93 



country, that they must see the futility of ever being able to contend 

 against the power of the United States. 



Of all the aborigines in the Territory under consideration, the Da- 

 kotas are probably the ones that have undergone the least material 

 diminution of their numbers since their discovery by the whites. They 

 are still numerous, independent, warlike, and powerful, and contain 

 within themselves means of prolonged and able resistance to further 

 encroachments of the western settlers. Under the present policy of 

 government, which there is no reason to believe will ever be changed, 

 these encroachments will continue and new wars will result. I do not 

 mean to say that a peaceable advance of the settlements westward 

 might not be effected, but under the operation of present causes it 

 will not. All of these conflicts end in the discomfiture of the native 

 races, and they are fast melting away. It is not, as many suppose, 

 that those dispossessed retire further west ; this they cannot do, for 

 the region to the west of one tribe is generally occupied by another 

 with whom deadly animosity exists. Hence, when the white settle- 

 ments advance their frontier, the natives linger about, till disease, 

 poverty, and vicious indulgence consigns them to oblivion. The 

 present policy of the government seems therefore the best calculated, 

 that could be devised for exterminating the Indian. 



The advance of the settlements is universally acknowledged to be 

 a necessity of our national development, and is justifiable in displacing 

 the native races on that ground alone. But the government, instead 

 of being so constituted as to prepare the way for settlements by wise 

 and just treaties of purchase from the present owners, and proper 

 protection and support for the indigent race so dispossessed, is some- 

 times behind. its obligations in these respects ; and in some instances 

 Congress refuses or delays to ratify the treaties made by the duly au- 

 thorized agents of the government. The result is, that the settler 

 and pioneer are precipitated into the Indian's country, without the 

 Indian having received the just consideration promised him ; and he 

 often, in a manner that enlists the sympathies of all mankind, takes 

 up the tomahawk in defence of his rights, and perishes in the attempt. 



It is frequently the case that the settlers are unjustly charged with 

 bringing about these wars, and though I feel for the Indian, I cannot 

 but sympathize with the pioneer whose life is liable to be sacrificed to 

 the Indian s vengeance. 



The western settlers are now fighting the battle of civilization ex- 

 actly as our forefathers did on the Atlantic shores, and under circum- 

 stances that command an equal amount of our admiration and approval. 



We are in the habit of looking on the power of the United States as 

 invincible, but it is far from being so regarded by the savages on our 

 frontier. Many of them have never seen or felt it. There the Indians 

 far outnumber the whites, and if our sympathies must go with the 

 weak they should be with the settlers, who are only able, after a^^«,'»td 

 maintain their ground by the aid of the army. 



One of the chiefs of the Dakotas told me that they had a grand 

 council in the summer of 1857, on the North Fork of the Shyenue, and 

 that their hearts felt strong at seeing how numerous they were ; that 

 if they went to war again they would not yield so easy as they did 



