ACTS OF CONGRESS

RELATING TO

THE BOARD OF INIDAN COMMISSIONERS.

FORTY-FIRST CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION, 1869.

SEC. [4.] *And be it further enacted,* That there be appropriated the further sum of two millions of dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to enable the President to maintain the peace among and with the various tribes, bands, and parties of Indians, and to promote civilization among said Indians, bring them, where practicable, upon reservations, relieve their necessities, and encourage their efforts at self-support; a report of all expenditures under this appropriation to be made in detail to Congress in December next; and for the purpose of enabling the President to execute the powers conferred by this act, he is hereby authorized, at his discretion, to organize a board of commissioners, to consist of not more than ten persons, to be selected by him from men eminent for their intelligence and philanthropy, to serve without pecuniary compensation, who may, under his direction, exercise joint control with the Secretary of the Interior over the disbursement of the appropriations made by this act or any part thereof that the President may designate; and to pay the necessary expenses of transportation, subsistence, and clerk hire of said commissioners while actually engaged in said service, there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary.

Approved April 10, 1869.

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FORTY-FIRST CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION, 1870.

SEC. [3.] *And be it further enacted,* That the Secretary of the Interior shall so exercise the discretion vested in him by this act as to encourage able-bodied Indians in habits of industry and peace; and the commission of citizens serving without pay, appointed by the President under the provisions of the fourth section of the act of April ten, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, is hereby continued so long as the appropriation heretofore made for their expenses shall last.

And it shall be the duty of said 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 in making purchases of such goods; and provided that the said commission shall have power to appoint one of its number as secretary, with such reasonable compensation as they may designate; and the sum of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars is hereby appropriated for the payment of salaries of superintendents and agents authorized by law.

Approved July 15, 1870.

FORTY-FIRST CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION, 1871.

For this amount, or so much thereof as may be necessary to pay the expenses of the commission of citizens serving without pay, appointed by the President under the provisions of the fourth section of the act of April ten, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, the sum of fifteen thousand dollars; and said commission is hereby continued with the powers and duties heretofore provided by law: *Provided*, That hereafter no payments shall be made by any officer of the United States

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to contractors for goods or supplies of any sort furnished to the Indians, or for the transportation thereon, under or by virtue of any contract entered into with the Interior Department, or any branch thereof, on the receipts or certificates of the Indian agents or superintendents for such supplies, goods, transportation, buildings, or machinery, beyond fifty per cent. of the amount due, until the accounts and vouchers shall have been submitted to the Executive Committee of the Board of Commissioners appointed by the President of the United States, and organized under the provisions of the fourth section of the act of April tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, and the third section of the act approved April [July] fifteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy, for examination, revisal, and approval; and it shall be the duty of said Board of Commissioners, without unnecessary delay, to forward said accounts and vouchers so submitted to them to the Secretary of the Interior, with the reasons for their approval or disapproval of the same, in whole or in part, attached thereto; and said Secretary shall have power to sustain, set aside, or modify the action of said board, and cause payment to be made or withheld as he may determine.

Approved March 3, 1871.

FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION, 1872.

For this amount, or so much thereof as may be necessary to pay the expenses of the commission of citizens serving without pay, appointed by the President under the provisions of the fourth section of the act of April tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, the sum of fifteen thousand dollars; and said commission is hereby continued with the powers and duties heretofore provided by law: Provided, That any member of the Board of Indian Commissioners is hereby empow-

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ered to investigate all contracts, expenditures, and accounts
in connection with the Indian service, and shall have access
to all books and papers relating thereto in any Government
office; but the examination of vouchers and accounts by the
Executive Committee of said Board shall not be a prerequi-
site of payment.

Approved May 29, 1872.

FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS, THIRD SESSION, 1873.

*Provided*, That the commission of citizens serving without pay, appointed by the President under the provisions of the fourth section of the act of April tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, is hereby continued with the powers and duties heretofore provided by law.

Approved February 14, 1873.

FORTY-THIRD CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION, 1874.

SEC. [2.] That the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary to pay the expenses of the commission of citizens serving without compensation, appointed by the President under the provisions of the fourth section of the act of April tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, is hereby appropriated; and said Board of Indian Commissioners is hereby continued with all the powers and duties conferred and imposed by existing laws. But nothing herein provided shall be construed to supersede or interfere with the duty heretofore imposed upon said Board of Commissioners to visit Indian agencies and inspect the vouchers, books, and papers thereof.

Approved June 22, 1874.

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FORTY-THIRD CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION, 1875.

For this amount, or so much thereof as may be necessary to pay the expenses of the commission of citizens serving without compensation, appointed by the President under the provisions of the fourth section of the act of April tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, fifteen thousand dollars.

Approved March 3, 1875.

BY-LAWS

FOR THE

GOVERNMENT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS.

ARTICLE I.

Regular meetings of the Board shall be held in January, April, July, and November in each year, on the second Wednesday of each month. Special meetings may be called whenever the Chairman shall deem it necessary.

ARTICLE II.

At the regular meeting in January of each year a Chairman and a Secretary shall be chosen; also a Purchasing Committee, to consist of four members of the Board, and an Executive Committee, to consist of three members of the Board.

All officers and committees provided for in this Article to be chosen by ballot.

ARTICLE III.

A majority of all the members of the Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

ARTICLE IV.

It shall be the duty of the Chairman to preside at all meetings of the Board, and he shall be, *ex officio*, a member of the Standing Committees. In his absence a temporary Chairman may be elected.

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## ARTICLE V.

The Secretary shall give members of the Board at least twelve days' notice of each regular Board meeting. Special meetings may be called on shorter notice.

He shall keep full and accurate minutes of all meetings of the Board and of the Executive Committee, prepare the annual report, and submit a proof of the same to members previous to said meeting in January.

## ARTICLE VI.

It shall be the duty of the Executive Committee to carefully examine into all bills presented for its approval, with the vouchers for the same; and the said Committee must be unanimously satisfied as to the correctness of all details, or withhold its approval; any bills not approved by said Committee must be reported to the Board at its next meeting.

The Committee shall also report at the annual meeting in January all bills approved during the previous year.

Contracts and purchases made by Agents or the Department, not under the supervision of the Board, shall be reported at each regular meeting.

The Executive Committee shall meet monthly for the transaction of its business. In case of a sudden emergency requiring immediate action, when there is not time to convene the Board, the Executive Committee may be convened and act for the Board, which action must be reported for approval to the next meeting of the Board.

## ARTICLE VII.

The Purchasing Committee must superintend all purchases of goods required for the Indian Department, and contracts for transportation, and must take all necessary precaution to insure the Government against any fraud or peculation, any overcharge for goods, or against any deception by reason of delivery of goods inferior to sample. It shall also be the duty of

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the Committee to have the goods properly examined before
the shipment of the same.

The Committee shall report to the Board at each regular
meeting the work performed during the previous quarter; also
render its annual statement in January.

## ARTICLE VIII.

Members of the Commission, while traveling to and from
meetings of the Board, and while detained from home by
Board and Committee meetings, while on tours of observa-
tion, or visiting Agencies, shall be entitled to receive their
necessary expenses of transportation and subsistence. But
no allowance whatever shall be made to members of the
Commission when traveling among Agencies without the
special direction of the Board.

## ARTICLE IX.

These By-Laws shall not be altered or amended except at
a regular meeting, and after one month's previous notice, and
then only by a two-thirds vote.

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A STATEMENT
OF
AFFAIRS AT RED CLOUD AGENCY,
MADE TO THE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

BY PROFESSOR O. C. MARSH.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

SIR: In the two interviews I have had with you on Indian Affairs, I was impressed with your earnest desire to do justice to the Indians, and with your broad and philanthropic views on the whole Indian Question. This must be my excuse, as a private citizen, for coming again to you, to lay before you a statement of wrongs committed on the Sioux Indians, mainly under my own observation, during a recent visit to their country. My visit to this region was wholly in the interests of Science, with no intention or wish to investigate Indian affairs. The frauds I observed were brought to my notice by Red Cloud, who refused to allow my party to enter the "Bad Lands," until I had promised to submit his complaints to you, in person.

Since my last interview with you upon this subject, I have been informed by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of the appointment of a committee to investigate affairs at the Red Cloud Agency, and invited to lay a statement of the facts before them. This I am quite ready to do whenever the committee request it. I must decline, however, to give my statement to the Interior Department alone, for the following reasons:

1st. I have no confidence whatever in the sincerity of the Secretary of the Interior or the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, when

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they publicly announce their wish and determination to correct
the present abuses in Indian management, because I have reason
to know that they have long been aware of these abuses, and
have made no sincere effort to reform them. 2d. In all my
intercourse with these two officials, their object has manifestly
been to find out, not so much what the frauds actually were, as
the extent of my information concerning them, so as to prevent,
by every means in their power, all publicity or exposure of them.
3d. The evidence now in my possession reflects unfavorably on
both Secretary Delano and Commissioner Smith.

For these reasons, I have thought best to lay before you, to
whom, in accordance with my promise to Red Cloud, I made my
first communication, the accompanying statement in detail, in full
confidence that the evidence presented will meet with the consider-
ation its importance demands.

In the Statement which accompanies this letter, I have given
the results of my investigation into the affairs of Red Cloud
Agency, the largest and most important in the West. These
results clearly indicate both mismanagement and fraud, especially
in the following particulars:

1st. The Agent, J. J. Saville, is wholly unfitted for his position,
and guilty of gross frauds upon the Indians in his charge.

2d. The number of Indians at this Agency has been systemati-
cally overstated, for purposes which can only contemplate fraud.

3d. The last issue of Annuity Goods, which I witnessed, was a
suspicious transaction, and, in part, at least, fraudulent.

4th. The beef cattle given to the Indians have been very
inferior, owing to systematic frauds practiced by the agent and
beef contractors.

5th. The pork issued to the Indians during my visit was not
suitable for human food.

6th. The flour was very inferior, and the evidence of fraud in
this article is conclusive.

7th. The sugar and coffee issued were not good, although
better than the other supplies.

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8th. The tobacco observed was rotten, and of little or no use to the Indians.

9th. In consequence of fraud and mismanagement, the Indians suffered greatly during the past winter for want of food and clothing.

10th. The contract for freight from Cheyenne to Red Cloud Agency was fraudulent, as the true distance is 145 miles, while the contractor was paid for 212 miles.

I would especially call your attention to the evidence of fraud in beef cattle, as presented in the accompanying statement. This subject I investigated with much care, as beef is the principal article of food of the Sioux Indians, and the frauds I observed have caused great suffering among them, as well as great pecuniary loss to the Government.

The statement I have prepared is supported in all its essential parts by the testimony of officers of the Army, who were with me on my expedition, or at the Red Cloud Agency. Among these officers are several personally known to you, and all are gentlemen of high character. Should any part of my statement be seriously questioned, I trust you will allow these gentlemen to be heard. If the commanding officers of all posts near Indian Agencies, or other equally trustworthy and disinterested observers there, could likewise testify, I think it would be found that I have but faintly indicated the corruption pervading Indian affairs.

I have purposely confined myself in this statement to a single agency, and mainly to the time of my visit, without reference to much other testimony, which has come to me incidentally in the prosecution of my inquiries, showing frauds of equal magnitude at other points. This corruption, which is a constant source of discontent and hostility among the Indians themselves, is, in my judgment, a natural result of the present loose and irresponsible system of furnishing the Indians with goods and supplies, a system that tends directly to invite fraud. I do not believe that anything but a radical change in this respect will prevent the continued demoralization of the Indian Service. You alone have

SIR: In November last, while on a geological expedition to explore the "Bad Lands" south of the Black Hills, I was obliged to pass near Red Cloud Agency, and was detained there several days by the opposition of the Sioux Indians. In endeavoring to propitiate the Indians, and obtain their permission to proceed with my party, I held several councils with Red Cloud and his principal chiefs, saw the issue of Annuity goods, and provisions, and had other opportunities of seeing the actual state of affairs at this important Agency. I found the Indians in want of food and clothing, greatly dissatisfied with their agent, J. J. Saville, and strong in the belief that they were systematically defrauded of the goods and supplies sent them by the government. In one council, attended by nearly all the prominent chiefs, Red Cloud made specific charges of fraud against the agent and contractors, and urged me to make this known to the Great Father, and to carry to him samples of the rations the Indians were then receiving. Mainly to gain consent for my expedition to proceed, I made Red Cloud the promise he desired. Soon after, he gave me samples of flour, sugar, coffee, and tobacco, to show to you, assuring me that they were the rations he himself was using, and fair samples of those lately issued to his people.

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In consequence of the promise thus made to Red Cloud and his associates, their immediate opposition to my proposed explorations ceased. Other difficulties were successively overcome, the expedition at last reached its destination, and fully accomplished its purpose, notwithstanding great suffering from cold, and open hostility of the Indians around us. When about to return, we escaped a large war party of Indians in consequence of warning and assistance sent by Red Cloud. This act of kindness led me on my return to the Agency to make further investigations there, especially in the directions indicated by the chiefs, and I soon found reason to believe that their statements of mismanagement and fraud were essentially true. The information I received also from officers of the Army, and other trustworthy observers familiar with the subject, fully confirmed this, and proved, moreover, that affairs at this Agency had long been in the same condition.

On my return to the East, my professional duties prevented me for some time from fulfilling the promise made to Red Cloud; but in April last, as you will remember, I gave you his message, showed you the sample of rations he had entrusted to me, and received from you the assurance of your wish to do full justice to the Indians, and correct any abuses in their management. I then regarded my mission at an end. As a matter of courtesy, I showed to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs the same samples, and told him of various things I saw at the Red Cloud Agency that indicated a bad state of affairs there; naturally supposing that such information, from a disinterested observer, would be kindly received, and existing wrongs be prevented in future. I regret to say that the information I ventured to offer to this official was far from acceptable; the inferior rations I exhibited were plausibly explained, and the damaging facts I had observed were considered of little consequence. Commissioner Smith's manner of receiving this information naturally deterred me from giving him many other facts of a similar nature then in my possession, and I have since deemed it best to withhold them.

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Subsequently, I met the Board of Indian Commissioners in New York, at their request, and gave them a more full account of the condition of things at Red Cloud and other Agencies that I had visited. I again showed the rations Red Cloud had given me, and stated to the Commissioners that, while I did not vouch for these particular samples, I had no reason to doubt, from all I saw at his Agency, that they fairly represented the supplies issued during my visit. I gave, also, a detailed statement of some of the frauds in beef cattle, and other supplies, and showed that these had resulted in great suffering among the Indians during the past winter. In answer to their inquiries, I pointed out to the Commissioners the great defects in the present system of supplying the Indians with food and clothing, and how, in my opinion, these defects could be remedied.

A few days afterward, the following letter appeared in the public press. It explains itself.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 10.

The Hon. CLINTON B. FISK, President Board of Indian Commissioners.

SIR: I am desirous of appointing a Commission from the members of your Board to investigate certain reports put in circulation by a Mr. Marsh, relative to the Indian service at Red Cloud Agency, and I write you to request that you will consult with your Board and name to me such members of it as may be designated to make the investigation. It would be well to have the Commission consist of three members. Should you be unable to designate them from your Board, will you do me the favor to recommend some other suitable persons as Commissioners? I desire to have the Commission named by yourself or the Board of which you are President. Yours, etc.

C. DELANO.

Supposing that this commission would be appointed, I at once took measures to obtain the testimony of those who were with me on my expedition, and others familiar with the facts I had observed, since I felt confident, that all I had stated about mismanagement of Indian affairs could be readily substantiated by abundant evidence.

While the Sioux delegations were in Washington, in June last, I had the honor of meeting, personally, on his invitation, the Honorable Secretary of the Interior. He informed me that he

2

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had long taken a deep interest in the Indians, and had had great
experience in the management of their affairs. He was especially
interested in the efforts to Christainize and civilize these wards of
the nation, and he earnestly entreated me to aid him in the enter-
prise. His appeal in behalf of this noble work—of which so much
is said in the East, and so little seen in the West—moved me
deeply; but having no time and little inclination for such pro-
fessional philanthropy, I was obliged to decline. The state of
affairs at Red Cloud Agency in November last, to which I directed
his attention, he declined to discuss; but, in the most solemn
manner, assured me that if I would give him all my information
on this point, he would at once see that the abuses, if any existed,
were officially removed. He manifested great sorrow that I had
not brought Red Cloud's samples directly to him—a service
which Red Cloud himself, who knew the Honorable Secretary,
did not ask me to perform.

In reply to the urgent request of the Honorable Secretary for
the information in my possession about Indian affairs, I informed
him, that whenever the Commission he intended to appoint, or
any other Commission empowered to ascertain the whole truth,
should be ready, I would cheerfully co-operate with it in every
way in my power.

A month later, or July 2nd, I read in the newspapers the fol-
lowing letter—the original of which, dated July 1st, 1874, I sub-
sequently received by mail:—

"WASHINGTON, July 1st, 1875.

"The Hon. E. P. Smith, Indian Commissioner, sent the follow-
ing letter to-day to Prof. Marsh at New Haven:

"At the request of the Honorable the Secretary of the Interior, the Board of Indian Commissioners have nominated as a committee to investigate affairs at Red Cloud Agency, the Hon. A. H. Bullock of Worcester, Mass., the Hon. Thos. C. Fletcher of St. Louis, Mo., and the Hon. George W. Lane of the Chamber of Commerce, New York; and it is understood that these gentlemen have accepted the service to which they have been invited. In preparing instructions for their guidance, I have not been able to furnish them your complaints against the Red Cloud Agency administration, except in a general way, as detailed to me by yourself at several interviews. But I have informed them of the request of the Secretary that you will reduce these complaints to a written statement, to be accom-

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panied with such proofs and suggestions as to reliable sources of evidence, as will aid in securing a thorough investigation. I have also informed them of the appointment and purpose of this Commission, and my intention to renew the request heretofore made by the honorable Secretary, that you will now furnish the said written statement making the charges as specific, and furnishing evidence as much in detail as possible: or if you are not prepared to do this, that you will in any way most agreeable to yourself make known in a definite form your impressions and views respecting Indian affairs, as resulting from your personal observation while in the Indian country. I make this request of you in the belief that you can have no other desire in this matter than that the interests and rights both of the Indians and Government may be protected. And I desire to renew the assurance heretofore given you, that it is the sincere wish and purpose of the Department to prevent frauds as far as possible, and to omit no effort to discover them when perpetrated, and in all respects to bring the Indian service to the highest possible standard of humanity and strict integrity."

To which, my reply was as follows:

YALE COLLEGE, NEW HAVEN,
July 3d 1875.

Hon. E. P. Smith, Commissioner of Indian Affairs:

DEAR SIR—I have received your letter of the 1st inst., informing me of the appointment of Hon. A. H. Bullock, of Massachusetts, Hon. T. C. Fletcher, of Missouri, and Hon. George W. Lane, of New York, as a committee to investigate affairs at Red Cloud Agency. I have as yet received no communication from the gentlemen named, but I will at once proceed to prepare a detailed statement, embodying the evidence on this subject, now in my possession, a copy of which I will with pleasure lay before the committee, so soon as they inform me that they have organized, and are ready to act.

Very truly yours,

O. C. MARSH.

The Department letter of instructions to the Commission, although the gentlemen named had not accepted their appointment, as intimated in the Commissioner's letter to me, was published also. This letter of instructions, as published, contains several erroneous statements and misrepresentations, especially as to the nature and extent of my observations at Red Cloud Agency, and virtually prejudges the case. How it corresponds with the facts, may be seen from the evidence given below. The letter is as follows:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, WASHINGTON, D. C., July 1, 1875.

GENTLEMEN—On the nomination of the Chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, you have been appointed by him a commission to investigate the affairs of the Red Cloud Agency.

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The occasion for such investigation has mainly originated in statements made by Mr. O. C. Marsh, Professor in Sheffield Scientific School, Yale College, concerning matters which he observed while at the agency during November last. As yet these statements have no definite form known to the office other than as they have appeared in the public press, and as made verbally by Mr. Marsh to myself.

In the latter part of March last, Prof. Marsh brought to me certain samples of tobacco and flour, and sugar, which he said he did in accordance with a promise made to Red Cloud in consideration of a promise by Red Cloud to procure an entrance for him into the Black Hills country for scientific purposes. He stated that in a private interview with Red Cloud, that Indian Chief complained very bitterly of his agent in many respects, and earnestly desired a change, and that he had given him these as samples of the supplies which he was receiving from Government. He also stated that the beef cattle issued to the Indians were small in size, and otherwise of inferior character; and that there was much confusion in agency matters, especially in the issuing of a large amount of goods in a single day. Prof. Marsh expressed his belief that there might have been an exchange of articles purchased for the Indians for others of inferior quality while en route between Cheyenne and the agency. He also stated that his views as to agency affairs were confirmed by conversations with other persons around the agency.

Prof. Marsh stated that he had not taken any measures to satisfy himself that the samples given to him by Red Cloud were fair samples of the supplies which were then being issued, and could not say from his own observation that they were fair samples; but that on one occasion, when a sack of flour had fallen from an Indian woman's arms and broken open, he saw the color of the flour as it lay upon the ground, and thought it not much different from the sample furnished by Red Cloud, but not being a judge of flour he could not make the comparison with any degree of accuracy. The samples referred to Prof. Marsh did not leave with me, and it is presumed that he has them still in his possession.

His other statements in regard to agency affairs are of a still more indefinite character.

