[A] From "The North American Review," April, 1873.
[B] The writer does not intend to say that the citizens of the border
States are always just or reasonable in their disposition towards the
Indians. It cannot be denied, that, in the exasperation of conflict,
they often commit atrocities rivalling those of the savages; that,
moreover, under the smart of wrong, they are very often indiscriminating
in their revenge, and do cruel injustice to peaceful bands; and that,
with the recklessness characteristic of border talk, they indulge to a
vast extent in denunciations of horrible sound. To this is added, that
in such communities are found more than the usual number of persons of a
natural malignity of disposition, often refugees from criminal justice,
who delight in committing outrages upon the exposed and helpless members
of an inferior race. The opinion which the writer has given above is
entirely consistent with the present admissions. The animosities felt
and expressed are not towards the Indians as Indians, but arise out of
the sense of injuries suffered, and the apprehension of further
suffering. Were the Indians once rendered, by the extension and
strengthening of our settlements, powerless for harm, the easy
tolerance, the rough good-nature, and the quick condonement of wrong,
which characterize pioneer communities, would speedily reconcile the
whites to their presence, and establish relations not wholly unworthy of
both parties.
[C] The relations of the Arickarees--or, as they are commonly called,
even in official reports, the 'Rees--to the government, form one of the
most instructive chapters of Indian history. In 1838 the agent for the
Upper Missouri Indian agency, in his annual report to the Department of
Indian Affairs, used the following language in respect to this tribe:--
"The Riccaras have long been notorious for their treachery and
barbarity, and, within my own recollection, have murdered and pillaged
more of our citizens than all the other tribes between the western
borders of Missouri and the heads of the Columbia River."--_Report on
Indian Affairs_, 1838-9, p. 65.
This is language which one might expect from the agent of some
exceptionally troublesome band of Sioux. But, to the contrary, in
another portion of his report (_Ib._ p. 64) the same agent says, "No
Indians ever manifested a greater degree of friendship for the whites in
general, or more respect for our government, than the Sioux." This
report was made thirty-four years ago, the limit of one human
generation. To-day the Sioux are among the most dangerous and
troublesome Indians on the hands of the government, while the Arickarees
are our fast friends and allies. Lieut.-Gen. Sheridan, in 1871, writing
of these Indians, now located at Fort Berthold, says, "They have always
been civil and well disposed, and have been repaid by the government
with neglect and starvation. Of all Indians in the country, they were
the best entitled to be looked after, and made happy and contented."
Something, clearly, has made this difference; and an inquirer would
doubtless find here an explanation of no small part of the difficulties
which the United-States Government has experienced in dealing with the
Indian tribes.
[D] To take one of the most recent examples: Col. Baker's attack upon a
Piegan camp in 1869, even though it should be held to be justified on
the ground of necessity, must be admitted to be utterly revolting in its
conception and execution. Yet no merited chastisement ever wrought more
instant and durable effects for good. The Piegans, who had been even
more wild and intractable than the Sioux, have since that affair been
orderly and peaceable. No complaints whatever are made of their conduct;
and they are apparently as good Indians as can be found among the wholly
uncivilized tribes.
[E] The Report on Indian Affairs for 1872 shows that, in addition to
physicians, clerks, cooks, herders, teamsters, laborers, and interpreters,
there are employed at all the agencies eighty-two teachers, eighty
farmers, seventy-three blacksmiths, seventy-two carpenters, twenty-two
millwrights and millers, seventeen engineers, eleven matrons of
manual-labor schools, and three seamstresses.--_Report_, pp. 68-71.
[F] We are speaking of the tribe socially, not politically. Factions and
faction wars are known to the Indian as well as to his betters.
[G] Report on Indian Affairs, 1872, p. 84.
[H] The popular and doubtless the correct use of the word "Iroquois"
confines it to the Five Nations (subsequently the Six Nations) of New
York, which during the third quarter of the seventeenth century
destroyed or dispersed successively the Hurons or Wyandots, the nation
called (for the want of a more characteristic name) the Neutral Nation,
the Andastes of the Susquehanna, and the Eries. These four large and
important peoples were closely kindred to the Five Nations; and the term
"Iroquois" was long applied to this entire family of tribes. Later in
the history of the continent, it embraced only the Five (or Six) Nations
for the best of good reasons, as this formidable confederacy had
practically annihilated all the other branches of the family. The career
of the Iroquois was simply terrific. Between 1649 and 1672 they had, as
stated, accomplished the ruin of the four tribes of their own blood,
containing in the aggregate a population far more numerous than their
own. A feeble remnant, a few score in number, of the Wyandots, now
survive, and are represented at Washington by an exceptionally shabby
white man, who has received the doubtful honor of adoption into the
tribe. These are all the recognizable remains of a nation once estimated
to contain thirty thousand. The names of the Eries, the Andastes, and
the Neutral Nation do not appear in any treaty with the United States.
