Fort Hays Kansas

 

 

Emporia News, February 14, 1868. 

There are at present good prospects that the Diminished Indian Reserve, in this county, belonging to the Sac and Fox tribe of Indians, will soon be thrown into market, under the homestead, or pre-emption act. The consummation of either of such treaties is to be earnestly hoped for. In either case Osage County would suddenly become populous and rich. Osage Chronicle.

 

Emporia News, February 14, 1868. 

THE CHEROKEE LANDS. 

The report of the Chief Engineer of the Missouri River, Fort Scott and Gulf R. R., describes the lands below Fort Scott, known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands, as very attractive in every point of view; abounding in agricultural and mineral wealth, and blessed with a climate unsurpassed in the world. The following from a letter to the Christian Advocate, by the Rev. E. M. Marvin, of the Methodist Conference, shows that the lands south of the State line, between Kansas and the Indian Territory, are equally valuable and attractive. Our readers recollect that, by the treaties with the Cherokee, Seminole, and Creek Indians, vast quantities of their lands, including the right of way, are granted to the above named Railway Company, more familiarly called the Fort Scott Railroad. Mr. Marvin says: 

I believe it is considered a sort of matter of course that men who travel and describe the countries they visit, should make a free use of superlatives. But, sir, if you should ever traverse the Indian country from the southern line of Kansas to Red River, and not pronounce it the loveliest country you ever saw, then I shall admit that I was mistaken for once. I have seen certain localities of equal beauty, but of nothing like this of extent. But the beauty of the country does not exceed its fertility. Its soil is equal to that of the best counties in Western Missouri. 

Register and Receiver,

 

Humboldt, Kansas. January 21, 1868. 

Gentlemen: His Excellency, the President, under date of the 20th inst., issued a Proclamation for the sale of the land ceded to the United States, under the 1st and 2nd articles of the Osage Treaty of the 29th September 1865. 

By the Secretary’s construction of that treaty, lands granted to the State for railroad purposes under acts of Congress, and that fall within the limits of the tract ceded by the 1st article of the treaty, are issued to the States for such purposes. 

The Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston and the Union Pacific Railroad Southern Branch Companies have filed their maps of the continuation of their lines of route from the northern boundary of the Osage lands, to the southern line thereof, and I herewith enclose diagram of the same, showing the extent of the grants over the Osage purchase under said 1st article, and you are, in the case of the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston road, directed to withdraw and withhold from sale or entry all the odd numbered sections falling within the limits as designated on the diagram. 

In the matter of the Union Pacific, Southern Branch Railroad, you are directed to withdraw and withhold in like manner all the odd numbered sections within the ten mile limits, and all the lands between the ten and twenty mile limits, as designated on the diagram. 

The even sections falling within the ten mile limits of this road, and not coming between the ten and twenty mile limits of the Union Pacific Road, Southern Branch, are increased to $2.50 per acre, and on the day of sale, will not be offered at less than that price per acre.

 

Emporia News, March 13, 1868. 

OSTAGE LANDS. 

The best reply we can make to the various inquiries addressed to us, is the publication of the following bill, which passed the House March 6th, 1868. We are not advised as to what action has been taken on it in the Senate. 

JOINT RESOLUTION, enabling actual settlers to purchase certain lands obtained of the Great and Little Osage Indians. 

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That when public sale is made of the lands granted and sold to the United States by virtue of the first and second articles of the treaty of the said United States and the Great and Little Osage Indians, which treaty was concluded September twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and proclaimed January twenty-first, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, any actual settler who was, on the sixth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, residing upon any portion of said land, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, who has made improvements thereon, and who is a citizen, or has declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States, shall have the privilege of purchasing the same at the highest price bidden, and shall be entitled to pay for the same in four annual installments of twenty-five per centum each, with interest on the same at the rate of five per centum per annum, the first of said installments to be paid at the expiration of one year from the date of said sale, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior: Provided, However, That at said sale both the odd and even-numbered sections in said reservation shall be offered for public sale under the terms of this resolution. 

Passed the House of Representatives March 6th, 1868. 

Attest: EDWARD McPherson, Clerk.

 

Emporia News, April 24, 1868. 

POSTPONEMENT OF THE OSAGE LAND SALES. 

The sale of the Osage Indian lands that was to have commenced on the first of May has been indefinitely postponed. This will be good news to the settlers on those lands, for hundreds of them were illy prepared to purchase their lands at this time because they have not yet begun to make anything from their farms. The settlers will remember Senators Ross and Pomeroy for their faithful and efficient efforts in their behalf.

 

Emporia News, April 24, 1868. 

A NEW OSAGE TREATY. 

Commissioners are now on their way to the headquarters of the Osage Indians to make a new treaty with that tribe. We sincerely hope the treaty may result in the government getting possession of all their valuable lands in the south part of this State, and in sending the Osages south into the Indian country. Their lands are not exceeded in value, as an agricultural region, in Kansas, and the sooner they can be opened to settlement the better for Kansas and the country at large. After the treaty is made, if its terms are satisfactory, we hope our congressional delegation will use every exertion in their power in urging its ratification, in order that this valuable body of lands may be speedily opened for settlement. There are thousands of citizens waiting for the consummation of such a treaty, and not long after its being made available for settlers it will become one of the most populous regions in Kansas.

 

Emporia News, May 1, 1868. 

THE OSAGE LAND SALES 

The following is the official letter of the Secretary of the Interior postponing the Osage land sales. It contains some statements, which will be of interest to settlers on that land. 

SIR: In accordance with your written and oral request for a postponement of the sale of the Osage Indian lands, frequently repeated and urged by you, I have ordered a postponement of the sale of all tracts upon which settlements have been made, upon the occupant showing by affidavit that he had in good faith actually settled upon and improved the land, with a view to permanent residence thereon. 

In expectation of a new treaty being negotiated with the Osages, and that some satisfactory disposition will be made of their lands by such treaty, in the event of one being concluded, I am inclined to direct a suspension of the sale in to, both of the occupied and unoccupied lands, and am restrained from doing so only by a consideration of the cost of such a proceeding, and which it would manifestly be unjust to charge against the Indians. As the law now stands, all the expenses of the sales are to be paid out of the proceeds of the lands, diminishing to that extent the amount to be added to the funds of the tribes. 

The postponement is not for their benefit, but for the sole benefit and accommodation of our own citizens, and the expenses incident thereto ought to be defrayed by the Government. 

If I can have satisfactory assurances that an appropriation will be made to meet the additional expenditures which will be made necessary by a postponement, I will direct a suspension of sale, for the present, of all the Osage lands now advertised. 

Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

O. H. BROWNING, Secretary

 

Emporia News, May 1, 1868. 

General Harney is said to be getting rather disgusted with the attitude of the Indians north. The hero of Ash Hollow did not see the point of fitting out Spotted Tail’s band with the best horses and weapons at Laramie, and sending them on a cruise after the raiders.

 

Emporia News, May 29, 1868. 

THE LATE INDIAN OUTRAGE IN BUTLER COUNTY. 

EDITOR EMPORIA NEWS: Many of your readers, and especially those having friends in this county, have, no doubt, heard various and perhaps exaggerated accounts of the outrage committed by a band of roving Indians, supposed to be Osages, on our southern frontier; and to such the following account, which has been obtained from perfectly reliable sources, and is, so far as known, correct in every particular, will be acceptable. 

It seems that two young men named Dunn settled last fall, on a homestead claim, below the mouth of the Little Walnut, on the south line of what is known as the twenty mile strip, @ that is the Osage trust lands recently surveyed and opened for settlement; and there have been reports that they were in the habit of getting their timber from the lands still belonging to the Osages. However that may be, it seems that Samuel Dunn and a young man named James Anderson, who will be remembered by many as one of a party of four Pennsylvanians who passed down the Walnut on foot, within a month tall, fair-haired, and boyish-looking young man were out on Sunday evening, May 17th, looking at their farms and the land around. Birney Dunn, a man named Edwards, and a colored man remained about the house. The Negro first saw a band of Indians coming toward the house in pursuit of a couple of mules and a pony belonging to them. They ran out with their guns and the Indians retreated, giving up the pony but taking the mules with them. No pursuit was made by Birney Dunn and the men with him, and as the other men did not come in, their absence was accounted for by supposing that they had seen the Indians and gone in pursuit, hoping to recover the mules. As they failed to come in, a search was begun in the morning, which resulted in finding the bodies of the unfortunate young men near a field about half a mile from the house. They were shockingly mutilated, the heads of both being severed from the bodies, the scalps torn away, and three fingers un-jointed from Dunn’s hand; his pockets were also turned inside out, and $250 which he was known to have with him taken. 

