REPORT OF THE INDIAN PEACE COMMISSIONERS.

MESSAGE

FROM
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

TRANSMITTING

JANUARY 14, 1868.—Referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed.

To the Senate and House of Representatives :

I transmit herewith the report made by the commissioners appointed under the act of Congress approved on the 20th day of July, 1867, entitled "An act to establish peace with certain hostile Indian tribes," together with the accompanying papers.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, D. C., January 14, 1868.

REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT BY THE INDIAN PEACE COMMISSION, JANUARY 7, 1868.

To the President of the United States :

The undersigned, commissioners appointed under the act of Congress, approved July 20, 1867, "to establish peace with certain hostile Indian tribes," were authorized by said act to call together the chiefs and head men of such bands of Indians as were then waging war, for the purpose of ascertaining their reasons for hostility, and if thought advisable, to make treaties with them, having in view the following objects, viz:

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1st. To remove, if possible, the causes of war.

2d. To secure, as far as practicable, our frontier settlements and the safe building of our railroads looking to the Pacific; and

3d. To suggest or inaugurate some plan for the civilization of the Indians.

Congress, in the passage of the law, seemed to indicate the policy of collecting at some early day all the Indians east of the Rocky mountains on one or more reservations, and with that view it was made our duty to examine and select "a district or districts of country having sufficient area to receive all the Indian tribes occupying territory east of said mountains not now peacefully residing on permanent reservations under treaty stipulations, &c." It was required that these reservations should have sufficient arable or grazing lands to enable the tribes placed on them to support themselves, and that they should be so located as not to interfere with the established highways of travel and the contemplated railroads to the Pacific ocean. The subsequent action and approval of Congress will be necessary, however, to dedicate the district or districts so selected to the purpose of exclusive Indian settlement.

When the act was passed, war was being openly waged by several hostile tribes, and great diversity of opinion existed among the officials of the Government, and no less diversity among our people, as to the means best adapted to meet it. Some thought peaceful negotiation would succeed, while others had no hope of peace until the Indians were thoroughly subdued by force of arms. As a concession to this latter sentiment, so largely prevailing, as well as to meet the possible contingency of failure by the commission, it was, perhaps, wisely provided, that in case peace could not be obtained by treaty, or should the Indians fail to comply with the stipulations they might make for going on their reservations, the President might call out four regiments of mounted troops for the purpose of conquering the desired peace.

On the sixth day of August we met at St. Louis, Missouri, and organized by selecting N. G. Taylor, President, and A. S. H. White, Secretary.

The first difficulty presenting itself was to secure an interview with the chiefs and leading warriors of these hostile tribes. They were roaming over an immense country, thousands of miles in extent, and much of it unknown even to hunters and trappers, of the white race. Small war parties constantly emerging from this vast extent of unexplored country would suddenly strike the border

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settlements, killing the men and carrying off into captivity the women and children. Companies of workmen on the railroads, at points hundreds of miles from each other, would be attacked on the same day, perhaps in the same hour. Overland mail coaches could not be run without military escort, and railroad and mail stations unguarded by soldiery were in perpetual danger. All safe transit across the plains had ceased. To go without soldiers was hazardous in the extreme; to go with them forbade reasonable hope of securing peaceful interviews with the enemy. When the Indian goes to war he enters upon its dreadful work with earnestness and determination. He goes on an errand of vengeance, and no amount of blood satisfies him. It may be because, with him, all wrongs have to be redressed by war. In our intercourse with him we have failed, in a large measure, to provide peaceful means of redress, and he knows no law except that of retaliation. He wages war with the same pertinacity, and indeed in the same spirit, with which a party litigant in full conviction of the right prosecutes his suit in court. His only compromise is to have his rights, real or fancied, fully conceded. To force him yields nothing. In battle he never surrenders, and is the more excusable, therefore, that he never accepts capitulation at the hands of others. In war he does not ask or expect mercy. He is then the more consistent that he does not grant mercy.

So little accustomed to kindness from others, it may not be strange that he often hesitates to confide. Proud himself, and yet conscious of the contempt of the white man, when suddenly aroused by some new wrong, the remembrance of old ones still stinging his soul, he seems to become, as expressed by himself, blind with rage. If he fail to see the olive-branch or flag of truce in the hands of the peace commissioners, and in savage ferocity adds one more to his victims, we should remember that for two and a half centuries he has been driven back from civilization, where his passions might have been subjected to the influences of education and softened by the lessons of Christian charity.

This difficulty, meeting us at the very threshold of our duties, had to be overcome before anything of a practical character could be accomplished. Fortunately, we had on the commission a combination of the civil and military power necessary to give strength and efficiency to our operations. Through the orders of Lieutenant General Sherman to the commanders of posts, and those of commissioner Taylor to superintendents and agents under his charge, in the proper districts, a perfect concert of action was secured, and

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according to our instructions the hostile Indians of western Dakota were notified that we would meet them at Fort Laramie on the 13th day of September; and those then south of the Arkansas, including the Cheyennes, the Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahoes, and Apaches, that we would meet them for consultation at some point near Fort Larned, on or about the 13th day of October.

Whilst runners were being employed and sent out to notify them of our pacific intentions, and our desire to meet them at the times and places stated, the commission resolved to occupy the time intervening before the first meeting in examining the country on the upper Missouri river. The steamer St. John's was chartered, and such goods purchased as were thought suitable as presents to the Indians.

On the 13th of August we met at Fort Leavenworth and took the statements of Major General Hancock, Governor Crawford of Kansas, Father De Smet and others. Thence we proceeded to Omaha, Nebraska, and took the statements of Major General Augur and others. At Yankton we met Governor Faulk of Dakota, and took his evidence on the subjects embraced in our duties. Governor Faulk, at our request, accompanied the commission up the river, and was present at the subsequent interviews with the Indians of his superintendency.

Owing to the low stage of water our progress up the river was much retarded, and we failed to reach Fort Rice as we had intended. On the 30th of August a point twelve miles above the mouth of the Big Cheyenne river was reached, when it was found necessary to turn back in order to fill our several engagements made with the Indians on the river as we went up, and then reach Fort Laramie by the 13th of September.

On the return trip councils were held with various bands of the Sioux or Dakota Indians at Forts Sully and Thompson, and also at the Yankton, Ponka, and Santee Sioux reservations, full reports of which will be found in the appendix. Although these Indians along the Missouri river are not hostile, and do not, therefore, legitimately come within the scope of duties assigned us, yet it was thought quite important, in determining whether the country itself was fit for an Indian reservation, to examine into the condition of those now there, and especially those who are endeavoring to live by agriculture.

The time given us was too short to make anything like a personal inspection of so large a district of uninhabited country as that which lies north of Nebraska, between the Missouri river on

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the east and the Black Hills on the west, and to which public attention is now being very generally directed as a home for the more northern tribes. We took evidence of those who had traversed this region in reference to the soil, climate, and productions, which evidence will be found in the appendix. To this subject we shall again allude when we come to speak of reservations for Indian settlement.

In this connection, however, before returning to the thread of our narrative, it is our duty to remark that the condition of these tribes demands prompt and serious attention. The treaty stipulations with many of them are altogether inappropriate. They seem to have been made in total ignorance of their numbers and disposition, and in utter disregard of their wants. Some of the agents now among them should be removed, and men appointed who will, by honesty, fair dealing, and unselfish devotion to duty, secure their respect and confidence. Where the present treaties fail to designate a particular place as a home for the tribe, they should be changed.

Returning to Omaha on the 11th of September, the steamer was discharged, and we immediately proceeded to North Platte, on the Pacific railroad, where we found a considerable number of the Sioux and northern Cheyennes; some of whom had long been friendly, while others had but recently been engaged in war. A council was held with them, which at one time threatened to result in no good; but finally a full and perfect understanding was arrived at, which though not then, or even yet, reduced to writing, we have every reason to believe has been faithfully kept by them.

It was at this council that the hitherto untried policy in connection with Indians, of endeavoring to conquer by kindness, was inaugurated. Swift Bear, a Brule chief, then and now a faithful friend of the whites, had interested himself to induce the hostile bands to come into this council, and had promised them, if peace were made, that ammunition should be given them to kill game for the winter. This promise was not authorized by the commissioners, but we were assured that it had been made not only by him, but by others of our runners, and that nothing less would have brought them in. These Indians are very poor and needy. The game in this section is fast disappearing, and the bow and arrow are scarcely sufficient to provide them food. To give one of these Indians powder and ball is to give him meat. To refuse it in his judgment, dooms him to starvation; and worse than this, he looks upon the refusal, especially after a profession of friend-

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ship on his part, as an imputation upon his truthfulness and fidelity. If an Indian is to be trusted at all, he must be trusted to the full extent of his word. If you betray symptoms of distrust he discovers it with nature's intuition, and at once condemns the falsehood that would blend friendship and suspicion together. Whatever our people may choose to say of the insincerity or duplicity of the Indian, would fail to express the estimate entertained by many Indians of the white man's character in this respect. Promises have been so often broken by those with whom they usually come in contact, cupidity has so long plied its work deaf to their cries of suffering, and heartless cruelty has so frequently sought them in the garb of charity, that to obtain their confidence our promises must be scrupulously fulfilled and our professions of friendship divested of all appearance of selfishness and duplicity.

We are now satisfied, whatever the criticisms on our conduct at the time—and they were very severe both by the ignorant and the corrupt—that had we refused the ammunition demanded at this council, the war on their part would have continued, and possibly ere this have resulted in great loss of life and property. As it is, they at once proceeded to their fall hunt on the Republican river, where they killed game enough to subsist themselves for a large part of the winter, and no act of hostility or wrong has been perpetrated by them since.

The statement of this fact, if it proves nothing else, may serve to indicate that the Indian, though barbarous, is yet a man, susceptible of those feelings which ordinarily respond to the exercise of magnanimity and kindness. If it should suggest to civilization that the injunction to "do good to them that hate us" is not confined to race, but broad as humanity itself, it may do some good even to ourselves. It will at least for the practical man, honestly seeking a solution of these troubles, serve a better purpose than whole pages of theorizing upon Indian character.

At this point we were informed by our scouts that the northern Sioux, who were waging war on the Powder river, would not be able to meet us at Fort Laramie at the time indicated; whereupon we adjourned the meeting until the 1st day of November, and requested them if possible to secure a delegation to meet us on our return. We then left the valley of the Platte and proceeded up the Kansas river and its tributaries to Fort Harker, and thence by the way of Fort Laramie to a point eighty miles south of the Arkansas river, where we met the Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahoes and Apaches on a stream called Medicine Lodge creek. It should

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be stated at this point that when we arrived at St. Louis, on our way, either, we found that Lieutenant General Sherman had been summoned to Washington city by the President, and his place on the commission supplied by the appointment of Brevet Major General C. C. Augur, who joined the other members at Fort Larned and participated in all our subsequent proceedings. At our first councils at Medicine Lodge the larger body of the hostile Cheyennes remained off at a distance of forty miles.

These latter Indians were evidently suspicious of the motives which had prompted us to visit them. Since the preceding April they had committed many depredations. They had been unceasingly on the war-path, engaged in indiscriminate murder and plunder. They knew that our troops had but recently been hunting them over the plains, killing them wherever they could find them. They could not therefore appreciate this sudden change of policy. For two weeks they kept themselves at a distance, sending in small parties to discover if possible our true intentions.

Before the arrival of the Cheyennes we concluded treaties with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches, and after their arrival we concluded a joint treaty with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, all of which we herewith submit and earnestly recommend for ratification.

Before these agreements were perfected we had many interviews or "talks" with the several tribes, some of which were exceedingly interesting as illustrative of their character, habits, and wishes. Being provided with an efficient short-hand reporter, we were enabled to preserve the full proceedings of these councils, and to them we especially call your attention.

After giving to these tribes their annuities, which had been detained at the military posts since last spring on account of their alleged hostility, and after distributing among them some presents, the commission returned to Omaha, and thence by North Platte to Fort Laramie, to fill our second engagement with the hostile Sioux and Cheyennes of the north.

On arriving at Fort Laramie we found awaiting us a delegation of Crows, with whom a council was held and their statements taken. Red Cloud, the formidable chief of the Sioux, did not come to this council. The Crows, as a tribe, have not been hostile. Some of their young men, no doubt, have united themselves with the hostile forces of Ogallalla and Brulé Sioux and northern Cheyennes, who since July, 1866, under the leadership of Red Cloud, have spread terror throughout this entire region of country.

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We greatly regret the failure to procure a council with this chief and his leading warriors. If an interview could have been obtained, we do not for a moment doubt that a just and honorable peace could have been secured. Several causes operated to prevent his meeting us. The first, perhaps, was a doubt of our motives; the second results from a prevalent belief among these Indians that we have resolved on their extermination; and third, the meeting was so late in the season that it could not be attended in this cold and inhospitable country without great suffering. He sent us word, however, that his war against the whites was to save the valley of the Powder river, the only hunting ground left to his nation, from our intrusion. He assured us that whenever the military garrisons at Fort Phil. Kearney and Fort C. F. Smith were withdrawn, the war on his part would cease. As we could not then, for several reasons, make any such agreement, and as the garrisons could not have been safely removed so late in the season, the commission adjourned, to meet in Washington on the ninth day of December. Before adjourning we took the promise of the Crows to meet us early next summer, and sent word to Red Cloud and his followers to meet us at the same council, to be held either at Fort Rice on the Missouri river, or at Fort Phil. Kearney, in the mountains, as they might prefer. We also asked a truce or cessation of hostilities until the council could be held.

