BlIiihHIVil^ 
268 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
accompanied by their answers. Enigmas, made upon the 
names of private individuals, are of no general interest, 
and are not likely to ever be published in our Puzzle Box. 
Going to the Reservation. 
In the days of Indian-wars< unhappily not yet quite 
over, many of you have, no doubt, read in the papers that 
“ Bed Cloud ” had come “ in,” that “ Crazy Horse was 
expected “ in,” or that “ Young Man Afraid of his 
Horses ” would not come “ in,” and you must have won¬ 
dered where “ in ” was, and what it all meant. The vari¬ 
ous Indian tribes have long been a great trouble to our 
Government. They claim as their own just so much of 
the country as their ponies have strength to travel over. 
As they raise nothing, and as they get all their food (ex¬ 
cept what they steal) by hunting, even a child can see 
that it must take a great many acres of land to support 
only one Indian. Many years ago the Government made 
treaties with the different tribes, that they should give up 
their wandering life, go upon certain parts of the public 
lands, called reservations, (because they were resened for 
the use of the Indians); and stay there. These reserva¬ 
tions are immense tracts of land; as largo as some coun¬ 
ties! or even as. large as some of the original States. 
When the Indians agreed to stop running all oyer the 
country to hunt game, and go upon the reservations, 
the Government agreed to give them, once or twice a 
year, as may be, certain things upon which they could 
live. They were to have beef, pork, and other food, nee¬ 
dles, thread, cloth, shoes, and many other things, indeed, 
were to lie well provided for. Some of the tribes went 
upon the reservations, and have staid there, as they 
agreed, keeping within the bounds, and regularly receiv¬ 
ing the food and other articles from the Government. 
Others, however, did not like to give up their wild and 
roaming life. They would stay upon the reservations for 
the winter, but as soon in the spring as there was grass 
enough for their ponies to live upon, they would gooff, 
and wander where they pleased. The grass gave them 
food for their ponies, and they could hunt buffalo and 
deer enough to give them food for themselves. As for 
all the rest, why they could go to any frontier settlement, 
kill the people, and get their blankets, guns, take their 
food, and whatever else they needed. These wandering 
tribes are not many, but they have been enough to do a 
great deal of wicked work in killing innocent people and 
stealing their property. You must recollect that these In¬ 
dians know no better. They and their fathers have always 
gone where they pleased; the white-man has made game 
scarce, and if the white-man has anything that they want, 
they will, if they are strong enough, kill the white-man— 
just as they would an Indian of another tribe —and take 
all that he had. It is these few tribes who would not 
go upon, or if they went there, would not stay upon, these 
reservations, that have made all the trouble, and have 
been the cause of the Indian wars of which you have late¬ 
ly seen so much about in the papers. These tribes num¬ 
ber from a few dozen to several hundred Indians, who 
follow the lead of one, whom they consider their head¬ 
man, or chief. "When several such tribes unite, and make 
war, they are very serious enemies, as the wars of last 
year have shown. Of course a war between the Indians 
and the whites can end only in oiie way. The Indians, 
who make no arms or powder, and who produce really 
nothing, must be defeated after a while. Sometimes, 
when in very much larger numbers, they may be able to 
defeat a small number of troops, as they did General 
Custer and his men last year. But they can keep up no 
continued war, for they cannot fight and hunt too, aiid 
sooner or later all will go upon the reservations. The 
picture, showing a small tribe or family of Indians going 
to the reservation in early winter, to escape the hunger 
and cold that would soon come upon them otherwise, is 
one of the most life-like pictures of a party of our West¬ 
ern savages that we have ever seen. Most of the pictures 
of Indians show them on horses at full gallop, and dress¬ 
ed with much of feathers and finery, and riding with the 
air of a circus rider. For a short time, in the excitement 
of a fight, the Indian is a very lively creature, but general¬ 
ly he is a very uninteresting, dull, woe-begone person, 
much blanketed, and very unlike the usual picture. You, 
when you move, find load after load of furniture, many 
boxes of books, trunks of clothing, barrels of glass and 
crockery, and a host of other things that are thought ne¬ 
cessary to make home comfortable, can have no idea of 
the poverty of the Indians. This family have with them 
all their worldly goods; they have but little clothing 
other than what they can wear; a few buffalo skins and 
blankets, a pot or two, and a few other matters, besides 
their tents and tent-poles, are all that they own. The 
way in which they pile up their things upon their tough 
little horses—those of the women always having the most 
■ to carry—the turning of the tent-poles into a sort of sled 
to carry the tents and other parcels; the way in which 
the riders, both men and women, sit upon their horses, 
and the air of the whole party, horses, riders, and traps, 
are so thoroughly like scenes we have seen over and over 
again, that we are sure that it gives you a better idea of 
Indians as they are, than almost any other picture we 
have seen. While we know them to be, as a general thing, 
lazy, thievish, cruel, and brutal, we cannot after all help 
pitying them when we think of the life they lead. Life 
is, with them, a constant struggle to get food, which they 
must hunt, or steal, but never work for. They do not 
read, they know nothing of the world beyond the dis¬ 
tances to wliich their wanderings take them. They see 
that the white man’s settlements each year comenearer 
and nearer, and the buffalo and other game grow scarcer 
and scarcer. While we cannot wonder that they look 
upon us as enemies, and that they get together large 
bands to fight us, we must stop their force by force. The 
Government has wisely offered to feed and clothe those 
who will live upon the reservations in peace, for the old 
Indians will never learn any other way of life, but the 
young may be taught to work, as we do, for food, but th» 
grown-up savage must be either fed or fought. 