In an interview subsequently held with the honorable Secretary of the Interior, Prof. Marsh was invited by him to reduce his statements of frauds or irregularities in the Indian service to writing in such form as would best aid in their investigation. To this request Prof. Marsh has not yet responded, nor has he declined it. I have this day notified him of your appointment, and again requested him to furnish such statements or suggestions as may aid in finding the facts as to the administration of Red Cloud Agency.

If, however, Prof. Marsh should still decline to furnish such assistance, it is the desire of the honorable Secretary that you proceed in the investigation, and avail yourselves of all the means that can be found after arriving upon the ground, or before, to learn the state of affairs; and that you will, without fear or favor, investigate all matters pertaining to that agency so thoroughly as to satisfy yourselves beyond a doubt as to facts upon which you will make a clear report relative to its past and present condition and management, with such recommendations as will enable the Department to take proper action in the premises.

You will undoubtedly meet with persons of strong partisan feelings enlisted both for and against the administration of the present agent; and as you proceed you will become fully aware of the misrepresentations which such partisanship naturally produces, and the extreme difficulty of discovering the truth amid the conflicting statements and allegations.

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While guarding against giving undue weight to accusations which originate in malice and suspicion only, you will not hesitate to probe all questions to the bottom, and bring to light any official neglect or fraudulent or unfair transactions of any kind or degree, by whomsoever committed. A copy of Agent Saville's letter requesting such investigations is herewith furnished for your information; also a full report of the councils held with Red Cloud and a delegation of the chiefs and head men of Red Cloud Agency at the Department of the Interior, May 28 and June 5.

At Cheyenne you will find C. H. Bostwick, the storekeeper of the Government warehouse, also Mr. Long, the inspector of the flour and the supplies which have been shipped from Cheyenne to Red Cloud Agency during the year. You are also requested while in the Indian country to make such observations pertaining to Indian affairs generally at Red Cloud Agency as will be of assistance to the administration of the Indian Bureau.

Of this Commission the Hon. A. H. Bullock of Worcester, Mass., is the Chairman, from whom you will receive notice of the time of proceeding to Cheyenne. Your compensation while actually engaged in this service will be at the rate of $8 per day, in addition to your necessary and actual traveling expenses. One of the inclosed requisitions for transportation will be honored by the ticket agent of the Union Pacific Railroad at Omaha, and the other on your return at Cheyenne. The weekly stage at Laramie en route to Red Cloud, leaves Cheyenne on Monday early in the day.

Your attention is called to the circular letter of the Honorable Second Controller of Feb. 26, 1875, and to Department circular of July 1, 1874, for information as to requirements in settling your accounts for expenses.

Very respectfully your obedient servant,

EDW. P. SMITH.

To the Hon. A. H. Bullock, Worcester, Mass.; Geo. W. Lane, New York City; Thomas C. Fletcher, St. Louis, Mo.*

Up to the present time, I have received no information that this Commission has organized, but I stand ready to aid it in every way in my power. In the meantime, the communication I now transmit to you contains the information asked for by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

The results of my investigation into the affairs of Red Cloud Indian Agency are embodied in the following statements, arranged for convenience under distinct heads:—

* Messrs. Bullock and Lane having declined to serve on the Commission, the Secretary of the Interior appointed Hon. C. J. Faulkner, of W. Va.; and Hon. B. W. Harris, of Mass.; and named Hon. T. C. Fletcher as chairman. This Commission organized in New York, July 19th, and started for the West, July 22nd, 1875. The President subsequently appointed three additional Commissioners, viz: Hon. T. O. Howe, of Wis., Hon. Wayne MacVeagh, of Penn., and Prof. G. W. Atherton, of N. J.

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I. *The Indian Agent at Red Cloud's Agency.*

In the first conversation I had with Red Cloud, when Gen. L. P. Bradley and Col. T. H. Stanton were present, he complained bitterly of his Agent, J. J. Saville, who for the past two years has had charge of his Agency. Red Cloud's specified charges were, that his Agent was incompetent, weak and vacillating, having no influence over the Indians; and especially that he was in league with the contractors to defraud the Indians of the food and clothing sent them by the Government. I regret to say that all I saw myself at the Agency, and all I learned from trustworthy observers, and official records, has convinced me that these charges were well-founded. As soon as I met the Agent himself, and observed his method of dealing with Indians, it was at once evident to me that he was entirely unfit for the responsible position he occupied. This fact is illustrated by an occurrence, now well known, which took place a few days before my arrival, when the Agent, by a single act of folly, aroused the bitter hostility of the Indians in his charge, and came near sacrificing the entire white population of the Agency. This was avoided only by the rare coolness and bravery of Lieut. E. Crawford, 3d Cavalry, who came with his company to the rescue, at the critical moment. Without military protection, the Agent could not have remained in charge of the Indians a single day, as their threats against him for indignities and alleged frauds continually practiced upon them were open and violent. Of the more debasing influences which this Agency was openly exercising upon the Indians I will not now speak, although the evidence on this point was obtained by direct observation. That a chief of such note and ability as Red Cloud should be subjected to the caprices of such an agent, is in itself a gross indignity, and ill-calculated to inspire him or his people with respect for the advantages of civilization.

There appeared to be a total want of system in the management of Agency affairs. The issues of Annuity goods, of beef and other supplies, all were made in a loose and unbusinesslike way, in which

15

a just distribution among the Indians was impossible. Agent Saville was placed in his position, to guard the interests of the Indians and of the Government, and it appears that he betrayed both alike. He defrauded the Indians by withholding from them provisions which he charged against the Government as issued to them. For example: In his abstract of Provision Issues for November, 1874, which he rendered to the Interior Department, and which is now there on file, he states that, Nov. 8, 1874, he issued to 12,351 Indians, fresh beef amounting to 271,248 pounds, or over 260 head of cattle, according to the average weight which he allowed the contractor on the last herd received. The truth is that he issued no beef, whatever, to the Indians on that day, nor for several days afterward, as I ascertained from the Agent himself, and others at the Agency. I arrived at the Agency Nov. 9th, and was informed by the Agent that he had been for some time withholding rations from the Indians until they would consent to be counted; and this fact he communicated officially to the Department, and subsequently repeated it to Bishop W. H. Hare, in my presence, in Washington. The first issue after the counting was finished was Nov. 14, and I was then present, and know that for several days previously the Indians had been suffering from want of the very food he claimed in his official report to have issued. In the same manner, his official reports represent other issues that never took place. How he, at the same time, was defrauding the Government, in receipting for beef which he did not receive, is fully shown in Section IV of this statement.

The incompetence and true character of Agent Saville were well known to the Interior Department before my visit, as is shown by an official report made by United States Indian Inspector J. D. Bevier, Oct. 21, 1874. In this report, the Inspector exposed a fraudulent contract made privately by Agent Saville with his father-in-law, A. R. Appleton, by which the Government would have been largely a loser. Inspector Bevier states, moreover, that while investigating the contract, Agent Saville made false representations to him, and Mr. Appleton endeavored to bribe him to

16

silence. Other special Commissioners of the Interior Department had, likewise, reported unfavorably of this Agent and affairs at the Agency. And yet this man has for the past two years, with the full approval of the Department, had charge of the most important Agency in the West, where nearly half a million of dollars annually passes through his hands.

In all his official relations Agent Saville has proved himself a weak man, and he should never have been placed in so responsible a position. If honest when appointed, as some good men believe, he fell an easy victim to the wiles of beef and freight-contractors of the Indian Ring, as many stronger men, agents and high officials, have done before him.

## II.—*Number of Indians at Agency Over-estimated.*

There is good reason to believe that the number of Indians supplied with provisions at Red Cloud Agency has been largely over-estimated, resulting in extensive losses to the Government. According to the Provision Returns of Agent Saville for the fourth quarter of 1874, which he rendered to the Interior Department, there were 15,117 Indians who received rations at the Agency, Oct. 1, 1874. The same official document states that on Nov. 8 (the day before my arrival), there were 12,351 Indians fed at the Agency. I was informed by the Agent, and other persons immediately connected with the Agency, that two or three thousand of these Indians belonged to the Northern tribes, and were encamped within a short distance of the Agency, on the north side of White River. Agent Saville subsequently confirmed this statement in an interview with Rev. S. D. Hinman and myself, in Washington, May 31, 1875, and stated, also, that some of these Northern Indians received Annuities at the annual issue, Nov. 12, 1874. A few days after the issue of Annuity goods, when about to start with my expedition across White River to the northward, I was informed by the Agent and others, that the Northern Indians were still in camp there; but on cross-

17

ing the river with my party, I found less than forty lodges
by actual count, and ascertained that all or nearly all of these
were Ogallalas, belonging to Red Cloud's band. During the
next ten days, moreover, I repeatedly crossed the great northern
trails leading to the Black Hills, and ascertained beyond a doubt
that no considerable body of Indians had recently passed over
them. For these reasons, and others which I deem equally con-
clusive, I believe the thousands of Northern Indians officially re-
ported at this Agency to be a myth.

The number of Indians actually at Red Cloud Agency, when I
was there in November last, could not have been more than 1,200
lodges, or 8,400 individuals. Judging from all the information I
could obtain, I doubt if this number has been exceeded within
the last two years. Some observers, best qualified to judge,
placed the number lower, and among these was Jules Ecoffey,
of Fort Laramie, whom I have known for several years. He
was with me at the Agency, acted as my interpreter in one
council, and is personally acquainted with nearly all the Indians
there. The statement of the Agent, that, on October 1st, there
were at the Agency over 15,000 Indians, no disinterested person,
familiar with the facts, believes for a moment, especially as at
that time the wilder Indians had not commenced to return to
the Agency for the winter.

### III. Issue of Annuity Goods.

I was present at the Red Cloud Agency at the annual issue of
Annuity goods, November 12, 1874, and personally observed
nearly all that were delivered. I saw the entire issue of blankets,
and carefully examined the quality of those delivered. The num-
ber of bales of blankets I did not count as they were issued, but,
soon after all were given out, my attention was called to the num-
ber of these by the chief Red Dog, who stood near me in the
warehouse during the issue. He strongly asserted that the issue
was fraudulent, and that the number of blankets issued was much
less than the Indians were entitled to; and that the number is-

3

18

sued to him for his own band was not more than half what he should have had. This earnest protest on the part of the chief, who is next in rank to Red Cloud, called my attention particularly to the amount issued; and on recalling the exact circumstances of the delivery, which I had witnessed a few minutes before, I felt reasonably certain that not more than twenty bales were issued, and that the number could not possibly have exceeded twenty-five bales. One of the persons whom I then saw assisting the agent in issuing the blankets was Louis Richard (or, as the name is usually pronounced and written at the Agency, Louis Reshaw), whom I knew personally, and subsequently employed as interpreter by the advice of General L. P. Bradley, who had previously employed him as guide, and spoke in high terms of his faithfulness and reliability. I subsequently met Louis Richard in Washington with J. S. Collins, Esq., of Fort Laramie, now secretary of the Special Sioux Commission, who had brought him on from the Red Cloud Agency as a trustworthy interpreter, and who spoke highly of his truthfulness. On conversing with Mr. Richard about the affairs of Red Cloud Agency, with which we were both conversant, I learned incidentally that he had carefully counted all the bales of blankets that were issued on November 12, 1874, when he assisted in the distribution which I witnessed. He assured me that the number of bales of blankets then issued was eighteen, each bale containing fifty pairs of blankets, and he gave me the following affidavit:

WASHINGTON, D. C., June 4th, 1875.

I hereby certify that at the issue of Annuities at Red Cloud Agency in Nov., 1874, I assisted the Agent, Dr. J. J. Saville, in the issue, and know from actual count that there were only eighteen bales of blankets issued, each bale containing fifty pairs. I was present at the whole issue, and saw all the Annuity goods delivered. No bales were left in the warehouse after the regular issue.

The brand U. S. I. D. on these blankets injured the cloth, so that, after a short wear, holes replaced the letters.

LOUIS RESHAW.

Witness,
J. MCKENNEY,
F. W. HAGUE.

19

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, SS.

I, John McKenney, a notary public in and for the district aforesaid, certify that Louis Reshaw, whose signature is affixed to the within affidavit, came before me and made oath that the matters stated in said paper are true to the best of his knowledge and belief.

Witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and notarial seal this 5th day of June, 1875.

J. MCKENNEY,
Notary Public.

That no bales of blankets remained at the Agency after the issue of Nov. 12, 1874, is shown by Mr. Richard's affidavit above quoted, and by Agent Saville's Property Returns, now on file in the Interior Department. This I also know from personal observation, as I was several times in the warehouse after the issue, and saw that none were there.

On subsequently examining the Property Returns of Agent Saville for the 4th quarter, 1874, at Red Cloud Agency, which he had rendered to the Indian Bureau, and were on file in the Interior Department, I was surprised to find that he had certified to the issue, on Nov. 12th, 1874, of no less than thirty-five bales of blankets, and had furnished a paper purporting to be a receipt of the Indian Chiefs for that number. In a recent communication from the Indian Bureau, I learn that the true number of bales shipped to Red Cloud Agency in 1874 was thirty-seven, or 1,850 pairs. Hence it would appear that the Indians at this Agency received less than one-half the number of blankets for which the government paid.

The blankets actually issued were bitterly complained of by the Indians, for two reasons—the first being their small sizes, which were not adapted to men as large as the Sioux braves, and were only fitted for women and children. The second and most serious objection, however, was the fact, that the brand U. S. I. D. on each blanket had been put on with some material which rotted or burned the cloth, and after a short wear this brand was replaced by holes, as stated above in the affidavit of Mr. Richard. This fact is now well known to every one at the Agency. These blankets were furnished by J. & J. Dobson, of Philadelphia.

20

The quantity and quality of the other Annuity goods issued
during my visit, I will not now discuss, but I must enter an
earnest protest against the manner in which the whole issue was
made. The entire issue for the year was made in a few hours of a
single November day, in the midst of a snow-storm. The Indians
had been suffering for want of their blankets and other clothing
during the cold weather which preceded the issue, and there is no
good reason why the goods should not have been at the Agency,
and delivered, at least a month earlier.

The issue itself was made in the most careless and irresponsible
manner. The goods were delivered to the chiefs of bands, in
bulk, in a hasty manner, without any system of checks to ascertain
the actual amounts given or required. The only data by which
the issue was regulated, was a pencil memorandum in the hands of
the agent, who called off the quantity to be delivered to each
chief or headman. Hence there was no guarantee that the
Indians received even half of the goods intended for them. The
Indians watched the issue with suspicion, and several of the
chiefs asserted that it was fraudulent.

IV.—Frauds in Beef Cattle.

The frauds perpetrated in supplying the Red Cloud Agency
with beef cattle have been so gigantic, and so long and systemati-
cally continued, that it is well worth while to show how they are
accomplished, and who is responsible for the outrage.

The contract for furnishing cattle to this and other Sioux
Agencies for the last fiscal year was given to J. K. Foreman, of
Omaha, and was signed by Indian Commissioner Smith, July 14th,
1874. The cattle delivered were required to average 850 pounds
for the first six months, and 1,000 pounds for the last six months,
and the price was $2.30 ⅝ per 100 pounds, gross weight, on the
hoof. It was expressly stipulated that: "All the beef offered for
acceptance under this contract shall be subject to a thorough in-
spection, and if, on such inspection, any of it fails to conform to

21

the requirements of this contract, the same shall be rejected by
the parties making the inspection." The inspectors were author-
ized, in such a case, to require the contractor to replace the
rejected cattle within five days by proper beef. If not, the right
was reserved to purchase the cattle required, at the expense of
the contractor. A bond of $150,000, with two good and suffi-
cient sureties, was required to be given, to ensure the faithful
fulfillment of the contract.

There is abundant evidence that this contract was not made in good faith. The contract was not filled by the party to whom it was given, but (like too many Indian contracts) was transferred for "a valuable consideration" a few days after it was signed, to W. A. Paxton, of Omaha. As this assignment could not take place, by the terms of the contract, "without the written consent of the Secretary of the Interior," the full responsibility of this transfer rests with him. This contract was nominally in force at the time of my visit to Red Cloud Agency. The real beef contractor, however, whom I found supplying this Agency, was the well known Bosler, notorious for frauds in previous contracts, and for this reason excluded by the published regulations from any participation in future contracts. This second virtual transfer of the contract to him was well known to every one at the Agency, and in that region, and must have been equally well known to the Interior Department.

On my arrival at the Agency, Nov. 9th, 1874, I ascertained that there had been no beef issue for some time, and only seven head of cattle were then remaining over from previous issues. These seven cattle had all been receipted for to the contractor, received by the agent, and were in his charge. All, or nearly all, of them, were subsequently issued to the Indians. These facts, which are important, I learned at the Agency, and they were fully admitted by Agent Saville to Rev. S. D. Hinman, the official interpreter of the Interior Department, and myself, in Washington, May 29th. These were the cattle examined, at Red Cloud's request, by General Bradley and his officers, and about which so much has

22

been said. The result of that examination is given in the following certificate, the original of which is in my possession:

We, the undersigned, officers of the United States Army, were present at an interview held at Red Cloud Agency on the 11th day of November, 1874, between Professor O. C. Marsh, and Red Cloud and Red Dog, and now bear individual testimony as to the wretched quality of the rations, and to the undersize and puny condition of seven head of Beef Cattle (the remainder of a herd), which were shown us by Red Cloud as having been issued to his people by the agent there stationed.

Each of us, unknown to the other, marked at that time his estimate of the gross weight of these cattle, and remember the average thereof to be 358lbs.; Red Cloud, two other Indians, and one of the herders, asserting that these cattle were not smaller than those turned over for slaughter at any ordinary issue day.

L. P. BRADLEY,
Lieut. Col. 9th Infantry,
Commanding District Black Hills.

JOHN MIX,
Captain 2d Cavalry.

LEONARD HAY,
First Lieut., Adjutant 9th Infantry,
A. A. A. G. District Black Hills.

Fort Laramie, W. T., May 19, 1875.

This certificate, which was published while the Sioux delegation was in Washington, fully confirmed my own statement in regard to the same cattle, and is entitled to great weight, as these officers have had large experience in Western affairs, and are perfectly familiar with matters at the Sioux agencies in the Black Hills District. The Indian Bureau immediately endeavored to destroy the effect of this testimony, and the method adopted so well illustrates the manner in which that Office receives information reflecting on the management of its affairs, that it is worthy of record here; especially as the same method had been employed to weaken the force of the facts I had previously laid before it about affairs at the same agency.

Commissioner Smith dictated to the agent of the Associated Press, for publication, the following counter-statement, which was widely published the next day, May 29th.

"Commissioner Smith of the Indian Bureau says, in regard to the letter of Gen. Bradley, published yesterday, that the cattle spoken of belonged to the contractor; that they were sick, some of them with broken limbs, and that they

23

were not issued to the Indians, and that there was no intention of issuing them simply because they were in such a poor and sick condition. He asserts that Red Dog's statement was incorrect, and that Red Cloud informed him this morning that Red Dog lied when he told the story to Gen. Bradley and Prof. Marsh. The Commissioner also states that Gen. Bradley could have satisfied himself of this fact by a slight inquiry of the herdman or contractor if he had desired to do so."

As this reply contained some statements which I knew to be erroneous, I at once endeavored to ascertain the exact truth about these cattle. In company with Rev. S. D. Hinman, the official interpreter of the Interior Department, I called upon Agent Saville, May 29th, at his hotel, and asked him about the cattle examined by Gen. Bradley and the other officers. Agent Saville said that "these cattle did not belong to the contractor, but to the Government; that he had accepted them from the contractor and given receipts for all of them, and they were in his charge; that subsequently all except two of them were issued by him to the Indians; that these cattle were not sick, and none of them had broken legs; and that they were the only cattle at the agency when Gen-Bradley was there." I also called on Red Cloud himself, and he positively denied that he had held any conversation whatever with Commissioner Smith about these cattle that morning, as stated; and I subsequently learned by inquiry of all of the Sioux interpreters then in the city, through whom alone such a conversation could be held, that Red Cloud had no such conversation with Commissioner Smith. Red Cloud also told me that he "must have been misunderstood in the council of Friday (May 28). He did not mean to say that these cattle had been rejected by the agent, but simply that at the time Gen. Bradley saw them they had not been issued to the Indians, but had been left over from a former issue." This testimony fairly disposes of the explanation attempted on this point by Commissioner Smith.

On the morning of November 14th, while I was at the Red Cloud Agency, Mr. Bosler, one of the contractors, brought to the Agency a herd of several hundred head of Texas cattle, the first that had been received for some weeks previous. This lot was

24

accepted by the agent, and receipted for, but he only weighed a portion of the herd. These cattle, I saw and carefully examined. Major A. S. Burt, of the 9th Infantry, who commanded the escort to my expedition, was with me at the time, and also examined them with care. They were the poorest lot of Texas cattle I have ever seen during all my experience in the West, where I have seen many hundreds of herds, at various points between this Agency and Southern Kansas, and have myself purchased many animals for the use of my expeditions. All the cattle in this herd were wretchedly gaunt and thin, and the majority of them were small, many being yearlings. A large number were of the kind known among cattle-men as "scallawags," and not a few were weak and decrepid. I noticed the character of these cattle particularly, because the beef issued at this Agency had been the subject of several conversations between Red Cloud, Gen. Bradley, and myself, and I was desirous of knowing with certainty whether the statements of the chief on this point were true. In the afternoon of the same day that the cattle were received, Nov. 14th, I witnessed, in company with Major A. S. Burt, the issue of beef, when a large portion of these cattle was delivered to the Indians. This delivery was made from the Agency corral, and the cattle were turned out, a small number at a time, to the chiefs or head-men, who were waiting with their mounted young warriors to pursue and kill them. I watched this issue with much interest from first to last, and saw every one of the cattle that were turned over to the Indians, as well as the remainder of the herd, retained for a subsequent issue. I am confident that the average weight of this herd was not more than 750 pounds, and this I regard as a liberal estimate.