Returning then by way of North Platte, we received new assurances of peace and friendship from the Indians there assembled. They will give us no further trouble at present. They are the same to whom we gave the ammunition.

Since arriving here, we are gratified to be informed that Red Cloud has accepted our proposition to discontinue hostilities, and meet us in council next spring or summer. And now, with anything like prudence and good conduct on the part of our own people in the future, we believe the Indian war east of the Rocky mountains is substantially closed.

Our first duty under the act, it will be remembered, was to secure a conference with the Indians. Having obtained that conference, our second duty was to ascertain from themselves the reasons inducing them to go to war. These reasons may be gathered from the speeches and testimony of the chiefs and warriors hereto appended. The limits of this paper will not permit more than a brief summary of these reasons. The testimony satisfies us that since October, 1865, the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches have substantially complied with their treaty stipulations entered into

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at that time at the mouth of the Little Arkansas. The only flagrant violation we were able to discover consisted in the killing of James Box and the capture of his family in western Texas, about the 15th of August, 1866. The alleged excuse for this act is, that they supposed an attack on Texas people would be no violation of a treaty with the United States; that as we ourselves had been at war with the people of Texas, an act of hostility on their part would not be disagreeable to us.

We are aware that various other charges were made against the Kiowas and Comanches, but the evidence taken will pretty clearly demonstrate that these charges were almost wholly without foundation. The charges against the Arapahoes amounted to but little.

The story of the Cheyennes dates far back, and contains many points of deep and thrilling interest. We will barely allude to some of them and then pass on.

In 1851, a short time after the discovery of gold in California, when a vast stream of emigration was flowing over the western plains, which up to that period had been admitted by treaty and by law to be Indian territory, it was thought expedient to call together all the tribes east of the Rocky mountains for the purpose of securing the right of peaceful transit over their lands, and also fixing the boundaries between the different tribes themselves. A council was convened at Fort Laramie on the 17th day of September of that year, at which the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Crows, Assinaboines, Gros-Ventres, Mandans, and Arickarees were represented. To each of these tribes boundaries were assigned. To the Cheyennes and Arapahoes was given a district of country "commencing at the Red Butte, or the place where the road leaves the north fork of the Platte river; thence up the north fork of the Platte river to its source; thence along the main range of the Rocky mountains to the head-waters of the Arkansas river; thence down the Arkansas river to the crossing of the Santa Fé road; thence in a northwesterly direction to the forks of the Platte river; thence up the Platte river to the place of beginning." It was further provided in this treaty that the rights or claims of any one of the nations should not be prejudiced by this recognition of title in the others, and "further, that they do not surrender the privilege of hunting, fishing, or passing over any of the tracts of country hereinbefore described." The Indians granted us the right to establish roads and military and other posts within their respective territories, in consideration of which we agreed to pay the In-

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dians fifty thousand dollars per annum for fifty years, to be
distributed to them in proportion to the population of the respec-
tive tribes. When this treaty reached the Senate, "fifty years"
was stricken out and "ten years" substituted, with authority in
the President to continue the annuities for a period of five years
longer, if he saw fit.

It will be observed that the boundaries of the Cheyenne and
Arapahoe land, as fixed by this treaty, include the larger portion
of the Territory of Colorado and most of the western part of
Kansas.

Some years after this gold and silver were discovered in the
mountains of Colorado, and thousands of fortune-seekers, who
possessed nothing more than the right of transit over these lands,
took possession of them for the purpose of mining, and, against
the protests of the Indians, founded cities, established farms and
opened roads. Before 1861 the Cheyennes and Arapahoes had been
driven from the mountain regions down upon the waters of the
Arkansas, and were becoming sullen and discontented because of
this violation of their rights. The third article of the treaty of
1851 contained the following language: "The United States bind
themselves to protect the aforesaid Indian nations against the
commission of all depredations by the people of the United States
after the ratification of this treaty." The Indians, however igno-
rant, did not believe that the obligations of this treaty had been
complied with.

If the lands of the white man are taken, civilization justifies him
in resisting the invader. Civilization does more than this; it
brands him as a coward and a slave if he submits to the wrong.
Here civilization made its contract and guaranteed the rights of
the weaker party. It did not stand by the guarantee. The treaty
was broken; but not by the savage. If the savage resists, civiliza-
tion, with the ten commandments in one hand and the sword in
the other, demands his immediate extermination.

We do not contest the ever ready argument that civilization
must not be arrested in its progress by a handful of savages. We
earnestly desire the speedy settlement of all our Territories. None
are more anxious than we to see their agricultural and mineral
wealth developed by an industrious, thrifty, and enlightened popu-
lation. And we fully recognize the fact that the Indian must not
stand in the way of this result. We would only be understood as
doubting the purity and genuineness of that civilization which
reaches its ends by falsehood and violence, and dispenses blessings
that spring from violated rights.

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These Indians saw their former homes and hunting grounds overrun by a greedy population, thirsting for gold. They saw their game driven east to the plains, and soon found themselves the objects of jealousy and hatred. They too must go. The presence of the injured is too often painful to the wrong-doer, and innocence offensive to the eyes of guilt. It now became apparent that what had been taken by force must be retained by the ravisher, and nothing was left for the Indian but to ratify a treaty concreting the act.

On the 18th day of February, 1861, this was done at Fort Wise, in Kansas. These tribes ceded their magnificent possessions, enough to constitute two great States of the Union, retaining only a small district for themselves, "beginning at the mouth of the Sandy fork of the Arkansas river and extending westwardly along said river to the mouth of the Purgatory river: thence along up the west bank of the Purgatory river to the northern boundary of the Territory of New Mexico; thence west along said boundary to a point where a line drawn due south from a point on the Arkansas river five miles east of the mouth of the Huerfano river would intersect said northern boundary of New Mexico; thence due north from that point on said boundary to the Sandy fork to the place of beginning." By examining the map, it will be seen that this reservation lies on both sides of the Arkansas river, and includes the country around Fort Lyon. In consideration of this concession, the United States entered into new obligations. Not being able to protect them in the larger reservation, the nation resolved that it would protect them "in the quiet and peaceable session" of the smaller tract. Second, "to pay each tribe thirty thousand dollars per annum for fifteen years;" and third, that houses should be built, lands broken up and fenced, and stock animals and agricultural implements furnished. In addition to this, mills were to be built, and engineers, farmers, and mechanics sent amongst them. These obligations, like the obligations of 1851, furnished glittering evidences of humanity to the reader of the treaty. Unfortunately, the evidence stops at that point.

In considering this treaty, it will occur to the reader that the eleventh article demonstrates the amicable relations between the Indiars and their white friends up to that time. It provides as follows: "In consideration of the kind treatment of the Arapahoes and Cheyennes by the citizens of Denver City and the adjacent towns, they respectfully request that the proprietors of said city and adjacent towns be permitted by the United States Government

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to enter a sufficient quantity of land to include said city and towns
at the minimum price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per
acre."

Large and flourishing cities had been built on the Indian lands,
in open violation of our treaty. Town lots were being sold, not by
the acre, but by the front foot. Rich mines had been opened in
the mountains, and through the streets of these young cities
poured the streams of golden wealth. This had once been Indian
property. If the white man in taking it was "kind" to the
savage, this at least carried with it some honor, and deserves to be
remembered. By some it may be thought that a more substantial
return might well have been made. By others it may be imagined
that the property of the Indians and the amicable courtesies of the
whites were just equivalents. But "kind treatment" here was
estimated at more than the Indians could give. It was thought to
deserve something additional at the hands of the Government, and
the sites of cities at one dollar and a quarter per acre was perhaps
as reasonable as could be expected. If the absolute donation of
cities already built would secure justice, much less kindness to the
red man, the Government could make the gift and save its millions
of treasure.

When the treaty came to the Senate, the 11th article was stricken
out, but it would be unjust to suppose that this action was permit-
ted to influence in the least future treatment by the whites. From
this time until the 12th of April, 1864, these Indians were con-
fessedly at peace. On that day a man by the name of Ripley, a
ranchman, came into camp Sanborn, on the south Platte, and
stated that the Indians had taken his stock; he did not know what
tribe. He asked and obtained of Captain Sanborn, the commander
of the post, troops for the purpose of pursuit. Lieutenant Dunn,
with forty men, was put under the guide of this man Ripley, with
instructions to disarm the Indians found in possession of Ripley's
stock. Who or what Ripley was we know not. That he owned
stock we have his own word, the word of no one else. During the
day Indians were found. Ripley claimed some of the horses.
Lieutenant Dunn ordered the soldiers to stop the herd, and or-
dered the Indians to come forward and talk with him. Several of
them rode forward, and, when within six or eight feet, Dunn or-
dered his men to dismount and disarm the Indians. The Indians
of course resisted, and a fight ensued: What Indians they were
he knew not; from bows and arrows found, he judged them to be
Cheyennes. Dunn getting the worst of the fight, returned to

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camp, obtained a guide and a remount and next morning started again. In May following, Major Downing, of the first Colorado cavalry, went to Denver and asked Colonel Chivington to give him a force to move against the Indians. For what purpose we do not know. Chivington gave him the men, and the following are Downing's own words: "I captured an Indian and required him to go to the village or I would kill him. This was about the middle of May. We started about eleven o'clock in the day, travelled all day and all that night; about daylight I succeeded in surprising the Cheyenne village of Cedar Bluffs, in a small cañon about sixty miles north of the South Platte river. We commenced shooting. I ordered the men to commence killing them. They lost, as I am informed, some twenty-six killed and thirty wounded. My own loss was one killed and one wounded. I burnt up their lodges and everything I could get hold of. I took no prisoners. We got out of ammunition and could not pursue them."

In this camp the Indians had their women and children. He captured a hundred ponies which, the officer says, "were distributed among the boys, for the reason that they had been marching almost constantly day and night for nearly three weeks." This was done because such conduct "was usual" he said, "in New Mexico." About the same time, Lieutenant Ayres, of the Colorado troops, had a difficulty, in which an Indian chief under a flag of truce was murdered. During the summer and fall occurrences of this character were frequent. Sometime during the fall, Black Kettle and other prominent chiefs of the Cheyennes and Arapahoe nations sent word to the commander at Fort Lyon that the war had been forced upon them and they desired peace. They were then upon their own reservation. The officer in command, Major E. W. Wynkoop, first Colorado cavalry, did not feel authorized to conclude a treaty with them, but gave them a pledge of military protection until an interview could be procured with the Governor of Colorado, who was superintendent of Indian affairs. He then proceeded to Denver with seven of the leading chiefs to see the Governor. Colonel Chivington was present at the interview. Major Wynkoop, in his sworn testimony before a previous commission, thus relates the action of the Governor, when he communicated the presence of the chiefs seeking peace: "He (the Governor) intimated that he was sorry I had brought them; that he considered he had nothing to do with them, that they had declared war against the United States, and he considered them in the hands of the military authorities; that he did not think any-

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how it was policy to make peace with them until they were properly punished, for the reason that the United States would be acknowledging themselves whipped." Wynkoop further states that the Governor said the third regiment of Colorado troops had been raised, on his representations at Washington, "to kill Indians, and Indians they must kill." Wynkoop then ordered the Indians to move their villages nearer to the fort, and bring their women and children, which was done. In November this officer was removed, and Major Anthony, of the first Colorado cavalry, ordered to take command of the fort. He too assured the Indians of safety. They numbered about five hundred men, women, and children. It was here, under the pledge of protection, that they were slaughtered by the third Colorado and a battalion of the first Colorado cavalry under command of Colonel Chivington. He marched from Denver to Fort Lyon, and about daylight in the morning of the 29th of November, surrounded the Indian camp and commenced an indiscriminate slaughter. The particulars of this massacre are too well known to be repeated here with all its heart-rending scenes. It is enough to say, that it scarcely has its parallel in the records of Indian barbarity. Fleeing women holding up their hands and praying for mercy were brutally shot down; infants were killed and scalped in derision; men were tortured and mutilated in a manner that would put to shame the savage ingenuity of interior Africa.

No one will be astonished that a war ensued which cost the Government thirty million dollars, and carried conflagration and death to the border settlements. During the spring and summer of 1865 no less than eight thousand troops were withdrawn from the effective force engaged in suppressing the rebellion to meet this Indian war. The result of the year's campaign satisfied all sensible men that war with Indians was both useless and expensive. Fifteen or twenty Indians had been killed, at an expense of more than a million dollars apiece, while hundreds of our soldiers had lost their lives, many of our border settlers been butchered, and much property destroyed. To those who reflected on the subject, knowing the facts, the war was something more than useless and expensive; it was dishonorable to the nation, and disgraceful to those who had originated it.