The neighbors were then aroused and the trail was followed till the party was convinced from articles dropped by the Indians that they were Osages, numbering about fourteen supposed to be a straggling party from a large band who had been out to the Arkansas. 

The citizens met as soon as possible, at the house of David Yates, Esq., on Little Walnut Creek, and resolved to organize a company of 25 men, who should draw the arms belonging to the county from the State arsenal, and hold themselves in readiness to defend the border from any attacks, and to punish outrages, and appointed Messrs. Donaldson, Boutwell, and Carr a committee to procure arms and assistance from the Governor in such protection. D. Yates, D. W. Boutwell, and B. F. Gordy were appointed to raise the company, which was to meet as soon as practicable, at such time and place as should be most convenient; and everything will be done that is possible for the settlers on the frontier. At the same time rash and hasty action was deprecated by those whose experience in such matters gives weight to their opinion, as tending to exasperate the Osages without accomplishing any permanent good; and it is to be hoped that settlers will not give them the pretext for such outrages by trespassing on their land, and will use all possible precautions against surprise. There are no apprehensions that any attacks will be made except on those who venture out alone unarmed, on the extreme frontier; but the case certainly demands help from the Government, and prompt action on the border. 

VAYLE VERNON.

 

Butler County, May 23rd. 

Emporia News, May 29, 1868. 

An account of the late brutal murder by Osage Indians will be found in another place. We hope severe justice will be meted out to the perpetrators. The brother of the murdered Dunn is now visiting the Osage Mission to see what can be done, while other citizens are moving to bring the Indians to justice. Persons bound for Butler County need not apprehend any danger from going there, as this is not the commencement of Indian hostilities, but an incidental affair liable to happen even among whites.

 

Emporia News, May 29, 1868. 

Mr. Mead of Towanda passed through here on Thursday with five wagonloads of buffalo robes and furs, which he had purchased from the Comanche and other tribes of Indians during the winter. Mr. Mead is now one of the most extensive Indian traders on the plains. He extended his operations this spring down to Fort Cobb. Mr. Mead went to Towanda a few years ago a poor man, and by a straightforward course and fair dealing, has accumulated quite a fortune.

 

Emporia News, June 5, 1868. 

INDIANS ON DIAMOND CREEK! 

Fight between Cheyenne’s and Kaiow's. 

Wednesday, at five o’clock, Mr. Pyle, of Cottonwood Falls, arrived here bringing the following letter from two of the most reliable men of that place. 

Mr. Pyle says this information was obtained from the citizens of Cottonwood Falls who saw the Indians on Diamond Creek. 

The Indians were camped at Marion Center for two days, and said they were coming down to Clean out the Kaws. @ They showed no signs of depredations until Tuesday morning. 

Mr. Pyle says about 25 families had come into Cottonwood Falls for protection, from west of that point. 

Several of our citizens started last night for the falls. 

The following is the letter received from Hunt and Doolittle.

 

COTTONWOOD FALLS, June 3rd, 1868. 

JACOB STOTLER 

Dear Sir: Reports of a startling character have arrived here of Indian depredations. 

First, that some five hundred wild Indians passed Marion Center, on Tuesday morning 

That they committed depredations there. 

Word has just come to us direct from Diamond Creek. They are there, killing stock and cleaning out every house. There may be some degree of exaggeration, but there is no doubt but what there is a large number of Indians, and committing all sorts of depredations. 

Think you had better take immediate steps for safety; also send such help as you can up this way. 

Respectfully, 

H. L. HUNT 

J. S. DOOLITTLE

 

Emporia News, June 5, 1868. 

LATEST FROM THE INDIAN EXCITEMENT. COTTONWOOD FALLS, June 4th, 4 A. M. 

About a dozen of us arrived here last night at 12 o’clock. 

We find things more quiet here than we anticipated. Men just in from Diamond Creek put a better face on things than our former intelligence did. That the Indians said to be Cheyenne’s, from 400 to 600 strong have been on Diamond Creek and are marching toward the Kaiows Reserve, for the express purpose of fighting the Kaws, there can be no doubt. No depredations have been committed except the killing of from two to five head of cattle, and the stoning of one house. 

What are these Indians down here for? That’s a question we propose to investigate a little farther, and we strike out this morning in the direction of Kaw agency. 

There are sixty Kaiow warriors in arms. It is supposed that they can do nothing against the large force of Cheyenne’s, and some fears are expressed that the cry of fighting Kaws is only a blind. It is generally believed that these Indians mean mischief on their return. An effort will be made to make them return over the same route they came in on. We ought to have one hundred more men. We only have about 150 and all are poorly armed with a few exceptions. It is believed there will be a little chunk of a fight between the Kaws and Cheyenne’s this morning, and the boys are all keen to see it. The boys are getting to horse, @ and I close. 

THE EDITOR: LATER. We learn of a gentleman from Council Grove that a large body of Cheyenne’s made their appearance near Council Grove on Wednesday evening, the 3rd, dressed and painted for the war path. They passed down the Neosho about six miles below the Grove and attacked the Kaws in the timber in the neighborhood of the Kaw Agency. They kept up a skirmish for an hour or two and darkness coming on, the Cheyenne’s returned to camp just west of the Grove; keeping out a large number of scouts during the night. On Thursday morning the Cheyenne’s were not to be found. The citizens of Council Grove sent out a large number of scouts to ascertain their whereabouts, but when our informant left there they had not ascertained where they had gone to. The Agent of the Kaws sent a messenger to Fort Riley for Government troops. As far as we can learn the Cheyenne’s have not as yet murdered any white people, but have plundered several houses. They declare they will have some Kaw scalps before they return. 

Quite a number of our citizens have gone out to discover what it all means.

 

Emporia News, June 5, 1868. 

THE MURDERERS OF DUNN AND ANDERSON UNDER ARREST. 

Last week we gave an account of the late Indian outrage in Butler County, and stated that Mr. Dunn, a brother of one of the murdered men, had gone to the council then being held in the Osage Nation to obtain satisfaction. The Journal gives the following as the result of his visit. 

After the signing of the Osage treaty, a Mr. Dunn, whose parents reside in Johnson County, arrived in the commissioners camp from Walnut Creek, Butler County, bringing the report that his brother, Samuel, and a partner by the name of James Anderson, were killed on Sunday, the 17th inst., by a band of White Hair Osages. The commissioners immediately called the chiefs in council, and peremptorily demanded the surrender of the guilty parties. The next morning, after two hours parleying, amid the moaning of the squaws and the most intense excitement on the part of the warriors and braves, they gave up two young men, who were brought by the commissioners to Ottawa, where they will be turned over to United States Marshal Whiting to be tried for the crime charged.

 

Emporia News, June 5, 1868. 

THE OSAGE TREATY MADE 

The treaty with the Osage Indians, in regard to which so many contradictory statements have been published, has at last been made. The following statement of its provisions: 

Copied from the Lawrence Journal, is, in the main, correct. 

Article 1st declares that whereas the Osages are desirous to remove from their home in Kansas to the Indian Territory, and wishing to dispose of their lands in Kansas, and being desirous to sell so as to aid in the speedy extension of the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Road to and through the Indian Territory, being the only road in process of construction passing direct through said Territory, which is to be their future home, the Government is willing that said Company shall be the purchaser of said lands on terms favorable to the Osages and the settlers, because said Road will be a great Trunk Line from the Missouri to the Gulf; therefore, said Railroad Company shall have the privilege of purchasing the present Reservation and the Trunk Lines (about 8,000,000 acres), on the following terms: 

Within three months after the ratification and promulgation of the treaty, they shall pay the Secretary of the Interior $100,000 cash, and shall execute their bonds for $1,400,000 (said bonds to bear interest at the rate of five percent, per annum), to be paid in semi-annual payments after the Indians remove from their present Reservation, in yearly payments of $100,000 each year. An appraisement of the lands by three Commissioners, the expense paid by the Company, is to be made, and upon the second payment of $100,000, patents will be issued for the 1-15th of the lands in value will be issued [? Not sure I understand the last sentence???] 

The Company are required to sell the lands to settlers within five years from date of patent. If the Company fail to make the payments, the lands are to be surveyed and appraised by three Commissioners and offered for sale to settlers for one year, at the appraised value, the balance, at the close of the year, to be sold at no less than the appraised value. 

The proceeds of the sale are to be invested in United States registered stock, and the interest on the same to be paid in semi-annual payments to the Indians. The Company are forbidden to sell to an assignee until the patent is issued. 

The payments to the Indians are to be as follows: 

$5,000 to schools; $15,000 to the Council of the Nation for government purposes; $5,200 thereof to go to the Chiefs and councilors; $5,000 for the encouragement of agriculture; the remaining $4,800 to be expended for general and necessary expenses under the direction of the Council and the agent, and the balance, about $50,000, to be distributed per capita to the tribe in money and goods, or provisions, as the Council may direct. 

