95 



columns need not exceed in any case a strength of 400 men^, and these 

 should be subdivided so as to beat up the country as much as possible, 

 and endeavor to draw the Indians into an engagement where they 

 may have some hope of success. With proper troops and commanders 

 we need not even then fear the result. 



The movement of large compact columns is necessarily slow and 

 they can easily be avoided, which the least military skill teaches the 

 Indians to do. The war once begun should not be stopped till they are 

 effectually humbled and made to feel the full power and force of the 

 government, which is a thing in which the northern Dakotas are 

 entirely wanting. 



I believe a vigorous co"urse of action would be quite as humane as 

 any other, and much more economical and effectual in the end. With 

 proper arrangements the Assiniboins and Crows and Pawnees could 

 be made most useful allies in a war with the Dakotas. I see no reason 

 why they should not be employed against each other, and thus spare 

 the lives of the whites. 



In giving my opinion of the best way of bringing the Dakotas to 

 submission, in the event of a war, I think it my duty to state that I 

 believe many of the causes of war with them might be removed^ by 

 timely action in relation to the treaties, which are from time to time 

 made with them, and a prompt and faithful fulfillment of our own part 

 of the stipulations, and it is to be hoped that Congress will afford the 

 means of carrying into effect the treaty made by General Harney in 

 1856, and those made by the Indian bureau in 1857 with the Ihank- 

 tonwans and Poncas, and that it will provide liberally for those who 

 have been dispossessed of their lands or impoverished by having their 

 game driven off by the approach of the whites 



I have always found the Dakotas exceedingly reasonable beings, 

 with a very proper appreciation of what are their own rights. What 

 they yield to the whites they expect to be paid for, and I never have 

 heard a prominent man of their nation express an opi'-ion in regard 

 to what was due them in which I do not concur. Many of them view 

 the extinction of their race as an inevitable result of the operation of 

 present causes, and do so with all the feelings of despair with which 

 we should contemplate the extinction of our nationality. 