Major Burt was by my side during the issue and saw all of these cattle. His testimony is especially important as he has long been stationed in the West, and is perfectly familiar with the subject of which he speaks. His opinion of the cattle we examined can be learned from the following extract from a certificate relating to affairs at Red Cloud Agency.

25

"FORT LARAMIE, WYOMING TERRITORY.
June 12th, 1875."

"I certify that I was present last fall, at Red Cloud Agency, when Professor O. C. Marsh was there; that we together went to the corral to see an issue of cattle to the Indians; that the cattle we saw at that time were Texas cattle in miserable condition, some of them so weak the Indians could not goad them out of a walk. The cattle were as a rule small in size."

A. S. BURT,
*Captain 9th Infantry.*

In this region, the cattle should be in good condition at this season of the year, if ever, yet the cattle of this herd were so wretchedly poor that even the contractor, Mr. Bosler, deemed it necessary to apologize for them. In explanation of their condition, he informed me that he had been obliged to overdrive them, so as to reach the agency in time for the issue. I subsequently learned that this was a standing excuse, when persons not directly interested in Indian affairs witnessed a cattle delivery.

Essentially the same excuse for the inferior character of these cattle was made by Agent Saville in Washington, June 1, 1875, when questioned by Bishop W. H. Hare, in my presence, in regard to this particular issue. Agent Saville then stated, "that the poor condition of these cattle was owing to hard driving some forty-eight hours with little grass or sleep, to hurry them through, as the Indians had had no beef for some time, he having kept back rations to induce them to be counted. These cattle arrived in the morning, and he weighed most of them the same forenoon. Some few that were wild he did not weigh, but estimated. The issue was made on the same afternoon of the receipt. Among the cattle then issued were forty or more small and "scallawag" cattle. Agent Saville was confident that these cattle, thin as they were, would weigh 850 pounds on an average." On my questioning this, he insisted that "those he weighed came up to that average, and that those estimated were fully as large. He, himself, weighed all of the herd that were weighed on the morning they arrived." Memoranda of these statements of Agent Saville were taken down at the time by both Bishop Hare and myself, and at a subsequent conference were found to agree.

4

26

As I was confident that the weight of this herd of cattle did not exceed 750 pounds average, this positive statement of Agent Saville to Bishop Hare, that the actual weight of the cattle reached an average of 850 pounds each, as weighed by him, increased my suspicion that the whole transaction was fraudulent. I was not prepared, however, for the evidence which I found in the Second Auditor's office of the Treasury Department, where the receipts are filed as vouchers for the payment to the contractor. I there ascertained that Agent Saville had given a receipt for this same herd of 701 head of diminutive cattle, in which he certified that their actual weight as weighed by him was 731,485 pounds, which would make the average exceed 1043 pounds per head. More than this, I found that according to Agent Saville's receipts, all the cattle received during the same quarter of 1874 had reached nearly the same average, or more than 1,040 pounds each. As this is a matter of great importance, I here give the official statement as furnished by the Treasury Department.

Schedule of Beef-Cattle, delivered at the RED CLOUD INDIAN AGENCY, during the FOURTH QUARTER, 1874, as appears by accounts of W. A. PAXTON on file in this Office.

<table><thead><tr><th>Date.</th><th>Head.</th><th>Weight.</th><th>Furnished by.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1874, Oct. 1,</td><td>663</td><td>691,509 lbs.</td><td>W. A. Paxton.</td></tr><tr><td>" " 20,</td><td>758</td><td>783,672 "</td><td>W. A. Paxton.</td></tr><tr><td>" Nov. 14,</td><td>701</td><td>731,485 "</td><td>W. A. Paxton.</td></tr><tr><td>" Dec. 3,</td><td>597</td><td>621,447 "</td><td>W. A. Paxton.</td></tr></tbody><tfoot><tr><td>Total, 2,719</td><td></td><td>2,828,113 lbs.</td><td></td></tr></tfoot></table>

SECOND AUDITOR'S OFFICE.

June 7th, 1875.

The foregoing is a correct statement as appears by the records of this office.

E. B. FRENCH,
Auditor.

In other words, this large herd of cattle which no one could fairly estimate at a greater average weight per head than 750 pounds, and which both the agent and contractor apologized for as being much inferior to their regular issues, and which Agent Saville only claimed to have weighed 850 pounds, were charged

27

to the Government by that official as weighing more than 1,043 pounds each, and the contractor actually received pay at that rate!

Of the cattle received during this quarter, other than the above, I have no personal knowledge, but, from all I could learn from those who had seen them, they were no better than the herd I examined, which Red Cloud in Washington pronounced a good one, and superior to most of those received. I think it would be safe to say that the cattle received for that whole quarter did not exceed 800 pounds average, and yet Agent Saville receipted for them to the contractor at over 1,040 pounds.

These frauds in weights, which are consummated by direct collusion between the agent and contractor, and through which both the Indians and the government are so greatly defrauded, form only part of the general system of theft. I have reason to believe that equal rascality is practiced in regard to the number of cattle. For example: there is conclusive evidence that the only cattle at the Agency, Nov. 11, 1874, were the seven head of puny animals examined by General Bradley; yet, according to the Provision Returns of Agent Saville for the 4th quarter of 1874, now on file in the Interior Department, he should have had 184,905 pounds, or, according to his official receipts, 179 head. It has been shown above, however, that the beef-issue which he claimed to have made Nov. 8th, did not take place. Hence, he should have had on Nov. 11th, at least 446,427 pounds of beef, or about 430 head of cattle, when he actually had only seven!

These various beef transactions took place under the contract assigned to W. A. Paxton, well known to be merely the agent of Bosler, who personally filled the contract. Although this contract had been violated in all its important features, and shameful frauds practiced in its fulfillment, Commissioner Smith did not call on the bondsmen of the contractor for satisfaction, as the law required him to do, but, on March 17th, 1875, privately made a new contract with the same W. A. Paxton (or in reality with Bosler), to supply beef for the same Red Cloud Agency at a

28

much higher price ($3.00 per 100 pounds) than this contractor had originally bound himself to do. This contract was illegal, as it was given by the Commissioner without advertising for proposals. The bond required in this contract was $40,000. How the contract was carried out will be seen from the testimony of Lieutenant W. L. Carpenter and others given below.

Lieutenant Carpenter was with me on my expedition in November, and was subsequently stationed at Red Cloud Agency, where he had the best opportunity to observe the whole management of affairs. Mr. Louis Reshaw (Richard) was also at the Agency, and intimately acquainted with what transpired there. Both were present at cattle issues in May last, and the results of their observation are embodied in their certificates here given:

I certify that on or about the 13th day of May, 1875, I witnessed an issue of beef cattle to the Indians at the Red Cloud Agency, Neb. That the cattle then issued were wretchedly poor, and about one half of them ridiculously small. Out of about 200 head which I saw killed at that time, there were but three oxen which would be accepted by an Army Commissary for issue to Troops. There were many yearlings in the herd, which would not net two hundred (200) lbs. of beef; and to the best of my knowledge and belief, the entire herd would not average seven hundred and fifty (750) lbs. gross weight.

W. L. CARPENTER,
1st Lieut. 9th Infantry.

Camp near Trinidad, Col., June 22d, 1875.

WASHINGTON, June 5th, 1875.

I hereby certify that I was at Red Cloud Agency, at the first beef issue in May, 1875, and that of the cattle then issued to the Indians more than one third were yearlings. I have full knowledge of this fact as I bought of the Indians over sixty hides of the cattle issued at that time. The remainder of the cattle left after this issue were all small, and not larger than those issued.

In the above issue no allowance was made to the Indians for the small cattle delivered, all counting alike.

LOUIS RESHAW.

It will be remembered that the contractor received a much higher price for these cattle than for those previously delivered, and that the contract called for "good merchantable beef cattle, averaging 850 pounds," and that, "if any cattle offered for acceptance should fail to conform to the requirements of this contract the same shall be rejected by the Agent." The above

29

certificates show the kind of cattle actually delivered under this contract. The kind of cattle paid for by the Government is indicated by the following extract from the records of the office of the Second Auditor of the Treasury, which is taken from the official receipts given by the agent to the contractor on which the latter receives pay. It will be observed that the general average for the whole lot is over 1,026 pounds.

*Memoranda of Beef Cattle delivered at the RED CLOUD INDIAN AGENCY, commencing January 1st, 1875, as appears by Accounts on file in this Office.*

<table><thead><tr><th>Date.</th><th>By whom furnished.</th><th>No. of Head.</th><th>Gross Weight.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1875, January 1,</td><td>W. A. Paxton,</td><td>641</td><td>668,578</td></tr><tr><td>" February 1,</td><td>W. A. Paxton,</td><td>437</td><td>451,203</td></tr><tr><td>" February 17,</td><td>W. A. Paxton,</td><td>467</td><td>486,114</td></tr><tr><td>" March 1,</td><td>W. A. Paxton,</td><td>96</td><td>99,303</td></tr><tr><td>" March 25,</td><td>W. A. Paxton,</td><td>539</td><td>555,210</td></tr><tr><td>" April 1,</td><td>W. A. Paxton,</td><td>583</td><td>589,061</td></tr><tr><td>" April 21,</td><td>W. A. Paxton,</td><td>584</td><td>585,115</td></tr></tbody><tfoot><tr><td>TOTAL,</td><td></td><td>3,347</td><td>3,434,584</td></tr></tfoot></table>

SECOND AUDITOR'S OFFICE,
July 8, 1875.*

Another fruitful source of fraud in cattle at the Red Cloud Agency is the system of stampeding, which appears to have been practiced there, at least, since the present Agent took charge. A stampede of Texas cattle may result from various causes, and the natural result of a stampede of the Agency herd would be their immediate return to the contractor's herd from which they were driven. While at the Agency in November, 1874, I heard that a stampede of this kind had taken place a few months before. The particulars of this stampede, I afterwards learned from various persons—among them Louis Reshaw, who was familiar with the circumstances, and testifies to the facts in the following certificate:

* A few days after this date, the receipts for the next two lots of cattle received were sent to the Second Auditor's Office. The official account is as follows: "May 14th, 1875, 608 head, weighing 596,021 pounds; May 29th, 1875, 371 head, weighing 361,927 pounds." The average for the whole number exceeds 978 pounds. Part of these cattle were those examined by Lieut. Carpenter,

30

WASHINGTON, D. C., June 5th, 1875.

I hereby certify that in the summer of 1874 the herd of cattle at the Red Cloud Agency, which had been received by the Agent from the contractor, stampeded, and most of them, over a hundred in number, went back to the contractor's herd on the Platte. These same cattle were afterwards driven to the Agency, and were receipted for a second time by the Agent. The contractor's herder offered to sell me those cattle at $10 per head before he drove them back to the Agency.

LOUIS RESHAW.

From such stampedes, and the fraudulent results following, both the Indians and the Government have suffered great losses.

### V. *Pork issued at the Agency.*

Major A. S. Burt and myself were at the issue of provisions, November 15, 1874, and, among other things, saw and examined the pork that was delivered. The method employed in distributing this article to the Indians was characteristic of the management of affairs at this Agency. The barrels of pork were rolled out of the warehouse by one of the Agency employees, the heads of the barrels knocked in with an axe, and the contents turned upon the ground. The pieces of pork were then given to the Indians, who were waiting around, without being weighed or any other means adopted to insure a just distribution. This pork I examined, and found it old and strong. Some of it, at least, was rusty and unfit for human food. On this point Major Burt, in a certificate which he has recently sent me, states as follows: "I observed the pork given to the Indians; it was lean rusty stuff, unfit for anybody's use." The Indians received this pork ration with evident disgust. Most of them merely cut off the outer thin layer of fat, and threw the rest away on the spot. In one of the recent Councils in Washington, Red Cloud earnestly complained of the pork issued to him and his people, and said that he thought some of the children had died from eating it. After this particular issue, the Indians so strongly objected to the quality of this pork that the fact was reported by the Agent to the Department in Washington. The contract under which this wretched pork was furnished to the Indians was given to J. W. L. Slavens,

31

of Kansas City—well known as a favorite contractor of the Interior Department—and was signed by Commissioner Smith, July 11, 1874. It contained the usual phrases “that the article furnished should be subjected to a thorough inspection and careful comparison with the samples thereof”; and the usual bond was required. The price paid was twenty-one dollars per barrel.

## VI. *Flour issued at the Agency.*

My attention was called to the flour rations at this Agency by Red Cloud himself, and this was one of the samples he gave me to take to Washington. A few days afterward, I saw the issue of provisions at the Agency, and my attention was again attracted to the subject by seeing a sack of flour, which an Indian woman had just received and was carrying away, burst open, and part of its contents fall on the ground. This flour was dark in color, and adhesive to the touch, although it had not been wet, and inferior in quality. The flour was in a single sack, without any brand whatever. I afterwards saw in the warehouse, apparently put up in the same way, and entirely without brands, a considerable number of sacks, although the contract especially stipulated that the flour was to be, “fresh ground, of XX quality, to be made wholly from good, sound wheat, and to be delivered in good, strong, double sacks, each sack to be branded “Indian Department Flour.”” On none of the flour that I saw in the warehouse, did I observe any inspector's brands, although some of the sacks may have had such marks without my noticing them.

I afterwards saw flour in three different Indian lodges, and all appeared to be of the same quality as that I saw issued at the Agency, and essentially the same as the sample Red Cloud had given me, although I made no direct comparison between the two. As the fairness of the latter, as a sample of the flour issued at the Agency, was subsequently questioned by Commissioner Smith and others responsible for Indian management, I have taken considerable pains to ascertain the quality of the flour

32

furnished to the Red Cloud Agency under the contract which was
in force during the last half of 1874, when my visit was made,
and during the first half of the present year. This contract was
given to J. H. Martin of Denver, and was signed by Commis-
sioner Smith, July 11, 1874. The flour was to be delivered in
Cheyenne at the rate of $2.50 per hundred pounds, a bond of
$10,000 being given to insure a faithful performance of the con-
tract. I learn from good authority that this contract could not
be honestly filled, according to the accepted sample, at the price
paid.

The contract required "that the flour offered for acceptance
under this contract shall be subjected to a thorough inspection,
and careful comparison with the sample thereof which has been
adopted, and if on such comparison and inspection any of the
flour fails to conform to or equal said sample the same shall be
rejected by the parties making the inspection." I have recently
received a portion of the original sample of the flour on which the
contract was based for the last fiscal year, 1874-75. This is a
totally different article in appearance from the flour I saw issued
to the Indians at the Agency, and in use in the lodges, and no one
could mistake the one for the other. This sample of flour is the
only sample, of all the supplies purchased last year, that the
Department retained, by which to compare the supplies actually
delivered to the Indians, and thus prevent fraud. The reason why
this natural precaution against frauds has not been taken, remains
for the Department of the Interior to explain.

Some of the first flour delivered under this contract, a lot of
2,000 sacks, or 200,000 pounds, reached Cheyenne in August, 1874.
This lot of flour, more than one-third of the whole year's supply
for Red Cloud Agency, was not inspected, as required. I am in-
formed that Dr. Irwin, Agent for the Shoshone Indians, who was
then in Cheyenne, detected the bad quality of that flour, and
telegraphed the Department that the transaction was a fraud.
Agent Saville was at Cheyenne at this time, and he has since in-
formed Bishop Hare and myself, that he was ordered by Commis-

33

sioner Smith to send the flour on to the Agency; a sample of it,
merely, to be retained by a citizen of Cheyenne, a leading mem-
ber there of the Indian Ring, and who, as I am credibly informed,
has since been under two indictments for attempting to bribe
United States officials. This action on the part of Commissioner
Smith would seem to indicate his own affinity with the Indian
Ring.

Early in September, 1874, Major A. K. Long, of the U. S. Com-
missary Department, was appointed inspector at Cheyenne. In a
recent communication, dated June 19, 1875, he states "that when
he began his duties, there remained of the above lot of flour
twenty-seven sacks, which he immediately rejected, but it was
afterward shipped to Red Cloud Agency by the storekeeper—
as the latter said, by mistake." Major Long states, also, "that
he rejected a great deal of flour at first; then the grade became
better, and that he rejected some flour that Barclay White,
Superintendent of Indian Affairs, had inspected and passed at
Omaha."

In Agent Saville's interview with Bishop Hare, in Washington,
June 1st, at which I was present, the agent stated "that subse-
quent to the receipt of the above lot of flour, some 200 sacks of
dark flour, inspected at Omaha by Barclay White, came to the
Red Cloud Agency without being inspected at Cheyenne. This
was very poor flour, and was issued about the time of my visit,
and he thought the flour I saw there was part of this lot."

This testimony, from observers whose official duty it was to
examine the character of the flour for Red Cloud Agency, effect-
ually disposes of the statement which the Indian Commissioner
gave to the Associated Press in contradiction of my first presen-
tation of the case at Washington. The explanation of the Com-
missioner, which was published May 3d, was as follows:

"It is stated at the Indian Bureau, with reference to the complaints concerning supplies furnished to the Indians at the Red Cloud Agency, that all the flour sent there was inspected at Cheyenne by Major Long, Commissary of Subsistence of the United States Army, and passed by him as equal to the accepted sample. It is therefore claimed that the samples of inferior flour brought here by Professor

5

34

Marsh at the request of Red Cloud, were of some old issue, or, like the specimens of sugar and tobacco, had been damaged by exposure to the weather while in the Indians' possession."

Essentially the same statement was previously made to me by Commissioner Smith, and this discouraged me from giving him further information about mismanagement in Indian affairs.

## VII. *Sugar and Coffee.*

The supplies of sugar and coffee at this Agency, I know comparatively little about. Red Cloud gave me a sample of each, which he said were such as he was then using, and Red Dog stated essentially the same thing. I saw both of these articles issued to the Indians, Nov. 15, 1874, but only noticed the sugar particularly. It was dark in color, moist, and of low grade. I did not compare this directly with the sample Red Cloud had given me, but I have no doubt the two were from the same lot, and virtually of the same quality. The coffee I did not see in bulk, but drank some of it as prepared at a feast in one of the lodges. This was certainly very inferior coffee, and not unlike such as I imagine Red Cloud's sample would make.

## VIII. *Tobacco.*

The character of the tobacco furnished the Indians at this Agency has been a matter of considerable discussion, and justly so, as this article is regarded by the Indians as an important part of their rations. Both Red Cloud and Red Dog complained on this point at the first council I held with them, and one of the samples Red Cloud gave me was a specimen of the tobacco he was then using. This specimen attracted much attention among the officers in our camp, and led us to observe the quality in use among the Indians. All the tobacco we saw was vile stuff, dark in color, and much of it was saturated with a dark viscous liquid. I saw the tobacco issued to the Indians November 15th, but only noticed that it was dark in color. I subsequently saw the tobacco

35

used by Red Cloud, Red Dog, and Man-afraid of-his-horses, and
in one council smoked the tobacco placed by Red Cloud in his
own pipe. All of this agreed apparently with the sample he gave
me, and I have no doubt this sample fairly represented the
tobacco issued to the Indians during my visit. Some of the
officers who were with me at the Agency looked into this subject
with still more care, and their opinion on this point coincides with
my own. None of the tobacco we saw was of much service to
the Indians, who use the article only for smoking.

## IX.—Suffering of the Indians during the past Winter.

The suffering among the Indians at Red Cloud Agency during
the past winter was very great. No small part of it could have
been prevented by good management, while the greater portion
must have been the result of the direct dishonesty which I have
shown to exist.

The Indians had already suffered from cold before the Annuity
goods were issued, Nov. 12, 1874. In consequence of this late
delivery, they had no time to supplement the small number
of blankets issued with buffalo robes before the winter set in. In
less than a week after the issue, just as I started from the Agency
on my expedition, the weather became extremely cold, the ther-
mometer falling to 15° below zero; and as many of the Indians
received no blankets at all, and most of those who did receive
them found them too small to protect them from cold, the suffer-
ing was great. One of the chiefs, whom I had engaged before the
issue to accompany me, informed me, after the delivery, that he
could not go, being compelled, on account of the insufficiency of
blankets, to the hunt for buffalo, as otherwise his family would
suffer greatly during the hard winter he said was coming. Dur-
ing the extremely cold winter that followed, many of these
Indians, as is now well known, narrowly escaped freezing.

The suffering for want of food during the past winter and spring
is known to have been general among the Indians at this Agency.

36

I have evidence on this point from several sources, among others from Col. T. H. Stanton, Paymaster of the Army, whose duties called him to the agency. Another army officer who has given me information on this subject is Lieut. W. L. Carpenter, who was stationed there all winter. In a letter written at the Agency, in April last, he says: "The Indians are all quiet now. The poor wretches have been several times this winter on the verge of starvation, through the rascality of the Indian Ring. They have been compelled to eat dogs, wolves, and ponies." The supply of food purchased by the Government, carefully and honestly delivered, would have prevented all this suffering.