All settlers on the trust lands at the signing of this treaty can purchase during one year from the ratification of the same 160 acres at $1.25 per acre, said quarter section not to be made up of parts of different sections. 

The rights of half bloods, the heirs of Joseph Swiss, are not impaired, and half bloods are to have the same rights as full bloods. 

The improvements of half bloods upon the lands sold to be appraised and paid for within six months by the Company buying the lands. 

All just debts are to be paid upon examination by the Superintendent and Agent within one year from the ratification of the treaty, evidence to be submitted to the National Council for their rejection or approval, and the decision to be forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, whose decision shall be final. 

A head of family, being a member of the tribe, wishing to cultivate ground, is to have 320 acres in his own right. A man not head of a family is to have eighty acres. 

This Treaty has been signed on the part of the Government, and by every head chief, every second chief, and all the leading braves of the Osage tribe. The land treated for all lies in the State of Kansas. It is fifty miles in width from north to south, and two hundred and fifty miles in length, from east to west or an oblong of the general shape and nearly as long as the State of Massachusetts. This immense tract of land is now occupied by the Osage Indians, who number only 3,500 persons. That Tribe will now be removed to the Indian Territory, and these magnificent lands will be opened for settlement and cultivation. The Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad will be directly benefitted by the Treaty, as it deserves to be, but Kansas and the whole country civilization itself will reap the ultimate and permanent harvest. The Osage lands are already filling up with settlers, and it is time that means were taken to extinguish the Indian title, and to give these lands in fee to the actual settlers.

 

Emporia News, June 12, 1868. 

Editorial Page 

The general impression of the people in that part of the State to be affected by the Osage treaty is, that Commissioner Taylor is a pious old fraud.

 

Emporia News, June 12, 1868. 

THE OSAGE TREATY. ANOTHER WHOLESALE SWINDLE 

We published, last week, a brief synopsis of the treaty recently made with the Osage Indians by a Commission appointed for that purpose. Our information at that time was so recent that we had neither time nor space for comment. 

While the lands ceded by this treaty are seventy miles distant from Emporia, and thus out of our Arrange@ as a question of mere local interest, the consequences to the State at large are too momentous to justify silence especially as that silence would inevitably be construed into consent. The disposition of a body of 8,000,000 acres of land, the finest portion of the State, is of concern not only to the whole people of the State, but also to all that large class of residents of other States who are looking to the fast diminishing public domain for homes for themselves and their children. 

The stump speech wherewith the treaty is prefaced, which avows, as the moving cause to its execution on the part of the Indians, the desire to secure the early completion of the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad, is enough of itself to excite suspicion that a fraud was close after. The idea that the Osage Indians are interested in the early construction of a Railroad! And especially through lands they are to dispose of before the Railroad is built, so that they will not reap even pecuniary advantage there from, is what most folks will call refreshingly cool! We were, therefore, not wholly unprepared for the sequel. Most of our readers know the character of the lands treated for. We risk nothing in saying that half of it is not exceeded in fertility and other natural advantages by any equal body of land in the State. It is, besides, the largest unoccupied and arable tract of land in the State. The sale of this immense tract of land to a single corporation, and which only proposes to run a railroad through it from north to south, and only about thirty miles in length, near the eastern border, is, as we have before remarked, of vast concern to the State. Thrown open to settlement as other public land, with alternate sections reserved for railroad purposes, along the line of practicable routes, and it would contain in the next five years half a million people. Left to be sold out in parcels at high prices by a Railroad Company and it will not contain half the population in twice the time. 

We know it is taxing the credulity of our readers, but we assure them that the price to be paid for this magnificent tract of land is fixed by the treaty at eighteen cents per acre! 

Thousands of settlers now on the lands, and with valuable improvements already made and tens of thousands more waiting for the opportunity to go upon them are willing, and anxious to pay from $1.25 to $5.00 per acre. No doubt the whole tract could be sold, under the hammer today, for $1 per acre. We make no account of the Indians or their interests. We do not particularly care for the speculation of Mr. Sturges, which defrauds alike the Government and the Indian. We speak in the interest of our own race and people for the Hands that want acres@ for the thousands and tens of thousands who will shun Kansas as they would a blight, if this giant monopoly succeeds; for the State at large, whose most cherished prospects would turn to ashes in the fire of a nation-wide indignation if this gigantic fraud should go unopposed to success. We do not even care to inquire why the L. L. & G. road should have been singled out in preference to all the other embryo railroads in the state to receive such an enormous endowment. To our mind it would not have been much better if it had been divided between a dozen. We object to thus defeating the object and purposes of the Homestead Law; and we ask that the claims of those through whose labor alone can land be made valuable, shall be recognized before those of any soul-less corporation, however well backed by President, Cabinet officers, and Senators. 

While on this subject we may as well call attention to the fact that of all the Indian Reservations within the State of Kansas that have been Diminished@ or wiped out entirely, not one single acre has ever been thrown open to pre-emption or in any way rendered advantageous to the actual settler! In this matter job has followed job, and swindle has followed swindle, without a single protest from any member of our Congressional delegation nay, as we believe with their direct connivance and participation, until the fairest and best portions of the State have fallen into the hands of speculators many of them the most disgraceful copperheads the country affords to be re-sold at enormous profits. By these and similar swindles, the settlement of the State has been greatly retarded, and the increasing taxation borne heavily and unequally upon the settlers whose labors have contributed to build up the monopolists, and sharks, in whose shadow they have labored. 

Under the precedents thus established, it is not to be wondered that the Osage Treaty should have been conceived and brought forth. The difference between that and the jobs that have preceded it is one of degree and not of kind. It is in the same interest, and is strong in proportion to its corruption, as the others have been.

 

Emporia News, June 12, 1868. 

We are glad to see that the Lawrence Tribune, printed at a point deeply interested in the construction of the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston road, displays its usual upright course in opposing the ratification of the outrageous swindle, labeled Osage Treaty.

 

Emporia News, June 12, 1868. 

ALL ABOUT THE INDIANS 

In company with ten or a dozen of our citizens we went Post haste@ to Cottonwood Falls last week on the receipt of the letter from Messrs. H. L. Hunt and J. S. Doolittle. Our reasons for going were two, as follows: 1st, because two responsible and reliable citizens of the Falls asked for What help could be sent up that way; @ and 2nd, to see just what there was in the reported Indian troubles, that we might give our readers a truthful account. 

Some of our friends thought we had better say nothing about the matter, as it would tend to discourage immigration in this direction. We take a different view of the subject. It is always best in the long run to give the truth about such reports. If there was real danger, it was our duty as a public journalist to tell the people so. If there was no danger, it was equally our duty to publish it. If we could keep the reports of such things at home, there might be no necessity for local papers to say anything about them. But these reports were bound to get out, and have already appeared in all the dailies of this State, and we doubt not, others at a distance. Persons at a distance picking up THE NEWS and seeing not a word said about the Indians would at once come to the conclusion that the matter was so bad that we did not want to say anything, from interested motives, for fear of creating a panic. And so, notwithstanding we desire to see immigrants coming as much as any person can; notwithstanding all our interests are here, and we have a piece of property for sale, we thought best to give such reports about the matter as seemed to us most reliable at the time. 

We didn't Ago to the front@ to get into a fight. Not much. That ain't our style. Just as we expected when we left Emporia, the nearer we got to the scene of the reported difficulties, the less scary the affair looked, and although we traveled for thirty-six hours almost constantly, in the direction of the Indians, we did not so much as see one. Like the milk sickness, they were just ahead, but we didn't catch up with them. The Indian raid was made up of about four-fifths scare and one-fifth truth. As usual on such occasions, the thousand reports flying over the country were unreliable. We found the people of Cottonwood Falls quiet, and apparently very little alarmed. Some families had come in there from Marion County for protection. 

The object of the visit of the Indians to the settlements was to make war upon the Kaws. The last named tribe visited the Cheyenne’s last fall, and killed seven of their number and stole a lot of their ponies. The Cheyenne’s swore vengeance, and sent word that as soon as the grass was sufficiently large they should visit the Kaws for the purpose of avenging the outrages committed upon them. 

The Cheyenne’s repeatedly said they did not intend to disturb the whites and did not want any trouble with them. The extent of the depredations in Marion County were, that some five or six head of cattle were killed for beef, and one family was somewhat frightened by demonstrations of a warlike nature, but no real harm was done them. 