Many, doubtless, from all these tribes fled to Canada. Considerable
numbers were also, according to the custom of the Five Nations, adopted
by the conquerors to make good the waste of war.
Nor did the Iroquois wait to complete the subjugation of their own
kindred, before turning their arms against their Algonquin neighbors.
The Delawares (Lenni Lenape, or Original Men) were subjugated almost
coincidently with the Hurons; and the same year which brought the
downfall of the Andastes witnessed the expulsion of the Shawnees from
the valley of the Ohio. Re-enforced in 1712 by the Tuscaroras, a warlike
tribe from the South, the Five Nations (now become the Six Nations)
carried their conquests east and west, north and south. The tribes
confronting the invaders in New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Virginia were continually disturbed and distracted by their incursions.
Taking the part of the English in the wars against the French, they
shook all Canada with the fear of their arms, while to the west they
extended their sway to the Straits of Michilimackinac and the entrance
to Lake Superior. The height of their fame was at the close of the Old
French War in 1763. Their decline and downfall, as a power upon the
continent, followed with the briefest interval. Reduced by incessant
fighting to seventeen hundred warriors, they took the part of England
against the Colonies in 1775. The glorious and the terrible incidents of
the Indian campaigns of the Revolution are familiar as household words.
The peace of 1783 found the Iroquois broken, humbled, homeless,
helpless, before the power of the United States, whose pensioners they
then became and have since remained. The bulk of these tribes still
reside in New York, while fragments of them are found in the extreme
West, having removed under the treaty of 1838.
Such, in brief, is the history of the Iroquois. They were the scourge of
God upon the aborigines of the continent, and were themselves used up,
stock, lash, and snapper, in the tremendous flagellation which was
administered through them to almost every branch, in turn, of the great
Algonquin family. It will not do to say, that, but for the Iroquois, the
settlement of the country by the whites would not have taken place; yet
assuredly that settlement would have been longer delayed, and have been
finally accomplished with far greater expense of blood and treasure, had
not the Six Nations, not knowing what they did, gone before in savage
blindness and fury, destroying or driving out tribe after tribe which
with them might, for more than one generation at least, have stayed the
western course of European invasion.
[I] The impudent character of these invasions will be best shown by a
recital of the facts in two cases occurring within the year. In 1870-71
the Osages living in Kansas sold their lands under authority of the
government, and accepted a reservation, in lieu thereof, in the Indian
Territory. Scarcely had they turned their faces towards their new home
when a sort of race began between them and some hundreds of whites,
which may be described, in the language of boys, as having for its
object "to see which should get there first." In October, 1871, the
agent reported that five hundred whites were on the Osage lands, and
actually in possession of the Osage village, while the rightful owners
were encamped outside. Orders having been issued from the War Department
for the removal of these intruders, political pressure was brought to
bear upon the executive to prevent the orders from being carried into
effect. This effort failing, delay was asked, in view of the hardships
to be anticipated from a removal so near winter. This indulgence having
been granted, the number of the trespassers continued to increase
through the winter, in spite of the notice publicly given of the
intentions of the government: so that in the spring of 1872 the military
authorities found fifteen hundred persons on the Osage lands in defiance
of law. On this occasion, however, the land-robbers had failed in their
calculations. The government was in earnest; and the squatters were
extruded by the troops of the Department of the Missouri.
The other instance referred to is that of an expedition projected and
partially organized in Dakota, in 1872, for the purpose of penetrating
the Black Hills, for mining and lumbering. Public meetings at which
Federal officials attended were held, to create the necessary amount of
public enthusiasm; and an invasion of Indian territory was imminent,
which would, beyond peradventure, have resulted in a general Sioux war.
In this case the emergency was such that the executive acted with great
promptness. A proclamation was issued warning evil-disposed persons of
the determination of the government to prevent the outrage; and troops
were put in position to deal effectively with the marauders. This proved
sufficient; and the Black Hills expedition was abandoned.
[J] Report on Indian Affairs, 1872, p. 440.