hooney] CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK 831 



Tenth. Some of the Indians were greatly opposed to the census which Congress 

 ordered should be taken. The census at Rosebud, as reported by Special Agent 

 Lea and confirmed by a Bpecial census taken by Agent Wright, revealed the some- 

 what startling fact that rations had heen issued to Indians very largely in excess 

 of the number actually present, and this diminution of numbers as shown by the 

 census necessitated a diminution of the rations, "which was based, of course, upon the 

 census. 



Eleventh. The Messiah craze, which fostered the belief that " ghost shirts " would 

 be invulnerable to bullets, and that the supremacy of the Indian race was assured, 

 added to discontent the fervor of fanaticism and brought those who accepted the 

 new faith into the attitude of sullen defiance, but defensive rather than aggressive. 



Twelfth. The sudden appeal a in e of military upon their reservation gave rise to 

 the wildest rumors among t he Indians of danger and disaster, which were eagerly 

 circulated by disaffected Indians and corroborated by exaggerated accounts in the 

 new s papers, and these and other inlluences con nee ted with and i use para hie from mili- 

 tary movements frightened many Indians away from their agencies into the bad lands 

 and largely in tens ili eel whatever spirit of opposition to the government existed 



EX-AGENT McGILLYCUDDY'S STATEMENT 



I Letter of Dr V. T. McGillycuddy, formerly agent at Vine "Ridge, written in reply to inquiry from General 

 L. W. Colby, commanding Nebraska state troops during the outbreak, and dated January 

 From article on "The Sioux Indian War of 1890-91 ," by General I. W. Colby, in Transactions and 

 Reports oj the Nebraska staff Historical Society, til. tS93, pages 17G-1S0.] 



SIR: In answer to your inquiry of a recent elate, I would state that in my opinion 

 to no one cause can be attributed the recent so-called outbreak on the part of the 

 Sioux, but rather to a combination of causes gradually cumulative in their effect and 

 dating back through many years — in fact to the inauguration of our practically 

 demonstrated faulty Indian policy. 



There can be no question hut that many of the treaties, agreements, or solemn 

 promises made by our government with these Indians have- been broken. Many of 

 them have been kept by us technically, but as far as the Indian is concerned have 

 been misunderstood by him through a lack of proper explanation at time of signing, 

 and hence considered by him as broken. 



It must aKo he remembered that in all of the treaties made by the government 

 with the Indians, a large portion of them have not agreed to or signed the same. 

 .\Ot ieeably was this so in the agreement secured by us with them the summer before 

 last, by which we secured one-half of the remainder of the .Sioux reserve, amount- 

 ing to about 16,000 square miles. This agreement barely carried with the Sioux 

 nation as a -whole, hut did not earn at Pine Ridge or Rosebud, where the strong 

 majority were against it; and it must he noted that wherever there was the strongest 

 opposition manifested to the- recent treaty, there, during the present trouble, have 

 been found the elements opposed to the government. 



The Sioux nation, which at one time, with the confederated bands of Cheyennes 

 and Arapahos, controlled a region of country hounded on the north by the Yellow- 

 stone, on the south by the Arkansas, and reaching from the Missouri river to the 

 Rocky mountains, has seen this large domain, under the various treaties, dwindle 

 down to their now limited reserveof less than Hi, (1(10 square miles, and with the land 

 has disappeared the buffalo and other game. The memory of this, chargeable by 

 them to the white man, necessarily irritates them. 



There is back of all this the natural race antagonism which our dealings with the 

 aborigine in connection with the ine\ itahle onward march of ei\ ili/ation has in no 

 degree lessened. It has heen our experience, and the experience of other nations, 

 that defeat in war is soon, not sooner or later, forgotten bj the coming generation, 

 and as a result we have a tendency to a constant recurrence of outbreak on the part 

 14 ETII — l'T 2 13 