After the fight with the Kaws, two houses were burned on the Kaw reservation, which were occupied by Frenchmen who had married half-breed squaws. The Indians marched through Council Grove both as they came in and went back. They did not attempt any disturbances in the Grove. A mile and a half west of the town they destroyed all the household goods of a Mr. Polk, tearing up his bed clothes, emptying the feathers out of the beds, etc. It was stated that this was done to revenge some wrongs, which Mr. Polk had done them. Whether there was any truth in the statement or not, we do not know. Further out on the Santa Fe road, they robbed the house of R. B. Lockwood. We did not hear any particular reason given for this outrage. There are reports that the Indians committed various other thefts and depredations, but they lack proof. We have only given what we know to be true. 

The number that came into the Kaw Agency was variously estimated at from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty. It is pretty well ascertained that only about eighty were engaged in the fight with the Kaws. They fought some two hours, firing about three thousand shots. One Kaw received a scratch on the hand and one Cheyenne was shot in the foot. After the fight the Kaws, who only have about one hundred warriors, all told, pursued the Cheyenne’s to within three quarters of a mile of the Grove. There was every evidence that this band was only sent forward as a sort of a feeler, and that a large number of Cheyenne’s remained behind. They said repeatedly that they were coming back. They were riding barebacked horses and each had two revolvers. The result of their trip must have been very unsatisfactory to them. The only way we can account for their leaving so abruptly and without having satisfaction out of the Kaws is that the number of white men in arms was becoming rather thick on the prairies to suit them, and they feared a conflict with the whites. As near as we could judge there were not less than two hundred and fifty men tolerably well armed and mounted watching them, and the number was rapidly augmenting. The Indians concluded they had better go. It is said they will come back, as they intend to wage a general war on the Osages and Kaws this summer. The assertion made about their coming back is only guesswork. It is said the Cheyenne’s had a permit from Col. Wynkoop, their agent, to make this trip, under pretense of protecting their frontier from the Osages, and stating that they were peaceable Indians. An officer at Fort Harker saw this permit. If Wynkoop gave these Indians such a document, he ought to be removed at once. He certainly knows that the visits of the Cheyenne’s to the white settlements will lead to trouble. 

The whites do not propose to interfere in the quarrel between the Cheyennes and Kaws. They are willing for them to fight as much as they please. But they will not submit to have their country overrun. And for that reason every citizen is anxious to see the Kaws and Osages removed at once. At present their reservations are almost surrounded by whites. They can go on the plains and commit outrages against other Indian tribes and then take refuge on their reservations in the white settlements, and be comparatively secure. This has been the practice of these miserable cowardly tribes. Some of the plains tribes have become so incensed at them that they say they will have revenge even if they have to come in among the whites. If they do come in, it will be impossible for them to go out without committing more or less damage, and hence there is danger of trouble with them. The government should see that they do not make further raids upon the settlements. The Kaws and Osages should be moved onto the plains at once. Their removal is loudly called for both for the good of the whites and the Indians. 

This same body of Cheyennes have visited the Arkansas and Walnut, stating that they were going to fight the Osages. We have heard of no damage being done by them, down there. The people were somewhat frightened, and gathered in small parties for protection. 

But at the present writing all is quiet. The Indians have probably gone back to the plains. We wish to say to immigrants that thee is no more danger here from Indians than there is of being garroted or run off a railroad track in the East, and hardly as much. Knowing what we do about such excitements as the last one, and having no desire to deceive or misrepresent to gain population, we say to those who are coming that we would have no hesitation in settling at once in Lyon, Butler, Marion, Chase, Greenwood, or any of the counties of Southwestern Kansas. There is really nothing alarming, as we can see, in the late Indian demonstration.

 

Emporia News, June 12, 1868. 

The Republican’s 

Washington dispatch says the Senate ratified on Saturday the much talked of supplemental treaty with the Cherokee Indians, which was negotiated by Hon. M. Grinnell, of Iowa, by which Jas. F. Joy is made the principle party in the contract of sale negotiated by Secretary Harlan to the Emigration Company of 800,000 acres of land in Kansas. The supplementary treaty is satisfactory to the Indians and it confirms to the pre-emptor their land titles, and will secure the building of one hundred and fifty miles of the Kansas City & Galveston Railroad; it is, however, probable that the railroad interests may seek to defeat it by legislation.

 

Emporia News, June 12, 1868. 

The Herald’s 

Washington special of June 8th, under the head of AA Big Indian Land Job, as the following in reference to the great fraud, the Osage Treaty. 

On Wednesday the Osage nation was induced, by promises and intimidations on the part of the commissioners, which is headed by Indian Commissioner Taylor, to sell 8,000,000 acres of land on their reservation for twenty cents an acre, payable in fifteen years, to a private party, while numerous better bids were made for the same by other parties.

 

Emporia News, June 12, 1868. 

Coke Watson, of this place, was Ataken in by the Cheyennes on the day of their fight with the Kaws, and kept prisoner about two hours. He happened to be riding across the prairies from Council Grove, to Peyton Creek, when he suddenly came upon the Cheyennes. At their urgent solicitation Coke piloted the Cheyennes to the hills opposite the Kaw Agency. He saw the fight and enjoyed it hugely.

 

Emporia News, June 19, 1868. 

In the House, on last Saturday, on motion of Mr. Clarke, of this State, the President was asked for further information relative to the treaty for the lands of the Osage Indians, and requested to withhold the treaty from the Senate. [Sidney Clarke.]

 

Emporia News, June 26, 1868. 

THE OSAGE TREATY IN CONGRESS 

The key note of opposition to the infamous Osage Treaty, by which an Illinois man was to coolly gobble eight million of acres of the best land in Kansas at eighteen cents an acre, has already been sounded in Congress. In Kansas the opposition to it is about unanimous. Only three papers, so far as we have seen, have said a word in its favor: the Conservative, which has considerable to say about honesty and against frauds and swindles, the Ottawa Home Journal, and the Lawrence Journal. At the course of the two former papers on this monstrous proposition, we are a little surprised. That the Lawrence Journal should defend it surprises no one who is acquainted with that sheet. 

In the House of Representatives, at Washington, on the 18th, Mr. Clarke, of this state, offered the resolutions which we print below, and which were adopted without opposition. The thieving treaty was also denounced by several other members of Congress. We have only room for the resolutions. Mr. Clarke, it will be remembered, is a member of the Indian Committee in the lower House. 

Resolved, That as the sense of the House of Representatives, the treaty concluded on the 27th of May, 1868, with the Great and Little Osage tribes of Indians, both in its express terms and stipulations, and in the means employed to procure their acceptance by the Indians, is an outrage on the Indians; that in transferring to a single railroad corporation 8,000,000 acres of land it not only disregards the interests of other old corporations in the State of Kansas, and builds up a frightful land monopoly, in defiance of the just rights of settlers and of the people of the United States, but it assumes the authority repeatedly denied by this House, to dispose of those lands by treaty otherwise than by absolute treaty to the United States, and for purposes for which Congress alone is competent to provide. 

Resolved, That this House does hereby solemnly and earnestly protest against a ratification of said pretended treaty by the Senate, and will feel bound to refuse any appropriations in its behalf, or recognize its validity in any form. 

Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing be transmitted to the Senate.

 

Emporia News, July 3, 1868. 

Mass Meeting of Settlers on the Cherokee Neutral Lands. 

At a meeting of the settlers of the Cherokee Neutral Lands, @ Cherokee County, Kansas, held at Centralia, on the 11th day of June 1868, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted. 

WHEREAS, We, the settlers on the Cherokee Neutral Lands, @ citizens of Cherokee County, Kansas, having occupied these lands under the conviction that the Government would soon extinguish the Indian title to the same, and throw them open for legal settlement, under the just and equitable laws of pre-emption and homestead, now existing; and 

WHEREAS, The settlement of said lands by the hardy pioneer has been made under circumstances of unusual hardships and privation, owing to the devastation of Missouri and Southern Kansas by the recent war, causing supplies to be transported long distances and procured at high prices; and 

WHEREAS, We are now in danger of having our hard-earned homes transferred to the hands of a railroad corporation, with no security that we will be remunerated, under the pretext of favoring the railroad interest; therefore, 

Resolved, That we believe we are fully entitled, so soon as the Indian title to the land is extinguished, to the benefit of the pre-emption and homestead laws; and we believe those laws will protect us in our rights, any treaty by the Senate to the contrary notwithstanding. 

2. That, as the pre-emption and homestead laws are the most important parts in the policy of the Government in relation to the public lands, the homestead law, in particular, having been pledged by the party now in power to the hardy pioneer, it being one of the principal planks in the platform that carried that party into power, we demand it as our right, and call on the voters throughout the Union to sustain us at the polls. 

