Page:A Century of Dishonor.pdf/425

Rh One of the Senate amendments to this treaty struck out the words “by Colonel J. M. Chivington, in command of United States troops.” If this were done with a view of relieving “Colonel J. M. Chivington” of obloquy, or of screening the fact that “United States troops” were the instruments by which the murders were committed, is not clear. But in either case the device was a futile one. The massacre will be known as “The Chivington Massacre” as long as history lasts, and the United States must bear its share of the infamy of it. 



In his report for 1877 the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Dakota says: “Orders have been received to stop cutting of wood by Indians, to pay them for what they have already cut, to take possession of it and sell it. This I am advised is under a recent decision which deprives Indians of any ownership in the wood until the land is taken by them in severalty. If agents do not enforce these orders, they lay themselves liable. If they do enforce them, the Indians are deprived of what little motive they have for labor. In the mean time, aliens of all nations cut wood on Indian lands, sell to steamboats, fill contracts for the army and for Indian agencies at high prices. * * * Cutting wood is one of the very few things an Indian can do in Dakota at this time.” 



history of that affair (the Walla Walla Massacre) was never written, we believe; or, if it was, the absolute facts in the case were never given by any unprejudiced person, and it may be interesting to not a few to give them here. The story, as told by our Washington correspondent, “Ebbitt,” who was a witness of the scenes narrated, is as follows:

“The first settlements in Oregon, some thirty years ago, were