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Show 132 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. KILLING OF LIEUT. CASBY, AND FEW TAILS. It dhonldalso be recorded that no attempt was made by the Indians to reach and ravage any white settlements, no white person was killed off the reservation, and except in battle, only two were killed on the reserve. A governoient herder, an old man named Miller, was wantonly mur-dered by a sou of No Water. Lieut. E. W. Casey, of the Twenty-seo-ond Infantry, was killed by Plenty Horses. The death of thisgallant young officer was much lamented. He' was deeply interested inthe wel-fare of the Indians, and was zealous in enlistiug and drilling them as soldiers. All the facts in the case clearly show that the killing was without provocation, premeditkated, and deliberate. Plenty Horses was arrested and tried in the United States court on the charge of mnrder but was released by the court on the ground that at the timeof the kill-ing i'a state of war" exi~tedb etween his tribe and the United States, and that the killi~rgo f Lieut. Gasq was an incident of the war and not mnrder under the law. On the other hand, an unprovoked attack made January 11,1891, by white citizens upon a hunting party of friendly Sioux Indians,in Mead Oounty, greatly excited the Indians, and had a strong tendency ' to retard their pacification. Some United States troops, at the instance of the attacking party, joined in pursuit of the Indians and fired upon them. Few Tails was killed and 2 Indian women were wounded. Few Tails was a peaceable Indian, and the attack upon his party was cold-blooded and wanton. For the murder of Few Tails 5 white men were indicted in the State court, Sturgis, S. Dak. Their trial, Jnne 22 last, was ended July 2, with a verdict of LLnot guilty," CAUSES OF THE TROUBLE. , ' In stating the events which led to this outbreak among the Sioux the endeavor too often has been merely to find some opportunity for locating blame. The causes are complex and many are obscure and remote. Among them may be named the following: First. A feeling of anrest and apprehension in the mind of the Indians has naturally grown out of the rapid advance in civilization and the great changes which this advance has necessitated in their habits and mode of life. Second. Prior to the agreement of 1876 buffalo and peer were the main support of the Sioux. Food, tents, bedding, were the direct ont-come of hunting, and with furs and pelts as articles of barter or ex-change, it was easy for the Sionx to procure whatever constituted for them the necessaries, the comforts, or even tbe luxuries of life. Within eight years from the agreement of 1876, the buffalo had gone and the Sionx had left to them alkali land and Government rations. It is bard tooverstate the magnitude of the calamity as they viewed it, which happened to these people by the sudden disappearance of the buffalo and the large diminution:tn the numbers ofideer and other wild |