JOINT RESOLUTIONS AND MEMORIALS. MEMORIAL AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS For the relief of the Nebraska Militia. To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled : Your memorialists, the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Nebraska, respectfully represent that in August last,. portions of the Sioux, Cheyennes, Kiawas, Camanches and Arapahoes confederated together for the purpose of attacking the frontier settlements of Nebraska, and the emigrant trains en route to Colorado and the gold mines. Suddenly and without the slightest warning they attacked the settlements along the Little Blue river in Nebraska, killing men, women and children without mercy, save in a few instances where they carried the women away captives to undergo a fate more terrible than death itself; and at the same time attacking the emigrant trains along the aforesaid route and from forty miles eastward of Fort Kearney to the extreme western border of the Territory, killing settlers and emigrants and driving off stock to the number of several thousand. This attack extended along a line of settlements comparatively remote from each other, and more than three hundred miles in extent, driving emigration from the road and settlers from their homes. At the time of this attack, and indeed ever since, the number of government troops of duty in this district of country was found entirely insufficient and inadequate to hold the hostile savages in check, protect the emigrant and save the settlements from massacre and devastation. What government troops were here, did nobly and well; but the number was too small to protect the extensive lines of travel, and the settlements so remote from each other. In this emergency, His Excellency, the Governor with a promptness and patriotism which has characterized all his official acts, called upon the Militia of the Territory of Nebraska to save from the tomahawk and scalping knife, the settlers up on our border and drive back the savage foe; and in protecting the United States mail in its transportation across the plains, and also the Pacific Telegraph Line, running as it does through a hostile Indian country. Four companies promptly responded to the call of the Governor, and marched to the frontier; furnishing their own horses. and serving as mounted infantry. One of the companies accompanied Major General Curtis throughout the Indian canipaign, while others rendered not less important service in guarding emigrant trains and the Great Overland Mail and Pacific Telegraph, and in protecting the frontier settlements. All were under the immediate command of the commandant of the United States troops in this department. The militia served faithfully, and it is believed rendered important aid in the Indian campaign, and in protecting the frontier settlements. These militia men were in most cases poor men, who left their wives and children at home, dependent to a great extent upon their daily labor for support; but with that patriotic devotion to country which bas characterized our people in the past, they promptly sacrificed interest and home to the call of humanity, to save from a fate more terrible than death itself, the helpless women and children upon our Bnprotected borders. Your memorialists would further represent, that three, of these four companies have served for the period of four months, and one for the period of sixty days. Two of said companies have been mustered out of service, by reason of the expiration of their term of enlistment, and two are still continued in the service, and none of said militia have received any pay for their services, or the services of their horses, and no compensation has as yet been allowed to those who lost their horses in the service, and we are aware of no provision of law by which they can be paid out of the Federal treasury. And your memorialists would further represent unto your honorable body, that it is a fact to which we cannot shut our eyes if we would, that most of the Indian tribes in Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Dacotah, incited by the emissaries of secession, have uddenly, and by concert of action, resumed a hostile attitude against the Government, and commenced a system of wholesale pillage and murder upon the commerce and travel of the plains, which have grown, within the past eight years, into gigantic proportions. And it is equally true, that unless prompt and energetic measures be employed by the general Government to punish the guilty offenders, and afford adequate protection to this commerce and travel, all communication by the Great Overland Route, between the Atlantic and Pacific will be suspended. No single state, or section is exclusively interested in this matter; it emphatically a National concern, and should therefore challenge the earnest consideration of the National Legislature. The evil to which we refer, is by far too general and wide spread to come within the soope of state or territorial action. Should Kansas undertake the work of expelling the hostile tribes from her boaders, and succeed in |