3. That we view with alarm the recent and changed policy of the Government, in extinguishing Indian titles to lands only to transfer them into the hands of railroad and speculating companies, thus converting the pioneer into a serf, at the mercy of a soulless corporation. 

4. That in the name of 25,000 men, women, and children now living on the Neutral Lands@ loyal citizens of the United States we do protest against the sale of any part of this tract, to any other than actual settlers. 

5. That we give notice to all railroad and land monopolizing companies, that, having settled these lands in the full faith that our Government would act with us, as the laws already in force would warrant, we will not tamely be driven from our homes, or be made to pay an exorbitant price for the same. 

6. That the men in Congress who have stood up for the rights of the self-sacrificing and hardy pioneer of the West, deserve our warmest thanks, and we hope their noble efforts may be crowned with success, and our Government spared the shame of dealing falsely with its citizens. 

7. That all papers that advocate a Home for the homeless@ on the public domain, are solicited to give these resolutions a place in their columns. 

J. F. PITZER, Chairman. 

W. S. HUSTON, Secretary

 

Emporia News, July 3, 1868. 

CONTRACT LET 

Col. C. K. Holliday and D. L. Lakin, of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, arrived home from New York on the first of July, having succeeded in contracting with eastern parties for building the road. The Topeka Daily Record says: 

They represent that by the terms of the contract, work is to commence during the present month, and while they are only bound to build 25 miles S. W. during the first year, and 15 miles this way from where it leaves the Atchison road (six miles west of Atchison) yet they expect to push the work as fast as it can be done, and hope to reach Burlingame not later than next June, and Emporia early next spring. They are authorized to put Col. Huntoon on to the surveys next Monday, and will do so if he can be engaged, and if not, some other engineer will be employed.

 

Emporia News, July 3, 1868. 

THE OSAGE TREATY 

The following is taken from the telegraphic dispatches of the 30th. A petition was received here this afternoon, addressed to the President of the United States, signed by all the chiefs of the Great and Little Osage tribes of Indians, praying the Senate not to ratify the treaty recently made with them, by which their eight million acres of land were disposed of at the rate of twenty cents per acre. This paper throws additional light on the swindle, giving an entirely different aspect to the case. The petition says the treaty does not represent the wishes of the tribes, but that they were induced to sign it on account of the threats and promises made by the commissioners. The latter threatened that unless the chiefs signed it, all protection would be withdrawn, and the whites would be allowed to drive the Indians away from their homes without pay therefore, and that $200,000 due on the former treaty would be unpaid. They promised that by signing the treaty the Indians could remain on the land for six years longer, when they would be furnished free transportation to their new homes. They now regret signing it, and ask the Senate not to ratify it. They say if their land must be sold, they want it done without threats.

 

Emporia News, July 10, 1868. 

THE OSAGE TREATY 

Now that this enormous swindle has been exposed, and, we trust, defeated by the action of the House, the Cincinnati Chronicle explains that Mr. Sturgis, of Chicago, owns the Leavenworth & Galveston railroad, to which nearly nine millions of acres were Acceded by this treat, and adds that the father of this Sturgis made an immense fortune by land monopoly in Illinois, owning in that State alone 300,000 acres. We thought a gift of nine millions of acres to one company bad enough, but to one man! Really, the proposition is so sublimely impudent, that we wonder that any Senator of either party could have been expected to vote for it. Missouri Democrat.

 

Emporia News, July 10, 1868. 

It is said that both our Senators favor the Osage treaty in any form. We don’t know whether this is true or not, but should not be the least surprised if it is. They have had so much practice in Indian frauds that they can hardly resist a temptation in that direction at this late day.

 

Emporia News, July 17, 1868. 

AMENDMENTS TO THE OSAGE TREATY 

One effect of the ventilation of the Osage Treaty has been to compel the authors and finishers of that remarkable production to admit that there were other people in the world beside themselves who had an interest in the immense tract of land treated for. Several days ago they threw a tub to the whale in the hope of two amendments of vast consequence to the State at large, and one of them, at least, of no mean importance to Emporia and Southwest Kansas. The first is that the State shall be allowed to purchase the 16th and 36th sections for school purposes at the same price the Company get their lands, which being but eighteen cents per acre, the State can well afford to do. The second is that one tenth of the land, or about eight hundred thousand acres, shall be set apart for the Emporia Branch of the Galveston road; that the road shall be completed to Emporia in three years by the present Company, or the land shall revert to the State of Kansas for the use and benefit of the road. These amendments having been agreed upon by all the parties in interest, it will be embodied in the treaty so that if the treaty is ratified at all it will be in a much less objectionable shape than when first signed, though still far from being what it should be. 

The building of the Emporia Branch will add largely to the value of the western portion of the Osage lands, and result in bringing those lands into market much sooner than would have been the case if they had all been given to a line of road extending down their eastern border. The building of this branch will also be of immense interest to Leavenworth, Lawrence, Emporia, and all Central and Western Kansas. By conceding it, Mr. Sturges loses nothing; the Galveston road loses nothing. There is land enough to build both roads and to give to the public schools and to actual settlers their just demands. Instead of the curse thus threatened, we may have a blessing.

 

Emporia News, July 24, 1868. 

Mr. Eskridge is now in Washington to represent our interests in relation to the Osage treaty and the Lawrence & Emporia Railroad. Several important points had representatives there, and some of our citizens thought it would be well enough to have this point represented, and at a consultation of citizens, Mr. Eskridge was selected to go. It was thought too late to do good, but as Lawrence has sent a delegate since Mr. Eskridge went, we conclude our representative arrived there in time to have a Finger in the pie. @ Nothing has been heard from him, and we do not know the status of the Osage treaty.

 

Emporia News, July 24, 1868. 

CHANGED HANDS 

We understand the Neosho Valley stage and express line has changed hands, Henry Tisdale having bought out T. C. Hill. Mr. Tisdale is now the owner of nearly all the lines in Southern Kansas. He came here a few years ago as a stage driver. By close application to business and strict honesty, he has become one of the largest stage men in the West.

 

Emporia News, July 31, 1868. 

THE AMENDMENT OF THE OSAGE TREATY. WASHINGTON, D. C., July 22, 1868 

MR. STOTLER: The following amendment among others, has been unanimously agreed to by the friends of the Osage Treaty, and will be made a part of that instrument, as both Senators Ross and Pomeroy favor it. 

And provided further, That there shall be reserved from said lands one million acres (the same being average lands, to be selected by three commissioners to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior) for the construction of the branch of said Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston railroad, from Lawrence to Emporia in the State of Kansas, as defined in an act of Congress entitled An act for a grant of lands to the State of Kansas in alternate sections to aid in the construction of certain railroads and telegraphs in said State,@ approved March 3, 1863, and an act amendatory thereto, approved _________. 

Provided, however, That if the said Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad Company or their assigns shall fail to construct and operate said branch road from Lawrence to Emporia within four years from the date of the promulgation of this treaty, then the title to the lands so as aforesaid reserved shall vest in any railroad company which shall within three years after the time given above to the said Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad Company, construct said branch road as aforesaid and pay the pro rata amount and interest paid by the said Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad Company for said lands so set apart as aforesaid. 

This treaty may not be ratified at the present session of Congress, but when it is ratified, if ever, the Lawrence & Emporia road, by reason of its being a branch of the Galveston road, will be included to the amount of a million acres, which will insure its construction. Mr. Sturges, after deliberate consideration, approved the amendment. The treaty is yet in the hands of the committee. The settlers will get their lands at $1.25 per acre, the school fund will be provided for, and settlers going on the lands after the ratification of the treaty will get them at government appraisal. Other amendments will also be made. There is a provision in the treaty, which gives the right to amend it if the stipulations as to the pecuniary interests of the Indians are not interfered with by doing so. This may relieve the commissioners and immediate friends of the treaty from the charge that they contemplated no amendments; for if they did not, why did they make provision for doing it? The enemies of this treaty, here, in their zeal to ride popular opinion, as they conceived, have, innocently no doubt, placed themselves in a position that, with any amendments, they cannot consistently favor its ratification. They took a step too far for good policy and the best interests of the State. 

Respectfully yours, 

C. V. ESKRIDGE

 

Emporia News, July 31, 1868. 

SAC AND FOX LANDS 

Our traveling correspondent, Mr. Broughton, informs us that the order from the War Department directing the removal of all white settlers on the Sac and Fox reservation has been executed. A squad of soldiers from Fort Leavenworth was sent down for the purpose of assisting in the removal. No force was used, the settlers very peaceably retiring. Lawrence Tribune.

 

Emporia News, August 21, 1868. 

INDIAN MASSACRE 

We clip the following news from the Junction City Union of Saturday last. 

