ARMY, UNITED STATES. 



35 



ie middle of winter, tlio thermometer below 



hen experience had lod them to believe they 



M'.t In- attuekrd, the blow fell; one hundred 



an 1 -M v, in \-threo Indians wore killed, three hundred 



captured, and the village und property of tho 



hand totally destroyed. The Lleutonant-General can- 



inmondtoo highly the spirit and conduct of the 



troops ami their commander under the difficulties 



ami hardships t hey experienced in the inclemency of 



tin- \\t-.itli, -r, und, as ouo of the results of this severe, 



.: y and well-merited punishment of these 



Indians, lie congratulates tho citizens of Montana 



up >n tin- reasonable prospect of future security for 



their property and lives. 



mmand of Lieutenant-Genoral SHERIDAN. 

 liEiutuK L. HARTSUFF, 



Assistant Adjutant-General. 



Tho conduct of General Sheridan and Colo- 

 nel Baker was severely criticised in some 

 quarters, and the attack on the Piegans was 

 characterized as a cold-blooded and indiscrim- 

 inate slaughter of the guilty and tho innocent. 

 General Sheridan saw fit to take notice of these 

 accusations in an explanatory letter written to 

 (L- no ml Sherman on tho 18th of March, in which 

 he said : " Wo cannot avoid being abused by 

 one side or the other. If wo allow the de- 

 I'oiuvless people of the frontier to bo scalped 

 and ravished, we are burnt in effigy, and exe- 

 crated as soulless monsters, insensible to the 

 sufferings of humanity. If the Indian is pun- 

 ished to give security to these people, we are 

 the same soulless monsters from the other side. 

 This is a bad predicament to be in, but, as I 

 have said, I have made my choice, and am 

 going to stand by the people whom the Gov- 

 ernment has placed me hero to protect. Tho 

 reservation is the last ditch of the wild Indian, 

 but, to get him there, he must be forced on by 

 the troops. Those who think he can be in- 

 duced to go there by other means are mistaken. 

 "When on the reservation, he will have to be 

 kept there by the presence of the troops, and 

 thus become tangible for the good work of 

 civilization, and he can only be protected in 

 his rights while there by the troops keep- 

 ing off the emigrants who encroach on his 

 land." 



General Sherman made a reply, in which ho 

 approved of what had been done, and ex- 

 1 liis disbelief of the stories which had 

 been circulated about the " Piegan massacre." 

 His words were : " It is, of course, to be sup- 

 posed that some of our people prefer to believe 

 the story of the Piegan massacre, as trumped 

 up by interested parties at Benton, more than 

 a hundred miles off, rather than the official ac- 

 count of Colonel Baker, who was on the spot, 

 and is the responsible party. I prefer to be- 

 lieve that the majority of the killed at Moun- 

 Chiefs camp were warriors; that the 

 firing ceased tho moment resistance was at an 

 end ; that quarter was given to all who asked 

 for it, and that a hundred women and children 

 were allowed to go free to join the other bands 

 of the same tribe known to be camped near by ; 

 rather than the absurd report that there wero 

 only thirteen warriors killed, and that all the 

 rest were women and children, more or less 



afflicted with small-pox. Tho Indians of the 

 reservations are exclusively under the protec- 

 tion of the Indian Miuvaii, but the Bureau offi- 

 cers had officially notified you of their inability 

 to restrain those very Piegans, and had called 

 on you to punish thorn for their repeated and 

 increasing robberies and murders, and you had 

 as early as last October laid down a plan for a 

 winter surprise and attack, which plan was 

 immediately sent to the Indian Bureau, elicit- 

 ing no remonstrances, so that there is no ques- 

 tion at all of responsibility save and except 

 only as t.o whether Colonel Baker wantonly 

 and cruelly killed women and children unre- 

 sisting, and this I never believed." 



During the spring a general Indian war along 

 the border was apprehended. The Sioux in 

 Wyoming and Dakota Territories manifested a 

 hostile disposition on account of their dissatis- 

 faction at tho encroachments made on their 

 hunting-grounds, which they believQd had been 

 guaranteed free from the intrusion of white men 

 by treaty. Tho Utes of Colorado and New Mex- 

 ico also refused to go upon the reservations set 

 apart for them, and loudly expressed their dis- 

 content at the violation of what they under- 

 stood to be the provisions of past treaties. 

 Nothing more occurred, however, than a few 

 isolated attacks upon frontier settlements or 

 surveying parties. 



Two circumstances have tended materially 

 to bring about a better understanding betweea 

 the authorities of the Government and the In- 

 dian tribes. In the first place, the visit to 

 Washington of two deputations of powerful 

 chiefs, one of them headed by Ked Cloud, the 

 leader of all the Sioux, and a patient hearing 

 of their grievances, have tended in some measure 

 to allay their discontent, and since their return 

 to the plains they seem to have labored faith- 

 fully for the preservation of peaceful relations 

 with the Government. The other favorable 

 circumstance is found in the humane policy of 

 tho President, who has appointed commission-: 

 ers to visit the Indians, from th Society of 

 Friends, and called upon the different religious 

 denominations of the country to send some of 

 their best men among the savages as mission- 

 aries, to induce them to live on terms of peace 

 with the whites, and to adopt a mode of life 

 more in accordance with the ways of civilized 

 society. These propositions have been acced- 

 ed to with alacrity, and nearly all the reports 

 thus far received have been of the most en- 

 couraging kind. The idea that the Indian is 

 incapable of civilization and cannot be dealt 

 with according to the ordinary principles of 

 justice and fairness which prevail among other 

 men is fast becoming obsolete, aqd it is hoped 

 that an era of kind treatment and wise policy, 

 in tho management of these wards of the na- 

 tion is now to be inaugurated. 



The National Asylum for Disabled Soldiers 

 has been in successful operation during the 

 year. Tho number of inmates on the 1st of 

 December was as follows : 



