Press And Daily Dakotaian

McGILLYCUDDY'S DEFENSE.
The Agent of the Ogallalas gives his Version of Agency Troubles.
Omaha, Neb., Nov. 10—Dr. McGillycuddy, agent of the Pine Ridge, Indian agency, Dak., who has been in Omaha to-day, says that he has been told that he is to be superceded in the near future by another agent, but he does not propose to retire without making a fight in defense of his administration. He is the most inspected agent in the service, but he still holds his place, having in every instance disproved the charges made against him. McGillycuddy does not favor the transfer of the Indians to the war department. He says:
The presence of troops on reservations will always be a source of irritation. Indians will not be civilized by compulsion. An agent by dividing sentiment can use one band against another in stimulating an advance in material progress, while with soldiers the natural sentiment of opposition would have a tendency to bind all together in the reactionary policy of living at the expense of the government. I would prefer fifty Indian police on the reservation to a regiment of soldiers as sufficient aids to the preservation of peace. My captain of police will support the government against the claims of any chief to supreme authority. No matter who the agent may be, his men scattered through every Indian village are at once detectives, policemen and soldiers, who report at once any symptoms of outbreak before they have time to materialize. With no other soldiers, in all my contests with Red Cloud and his faction, I have been able to preserve quiet at Pine Ridge without calling once on the military. We have two parties of malcontents, one under Red Cloud and the other progressions under Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses. Red Cloud is seventy-four years of age. We have never recognized his claim to be chief of the Sioux, believing it to be dangerous to permit such assumption of wide-sweeping authority in a man of his nature and views. It is harmless as long as it is kept where it is. A change of agents would, however, be taken as a recognition of Red Cloud's claims and would increase his power for damage. I have recognized no head chief, but have continually asserted the authority of the government as supreme in all questions. The greater portion of the Sioux are with me and the most influential chiefs support my policy. It is a very difficult problem, this Indian question, rendered the more difficult by vacillation in its treatment in years past. The treaty of 1868 made near Laramie, began with the interesting statement that "We, the government of the United States, desire peace." Under its provisions the Sioux seems to have the idea that they are to be perpetually fed at government expense, and this idea is sedulously fostered by Red Cloud and his band, who, in turn, are supported by the Indian sentimentalists of the east. If Indians are to be made harmless for damage to settlements, self-supporting and advanced in civilization, they must be first disabused of the idea that they are sovereign nations. They must understand that the United States is supreme and that their future good depends upon their present good behavior. They must be encouraged to keep themselves, to farm and raise stock, and the advantages of education must be freely offered to the growing generation.