“The propensity to beg or steal seemed born in the original Plains Indian. They made away with any portable article at hand from seemingly sheer love of theft. And beg! they would beg one blind! They wanted everything in sight, yet in early days, they made no disturbance if they were given nothing. It actually seemed as if an Indian could not help begging or stealing, but, instead of accepting this as a fact and treating it accordingly with wise leniency, the Whites made use of needless cruelty. When an Indian picked up something and hid it under his blanket to carry away, he was black-snaked, or kicked out of camp. I once saw an Indian climb up on the hind wheel of a big freight wagon and lift up the wagon sheet. As he was peeping in, with his back bent and body exposed much as if he were bent over a barrel, a bull-whacker, with a big ox-whip, stood off ten feet and let him have it on the naked skin. That Indian dropped as if he were shot, with a gash where the lash struck as if a sharp knife had cut him. There were many other Indians in camp, and they all jumped up and halloed and laughed uproariously at the discomfited one, who crept humbly out of camp. Many indignities like this were given the Indians without their retaliating, even though there were often many more Indians than Whites in the party, which conclusively proves the superior peacefulness of the redskin. This was as late as 1863. But soon there came a change. [Illustration: OGLALA WOMAN Pine Ridge, 1909. Photographed by W. K. Moorehead. ] “The Indian wars of the Plains were more the result of a combination of causes, added to those already mentioned. First, our Government commenced a wishy-washy, desultory course with the Indians, instead of taking a bold, firm stand with them, and bringing out enough soldiers to overawe and make them respect the Government by showing them how strong it was, thus making them understand what to expect if they did not behave themselves. The Government policy was so weak at the beginning, that the Indians actually laughed at it and said: ‘The Government is afraid of us; it dare not punish us’; and this was their real belief. I heard some Kiowas braggingly say, ‘Why, we can whip the United States, for it has been fighting Texas for years and cannot whip her. We go and sweep down upon her settlements, kill, burn, and destroy, drive off stock, take women and children prisoners, and make the settlers glad to hide.’ This was at the time of the Civil War, and the Kiowas thought the Government was fighting only Texas.