ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



case of disturbance was that of a band of north- 

 ern Cheyennes, who suddenly left their res- 

 ervation in the Indian Territory and marched 

 rapidly through the States of Kansas and Ne- 

 braska in the direction of their old hunting- 

 grounds, committing murders and other crimes 

 on their way. From documents accompanying 

 the report of the Secretary of the Interior it 

 appears that this disorderly band was as fully 

 supplied with the necessaries of life as the 

 4.700 other Indians who remained quietly on 

 the reservation, and that the disturbance was 

 caused by men of a restless and mischievous 

 disposition among the Indians themselves. Al- 

 most the whole of this band have surrendered 

 to the military authorities, and when some of 

 them had taken refuge in the camp of the Red 

 Cloud Sioux, with whom they had been in 

 friendly relations, the Sioux held them as pris- 

 oners and readily gave them up to the officers 

 of the United States, thus giving new proof of 

 the loyal spirit which they have uniformly 

 shown ever sin<je the wishes they expressed 

 at the council of September, 1877, were com- 

 plied with. 



Both the Secretary of War and the Secretary 

 of the Interior unite in the recommendation 

 that provision be made by Congress for the 

 organization of a corps of mounted "Indian 

 auxiliaries." to be under the control of the 

 army, and to be used for the purpose of keep- 

 ing the Indians on their reservations, and pre- 

 venting or repressing disturbance on their part. 



It is believed that the organization of such 

 a body of Indian cavalry, receiving a moderate 

 pay from the Government, would considerably 

 weaken the restless element among the Indians 

 by withdrawing from it a number of young 

 men and giving them congenial employment 

 under the Government, it being a matter of 

 experience that Indians in service, almost with- 

 out exceptions, are faithful in the performance 

 of the duties assigned to them. Such an or- 

 ganization would materially aid the army in the 

 accomplishment of a task for which its numeri- 

 cal strength is sometimes found insufficient. It 

 may be very difficult and require much patient 

 effort to curb the unruly spirit of the savage 

 Indian to the restraints of civilized life, but 

 experience shows that it is not impossible. 

 Many of the tribes which are now quiet and 

 orderly and self-supporting were once as sav- 

 age as any that at present roam over the plains 

 or in the mountains of the Far West, and were 

 then considered inaccessible to civilizing influ- 

 ences. It may be impossible to raise them fully 

 up to the level of the white population of the 

 United States, but they are aborigines of the 

 country, and called the soil their own on which 

 our people have grown rich, powerful, and hap- 

 py. It is also a well-authenticated fact that 

 Indians are apt to be peaceable and quiet when 

 their children are at school ; and there is a 

 steadily increasing desire, even among Indians 

 belonging to comparatively wild tribes, to have 

 their children educated. An experiment has 



been recently inaugurated in taking fifty Indian 

 children, boys and girls, from different tribes, 

 to the Hampton Normal Agricultural Institute 

 in Virginia, where they are to receive an ele- 

 mentary English education and training in agri- 

 culture and other useful work, to be returned 

 to their tribes, after the completed course, as 

 interpreters, instructors, and examples. It is 

 reported that the officer charged with the selec- 

 tion of those children might have had thou- 

 sands of young Indians sent with him had it 

 been possible to make provision for them. 



In the opinion of the Secretary of War, the 

 policy of the Government toward the Indians 

 should be designed to enforce these two propo- 

 sitions, viz. : 



1. Fair and just treatment of the Indians, including 

 the faithful performance on our part of every prom- 

 ise; and 



2. The prompt and effectual punishment of all acts 

 of war on their part, and to this end the employment 

 of a sufficient military force in the Indian country to 

 act with vigor and success when occasion requires, 

 and prevent the possibility of the defeat or massacre 

 of small detachments of our troops, by which Indian 

 wars have been so often in the past encouraged and 

 prolonged. 



The army appropriation bill passed at the 

 close of the session of Congress in June, 1878, 

 contained a provision for a joint committee to 

 investigate the propriety of a transfer of the 

 care of the Indians from the Interior Depart- 

 ment to the War Department. The first meet- 

 ing of the committee was on December 6th, 

 and the first witness called was the Secretary 

 of the Interior, Carl Schurz. The following 

 extract from his testimony will show some of 

 the points of the question : 



Permit me to state that there are two methods of 

 Indian management possible either to herd and 

 corral the Indians under the walls or guns of a mili- 

 tary force, so to speak, so as to watch them and pre- 

 vent outbreaks, or to start them at work upon their 

 lands, to educate them and to civilize them. 



Now, in the nature of things, the first method 

 would be the only method adopted by the military 

 branch of the Government, for the simple reason 

 that it is their business to keep the peace and pre- 

 vent troublesome tribes from getting into mischief. 

 The second is the policy which we have followed 

 and carried out, with at least a partial success ; a 

 policy certainly the most humane and enlightened, 

 and more in the interest of peace in the long run, 

 for as long as the Indians remain roaming tribes, 

 without any settled interests or property, we may 

 always look for complications. It is also the most 

 economical policy, for the sooner the Indians are 

 civilized the sooner they will be able to provide for 

 themselves. I think also that in the morals and in- 

 dustrial habits of civilized life the military branch 

 of the Government is not the best calculated to in- 

 struct them. This question of a transfer has been 

 discussed before, and in a report which has attained 

 some celebrity it is stated that under the plan which 

 is suggested the chief duties of the Bureau will be 

 to educate and instruct in the peaceful arts ; in other 

 words, to civilize the Indians. The military arm of 

 the Government is not the most admirably adapted 

 to discharge duties of this character. We are satis- 

 fied that not one army officer in a thousand would 

 like to teach Indian children to read and write or 

 Indian men to sow and reap. These are emphati- 

 cally civil and not military occupations. The re- 



