In the Wisconsin war
(Black Hawk, 1832), even after the poor starved warriors had surrendered
themselves by treaty, after a noble struggle, more than two hundred old
men, women, and children were forced by the Americans to cross the river
without boats or canoes. The poor things endeavoured to pass it with the
help of their horses; the river there was more than half a mile broad,
and while these unfortunates were struggling for life against a current
of nine miles an hour, they were shot in the water.
This fact is known to all the tribes--even to the Comanches, who are so
distant. It has satisfied them as to what they may expect from those who
thus violate all treaties and all faith. The remainder of that brave
tribe is now dwelling on the west borders of Iowa, but their wrongs are
too deeply dyed with their own blood to be forgotten even by
generations, and their cause is ready to be espoused by every tribe,
even those who have been their hereditary enemies; for what is, after
all, their history, but the history of almost every Indian nation
transplanted on the other side of the Mississippi?
This belt of Indian tribes, therefore, is rather an unsafe neighbour,
especially in the event of a civil war or of a contest with England.
Having themselves, by a mistaken policy, collected together a cordon of
offended warriors, the United States will some day deplore, when too
late, their former greediness, and cruelty towards the natural owners of
their vast territories.
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