peace has not
been appreciated. Yet it is matter of history that the newcomers were
welcomed in almost every case with unsuspecting kindness, and in his
dealings with the white man the original owner of the soil has been
uniformly patient and reasonable, offering resistance only under
irresistible provocation.
There have been but few noteworthy Indian wars in the history of
America. In 1629 Powhatan's brother revolted against the colonists in
Virginia, and King Philip took up arms in Massachusetts in 1675. The
Cherokee war of 1758 in North and South Carolina came next; then the
conspiracy of Pontiac in 1763, the Creek war from 1812 to 1830, and the
Seminole war from 1820 to 1833. These wars in the South were incited by
the insolence and aggressiveness of the Americans. The struggles of the
Algonquins and the Iroquois, however, were not conducted wholly on their
own initiative. These tribes were used as allies in the long-drawn-out
conflicts between the French and the English, and thus initiated into
the motives and the methods of the white man's warfare.
I doubt very much if Pontiac would have carried his policies so far had
it not been for the encouragement he received from French traders and
settlers, who assured him that King Louis would come to his assistance
in due time, with men and ammunition. Strong in this belief, as well as
in his innate sense of right and justice, he planned to unite the
scattered tribes against the invader and overthrow all the border forts
in a day. His boldness and aggressiveness were unique in the history of
Indian warfare.
At this juncture a remarkable man was chosen to guide the Indian policy
in America. Sir William Johnson had long been engaged in trade among the
Six Nations, and more especially the Mohawks. His influence among them
was very great; and it was partly through his conciliatory methods, and
partly by reason of the betrayal of his plans and the failure of the
French to keep their promises of assistance, that Pontiac, perhaps our
greatest military genius, was forced to surrender.
A sad feature of the early wars was the sufferings of those Indians who
had listened to the preaching of Jesus Christ. In Massachusetts, during
King Philip's war, the Christian Indians were treated no better than the
"heathen savages." Some were hanged, some imprisoned, and some sold as
slaves to the West Indies. At best, they lost their homes and
improvements, and nearly perished of cold and hunger. In Pennsylvania,
at Conestoga and Wyoming Valley, they were horribly murdered, and the
peaceful Moravian Indians were butchered at prayer in their church,
while no one dared say a word of protest except the Quakers.
To return to the wars in the South, many of these were mere feuds
between one or two families. The Cherokees secured concessions and
promises of better treatment from the white men, after which they
continued friendly, and helped in overcoming the Creeks and Seminoles.
Practically all Indian wars have been caused by a few self-seeking men.
For instance, a man may secure through political influence a license to
trade among the Indians. By his unprincipled practices, often in
defiance of treaty agreements, such as gross overcharging and the use of
liquor to debauch the natives, he accumulates much tainted wealth. This
he invests in lands on the border or even within the Indian territory if
ill-defined. Having established himself, he buys much stock, or perhaps
sets up a mill on Indian water-power. He gathers his family and
hirelings about him, and presently becomes a man of influence in his
home state. From the vantage point of a rough border town, peopled
largely with gamblers, saloonkeepers, and horse-thieves, this man and
his kind plot the removal of the Indian from his fertile acres. They
harass him in every way, and having at last forced resistance upon him,
they loudly cry: "Indian outbreak! Send us troops! Annihilate the
savages!"
OSCEOLA AND THE SEMINOLES
The principal causes of Indian troubles in the South were, first, the
encroachments of this class of settlers; second, the hospitable
willingness of the Indians to shelter fugitive slaves. Many of these
people had found an Elysium among the Creeks and Seminoles, and had even
intermarried among them, their offspring becoming members of the tribe.
Osceola's wife was of this class--a beautiful Indian woman with some
negro and some white blood. She was dragged away from him by unholy
traffickers in human flesh, and he was arrested for remonstrating. Who
could tolerate such an outrage? The great chief was then a young man and
comparatively unknown; but within one year he became the recognized
leader of his tribe and the champion of their cause. The country was
perfectly suited to the guerilla warfare which is characteristic of
Indians--a country in which even an Indian of another tribe would be
lost! White frontiersmen were imported to guide the army, but according
to the testimony of Beckworth, the Rocky Mountain hunter and trapper,
all gave up in disgust. The Government was forced to resort to pacific
measures in order to get the Seminoles in its power, and eventually most
of them were removed to the Indian Territory. There was one small band
which persistently refused the offered terms, and still remains in the
fastnesses of the Florida Everglades, perhaps the only unconquered band
in the United States to-day.