### X.—*Freight Contract from Cheyenne to Agency.*

The goods and supplies for Red Cloud Agency are all transported by wagon from Cheyenne, on the Union Pacific Railroad, and hence the freight contract for this route is a very important one. Mr. D. J. McCann, a well-known member of the Indian Ring, has had this contract since the present Agency was established, and the official distance from Cheyenne to this point, as allowed by the Interior Department, is 212 miles. The price paid for freight, during the last fiscal year, was $1.10 per hundred pounds for each hundred miles, and the previous year $1.75 per hundred pounds was paid. This allowed distance of 212 miles was well known to be largely in excess of the true distance, and yet no effort seems to have been made by the Interior Department to ascertain the correct distance, although its attention had been called to the subject in 1873. In the meantime, the Land Office of the Interior Department has been surveying this same region, and had the Indian Bureau of the same department desired to know the exact, or even approximate, distance, it could readily have obtained official information on that point. In November last, while I was at the Red Cloud Agency, Mr. J. W. Hammond, assistant to the Surveyor-General of Wyoming, surveyed the route from Cheyenne to Red Cloud Agency, and informed me

37

that it was only 145 miles, and his official survey is now on record in Cheyenne.

It thus appears that the Indian Bureau has for years, knowingly, paid to a member of the Indian Ring over fifteen thousand dollars per annum for service that was not performed.

I think it fairly follows from the evidence I have now presented, that the samples of rations Red Cloud gave me to show to you represent the average quality of the supplies issued to his people, at least during the time of my visit; that this chief's complaints of his agent, which I brought to you, were literally true; and that the frauds in Annuity goods and beef cattle, which he declared to exist, were not over-stated.

The great difficulty in ascertaining the extent of these frauds, or even in making any investigation, is largely due to the fact, that the Interior Department has retained none of the original samples on which the purchases for Indians were made during the last fiscal year; the only sample known to the Department to exist being that of flour, at Cheyenne, where gross frauds have been committed. This difficulty is further increased by the failure of the Indian Bureau to transmit the accounts of Agent Saville for the last year to the Treasury Department, as required by law.

The responsibility for all this mismanagement and fraud should rest with Secretary Delano and Commissioner Smith, who have long known of the abuses at Red Cloud Agency. No less than five special Commissioners, or other officials, appointed and paid by the Department of the Interior, had personally investigated this agency before my visit, and given that Department information indicating the bad state of affairs there.

A portion of the responsibility for the inferior goods and supplies purchased last year should, perhaps, attach to Messrs. F. H. Smith, N. J. Turney and J. D. Lang, of the Board of Indian Commis-

38

sioners. These gentlemen assisted in making the purchases, re-
tained no samples by which the character of their purchases could
be subsequently tested, and published no report of their action,
as previous Purchasing Committees of the Board had done.

In conclusion, I have only to say, that having been, while engaged in my professional duties, incidentally made the bearer of Red Cloud's message to you, and having endeavored, when the justice of his complaints was questioned by those responsible for the management of Indian Affairs, to ascertain the truth, I now leave the whole subject in your hands, in perfect confidence that the facts I have presented will lead to good results.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

O. C. MARSH.

Yale College, July 10th, 1875.

A STATEMENT

OF

AFFAIRS AT RED CLOUD AGENCY,

MADE TO THE

BY PROFESSOR O. C. MARSH.

A STATEMENT

OF

AFFAIRS AT RED CLOUD AGENCY,

MADE TO THE

BY PROFESSOR O. C. MARSH.

Since my interview with you upon this subject, I have been informed by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of the appointment of a committee to investigate affairs at the Red Cloud Agency, and invited to lay a statement of the facts before them. This I am quite ready to do whenever the committee request it. I must decline, however, to give my statement to the Interior Department alone, for the following reasons:

4

5

I have purposely confined myself in this statement to a single agency, and mainly to the time of my visit, without reference to much other testimony, which has come to me incidentally in the prosecution of my inquiries, showing frauds of equal magnitude at other points. This corruption, which is a constant source of discontent and hostility among the Indians themselves, is, in my judgment, a natural result of the present loose and irresponsible system of furnishing the Indians with goods and supplies, a system that tends directly to invite fraud. I do not believe that anything but a radical change in this respect will prevent the continue ddemoralization of the Indian Service. You alone have

6

the will and the power to destroy that combination of bad men,
known as the Indian Ring, who are debasing this service, and
thwarting the efforts of all who endeavor to bring to a full con-
summation your noble policy of peace.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

O. C. MARSH.

SIR: In November last, while on a geological expedition to explore the "Bad Lands" south of the Black Hills, I was obliged to pass near Red Cloud Agency, and was detained there several days by the opposition of the Sioux Indians. In endeavoring to propitiate the Indians, and obtain their permission to proceed with my party, I held several councils with Red Cloud and his principal chiefs, saw the issue of Annuity goods, and provisions, and had other opportunities of seeing the actual state of affairs at this important Agency. I found the Indians in want of food and clothing, greatly dissatisfied with their agent, J. J. Saville, and strong in their belief that they were systematically defrauded of the goods and supplies sent them by the government. In one council, attended by nearly all the prominent chiefs, Red Cloud made specific charges of fraud against the agent and contractors, and urged me to make this known to the Great Father, and to carry to him samples of the rations the Indians were then receiving. Mainly to gain consent for my expedition to proceed, I made Red Cloud the promise he desired. Soon after, he gave me samples of flour, sugar, coffee, and tobacco, to show to you, assuring me that they were the rations he himself was using, and fair samples of those lately issued to his people.

8

9

C. DELANO.

2

10

“WASHINGTON, July 1st, 1875.

"At the request of the Honorable the Secretary of the Interior, the Board of Indian Commissioners have nominaled as a committee to investigate affairs at Red Cloud Agency, the Hon. A. H. Bullock of Worcester, Mass., the Hon. Thos. C. Fletcher of St. Louis, Mo., and the Hon. George W. Lane of the Chamber of Commerce, New York; and it is understood that these gentlemen have accepted the service to which they have been invited. In preparing instructions for their guidance, I have not been able to furnish them your complaints against the Red Cloud Agency administration, except in a general way, as detailed to me by yourself at several interviews. But I have informed them of the request of the Secretary that you will reduce these complaints to a written statement, to be accom-

11

panied with such proofs and suggestions as to reliable sources of evidence, as will
aid in securing a thorough investigation. I have also informed them of the ap-
pointment and purpose of this Commission, and my intention to renew the request
heretofore made by the honorable Secretary, that you will now furnish the said
written statement making the charges as specific, and furnishing evidence as much
in detail as possible: or if you are not prepared to do this, that you will in any
way most agreeable to yourself make known in a definite form your impressions
and views respecting Indian affairs, as resulting from your personal observation
while in the Indian country. I make this request of you in the belief that you
can have no other desire in this matter than that the interests and rights both of
the Indians and Government may be protected. And I desire to renew the as-
surance heretofore given you, that it is the sincere wish and purpose of the De-
partment to prevent frauds as far as possible, and to omit no effort to discover
them when perpetrated, and in all respects to bring the Indian service to the
highest possible standard of humanity and strict integrity."

To which my reply was as follows:

Very truly yours,

O. C. MARSH.

The Department letter of instructions to the Commission,
although the gentlemen named had not accepted their appoint-
ment, as intimated in the Commissioner's letter to me, was
published also. This letter of instructions, as published, contains
several erroneous statements and misrepresentations, especially as
to the nature and extent of my observations at Red Cloud Agency,
and virtually prejudges the case. How it corresponds with the
facts, may be seen from the evidence given below. The letter is
as follows:

GENTLEMEN—On the nomination of the Chairman of the Board of Indian Com-
missioners, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, you have been
appointed by him a commission to investigate the affairs of the Red Cloud
Agency.

12

13

EDW. P. SMITH.

14

In the first conversation I had with Red Cloud, when Gen. L. P. Bradley and Col. T. H. Stanton were present, he complained bitterly of his Agent, J. J. Saville, who for the past two years has had charge of his Agency. Red Cloud's specified charges were, that his Agent was incompetent, weak and vacillating, having no influence over the Indians; and especially that he was in league with the contractors to defraud the Indians of the food and clothing sent them by the Government. I regret to say that all I saw myself at the Agency, and all I learned from trustworthy observers, and official records, has convinced me that these charges were well-founded. As soon as I met the Agent himself, and observed his method of dealing with Indians, it was at once evident to me that he was entirely unfit for the responsible position he occupied. This fact is illustrated by an occurrence, now well known, which took place a few days before my arrival, when the Agent, by a single act of folly, aroused the bitter hostility of the Indians in his charge, and came near sacrificing the entire white population of the Agency. This was avoided only by the rare coolness and bravery of Lieut. E. Crawford, 2d Cavalry, who came with his company to the rescue, at the critical moment. Without military protection, the Agent could not have remained in charge of the Indians a single day, as their threats against him for indignities and alleged frauds continually practiced upon them were open and violent. Of the more debasing influences which this Agency was openly exercising upon the Indiaas I will not now speak, although the evidence on this point was obtained by direct observation. That a chief of such note and ability as Red Cloud should be subjected to the caprices of such an agent, is in itself a gross indignity and ill-calculated to inspire him or his people with respect for the advantages of civilization.

There appeared to be a total want of system in the management of Agency affairs. The issues of Annuity goods, of beef and other supplies all were made, in a loose and unbusinesslike way, in which

15

a just distribution among the Indians was impossible. Agent Saville was placed in his position, to guard the interests of the Indians and of the Government, and it appears that he betrayed both alike. He defrauded the Indians by withholding from them provisions which he charged against the Government as issued to them. For example: In his abstract of Provision Issues for November, 1874, which he rendered to the Interior Department, and which is now there on file, he states that, Nov. 8, 1874, he issued to 12,351 Indians, fresh beef amounting to 271,248 pounds, or over 260 head of cattle, according to the average weight which he allowed the contractor on the last herd received. The truth is that he issued no beef, whatever, to the Indians on that day, nor for several days afterward, as I ascertained from the Agent himself, and others at the Agency. I arrived at the Agency Nov. 9th, and was informed by the Agent that he had been for some time withholding rations from the Indians until they would consent to be counted; and this fact he communicated officially to the Department, and subsequently repeated it to Bishop W. H. Hare in my presence, in Washington. The first issue after the counting was finished was Nov. 14, and I was then present, and know that for several days previously the Indians had been suffering from want of the very food he claimed in his official report to have issued. In the same manner, his official reports represent other issues that never took place. How he, at the same time, was defrauding the Government, in receipting for beef which he did not receive, is fully shown in Section IV of this statement.

The incompetence and true character of Agent Saville was well known to the Interior Department before my visit, as is shown by an official report made by United States Indian Inspector J. D. Bevier, Oct. 21, 1874. In this report, the Inspector exposed a fraudulent contract made privately by Agent Saville with his father-in-law, A. R. Appleton, by which the Government would have been largely a loser. Inspector Bevier states, moreover, that while investigating the contract, Agent Saville made false representations to him, and Mr. Appleton endeavored to bribe him to

16

17

ing the river with my party, I found less than forty lodges
by actual count, and ascertained that all or nearly all of these
were Ogallallas, belonging to Red Cloud's band. During the
next ten days, moreover, I repeatedly crossed the great northern
trails leading to the Black Hills, and ascertained beyond a doubt
that no considerable body of Indians had recently passed over
them. For these reasons, and others which I deem equally con-
clusive, I believe the thousands of Northern Indians officially re-
ported at this Agency to be a myth.

The number of Indians actually at Red Cloud Agency, when I
was there in November last, could not have been more than 1,200
lodges, or 8,400 individuals. Judging from all the information I
could obtain, I doubt if this number has been exceeded within
the last two years. Some observers, best qualified to judge,
placed the number lower, and among these was Jules Ecoffe,
of Fort Laramie, whom I have known for several years. He
was with me at the Agency, acted as my interpreter in one
council, and is personally acquainted with nearly all the Indians
there. The statement of the Agent, that, on October 1st, there
were at the Agency over 15,000 Indians, no disinterested person,
familiar with the facts, believes for a moment, especially as at
that time the wilder Indians had not commenced to return to
the Agency for the winter.

3

18

LOUIS RESHAW.

Witness,

J. MCKENNEY,

F. W. HAGUE.

19

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, SS.

J. MCKENNEY,
Notary Public.

20

The quantity and quality of the other Annuity goods issued
during my visit, I will not now discuss, but I must enter an
earnest protest against the manner in which the whole issue was
made. The entire issue for the year was made in a few hours of a
single November day, in the midst of a snow-storm. The Indians
had been suffering for want of their blankets and other clothing,
during the cold weather which preceded the issue, and there is no
good reason why the goods should not have been at the Agency,
and delivered, at least a month earlier.

The issue itself was made in the most careless and irresponsible
manner. The goods were delivered to the chiefs of bands, in
bulk, in a hasty manner, without any system of checks to ascertain
the actual amounts given or required. The only data by which
the issue was regulated was a pencil memorandum in the hands of
the agent, who called off the quantity to be delivered to each
chief or headman. Hence there was no guarantee that the
Indians received even half of the goods intended for them. The
Indians watched the issue with suspicion, and several of the
chiefs asserted that it was fraudulent.

IV.—Frauds in Beef Cattle.

The contract for furnishing cattle to this and other Sioux
Agencies for the last fiscal year was given to J. K. Foreman, of
Omaha, and was signed by Indian Commissioner Smith, July 14th,
1874. The cattle delivered were required to average 850 pounds
for the first six months, and 1,000 pounds for the last six months,
and the price was $2.30 ⅓ per 100 pounds, gross weight, on the
hoof. It was expressly stipulated that: "All the beef offered for
acceptance under this contract shall be subject to a thorough in-
spection, and if, on such inspection, any of it fails to conform to

21

the requirements of this contract, the same shall be rejected by
the parties making the inspection." The inspectors were author-
ized, in such a case, to require the contractor to replace the
rejected cattle within five days by proper beef. If not, the right
was reserved to purchase the cattle required at the expense of
the contractor. A bond of $150,000, with two good and suffi-
cient sureties, was required to be given to ensure the faithful
fulfillment of the contract.

On my arrival at the Agency, Nov. 9th, 1874, I ascertained that there had been no beef issue for some time, and only seven head of cattle were then remaining over from previous issues. These seven cattle had all been receipted for to the contractor, received by the agent, and were in his charge. All, or nearly all, of them, were subsequently issued to the Indians. These facts, which are important, I learned at the Agency, and they were fully admitted by Agent Saville to Rev. S. D. Hinman, the official interpreter of the Interior Department, and to myself, in Washington, May 29th. These were the cattle examined, at Red Cloud's request, by General Bradley and his officers, and about which so much has

22

been said. The result of that examination is given in the following certificate, the original of which is in my possession :

Each of us, unknown to the other, marked at that time his estimate of the gross weight of these cattle, and remember the average thereof to be 358lbs. ; Red Cloud, two other Indians, and one of the herders, asserting that these cattle were not smaller than those turned over for slaughter at any ordinary issue day.

JOHN MIX,
Captain 2d Cavalry.

23

As this reply contained some statements which I knew to be erroneous, I at once endeavored to ascertain the exact truth about these cattle. In company with Rev. S. D. Hinman, the official interpreter of the Interior Department, I called upon Agent Saville May 29th, at his hotel, and asked him about the cattle examined by Gen. Bradley and the other officers. Agent Saville said that "these cattle did not belong to the contractor, but to the Government; that he had accepted them from the contractor and given receipts for all of them, and they were in his charge; that subsequently all except two of them were issued by him to the Indians; that these cattle were not sick, and none of them had broken legs; and that they were the only cattle at the agency when Gen. Bradley was there." I also called on Red Cloud himself, and he positively denied that he had held any conversation whatever with Commissioner Smith about these cattle that morning, as stated; and I subsequently learned by inquiry of all of the Sioux interpreters then in the city, through whom alone such a conversation could be held, that Red Cloud had no such conversation with Commissioner Smith. Red Cloud also told me that he "must have been misunderstood in the council of Friday (May 28). He did not mean to say that these cattle had been rejected by the agent, but simply that at the time Gen. Bradley saw them they had not been issued to the Indians, but had been left over from a former issue." This testimony fairly disposes of the explanation attempted on this point by Commissioner Smith.

24

accepted by the agent, and receipted for, but he only weighed a portion of the herd. These cattle, I saw and carefully examined. Major A. S. Burt, of the 9th Infantry, who commanded the escort to my expedition, was with me at the time, and also examined them with care. They were the poorest lot of Texas cattle I have ever seen during all my experience in the West, where I have seen many hundreds of herds, at various points between this Agency and Southern Kansas, and have myself purchased many animals for the use of my expeditions. All the cattle in this herd were wretchedly gaunt and thin, and the majority of them were small, many being yearlings. A large number were of the kind known among cattle-men as "scallawags," and not a few were weak and decrepid. I noticed the character of these cattle particularly, because the beef issued at this Agency had been the subject of several conversations between Red Cloud, Gen. Bradley, and myself, and I was desirous of knowing with certainty whether the statements of the chief on this point were true. In the afternoon of the same day that the cattle were received, Nov. 14th, I witnessed, in company with Major A. S. Burt, the issue of beef, when a large portion of these cattle were delivered to the Indians. This delivery was made from the Agency corral, and the cattle were turned out, a small number at a time, to the chiefs or head-men, who were waiting with their mounted young warriors to pursue and kill them. I watched this issue with much interest from first to last, and saw every one of the cattle that were turned over to the Indians, as well as the remainder of the herd, retained for a subsequent issue. I am confident that the average weight of this herd was not more than 750 pounds, and this I regard as a liberal estimate.

25

June 12th, 1875."

A. S. BURT,
Captain 9th Infantry.

26

*Schedule of Beef-Cattle, delivered at the RED CLOUD INDIAN AGENCY, during the FOURTH QUARTER, 1874, as appears by accounts of W. A. PAXTON on file in this Office.*

SECOND AUDITOR'S OFFICE.

June 7th, 1875.

E. B. FRENCH,

Auditor.

27

Of the cattle received during this quarter, other than the above, I have no personal knowledge, but from all I could learn from those who had seen them they were no better than the herd I examined, which Red Cloud in Washington pronounced a good one, and superior to most of those received. I think it would be safe to say that the cattle received for that whole quarter did not exceed 800 pounds average, and yet Agent Saville receipted for them to the contractor at over 1,040 pounds.

28

much higher price ($3.00 per 100 pounds) than this contractor
had originally bound himself to do. This contract was illegal,
as it was given by the Commissioner without advertising for
proposals. The bond required in this contract was $40,000.
How the contract was carried out will be seen from the testi-
mony of Lieutenant W. L. Carpenter and others given below.

Lieutenant Carpenter was with me on my expedition in
November, and was subsequently stationed at Red Cloud Agency,
where he had the best opportunity to observe the whole manage-
ment of affairs. Mr. Louis Reshaw (Richard) was also at the
Agency, and intimately acquainted with what transpired there.
Both were present at cattle issues in May last, and the results of
their observation are embodied in their certificates here given:

I certify that on or about the 13th day of May, 1875, I witnessed an issue of beef cattle to the Indians at the Red Cloud Agency, Neb. That the cattle then issued were wretchedly poor and about one half of them ridiculously small. Out of about 200 head which I saw killed at that time, there were but three oxen which would be accepted by an Army Commissary for issue to Troops. There were many yearlings in the herd, which would not net two hundred (200) lbs. of beef; and to the best of my knowledge and belief, the entire herd would not average seven hundred and fifty (750) lbs. gross weight.

WASHINGTON, June 5th, 1875.

LOUIS RESHAW.

29

certificates show the kind of cattle actually delivered under this contract. The kind of cattle paid for by the Government is indicated by the following extract from the records of the office of the Second Auditor of the Treasury which is taken from the official receipts given by the agent to the contractor on which the latter receives pay. It will be observed that the general average for the whole lot is over 1,026 pounds.

Another fruitful source of fraud in cattle at the Red Cloud Agency is the system of stampeding, which appears to have been practiced there, at least, since the present Agent took charge. A stampede of Texas cattle may result from various causes, and the natural result of a stampede of the Agency herd would be their immediate return to the contractor's herd from which they were driven. While at the Agency in November, 1874, I heard that a stampede of this kind had taken place a few months before. The particulars of this stampede I afterwards learned from various persons—among them Louis Reshaw, who was familiar with the circumstances, and testifies to the facts in the following certificate:

LOUIS RESHAW.

30

Major A. S. Burt and myself were at the issue of provisions,
November 15, 1874, and, among other things, saw and examined
the pork that was delivered. The method employed in distributing
this article to the Indians was characteristic of the management of
affairs at this Agency. The barrels of pork were rolled out of the
warehouse by one of the Agency employees, the heads of the bar-
rels knocked in with an axe, and the contents turned upon the
ground. The pieces of pork were then given to the Indians, who
were waiting around, without being weighed or any other means
adopted to insure a just distribution. This pork I examined, and
found it old and strong. Some of it, at least, was rusty and unfit
for human food. On this point Major Burt, in a certificate which
he has recently sent me, states as follows: "I observed the pork
given to the Indians; it was lean rusty stuff, unfit for anybody's
use." The Indians received this pork ration with evident disgust.
Most of them merely cut off the outer thin layer of fat, and threw
the rest away on the spot. In one of the recent Councils in
Washington, Red Cloud earnestly complained of the pork issued
to him and his people, and said that he thought some of the chil-
dren had died from eating it. After this particular issue, the
Indians so strongly objected to the quality of this pork that the
fact was reported by the Agent to the Department in Washing-
ton. The contract under which this wretched pork was
furnished to the Indians was given to J. W. L. Slavens,
of Kansas City—well known as a favorite contractor of the
Interior Department—and was signed by Commissioner Smith,
July 11, 1874. It contained the usual phrases "that the article
furnished should be subjected to a thorough inspection and care-
ful comparison with the samples thereof"; and the usual bond was
required. The price paid was twenty-one dollars per barrel.

