with human activity
that might interest us, were it
not featureless from distance....
of these Indians. Here is a labyrinth
of 600 square miles where they are at home.
A war with the Utes would outlast the Seminole war
in time, and exceed it in cost. The whole body
of the Utes at war would take enormous sums
to overpower. In that country our troops
would be at the mercy of the Indians
at every point. -- Q. Would you think it wise to place
those Indians in the Indian Territory?
-- A. There is wide diff erence of opinion about that.
The reason I have favored it is this:
The Indian Territory has fertile land enough
to enable those Indians to settle comfortably.
Again, the country is not broken, ridged,
and labyrinthine; the Army could use artillery,
against which, the Indians know very well
it is useless for them to go on the warpath:
as a defensive measure, then, it would be wise
to take them out of their fastnesses, put them
where they are safe and can support themselves --
at no other point can they be fed so cheaply
as in the Indian Territory. Then, too,
there is a large mining population