While the Southern tribes were deported almost in a body to what was
then the far West, the wars of the Algonquins, along the Great Lakes and
the Ohio River, scattered them far and wide in fragments. Such of the
Iroquois as had strong treaties with the Dutch colony secured permanent
reservations in the State of New York which they still occupy, having
been continuously under state control instead of that of the general
government.
CHIEF JOSEPH'S REASONING
The Black Hawk war in 1836 was the end of the Algonquin resistance.
Surely if there was ever just cause for resistance, Black Hawk had such
a cause. His case was exactly similar to that of the famous Nez Perce,
Chief Joseph, who illustrates his grievance very lucidly in the _North
American Review_ for April, 1879, in an interview with Bishop Hare of
South Dakota.
"If I ever sold any land to the Government," says he, "it was done in
this way: Suppose a man comes to me and says: 'Joseph, I want to buy
your horse.' I say to him: 'I am satisfied with my horse. I do not wish
to sell him at any price.' Then the man goes to my neighbor and says to
him: 'I want to buy Joseph's horse, but he would not sell it to me.' My
neighbor says: 'If you will buy my horse, I will throw in his horse!'
The man buys my neighbor's horse, and then he comes and claims my horse
and takes it away. I am under no obligation to my neighbor. He had
nothing to do with my horse."
It was just such dealing as this which forced Black Hawk to fight with a
handful of warriors for his inheritance. The Government simply made a
treaty with the Sacs under Keokuk, and took the land of the Foxes at the
same time. There were some chiefs who, after they had feasted well and
drunk deep and signed away their country for nothing, talked of war,
and urged Black Hawk to lead them. Then they sneaked away to play "good
Indian," and left him to bear the brunt alone.
There were no more Indian wars for thirty years. The Southwest frontiers
were now occupied by eastern tribes or their remnants, which had been
transported beyond the Mississippi during the early thirties. Only
fragments were left here and there, in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, and the South. The great Siouan race occupied nearly all the
upper valley of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their
tributaries. North of them dwelt the Ojibways, an Algonquin tribe with
an entirely different language. The Sioux nation proper originally
occupied a vast territory, and in the middle of the nineteenth century
they still held the southern half of Minnesota, a portion of Wisconsin
and Iowa, all of the Dakotas, part of Montana, nearly half of Nebraska,
and small portions of Colorado and Wyoming. Some of the bands were
forest Indians, hunters and trappers and fishermen, while others roamed
over the Great Plains and hunted the buffalo, elk, and antelope. Some
divided the year between the forest and prairie life. These people had
been at peace with the whites ever since the early French explorers and
the Jesuit priests had entered their country. They had traded for many
years with the Hudson Bay and American Fur companies, and no serious
difficulty had arisen, nor was any obstruction offered to the progress
of civilization.
In 1824 the United States required of the tribes in this region to
define their territory, a demand which intensified and gave a new turn
to their intertribal warfare. The use of gun, horse, and whiskey
completed the demoralization, and thus the truly "savage" warfare had
its origin, ever increasing in bitterness until it culminated in
resistance to the Government, in 1862, one hundred years after the
struggle and defeat of the great Pontiac.
THE SIOUX AND THEIR GRIEVANCES
A treaty was made in 1851 with the Minnesota Sioux to which one band was
not a party. This was the one commonly known as Inkpaduta's band, whose
usual winter resort was in northwestern Iowa. White settlers went upon
the ceded lands, and when this band returned to Spirit Lake after their
summer's roving they found it occupied. Owing to a very severe winter
and the presence of the settlements, the surrounding country became
depleted of game, and the Sioux, who were starving, sought aid among the
settlers. No doubt they became a nuisance, and were so treated, which
treatment they very naturally resented, and thus arose the "Spirit Lake
massacre." The rest of the tribe condemned the act, and Sioux from the
Redwood reservation pursued the guilty band until they overtook and
killed two of Inkpaduta's sons. The others were driven back among the
wild Sioux. This was their first offence, after more than a century of
contact with the whites.
Little Crow's band formed the east wing of the Sioux nation, and were
the first to enter reservation life. The causes of their outbreak, a few
years later, were practically the same as in many other instances, for
in its broad features the history of one Indian tribe is the history of
all. Their hunting-grounds were taken from them, and the promised
support was not forthcoming. Some of the chiefs began to "play politics"
like white men, and through their signatures, secretly given, a payment
of $98,000 due the tribe was made to the Indian traders. Little Crow
himself was involved in this steal, and was made head chief by the
whites, who wished to have some one in this position whom they could
deal with. But soon the non-payment of annuities brought the Indians to
the verge of starvation, and in despair they forced Little Crow to lead
them in revolt. In August, 1862, they massacred the agency employees and
extended their attack to the white settlers, killing many and destroying
a large amount of property, before a part of the tribe fled into Canada
and the rest surrendered to General Sibley.
