Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-07-01
From Washington.


INTERESTING REPORT.
The secretary of the interior received to-day
an interesting official report by Lieut.. Quinton
of the seventh infantry, dated at Fort Shaw,
Montana, May 10Th, giving an account of his eX-
petition in charge of the supplies for the Milk
river agency. AT Fort Browning, May 4th,
Standing Buffalo, accompanied by other leading
chiefs of the Sioux, and Red Stone and Little
Bull of the Assiniboines, together with some
$500 Santee and Yancton Sioux, came in for
grand smoke and council, at which they eX-
pressed an earnest desire for peace but made
strong appeals for powder and lead with which
to shoot buffalo. Powder aud lead" says
Lieut.. Quinton, "was the burden of their
speech"
They said their old country was dead; there
was no game there now, and they had left it for
good. They claimed to be chiefs of whatever
buffalo wandered over their land. They had no
settled homes. They had been driven from the
Minnesota TO the Missouri, and had been wan
dering ever since, sometimes at peace with the
white people, but more often fighting them;
but, if the government would deal with
them as they saw it was dealing with
other Indians, they would be peaceabe.
Standing Buffalo said quite number
of his people understood farming, had farned
before and could farm again; but at present
they wanted TO go out after buffalo.
These Indians are but the advance guard of
the Sioux nation, who are expected to settle in
Montana. Standing Buffalo says they are all
coming. The Teton Sioux, under Sitting Bull,
numbering eight hundred lodges, are moving in
this direction. Sitting Bulls band was formerly
Red Clouds. It, appears that Red Cloud re.
turned to his people with wonderful stories of
what he had seen and heard while visiting the
great father at Washington. Red Cloud saw
too much; the Indians say these things cannot
be, and that the white people must have put
bad medicine over Red Clouds eyes to make
him see every thing and anything that pleased
him, and so Red Cloud lost his influence The
chief SitfinU RulI hos for 10 Obi af sol.
der a Sandwich Islander. They do not allow
their tribe to make robes. After killing the
buffalo, the robe is cut into strips, unless the
killer desires the robe dressed for his own per-
sonal use. Sitting Bull is at war with
all the Indians who trade or deal with
the whites, and all these Indians appear
afraid of him; he says he never will make peace
with the whites. A constant traffic is kept up
between the half breeds from the British terrific
ry and all the Indians Of the northwest. The
half breeds supply them with powder, lead and
an unlimited supply of rum, in exchange for
robes, &c. The Indians also receive large sup
plies of whiskey from a set of men scattered
along our own frontier, called "Wolfers."
THE NEW COMMISSION.
The civil service commission to-day ordered a
close inquiry into the modes of examination in
the departments at Washington, and adjourned
until Monday.
The commission has not made much progress
thus far Members discover that it will take
t0em some time 10 ueDlOllSn particular theOIleS
which each individual has formed on this sub
iect Mr. Curtis seems to favor moderate re-
form, and is of the opinion that If the idea of
political patronage is separated from appoint
ment, the civil service will eventuallyiwork its
own reformation Mr.. Medill goes further and
thinks that tenure of Office should also be made
certain, or at least placed beyond mere
political influences. Mr.. Elliott, the secre-
tary of the commission, has had more practi-
cal experience in civil service matters than any
other member of the board, having been chief
clerk of the bureau of statistics for several
years. He seems to think that qualification
for office should be the first requisite on
which to build a system Of reform, aud that
here is where reform should first commence.
These three features are about the only definite
ideas of reform yet developed. The commits
sioners had an interview with the president yes
terday, but the latter had no suggestions to offer
as TO the nature of the work expected. He in
formed the committee that he did not expect