We stop the press to record an Indian outbreak of a horrible character in the Solomon Valley. On Friday morning a party of Indians, supposed to be Arapahos, Kiowa’s, and Cheyennes, attacked the settlers. A man named Bogardus, and a Mr. Bell and his wife were killed. Mrs. Bell was shot through the breast, and afterward ravished by several Indians. Two children of Aaron Bell were carried off. A German was wounded; a boy named Hugett was wounded, and the Indians were chasing his father when last seen. Several men were followed into the brush by Indians, and supposed to be killed. Several women in the neighborhood were ravished. On Elkhorn, near Ellsworth, a few days previous, one young woman was ravished by twenty-two Indians, and the Surgeon at Fort Harker said she could not live. The difficulties on the Solomon occurred forty-five miles above the railroad. Governor Crawford went up this (Saturday) morning with arms and ammunition. 

Gen. Grant has telegraphed the military along the road to demand the surrender of the murderers and captives immediately, and in case of refusal to attack the Indians all along the line.

 

Emporia News, August 21, 1868. 

THE FRONTIER 

We are not able as yet to give full particulars of the last Indian Raid. The first rumor of trouble was on Spellman's Creek, eighteen miles N. E. of Ellsworth, where a band of two or three hundred Indians made their appearance last Monday, where they caught and beat a Mr. Shaw and violated the person of Mrs. Shaw and her sister. They drove off the settlers and robbed them of their property on this creek and violated several women. Some of them were subjected to this ill treatment five or six hours. 

The next news was that we printed in our last issue. Sunday night, dispatches were received that the Indians were within ten or fifteen miles of Salina and that the Governor with twenty men had been flanked and cut off. The inhabitants of Salina were up all Sunday night counseling together and making preparations to go out Monday morning. In the morning a courier came in saying that three or four hundred Kiowa’s had crossed the railroad track west of Salina, going towards the Republican, but at what point was not stated, and that the Governor was after them. 

At ten o’clock yesterday morning T. H. Walker received a dispatch from Mr. Strickler, at Junction City, saying that the Indians were on a retreat with their plunder, that McAfee was at the front with supplies, and that Crawford was on the Saline. 

We judge that about twelve persons were killed on the Solomon and six or eight on Asher Creek. We hope to receive full particulars tomorrow, and may learn something more before going to press. Topeka Record, Aug. 18. 

LATER. The following is from the Topeka Record of the 19th. 

Mr. McAfee returned from the West yesterday. He reports that two hundred families have left the scene of the late Indian fights, and that there is but one man left in a distance of 30 miles. The Indians were not known to attack anyone armed. They appeared simultaneously along the Valley for twenty miles in small squads. They robbed the settlers of all their horses and clothing, killed those they chose to, and mutilated others. All were armed with revolvers, just furnished them by the Government. It is not known that a single Indian was hurt. Forty families were in a stone pen in one place nearly naked, and the balance of the settlers of that whole region are at Solomon. 

The troops stationed on the Little Arkansas, were called up to the Solomon on the first appearance of the Indians, leaving the Southwest unprotected. We shall not be disappointed if within the next two or three days we hear of similar outrages being committed on Walnut Creek and the settlers on the Little Arkansas. 

We forbear saying what our feelings prompt us to at this time on the course of the United States Government with these Indians. If a similar course is to be followed up our people will protect themselves if they have to fight United States troops to do it. Humanitarians may talk as they choose, self-preservation is the first law of nature, and we will stand by those who protect themselves, let the consequences be what they may. 

Governor Crawford was on Fisher Creek on Monday and will probably soon be home.

 

Emporia News, August 21, 1868. 

Two gentlemen were here this week from Maine, looking up a business location. They were much pleased with the town and country and will probably locate. 

[Could this be Newman?]

 

Emporia News, August 28, 1868. 

MR. CLARKE AND THE INDIAN TREATY QUESTION 

Mr. Clarke’s chief claim, as well as his main chance for a return to Congress, is his opposition to the Osage Treaty. Our own opinion of that swindle in its original shape is well known and we should be glad to accord some credit to Mr. Clarke for his effective opposition to its ratification. But Mr. Clarke’s claim to superior virtue is so loudly made, as to provoke an examination of the record of his Congressional career to see if it be justified. 

Mr. Clarke’s opposition to the Osage Treaty has three principal grounds, according to his own statement of them, substantially as follows. 

1. That it creates a monopoly in the Railroad Company to a large body of land. 

2. That it does not provide for the sale of the lands treated for to actual settlers, at a reasonable price. 

3. That it is unjust to the Indians. 

The two first objections are valid as against the original treaty, at least. The third is not, but is not worth considering in this connection. 

The tenable grounds in favor of the Treaty are two. 

1. It secures the removal of the Indians from Kansas. 

2. It secures the building of the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad. 

During Mr. Clarke’s two terms in Congress treaties have been made and ratified with different Indian tribes for their lands in Kansas, as follows: The Sac & Foxes, Delaware’s, Kickapoos, Cherokees, Pottawattomies, besides some minor tribes. Let us examine the provisions of these treaties in their order. 

1. The Sac & Fox lands were treated for except the diminished Reserve and sold For the benefit of the Indians, @ by means of a refined swindle known as Sealed bids, @ whereby no actual settler got an acre, but mammoth speculators like Perry Fuller, McManus, Stevens & Co., obtained three hundred thousand acres of the finest land in Kansas at from fifty cents to one dollar per acre, the effect of which is plainly visible in Osage, Lyon, and Franklin counties, in the miles square of unoccupied land held by these speculators. Not an acre was reserved for Railroad purposes, even, and so our Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe road, and the Ottawa & Emporia road, if built at all, must be by the people themselves. 

2. The last Delaware treaty gave 96,000 acres of the finest land in Leavenworth County to the Missouri River Railroad Company at a mere nominal sum, and not an acre to actual settlers or to schools, and by the terms of the treaty the lands are not yet even subject to taxation! 

3. The Kickapoo treaty gave to the Atchison (or Central) Branch of the Union Pacific Road already endowed with $16,000 Government Bonds per mile, and a large amount of other lands, the whole Kickapoo Reserve, of over 300,000 acres and not an acre to settlers or schools, and not to be taxed for six years, thus not only retarding their settlement, but preventing them from being a source of revenue to the State. The poor settler pays tax on his homestead, but the rich Railroad Company pays not a dollar on over a million’s worth of fine land. 

4. The Cherokee treaty provided for the sale of all that magnificent tract of land known as the Cherokee Neutral Lands in Southeastern Kansas about 800,000 acres in a body, and it was sold under that treaty to Mr. Joy, a Railroad President, for one dollar per acre, and not an acre reserved for schools, and none to settlers except the very small number who had settled thereon prior to the making of the treaty. There are probably twenty thousand people now living on these lands, of whom not over one-tenth have any guarantee for either land or improvements, but are at the mercy of Mr. Joy. This treaty had not even the merit of securing the removal of Indians from the State, as the Cherokees had never occupied it. 

5. The Pottawattomie treaty was ratified in the last days of the last session of Congress, and while the Osage treaty was pending. It provides for the sale of the entire Pottawattomie Reserve thirty miles square to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, for one dollar per acre, without an acre being reserved for settlers or schools! 

These treaties have all been ratified during Mr. Clarke’s Congressional career. Did anyone ever hear a note of opposition to a single one of them, from his lips? Not only did he not oppose them, but he favored them. At the very time when the Osage Treaty so excited his ire, the Pottawattomie treaty, more obnoxious to the charge of monopoly and disregard of the rights of settlers, was receiving his support. In fact, this is his chief claim to the suffrages of Topeka Republicans! So of the Cherokee treaty. And we have the interesting spectacle of Fort Scott, Topeka, and Atchison supporting Mr. Clarke because he has favored land monopolies in the interest of their pet local schemes, and Lawrence, Leavenworth City, and other localities supporting him because of opposition to a land monopoly designed to benefit their respective localities! 

Here are radical inconsistencies that cannot be explained away. They reveal a duplicity and charlatanism, which should not pass current as true coin in Kansas. Which monopoly would be rebuked by Mr. Clarke’s re-nomination?

 

Emporia News, August 28, 1868. 

GOV. CRAWFORD TO THE PRESIDENT 

The following dispatch to President Johnson, by Governor Crawford, contains sound suggestions on the Indian question. There is nothing of a startling nature from the field of Indian disturbances since our last. It is a shame and disgrace that the Indians are allowed by the Government to come down upon the settlements and commit murders, with arms furnished by the Government, and then be permitted to go unpunished. We are satisfied the people of the State will have to take the matter in their own hands if there is not some relief soon. We cannot stand by and see our citizens murdered, without efforts to save them. Some fifteen or twenty persons were murdered in the late raid, houses burned, horses stolen and several persons were carried off as captives. 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, TOPEKA, August 22, 1868. 

