Native American author and Army surgeon Charles Alexander Eastman was born Hakadah (later named Ohiyesa) near Redwood Falls, MN. He grew up in the traditional Santee Dakota way until he was a teenager, at which time he began to receive a Western education. He graduated from Dartmouth College and then attended Boston University, where he earned a medical degree. He worked as a U.S Army Surgeon on many Native reservations, including Pine Ridge Reservation, during the Wounded Knee Massacre. He authored five books, including “From the Deep Woods to Civilization,” from which this excerpt is taken. The book covers his journey from his traditional childhood to the white, Christian world of his education and early life as an Army surgeon. The external war of genocidal oppression is evident throughout the book, as well as an internal war between what he knew as true as a Native American and what he had been indoctrinated into with his Western education. This excerpt is from Chapter VIII, titled War With The Politicians.

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VIII

WAR WITH THE POLITICIANS

 WHEN the most industrious and advanced Indians on the reservation, to the number of thousands, were ordered into camp within gunshot of Pine Ridge agency, they had necessarily left their homes, their live stock, and most of their household belongings unguarded. In all troubles between the two races, history tells us that the innocent and faithful Indians have been sufferers, and this case was no exception. There was much sickness from exposure, and much unavoidable sorrow and anxiety. Furthermore, the “war” being over, these loyal Indians found that their houses had been entered and pillaged, and many of their cattle and horses had disappeared. The authorities laid all this to the door of the ” hostiles,” and no doubt in some cases the charge may have been true. On the other hand, this was a golden opportunity for white horse and cattle thieves in the surrounding country, and the ranch owners within a radius of a hundred miles claimed large losses also. Moreover, the Government herd of “issue cattle ” was found to be greatly depleted. It was admitted that some had been killed for food by those Indians who fled in terror to the “Bad Lands,” but only a limited number could be accounted for in this way, and little of the stolen property was ever found. An inspector was ordered to examine and record these ” depredation claims,” and Congress passed a special appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars to pay them. We shall hear more of this later. I have tried to make it clear that there was no ” Indian outbreak” in 1890-91 , and that such trouble as we had may justly be charged to the dishonest politicians, who through unfit appointees first robbed the Indians, then bullied them, and finally in a panic called for troops to suppress them. From my first days at Pine Ridge, certain Indians and white people had taken every occasion to whisper into my reluctant ears the tale of wrongs, real or fancied, committed by responsible officials on the reservation, or by their connivance. To me these stories were unbelievable, from the point of view of common decency.

In the Public Domain