Orders from Schurz

Carl Schurz — Secretary of the Interior under Hayes and the federal official responsible for Indian affairs — stands stiffly, hands clasped behind his back, facing a group of Ute figures who collectively cry "MORE" in large floating letters. The caption argues a pointed case: Congress had already shipped appropriations to the White River Utes, who then destroyed those same supplies during the attack on Major Thornburgh's column and the massacre at the White River Agency in autumn 1879. Nast's verdict is blunt — you cannot burn your provisions and demand replacements. The Ute figures are rendered in the broad ethnic caricature standard to illustrated weeklies of the period: exaggerated features, feathered dress, stock "savage" posture — visual shorthand that reflected and reinforced white American contempt for treaty-era Native peoples. The sign behind Schurz reads "NO MORE FOOLING," aligning him, however critically he is sometimes drawn elsewhere, with federal firmness here.