OCR Text |
Show 4 EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF In the month of August last the Sioux Indians in Minnesota most unexpectedly commenced hostilities against the white settlers in their vicinity, and prosecuted them with a degree of cruelty and barbarity scarcely paralleled by any acts of Indiau warfare since the first set-tlement of this country. Men, women, and helpless children were in-discriminately slaughtered. Women were violated in the presence of their husbands and parents, and subs~quentlym urdered ; houses were burned, and every species of. property destroyed or stolen. A large extent of country, in an advanced stage of improvement, was rendered utterly desolate. It is estimated that the number of lives destroyed by the savages is not less than 809. This outbreak was so sudden and unexpected that the settlers were taken by surprise, and were found without the means of resistance or defence. No effectual check could be given to the Indians until a force of two thousand men, under the command of General H. H. Sibley, was sent from St. Paul, the capital of the State. The Indians were defeated by General Sibley, 'in two or three engagements, and finally dispersed. The Sioux Indians are connected with kindred tribes, extending from the Mississippi river, and bordering upou the. British possessionn, to the Rocky mountains. The various tribes, united, can bring into the field ten thousand warriors. They are supplied with arms and ammu-nitidn to a considerable extent. They have it in their power to inflict great injury upou the white settlements throughout that -hole region ; and, without the presence of a large military force, may entirely de-stroy them. Their proximity to the British possessions would enable them to escape pursuit by crossing the line, where our troops could not follow them. The press has announced that the Indian war is ended. It is true that active warfare, in the field, has ceased, and the Indians are unable to resist the- organized troops of the government ; but tliey have it in their power to break up all the white settlements and depopulate an extensive region of country, unless a large military force shall be kept there. The causes. of the Indiau hostilities in Minnesota have been a sub-ject of much discussion. After a careful examination of all the data which the Iudian bureau has been able to obtain, bearing upon the causes which produced the immediate outbreak, I am satisfied that the chief cause is to be found in the insurrection of the southern States. On the 29th of August, 1862, honorable J. R. Giddings,, United States consul general in Canada, addressed a letter to the Secretary of State, in which he said: lLThere is little doubt that the recent outbreak of the Chippewa Iudians in the northwest has resulted from. the efforts of secession agents, operating through Canadian Iudians and fur traders. To what extent citizens of Canada are involved I am unable to say." This statement is confirmed by information obtained from other EOUTCeB. As early as the 5th of August last, the superintendent of Indiau affairs in Utah wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs tkat |