186 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



where disaffected Indians can influence the savage prairie 

 tribes and arouse them to hostility, the subject is one of 

 great magnitude ; open war with Sioux, Assinniboines, 

 Plain Crees or Blackfeet, might render a vast area of 

 prairie country unapproachable for many years, and 

 expose the settlers to constant alarms and depredations. 

 The Indian wars undertaken by the United States 

 Government during the last half century, have cost infi- 

 nitely more than the most liberal annuities or compre- 

 hensive efforts for the amelioration of the condition of 

 the aborigines would have done ; and in relation to the 

 northern prairie tribes, war is always to be expected at a 

 day's notice. 



The encroachments of western settlers upon Indian lands 

 are constant and increasing in the United States, and 

 there is no reason to suppose that these encroachments 

 will diminish for many years to come. Already the Eed 

 River south of the boundary line, as well as its south- 

 western tributaries, are invaded from the valley of the 

 Mississippi, and as the territory of Dakotah has not yet 

 been ceded to the United States Government, the prospect 

 of a war with the Sioux, whose hunting grounds embrace 

 it, becomes daily more imminent. Lieutenant Warren, 

 who has conducted several United States' exploring expedi- 

 tions in Dakotah and Nebraska territories, remarks : " 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 consti- 

 tuted as to prepare the way for settlement by wise and just 

 treaties of purchase from the present owners, and proper 

 protection and support for the indigent race so dispossessed, 

 is sometimes behind its obligations in these respects ; and 

 in some instances Congress refuses or delays to ratify the 