When the utter futility of conquering a peace was made manifest to every one, and the true causes of the war began to be developed, the country demanded that peaceful agencies should be resorted to. Generals Harney, Sanborn, and others were selected as com-

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missioners to procure a council of the hostile tribes, and in Octo-
ber, 1865, they succeeded in doing so at the mouth of the Little
Arkansas. At this council the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were
induced to relinquish their reservation on the upper Arkansas and
accept a reservation partly in southern Kansas and partly in the
Indian territory, lying immediately south of Forts Larned and
Zarah. The object was to remove them from the vicinity of
Colorado.

By the third article of the treaty it was agreed that until the
Indians were removed to the new reservation, they were "ex-
pressly permitted to reside upon and range at pleasure throughout
the unsettled portions of that part of the country they claim as
originally theirs, which lies between the Arkansas and Platte
rivers." This hunting ground reserved is the same which is
described in the treaty of 1851, and on which they yet claim the
right to hunt as long as the game shall last. When this treaty
came to the Senate for ratification it was so amended as to require
the President to designate for said tribes a reservation outside of
the State of Kansas, and not within any Indian reservation except
upon consent of the tribe interested. As the reservation fixed was
entirely within the State of Kansas and the Cherokee country, this
provision deprived them of any home at all, except the hunting
privilege reserved by the treaty. This statement if not illustrative
of the manner in which Indian rights are secured by our legis-
lators, may at least call for greater vigilance in the future. Agree-
ments at the same time were made with the Kiowas, Comanches,
and Apaches.

So soon as these treaties were signed, the war which had been
waged for nearly two years instantly ceased. Travel was again
secure on the plains. What eight thousand troops had failed to
give, this simple agreement, rendered nugatory by the Senate, and
bearing nothing but a pledge of friendship, obtained. During the
summer, fall and winter of 1866 comparative peace prevailed.
General Sherman, during this time, travelled without escort to the
most distant posts of his command, and yet with a feeling of perfect
security.

To say that no outrages were committed by the Indians would
be claiming for them more than can be justly claimed for the most
moral and religious communities. Many bad men are found
among the whites: they commit outrages despite all social re-
straints; they frequently, too, escape punishment. Is it to be
wondered at that Indians are no better than we? Let us go to our

16

best cities, where churches and school-houses adorn every square,
yet unfortunately we must keep a policeman at every corner and
scarcely a night passes but, in spite of refinement, religion, and
law, crime is committed. How often, too, is it found impossible
to discover the criminal! If, in consequence of these things, war
should be waged against these cities, they too would have to share
the fate of Indian villages.

The Sioux war on the Powder river, to which we shall hereafter
allude, commenced in July, 1866. When it commenced General
St. George Cook, in command at Omaha, forbade within the limits
of his command the sale of arms and ammunition to Indians. The
mere existence of an Indian war on the north Platte aroused ap-
prehensions of danger on the Arkansas. The Cheyennes of the
north and south are related, and though living far apart, they fre-
quently visit each other. Many of the northern Sioux desiring to
be peaceable, (as they allege,) on the breaking out of hostilities in
the north, came south, some to the vicinity of the Republican and
others as far south as Fort Larned. Their appearance here excited
more or less fear among the traders and friighters on the plains.
These fears extended to the settlements, from which they were
reflected back to the military posts. The commanders became
jealous and watchful. Trifles, which under ordinary circumstances
would have passed unnoticed, were received as conclusive of the
hostile purposes of these tribes. Finally, in December, Fetter-
man's party were killed at Fort Phil. Kearney, and the whole
country became thrilled with horror. It is thus that the Indian in
war loses the sympathy of mankind. That he goes to war is not
astonishing; he is often compelled to do so. Wrongs are borne
by him in silence that never fail to drive civilized men to deeds of
violence. When he is your friend he will sometimes sacrifice him-
self in your defence. When he is your enemy he pushes his emnity
to the excesses of barbarity. This shocks the moral sense and
leaves him without defenders.

When the news of this terrible calamity reached the Arkansas
posts, the traders here too were prohibited from selling the Indians
arms. Major Douglas, of the third infantry, as early as the 13th
of January, 1867, communicated his fears to Major General Han-
cock. He pointed to no single act of hostility, but gave the state-
ment of Kicking Bird, a rival chief of Satanto among the Kiowas
that Satanta talked of war and said he would commence when
the grass grew in the spring.

On the 16th of February Captain Smith of the Nineteenth In-

17

fantry, in command of Fort Arbuckle, reports to General Ord at Little Rock, which is at once forwarded to the department of the Missouri, that a negro child and some stock had been taken of by Indians before he took command. His informant was one Jones, an interpreter. In this letter be uses the following significant language: "I have the honor to state further that several other tribes than the Comanches have lately been noticed on the war path, having been seen in their progress in unusual numbers and without their squaws and children, a fact to which much significance is attached by those conversant with Indian usages. It is thought by many white residents of the Territory that some of these tribes may be acting in concert, and that plundering incursions are at least in contemplation."

After enumerating other reports of wrongs, (coming perhaps from Jones,) and drawing inferences therefrom, he closes by saying that he has deferred to the views of white persons, who, from long residence among the Indians, "are competent to advise him," and that his communication "is more particularly the embodiment of their views." As it embodied the views of others, it may not be surprising that a re-enforcement of ten additional companies was asked for his post.

Captain Asbury, at Fort Larned, also reported that a small party of Cheyennes had compelled a ranchman named Parker, near that post, to cook supper for them, and threatened to kill him because he had no sugar. He escaped, however, to tell the tale. Finally, on the 9th of February one F. F. Jones, a Kiowa interpreter, files with Major Douglas, at Fort Dodge, an affidavit that he had recently visited the Kiowa camp in company with Major Page and John E. Tappan on a trading expedition. That the Indians took from them flour, sugar, rice, and apples. That they threatened to shoot Major Page because he was a soldier, and tried to kill Tappan. That they shot at him (Jones) and missed him, (which, in the sequel, may be regarded as a great misfortune.) He stated that the Indians took their mules, and that Satanta requested him to say to Major Douglas that he demanded the troops and military posts should at once be removed from the country, and also that the railroads and mail-stages must be immediately stopped. Satanta requested him to tell Douglas that his own stock was getting poor, and hoped the government stock at the post would be well-fed, as he would be over in a few days to get it. But the most startling of all the statements communicated by Jones on this occasion, was that a war party came in, while he was at the camp,

18

bringing with them two hundred horses and the scalps of seven-negro soldiers and one white man. This important information was promptly despatched to General Hancock, at Fort Leavorth, and a short time thereafter he commenced to organize the expedition which subsequently marched to Pawnee Fork and burned the Cheyenne village.

On the 11th of March following, General Hancock addressed a letter to Wynkoop, the agent of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, that "he had about completed arrangements for moving a force to the plains." He stated that his object was to show the Indians that he was "able to chastise any tribes who may molest people travelling across the plains." Against the Cheyennes he complained, first, that they had not delivered the Indian who killed a New Mexican at Fort Zarah, and, second, he believed he had "evidence sufficient to fix upon the different bands of that tribe, whose chiefs are known, several of the outrages committed on Smoky Hill last summer. He requested the agent to tell them he came "prepared for peace or war," and that hereafter he would "insist upon their keeping off the main lines of travel, where their presence is calculated to bring about collisions with the whites." This it will be remembered was their hunting ground, secured by treaty. On the same day he forwarded a similar communication to J. H. Leavworth, agent for the Kiowas and Comanches. The complaints he alleges against them are precisely the same contained in the affidavit and statement of Jones and the letter of Captain Asbury.

The expedition left Fort Larned on the 13th of April, and proceeded up the Pawnee fork of the Arkansas, in the direction of a village of a thousand or fifteen hundred Cheyennes and Sioux. When he came near their camp the chiefs visited him, as they had already done at Larned, and requested him not to approach the camp with his troops, for the women and children, having the remembrance of Sand Creek, would certainly abandon the village. On the 14th he resumed his march, with cavalry, infantry, and artillery, and, when about ten miles from their village, he was again met by the head men, who stated that they would treat with him there or elsewhere, but they could not, as requested by him, keep their women and children in camp if he approached with soldiers. He informed them that he would march up to within a mile of the village, and treat with them that evening. As he proceeded the women fled, leaving the village, with all their property. The chiefs and a part of the young men remained. To some of these, visiting the camp of General Hancock, horses were furnished to

19

bring back the women. The horses were returned, with word that the women and children could not be collected. It was then night. Orders were then given to surround the village and capture the Indians remaining. The order was obeyed, but the chiefs and warriors had departed. The only persons found were an old Sioux and an idiotic girl of eight or nine years of age. It afterwards appeared that the person of this girl had been violated, from which she soon died. The Indians were gone, and the report spread that she had been a captive among them, and they had committed this outrage before leaving. The Indians say that she was an idiotic Cheyenne girl, forgotten in the confusion of flight—and if violated, it was not by them.

The next morning General Custar, under orders, started in pursuit of the Indians with his cavalry, and performed a campaign of great labor and suffering, passing over a vast extent of country, but seeing no hostile Indians. When the fleeing Indians reached the Smoky Hill they destroyed a station and killed several men. A courier having brought this intelligence to General Hancock, he at once ordered the Indian village, of about three hundred lodges, together with the entire property of the tribes, to be burned.

The Indian now became an outlaw—not only the Cheyennes and Sioux, but all the tribes on the plains. The superintendent of an express company, Cottrell, issued a circular order to the agents and employés of the company in the following language: "You will hold no communications with Indians whatever. If Indians come within shooting distance, shoot them. Show them no mercy, for they will show you none." This was in the Indian country. He closes by saying: "General Hancock will protect you and our property."

Whether war existed previous to that time seems to have been a matter of doubt even with General Hancock himself. From that day forward no doubt on the subject was entertained by anybody. The Indians were then fully aroused, and no more determined war has ever been waged by them. The evidence taken tends to show that we have lost many soldiers, besides a large number of settlers, on the frontier. The most valuable trains belonging to individuals, as well as to government, among which was a government train of ammunition, were captured by these wild horsemen. Stations were destroyed. Hundreds of horses and mules were taken, and found in their possession when we met them in council; while we are forced to believe that their entire loss since the burning of their village consists of six men killed.

20

The Kiowas and Comanches, it will be seen, deny the statement of Jones in every particular. They say that no war party came in at the time stated, or at any other time, after the treaty of 1865. They deny that they killed any negro soldiers, and positively assert that no Indian was ever known to scalp a negro. In the latter statement they are corroborated by all the tribes and by persons who know their habits; and the records of the Adjutant General's office fail to show the loss of the seventeen negro soldiers or any soldiers at all. They deny having robbed Jones, or insulted Page or Tappan. Tappan's testimony was taken, in which he brands the whole statement of Jones as false, and declares that both he and Page so informed Major Douglas within a few days after Jones made his affidavit. We took the testimony of Major Douglas, in which he admits the correctness of Tappan's statement, but, for some reason unexplained, he failed to communicate the correction to General Hancock. The threats to take the horses and attack the posts on the Arkansas were made in a vein of jocular bravado, and not understood by any one present at the time to possess the least importance. The case of the Box family has already been explained, and this completes the case against the Kiowas and Comanches, who are exculpated by the united testimony of all the tribes from any share in the late troubles.

The Cheyennes admit that one of their young men in a private quarrel, both parties being drunk, killed a New Mexican at Fort Zarah. Such occurrences are so frequent among the whites on the plains that ignorant Indians might be pardoned for participating, if it be done merely to evidence their advance in civilization. The Indians claim that the Spaniard was in fault, and further protest that no demand was ever made for the delivery of the Indian.

The Arapahoes admit that a party of their young men, with three young warriors of the Cheyennes, returning from an excursion against the Utes, attacked the train of Mr. Weddell, of New Mexico, during the month of March, and they were gathering up the stock when the war commenced.

Though this recital should prove tedious, it was thought necessary to guard the future against the errors of the past. We would not blunt the vigilance of military men in the Indian country, but we would warn them against the acts of the selfish and unprincipled, who need to be watched as well as the Indian. The origin and progress of this war are repeated in nearly all Indian wars. The history of one will suffice for many.

Nor would we be understood as conveying a censure of General

21

Hancock for organizing this expedition. He had just come to the department, and circumstances were ingeniously woven to deceive him. His distinguished services in another field of patriotic duty had left him but little time to become acquainted with the remote or immediate causes producing these troubles. If he erred, he can very well roll a part of the responsibility on others; not alone on subordinate commanders, who were themselves deceived by others, but on those who were able to guard against the error, and yet failed to do it. We have hundreds of treaties with the Indians and military posts are situated everywhere on their reservations. Since 1837 these treaties have not been compiled, and no provision is made, when a treaty is proclaimed, to furnish it to the commanders of posts, departments, or divisions. This is the fault of Congress.

