We Must Cease!

Shortly after he became an agent at Pine Ridge Reservation in 1878, Valentine McGillycuddy appointed Man-Who-Carries-the-Sword, who was well-known for his prowess as a warrior, as a captain of the first Indian police agency.  He became Captain George Sword and his men proved their worth when Spotted Wolf and 25 Cheyenne slipped away presumably to join Sitting Bull in Canada.  If the Cheyenne were to attack whites on the way north, troops might be summoned and any clash would give the government an excuse to crack down on all Indians so McGillycuddy ordered Captain Sword and his men back and to bring Spotted Wolf.  Eleven days later Captain Sword and his men returned to the agency with Spotted Wolf who was dead.  He had made the mistake of resisting arrest.

The story of one Indian tribe is the story of all.  One writer, Helen Hunt Jackson wrote in A Century of Dishonor:

"Colorado is as greedy and unjust in 1880 as was Georgia in 1830 and Ohio in 1795.  The US Government now as deftly as then, and with an added ingenuity from long practice, carries out cheating, robbing, breaking promises.  These three are clearly things which must cease to be done.  One more thing, also, and that is the refusal of the protection of the law to the Indians' rights of property...of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  When these four things have ceased to be done, then time, statesmanship, philanthropy and Christianity can slowly and surely do the rest.  Till these four things have ceased to be done, statesmanship and philanthropy alike must work in vain and even Christianity can reap by small harvests."

No one heard her...

Next time...The Final Clash
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On March 15, 1767, Andrew Jackson is born in the Garden of the Waxhaws, South Caroline.  The son of Irish immigrants, Jackson spent much of his early life in the rough-and-tumble frontier regions of South Carolina and Tennessee. His father died from injuries sustained while lifting a heavy log, and his mother was left with few resources to support the family. Jackson received only a minimal formal education, but he learned a great deal about the practical realities of frontier life by mixing with the rowdy frontiersmen around him.