Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/565

Rh also to receive from the Government an annuity of fifty thousand dollars a year for fifty years. This last agreement, after the Indians had by their representatives confirmed the treaty, was altered without their knowledge or consent, when the Senate came to act upon it, the appropriation being by that body limited to ten years.

After the Rebellion there was a rush of unsettled and enterprising adventurers from our borders seeking the treasures of the mines of Montana and Colorado. No thought or regard whatever was had for the pledged rights of the Indians. Even before this general intrusion there had been many encroachments upon them, with the consequent disturbances and outrages. So that even in 1861 the Government had made a new treaty, greatly qualifying the conditions of that of ten years before. By this the bounds of the Indian reservation were reduced, and an annuity of sixty thousand dollars a year was promised them for fifteen years. But in vain was it sought to repress the encroachments of the white man, settler or farmer. Hostilities on both sides increased, and in 1864 occurred the horrid tragedy known as the Sand Creek Massacre. A mixed commission of army officers and civilians thought they had succeeded in their pacific work; but none the less a war ensued which cost our Government thirty millions of dollars; leaving the Indians unsubdued, and complaining (as well they might) of our perfidy and their wrongs. Still another treaty, made in 1865, stripped them of Colorado, and another region in Kansas was “set apart for the absolute use and undisturbed occupation of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes;” and for forty years a pension of forty dollars a year was to be paid to each of them. A part of this new reservation had already been assigned to the Cherokees. By an Act of Congress of 1834 all annuities promised to the Indians are made chargeable for any depredations committed by them on the frontier or travelling white men. Claims for damages on this score,