As early as November, 1866, and long before the late war commenced, Lieutenant General Sherman, in his annual report to General Grant, indicated an Indian policy for the plains. He proposed, with the consent of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Interior, to restrict the Sioux north of the Platte, and east and west of certain lines, and "to deal summarily" with all found outside of those lines without a military pass. He then proceeds to say, "in like manner I would restrict the Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Comanchés, Kiowas, Apaches, and Navajoes, south of the Arkansas and east of Fort Union. This will leave for our people exclusively the use of the wide belt east and west, between the Platte and the Arkansas, in which lie the two great railroads over which passes the bulk of the travel to the mountain territories." He further says: "I beg you will submit this proposition to the honorable Secretary of the Interior, that we may know we do not violate some one of the solemn treaties made with these Indians, who are very captious and claim to the very letter the execution on our part of those treaties, the obligations of which they seem to comprehend perfectly." On the 15th of January this suggestion was communicated by General Grant to the Secretary of War with the following remarks: "I approve this proposition of General Sherman, provided it does not conflict with our treaty obligations with the Indians now between the Platte and Arkansas."

We have already shown that such a proposition was directly in the face of our treaty with the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches. It is true, that a communication of the then Commissioner of Indian Affairs on the subject to the Secretary of the Interior, dated January 15, 1867, was forwarded to the Senate and published by

22

that body; but if any response was ever sent to General Sherman, informing him of existing treaty rights, we are not advised of it. Here, then, the responsibility attaches to the Cabinet. A question of such vital importance should have been examined, and a prompt answer communicated to the officer asking the information. When officers are thus left to move in the dark, blunders are not theirs alone.

A few words only can be given to the origin of the Powder River war. This is partly in the country conceded to the Crows and partly in that conceded to the Sioux by the treaty of 1851. The Sioux have gradually driven the Crows back upon the headwaters of the Yellowstone, in Montana, and claim as a conquest almost the entire country traversed by what is called the Powder River route to Montana. It will be recollected that the treaty of 1851 ceased to be operative in 1866. The annuities had been distributed, or rather appropriations therefor had been made, for the last five years of the term, under the amendment of the Senate heretofore referred to.

The Indians were apprised, of course, that after that year they must look to their own exertions for subsistence. Since 1851, they had seen Colorado settled on the south, and Montana rapidly filling up to the north, leaving them no valuable hunting-grounds of their ancient domain, except along Powder river and other tributaries of the Yellowstone. While the luxuriant growth of grass in this region made it desirable as an Indian hunting-ground, it also rendered it inviting to the gold hunter, as a route to the new mines of Montana.

These Indians have never founded the title to their lands upon the treaty of 1851. They have looked upon that treaty as a mere acknowledgment of a previously existing right in themselves. The assignment of boundaries, they supposed, was merely to fix rights among the tribes—to make certain what was uncertain before. It is true, that by said treaty they “recognized” the right of the United States to establish roads and military posts. But it is equally true, that in lieu of this privilege the United States was to pay them $50,000 per annum for fifty years. The Senate reduced the term to ten years, and the Indians never having ratified the amendment, they have some right to claim, when the annuities are stopped, at the end of fifteen years, a release from their obligations in this behalf.

The proper plan would have been to show some respect to their claims—call them pretensions, if you please—as also some regard

23

for their wants, by entering into new relations with them. This,
however, was not done. The Indian, who had stood by and seen
the stream of population pouring over his lands to California
Utah, Oregon, and Montana, for so many years, began now, when
thrown back by the Government upon his own resources, to seek
some place where he might be secure from intrusion.

But just at this moment, the war of the rebellion being over,
thousands of our people turned their faces toward the treasures of
Montana. The stories in regard to its mines eclipsed those fabul-
ous tales that phrenzied the Spaniard in Mexico. The Indian was
forgotten. His rights were lost sight of in the general rush to
these fountains of wealth. It seemed not to occur to any one that
this poor, despised red man was the original discoverer, and the
sole occupant for many centuries, of every mountain seamed with
quartz, and of every stream whose yellow sands glistened in the
noonday sun. These mountains and streams, where gold is found,
had all been taken from him. He asked to retain only a secluded
spot, where the buffalo and the elk could live, and that spot he
would make his home.

This could not be granted him. It lay on the route to these
quartz mountains and Pactolian streams. The truth is, no place
was left for him. Every inch of the land "belongs to the saints,
and we are the saints."

On the 10th of March, 1866, General Pope, then commanding the
department of the Missouri, issued an order to establish military
posts "near the base of the Big Horn Mountain," and "on or
near the upper Yellowstone," on the new route to Montana. On
the 23d of June, orders were issued from headquarters, department
of the Platte, directing a part of the 18th infantry to garrison
Fortes Reno, Phil. Kearney and C. F. Smith. Colonel Carrington
was placed in command of this new organization, called the
"mountain district."

Phil. Kearney was established July 15th, and C. F. Smith
August 3d. The Indians notified the troops that the occupation
of their country would be resisted. The warning was unheeded.

An attempt was made during that summer, by the Interior De-
partment, to stop the threatened war by negotiation. The Indians,
in council, demanded the evacuation of the country before treat-
ing. This could not be granted, because the civil and military
departments of our Government cannot, or will not, understand
each other. Some of the chiefs reluctantly submitted and signed
the treaty, but Red Cloud retired from the council, placing his

24

hand upon his rifle and saying, "In this and the Great Spirit I trust for the right."

In a few weeks the fires of war blazed along the entire length of this new route. So far from securing emigrant travel the forts themselves were besieged; the mountains swarmed with Indian warriors: the valleys seemed to be covered by them. Wood and may were only procured at the end of a battle. Matters grew worse until the 21st of December, when a wood party being attacked, a reinforcement under Lieutenant-Colonel Fetterman was sent out, and a fight ensued in which every man of our forces was killed. This is called the massacre of Fort Phil. Kearney.

As we have already stated, the Indians yet demand the surrender of this country to them. But they have agreed to suspend hostilities and meet commissioners next spring to treat of their alleged rights, without insisting on the previous withdrawal of the garrisons. Whether they will then insist on the abandonment of the route, we cannot say. Of one thing we are satisfied—that so long as the war lasts the road is entirely useless to emigrants. It is worse than that, it renders other routes insecure, and endangers territorial settlements. It is said that a road to Montana, leaving the Pacific railroad further west and passing down the valley west of the Big Horn mountains, is preferable to the present route. The Indians present no objection to such a road, but assure us that we may travel it in peace.

If it be said that the savages are unreasonable, we answer, that if civilized they might be reasonable. At least they would not be dependent on the buffalo and the elk; they would no longer want a country exclusively for game, and the presence of the white man would become desirable. If it be said that because they are savages they should be exterminated, we answer that, aside from the inhumanity of the suggestion, it will prove exceedingly difficult; and if money considerations are permitted to weigh, it costs less to civilize than to kill.

In making treaties it was enjoined on us to remove, if possible, the causes of complaint on the part of the Indians. This would be no easy task. We have done the best we could under the circumstances, but it is now rather late in the day to think of obliterating from the minds of the present generation the remembrance of wrong. Among civilized men war usually springs from a sense of injustice. The best possible way then to avoid war is to do no act of injustice. When we learn that the same rule holds good with Indians, the chief difficulty is removed. But, it is said our wars

25

with them have been almost constant. Have we been uniformly unjust? We answer, unhesitatingly, yes! We are aware that the masses of our people have felt kindly toward them, and the legislation of Congress has always been conceived in the best intentions, but it has been erroneous in fact or perverted in execution. Nobody pays any attention to Indian matters. This is a deplorable fact. Members of Congress understand the negro question, and talk learnedly of finance, and other problems of political economy, but when the progress of settlement reaches the Indian's home, the only question considered is, " how best to get his lands." When they are obtained the Indian is lost sight of. While our missionary societies and benevolent associations have annually collected thousands of dollars from the charitable, to be sent to Asia and Africa for purposes of civilization, scarcely a dollar is expended or a thought bestowed on the civilization of Indians at our very doors. Is it because the Indians are not worth the effort at civilization? Or is it because our people, who have grown rich in the occupation of their former lands—too often taken by force or procured in fraud—will not contribute? It would be harsh to insinuate that covetous eyes have possibly been set on their remaining possessions, and extermination harbored as a means of accomplishing it. As we know that our legislators and nine-tenths of our people are actuated by no such spirit, would it not be well to so regulate our future conduct in this matter as to exclude the possibility of so unfavorable an inference?

We are aware that it is an easy task to condemn the errors of former times, as well as a very thankless one to criticise those of the present; but the past policy of the Government has been so much at variance with our ideas of treating this important subject that we hope to be indulged in a short allusion to it.

The wave of our population has been from the east to the west. The Indian was found on the Atlantic seaboard, and thence to the Rocky mountains lived numerous distinct tribes, each speaking a language as incomprehensible to the other as was our language to any of them. As our settlements penetrated the interior, the border came in contact with some Indian tribe. The white and Indian must mingle together and jointly occupy the country, or one of them must abandon it. If they could have lived together, the Indian by this contact would soon have become civilized and war would have been impossible. All admit this would have been beneficial to the Indian. Even if we thought it would not have been hurtful to the white man, we would not venture on such an

26

assertion, for we know too well his pride of race. But suppose it
had proved a little inconvenient as well as detrimental, it is ques-
tionable whether the policy adopted has not been more injurious.
What prevented their living together? First. The antipathy of
race. Second. The difference of customs and manners arising
from their tribal or clannish organization. Third. The difference
in language, which, in a great measure, barred intercourse and a
proper understanding each of the other's motives and intentions.

Now by educating the children of these tribes in the English
language these differences would have disappeared, and civiliza-
tion would have followed at once. Nothing then would have been
left but the antipathy of race, and that too is always softened in
the beams of a higher civilization.

Naturally the Indian has many noble qualities. He is the very
embodiment of courage. Indeed at times he seems insensible of
fear. If he is cruel and revengeful it is because he is outlawed,
and his companion is the wild beast. Let civilized man be his
companion, and the association warms into life virtues of the rarest
worth. Civilization has driven him back from the home he loved;
it has often tortured and killed him, but it never could make him
a slave. As we have had so little respect for those we did enslave,
to be consistent this element of Indian character should challenge
some admiration.

But suppose, when civilized, our pride had still rejected his as-
sociation, we could at least have removed the cause of war by
giving him a home to himself, where he might, with his own race,
have cultivated the arts of peace. Through sameness of language
is produced sameness of sentiment and thought; customs and habits
are moulded and assimilated in the same way, and thus in process
of time the differences producing trouble would have been gradu-
ally obliterated. By civilizing one tribe others would have fol-
lowed. Indians of different tribes associate with each other on
terms of equality; they have not the Bible, but their religion,
which we call superstition, teaches them that the Great Spirit
made us all. In the difference of language to-day lies two-thirds
of our trouble.

Instead of adopting the plan indicated, when the contact came
the Indian had to be removed. He always objected and went with
a sadder heart. His hunting grounds are as dear to him as is the
home of his childhood to the civilized man. He too loves the
streams and mountains of his youth; to be forced to leave them
breaks those tender chords of the heart which vibrate to the softer

27

sensibilities of human nature, and dries up the fountains of benevolence and kindly feeling without which there is no civilization.

It is useless to go over the history of Indian removals. If it had been done but once, the record would be less revolting; from the eastern to the middle States, from there to Illinois and Wisconsin, thence to Missouri and Iowa, thence to Kansas, Dakota and the plains; whither now we cannot tell. Surely the policy was not designed to perpetuate barbarism, but such has been its effect. The motives prompting these removals are too well known to be noticed by us. If the Indians were now in a fertile region of country the difficulty would be less; they would not have to be removed again. But many of them are beyond the region of agriculture, where the chase is an necessity. So long as they have to subsist in this way civilization is almost out of the question. If they could now be brought back into the midst of civilization instead of being pushed west, with all its inconveniences it might settle the problem sooner than in any other way; but were we prepared to recommend such a scheme, the country is not prepared to receive it, nor would the Indians themselves accept it.

But one thing then remains to be done with honor to the nation, and that is to select a district, or districts of country, as indicated by Congress, on which all the tribes east of the Rocky mountains may be gathered. For each district let a territorial government be established, with powers adapted to the ends designed. The governor should be a man of unquestioned integrity and purity of character; he should be paid such salary as to place him above temptation; such police or military force should be authorized as would enable him to command respect and keep the peace; agriculture and manufactures should be introduced among them as rapidly as possible; schools should be established which the children should be required to attend; their barbarous dialects should be blotted out and the English language substituted. Congress may from time to time establish courts and other institutions of government suited to the condition of the people. At first it may be a strong military government; let it be so if thought proper, and let offenders be tried by military law until civil courts would answer a better purpose. Let farmers and mechanics, millers and engineers be employed and sent among them for purposes of instruction; then let us invite our benevolent societies and missionary associations to this field of philanthropy nearer home. The object of greatest solicitude should be to break down the prejudices of tribe among the Indians; to blot out the boundary

23

lines which divide them into distinct nations, and fuse them into
one homogeneous mass. Uniformity of language will do this—
nothing else will. As this work advances each head of a family
should be encouraged to select and improve a homestead. Let the
women be taught to weave, to sew, and to knit. Let polygamy be
punished. Encourage the building of dwellings, and the gathering
there of those comforts which endear the home.

