was 37,000--one soldier to each one thousand of our population.

Against this force, pioneers of the vaster advancing army of
peaceful settlers now surging West, there was arrayed practically
all the population of fighting tribes such as the Sioux, the two
bands of the Cheyennes, the Piegans, the Assiniboines, the
Arapahoes, the Kiowas, the Comanches, and the Apaches. These were
the leaders of many other tribes in savage campaigns which set
the land aflame from the Rio Grande to our northern line. The
Sioux and Cheyennes were more especially the leaders, and they
always did what they could to enlist the aid of the less warlike
tribes such as the Crows, the Snakes, the Bannacks, the
Utes--indeed all of the savage or semi-civilized tribes which had
hung on the flanks of the traffic of the westbound trail.

The Sioux, then at the height of their power, were distinguished
by many warlike qualities. They fought hard and were quick to
seize upon any signs of weakness in their enemies. When we, in
the course of our Civil War, had withdrawn some of the upper
posts, the Sioux edged in at once and pressed back the whites
quite to the eastern confines of the Plains. When we were locked
in the death grip of internecine war in 1862, they rose in one
savage wave of rebellion of their own and massacred with the most
horrible ferocity not less than six hundred and forty-four whites
in Minnesota and South Dakota. When General Sibley went out among
them on his later punitive campaign he had his hands full for
many a long and weary day.

Events following the close of the Civil War did not mend matters
in the Indian situation. The railroads had large land grants