I am very glad to have this opportunity of returning the compliment.
Crook was a man who lived and fought without any ostentation, but who had high courage and used rare judgment.

The fact that he had command of the forces in the West had much to do with their successes in subduing the hostile red man.

Indeed, had not our army taught the Indians that it was never safe, and usually extremely dangerous, to go on the warpath against the Big White Chief, organizations might have been formed which would have played sad havoc with our growing Western civilization.
I am and always have been a friend of the Indian.

I have always sympathized with him in his struggle to hold the country that was his by right of birth.
But I have always held that in such a country as America the march of civilization was inevitable, and that sooner or later the men who lived in roving tribes, making no real use of the resources of the country, would be compelled to give way before the men who tilled the soil and used the lands as the Creator intended they should be used.
In my dealings with the Indians we always understood each other.

In a fight we did our best to kill each other.