The annuities should consist exclusively of domestic animals,
agricultural and mechanical implements, clothing, and such sub-
sistence only as is absolutely necessary to support them in the
earlier stages of the enterprise. Money annuities, here and else-
where, should be abolished for ever. These more than anything
else have corrupted the Indian service and brought into disgrace
officials connected with it. In the course of a few years the cloth-
ing and provision annuities also may be dispensed with. Mechanics
and artisans will spring up among them, and the whole organiza-
tion, under the management of a few honest men, will become
self-sustaining.

The older Indians at first will be unwilling to confine themselves
to these districts. They are inured to the chase and they will not
leave it. The work may be of slow progress, but it must be done
If our ancestors had done it, it would not have to be done now;
but they did not, and we must meet it. Aside from extermination
this is the only alternative now left us. We must take the savage
as we find him, or rather as we have made him. We have spent
two hundred years in creating the present state of things. If we
can civilize in twenty-five years it will be a vast improvement on
the operations of the past. If we attempt to force the older
Indians from the chase it will involve us in war. The younger
ones will follow them into hostillty and another generation of
savages will succeed. When the buffalo is gone the Indians will
cease to hunt. A few years of peace and the game will have dis-
appeared. In the meantime by the plan suggested we will have
formed a nucleus of civilization among the young that will restrain
the old, and furnish them a home and subsistence when the game
is gone.

The appeal of these old Indians is irresistible. They say, " We
know nothing about agriculture. We have lived on game from
infancy. We love the chase. Here are the wide plains over which
the vast herds of buffalo roam. In the spring they pass from
south to north, and in the fall return, traversing thousands of
miles. Where they go you have no settlements ; and if you had,

29

there is room enough for us both. Why limit us to certain boundaries beyond which we shall not follow the game? If you want the lands for settlement come and settle them. We will not disturb you. You may farm and we will hunt. You love the one, we love the other. If you want game we will share it with you. If we want bread, and you have it to spare, give it to us; but do not spurn us from your doors. Be kind to us, and we will be kind to you. If we want ammunition, give or sell it to us. We will not use it to hurt you, but pledge you all we have, our word, that at the risk of our own we will defend your lives."

If Congress should adopt these suggestions, the only question remaining is, whether there shall be one or two territories. Under all the circumstances we would recommend the selection of two, and locate them as follows, viz:

First, the territory bounded north by Kansas, east by Arkansas and Missouri, south by Texas, and west by the 100th or 101st meridian.

In this territory the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and others of the civilized tribes already reside. In process of time others might gradually be brought in, and in the course of a few years we might safely calculate on concentrating there the following tribes, to wit:

Present population.

<table><tbody><tr><td>Cherokees</td><td>14,000</td></tr><tr><td>Creeks</td><td>14,396</td></tr><tr><td>Choctaws</td><td>12,500</td></tr><tr><td>Chickasaws</td><td>4,500</td></tr><tr><td>Seminoles</td><td>2,000</td></tr><tr><td>Osages</td><td>3,000</td></tr><tr><td>Wichitas, (various tribes)</td><td>3,508</td></tr><tr><td>Kiowas and Comanches</td><td>14,800</td></tr><tr><td>Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches</td><td>4,000</td></tr><tr><td>Pottawatomies</td><td>1,992</td></tr><tr><td>Kansas Indians, (various tribes)</td><td>4,039</td></tr><tr><td>Navajoes of New Mexico</td><td>7,700</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>86,435</td></tr></tbody></table>

It will be seen that we include in this estimate the Kansas Indians and number them at their full population. We learn that treaties are now pending before the Senate for the removal of all the Indians in that State. Among these Indians are many upright, moral, and enlightened men, and our policy, as already indicated would be to have them take lands in severalty on their present

30

reservations, selling the remainder and becoming incorporated among the citizens of the State.

The second district might be located as follows, viz: the territory bounded north by the 46th parallel, east by the Missouri river, south by Nebraska, and west by the 104th meridian.

If the hostile Sioux cannot be induced to remove from the Powder river, a hunting privilege may be extended to them for a time, while the nucleus of settlement may be forming on the Missouri, the White Earth or Cheyenne river. To prevent war, if insisted on by the Sioux, the western boundary might be extended to the 106th or even the 107th meridian for the present.

The following tribes might in a reasonable time be concentrated on this reservation, to wit:

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Present population.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Yankton Sioux</td><td>2,530</td></tr><tr><td>Ponkas</td><td>980</td></tr><tr><td>Lower Brulés</td><td>1,200</td></tr><tr><td>Lower Yanktonais</td><td>2,100</td></tr><tr><td>Two Kettles</td><td>1,200</td></tr><tr><td>Blackfeet</td><td>1,320</td></tr><tr><td>Minneconjous</td><td>2,220</td></tr><tr><td>Uncpapas</td><td>1,800</td></tr><tr><td>Ogallallas</td><td>2,100</td></tr><tr><td>Upper Yanktonais</td><td>2,400</td></tr><tr><td>Sans Arcs</td><td>1,680</td></tr><tr><td>Arickarees</td><td>1,500</td></tr><tr><td>Gros-Ventres</td><td>400</td></tr><tr><td>Mandans</td><td>400</td></tr><tr><td>Assinaboines</td><td>2,640</td></tr><tr><td>Flatheads</td><td>558</td></tr><tr><td>Upper Pend d'Oreilles</td><td>918</td></tr><tr><td>Kootenays</td><td>287</td></tr><tr><td>Blackfeet</td><td>2,450</td></tr><tr><td>Piegans</td><td>1,870</td></tr><tr><td>Bloods</td><td>2,150</td></tr><tr><td>Gros-Ventres</td><td>1,500</td></tr><tr><td>Crows</td><td>3,900</td></tr><tr><td>Winnebagoes</td><td>1,750</td></tr><tr><td>Omahas</td><td>998</td></tr><tr><td>Otoes</td><td>511</td></tr><tr><td>Brulé and Ogallala Sioux</td><td>7,865</td></tr><tr><td>Northern Cheyennes</td><td>1,800</td></tr><tr><td>Northern Arapahoes</td><td>750</td></tr><tr><td>Santee Sioux</td><td>1,350</td></tr></tbody><tfoot><tr><td>Total</td><td>54,126</td></tr></tfoot></table>

It may be advisable to let the Winnebagoes, Omahas, Otoes,

31

Santee Sioux, and perhaps others, remain where they are, and
finally become incorporated with the citizens of Nebraska, as sug-
gested in regard to the Kansas tribes.

The next injunction upon us was to make secure our frontier
settlements and the building of our railroads to the Pacific. If
peace is maintained with the Indian, every obstacle to the spread
of our settlements and the rapid construction of the railroads will
be removed. To maintain peace with the Indian, let the frontier
settler treat him with humanity, and railroad directors see to it
that he is not shot down by employés in wanton cruelty. In short,
if settlers and railroad men will treat Indians as they would treat
whites under similar circumstances, we apprehend but little trouble
will exist. They must acquaint themselves with the treaty obli-
gations of the Government, and respect them as the highest law of
the land. Instead of regarding the Indian as an enemy, let them
regard him as a friend, and they will almost surely receive his
friendship and esteem. If they will look upon him as an unfor-
tunate human being, deserving their sympathy and care, instead
of a wild beast to be feared and detested, then their own hearts
have removed the chief danger.

We were also required to suggest some plan for the civilization
of Indians. In our judgment, to civilize is to remove the causes
of war, and under that head we suggest a plan for civilizing
those east of the mountains. But as it is impracticable to bring
within the two districts named all the Indians under our juris-
diction, we beg the privilege to make some general suggestions,
which may prove beneficial to the service.

1. We recommend that the intercourse laws with the Indian tribes be thoroughly revised. They were adopted when the Indian bureau was connected with the War Department. Since that time the jurisdiction has been transferred to the Interior Department. This was done by simply declaring that the authority over this subject, once exercised by the Secretary of War, should now be exercised by the Secretary of the Interior. Some of the duties enjoined by these laws are intimately connected with the War Department, and it is questionable whether they were intended to be transferred to the Secretary of the Interior. If they were so transferred, the military officers insist that the command of the army is, *pro tanto*, withdrawn from them. If not transferred, the Indian department insists that its powers are insufficient for its own protection in the administration of its affairs. Hence the necessity of clearly defining the line separating the rights and duties of the two departments.

32

2. This brings us to consider the much mooted question whether the bureau should belong to the civil or 'military department of the Government. To determine this properly we must first know what is to be the future treatment of the Indians. If we intend to have war with them the bureau should go to the Secretary of War. If we intend to have peace it should be in the civil department. In our judgment, such wars are wholly unnecessary, and hoping that the Government and the country will agree with us, we cannot now advise the change. It is possible, however, that, despite our efforts to maintain peace, war may be forced on us by some tribe or tribes of Indians. In the event of such occurrence it may be well to provide, in the revision of the intercourse laws or elsewhere, at what time the civil jurisdiction shall cease and the military jurisdiction begin. If thought advisable, also, Congress may authorize the President to turn over to the military the exclusive control of such tribes as may be continually hostile or unmanageable. Under the plan which we have suggested the chief duties of the bureau will be to educate and instruct in the peaceful arts—in other words, to civilize the Indians. The military arm of the Government is not the most admirably adapted to discharge duties of this character. We have the highest possible appreciation of the officers of the army, and fully recognize their proverbial integrity and honor; but we are satisfied that not one in a thousand would like to teach Indian children to read and write, or Indian men to sow and reap. These are emphatically civil, and not military, occupations. But it is insisted that the present Indian service is corrupt, and this change should be made to get rid of the dishonest. That there are many bad men connected with the service cannot be denied. The records are abundant to show that agents have pocketed the funds appropriated by the Government and driven the Indians to starvation. It cannot be doubted that Indian wars have originated from this cause. The Sioux war, in Minnesota, is supposed to have been produced in this way. For a long time these officers have been selected from partisan ranks, not so much on account of honesty and qualification as for devotion to party interests, and their willingness to apply the money of the Indian to promote the selfish schemes of local politicians. We do not doubt that some such men may be in the service of the bureau now, and this leads us to suggest:

3. That Congress pass an act fixing a day (not later than the 1st of February, 1869) when the offices of all superintendents, agents, and special agents shall be vacated. Such persons as have proved

33

themselves competent and faithful may be reappointed. Those who have proved unfit will find themselves removed without an opportunity to divert attention from their own unworthiness by profession of party zeal.

4. We believe the Indian question to be one of such momentous importance, as it respects both the honor and interests of the nation, as to require for its proper solution an undivided responsibility. The vast and complicated duties now developed upon the Secretary of the Interior, leave him too little time to examine and determine the multiplicity of questions necessarily connected with the government and civilization of a race. The same may be said of the Secretary of War. As things now are, it is difficult to fix responsibility. When errors are committed the civil department blames the military; the military retort by the charge of inefficiency or corruption against the officers of the bureau. The Commissioner of Indian affairs escapes responsibility by pointing to the Secretary of the Interior, while the Secretary may well respond that, though in theory he may be responsible, practically he is governed by the head of the bureau. We, therefore, recommend that Indian affairs be committed to an independent bureau or department. Whether the head of the department should be made a member of the President's Cabinet is a matter for the discretion of Congress and yourself, and may be as well settled without any suggestions from us.

5. We cannot close this report without alluding to another matter calling for the special attention of Congress. Governors of Territories are now ex officio superintendents of Indian affairs within their respective jurisdictions. The settlements in the new Territories are generally made on Indian lands before the extinguishment of the Indian title. If difficulties ensue between the whites and Indians, the governor too frequently neglects the rights of the red man, and yields to the demands of those who have votes to promote his political aspirations in the organization of the forthcoming State. Lest any acting governor may suppose himself alluded to, we take occasion to disclaim such intention. We might cite instances of gross outrage in the past, but we prefer to base the recommendation upon general principles, which can be readily understood. And in this connection we deem it of the highest importance that—

6. No governor or legislature of States or Territories be permitted to call out and equip troops for the purpose of carrying on war against Indians. It was Colorado troops that involved us.

34

in the war of 1864-65, with the Cheyennes. It was a regiment
of hundred-day men that perpetrated the butchery at Sand Creek,
and took from the treasury millions of money. A regiment of
Montana troops, last September, would have involved us in an al-
most interminable war with the Crows but for the timely interven-
tion of the military authorities. If we must have Indian wars, let
them be carried on by the regular army, whose officers are gen-
erally actuated by the loftiest principles of humanity, and the
honor of whose profession requires them to respect the rules of
civilized warfare.

7. In reviewing the intercourse laws it would be well to pre-
scribe anew the conditions upon which persons may be authorized
to trade. At present every one trades with or without the author-
ity of the bureau officers, on giving a bond approved by a judge
of one of the district courts. Corrupt and dangerous men thus
find their way among the Indians, who cheat them in trade, and
sow the seeds of dissension and trouble.