His Excellency Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, Washington, D. C. 

The Indians are again committing depredations in Western Kansas. 

Last week they killed and wounded thirty men, women, and children, ravished seven women, and carried away one young lady; burned a number of houses, and captured a large amount of stock and other property. 

Frontier settlers were driven in some sixty miles, leaving everything at the mercy of these red handed fiends. 

In the name of God and humanity, must we submit to these atrocities, and see the Indians, under the care and protection of the Government, go unpunished? 

I appeal to you for protection, and respectfully, but earnestly, request that you cause to be driven, at once, from this State, the Kiowa’s, Comanche’s, Arapahos, Apaches, and Cheyenne Indians, the perpetrators of the recent outrages, and many others committed in Kansas during the past four years. 

If the Government cannot protect its own citizens, let the fact be made known that the people may endeavor to protect themselves; or if volunteers are needed, I will furnish the Government all that may be necessary to insure a permanent and lasting peace. 

The commission is a mockery, and their policy a disgrace to the nation. I trust therefore that you will keep the commissioners at home, and stop the issuing of arms, ammunition, and supplies to hostile Indians, while they are robbing, murdering, and outraging a defenseless people. 

S. J. CRAWFORD,

Governor of Kansas

 

Emporia News, August 28, 1868. 

GENERAL SHERIDAN’S ORDER 

The following important order has been issued by General Sheridan, dated Ft. Harker, August 24. We hope the General will do something to relieve our border from Indian depredations. This order looks like business. 

In consequence of the recent open acts of hostility on the part of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, embracing the murder of twenty unarmed citizens of the State of Kansas, the wounding of many more, and acts of outrage on women and children, too atrocious to mention in detail, the Maj. General commanding, under the authority of the Lieut. General commanding the military division, directs the forcible removal of these Indians to their reservation south of the State of Kansas, and that they be compelled to deliver up the perpetrators of the guilty acts. All persons whomsoever are hereby forbidden to have intercourse, or give aid or assistance to these Indians, until there is due notice given hereafter that the requirements of this order have been carried out.

 

Emporia News, September 11, 1868. 

THE INDIANS 

A Hays City dispatch to the Conservative says the Indians were reported to have made a dash on Fort Dodge early on the morning of the 3rd, killing four and wounding seventeen of the soldiers at the Fort, belonging to the 3rd U. S. infantry. They were driven off before any further damage was done. We have not learned how many Indians were killed or wounded. 

General Sheridan is now at Fort Dodge, but is expected back at Hays in a few days. 

Patrick Dunn, keeper of a ranch near Fort Zarah, was shot and killed on Friday morning by Corporal Reagan, who has been arrested and confined in the guardhouse.

 

Topeka, Sept. 7th, 1868. 

Emporia News, September 11, 1868. 

Gen. Sherman’s dispatches relative to the recent Indian troubles on the Saline, Solomon, and Republican, as sent to the proper Washington Department, announce that he has instructed Gen. Sheridan to pursue those Indians who have been guilty of these outrages to their final and everlasting destruction. Times.

 

Emporia News, September 11, 1868. 

Gen. Sherman has returned to St. Louis from his trip to the Rocky Mountains. He reports the Union Pacific railroad finished 790 miles west of Omaha, and that it will be completed to Green River, 60 miles further, by October 1st.

 

Emporia News, September 18, 1868. 

INDIAN WAR INEVITABLE. Five Companies of Militia Called Out 

All who have been West during the past few months arrive at the conclusion that a general Indian war is inevitable. This is the conclusion of Generals Grant and Sherman, Schuyler Colfax, and Governor Crawford. The U. S. Government can have the consolation of knowing that it has placed arms and ammunition in the hands of the Indians to murder the citizens, which it is bound to protect. We publish below the proclamation of Governor Crawford, calling for five companies of cavalry, for service on the border for three months, unless sooner discharged.

 

Emporia News, October 9, 1868. 

INDIAN NEWS 

Armstrong, who returned from Marion Center on Monday, informs us sixteen hundred Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa Indians went southeast on Friday last toward the Wichita country. Capt. Jennings, with one of the companies of militia just raised by the Governor, marched from Marion Center to the new town of Wichita. It was expected there would be trouble. Mr. Armstrong was elected Captain of the new company part of which was raised here. The company was not quite full, but it will be in a few days.

 

Emporia News, October 16, 1868. 

THE INDIAN WAR 

A Cavalry Regiment Called For:

The Governor’s Proclamation:

Below we print the proclamation of Governor Crawford, calling for a new Cavalry Regiment to fight the Indians, together with Sheridan’s request for the aid. Sheridan means business, and if the Indians are not satisfied with war before they get through with the present disturbances it will not be his fault. 

 

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, TOPEKA, OCTOBER 10th, 1868

With scarcely any exception, all the tribes of Indians on the Plains, in Kansas or contiguous thereto, have taken up arms against the Government, and are now engaged in acts of hostility. The peace of the exposed border is thereby disturbed, quiet and unoffending citizens driven from their homes or ruthlessly murdered, and their property destroyed or carried away. Infant children have been carried into captivity, and in many instances barbarously murdered while many women have been repeatedly violated in the presence of their husbands and families. 

Besides these instances of individual suffering, great public interests are being crippled and destroyed by this savage hostility. The commerce of the plains is entirely suspended. The mail routes and the great lines of travel to the Territories and States beyond us, are constantly being blockaded, and are sometimes completely closed for the space of several days. 

Longer to forbear with these bloody fiends would be a crime against civilization, and against the peace, security, and lives of the people upon the frontier. The time has come when they must be met by an adequate force, not only to prevent the repetition of these outrages, but to penetrate their haunts, break up their organizations, and either exterminate the tribes, or confine them upon reservations and apart for their occupancy. To this end the Major General commanding this Department has called upon the Executive for a Regiment of Cavalry from this State, as will be seen from the following communication.

 

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, IN THE FIELD, FT. HAYS, October 9, 1868

 

His Excellency, S. J. Crawford, Governor of Kansas, Hays City, Kansas. 

GOVERNOR: Under directions received through Lieut. Gen. W. T. Sherman, commanding Military Division of the Missouri, from the Hon. Secretary of War, I am authorized to call on you for one regiment of mounted volunteers to serve for a period of six months, unless sooner discharged, against hostile Indians on the Plains. I therefore request that you furnish said regiment as speedily as possible to be rendezvoused and mustered into the service of the United States at Topeka, Kansas. 

The regiment to consist of one Colonel, one Lieutenant Colonel, three Majors, twelve Captains, twelve First Lieutenants, twelve Second Lieutenants, twelve Companies of one hundred men each, including the required number of Non-Commissioned officers specified in the United States Army Regulations (1863), the pay, allowances, and emoluments of officers and men to be the same as that of United States troops. 

The men will be rationed from the time of their arrival at the rendezvous and will be furnished with arms, equipments, horses, and clothing from the date of muster into the service of the United States. 

I have the honor to be, 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

P. H. SHERIDAN, Maj. Gen. U. S. A.

 

Now, therefore, I, Samuel J. Crawford, Governor of the State of Kansas, do call for volunteers from the militia of the State to the number set forth in the foregoing letter from Major General Sheridan, to be mustered into the service of the United States, and to serve for a period of six months, unless sooner discharged. It is desirable that the regiment shall be organized at the earliest possible moment, and with this view recruiting officers will be appointed in various portions of the State. The Adjutant General will issue the necessary orders to carry this proclamation into effect. 

S. J. CRAWFORD.

 

Emporia News, October 16, 1868. 

WHERE IS THE PEACE COMMISSION? 

All, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind, steals from the settler and murders all mankind, is about to get into trouble. 

His stock of ammunition is fast becoming short, and soon he will not be able to use his long-range rifles furnished by the Peace Commission. These rifles, so valuable in the death struggle with the gallant Beecher and Forsythe, the former of whom they laid low, will very soon be useless unless the Peace Commission comes round. Hurry up their footsteps, and let them bring good navy revolvers and seven shooters. If not speedily supplied with ammunition from either the Peace Commission or the Indian Bureau, Sheridan will put them to the wall. Call for the Commission, hunt up the Indian Agents, find Murphy, and see if the Indian Bureau has no official knowledge of any Indian disturbance. @ May be he has heard by this time that the Indian, if not the white man, is in trouble. 

Let New England come to their rescue, and save their red children. If they have no sympathy with the peaceable settlers, whose wives and daughters have been shot and ravished by these hell hounds, let them gather together and send the poor Indian ammunition before the settlers wrath waxes too warm, and before the lion of the rebellion has time to marshal his forces. Junction City Union.

