The Works of Theodore Roosevelt
Vol. 8
"Thomas Hart Benton"- "Gouverneur Morris"
Pages 156 & 157


",,,We usually group all our Indian Wars together, in 
speaking of their justice or injustice; and thereby show 
flagrant ignorance. The Sioux and Cheyennes, for 
instance, have more often been sinning than sinned 
against; for example, the so called Chivington or Sandy 
Creek Massacre, in spite of certain most objectionable 
details, was on the whole as  righteous and beneficial a 
deed as ever took place on the frontier. On the other 
hand, the most cruel wrongs have been perpetrated by 
whites upon perfectly peaceable and unoffending tribes 
like those of California, or the Nez Perces.  Yet the 
emasculated professional humanitarians mourn as much 
over one set of Indians as over the other--and indeed, on 
all points connected with Indian management, are as 
untrustworthy and unsafe leaders as would be an equal 
number of the most brutal white borderers. "

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