Call for Cavalry Volunteers to Fight 'Snake Indians'
The federal government initiates a recruitment drive for the First Regiment of Oregon Cavalry to serve on the frontier, citing a need to address attacks on immigrants.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
One hundred volunteers wanted for the First Regiment of Oregon Cavalry, to serve three years unless sooner discharged. The Governor of Oregon, in his proclamation calling for these volunteers, says that they will be needed the coming spring on the frontiers of this State and Washington Territory, and for an expedition against the Snake Indians who have so long been mercilessly engaged in robbing immigrants and murdering our fellow citizens.
“They will be needed the coming spring on the frontiers of this State and Washington Territory, and for an expedition against the Snake Indians.”
This recruitment notice uses the dehumanizing language common to 1860s frontier policy, which sought to justify state-sanctioned violence against Indigenous populations. It captures a grim historical moment in the displacement of the Snake peoples (Northern Paiute, Shoshone, and Bannock).
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