31

My attention was called to the flour rations at this Agency by Red Cloud himself, and this was one of the samples he gave me to take to Washington. A few days afterward, I saw the issue of provisions at the Agency, and my attention was again attracted to the subject by seeing a sack of flour, which an Indian woman had just received and was carrying away, burst open, and part of its contents fall on the ground. This flour was dark in color, and adhesive to the touch, although it had not been wet, and inferior in quality. The flour was in a single sack, without any brand whatever. I afterwards saw in the warehouse, apparently put up in the same way, and entirely without brands, a considerable number of sacks, although the contract especially stipulated that the flour was to be, "fresh ground, of XX quality, to be made wholly from good, sound wheat, and to be delivered in good, strong, double sacks, each sack to be branded "Indian Department Flour." On none of the flour that I saw in the warehouse, did I observe any inspector's brands, although some of the sacks may have had such marks without my noticing them.

I afterwards saw flour in three different Indian lodges, and all appeared to be of the same quality as that I saw issued at the Agency, and essentially the same as the sample Red Cloud had given me, although I made no direct comparison between the two. As the fairness of the latter, as a sample of the flour issued at the Agency, was subsequently questioned by Commissioner Smith and others responsible for Indian management, I have taken considerable pains to ascertain the quality of the flour furnished to the Red Cloud Agency under the contract which was in force during the last half of 1874, when my visit was made, and during the first half of the present year. This contract was given to J. H. Martin of Denver, and was signed by Commissioner Smith, July 11, 1874. The flour was to be delivered in Cheyenne at the rate of $2.50 per hundred pounds, a bond of $10,000 being given to insure a faithful performance of the con-

32

Some of the first flour delivered under this contract, a lot of
2,000 sacks, or 200,000 pounds, reached Cheyenne in August, 1874.
This lot of flour, more than one-third of the whole year's supply
for Red Cloud Agency, was not inspected, as required. I am in-
formed that Dr. Irwin, Agent for the Shoshone Indians, who was
then in Cheyenne, detected the bad quality of that flour, and
telegraphed the Department that the transaction was a fraud.
Agent Saville was at Cheyenne at this time, and he has since in-
formed Bishop Hare and myself, that he was ordered by Commis-
sioner Smith to send the flour on to the Agency; a sample of it,
merely, to be retained by a citizen of Cheyenne, a leading mem-
ber there of the Indian Ring, and who, as I am credibly informed,
has since been under two indictments for attempting to bribe
United States officials. This action on the part of Commissioner
Smith would seem to indicate his own affinity with the Indian
Ring.

33

Early in September, 1874, Major A. K. Long, of the U. S. Com-
missary Department, was appointed inspector at Cheyenne. In a
recent communication, dated June 19, 1875, he states that when
he began his duties, there remained of the above lot of flour
twenty-seven sacks, which he immediately rejected, but it was after-
ward shipped to Red Cloud Agency by the storekeeper—as the
latter said, by mistake. Major Long states, also, that he rejected
a great deal of flour at first; then the grade became better, and
that he rejected some flour that Barclay White, Superintendent of
Indian Affairs, had inspected and passed at Omaha.

In Agent Saville's interview with Bishop Hare, in Washington,
June 1st, at which I was present, the agent stated that "subse-
quent to the receipt of the above lot of flour, some 200 sacks of
dark flour, inspected at Omaha by Barclay White, came to the
Red Cloud Agency without being inspected at Cheyenne. This
was very poor flour, and was issued about the time of my visit,
and he thought the flour I saw there was part of this lot."

"It is stated at the Indian Bureau, with reference to the complaints concerning supplies furnished to the Indians at the Red Cloud Agency, that all the flour sent there was inspected at Cheyenne by Major Long, Commissary of Subsistence of the United States Army, and passed by him as equal to the accepted sample. It is therefore claimed that the samples of inferior flour brought here by Professor Marsh at the request of Red Cloud, were of some old issue, or, like the specimens of sugar and tobacco, had been damaged by exposure to the weather while in the Indians' possession."

5

34

## VII. *Sugar and Coffee.*

## VIII. *Tobacco.*

The character of the tobacco furnished the Indians at this Agency has been a matter of considerable discussion, and justly so, as this article is regarded by the Indians as an important part of their rations. Both Red Cloud and Red Dog complained on this point at the first council I held with them, and one of the samples Red Cloud gave me was a specimen of the tobacco he was then using. This specimen attracted much attention among the officers in our camp, and led us to observe the quality in use among the Indians. All the tobacco we saw was vile stuff, dark in color, and much of it was saturated with a dark viscous liquid. I saw the tobacco issued to the Indians November 15th, but only noticed that it was dark in color. I subsequently saw the tobacco used by Red Cloud, Red Dog, and Man-afraid-of-his-horses, and in one council smoked the tobacco placed by Red Cloud in his own pipe. All of this agreed apparently with the sample he gave me, and I have no doubt this sample fairly represented the tobacco issued to the Indians during my visit. Some of the officers who were with me at the Agency looked into this subject

35

The Indians had already suffered from cold before the Annuity
goods were issued, Nov. 12, 1874. In consequence of this late
delivery, they had had no time to supplement the small number
of blankets issued with buffalo robes before the winter set in. In
less than a week after the issue, just as I started from the Agency
on my expedition, the weather became extremely cold, the ther-
mometer falling to 15° below zero; and as many of the Indians
received no blankets at all, and most of those who did receive
them found them too small to protect them from cold, the suffer-
ing was great. One of the chiefs whom I had engaged before the
issue to accompany me, informed me, after the delivery, that he
could not go, being compelled, on account of the insufficiency of
blankets, to the hunt for buffalo, as otherwise his family would
suffer greatly during the hard winter he said was coming. Dur-
ing the extremely cold winter that followed, many of these
Indians, as is now well known, narrowly escaped freezing.

The suffering for want of food during the past winter and spring
is known to have been general among the Indians at this Agency.
I have evidence on this point from several sources, among others
from Col. T. H. Stanton, Paymaster of the Army, whose duties
called him to the agency. Another army officer who has given
me information on this subject is Lieut. W. L. Carpenter, who
was stationed there all winter. In a letter written at the Agency,
in April last, he says: "The Indians are all quiet now. The poor

36

The goods and supplies for Red Cloud Agency are all transported by wagon from Cheyenne, on the Union Pacific Railroad, and hence the freight contract for this route is a very important one. Mr. D. J. McCann, a well-known member of the Indian Ring, has had this contract since the present Agency was established, and the official distance from Cheyenne to this point, as allowed by the Interior Department, is 212 miles. The price paid for freight, during the last fiscal year, was $1.10 per hundred pounds for each hundred miles, and the previous year $1.75 per hundred pounds was paid. This allowed distance of 212 miles was well known to be largely in excess of the true distance, and yet no effort seems to have been made by the Interior Department to ascertain the correct distance, although its attention had been called to the subject in 1873. In the meantime, the Land Office of the Interior Department has been surveying this same region, and had the Indian Bureau of the same department desired to know the exact, or even approximate, distance, it could readily have obtained official information on that point. In November last, while I was at the Red Cloud Agency, Mr. J. W. Hammond, assistant to the Surveyor-General of Wyoming, surveyed the route from Cheyenne to Red Cloud Agency, and informed me that it was only 145 miles, and his official survey is now on record in Cheyenne.

37

I think it fairly follows from the evidence I have now presented that the samples of rations Red Cloud gave me to show to you represent the average quality of the supplies issued to his people, at least during the time of my visit; that this chief's complaints of his agent, which I brought to you, were literally true; and that the frauds in Annuity goods and beef cattle, which he declared to exist, were not over-stated.

The great difficulty in ascertaining the extent of these frauds, or even in making any investigation, is largely due to the fact that, the Interior Department has retained none of the original samples on which the purchases for Indians were made during the last fiscal year; the only sample known to the Department to exist being that of flour, at Cheyenne, where gross frauds have been committed. This difficulty is further increased by the failure of the Indian Bureau to transmit any of the accounts of Agent Saville for the last year to the Treasury Department, as required by law.

A portion of the responsibility for the inferior goods and supplies purchased last year should perhaps attach to Messrs. F. H. Smith, N. J. Turney and J. D. Lang, of the Board of Indian Commissioners. These gentlemen assisted in making the purchases, retained no samples by which the character of their purchases could be subsequently tested, and published no report of their action, as previous Purchasing Committees of the Board had done.

DOCUMENTS

RELATING TO

THE CHARGES OF PROFESSOR O. C. MARSH

OF

FRAUD AND MISMANAGEMENT AT THE RED CLOUD AGENCY.

[PRINTED FOR THE USE OF THE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE.]

I. PROFESSOR MARSH'S CHARGES.

II. GENERAL EATON'S LETTER.

III. LETTER OF SECRETARY OF INTERIOR TO COMMISSIONERS TO INVESTIGATE AFFAIRS AT RED CLOUD AGENCY, WITH INCLOSURES A AND B, DATED JULY 27, 1875.

IV. LETTER OF SECRETARY OF INTERIOR TO COMMISSIONERS TO INVESTIGATE AFFAIRS AT RED CLOUD AGENCY, WITH INCLOSURES A, B, C, D, E, AND F, DATED AUGUST 2, 1875.

1 M

I.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE CHARGES OF PROF. O. C.
MARSH, OF FRAUD AND MISMANAGEMENT AT THE RED
CLOUD AGENCY.

[Printed for the use of the investigating commission.]

PROFESSOR MARSH'S CHARGES.

The extraordinary efforts of the New York Tribune to give publicity to the charges of Professor Marsh, and thereby, if possible, injure the administration of President Grant by striking at Secretary Delano and Commissioner Smith, have led to the following statement for the better information of the public. It is proposed to make a bare statement of facts, in order that the reader may draw correct inferences in regard to those charges.

Of Professor Marsh the writer knows but little, and that consists mainly of information gained since he became the ostensible author of certain charges against the Red Cloud Indian agent. He is a professor at Yale College, which institution received some endowment from the late Mr. George Peabody, who was a relation of the professor, and which endowment was probably intended to advance his interests. His specialty is paleontology.

Last summer or fall Professor Marsh visited some of the Western Territories in search of fossil remains; and, desiring to explore the territory ceded to the Sioux Indians, it was necessary that he should obtain their friendship and protection. Before entering this region he had an interview with Red Cloud, a chief of the Ogallalla Sioux. Red Cloud exhibited the usual grumbling and complaining propensity of his race in regard to the assistance he received from the Great Father. Having heard these complaints, Professor Marsh seized the occasion to put himself on friendly terms with Red Cloud, in order to secure his confidence and assistance, and promised him to make known to the President on his return the nature of his grievances. This secured Red Cloud's friendship, and the professor entered the territory under his auspices and such protection as the chief could afford.

Fort Laramie is not far from the Red Cloud agency, and Professor Marsh needed also the favor and protection of the military. He was kindly treated by the Army officers, receiving both courtesy and assistance.

It is a fact well known that the younger officers of the Army are generally unfriendly to the civil management of the Indians. The latter furnish the Army its only hope of activity in time of peace, and therefore the active and ambitious young officers are generally desirous of having charge of Indian affairs. As a result of this feeling, the errors of the Indian agents are magnified and published in an aggravated form, and misrepresentations and erroneous statements are frequently made in order to damage the Indian service, to create, if possible, a public sentiment that will result in turning over the management of Indian affairs to the Army. An effort to this end was made with great

4

vigor at the first session of the last Congress and renewed with less force at the second session.

Professor Marsh received many unfavorable impressions from this source in reference to Indian management, which fact will be clearly established before the present investigation is closed.

There is also a large body of ex-Indian agents, who served under the former *régime*, and before the religious denominations had authority to designate agents, who are dissatisfied with the present system, and who omit no opportunity to disparage, misrepresent, and embarrass it.

These influences were all brought to bear upon Professor Marsh, to which may also be added the misrepresentations of traders, disappointed contractors, dishonest half-breeds, and whites of bad character intermarried with Indian women.

It will readily be seen that a man of limited general business experience, whose specialty is scientific research, such as Professor Marsh was engaged in, might be easily misled by the influences surrounding him, and which he failed fully to comprehend.

About six months after his return from the Indian country, Professor Marsh came to Washington to fulfill his promise to Red Cloud, and being from New Haven, Conn., and acquainted with the Postmaster-General, from the same State, he saw him and presented in a general manner the impressions obtained under the influence of the circumstances already mentioned.

The Postmaster-General took the professor to the President, after announcing to the Secretary of the Interior his purpose to do so, and promising that the professor would call upon him and give him all the information that he possessed in regard to affairs at the Red Cloud agency. Professor Marsh afterwards saw the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the complaints which he made to him as coming from Red Cloud were simply to the effect that the supplies of coffee, sugar, tobacco, flour, and beef were not as good as they ought to be. The result of his interview with the Commissioner satisfied him that Red Cloud's statements were exaggerations, and up to that time no charges of fraud, such as are contained in his pamphlet, were alluded to.

It must be borne in mind that Professor Marsh returned from the Indian country in the fall of 1874 and waited some six months before bringing Red Cloud's complaints to the notice of either the Department, the President, or the public. He had promised Red Cloud, in consideration of protection, to lay his grievances before the President on his return. Had he then supposed that the mismanagement at Red Cloud's agency was as serious as he now represents it to be, was he not guilty of great neglect in not sooner laying the facts before the President or the Department, and was he not guilty of breach of contract with Red Cloud in so long delaying the presentation of those complaints ?

Professor Marsh slept on these grave charges until the last of April or the first of May, 1875, and when he concluded to make them known he went before the public through the New York Tribune, a newspaper known to be pronounced in its hostility to the Administration, and in various forms of exaggeration and misstatement what he said appeared and was reiterated with unjust and abusive comments and criticisms.

During these assaults of the Tribune the Sioux chiefs came to Washington to treat in reference to the relinquishment of their privileges in the State of Nebraska, and their hunting rights on the Smoky Hill Fork of the Republican River, as well as such portions of the Black Hills country as might be found to contain minerals sufficient to justify mining.

5

During these conferences Professor Marsh voluntarily presented himself. He must himself explain his object in so doing. He was not invited, nor was his presence necessary. At the same time, the attacks upon the Administration, inspired by him, were vigorously continued by the Tribune with the usual venom and acrimony. The Professor had been here nearly two weeks, under these circumstances, without calling on the Secretary of the Interior, between whom and himself there was then no personal acquaintance, but who naturally felt that, as the head of the Department, he was entitled to such information relative to the Red Cloud agency as Professor Marsh was in possession of.

The Secretary at length resolved to have his charges investigated, and wishing to select an able and impartial commission, and desiring to have the persons so appointed as to prevent the charge of partiality or incompetency, he requested the Board of Indian Commissioners to name for appointment three persons qualified to make the investigation. The Board of Indian Commissioners consists of ten eminent citizens selected by the President under an act of Congress to advise with the Secretary in reference to Indian affairs, to supervise the lettings for goods and supplies, and all the accounts and contracts growing out of the Indian service. How the Secretary could have proceeded with greater evidence of candor and fairness it is difficult to see; but in doing this he seems to have given offense to Professor Marsh and his friends.

Not knowing Professor Marsh personally, and he having entirely ignored the head of the Department, and omitted to present to him his complaints, the Secretary saw fit to assume that a professor of Yale College and a gentleman of culture and high character could hardly be guilty of treating a public officer with such discourtesy, and on the assumption that it must be some other person than Professor Marsh, he spoke of the charges as coming from "a Mr. Marsh." This was a grave and serious error, and the New York Tribune, so exalted in its tone and methods, so courteous and dignified in its treatment of public men, will hardly be able to forgive this great indecorum.

This request to the Board of Indian Commissioners was on the 10th of May last. Some time after this, while Professor Marsh remained in the city, the Secretary was informed of his presence in the room where one of the councils with the Sioux was to be held, and, the professor being pointed out to him before the council began, the Secretary went to him, introduced himself, and politely asked if he would do him the favor to call at his office. The professor assented, and some time after did call, and it so happened that when he came Gen. John Eaton, Commissioner of Education, was present and heard the entire conversation. The Secretary then urged the professor to furnish him with the charges against the Red Cloud agent, assuring him of his sincere desire to investigate them, and referred to his request to the Board of Indian Commissioners to appoint a commission for that purpose; but the professor refused to furnish the charges and has never seen the Secretary since.

Thus matters stood until the Board of Indian Commissioners designated the persons to be appointed. The delay in this designation rests entirely with the board, and was on account of the difficulty met with in obtaining acceptable persons who would consent to serve. Indeed, some of the persons first reported to the Secretary finally declined to act on the commission.

As soon as persons were selected by the board willing to serve, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, prepared their instructions, and wrote to Professor Marsh, requesting him to furnish the Indian Office or the commission all the

6

information he had touching the abuses in the service at the Red Cloud agency, together with all the proofs in his possession, or to which he could refer, bearing on the subject.

It would seem that a distinguished scientist of Yale College faculty, and an honorable gentleman, desirous only to promote the welfare of the public service, would have accepted this invitation, and have laid before the commission such facts as it was in his power to produce. Overlooking his discourteous treatment of the Secretary of the Interior from the beginning, and excusing him for presenting the subject to the President and the public through the columns of an unfriendly paper, it is still amazing that he should fail to present his case to the persons selected to make the investigation. Let us see what he did: He prepared, or caused to be prepared, probably in the office of the Tribune—certainly under its auspices, advice, and inspiration—an entirely new set of charges from those originally made; charges which he seems to have been gathering from all accessible sources, whether such sources were friendly or hostile, reputable or disreputable, many of which were but repetitions of thrice-refuted statements made by dishonorable men for sinister purposes. He embodies these charges in two letters to the President, so long as to cover one entire page of the New York Tribune. They appeared in that paper before the President had seen them. Mark, that up to the time of their publication in the Tribune they had never been sent to the Indian Office, to the Secretary, to the President, or to the commission appointed to make the investigation; but they first appear in a public print whose constant aim is to create a public sentiment hostile to the Administration, and they were thus disseminated to the country without explanation and without an opportunity to explain.

The insinuations that the commissioners appointed are not the right sort of men are characteristic of the journal that has manufactured, fomented, and circulated all the attacks of Professor Marsh. It is not the place here to inquire whether this last card of the Tribune was played in order to secure an object it has long sought to obtain, namely, the injury of the Secretary of the Interior. There will be a time hereafter to inquire into this matter, but justice to Professor Marsh, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and to the Interior Department requires that the public should know substantially the history of these charges, in order, at least, that no erroneous inferences may be drawn before the real facts are presented by the gentlemen appointed to make the investigation.

## II.

### DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION,

*Washington, D. C., July 22, 1875.*

DEAR SIR: Yours of the 19th instant is received. I have only seen the telegraphic report of Professor Marsh's charges, and was very much surprised at them, especially in view of what I witnessed during the conversation which occurred in my presence in your room as I happened there on business. You called his attention to the fact that he did not give you his statement when he first saw the Commissioner and the President, and that he had been in town again so long at the time of this talk, and passed you by without giving them to you or putting them before you in form for investigation. He replied that he only intended to

7

keep his promise to Red Cloud, that he was not familiar with the forms of Government business, and that if he had committed an error in this respect he begged your pardon; in reply to your reminder that he had not furnished them to you during the days he had been in town immediately preceding this interview, he stated that he had been overpressed with scientific work.

You assured him that, so far as you were personally concerned, you only wished to be treated as he would wish to be himself under similar circumstances, and earnestly desired him to make full and explicit statements of his charges to you, and to cite all the proof of which he was informed, that they might be laid before the commission to investigate the Red Cloud agency. He said he had not put them in shape, but would do it, and should want full opportunity to present them before the commission, and to be present as the testimony was taken. He referred to some of the particulars connected with his observations, and said that the evidence was abundant to substantiate all that he had said. You still urged that he should furnish his statements to you in form for use before the commission of investigation. He hesitated, and you assured him that every opportunity should be afforded him to testify or to call witnesses or examine them; that you wanted to know the truth, and that only as you knew the truth could you administer the difficult service justly and honestly as you desired; that you were the one especially charged with this responsibility; and that if information went everywhere else and not to you, you could not discharge your duty as you sought to do. To enforce your idea, I recollect that you supposed a case of irregularity in college, and called his attention to the fact that the information upon which correction should be based must be made known to the responsible officer or head; so in Indian affairs, information of irregularities should be brought to you.

You stated to him emphatically that no one could be more interested than you were in enforcing honesty and justice in the Indian service, and urged him to assist you, and see if this was not done. He in no way intimated, as he now does in these charges, that you were disinclined to punish frauds when they became known to you.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN EATON.

