SEPT 23: Sherman Advocates for Harsh Treatment of Native Tribes

On Sept. 23, 1868, Lt. General William Tecumseh Sherman advocates for using harsh measures against Native American tribes during the Plains Wars in a letter written to his brother, U.S. Senator John Sherman.

Sherman’s Sept. 23, 1868, letter to his brother, Sen. John Sherman. (Credit: Library of Congress)

In it, the General states:

“The more we can kill this year, the less will have to be killed the next year, for the more I see of these Indians, the more convinced am I that they have all to be killed, or be maintained as a species of paupers.”

The letterhead reads, “Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri.”