Captain Wessels' despatch to General Crook reported:

"The Cheyennes fought with extraordinary courage and firmness, and refused (!) all terms but death!" None were offered them. The dead were buried in one common grave.

An observer wrote of them:

"Let us see the dead and wounded brought into the Fort. The soldiers drag out of the army wagons twenty-six frozen bodies. They fall upon the frozen ground like so many frozen hogs. These bodies are pierced by from three to ten bullets each. They are stacked up in piles like cord-wood, the scanty clothing of the women being, in some instances, thrown over their heads. They are a ghastly pile of God's poor, despised children. Their heads have been scalped, and every indignity heaped upon them that more than Indian brutality can invent. The officers account for so many shots being fired into the bodies by saying that whenever the wind stirred a blanket the soldiers fired again to make sure the Indian was dead! They deny that the soldiers scalped the dead, but it is not shown that other Indians were there. "*

Of Dull Knife's band of 320, but 75 survived. Of these, only seven were men; the rest were women and children, some of whom were sent to the Ogallalla Sioux, their relatives.

But it is useless to continue this shameful record further. The facts need no comment. The deeds here related stand out in all their naked deformity, unrighted and unavenged.

* See Manypenny's account in "Indian Wards."

THE PROPOSED INDIAN POLICY.

Having passed over these ghastly details of Federal barbarism, it will be a relief now to consider what practical plan can be adopted to remedy the wrongs of the past and prepare the Indians for civilization and eventual absorption into the mass of the population of the Nation.

The plan here proposed (the adoption of which will be advocated in the manner hereinafter indicated) is given in the shape of a platform or short declaration of principles, in order that it may more readily be understood, and that those who favor it may be able, in a few words, to say exactly what they want.

It is not claimed that the platform is new, either in whole or in part.

On the contrary, nearly every thing advocated therein has, at one time or another, been recommended to Congress, without the slightest possible impression having been produced upon that body.

It is in view of this fact that the only novel part of this plan, viz.: the mode of forcing its adoption, is hereafter explained in detail, and will continue to occupy the writer's attention until it is made a success.

PLATFORM OF PRINCIPLES.

GOOD FAITH.

Never break faith with the Indians.

INDIAN TERRITORY.

LAW.

Keep all intruders out of the Territory.

Continue the self-government of the civilized tribes.
Let them regulate their own land tenure.

Enact suitable laws to protect life and property on reservations.

LAW-Continued.

Make them flexible in detail.

Administer them through Department orders approved by the President.

Promptly and rigidly enforce them.

Individualize the punishment of crime. Never hold the tribe liable for the crimes of its members. Organize an efficient Indian police force on every res

ervation.

INDIAN DEPARTMENT.

Create a separate Indian Department under a civilian
Secretary.

Grant plenary emergency powers to the President.
Have all agencies frequently inspected by appointees of
the President, well paid and unconnected with the
Indian Department.

Carefully regulate the powers and duties of Indian
Agents.

Give them permanent positions and liberal salaries.
Keep them free from political influence. Let their
subordinates be appointed by the Department.

All questions of general policy and treatment to be set-
tled by the Department. No individual experi-
ments by theoretical agents to be permitted.
Abolish all privileged traderships. Absolutely destroy
all traffic in liquors. Control the sale of arms and
amunition. In all else let there be free trade.
Let all military posts be maintained separate and apart
from the Indian villages and preserve absolute non-
intercourse between the soldiers and the Indians.

NO REMOVALS.

Remove no more tribes, except where the soil and climate require it, and the change is voluntary. Civilize the Indians where they are.

EDUCATION.

Educate the entire Indian reservation population. Teach the children in boarding manual-labor schools on

the reservations.

Make them farmers and graziers.

Give all the bands an abundance of cattle.

Teach them trades.

Instruct them in the laws of health.

Show them how to live.

Neutralize the influence of the medicine men.

Make work compulsory.

LANDS IN SEVERALTY.

ON RESERVATIONS divide lands in severalty as soon as
Indians can farm them.

Make them inalienable

and non-taxable for a time. Sell the surplus lands for the benefit of the tribe.

ELSEWHERE grant government lands in severalty (on same terms) to all Indians who can cultivate them.

CITIZENSHIP.

Give citizenship to all self-supporting Indians who ask it.

The foregoing platform embraces the principal points of the proposed plan for the gradual civilization and ultimate absorption of the Indians, and it is condensed into a few generalizations in order that it may be read and comprehended without the necessity of reading this paper.

For those who care to consider the matter somewhat more in detail-and yet, merely by way of suggestion, rather than argument or elaboration-the different points will be referred to in the order in which they occur in the platform of principles.

GOOD FAITH.

This first point embraces all the others. Its observance would produce that radical change which is imperatively required of the Federal Government-that it keep its plighted faith, so that

the promises made to the Indians to last "while water runs and "grass grows "shall be fulfilled.

This Nation must first learn to be honest itself, before it can hope to civilize the savage.

And not only must the Government's promises be kept, but they must be fulfilled promptly and at the time agreed on.

Much blood and treasure has been lost through the inexcusable delays in Congressional appropriations, and often by that body entirely failing--for a time, or permanently—to pay sums required by the National engagements.

As to all fixed liabilities of the Government to the Indians, this difficulty could, for the future, be avoided by a general statute, making all such sums permanent appropriations, and payable out of the Treasury, at the stipulated times without further legislation.

INDIAN TERRITORY.

The title of the Indians to the Indian Territory, and the condition of the civilized tribes have already been considered in detail.

In concisely explaining the principles enunciated in the proposed platform, it only remains to touch briefly on the importance of the following injunctions, viz:

To keep all intruders out of the Territory.

To continue the self-government of the civilized tribes, and to let them regulate their own tenure.

The first proposition is self-evident, and the Government has shown a firm determination to adhere to it. Nevertheless those seeking to open the Territory, are untiring in their efforts, and whether it takes the rude shape of a band of desperadoes openly trespassing, or the more insidious form of helping to civilize (?) the Indians by means of railroad enterprises, or Oklahama bills, a never-ending struggle is going on, the object of which is to rob the Indians of the remains of their once great heritage.

No less important is it to continue the self-government of the