8. New provision should be made authorizing and positively
directing the military authorities to remove white persons who
persist in trespassing on Indian reservations and unceded Indian
lands.

9. The Navajo Indians in New Mexico were for several years
held as prisoners of war at the Bosque Redondo, at a very great
expense to the government. They have now been turned over to
the Interior Department, and must be subsisted as long as they re-
main there. We propose that a treaty be made with them, or
their consent in some way obtained, to remove at an early day to
the southern district selected by us, where they may soon be made
self-supporting.

10. We suggest that the President may, at times, appoint some
person or persons in the distant Territories, either civilians or
military men, to make inspection of Indian affairs, and report to
him.

11. A new commission should be appointed, or the present one
be authorized to meet the Sioux next spring, according to our
agreement, and also to arrange with the Navajoes for their re-
moval. It might be well, also, in case our suggestions are adopted
in regard to selecting Indian territories, to extend the powers of
the commission, so as to enable us to conclude treaties or agree-
ments with tribes confessedly at peace, looking to their concentra-
tion upon reservations indicated.

In the course of a short time the Union Pacific railroad will have

35

reached the country claimed by the Snakes, Bannocks, and other
tribes, and, in order to preserve peace with them the commission
should be required to see them and make with them satisfactory
arrangements.

Appended hereto will be found—

1. The journal of our meetings, and councils held.

2. The detailed mass of evidence taken and reports collected, illustrative of the objects embraced in the act creating the commission.

3. The treaty made and concluded with the Kiowas and Co-manches.

4. The supplementary treaty made and concluded with the Apaches of the plains.

5. The treaty of peace made and concluded with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes.

6. The account current of all moneys received and disbursed by authority of the commission.

In conclusion, we beg permission to return our thanks to the
officers of the military posts everywhere within the limits of our
operations, for their uniform courtesy and kindness. The officers
of the railroad companies on the plains especially are entitled to
our thanks for kind co-operation in the objects of our mission, and
attention to our convenience and comfort.

Respectfully submitted :

N. G. TAYLOR, *President*,
J. B. HENDERSON,
W. T. SHERMAN, *Lieut. Gen.*,
WM. S. HARNEY, *Bot. Maj. Gen.*,
JOHN B. SANBORN,
ALFRED H. TERRY, *Bot. Maj. Gen.*,
S. F. TAPPAN,
C. C. AUGUR, *Bot. Maj. Gen. U. S. A.*,
*Commissioners*.

WASHINGTON CITY, D. C.,

January 7, 1868.

PHILADELPHIA, *January* 9, 1871,

Hon. A. A. SARGENT, *Chairman*, &c.,

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Your official note informs me that the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives (of the sub-committee of which you are chairman) is charged with the investigation of certain irregular and unlawful conduct of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, referred to in my letter to the Hon. Secretary of the Interior.

Although I did not suggest an examination by the House of Representatives, yet I will not shrink from a duty imposed upon me as a citizen of the United States, and therefore have arranged the statements of misconduct, under the following heads, to enable your Committee to make a thorough examination without loss of time, and also to enable the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to prepare specific answers.

You ask the names of witnesses, I desire to have summoned. As the documentary testimony in the Indian Office, and with the Second Auditor, Commissary General, and Quartermaster General, will present the case fully, I do not desire to have witnesses sent for, but it may become necessary in the course of investigation.

Yours very respectfully,
WM. WELSH.

4

STATEMENT OF MISCONDUCT IN THE INDIAN OFFICE.

*First.* Extensive purchases of cattle, flour, groceries, &c., by private contract, about June 17th, August 10th, 1870, and at other times, in direct violation of a law of the United States, which requires such supplies to be advertised for in the public newspapers, before purchases are made.

*Second*.—Large purchases made nearly a month before the passage of the appropriation bill, and therefore without warrant of law, and to an extent not warranted by any exigency—the payments to one individual alone amounting to more than three hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. The letters of June 18th, 1870, from the Indian Office to Agent Poole and others, show conclusively that there was no exigency requiring large purchases, as one-third of the cattle were to be delivered about July 15, one-third August 1, and one-third September 1, 1870.

*Third*.—A violation of the appropriation bill passed July 15, 1870. Section 3 making it the express duty of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to consult the board of commissioners in making purchases of all goods to be paid for under said appropriation bill, large purchases of beef, flour, &c., having been made without the knowledge of said board of commissioners.

*Fourth*.—Section 3 of said appropriation bill makes it the duty of the Board of Indian Commissioners "to supervise all expenditures of money appropriated for the benefit of Indians in the United States, and to inspect all goods purchased for said Indians, in connection with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, whose duty it shall be to consult said commission," &c. This well-defined duty imposed on the Commissioner of Indian Affairs was only complied with in the supervision and inspection of dry goods, and

5

wholly neglected in other and far more extensive and important expenditures of money.

*Fifth*.—Culpable neglect in not ascertaining by telegraph or otherwise how much beef and other supplies were likely to be furnished by contractors under the Commissary Department, before making large purchases of beef, &c., as per contracts of June 17, and August 20, 1870.

*Sixth*.—Exorbitant prices paid for provisions about June 17 and August 10. Six-and-one-half cents per pound being the contract price for Texas cattle on the hoof, to be received and receipted for by the agent immediately on the arrival of the herd. The Commissary Department was at that time supplying the agencies at 4$\frac{45}{100}$ cents per pound, and a contract, when properly advertised, was subsequently made by the Indian Department at 3$\frac{88}{100}$ cents per pound. In both cases the contractor was bound to keep the cattle at his own expense and risk, deliverable as required by the agent from time to time during the period of nine months. The contractor for the cattle at 6$\frac{1}{2}$ cents is also a partner in the contract at 3$\frac{88}{100}$ cents. He and others in the cattle business admit that the cost and risk of keeping Texas oxen in that stormy region and near hostile Indians, for delivery as needed, exceeds 1$\frac{1}{4}$ cents per pound, which, deducted from the 4$\frac{45}{100}$ cents and 3$\frac{88}{100}$ cents, makes the purchase at 6$\frac{1}{2}$ cents, for prompt delivery, equal to an advance of 100 per cent. on the Commissary contract and 150 per cent. on the contract made by the Indian Office in pursuance of law after proper public advertisement. I was credibly informed and believe, that the cattle delivered in November at 6$\frac{1}{2}$ cents a pound cost but 2$\frac{3}{4}$ cents at some reservations, 2$\frac{85}{100}$ cents at others, and 3 cents at the most remote. I am offered oxen in full supply for the next season at 2$\frac{3}{4}$ cents a pound, delivered on the banks of the Missouri River, from June 15 to July 1, although the price of cattle has materially advanced in Texas since last spring. The best of the

6

cattle, say 4,000 head, of the 3 88/100 cents contract, cost 3 cents a pound, because they were bought so late that they could not reach Grand River before the close of November. I was credibly informed, and believe, between 2,000 and 3,000 cattle under the same contract were very inferior to the others, and that some of them cost 2½ cents a pound or less.

*Seventh*—The following wrongful and censurable instructions to agents, dated Indian Office, June 18, 1870: "If the quantity of any or all of the articles delivered should vary from the foregoing, either more or less, it will make no particular difference. You will give Mr. Bosler proper receipts for all the supplies furnished by him at the time of the delivery." "The foregoing instructions" notified the agents at Whetstone that one-third of the cattle would be delivered, each, about July 15, August 1 and September 1, 1870. Mr. Bosler notified the agent that he would thrust upon him about 1,000 cattle by July 20. The agent demonstrated, as he had then nearly three months' supply on hand. A telegram from the honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated July 20, 1870, compelled him to receive from I. W. Bosler all the cattle he brought, say 839 head, in addition to the 1,200 already on hand at the agency. The agent reports that these additional cattle will cost him $600 per month for herders, in addition to the cost of their rations, and that he apprehended a large loss to the Government from stampeding and other casualties. As these letters of instructions show that the contractor might deliver in July, August, and September, a plea that the contract for supplies was made to meet an exigency has no foundation in fact, and the reason for this *very peculiar* clause became manifest on this, and especially on subsequent occasions, for deliveries of 6½ cent cattle were made in November, and attempts were made in the same month to force 7,000 additional oxen on the agents contrary to contract.

7

*Eighth*.—The neglect to advertise for proposals to furnish cattle immediately after the passage of the appropriation bill, July 15, is not only culpable, but seems to be something worse, when coupled with the fact that additional cattle, to the extent of more than $155,000, were purchased privately, on or about August 10, and were allowed to be delivered as late as November 14, when, under the advertised contract, cattle were to be ready for delivery as early as the 15th of October, at 3⅝ cents a pound.

*Ninth*.—Neglect in not notifying the Second Auditor of the receipt of a notification from Agent Randall, of Cheyenne, that his sub-agent had receipted for Texas cattle at twelve hundred pounds instead of nine hundred and thirty-eight pounds, the actual weight, &c. Also, culpable misslessness in paying large sums of money on vouchers from irresponsible persons not officially known to the Department, said vouchers not giving the number of the cattle or stating whether they had been weighed or estimated, and by whom, or in the case of net weight of beef, whether the oxen had been killed, or how the estimate had been made.

*Tenth*.—Neglect in not sending a copy of the contract of September 17 to the various agents, as had been done with the private Bosler contract. The instructions of June 18 to receive without restriction had not been revoked, but had been strengthened by the telegram of July 20, from Commissioner Parker, ordering Captain Poole to receive without limit. That there was collusion in the attempt to defraud the Government is more than probable from the following reasons: 1. I. W. Bosler, the contractor at 6½ cents, is also a partner in the contract of September 17, at 3⅝ cents, and he avers that Governor Carney, the representative of another ring or combination of bidders, offered $40,000 if the bid of 3⅝ was withdrawn. 2. A nine months' supply of oxen, say nearly 7,000 cattle, would not

8

have been driven to the Missouri region in November if the contractors had expected to be held to their bargains.
3. No preparations were made by the contractors to keep the cattle, or to kill them and freeze the beef; that is, no hay was provided, no horses purchased, no herders hired, and no houses erected for protecting frozen beef.
4. A partially successful attempt was made by the contractors or their agents to force these cattle on the Indian agents, and they would have been largely, or perhaps wholly successful, if I had not, when in Washington, demanded to see the contract, and was therefore prepared to caution the Indian agents. Before I reached Crow Creek some four hundred of these cattle had been forced on an agent who had already resigned. He averred that he had given a temporary receipt under false representations. These new cattle caused his whole herd to stampede.

*Eleventh*.—Wastefulness of the public money in purchasing other articles, all from the same favored contractor, say bacon, (with the rib bones,) at 25 cents per pound; coffee, at 28 cents per pound; common sugar, made from molasses, at 18 cents per pound; inferior tobacco, at 85 cents per pound; and flour at 6½ cents per pound, delivered at the agencies. Also, in buying from the same person, a resident in Pennsylvania, 25,000 ninety-eight-pound sacks of second quality flour, at $3.50 a sack, delivered at Sioux City, where the market price was $2.20; purchasing all privately from one person, instead of advertising, according to law, and not allowing bids of one thousand sacks or more, that persons living near the reservation might find a market for their products and manufactures. Wheat could have been contracted for at from 1 to 1½ cents a pound, and a more nutritious diet manufactured on the reservation, with existing machinery, at less than half the cost of the flour furnished.

9

*Twelfth*.—Exorbitant rates paid for freight up the Missouri River, by not encouraging or allowing competition.

*Thirteenth*.—Grievous wrong to the Indian service, by
allowing peculiar facilities to a superintendent or superin-
tendents, agent or agents, having strong political friends,
by which the Government has been defrauded, or the wel-
fare of the Indian retarded.

WM. WELSH.

PHILADELPHIA, *January* 9, 1871.

WASHINGTON, D. C., *January* 13, 1871.

DEAR SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt
of your communication dated January 11, 1871, in which,
by instructions of the Committee on Appropriations of the
House of Representatives, you forward me, inclosed, a copy
of a communication of William Welsh, esq., dated Phila-
delphia, January 9, 1871, and stating that you will receive
any reply that I may be pleased to make.

I do not understand, from your communication, that I
am personally or officially called upon to answer before
your committee for any misconduct in office, or that, be-
yond the accusations contained in the letter of Mr. Welsh
and matters connected therewith, there is anything per-
taining to my administration, as Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, into which you propose an investigation. I ad-
dress myself, therefore, at once to the charges made by
Mr. Welsh.

*First*. That I made extensive purchases of cattle, flour,
groceries, &c., about June 17 and August 20, 1870, and at
other times, in violation of law, I deny.

*Second*. That I made large purchases a month before the
passage of the appropriation bill (of July last, I suppose
he means) without warrant of law, and not warranted by
any exigency, I deny.

2

10

*Third*. That I made purchases, in violation of section 3,
appropriation act, approved July 15, 1870, I deny.

*Fourth*. That I violated said section 3, by reason of mat-
ters contained in said charge, I deny.

*Fifth*. That there was any culpable neglect, on my part,
in not ascertaining the quantity of supplies likely to be
furnished by the Commissary Department, before making
purchases June 17 and August 20, 1870, I deny.

