emember the story of a white man and an Indian going a hunting on
shares. Well, they killed a wild turkey and a buzzard, the latter good
for naught. They sat down on a log to divide the game. "Now," said the
white man, "You take the buzzard, and I'll take the turkey; or, I'll
take the turkey, and you take the buzzard." The Indian opened his eyes
wide, and replied, "Seems to me you talk all buzzard to me, and no talk
turkey."

Very little "talk turkey" has the Indian experienced in dealing with
the whites. Indeed, you can judge of fair dealing, or want of it, when
it is known that an agent came out our way to pay off annuities with
blankets, etc. These were "shoddy blankets," and when one tribe was
paid off with them, the agent bought them all back again with bad
whisky, and went on farther, to pay off other tribes in like manner.

So one agent carried out to California some annuity goods to pay off
Indians, according to treaty, _and among them were several thousand
elastics; and yet no Indian wears a stocking_!

The bad Indians _must be punished, just as bad boys, who do wrong;
and the army alone can deal with refractory Indians, whose tender
mercies are most cruel to white men, women, and children_.

General Sherman came out here in 1868 as one of "the Peace Commission,"
to personally investigate the whole matter. On his arrival at Cheyenne
and at Denver, a large number of pioneers were ready to insult him,
because he would not make a speech, and authorize them to band together
and kill Indians wherever found![4]

[4] A man whom I had some respect for, said to me at this time,
"If we can get up a smart Indian war now, wouldn't it be the
making of Cheyenne?" He had an eye to an army contract. General
Sherman would probably have called him a "bummer."

This idol of the American people they were not willing to trust to do
justice to both parties, after visiting among the tribes on the plains,
and in New Mexico, and seen things for himself. Such is human nature.
But the general could wait his time, and the judgment of the whole
people will be, to give him credit for a far-sighted policy, the result
of a wise head and an understanding heart, that swerves neither to the
right hand nor the left, so it be in the plain path of duty! Why not
believe and trust him in the future, as we have in the past? We are to
take care how we draw down upon our nation God's anger for _previous_
years of injustice