Judge — December 20, 1890 — page 16: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This political cartoon satirizes the causes of Native American resistance in the late 19th century. The image depicts Indigenous people in poverty and deprivation—appearing malnourished and desperate—while the caption references General Miles's claim that "Indians are starved into rebellion." The satire suggests that the U.S. government's failure to provide adequate food and resources to reservation populations directly caused violent conflict. By illustrating the stark conditions of starvation, the cartoon critiques federal Indian policy as fundamentally unjust, implying that rebellion was a rational response to systematic deprivation rather than inherent savagery—a counterpoint to prevailing stereotypes of the era. This likely responds to actual late-1880s/1890s conflicts and government negligence in treaty obligations.