*Sixth*. As to many of the allegations in charge sixth I
have no knowledge. That I purchased beef cattle in July
and August, 1870, at prices greater than subsequently paid
for beef cattle delivered under contract is true. But my
action in the matter was based upon the necessities and
circumstances then surrounding me, which I will fully ex-
plain to the committee if it is desired.

*Seventh*. That 1 issued any wrongful and censurable in-
structions to agents, relative to receiving supplies in July
or August, 1870, or at any other time, as alleged, I deny
My instructions are to be found in the Office of Indian
Affairs, and will be furnished, together with any expla-
nation your committee may reqwire.

*Eighth*. That I was guilty, as charged, of any culpable
neglect in the matter of advertising for proposals after the
passage of the appropriation bill of July 15, 1870, I deny.
As to purchases subsequently to the passage of the act I
will make full answer whenever informed by the commit-
tee that such answer is desired.

*Ninth*. That I was guilty of culpable neglect and re-
missness, in failing to give proper notice to the Second
Auditor in any matter whatever, or that I was so guilty in
paying vouchers of any character, as charged, I deny.

*Tenth*. That I was guilty of neglect in not sending a
copy of the contract of September 17, 1870, to the various
agents, as had been done with the contract of J. W. Bos-
ler, or that there was any collusion between Mr. Bosler

11

and myself, I deny. Whether "there was collusion in an
attempt to defraud the Government" between persons
other than myself, as is by Mr. Welsh asserted to be prob-
able for reasons stated by him, I know not. But that I
had knowledge of any such collusion or had aught to do
with it, if such attempt was made, I deny.

*Eleventh.* That I was guilty of "wastefulness of the pub-
lic money in purchasing other articles from Mr. Bosler,"
as alleged by Mr. Welsh, I deny. That I should have
provided cracked wheat for the Indians instead of flour is
a matter of policy in supplying these people, about which
there may be honest difference of opinion, and I suppose I
need suggest nothing further in reply to the charge that I
preferred to furnish flour.

*Twelfth.* That "I paid exorbitant rates for freights up
the Missouri river by not encouraging or allowing com-
petition," I deny.

*Thirteenth.* That I was guilty of "grievous wrong to the
Indian service by allowing peculiar facilities to a superin-
tendent or superintendents, agent or agents, having strong
political friends, by which the Government has been de-
frauded or the welfare of the Indian retarded," I deny.

Your committee will observe, upon reading the charges
numbered from one to thirteen inclusive, that, in some
cases, they contain statements of facts of which I can have
no knowledge; that they abound in inferences of the per-
son making them which do not necessarily follow from
the facts themselves; that they cover a wide range of in-
quiry, not only into particular transactions, but the general
policy of the Indian Office; that they are often vague and
uncertain in allegations of facts, but of this I care little.
There are substantial averments which concern me person-
ally and officially, and all such I stand ready to answer.

Your committee now have the charges and my reply.

I suppose the just and proper course in such investiga-

12

tions will be pursued, and that the accuser will be called
upon to make good his charges.

To the extent of all knowledge in my possession I offer
my assistance.

I only ask to be permitted to be present when witnesses
are called, and have the privilege of cross-examination; to
be furnished with a copy of the evidence, if consistent with
your rules of procedure, and to be permitted to call wit-
nesses myself to explain any matter deemed important
where witnesses may be necessary.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

E. S. PARKER.

Hon. A. A. SARGENT,

Chairman Sub-Committee, &c., House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 15, 1871.

To the Sub-Committee of the Committee on Appropriations,
charged with the investigation of wrong-doing in the Indian
Office:

GENTLEMEN: The duty that devolves on me of summing
up the voluminous and somewhat contradictory testimony
in the case under consideration is easy, because the law
bearing on the subject is clear—the leading facts are sub-
stantiated by documentary testimony, and the United States
Government has decreed that the market value of mer-
chandise and of transportation is to be ascertained "by ad-
vertising a sufficient time previously, for proposals respect-
ing the same." You certainly have shown consideration to
Commissioner Parker, by allowing him to be represented
by counsel, by giving him ample time to prepare his case,
by summoning at his instance interested witnesses, and by
listening patiently to their testimony.

To avoid repetition, I will condense my "statement of

13

misconduct in the Indian Office," that you forwarded to
Commissioner Parker more than a month since:

*First,* by uniting charges 1, 2, 5 and 8.

*Second,* " charges 3 and 4.

*Third,* " charges 6 and 11.

*Fourth,* charge 9.

*Fifth,* charge 12.

*Sixth,* charges 7 and 10.

I am prepared to furnish proofs of the 13th charge; but
it was deemed best to defer it, that the committee might re
port at this session of Congress.

FIRST. The law of March 2, 1861, section 10, contains
this clause: "No contract or purchase shall hereafter be
made, unless the same be authorized by law or be under an
appropriation adequate to its fulfilment, except in the War
and Navy Departments, for clothing, subsistence, forage,
fuel, quarters, or transportation, which, however, shall not
exceed the necessities of the current year." It appears
from the evidence that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
did, in violation of this law, purchase, on the 17th of June,
1870, beef, flour, bacon, coffee, sugar, tobacco, soap, and
salt, for which he paid the sum of $395,248 37. Although
the War and Navy Departments are authorized to purchase
supplies for public exigencies requiring an immediate de-
ivery of the article, yet the other Departments are ex-
pressly prohibited from making contracts or purchases
unless authorized by law. The importance of this prohi-
bition is most apparent, for if the under officers in the sev-
eral Governmental Departments, or if the Heads of those
Departments themselves were warranted in determining
what are exigencies and meeting them by large contracts
at extravagant rates by reason of anticipating an appro-
priation, the finances of the Government would soon be
hopelessly embarrassed.

14

Another restrictive clause will be found in the law of
March 2, 1861, section 10, as follows:

"And be it further enacted, That all purchases and contracts for supplies or services in any of the Departments of the Government, except for personal services, when the public exigencies do not require the immediate delivery of the article or articles, or performance of the service, shall be made by advertising a sufficient time previously for proposals respecting the same. When immediate delivery or performance is required by the public exigency, the articles or service required may be procured by open purchase or contract at the places, and in the manner in which such articles are usually bought and sold or such services engaged between individuals."

It appears from the evidence that in the region of the
Missouri river alone one million forty-two thousand eight
hundred and forty-six dollars and sixty-five cents were ex-
pended by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for supplies
and services under very private contracts, without adver-
tising previously for proposals respecting the same. It
seems hardly necessary to consider whether there was any
exigency requiring immediate delivery of articles before
July 15, 1870, when the appropriation bill became a law,
as the Interior Department is expressly prohibited from
meeting such an exigency, and this is well known at the
Department, as is shown by the following extract from the
testimony of ex-Secretary Cox, and by an extract from a
letter from Secretary Delano:

"In emergencies where there was danger of an outbreak,
or where there was danger of starvation, I should regard
it as within the power of the President to do what might
be necessary to avoid an occurrence of that kind. As for
instance I remember a case in which the — Indians were
supplied for a considerable period by the army directly on
the President's order, for the purpose of preventing desti-

15

tution and starvation among them, where there was no other
provision. And there has always been, as I have under-
stood the action of the Indian Bureau, more or less of that
kind of provision against temporary emergencies.” * * *
“I simply want to say that a discretion of that kind had
to be used occasionally, and I think it is within the dis-
cretionary power of the President at a time like that to save
what he considers a calamity.”

Secretary Delano, in his letter of January 25th, printed
in the *Congressional Globe* of the 27th, says:

> "An arrangement has been made with the Secretary of War to advance from subsistence stores immediate relief for Red Cloud and his confederates. This is done because the appropriation cannot be obtained in time to meet the urgent demand for assistance for these Indians; but the appropriation will enable us to reimburse the War Department and continue such assistance as may be necessary to preserve our present friendly relations with Red Cloud."

If in the case under consideration the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs had applied to the President, he would un-
doubtedly have ordered the War Department to continue
their supplies to these Indians, until they could be fed from
appropriations made by Congress. These Indians had been
fed by the Commissary Department for the year ending
June 30th, 1870, and all that Department needed was au-
thority from the President to continue to feed them as
hitherto. On the 27th of May, 1870, the Commissary
General, by letter, advised the Commissioner of Indian Af-
fairs that there would be surplus supplies of provisions be-
yond what was necessary to feed the Indians to June 30th,
and asked the Commissioner to instruct the Indian agents
to receive such supplies as were contracted for. On June
1st Commissioner Parker issued the necessary order, but
from his testimony it appears that he took no pains to
ascertain the surplus stock that was likely to be furnished
the agents under his instructions of June 1st:

16

"Question. What means before the 17th of June did you take to ascertain the amount of surplus supplies which would be turned over to agents?

"Answer. I took none in particular that I am aware of. That letter of the Commissary General, which is printed, was the first intimation I had that there would be a surplus of stores."

As the Indian agents had been receiving their supplies from week to week from the Commissary Department, they were naturally and very properly urgent that adequate supplies should be placed within reach. On the 22d of June Captain Poole, the agent at Whetstone, learned at Sioux City that the Commissary Department had a surplus of 1,300 oxen which they desired to hand over to the Indian Department. He therefore telegraphed the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that he had a supply sufficient for three months at the Whetstone agency. This fact should have been ascertained at Washington long before, and directions given to have the surplus cattle distributed among the various agencies, which the contractor was bound to do under the existing obligation. This supply, with the stock on hand at the various agencies, would have sufficed until near the close of August, when supplies could have been ready if the usual means had been taken, as is indicated in the following extract from the testimony of Ex-Secretary Cox:

"The Indian Bureau has always been in the habit of making purchases, as I have understood it, when it was understood that the appropriation bill was prepared by the committee. They have made, if not direct contracts, they have made conditional contracts at different times, with the understanding that if the appropriation bill passed they could then call upon parties to act, in order to get them out speedily. That I remember having brought to my attention as having been the long-time practice among

17

them, from the fact that when we began in March, 1869, there were arrangements already made for goods being purchased. I interfered and stopped some of these; I cancelled contracts, and there was some trouble about it at the time, but it was then shown to me, and I think has been indisputably the fact that, in order to meet the times of transportation on the river and to get goods out in time, there has been embarrassment constantly growing out of the fact of the lateness of the time of passing appropriations, and it has become the custom to make that kind of provisional arrangement that if the bill passed they would be required to furnish certain supplies; and if not, they would not."

As this so-called exigency had been known for a twelve month, and as the absence of provisions is more alarming than a delay in providing new clothing, it is wholly unaccountable that an advertisement for bids was not made in the month of May, that the Texas cattle dealers might have been allowed to compete, and thus to have reduced the cost of cattle by saving the profits of the intermediate contractor. It is in evidence that the cattle to supply the first Bosler contract were purchased at Abilene, (in Nebraska,) a large market resorted to by cattle-drovers from Texas, and from which oxen can be driven in twenty days to the Yankton or Whetstone agencies. The contract of June 17 shows that there was no public exigency requiring the immediate delivery of any large number of cattle, as the contractor was only bound to deliver one-third in July and the remainder in August and September. The contract of August 10 is wholly unaccountable, and Commissioner Parker, on the 13th of July, wrote to Governor Burbank, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Dakota Territory, thus: "He (Captain Poole) should advise the Indians be-longing to the Whetstone agency of the fact that all these cattle are intended for them, that they must last them six

3

18

months at the least, and that care should be taken to prevent any of them from being lost or uselessly killed." Twenty-seven days after writing this letter, Commissioner Parker duplicates the contract of June 17 for beef at the same exorbitant price that he felt justified in paying before the appropriation bill passed; and he actually allowed this favored contractor to deliver some of the cattle as late as the 14th of November, a month after the cattle bought at $3.88 for delivery as needed, were due at all the reservations. The loss to the Government and the injury to the cause of Indian civilization by reason of the neglect to advertise for proposals will hereafter be shown. But before passing from this subject it may be well to refer to other violations of the law. In the case of a public exigency requiring immediate delivery of the article, the law says it "may be procured by open purchase or contract," whilst in this case lower bids were rejected, and assurances given that no purchases would be made until after the appropriation bill had become a law, when, at the same time, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs was privately negotiating with J. W. Bosler, as is shown by a certificate of the clerk of the Returns Office, certified to by the Secretary of the Interior, and hereto appended. The following law throws additional light upon those transactions with J. W. Bosler, for it appears, from another certificate, certified to by the Secretary of the Interior, and hereto appended, that the contract of June 17 with J. W. Bosler was not filed in the Returns Office until the 15th of July, and that the contract of August 10, for beef and flour, has not yet been filed in that office.

