Grenville Dodge

As soon as the sugar, coffee, powder, lead, etc., that we give them, is gone, they make war to get us to give them more.

Such treaties last just as long as they think them for their benefit, and no longer.

I shall myself go out on the plains in a few weeks and try to get an interview with the chiefs and if possible effect an amicable settlement of affairs; but I am utterly opposed to making any treaty that pays them for the outrages they…

The Indians say to me that they will treat with an officer of the army (a brave), in all of whom they seem to have confidence, while they despise and suspect civilian agents and citizens, by whom they say they have been deceived and…

They take positions for the sole purpose of making money out of the Indians by swindling them, and so long as they can do this they shield them in their crimes.

I condemned it, and I have issued orders that no such acts will be tolerated or allowed; that the Indians on the warpath must be fought wherever and whenever found, but no outrages or barbarities must be committed.

That these Indians have been greatly wronged I have no doubt, and I am certain that the agents who have been connected with them are as much to blame as any one else.

My sincere desire is to terminate these Indian troubles, and I have no hesitation in saying that if I am allowed to carry out the policy now being pursued toward them I will have peace with them before another emigration crosses the plains.

If the Government had treated the Indians as a ward that they were bound to protect, as the English did, they would have had very little trouble in handling them.

They were treated the same as foreign nations; and while they made treaties they never carried out their part of them, breaking them whenever the trend of civilization westward interfered with them in any way.

The policy of the United States in dealing with the Indian problem is beyond the comprehension of any sensible man.

But the fact is the Indians did not give up until they were thoroughly thrashed and made to recognize the power and authority of the Government.

While this was a horrible event, the Indians, under the treaty, were fully justified in it.

I knew that would deter any white man going in there, and as long as they kept the peace, we would.

I sent them word that if they did not come in and settle they would find that our summer campaign was only a taste of what they would get this winter, for we would give them no rest.

I instructed the messengers to tell them that if any of their people had gone to the Missouri River for peaceable purposes to let them go, but to bring in all that were left, providing they felt disposed to settle without delay.

To accomplish this I sent out the best-posted guides (using chiefs, sub-chiefs, half-breeds of friendly Indians) that I knew on the plains, to each of the hostile tribes asking them to come into Fort Laramie.

On August 28th, General Connor surprised Medicine Man's band of Indians on Tongue River; killed fifty; captured village, all winter provisions, and 600 horses--all the stock they had.

On General Connor's arrival at Fort Connor he wired me the results of the campaign and protested strenuously against the order stopping it, saying he was then in condition and position to close it, conquer the Indians, and force a lasting…

The Indians' trails all cross at or near it, and it will have good effect hereafter in holding in check Indians.

I will settle these Indian difficulties before spring satisfactorily to the Government, and bring about a peace that will be lasting.

But they struck the wrong man in Captain Williford, who, comprehending the situation, attacked the Indians.

He was a splendid officer and it was through his good judgment and his ability as a soldier that he saved the whole outfit.

Four hundred ragged, bare-footed men, emaciated with fatigue, who had met and worsted the enemy on three several occasions, marched up in the face of a garrison of 2,000 or more.

Colonel Cole should have parked his train, placed it in a defensive position under a good guard, and then mobilized the rest of his force, and, with what rations he had, gone after the Indians, giving them battle and forcing the fight with…