 | Notes Among the Indians |  |
HEADQUARTERS, MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,
ST. LOUIS, MO., November 23, 1868.
General W. B. HAZEN,
Southern Indian Reservation,
Fort Cobb, Indian Territory.
I have this morning received your most interesting letter of the 7th of November with contents, which I have sent to the Secretary of War, as we are determined that Congress shall know all that it is possible for us to convey, to enable it to make a final disposition of this Indian question this winter. * * * * * *
I see clearly the difficulties that you have to deal with. * * * In my instructions to General Sheridan, I used this language:
"The establishment of General Hazen at Fort Cobb with fifty thousand dollars, and the clothing and stores which the Indian Bureau have agreed to supply, is the result of the action of the Indian Peace Commission, which aimed to hold out the olive branch with one hand, and the sword in the other. But it is not thereby intended that any hostile Indians shall make use of that establishment as a refuge from a just punishment for acts already done. Your military control over that Reservation is as perfect as over Kansas, and if hostile Indians retreat within that Reservation, they are by no means to escape a deserved punishment, but they may be followed even to Fort Cobb, captured and punished. But in any event you need some place to put your captives and prisoners, and Fort Cobb can be used for that purpose, as well as a place of refuge for such Indians as in good faith want to keep out of the war. Therefore I should deem it unwise to organize a force to go out in search of hostile Indians from that quarter, until after it is known that hostile Indians are actually near by; and even then every appearance about Fort Cobb should be suggestive of an earnest desire to afford a place of refuge, where the peaceable Indians may receive food, and be safe against our troops, as well as against the hostile Indians who may try to involve them in the common war.
"In all my correspondence with the Indian Department I have insisted on this Fort Cobb establishment, in preference to embracing the whole Reservation, because I saw how difficult it would be for your troops in the field to cease pursuit at its very boundary; but if the friendly Indians rendezvous about Fort Cobb, General Hazen can demand the surrender of all who have committed acts of outrage before issuing a pound of food, and these should be seized and held, or placed in confinement at Fort Gibson or Arbuckle there to await your orders." * * * * * *
| Notes Among the Indians | |