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Show TfiE camp nm JA.THERIXG AROUND IT I!f k I EMI" X1SCEST M00. i Indian a Enlitd Men A Lett' ln Uutlon Confederal 1'rUonara ou Tlielr Traralu, Ele., Eta. ) The enlistment of Indians to orni 8 troops and 19 companies io many cavalry and infantry regimen!8 1 n Important step toward- a solution of the " Indian problem." U is, of course, an experiment, but ooe form from which no harm can come to the new recruits or to the servce. It may be productive of good, certainly to the Indians, probably to the Array. The ubo of subject tribes under white officers has proved successful in the British occupation of India, and there are many who believe that it solved a difficult problem there. In the use of Indians us scouts our Army made a step toward the present experiment. ex-periment. The War Department does not expect ex-pect to escape difficulties in the organization or-ganization of these Indian companies. It may be very slow recruiting, especially es-pecially for the infantry, as the Indian has a prejudice to life out of the sad-dhe sad-dhe but among the Navajos and some other of the tribes ol Arizona ana iNew Mexico may be induced to take service serv-ice in the infantry. These Indians, It is said, do most of their fighting and trailing on foot, and will readily adapt themselves to infantry life. The conditions of enlistment will be about the same as those governing white recruits, excepting, of course, a requirement of a knowledge of English Eng-lish and testimonials of previous moral character, which the life of the Indian has made it unreasonable to insist upon. The authorized enlisted strength of the army remains at 25,000, and if the Indian enlistments prove successful success-ful the secretary will ask Congress to increase the strength of the army, so as to include the 1,500 Indian recruits that are hoped for. At present the enlisted strength is 23,000, and some difficulty is now encountered in secur-1 ing white and negro recruits. The Indian companies will have separate quarters, but in all other re-jpects re-jpects will be treated as other soldiers sol-diers are. They will be required to enlist for five years. Doubtless experience ex-perience will suggest to the War Department De-partment and to the officers assigned to the Indian companies variations in clothing, food, equipments, and, perhaps, per-haps, in discipline; but those most familiar with the Indians when employed em-ployed as scouts assert that the intelligence intel-ligence of the Indians is likely to be of a higher order than that of the negro ne-gro or the average white recruit Those favorable to the present experiment experi-ment believe that the influence of discipline dis-cipline upon the moral, mental and physical condition of the Indian recruits re-cruits will be as plainly seen quite as soon as it is upon any other material from which our army is drawn. Army and Navy Register. |