Hon. C. DELANO,
*Secretary of Interior, Washington, D. C.*

### III.

#### DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, D. C., July 20, 1875.

GENTLEMEN: I have just received a pamphlet, indorsed "A statement of affairs at the Red Cloud agency, made to the President of the United States by Prof. O. C. Marsh;" on the outside of which is an indorsement in writing as follows: "To the Hon. Columbus Delano, with kind regards of the author." I inclose this communication for your use and consideration during the discharge of your duties, with the following observations:

My attention having been directed to some newspaper articles reflecting upon the management of affairs at the Red Cloud agency, and basing such reflections upon reports from Professor Marsh, I addressed a communication to the Board of Indian Commissioners, a copy of which

8

is herewith inclosed, marked A, on the 10th day of May last, requesting them to select suitable persons to investigate charges and complaints.

As soon as I received information from the Board of Indian Commissioners that they had selected the persons to make such examination I caused the persons so selected to be appointed, and directed the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to make out instructions for their guidance, and to inform Professor Marsh of their appointment, and request from him such information and facts within his knowledge as it might be desirable or necessary that the commission should possess, together with such detailed statements of complaints as he felt authorized to make against the agent at the Red Cloud agency, and such proofs as it might be in his power to furnish in support of such complaints.

On the 1st day of July the Commissioner of Indian Affairs addressed Professor Marsh a letter, of which I inclose a copy, marked B. Professor Marsh has made no communication to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in reply to this letter. He has never made any communication to me, and I have never received anything from him, to my knowledge, except the statement which I now inclose, and which I received this morning.

You will observe that there are two letters in the pamphlet, both addressed to the President of the United States, and both dated Yale College, July 10, 1875. Both of these appeared in the columns of the New York Tribune, as I am informed, before they were received by the President.

The first time that I met Professor Marsh was during the council of the Sioux Indians in this city, in May last, and after much had been said in the public prints in reference to his complaints regarding the Red Cloud agency, when, being informed that he was in the room at one of these meetings, and being desirous to learn from him what he knew on the subject referred to, I made myself known to him and requested him to call upon me. Subsequently he came to my office, and during that interview I earnestly requested him to furnish me with such information as he had, and with all the proofs that he could refer to against the agent at Red Cloud, which he declined to do. General Eaton, Commissioner of Education, was present during this interview, and I shall endeavor to obtain from him a letter referring to it. I have now stated, I think correctly, my entire intercourse with Professor Marsh, and have referred to all that has ever transpired between us, either orally or in writing.

I need not express to your commission my desire for a full and candid examination and report in regard to affairs at Red Cloud agency; but as Professor Marsh has seen fit to make insinuations, if not charges, against me, and certainly against my sincerity in reference to my desire to have this investigation made, and as he has also seen fit to prefer charges against the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, may I not beg of your commission, while in the discharge of its other duties, a careful examination of these charges and insinuations, so far as they affect the Commissioner or myself, and may I express my desire that your report will be clear and explicit on these subjects, and such as the evidence and the facts, after full investigation, may require.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

C. DELANO,
Secretary.

HONS. TH. C. FLETCHER, BENJ. W. HARRIS, and CHARLES J.
FAULKNER,

Commissioners to examine affairs at Red Cloud Agency.

9

A.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, D. C., May 10, 1875.

SIR: I am desirous of appointing a commission from the members of your board to investigate certain reports put in circulation by a Mr. Marsh, relative to the Indian service at the Red Cloud agency, and I write to you to request that you will consult with your board and name to me such members of it as may be designated to make the investigation.

It would be well to have the commission consist of three members. Should you be unable to designate them from your board, will you do me the favor to recommend some other suitable persons as commissioners? I desire to have the commission named by yourself, or the board of which you are president.

C. DELANO,
Secretary.

Hon. CLINTON B. FISKE.
President Board Indian Commissioners, Saint Louis, Mo.

B.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,
Washington, D. C., July 1, 1875.

SIR: At the request of the honorable Secretary of the Interior, the Board of Indian Commissioners have nominated you as a committee to investigate affairs at Red Cloud agency. Hon. A. H. Bullock, of Worcester, Mass., Hon. Thomas C. Fletcher, of Saint Louis, Mo., and Hon. G. W. Lane, of the Chamber of Commerce in New York City, and it is understood that these gentlemen have accepted the service to which they have been invited.

In preparing instructions for their guidance I have not been able to furnish them your complaints against the Red Cloud agency administration except in a general way as detailed to me by yourself at several interviews, but I have informed you of the request of the Secretary that you will reduce these complaints to a written statement, to be accompanied with such proofs and suggestions as to reliable sources of evidence as will aid in securing a thorough investigation.

I have also informed them of the appointment and purpose of this commission and of my intention to renew the request heretofore made by the honorable Secretary that you will now furnish the said written statement making the charges as specific and furnishing evidence as much in detail as possible, or, if you are not prepared to do this, that you will, in any way most agreeable to yourself, make known in a definite form your impressions and views respecting Indian affairs as resulting from your personal observation while in the Indian country. I make this request of you in the belief that you can have no other desire in this matter than that the interests and rights both of the Indians and of the Government may be protected, and I desire to renew the assurance heretofore given you that it is the sincere wish and purpose of the Department to prevent frauds as far as possible and to omit no effort to discover them when perpetrated, and in all respects to bring the Indian service to the highest possible standard of humanity and strict integrity.

Very respectfully,

EDWD. P. SMITH,
Commissioner.

Prof. O. C. MARSH,
Yale Scientific School, New Haven, Conn.

IV.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
August 2, 1875.

SIR: Following closely after the publication of the Marsh charges in the New York papers, appeared the report of Samuel Walker, in regard to affairs at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, dated December

10

6, 1873, and in the same connection it is charged that inasmuch as the statements in the Walker report never received the attention of the Interior Department, therefore the Secretary of the Interior was not desirous of correcting the evils complained of by Mr. Walker.

Inasmuch as the Walker report contained very grave charges against the agents at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, the allegation that those charges were disregarded or ignored by this Department is a very serious one, and the following statement of the action of the Department, in regard to said report, is respectfully submitted for your information.

On the 4th of February, 1874, I learned, for the first time, through an outside or unofficial source, that Mr. Samuel Walker, a clerk in the office of the Board of Indian Commissioners, had made a report to the board of an investigation made by him into affairs at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies. On receipt of this information I at once wrote the chairman of the board, (Mr. Brunot,) informing him of the fact that it had been communicated to me through an unofficial channel that Samuel Walker had made such a report, and requesting him to inform me whether my information was correct, and by what authority Walker had been sent out, and also requesting to be furnished with a copy of the report, if one had been made. A copy of my letter is transmitted herewith, marked A.

February 6, 1874, a reply was received from Mr. Brunot, apologizing for the omission to send the report, and stating that it was his neglect, but that he had now directed that a copy of the Walker report be sent to the Department. Copy of Mr. Brunot's letter is sent herewith, marked B.

February 11, 1874, a copy of Walker's report was received at the Department from the secretary of the board, Mr. Cree. A copy of Mr. Cree's letter is herewith, marked C, and a copy of Walker's report is also submitted, marked D.

It will be observed that Mr. Walker was appointed to make the investigation at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies October 28, 1873; that his report to the board is dated December 6, 1873, and that the Department was without any information in regard to the appointment, the investigation, and the report until the 4th of February, 1874, two months after the report was made, and more than three months after Walker was appointed to make the investigation, and a copy of the report was not furnished until a week later; and furthermore, that the information, even at that late day, was not voluntarily furnished by the board, but elicited only after a request had been made for it.

Owing to the extraordinary nature of the proceedings detailed above and the character of the statements contained in the report, immediate steps were taken to cause a thorough and complete investigation of the matters complained of in the Walker report. For this purpose, on the 23d of February, 1874, I appointed a commission, consisting of Bishop Hare, Rev. S. D. Hinman, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, F. H. Smith, and Inspector Bevier, with instructions to make a thorough investigation of affairs at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, and especially of those matters complained of in Walker's report. The selection of Messrs. Hare and Hinman was made because of the fact that the agents in charge of the two agencies were appointed on the recommendation of the missionary authorities of that church, and they were in a measure responsible for their good conduct. Copy of the instructions to the commissioners is herewith, marked E.

Said commission made a full report, April 22, 1874, which was pub-

11

lished in the official reports for that year, and a copy is submitted here-
with, marked F.

That investigation was evidently made in a thorough and impartial
manner. The report is full and frank in all its conclusions, and was
regarded by the Department as conclusive of the matters complained of.
That any of the charges in the Walker report were ignored or sought
to be covered up by the Indian Office is clearly shown to be an error by
the foregoing statement.

Your attention is respectfully invited to the report of the commission
of Bishop Hare, especially to the reference therein made to Mr. Walker's
method of investigation, to the character of his principal witness, and
the disproof of his most serious charges.

I will thank you to acknowledge the receipt of this communication by
telegraph.

C. DELANO, Secretary.

Hon. T. C. FLETCHER,

Chairman Red Cloud Commission, Red Cloud Agency.

A.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

Washington, D. C., February 4, 1874.

SIR: I am informed, unofficially, that Mr. Samuel Walker, of your office, has recently made some examination into the conduct of the agents and general condition of affairs at Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, by direction of the Board of Indian Commissioners, and that he has reported to the board upon the subject.

If what I have heard is correct, I have the honor respectfully to request information
as to the time of Mr. Walker's appointment, and by what authority he was appointed,
and also to ask for a copy of his report.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant.

C. DELANO,

Secretary.

Hon. F. R. BRUNOT,

President Board Indian Commissioners, Pittsburgh, Pa.

B.

BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS,

Pittsburgh, February 6, 1874.

DEAR SIR: Your letter of 4th instant, stating that you are "informed unofficially" that Mr. Samuel Walker, clerk in the office of the board, had recently made some examinations at Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies by direction of the board, requesting to know "by what authority" he was appointed, and asking a copy of his report, came to hand yesterday, and I have the honor to reply.

I have to regret that through my own inadvertence a copy of Mr. Walker's report was not sent to you at the proper time. I laid it before the board at the January meeting, and, at my own suggestion, was instructed by resolution to transmit it to you. Mr. Cree subsequently asked if he should take it over, but was told that I wished to write a letter to accompany it. I will immediately direct the secretary of the board to send you a copy of the report, if he has not done so already.

As to the time when Mr. Walker was sent, I have not at hand the precise date, but I think it was about the 1st of December.

The authority was that of the board, through its chairman, under the acts of Congress appointing and continuing the board from time to time.

In regard to the report of Mr. Walker, I may say further, that a few days before the meeting of the board I was solicited to furnish a copy for the information of the committee of the missionary society which had nominated and was responsible for the proper conduct of the agents at the two agencies concerned, at their meeting to be held in New York about the time of the board meeting.

12

Deeming it important and proper that this committee should have all the information in possession of the board at its meeting which would give them light as to the conduct of their nominees, I directed a copy to be furnished to them on condition that it was to be used solely for the information of the committee in this connection. I am not yet aware that any other use was made of the information it contained than to guide the committee in the duty of securing honesty in the administration of the agencies.

FELIX R. BRUNOT,
*Chairman.*

Hon. C. DELANO,
*Secretary of the Interior*.

C.

BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS,
*Washington, D. C., February 11, 1874.*

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a true copy of the report made to Hon. Felix R. Brunot, chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners, by Mr. Samuel Walker, of a visit to Red Cloud and Whetstone agencies.

Also copy of affidavit prepared by Mr. Appleton as to beeves lost October 8, referred to in the report; and affidavit of Mr. J. Ecoffe as to Dr. Saville having whisky on the reservation.

THOMAS K. CREE,
*Secretary.*

The Hon. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

D.

THE RED CLOUD AGENCY.

WASHINGTON, December 6, 1873.

SIR: In compliance with your directions, transmitted to me in an official letter of October 28, 1873, I have the honor to respectfully inform you that I visited the Red Cloud and Whetstone Indian agencies in Dakota Territory, and have to report as follows:

On my arrival at Cheyenne, Wyoming, I went to the store-house of the Indian Department in company with Mr. W. H. Moore, store-keeper, and examined the supplies there awaiting transportation to the Red Cloud agency. The bacon was very good, but some of the coffee and sugar looked inferior. There were five brands of flour delivered under the contract for this year, as follows: 1st, Astor, Saint Louis; 2d, Occidental Mills, Council Bluffs; 3d, Papillion Mills, Nebraska; 4th, State Mills, Omaha; 5th, Anchor Mills. None of the sacks of the first four brands were marked, as required by contract, "Indian Department Flour." Some of the flour was in single sacks, but I could not ascertain how much. I secured samples of each brand of flour selected by Mr. Moore and myself, and respectfully submit them herewith; also Mr. Moore's affidavit as to the samples selected and his estimate of the quantity of flour in single sacks, &c. The flour appeared to be very inferior, and is said to be delivered by Mr. J. T. Baldwin for G. M. Dodge.

HIGH PRICES PAID FOR CORN.

Some of the corn substituted for flour at Red Cloud agency, as per letter of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated September 16, 1873, was in the store, and looked like good grain, although I saw some of the same delivery at the agency very dirty and inferior. The price paid for it, as stated in the letter of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, is $2.26½ per 100 pounds. This price is far above the market rates. Corn is being delivered in gunnies, in Cheyenne, at $1.70 per 100 pounds, in small quantities. A large quantity can be obtained in burlap sacks, such as Mr. Dodge, the corn contractor, delivered in, for $1.50 per 100 pounds. Clark, Parsons & Co., of Omaha, one of the most reliable firms in that city, offered to furnish 400,000 pounds at Cheyenne at that rate. So also did Mr. Coilett, a grain-dealer in Cheyenne.

I ascertained while in Cheyenne that the distance to the old Red Cloud agency by the road usually traveled by heavy trains is about ninety miles, while D. J. McCann

13

charged the Government for one hundred and thirty-two miles; and that the distance from Cheyenne to the new Red Cloud agency is variously estimated at one hundred and eighty-six and one hundred and eighty-eight miles, as per affidavits of John Compton, train-master of D. J. McCann, signed also by G. W. Perkins, subcontractor, and of Charles Hecht, subcontractor, while D. J. McCann charged for two hundred and twelve miles. I also submit a copy of the contract between D. J. McCann and Charles Hecht, which shows that Mr. McCann only paid $1 per 100 pounds for the whole distance to the old agency, and that the transportation is now furnished for $1.20 per 100 pounds per one hundred miles to the new agency from the old.

## AFFAIRS AT NEW RED CLOUD AGENCY.

I arrived at new Red Cloud agency November 9. The affairs of this agency are conducted very loosely. I was informed by the clerk who receives the stores that nothing is weighed on receipt from the freight-contractor, who gets receipts for all his bills of lading, and that the agent, Dr. Saville, said he need not weigh. To any one at all acquainted with the character of the class of men engaged in freighting on the remote frontier, it is obvious that the Government loses largely by this practice, and it is inconceivable how any person possessed of the least desire to care for the interests of the Government and the Indians could tolerate such a practice. Neither is there any record of the amount of beef received at the agency, other than copies of the receipts issued to the contractor, which Mr. Bosler, who is really the beef-contractor, informed me he made out himself. The beeves had been received by an average weight, ascertained by weighing, as is alleged, some of the largest cattle, until November 7, when the cattle-scale was put up, with a cattle-corral, for weighing.

In examining the papers of the agency up to the date of my arrival I found no statement of the beef account with the contractor, and on asking Mr. Appleton, the acting agent, for an estimate of the amount for which receipts were due the contractor to that date, he informed me that he could not tell until he sent to Mr. George M. Bosler, at his camp, some thirty-five miles distant, and I was compelled to accept his promise to obtain the figures for me on my return from Whetstone agency. But even then Mr. Bosler did not bring his account, and I waited two days longer than was otherwise necessary at Red Cloud agency, while Mr. Bosler went to his camp ostensibly to examine his accounts and the orders of the agent in his possession, and to let me know the result. He again returned to the agency the day before I left, and said the Government owed him for seven hundred and ninety-eight beeves, or maybe more, but he was not sure, as he said one of his herders had two of the orders which he had not seen. Thus the account of beef received at the agency was kept by Mr. Bosler. The issues of supplies are made to chiefs of bands for their bands, or to some chief or head-man designated by the band.

Flour, coffee, sugar, &c., are issued in quantities according to the amount on hand, and no record is kept of the amount issued, the returns being made out to balance with the amount on hand. The Indians are by this plan charged with the amounts stolen by freight-contractors and others, and fed to employés, all of whom are fed from Indian supplies. The beef is issued by beeves on the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 23d of each month—so many beeves being allowed to each band. For instance, Little Wound's band, said to number two hundred lodges, receives forty beeves for seven days' rations. When the average of the beef is greatly overestimated, the Indians are charged with and cheated out of the amount of the overestimate. If this band received their cattle at the actual value, they would only be entitled to forty beeves, each weighing seven hundred and thirty-five pounds, and all over that weight is an unjustifiable issue, which is covered by misrepresenting the actual number of lodges in accounting to the Department. Little Wound's band received one beef to five lodges, by a special arrangement of Dr. Saville, who promised to allow them that number if they permitted him to count their lodges. Little Wolf's band received a like proportion. On the other hand, Red Cloud's and other bands received less than this ration. I endeavored to get a statement of the number of beeves issued since Dr. Saville took charge, but found that no regular record of the number of beeves issued was kept, beyond the rough issue-lists of the commissary clerk; and those of the third quarter having been destroyed, after the return of provisions for that quarter was rendered, I had to limit inquiries into the beef transactions to the months of October and November.

## INDIANS CHEATED OUT OF WHOLE ISSUES.

The papers of the agency show that on the 1st of October there were on hand 14,948 pounds of beef, and that during the month there were received, as per receipts of J. J. Saville, on the 1st day of October, 647 head, averaging 1,063 pounds each, and on the 15th day of October 633-head, averaging 1,043 pounds each, making a total of 1,362,928 pounds.

14

From a statement of Mr. B. F. Walters, it is seen that 1,163 head were charged as issued to Indians during the month. The chief herder stated to me that he had on the 1st day of October 60 head of beeves, which, added to the 1,280 beeves for which receipts were given, would amount to 1,340 beeves, of which 1,163 were issued, leaving 177 head which should have been on hand October 31, less 52 head said by Mr. Appleton to have been lost by stampede, and 10 head said to have been given by Dr. Saville to Nic Jamis on account of rations for his half-breed children, living eighty-eight miles from the agency. It will be seen hereafter that there was not a pound of beef on hand at this date.

FALSE AND FRAUDULENT RECEIPTS FOR BEEF.

The receipts of Dr. Saville were, however, false and fraudulent. He did not receive 647 head on the 1st of October, nor 633 head on the 15th of October. On the 1st day of October no issue was made at the agency, because the herd of the contractor stampeded the night before delivery, and J. Bissinette, interpreter, swears that two issues were omitted in October, one on the 1st and one on the 15th. This testimony appears to be corroborated by a draught of an affidavit prepared by Mr. A. R. Appleton for the signature and attestation of the chief herder, in which he says that a herd of about 600 beeves stampeded on the 8th of October, which could not have been the case, as to the number stampeded, had the herd been received on the 1st, and an issue made of 282 head, as alleged.

On the 8th of October, 297 head were issued, a number, which I could not ascertain, having been received on the day before, and after issue the herd stampeded, and Dr. Saville then decided not to keep an agency herd, and directed the chief herder to turn over to Mr. Bosler's herd all the cattle recovered, which he did, to the number of 217. Of this number Mr. Bosler only acknowledged the receipt of 177 head.

Thus, after the 8th day of October there were no cattle left at the Red Cloud agency, and no herd was received except 185 head, issued on the 18th, (or more probably on the 21st,) and subsequently 399 head, said to have been issued on the 23d, (or more probably on the 25th.) The latter issue was made on the solicitation of Mr. Appleton by Dr. Saville, before the departure of the latter for Washington, for the 1st of November, no issue being made from October 25 until November 8.

On the 8th day of November, 390 beeves, said to average 993 pounds each, were received and issued; and on the 18th of November 410 beeves, averaging 967 pounds, were received and issued. I was present, and assisted in the weighing of the herd received November 18, and it was said by the whites and Indians to have been the finest herd received during the year.

RECEIPTS GIVEN FOR CATTLE NOT RECEIVED.

On the 21st of November Mr. George M. Bosler informed me that the Government owed him receipts for 798 head of cattle received during November. Dr. Saville, therefore, gave a receipt on the 1st of October for 647 head of cattle, and certified that he weighed twenty head, and that their average weight was 1,063 pounds, and for 633 head on the 15th, averaging 1,043 pounds each, when, in fact, no such number of beeves was received, and receipts were given for cattle which the agent never saw. There is no record to show that any of the lot received October 18 (or 21) were weighed at all. It will be seen, then, that the Government is charged with receiving 1,280 beeves during October, and that there were on hand, October 1, 60 beeves, making in all 1,340 beeves belonging to the agency. From these there were issued, October 8, 297 head, October 21, 185 head, and October 25, 399 head, leaving 439 head unaccounted for for that month, as Mr. Bosler claims receipts for 798 head for November.