Next came the struggle of the Western Sioux and Northern Cheyennes in
defence of their homes. The building of the Northern Pacific and the
Union Pacific transcontinental railroads had necessitated the making of
new treaties with these people. Scarcely was the agreement completed by
which they ceded a right of way in return for assurances of permanent
and absolute possession of other territory, including the Black Hills
and Bighorn Mountains, when gold was discovered in these regions. This
fact created great excitement and a general determination to dispossess
the Sioux of the country just guaranteed to them, which no white man was
to enter without the consent of three fourths of the adult men of the
tribe.
Public excitement was intense, and the Government found itself unable
to clear the country of intruders and to protect the rights of the
Sioux. It was reported that there were no less than fifteen thousand men
in the Black Hills district placer-mining and prospecting for the yellow
metal. The authority of the United States was defied almost openly by
the frontier press and people. Then the Indians took matters into their
own hands, carried on a guerilla warfare against immigrants, and
harassed the forts until the army was forced to enter upon a campaign
against them. In 1868 another treaty was made, but the great chief, Red
Cloud, would not sign it until he saw forts C. F. Smith and Phil Kearney
abandoned. Here is probably the only instance in American history in
which a single Indian chief was able to enforce his demands and make a
great government back down. At that time it would have cost immense sums
of money and many lives to conquer him, and would have retarded the
development of the West by many years.
It is a fact that Sitting Bull was thoroughly opposed to yielding any
more territory. No doubt he foresaw the inevitable result. He had taken
up the cause of the Eastern Sioux in Minnesota and fought Sibley and
Sully in 1862. He had supported Red Cloud in his protests against the
establishment of the Bozeman trail, and against the new forts, although
thus far these aggressions had not affected him directly. But when
surveyors began work on the Northern Pacific, they entered his
particular domain, and it was time for him to fight in its defence.
Unfortunately for him, the other bands of Sioux whom he had helped in
their time of need were now all settled upon reservations, so that he
had not much support except from Crazy Horse's band, and the so-called
hostiles or renegades of the Western bands. Hostilities began in 1872,
culminating in 1876 with the famous "Custer fight," which practically
ended the struggle, for after annihilating Custer's command the Indians
fled into British America. Four years later Sitting Bull was induced to
come in and settle down upon the Sioux reservation.
The Modoc war in Oregon and Idaho, in which the Shoshones and Bannocks
were involved, was really a part of this same movement--namely, the last
defence of their hunting-grounds by the Plains Indians, as was also the
resistance of the Cheyennes and Comanches farther south, and of the Utes
in 1877, simultaneously with the last stand of the Sioux. It had been
found impossible to conquer the Plains Indians without destroying the
buffalo, their main subsistence. Therefore vast herds were ruthlessly
destroyed by the United States army, and by 1880 they were practically
extinct. Since it was found cheaper to feed than to fight them, the
one-time warriors were corralled upon their reservations and kept alive
upon Government rations.
THE "GHOST-DANCE WAR"
All Indian warfare worthy the name had now come to an end. There were
left Geronimo's small bands of Apaches, who were hunted down in an all
but inaccessible country and finally captured and confined in Southern
forts. More recent "Indian outbreaks," so-called, are usually a mere
ruse of the politicians, or are riots caused by the disaffection of a
few Indians unjustly treated by their Government agents. The only really
serious disturbance within a generation was the "Ghost-dance war" of
1890-91. And yet this cannot fairly be called an Indian war. It arose in
a religious craze which need not have been a serious matter if wisely
handled. The people were hungry and disheartened, their future looked
hopeless, and all their appeals were disregarded. At this juncture the
suggestion of a Messiah, offering hope of miraculous intervention in
behalf of the red man, appealed to many, and the "new religion" spread
far and fast. In some tribes it soon died a natural death, but in the
Sioux country it was unwisely forbidden by the authorities, and led to
grave results.
At Pine Ridge, in December of 1890, the ghost-dancers had come in to the
agency and the situation was apparently under control when the attempted
arrest of Sitting Bull in his cabin by Indian police led to his death
and the stampeding of his people. Several of the stampeded bands came
down to Pine Ridge, where they were met by United States troops,
disarmed, and shot down after one man had resisted disarmament by firing
off his weapon. This was the massacre of Wounded Knee, where about 300
Indians, two thirds of them women and children, were mown down with
machine-guns within a few minutes. For some days there was danger of a
reprisal, but the crisis passed, and those Indians who had fled to the
"Bad Lands" were induced to come in and surrender. From that time on the
Indian tribes of the United States have been on a peace footing.