Words matter. These are the best Nelson A. Miles Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
If we dismiss from our minds the prejudice we may have against the Indians we shall be able to more clearly understand the impulses that govern both races.
Our relations with the Indians have been governed chiefly by treaties and trade, or war and subjugation.
Whether or not our system of Indian management has been a success during the past ten, fifty, or hundred years is almost answered in the asking.
The troops were occasionally occupied in pursuing scattered bands going north or south, and on three occasions the large camp of Sitting Bull ventured south of the Canadian border, and important expeditions were sent against them.
The more we study the Indian’s character the more we appreciate the marked distinction between the civilized being and the real savage.
No administration could stop the tidal wave of immigration that swept over the land; no political party could restrain or control the enterprise of our people, and no reasonable man could desire to check the march of civilization.
Step by step a powerful and enterprising race has driven them back from the Atlantic to the West until at last there is scarcely a spot of ground upon which the Indians have any certainty of maintaining a permanent abode.
For a time during the early settlement of this country peace and goodwill prevailed, only to be followed later by violent and relentless warfare.
It is unfair to suppose that one party has invariably acted rightly, and that the other is responsible for every wrong that has been committed.
Looking at the purpose of our government toward the Indians, we find that after subjugating them it has been our policy to collect the different tribes on reservations and support them at the expense of our people.
If the graves of the thousands of victims who have fallen in the terrible wars of the two races had been placed in line the philanthropist might travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, and be constantly in sight of green mounds.