Payments to J. W. Bosler under contract of
June 17.................................................. $395,248 37
Payments to J. W. Bosler under contract of
August 10.................................................. 361,464 19
Total.................................................... $756,712 56

19

JUNE 2, 1862. CHAP. 93.—AN ACT to prevent and punish fraud on the part of officers intrusted with making of contracts for the Government.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, of the Secretary of the Navy, and of the Secretary of the Interior, immediately after the passage of this act, to cause and require every contract made by them, severally, on behalf of the Government, or by their officers under them appointed to make such contracts, to be reduced to writing and signed by the contracting parties with their names at the end thereof, a copy of which shall be filed by the officer making and signing the said contract in the "Returns Office" of the Department of the Interior (hereafter established for that purpose) as soon after the contract is made as possible and within 30 days, together with all bids, offers, or proposals for the same; all the said copies and papers in relation to each contract to be attached together by a ribbon and seal, numbered in regular order numerically, according to the number of papers comprising the whole return.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the further duty of the said officer, before making his return, according to the first section of this act, to affix to the same his affidavit in the following form, sworn to before some magistrate having authority to administer oaths: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that the copy of contract hereto annexed is an exact copy of a contract made by me personally with __________; that I made the same fairly, without any benefit or advantage to myself, or allowing any such benefit or advantage corruptly to the said __________, or any other person; and that the papers accompanying include all those relating to the said contract, as required by the statute in such case made and provided." And any officer convicted of falsely and corruptly swearing to such affidavit

20

shall be subject to all the pains and penalties now by law
inflicted for wilful and corrupt perjury.

SEC. 3. *And be it further enacted,* That any officer making
contracts as aforesaid, and failing or neglecting to make
returns of the same according to the provisions of this act,
unless from unavoidable accident, and not within his con-
trol, shall be deemed, in every case of such failure or neglect,
to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof,
shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred
dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, and be impris-
oned for not more than 6 months, at the discretion of the
court trying the same.

U. S. Statutes at Large, 12, 1859-63.

It further appears from the following testimony that a
written offer of June the 9th, 1870, from a thoroughly re-
sponsible contractor, who was at that time supplying the
Winnebago agency with beef, was on file in the Indian
office. This offer, dated two days before the proposal of
Bosler, and upon which his contract was based, was never
sent to the Returns Office, although it is ordered that "all
bids, offers, or proposals" should be sent there:

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 8, 1871.

Thomas E. McGraw sworn and examined.

By Mr. Chipman :

Question. How and where are you employed ?

Answer. I reside in Washington city; I am a first-class
clerk in the Indian Bureau.

Q. Do you remember the original letter signed by John
Finn, dated June 9, 1870, offering to furnish beef to the
Indian Bureau ?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Examine the letter now shown you, and see if it is
the original letter.

A. Yes, sir; that is the letter.

21

Q. Was it signed by John Finn in your presence?

A. It was written by me at his dictation, and signed by him in my presence.

Q. The letter now shown you is the original letter, and was taken from the files of the Indian Department?

A. Yes, sir, and was written in the Department.

The letter was read as follows:

"WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., June 9, 1870.

"SIR: I have the honor to state that I have a large number of American and Indian cattle, left over from my late contract at the Winnebago Indian agency, which I propose to sell to the Indian Department for the use of the Sioux Indians at the Whetstone agency, at the following prices, viz: American cattle, from 4 to 7 years old, at 6¼ cents per pound, gross weight; Texas or Indian cattle at 4¼ cents per pound, gross weight; said cattle to be delivered at Whetstone agency or reservation, as may be required, until the next contract is awarded,

"I am, sir, very respectfully,

"Your obedient servant,

"JOHN FINN.

"Hon. E. S. PARKER,

"Commissioner of Indian Affairs."

It further appears that the contract for transportation, amounting to $179,247.55, entered into on the 26th day of September, 1870, was not sent to the Returns Office until the 16th day of December, 1870. The contract with J. W. Bosler for bacon, in September, 1870, was sent to the Returns Office on the third day of February, 1871.

4*

22

SECOND. The following letter from the member of the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives who was charged with the care of the Indian appropriation bill, shows the design of Congress in introducing section 3 into that bill:

"COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS,

"HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

"July 20, 1870.

"DEAR SIR: In answer to your note asking my interpretation of the following provision of the new Indian appropriation bill, viz: 'It shall be the duty of said commissioners to supervise all expenditures of money appropriated for the benefit of the Indians in the United States, and to inspect all goods purchased for said Indians, in connection with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, whose duty it shall be to consult said commissioners in making purchases of said goods,' I reply that it seems to me its meaning is on the surface. Congress desires that your commission shall oversee and advise in all contracts for or purchases of Indian goods; shall see that the articles bought are suitable, and the prices reasonable; that the kind and amount of goods contracted for are delivered; that annuities are properly paid; that presents are justly and judiciously given; in short, that you shall 'supervise all expenditures of money appropriated for the Indians.' This is expressly made your duty by the statute, and your board must fulfil it, or resign. It makes it the duty, also, of the Indian Commissioner to consult your board in all purchases for the Indians. You do not expend the money, for that is the duty of the Commissioner. But you have a right to know of and advise in all expenditures, all receipts for goods, &c. In case of a difference of opinion between yourself and the officer charged with the disbursement, you can only advise and report to the Secretary the facts which induce

23

your dissent. I do not think, however, in view of the
earnest desire of the Secretary and the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs for an honest and efficient administration of
Indian affairs, that your board will have any difficulty in
complying with the requirements of the provision in ques-
tion.

“Respectfully,

“ A. A. SARGENT.

“VINCENT COLYER, Esq.,

“Secretary Board of Indian Commission.”

Mr. Brunot, the President of the Board of Indian Com-
missioners, in his testimony gives the following answers to
questions put by the counsel of Commissioner Parker:

“Question. Was the question ever discussed among you
whether the term ‘goods’ embraced everything for which
there was to be an expenditure?

“Answer. Yes, sir, I believe it was.

“Question. But did you discuss the meaning of the word
‘goods,’ as used in the law?

“Answer. Yes, I think it probable that we did at the
first meeting of the board or at its organization.

“Question. What was your determination at that time?

“Answer. We came to the conclusion that it was in-
tended to cover all the expenditures of the Indian Depart-
ment.

“Question. For whatever purpose?

“Answer. Yes. It was not for me or for our board to
stand over the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, watching
his movements and demanding of him to come to us for
the purpose of consulting us.

“Question. The language used by the act of July 15,
1870, is that it shall be the duty of the commission to super-
vise all expenditures, &c. Did you take that to mean con-
sistently with the duties which you owed to your private

24

positions, or did you receive that duty as a public officer
would, to the exclusion of your other responsibilities?

"Answer. Not to the exclusion of all our other responsibilities. We had made very great sacrifices of our private affairs in order to perform this duty.

"Question. You did not feel yourselves acting under the
obligation of an official oath; you were not paid?

"Answer. We were not paid.

"Question. Your services were voluntary?

"Answer. Yes, sir.

"Question. You recognized no pecuniary liability to the
Government for your conduct?

"Answer. No, sir.

"Question. There were therefore none of the responsibilities connected with your office that are thrown around officers appointed by law?

"Answer. Much higher responsibilities."

It was admitted by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
and testified to by the President and Secretary of the Board
of Indian Commissioners, that said board was not consulted
in the purchase of provisions, that it was not called upon
to inspect them, or to supervise the expenditures of money
for transportation. The board was only called on for such
duties as it had performed before the passage of the law of
July 15, therefore no effect was given to that law by the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The board, before the
passage of the law, say June 3d, had advised the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs of its readiness to act; three days
after the passage of the law Commissioner Parker notified
President Brunot that he would meet the Commissioners in
New York on the 21st of July for consultation as to the
best method of proceeding expeditiously in making the
necessary Indian purchases. At that interview the importance
of the new powers intended to have been conferred

25

on the board became manifest. Mr. Colyer, the Secretary of the board, testified as follows:

"Q. Has the Indian commission in any way acted under that section of the law?

"A. Yes, sir.

"Q. To what extent?

"A. In the matter of the purchase of annuity goods in New York on the 21st, 22d, and 23d of July.

"Q. What class of goods were they?

"A. What is known as annuity goods—dry goods, clothing, hats, shoes, blankets, cloaks, &c.

"Q. And did your board inspect all of these goods purchased since the passage of the last appropriation bill?

"A. We inspected the great bulk of what was advertised for, but there were other goods afterward purchased as presents and sent out to the Indian country which we did not inspect.

"Q. Were you called upon to inspect them?

"A. Not that I know of.

"Q. Do you keep the records of the board?

"A. Yes, sir.

"Q. Would there have been a record of it if inspection had been made?

"A. I think there would be. I should have heard of it. The presents that were purchased were purchased some little time after the commission had made their great purchases in the latter part of August.

"Q. Do you know how the prices and quality of the goods inspected compared with those bought without inspection?

"A. The contrast was very marked. The method of advertising, under our superintendence was changed from the old method. By the old method the proposals were worded that the bidding should conform to a specimen in the possession of the Department. Our committee on purchases conceived that that was a disadvantage to many of

26

the manufacturers; that it gave the manufacturer of that
particular article of which there was a sample in the In-
dian Department an advantage over other manufacturers,
because those that bid had to have goods conforming to
that particular sample. The committee changed this and
made it so that every merchant or manufacturer should
bring in his own samples and his prices, and the committee
could thus judge between the goods presented for their ex-
amination and between the prices, and they purchased those
which they thought best and cheapest for the Indians. The
committee not only changed the mode of advertising, but
took special pains that the advertisements should be in the
papers longer than usual, and should be generally circu-
lated. They extended the time for the advertisements, and
and also took pains to see that the advertisements were cut
out of papers and copies sent to the most prominent manu-
facturers and merchants. The committee also addressed
circulars to the leading merchants and manufacturers.

“Q. What effect had that on the purchases?

“A. It had the effect of making more men send in propo-
sals. A better class of bidders were induced to compete;
such men as A. T. Stewart, H. B. Claflin, and others. They
sent in specimens, and informed us that it had not been
their custom, heretofore, to compete for the contracts, as
they had no probability of getting them, but that, as they
saw there was likely to be fair dealing now, they were wil-
ling to take the trouble to send us specimens and prices.

“Q. What was the effect as to the quality and prices of
the goods?

“A. We purchased our goods at first hands. We bought
our blankets from the manufacturer, Mr. Dobson, of Phila-
delphia; we also bought from H. B. Claflin & Co., and from
the manufacturers, at first prices.

“Q. What was the result as to quality and prices?

“A. 'The advantage was that we got much better goods
at much lower prices."

27

Had the design of the act of Congress of July 15th been fully carried out, so that the course pursued in the purchase of annuity goods had been applied to all expenditures of money under that act, there would have been a thorough reformation in the Indian Office. The following facts from the testimony in this case indicate the mode of conducting purchases when not under the observation of the Board of Commissioners:

Commissioner Parker says, when speaking of purchases made by him a few days after he had ceased to consult the commissioners, "I gave an order to Buckley, Welling & Co., a house in New York dealing largely in Indian goods, for the goods which I proposed to send out to the Osages."

* * * "Presents given to Indians who have been con-vened in council are generally intended for the chiefs and head men, and are intended to be of little better quality than those ordinarily supplied."

A sample of the blankets so purchased was shown to experts in the presence of the committee, and although eight dollars a pair was paid, yet the experts pronounced those blankets to be inferior in dye and texture, and worth from $1.10 to $1.15 less than the blankets purchased by the commissioners at $7. It is in evidence that the blankets purchased by Commissioner Parker at $8 were the same that had been rejected by the commissioners a few days before at $6.80. It also seems that the commissioners broke up the old Indian rings and combinations by which the Government had been so long defrauded. Mr. Thomas J. Buckley, of Buckley, Welling & Co., testified as follows:

"Q. State whether you made any arrangements with the manufacturers of blankets to bid for them.

"A. We proposed an arrangement. I believe Mr. Dobson accepted it.

"Q. At whose instance did he back out; did you hear?

"A. I have not heard Mr. Dobson say so. I understood

28

it was Mr. Stuart who requested him to put in a bid for
himself."

The reference is to Mr. George H. Stuart, the chairman
of the Purchasing Committee of the Board of Indian Com-
missioners.

Commissioner Parker, in his letter to the Secretary of
the Interior, dated January 12th, 1871, says: "respecting
the allegation that the Board of Indian Commissioners were
not consulted in the purchases made of beef and flour, I
have only to say that the act authorizing such consultation
and inspection passed on the 15th of July, 1870, while the
contract complained of was made June 17th, 1870, nearly
a month preceding the passage of the act."

On the 24th of January Commissioner Parker, being
sworn, gave the following answers to queries put by his
counsel:

"Q. Did the matter come up in your mind as to whether the term 'goods,' used in the appropriation act approved July 15, 1870, embraced the matter of supplies generally, and if so, what interpretation did you give to the statute?

"A. I have never had but one impression until recently on this subject, which was that the term 'goods' generally used in the appropriation act did not embrace what we call subsistence or provisions.

"Q. Do not the laws distinguish between the two, and in this same appropriation act do not these two items appear separately?

"A. They appear separately as a general thing, and I suppose there is where I got my impression.

"Q. Did you feel that it was your official duty to consult the Board of Commissioners in regard to this matter of provisions or subsistence, and did the question come up in your mind as to whether it was your duty to consult them?