I think it clear that fraud was intended. Mr. J. H. Bosler told me in Cheyenne that he made out the receipts for the agent's signature, and as those receipts purported to represent deliveries of cattle on dates on which both he and the agent, Dr. Saville, knew that no such deliveries were made, and that weights were certified to, especially on the receipt of October 15, when no cattle were weighed, there was clearly collusion between Dr. Saville and Mr. J. H. Bosler to obtain payment from the Government for beef not delivered, either as to number or weight of beeves. In confirmation of this, I invite attention to the affidavits of J. Bissinette, who swears that Dr. Saville told him that the cattle, about the beginning of October, averaged about 1,000 pounds, not 1,063, as certified to. The affidavit of Thomas W. Reed, subagent, shows that the cattle actually received from Mr. Bosler were not of the weights represented by the certificates, as does also that of J. Bissinette, interpreter, who swears that he called the attention of Dr. Saville to the fact that only large cattle were brought up to be weighed. I was also informed by a herder at the agency, who had been raised among cattle, and was a herder on the Kansas cattle-trail, that 920 pounds would be a good average for all the cattle received since August 1 at the Red Cloud agency. Mr. Appleton weighed the lot of 390 cattle received November 8, and allowed an average of

15

993 pounds, although the actual weight was 958 pounds each, he having allowed the contractor, Mr. Bosler, 35 pounds per head for overdriving. The following is a statement of the number of lodges of Indians said to be at Red Cloud agency since October 1, 1873:

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Lodges.</th><th>Indians.</th><th></th><th>Lodges.</th><th>Indians.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>October 1</td><td>2, 131</td><td>14, 917</td><td>November 1</td><td>2, 351</td><td>16, 457</td></tr><tr><td>October 8</td><td>2, 158</td><td>15, 106</td><td>November 8</td><td>2, 419</td><td>16, 933</td></tr><tr><td>October 15</td><td>2, 213</td><td>15, 491</td><td>November 18</td><td>2, 386</td><td>16, 702</td></tr><tr><td>October 23</td><td>2, 273</td><td>15, 911</td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

From the best information to be had on the subject, I am satisfied that there are no more than 1,100 lodges, or 7,700 Indians, at the agency. It is claimed that the agent cannot obtain an accurate estimate of the number of lodges, because the Indians are averse to being counted, and will not allow a census to be taken, and that he cannot lessen the issue of beef without risk to his life and the lives of the agency employés. On these points I would respectfully refer to the affidavits of J. Bissinette and Y. W. Reed herewith.

## UNAUTHORIZED EXPENDITURES BY AGENTS.

I respectfully invite attention to the variability of the issues in October, as to the number of beeves issued and the dates of issue. If the Indians were so violent, as represented, the agent would have been afraid to deprive them of two issues in one month. There is no authority for receiving or issuing so much beef, if I may except a statement made by J. H. Bosler, that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs had told Mr. Wilder "to go ahead and furnish what beef was wanted." By the terms of the advertisement for supplies for the Indian service for the fiscal year 1873-'74, "the right to increase or diminish the quantity of each or any of the articles" is reserved by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and as I could find no authority from him authorizing the agent at Red Cloud agency to receive more than 416,666½ per month, I infer that the agent's action in receiving more than that quantity has been illegal and not binding upon the Government, especially as this advertisement forms part of the terms of the contract with Mr. Wilder, and must be well known to him and the agent. Dr. Saville purchased ten horses after his arrival at the agency, which he certifies were absolutely necessary for herding purposes. I found four of them used for an ambulance team. He paid $700 for the ten. They were of the kind known as "Broncos," which are usually purchased for $50 apiece when sound and serviceable. Of the ten purchased, only two might have been worth $70 each. All the others could be bought at any time for from $40 to $45 each. None of the ten were fit for herding.

On the report of employés for the third quarter of 1873, Frank D. Appleton, son of A. R. Appleton, superintendent of buildings at Red Cloud agency, and, I believe, a brother-in-law of Dr. Saville, appeared on the roll as clerk from August 19, 1873, at $125 per month. He only came to the agency November 9, 1873, and I was informed that A. R. Appleton, his father, received the check drawn for his services to September 31, 1573, and signed his (Frank D. Appleton's) name to the proper voucher therefor. During my stay at the agency a number of blankets of the annuity goods of 1873-'74 were shown to me. They are undoubtedly inferior to the samples upon which the contracts were made; also some knives, of which the Indians complained very much. I brought samples of the white, dark-blue, and scarlet 2½-point blankets to Washington with me, and have turned them over to the secretary of the board; also one of the knives.

## UNJUSTIFIABLE TRANSACTIONS.

I respectfully call your attention to the turning over of beeves by Dr. Saville to Mr. Bosler's herd, after giving receipts for them, at an average of 1,063 pounds each, and the subsequent receipt of the 18th, without weighing; also to the receipt of the 15th, given without at that time receiving cattle; also to the affidavit of Subagent Reed, which shows at least one instance in which beef justly due was kept back from the Indians while there was enough to their credit; to the allowance of 35 pounds per head extra on the herd received November 8; to the delivery of ten beeves to Nick Jamis for his half-breed family; to the gift of two bolts of Indian cloth to Joseph Bissineth, as per his affidavit; and to the fact of Dr. Saville having had liquor on the Indian reservation, as sworn to by Mr. Ecoffee. There can be no justification for any one of the transactions referred to. I also respectfully invite attention to the accompanying statement of Mr. H. W. Moore. Todd Randall, the man referred to, now an Indian trader at Red Cloud agency, was recently at Whetstone agency, and does not bear a good character. I was informed that Mr. A. R. Appleton purchased the goods for Randall's trader's store at the Red Cloud agency. I was also informed that Mr. A. R. Appleton was discounting the checks of the agent paid to employés for services at the rate of 5 per cent.

16

THE WHETSTONE AGENCY.

I left Red Cloud agency on the morning of November 12, and arrived at Whetstone agency the same evening, after a drive of about forty miles. I was able to get but very little information at this agency as to the manner of doing business, the clerk, who was acting agent in the absence of Agent Howard, being unacquainted with the routine duties.

I examined the supplies delivered under the contract for 1873-'74, and found that the flour was a better article than that delivered at Red Cloud agency. There were only three brands, as follows: 1. St. James Mills, Neb.; 2. Exchange Mills, Sioux City; 3. City Mills, Sioux City]; all of which appeared to be nearly, if not quite, as good as the samples of flour contracted for received from the Indian Office. Samples are respectfully submitted herewith.

A SPECIMEN OF POOR FLOUR.

I also examined the old flour which had been delivered by G. M. Dodge under the contract of 1872-'73, and respectfully transmit herewith a sample selected in the presence of the agent's clerk, Mr. Willard D. Bray, and S. F. Estes, who pronounced it to be a fair specimen of the whole delivery. It is a nondescript article, neither flour nor meal, and totally unfit for issue as flour. In receiving the supplies at this agency parts only are weighed. The clerk informed me that he thought nearly all the bacon was weighed, and sometimes the sugar and coffee. The flour and corn were not weighed. Several sacks of corn were taken and weighed, and their average allowed for the train-load from which they were taken. The issues were calculated by the number of lodges said to be present, not by the amounts actually issued, of which no record is kept. Tickets are issued to chiefs, headmen, or other persons representing bands or lodges, for the amounts which they are to receive. These tickets are orders on the issue-clerk from the agent's office for supplies for a stated number of lodges, which, as the clerk told me, never equal the number claimed by the Indians, as they usually overstated their numbers. I observed, however, that credit was taken on the returns for the full number claimed by the Indians, and, as an instance of this mode of dealing, I submit the following as coming under my own observation:

INDIANS CHEATED IN THEIR SUPPLIES.

A party of Minneconjous and Unecapas, numbering 28 lodges, came to the agency while I was there and got rations for seven or eight days. The clerk issued some supplies, and when they insisted on having beef, too, he gave them an order for one beef. This was to supply 3,969 pounds of beef, and there was not one animal in the herd of bees then at the agency which would weigh 1,000 pounds. If they happened to get one of the smallest ones which I saw there, they could not have had more than 250 pounds, net weight, of beef.

The beef here, as at Red Cloud agency, is issued by bees, with the same general results in case of overestimated averages. The return of provisions for the third quarter of 1873 showed that the agent had on hand, September 30, 1873, 955,039 pounds of beef, calculated at 950 bees, and the receipt of the agent was given in October for 1,056 head, making a total of 2,006.

Of this number, there was said to have been issued as follows: October 1, 233 head to 730 lodges; October 10, 269 head to 1,085 lodges; October 20, 307 head to 1,146 lodges; during the month, about 70 head to 100 of whites; making a total of 879 head issued in October. There was issued November 1, 315 head to 1,197 lodges; November 10, 373 head to 1,553 lodges; November 10, 47 head to 100 of whites; making in all 735 head issued in November. During the quarter there was said to have been six head stolen by Indians and one head lost by disease, leaving a total of 385 head to be accounted for at the date of my visit. Of that number, the chief herder and clerk (acting agent) reported to me, when I visited the herd, some ten miles distant from the agency, that there were 130 head on hand. I subsequently learned that 38 of the cattle shown to me as bees were work-cattle, belonging to the agency and freighters in the neighborhood. There were, therefore, only 92 head of bees at the agency, leaving 293 head unaccounted for. Subsequently the acting agent said that the round return of provisions for the third quarter of 1873, which he showed me was not correct, and that he had not deducted from it 55 head said to have been taken by Indians. If this statement is correct, there yet remains 232 head to be accounted for, and the only inference is that receipts were given for a larger number of bees than were actually received, unless the chief herder failed to give an accurate statement of his losses.

HOW THE BEEF-CONTRACTOR MAKES MONEY.

Having no means of weighing in gross provided as yet, the average of cattle at this agency was ascertained by weighing a few head selected by the chief herder and weighed by the butcher, who, I was informed, at one time weighed the end-gate of a

17

wagon with each of the four quarters of a beef, and counted the whole as the net weight of the animal; and at another time cut the beef in two parts, leaving all the neck, backbone, &c., on one side, which he weighed and multiplied by two, to represent the net weight of the animal. This man and the chief herder are relied on by the agent, who never attends to the weights personally, to give the average weights for which the Government pays, and with which the Indians are charged.

I have no hesitation in saying that the average of the October lot must have been largely overestimated; for, of the 92 head on hand, there was not one which would weigh 1,000 pounds; while, on the other hand, there were two very small animals, between 2 and 3 years old, in the herd, not weighing 600 pounds each, and a large proportion of the balance would not weigh over 800 pounds each. It was said by the chief herder that this was the last lot of the herds of September and October, and did not represent fairly the size of the cattle in those herds. But if this were true, they, having been so long on hand, should have been in good condition, which they were not. I am convinced, after weighing the splendid lot of cattle delivered at Red Cloud agency November 17, and which averaged only 967 pounds, that no common herd of Texan cattle, which had in it any number of such animals as I saw in this herd, could weigh more than 900 pounds average. It appeared to me that the introduction of the work-cattle in the herd was an attempt to cover up an overaverage. When I spoke to the acting agent on the subject, he said it was not done by his orders.

## INSUFFICIENT ISSUES OF BEEF.

I also examined a lot of 150 hides which were spread out to dry by the trader, and found the greater part to be small hides, such as might be taken from cattle weighing from 750 to 800 pounds. It became evident to me that the 92 head on hand were intended for the issue of November 20. It was my intention to be present at the receipt and weighing of one lot of the cattle received at the Red Cloud and Whetstone agencies, and I endeavored to make arrangements to that end. Mr. Willard, the clerk in charge at Whetstone, informed me that he expected a herd by the 20th or 21st, and I left Whetstone on the 17th to be present at the receipt and issue at Red Cloud agency on the 18th, intending to return on the 19th, and be present at the receipt and issue of cattle, October 20, at Whetstone, but Mr. George M. Bosler told me at Red Cloud agency that Mr. Willard had said that when he wanted beef he would send word to his camp, and that he had at that date, November 18, received no notice from Mr. Willard, and that he understood, when visiting the agency the day before my arrival, that enough beef was on hand for an issue. This lot of 92 was then clearly intended for the issue of November 20, no provision having been made for an additional supply. I respectfully invite attention to the issues of October 1 and 10. According to the number of cattle issued October 1 to 730 lodges, the 1,085 lodges, issued to October 10, would be entitled to 345 beeves, while they received only 269. I also invite attention to a similar disparity in the issues of November 1 and 15. The issues charged to the Government are undoubtedly excessive, as are also the receipts, for which, under the terms of the advertisement for supplies for 1873 and 1874, the Government cannot be held responsible.

## ISSUES CHARGED TO INDIANS NOT PRESENT.

The number of Indians to which issues are charged is far in excess of the number actually present. The clerk at the agency told me that he calculates the number present to be about as many more as properly belonged to the agency. Messrs. Kemble and Alvord ascertained that from 2,300 to 2,500 Indians properly belong to the Whetstone agency, and 5,000 persons would, therefore, be a fair estimate of the number of Indians fed. Or, estimated by lodges, there should be no more than 720 lodges to be issued to; and this I believe to be a liberal estimate of the number fed up to the present. Just before I left I heard that a large number of Minneconjous were expected to arrive—perhaps 200 lodges. This would increase the number at the agency to 900 lodges, more or less, and I am satisfied that that is the highest number of lodges that received rations at Whetstone agency this year.

The corn delivered at this agency was complained of by Spotted Tail as being very old and dry. It is to be delivered as per the letter of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of September 16, for $3.60 per 100 pounds. This cannot be done without loss to the contractor. He can furnish corn, delivered at the agency, for $4.62 per 100 pounds, at a fair profit, but not for less. On examining the agency records, I found that C. Pratt, jr., member of the trading firm of Pratt & Ferris, at Fort Randall, was on the roll of employés as subagent, at $100 per month. The senior member of the firm of Pratt & Ferris, J. H. Pratt, is the trader at Whetstone agency. I respectfully invite your special attention to this arrangement, which appears to me to be entirely in conflict with the best interests of the Government. I found a voucher in favor of J. H. Pratt for 38,400 pounds of oats, at 7 cents per pound, delivered at the agency. This is a very high price. Oats were delivered to a private individual at Whetstone agency, on a small retail purchase, at 5.20 cents per pound. There was also a voucher for 6,400 pounds of seed-oats, at 7½ cents per pound. This is also proportionately high.

2 M

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## UNNECESSARY EXPENDITURES FOR LABOR.

I observed that one chief herder and seven herders were employed at this agency, while Red Cloud agency only needed one chief herder and four herders. The latter number is amply sufficient for all the needs of either agency. The number of laborers also appears to be excessive. There are eleven who receive $50 per month, while the laborers at Red Cloud agency receive only $40 per month, with the exception of four, who are skilled laborers. I think seven would be sufficient. There does not appear to be a necessity for more than one person to butcher. C. Bernard's services might be dispensed with. The herd farmer, Raymond, is a freighter, and attends particularly to that branch of the business. There were three Texan horses on the papers of the agency, of which I could learn nothing of the acting agent.

There were no papers left at the agency by late Agent Risley from which I could form any estimate of the transaction of business during his incumbency. From the best information I could get, he had not been at the agency in all more than thirty-seven days. The beef received under the contract of 1872-'73 was very much over-averaged, and was not of the kind contracted for, a large portion being two and three year olds, which could not have weighed more than 600 to 700 pounds each. The testimony on this point at the agency is almost unanimous.

I endeavored to obtain an accurate list of the persons who freighted under the contract to remove the public property at the old Whetstone agency to the present location; but, owing to the absence of most of the freighters, was unable to get the personal testimony of each as to the amount he carried. I ascertained, however, that Dr. Graves took no part in the removal, either personally or by deputy; all the goods, supplies, &c., were delivered and received by Government employés, and all accounts of weights, &c., were turned into the agent's office, from which due-bills were issued to the freighters for the amounts due them at $1 per 100 pounds for the whole distance. I traveled over the roads which led from the old to the new Whetstone agency, and believe the distance does not exceed thirty-three miles.

I returned to Washington on the 1st instant, and reported for duty at the office of the board.

SAMUEL WALKER,
Clerk of the Board.

The HON. FELIX R. BRUNOT,
Chairman Board of Indian Commissioners.

### E.

### DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,
Washington, D. C., July 1, 1875.

**GENTLEMEN:** On the nomination of the chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, you have been appointed by him a commission to investigate the affairs of the Red Cloud agency. The occasion for such investigation has mainly originated in statements made by Mr. O. C. Marsh, professor in Sheffield Scientific School, Yale College, concerning matters which he observed while at the agency during November last. As yet, these statements have no definite form known to the Office, other than as they have appeared in the public press, and as made verbally by Mr. Marsh to myself.

In the latter part of March last, Professor Marsh brought to me certain samples of tobacco and flour and sugar, which he said he did in accordance with a promise made to Red Cloud, in consideration of a promise by Red Cloud to procure an entrance for him into the Black Hills country for scientific purposes. He stated that, in a private interview with Red Cloud, that Indian chief complained very bitterly of his agent in many respects, and earnestly desired a change, and that he had given him these as samples of the supplies which he was receiving from the Government. He also stated that the beef-cattle issued to the Indians were small in size, and otherwise of inferior character, and that there was much confusion in agency matters, especially in the issuing of a large amount of goods in a single day.

Professor Marsh expressed his belief that there might have been an exchange of articles purchased for the Indians for others of inferior quality while en route between Cheyenne and the agency. He also stated that his views as to agency affairs were confirmed by conversations with other persons around the agency.

Professor Marsh stated that he had not taken any measures to satisfy himself that

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the samples given to him by Red Cloud were fair samples of the supplies which were then being issued, and could not say from his own observation that they were fair samples; but that on one occasion, when a sack of flour had fallen from an Indian woman's arms and broken open, he saw the color of the flour as it lay upon the ground, and thought it not much different from the sample furnished by Red Cloud; but, not being a judge of flour, he could not make the comparison with any degree of accuracy. The samples referred to, Professor Marsh did not leave with me, and it is presumed that he has them still in his possession. His other statements in regard to agency affairs are of a still more indefinite character.

In an interview subsequently held with the Hon. Secretary of the Interior, Professor Marsh was invited by him to reduce his statements of frauds or irregularities in the Indian service to writing, in such form as would best aid in their investigation. To this request Professor Marsh has not yet responded, nor has he declined it. I have this day notified him of your appointment, and again requested him to furnish such statements or suggestions as may aid in finding the facts as to the administration of Red Cloud agency.

If, however, Professor Marsh should still decline to furnish such assistance, it is the desire of the Hon. Secretary of the Interior that you proceed in the investigation, and avail yourselves of all the means that can be found after arriving upon the ground, or before, to learn the true state of affairs; and that you still, without fear or favor, investigate all matters pertaining to that agency, so thoroughly, as to satisfy yourselves beyond a doubt as to facts, upon which you will make a clear report relative to its past and present condition and management, with such recommendations as will enable the Department to take proper action in the premises.

You will undoubtedly meet with persons of strong partisan feelings enlisted both for and against the administration of the present agent, and as you proceed you will become fully aware of the misrepresentation which such partisanship naturally produces, and the extreme difficulty of discovering the truth amid the conflicting statements and allegations.

While guarding against giving undue weight to accusations which originate in malice and suspicion only, you will not hesitate to probe all questions to the bottom, and bring to the light any official neglect or fraudulent or unfair transaction of any kind or degree, by whomsoever committed.

A copy of Agent Saville's letter, requesting such investigation, is herewith furnished for your information; also a full report of the councils held with Red Cloud and a delegation of the chiefs of the Red Cloud agency, at the Department of the Interior, May 28 and June 25.

At Cheyenne, you will find C. H. Bostwick, the storekeeper of the Government warehouse; also Major Long, the inspector of the flour and the supplies which have been shipped from Cheyenne to Red Cloud agency during the year.

You are also requested, while in the Indian country, to make such observations pertaining to Indian affairs generally at Red Cloud agency as will be of assistance to the administration of the Indian Bureau.

Of this commission, Hon. Thomas C. Fletcher, of Saint Louis, Mo., is the chairman, from whom you will receive notice of the time of proceeding to Cheyenne.

Your compensation, while actually engaged in this service, will be at the rate of eight dollars per day, in addition to your necessary and actual traveling expenses.

The weekly stage at Laramie, en route to Red Cloud, leaves Cheyenne on Monday, early in the day.

Your attention is called to circular letter of the Hon. Second Comptroller, of February 26, 1875, and to Department circular of July 1, 1874, for information as to requirements in settling your accounts for your expenses.

EDW. P. SMITH,
Commissioner.

Hon. THOMAS C. FLETCHER, Saint Louis, Mo.

Hon. C. J. FAULKNER, Martinsburgh, W. Va.

Hon. B. W. HARRIS, East Bridgewater, Mass.

P. S.—Since the date of the above instructions prepared for the commission and approved by the Hon. Secretary of the Interior, Professor Marsh has published a detailed statement of his case against the Red Cloud agency in the Indian service, in the New York Tribune, in the form of an open letter, addressed to the President.

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F.

ADMINISTRATION OF RED CLOUD AND WHETSTONE AGENCIES.

SPECIAL REPORT.

To the Hon. C. DELANO,

Secretary of the Interior:

SIR: The commission appointed to investigate into the administration of the Red Cloud and Whetstone (Spotted Tail) agencies, and to inquire into the temper and condition of the Indians connected with these agencies, and to make such recommendations as upon examination should seem to them judicious as to the line of policy to be pursued toward them, beg leave respectfully to report, that they met at the Red Cloud agency, Dakota, March 16, 1874, all the commissioners being present, as follows: F. H. Smith, one of the Board of Indian Commissioners; J. D. Bevier, United States Indian inspector; Rev. S. D. Hinman, for fifteen years missionary among the Santee Sioux; and W. H. Hare, missionary bishop to the Indians.

On motion, it was resolved that the commissioners organize and conduct their proceedings as a single body. Thereupon William H. Hare was chosen chairman of the commission, and F. H. Smith secretary.

CONDITION OF THE INDIANS.

