OCR Text |
Show tary force early in the spring, or even down to mid-summer, would have resulted in preventing a number of the tribes of the plains from continuing their con-nexion with the hostile league, even if the emissaries from the northern tribea would not have been altogether disappointed in accomplishing their ends. Efforts were diligently made, by means of messengers sent at varions times durinn the winter and earl"y sn. rin.p,, to reach the tribea who were understood to br mrditating h~sfilities. These meseengrr? were in3trnctrd to use every prac-ticable mean8 ro it~fluv~lcthee Indians to rvmaiu peaceable, llur the absence of t-h e bands from their usual winterine nlaces orePented intercourse with them ~ ~~~~ uite as effectually as did the abso& refusal of the leading men to come in &e autumn previous to the conncil to which they were invited by Governor Evans. Immediately on the occurrence of the first of the series of outrages committed by the Indians on the 12th of June, 1864, the governor issued and sent out by trusty messengers a proclamation, calling upon thefriendly Indians to separate themselvca and their families from those who had determined upon war, and designating certain points at which they were to rendezvous, and where they would beprotected and aided in subsisting themselves. The fact that only about one hundred and seventy-five Indians.of "Friday's" hand of Axapahoes, and another small band under the chief " Left-Hand," responded to this call, shows how wide-spread was the combination; and the band last named did not remain long at Fort Lyon, but again joined the hostile bands. On the 8th of August, by an understanding among the war parties, a sirnulta-neous att,aek was made by detached bands, scattered at frequentintervals along the overland mail and emigrant route for a distance of some two hundred miles, and many lives were lost and much property destroyed or carried away; the damage and plunder amounting, according to the estimate of capable judges, to millions of dollars. By the energetic action of Governor Evans, llctingnow in bis executive capacity as chief magistrate of the Territory, and with the consent of the War Department, a regiment of one hundred days' volun-teers was raised, armed and equipped, and sent to the most exposed' points. Timely information furnished to the authorities enabled the people gathered at the different posts for protection, and thus placed them upon theirguard, to repel a series of attacks made about the middle of the month of Auguet ; and on the4th of September Agent Dolley forwarded to the superintendent a letter 8ignp.d by several of the Cheyenne chiefs, proposing terms of peace. On the 28th nu in- \ terview took place between Governor Evans and these chiefs, at which, it ap- 1. pears, from the annual report of that officer, they seemed earnest for peace ; but Ii the governor deemed it his duty, under the existing circumstances, to decline ~ acceding to their terms, or indeed to make any terms with them, and the inter-view cnded with leaving the chiefs referred to, or any others who might he dis-posed towards peace, to commnnicate with the' military authorities. This course seems, from the paper accompanying Governor Evans's report, to have commended itself to Major General Curtis as the proper one to be pursued, that officer deeming it necessary, in order to a permanent peace and the future good behavior of the Indians, that they should receive further punishment; and Gooernor Evans advocates the policy of a winter expedition against the offending tribes. . I have thus briefly sketched the leading events noticed in detail in the ac-companying papers. From a careful examination of them I am unable to find any immediate cause for the uprising of the Indian tribes of the plains, except the active efforts upon their savage natures by the emissaries from the hostile noithem tribes. The comparative impunity with which these last had escaped after the terrible outrages committed by them in Minnesota and Ne-hraaka, and the necessary withdrawal of a portion of the troops by which the former had been restrained, seem to have furnished the northern emissaries an ample opportunity for successfully inflaming the minds of the others, already |