Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1873.djvu/58

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The Kiowas and Comanches are affiliated in like manner as the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, occupying a common reservation with the same agency. The conduct of the Kiowns during the past year has been comparatively exemplary, under promise of receiving their chiefs Setanta and Big Tree. These prisoners were in the executive control of the governor of Texas, and, on account of the peculiar atrocity of the crimes of which they were convicted, there was strung opposition on the part of the citizens of Texas to their release. But the pledge of the Government having been given to the Kiowas, and the Kiowas having reason to expect its fulfillment because of their own good conduct for the year past, an appeal was made to the courtesy of the governor of Texas to relieve the Government from its embarrassment by the release of the prisoners; and a pledge was made that the Government would use every means to protect the border of Texas, and would require the Comanches to surrender a certain number of raiders from their tribe who have been depredating in Texas during the past summer. Governor Davis accepted the pledge of the Government, in lieu of the further retention of the chiefs as a means of procuring safety for the citizens of Texas, and Setanta and Big Tree were sent to their tribe. The following day the Comanches were brought into council and required to surrender five (5) of their raiders. The chiefs did not deny that some of their young men had been raiding in Texas, nor that they had been committing theft and murder, but they declared it to be impossible for them to arrest and surrender the marauders, and desired to have one more trial in the way of peace. This I declined to give, except on the conditions already made with the governor of Texas, that the raiders should be surrendered. Some of the Comanches then volunteered to accompany the cavalry into Texas to arrest some of their own tribe whom they knew to be engaged at that time in plunder. A cavalry force was at once sent out, with these Indians enlisted as scouts. But they were unable to find the raiders, and returned without any prisoners to surrender in compliance with the requirement made upon them. The conduct of the Comanches is especially flagrant because of their solemn pledge, made one year ago and renewed in July, not to raid any more, on which their captive women and children were surrendered to them.

But it is a serious problem how to punish the guilty ones without striking the innocent. It is also certain that, on the opening of hostilities, a large portion of the tribe would leave the agency and take to the plains, when the difficulty of reaching and controlling them by military force becomes greatly increased. It is believed, however, that there is no alternative. The reservation cannot be made a refuge for thieves and murderers. No policy can assume the name of peace and kindness that expressly provides or immunity of crime. If the military force cannot be made strong enough to follow these Indians whenever they leave the reservation, and strike them while in the act of depredating. then the whole tribe, on refusal to surrender guilty parties, must be held responsible. And while there will be a loss of results already reached in gathering around the agencies these Indians from the plains, and many innocent ones will perhaps suffer with the guilty, yet I am persuaded that vigorous treatment will be kindness in the end. An attempt to restrain and punish the turbulent element in these three different tribes, to be successful, will require a larger military force than merely to strike their camps, destroying them in part, and scattering the