 

Emporia News, October 30, 1868. 

LATEST INDIAN NEWS 

A dispatch from Ft. Wallace from Col. Carpenter, of the 10th cavalry, has the following information: 

Have just arrived at this place. On the 18th we were attacked by about four hundred Indians, on the Beaver, sixty miles east of Custer’s trail, about seven o’clock a.m., and fought them until two p.m., when they withdrew with a loss of nine men killed, three of whom remained in our possession, four ponies, and a number wounded. We have three men wounded and have lost two horses in the fight. We did not succeed in finding the 5th cavalry.

 

Emporia News, October 30, 1868.

19th Kansas Cavalry 

We learn from the Topeka Record that the new Indian regiment was about full on the 26th, and that recruiting had been stopped. Twelve hundred head of horses had been purchased, and it was expected the regiment would take the field early next week.

 

Emporia News, October 30, 1868.

 

A dispatch from Cheyenne, dated 27th, says: Particulars have just been received from Perry Station, near Elk mountain, that a band of Indians had attacked Hauts & Hall’s train, loaded with railroad ties, at noon Sunday, and killed four whites and captured fourteen mules.

 

Emporia News, November 6, 1868. 

The two Osage Indians who killed the men in Butler County last spring, and who passed through here last week under charge of Deputy Sheriff Thomas, who was taking them to Butler for trial, made their escape at the residence of N. Demoss near Bazaar, on Friday night last. The shackles were taken off from the Indians on their arrival there, and they were permitted to go to rest free from encumbrance. Thomas, who was watching them, went to sleep and they made their escape in the night. It is charged that they were permitted to get away, and from the fact of their shackles being taken off, and they’re being comparatively no effort to pursue them, it looks as though the charge is not groundless. One rumor is that it was feared the citizens would lynch the Indians on their arrival at El Dorado, in which case the Osages threatened retaliation, and another is that a large sum of money was offered by the Osages for the freedom of these two prisoners. We know nothing of the correctness or falsity of the rumors.

 

Emporia News, November 6, 1868. 

Governor Samuel J. Crawford has resigned his Governorship to take command of the new Indian regiment. Lieut. Governor Green has been sworn in to fill out the un-expired term. That is the best thing that could have been done for the Indian regiment. The regiment is fully organized and will move at once to the mouth of the Little Arkansas.

 

Emporia News, November 13, 1868. 

The Osage Indians are reported to be in a very destitute condition, and the Secretary of the Interior has written to the Secretary of War, asking for assistance out of the army supplies, as the appropriations of the Department of the Interior have been exhausted. It is reported that General Sheridan has promised sustenance to the Osages, under condition that they will join in the war against the hostile Indians.

 

Emporia News, November 13, 1868. 

The Nineteenth Regiment, under command of Col. Crawford, passed through here on Sunday morning. They camped Saturday night on the Neosho just below Rich’s mill. The regiment is a fine one with twelve full companies, all well mounted, and outfitted. We had the pleasure of meeting several old friends in the regiment. Splendid discipline was observed here. But few men were in town during the stay of the regiment, and Col. Crawford and most of the officers declined the tendered hospitalities of friends in town, saying they were now soldiers, and preferred soldier’s fare in the camp. The rain storm of Saturday night and Sunday, and the snow storm of Monday must have given the boys an insight into the disagreeable side of soldier life, which, however, many of them have seen before. May joy go with them.

 

Emporia News, November 20, 1868. 

OUR COUNCIL GROVE LETTER 

DEAR NEWS: Last Sunday morning some boys who were out hunting stock came in with the report that Indians Cheyennes were in the vicinity; and it was also reported that a gentleman coming from Emporia had found some feather head-gear, undoubtedly belonging to a Cheyenne warrior. Quite an excitement was the result. Later in the day, a small but reliable youth was driven in from the Cottonwood road, at the crossing of Four-Mile, by a party of strange Indians, numbering fourteen. On the previous Friday a man going from the Grove to Marion Center, reported that he saw Indians driving off stock between Elm Creek and Four-Mile. Intelligent gentlemen suggest that they were Osages, hunting without leave on the Kaw Reserve; if so, had they any connection with the escape of the murderers of the ill-fated Dunn, from the custody of Deputy Sheriff Thomas? Or is Deputy Sheriff Thomas only following the example of his superiors in office in letting such notorious criminals escape? This is twice within little more than a year that a murderer has been most carelessly and, it seems, wantonly permitted to evade even a trial; and the law-respecting and law-abiding citizens of Butler County owe it to themselves, to the public safety, and to the good name of the county to take energetic measures, to the full extent of the law, to prevent and punish such transactions. 

That interlude was quite unpremeditated and doesn't belong there, for I was about to say that the valiant Kaws have started toward Fort Harker to fight the Cheyennes, and doubtless, actuated by pure benevolence, have taken along all the horses they could find by whomsoever owned. As quite a number of people are thus left without a team, a party has started in pursuit of the brave warriors. Alas for patriotism! When they ought to be glad to furnish the friendly Kaws with Steeds@ for their conflict with hostile Wild Indians! 

There was quite a fall of snow on Monday; abundant rain since; fine prospect for wheat; plenty of rain; business flourishing. 

VAYLE VERNON.

 

Council Grove, November 14th. 

Emporia News, November 27, 1868. 

REPORT OF INDIAN COMMISSIONER TAYLOR 

The report of Commissioner Taylor, of the Indian Bureau, for the fiscal year, has been laid before the Secretary of the Interior. 

He says the number of Indians now within the boundaries of the United States, exclusive of those in Alaska, is about 300,000. He regrets that they are decreasing so rapidly from year to year, and attributes it, as well as the misery and degradation prevailing among them, mainly to intestine [?] wars, the entailment of the loathsome diseases of vicious whites, and effects of indulgence in spirituous liquors. He thinks that a large proportion of our Indian tribes show a strong disposition to emerge from their savage state, and throw aside their barbarous customs; but improvement is slow, and their civilization must be the work of time, patiently and hopefully prosecuted, with liberality on the part of the Government, and faithful and prompt fulfillment of all its obligations and promises. This work should enlist the sympathy of all levers of humanity, and invite to its practical demonstration the divine spirit of charity to a much greater extent than is now shown. 

He says peace has been maintained with most of the tribes during the past year, and friendship has marked their course toward our Government and citizens, while they have faithfully endeavored to support themselves. This is said more especially of those settled on reservations. With others, there have, however, been such various difficulties that it may be said we have had an Indian war on our hands. He holds that the Cheyennes and Apaches clearly violated their treaty promises made nearly a year ago to the commission sent to treat with them. It is difficult to account for their bad behavior on any other ground than their love of plunder and revenge, under a feeling of dissatisfaction, caused, it is presumed, by the non-delivery of guns and ammunition promised them by the commissioners, but withheld because the Cheyennes had not kept the peace. He thinks the Kiowa’s and Comanche’s will be drawn into the war, and fears that the friendly portion of the tribes will suffer with the guilty. If the hostile portion will not cease their outrages, he says they should be punished severely, and their claims on the Government should be declared forfeited, by Congress. 

He alludes to the difficulties in Arizona and New Mexico, and says they will continue till the Indians are put and kept on a reservation. 

He congratulates himself on the close of the Indian troubles in Idaho and Dakota; alludes to the labors of the peace commissioners, of which General Sherman was head, and has no doubt they will be productive of wide beneficial results. 

He details the work of the year in making and ratifying treaties with a large number of tribes, and shows that most of them have been carried out in full effect. 

He strongly urges that wise, liberal treaties be made with the Indians in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington Territories, looking to their concentration on reservations, and to the payment, on our part, for the rights of which they have been despoiled. 

He speaks of the recent session of the commission at Chicago, and says he dissented from the views of his colleagues as to the expediency of transferring the Indian Bureau to the War Department, and will communicate his reasons for such dissent in a separate report. 

He regrets that Congress did not at its last session make better provision for the subsistence of destitute Indians, and says there has been much suffering in consequence, as well as some bloodshed, and large expenditures of money in suppressing hostilities. He says it is better to feed the Indians than fight them, and thinks there would have been but little trouble on the plains this summer had they been properly supplied in accordance with treaty stipulations. He adds that the responsibility in this regard is with Congress, not with the Department. 

He says claims to the amount of about $500,000 have been presented for depredations committed by Indians in the war of 1863, and he recommends the appointment of a commission for their settlement. 

He also recommends that legislation be had to protect the people of Texas against raids from Mexico. 

He renews, and strongly urges, his recommendation for a change in the laws regulating trade and intercourse with the Indians, and closes by asking such legislation as will, at the proper time, bring the Indians of Alaska within the supervision of the Government.

 

Email: ronwally@ubtanet.com

 

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