Before reporting the results of their mission, it may be well to state that the Indians properly connected with the Red Cloud and the Whetstone agencies are the Ogallallas and the Upper Brulés, respectively. They are among the most distant of the Sioux from civilizing influences, and the last who have accepted a position of dependence upon the Government, and their agencies are the resort during the winter of multitudes of northern Indians, (Minneconjous, Sans Arcs, Uncpapas, &c.,) variously estimated at from 10,000 to 15,000 in number, who range over districts still farther removed from civilization and the power of the Government, and who, when driven in from their roving life upon the plains farther north by the rigors of the winter, come to the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, attracted by the rations which the Government dispenses there.

The wilder spirits among the Ogallallas and Upper Brulés find in these sojourners congenial company. Combined, they constitute a turbulent party, which for the time rules the agencies with a high hand. The better-disposed Indians have not yet reached strength enough, either in number or character, to resist these impetuous hordes from the north and their abettors. Those who sincerely desire to learn a better way dare not raise their heads; and those who favor progress in quiet times, because it seems the winning side, are politic enough to float with the tide when its tumultuous waters run the other way. From the time of the arrival of these outside bands, white men living on the reservation are careful not to expose themselves after night-fall, and those who for months have been accustomed to travel through the country alone, without fear of molestation, seek an escort of friendly Indians. The agents are subjected to intimidation and to the most violent and unreasonable demands, while now and then small war-parties dash off into the adjacent country in the hope of happening upon a stray soldier or finding an opportunity of running off stock.

This turbulence usually continues and increases until it reaches its climax about the time when the severity of the winter is relaxing, and the visitors from the north are beginning to make their preparations for a return to their wild northern retreats.

Your commissioners found that the past winter had been no exception to the general rule. Comparative quiet prevailed at both agencies during all last summer and early fall, but upon the incoming of the northern Indians trouble at once began. The most extravagant demands were made for rations, and enforced by intimidation. The efforts of the agents to make a census of the people (which was essential to the proper regulation of the issue of rations) were thwarted and defied. When registration was, notwithstanding, attempted, the agents were forcibly restrained and their lives were threatened, and they were informed that, should they dare pass beyond certain limits which were marked out for them, they would do it at their peril.

Early in February a war-party, one or two hundred strong, was organized—perhaps there were several of them—and started on a marauding expedition for the settlement farther south.

Your commissioners have no exact information as to the amount of stock which was run off by these parties; but within ten days a man named King, a hunter, was shot on Laramie Fork; Edgar Gray, a teamster, was killed on the Running Water; Lieutenant Robinson and Corporal Coleman, while absent from their train, were pursued and killed near Laramie Peak; and Frank D. Appleton, clerk, was shot dead (as is supposed,

21

by one of the above-mentioned war-party on its return) within the stockade at the Red Cloud agency.

There is sufficient evidence to satisfy the commission that the better spirits discountenanced these lawless proceedings; that the murder of Appleton moved one of the chiefs to tears; that the agents were able to form a number of the Indians into a guard to protect themselves and their agencies; that one Indian, and he a northern man, demanded the return of stolen horses from a war-party of which his nephew was a leader, and, when it was refused, shot him and rescued the stolen property by force; and that another defended his agent at the peril of his own life. But, notwithstanding, turbulence seems to have reigned for some time almost supreme.

## IS WAR THE NEEDED REMEDY ?

Lamentable as has been the condition of affairs, your commissioners have not discovered any proof that the Indians have been preparing for, or intending to provoke a, war with the United States. While it cannot be affirmed that these Indians are generally friendly in their feelings to the whites, their loyalty to the Great Father is evidently both general and deep-seated. It is, moreover, plain that there have been no common councils against the whites, and that there has been no concentrated action. Confirmatory of this opinion is the fact, that when the troops appeared at the agencies the great body of Indians who belonged there remained, leaving their visitors to go their way. The exhibitions of violence in which the turbulence has culminated have been, the commissioners are convinced, simply those of Indian rowdyism.

Whether the northern Indians intend war the commissioners cannot say. They have not been able to find any indications of it, other than those which have caused uneasiness in former years. If these northern tribes can be brought under the influence of the present feeding policy of the Government, a few years will witness the entire removal of all fears on this score.

The advance which has been made toward the solution of the Sioux problem, in the case of all those tribes which have been brought under the operation of the present policy, is manifest. It was but six years ago that the Indians now gathered about the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies were constantly upon the war-path, and were among the most dangerous foes of the Government. Under the present policy their wild, fierce spirit has been taming down, and their proud sense of power and the defiant temper which resulted from it have been decreasing, while their dependence upon the Government has been increasing every month, so that a general war movement on their part, except under extraordinary provocation, is almost out of the question. Your commissioners have failed to discover any symptoms calculated to weaken their faith in the practical wisdom of the present policy of the Government and of its desire to avoid a war with the Sioux if it be possible. The history of our past Indian wars is humiliating. It is folly to drive to desperation, except under the pressure of absolute duty, a wild and ferocious people, who could bring into the field from six thousand to seven thousand warriors, with whom war is a passion, who range over a wild country of vast extent which is a terra incognita to the white man, but every inch of which is familiar to the Indian, and whose warfare would be characterized by all the peculiar difficulties with which guerrilla war confronts the army of a civilized people.

Only two methods of carrying on such a war can be conceived of, it is believed, which would give any assurance of success.

The first is to descend to the level of the Indian, and fight him with wild frontiersmen, after his own savage mode; a course which civilized people cannot adopt without self-degradation.

The other method is to inaugurate war on a scale gigantic enough to surround or occupy the whole Indian country; a plan which would call for an expenditure of money and the raising of an army which our people are not likely to authorize and sustain unless under a sense of duty or of wounded national honor, which there is no likelihood the present or future attitude of the Indians will create.

War, then, the commissioners consider out of the question, but not support of the agents by the employment of military force.

The Government owes it to its agents to save them from the necessity of being the toys or tools of lawless savages, and thus becoming a hinderance rather than a help to their real progress, and to put at their command sufficient power to enable them to discharge their duties and to make their reasonable demands respected.

It owes it to the better-disposed Indians to secure them another resource than falling in with the proceedings of the wild and riotous, or else becoming their victims, and to see that brute violence shall no longer keep at a distance those missionary and educational instrumentalities which the better Indians desire and their friends are ready to provide.

The commissioners know of no way in which this protection can be secured but by the posting of a military force in the neighborhood of all agencies among the wilder Sioux. They believe that the mere presence of troops would ordinarily accomplish all

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ans from their reservation, in the exercise of the privilege accorded them by the treaty of 1868, to hunt buffalo on the Republican Fork, and to roam in the country south of their reservation as far as the North Platte, they had better consent, for a proper consideration, to surrender this right.

4th. That the Government proposed to send a party of surveyors to run the northern line of Nebraska, and that the Indians should put no obstacles in their way.

5th. That the Indians should consent to the removal of their agencies to such localities as might be fixed upon by the commission, after a careful exploration by the commissioners, accompanied by a large representation of Indians.*

The people were evidently much disappointed that the commission had no attractive promises to make nor presents to distribute, and the state of mind was exhibited on all sides which is to be expected when the Government, having pursued with some success the commendable policy of drawing savages in from their native defiance by conciliation and presents, arrives at the point when it must teach them their duties. Discussions with them revealed most unreasonable expectations, pitiable want of appreciation of the benefits already conferred, and gross misconception of the requirements of the treaty of 1868. Indeed, it became more and more apparent every day that neither the people, nor their chiefs who signed the treaty, now understand, nor indeed ever understood, its terms. This opinion was confirmed by conversation held afterward with persons familiar with the Indians. He who would have looked for anything else has not learned human nature well, nor his first lesson in dealing with the wild children of the plain. It was delightful, however, to notice the universal reverence and love which exist for their Great Father, as they term the President, and the self-control with which, with some exceptions, their speeches and their conduct were distinguished. The only violations of this moderation were on two occasions, when, to cut off remarks on either side, the Indians, were on a sudden dispersed by a signal given by their chiefs, and the commission were left, the first time a little to their consternation, without an audience.

The registration, which was the first point urged by the commission, was assented to at the Red Cloud agency, without much opposition, and was made (for a first essay, somewhat satisfactorily) by the agent within a week after our first council. At the Whetstone agency it met with more opposition.

The second point urged by the commission would have confronted them with a much less difficult task had the Indians not been able to array before them a counterbalancing record of depredations upon the persons and property of Indians committed by white men.

The reply to this second point was the same in substance at both agencies. The Indians said that a chief, Whistler, well known as a friendly Indian, and two of his men, had been murdered in the summer of 1872, and that within a few weeks a large number of horses had been run off by white men from the neighborhood of the Red Cloud agency.

They represented that these murderer and depredators had never yet been punished, and that if the Government of the United States could not succeed in capturing white men who murdered Indians, it was hardly fair that it should expect Indians to capture Indians who murdered white men. They urged, further, that the Indians had no instrumentalities for arresting criminals, and that the attempt to do it would only involve them in criminations and recriminations and broils among the mselves. They said, however, that if their agents called upon the military to aid them in arresting evil-doers, the Indians would not object. This reply is not unreasonable.

The commissioners are glad to be able to report as the result of their councils with the Indians of Red Cloud agency on this point, that they resolved to make up a list of all depredations which they know to have been made by their people upon the whites, which list they propose to forward to their Great Father, with the request that damages be paid out of the money belonging to them. The commission advise that their agents be instructed to follow up all cases of murder and other depredations by the Indians, but that in the use of the troops they should be governed by the greatest possible caution, and that they shall carry out the provisions of Article I of the treaty of 1868. This reads as follows:

*"Treaty with Sioux Indians, 29th April, 1868.*

"ARTICLE I.

"From this day forward all war between the parties to this agreement shall forever cease. The Government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. The Indians desire peace, and they now pledge their honor to maintain it.

"If bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the

Upon further consideration the last point was given up so far as Red Cloud agency was concerned, for reasons that appear further on.

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United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, at Washington City, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also re-imburse the injured person for the loss sustained.

"If bad men among the Indians shall commit a wrong or depredations upon the person or property of any one, white, black, or Indian, subject to the authority of the United States, and at peace therewith, the Indians herein named solemnly agree that they will, upon proof made to their agent and notice by him, deliver up the wrong-doer to the United States, to be tried and punished according to its laws; and in case they willfully refuse so to do, the person injured shall be re-imBURSED for his loss from the annuities or other moneys due or to become due to them under this or other treaties made with the United States.

"And the President, on advising with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, shall prescribe such rules and regulations for ascertaining damages under the provisions of this article as, in his judgment, may be proper.

"But no one sustaining loss while violating the provisions of this treaty or the laws of the United States shall be re-imbursed therefor."

It became apparent in our councils and informal conversations with the Indians that they considered that their liberty to kill is restrained only so far as white men are concerned, and that they have no adequate conception of the fact that marauding expeditions against Pawnees, Poncas, &c., are displeasing to the Great Father. They affected great surprise when told that the massacre of the Pawnees last summer horrified their friends at the East.

Your commissioners suggest that their agents be specially instructed to inform them that these and all other Indians are the Great Father's children.

The third proposal of the commission touches a right which the Indians hold very dear, and it was hardly expected that it would meet with a favorable reply, and it did not.

But the privilege of hunting upon the Republican Fork and of roaming in the unceded land north of the Platte, is fraught with evil. It keeps active in the Indians their wild and roving habits. It removes them for a considerable time from the good influences with which the Government is seeking to surround them on their reservation. It is the only just pretext which they have for crossing their boundary-line into the territory of the whites, and is every year the occasion of murders perpetrated either by Indians upon white men or by white men upon Indians. The shocking massacre of Pawnees about nine months ago would never have occurred but from the fact that the perpetrators were off for a hunt on the Republican Fork. The commission believe the right in question to be the source of a large proportion of the alarms from Indians, which periodically run over parts of our western country, and of a great part of the irritation which exists to so lamentable an extent between the Indians and the border whites. The United States, as the guardian of these Indians, should deny them hereafter this harmful right, and could afford to make its surrender less unpalatable by making them a handsome present of blankets, Indian cloth, ticking, and blue drilling.

The fourth proposition of the commission, viz, that the Indians should assent to the running of the Nebraska line, was not very acceptable to them, but no warm opposition was offered to it. The commission are of the opinion that, if the Indians are informed through their agents, before the appearance of the surveyors, of their object, the survey may be undertaken this summer without increasing the danger of hostilities. The party should be accompanied either by an escort of soldiers, or better, by a paid escort of friendly Indians. A survey will probably make it apparent, however, that the Nebraska line runs far north of what the Indians suppose to be the southern boundary of their reservation. It is unfortunate that the treaty of 1868 determined the southern limits of the reservation by an imaginary line. An Indian cannot understand what this is. Extravagant claims, or, at the best, misconception, are the natural and certain result.

The fifth point brought up by the commission, the location of agencies, is perhaps the most important and far-reaching in its influences of them all. It seems to your commission that the time has come when a general plan for the location of agencies should be adopted, which shall embrace the whole Sioux Nation, and that the location of agencies shall no longer be governed as it has been, of necessity, often in the past by merely special, temporary, or local considerations. The commission were in hopes that the Indians at both agencies could be induced to consent to the removal of their agencies to any points which your commissioners should desire, and that thus they would be at liberty not only to map out, but to put into effect a general plan for the location of the agencies for all the Indians who are not now upon the Missouri, or cannot be advantageously located there. There seemed sufficient reason for removal in the fact that the Whetstone agency is situated in a region of country where agriculture, to which it is the policy of the Government to turn the attention of the people,

25

is simply out of the question; and that the Red Cloud agency is located very near to, and perhaps even south of, the southern line of the Sioux reservation. The commission, however, found the Indians very much opposed to removal, and this opposition in the case of Red Cloud's people seemed so reasonable that the commission did not feel that they were justified in insisting on their removal. It is only eight months since these people were removed, much against their will, from a locality still farther south. The present site of their agency was chosen by an authorized commission who judged, upon the best information then to be had, that the selected location was north of the southern line of the reservation. This site is a beautiful one, and offers more advantages in the way of timber, water, and arable land than any which can be found within fifty miles. And, finally, considerable expense has been incurred in erecting a large stockade and a number of agency-buildings.

The case is far different, however, with the Whetstone agency, forty miles northeast of Red Cloud agency, on the White Earth River. It is situated in the midst of an utterly barren and repulsive region. It was placed there without authority. Wood is scarce. The water is inferior. The land is either covered by a very shallow soil or utterly denuded of it. The bottom-lands of the White Earth River, and the bottom-lands of all the creeks in the neighborhood of the agency, are so contracted that their practical value amounts to nothing. And, finally, the agency is at a great distance (from 225 to 280 miles) from any point of supply, existing or possible, on any route of river or railroad transportation. The site is thus as devoid of any practical advantages as it is of any feature that can attract the eye.

If it were the policy of the Government to let-Indian life drift along as it may, until it accomplishes by its own blindness and folly its final extinction, or if the policy were based upon the principle that all efforts to turn the energies of the Indian toward self-support are futile, and that, therefore, one place is as good for them as another, the agency might well remain where it is. But if it is desired to place these Indians where agricultural effort may reasonably be required of them, where the large number of whites and half-breeds, who are incorporated with them, (numbering, perhaps, five hundred souls,) will have an opportunity to improve their condition, and where respectable men, with respectable families, will be willing to come as employés and teachers, change is essential. It should be made with expedition, too. A large population of half-breeds is growing up among them in utter ignorance of the simplest elements of education—intellectual, moral, and religious. Educational and missionary efforts, which they earnestly desire and for which they have subscribed some hundreds of dollars, have been delayed year after year, and are practically impossible as long as the present unsatisfactory condition of affairs continues. Moreover, the Government can hardly erect suitable winter-quarters for the military force stationed for the protection of this agency until a permanent location has been selected. The commission found little difficulty in persuading two of the three bands of which the Lower Brulés are composed to take their view of the case, and to consent to accompany them in search of a suitable location. Indeed, many of them were quite ardent in representing that those of the Indians who were desirous of beginning to plant were held in a part of their country where this course was an impossibility, and where they were removed some four or five miles from wood by the selfish opposition of one of the chiefs (Spotted Tail) and his band. The claims and conceit of this chief know no bounds, and being himself settled, with his band, upon Bordeaux Creek, where, having wood and water and receiving rations from the Government, he lives at ease, he persistently opposed all the efforts of your commissioners toward the selection of a site for the agency. As his influence towers above that of all others, the commission did not dare travel through the country against his will, and there was no course left to them, and those who were ready to accompanying them in seeking a site for the agency, but to succumb.

He pursued a similar course in reference to several of the other propositions of the commission. It was in vain that they urged upon him, day after day, that the Great Father was resolved that the people should be counted. The Corn band and the Loafer band, constituting about half the people, consented immediately; but Spotted Tail first refused and then prevaricated, and the commission were obliged to leave without accomplishing this object of their errand. They are of the opinion that the time has come for decisive measures, and that one man and his band should no longer be permitted to breed a spirit of resistance among the people and retard their progress. They recommend that the agent be instructed to desist immediately from issuing rations to any band which has not permitted itself to be registered, and to refuse them rations until they submit, and that measures be taken to insure that the military force at the agency is sufficient to support him in carrying out these instructions.

They also recommend that this same commission be sent out again, and be provided with sufficient cavalry force to protect them in searching for a suitable site for an agency. They have reason to think that such a course would exert a most wholesome influence, by showing these people that they must acquiesce in the demands of the Government, and that it would not lead to war.

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The commission have reason to believe that a suitable site for an agency may be found farther down the White Earth River, either at the mouth of Big White Clay, about two hundred miles from the Missouri, at the mouth of Wounded Knee Creek, one hundred and eighty-five miles from that river, or near the South Fork of the White Earth, about one hundred and twenty miles from the Missouri.

The commission are not prepared, with their present information, to recommend the removal of the agency to the banks of the Missouri. Such a site would be desirable were economy in furnishing supplies and ease of military occupation the only desiderata; but the good of the Indians the commission holds to be a matter of supreme concern. So far as the commission could learn, the only land on the Missouri available for the occupancy of the Brulés is that formerly occupied by them at the mouth of Whetstone Creek. Its extent is represented as very limited and entirely unequal to the wants of a large body of Indians whose energies are to be directed to farming. The supply of timber is very insufficient. The land lies opposite to a strip occupied by ranchmen, who live largely by traffic in whisky, and who, when the Indians were located at the mouth of Whetstone Creek, some years ago, flooded their camp with whisky, and made it such a scene of riot and bloodshed that the people even yet speak of it with horror. Even the presence of the military failed, it is represented, to suppress this traffic. It is an evil, it is to be feared, which no precautions could prevent at that spot among a body of Indians in which the white and half-breed element is as largely represented as it is among these Brulés.

### PERMANENT HOME FOR THE SIOUX.

A great part of the Sioux reservation is an utterly barren district. The arable land embraced within it will not be sufficient for the wants of half the population when they have given themselves to agriculture. Even where the soil is good, a crop cannot be raised more than one year out of three, on account of ravages of grasshoppers and hail-storms, and the extreme dryness of the climate. Their reservation is thus a discouraging place for beginners in agriculture. Some of those of the Sioux who are making efforts in farming (for example, some of the Santees) are anxious to move to the Indian Territory. If good land is at the disposal of the Government in that Territory, the commission recommend that measures be taken for the gradual removal thither of all Sioux Indians who may be willing to emigrate. The Great Sioux reservation should be used as a place for taming the Sioux and training them for the occupation of the Indian Territory as their home.

### PROMISE OF GUNS.

The commission found that the Indians of Red Cloud agency had been laboring under the impression that Commissioners Brunot and Kemble had, last year, made them, on behalf of the Government, a definite promise of guns. Indians base firm hopes on any semblance of a foundation. The evidence shows that those commissioners made no such promise, but merely expressed themselves in favor of giving the Indians a certain number of guns and promised to use their influence in favor of it. Your commissioners are led to this conclusion by the testimony of military officers who were present, as well as by that of one at least of the interpreters.

### HOARDING OF AMMUNITION.

It appears from the statements of the traders at Red Cloud and Whetstone agencies, herewith sent, that the whole amount of trade during the three months beginning December 1, a time when the largest number of Indians was present at these agencies, was $37,224.59. The amount of ammunition sold to whites and Indians during the same time was $1,416.90, or less than one-thirteenth of the entire trade.

During these months the number of Indians present was variously estimated from 20,000 to 25,000. If we take the less number as most likely to be correct, there would have been less than five thousand men, old enough to bear arms, present at both agencies. Deducting the old and the sick and those not owning arms, three thousand is probably the number actually buying ammunition. The amount purchased by each individual, therefore, was less than one-half dollar in value. The small quantity the purchasers would receive for that sum, owing to the high rates charged by the traders, would seem to show conclusively that no large quantity could have been hoarded. And if any individual belonging to hostile bands has purchased more largely, it has been probably for distribution when he should arrive at his own camp. This would make the quantity so small, that another use than the killing of game could hardly have been intended. It does not appear that the demands made by Indians for permission to purchase ammunition have been larger than in previous years or than is usual.

### ADMINISTRATION OF RED CLOUD AND WHESTONE AGENCIES.

The commissioners arrived at Red Cloud agency Sunday morning, March 15, and on Monday began their investigations into the condition of affairs there, and continued them daily until March 18, when they drove to Whetstone agency, and began a simi-

27

lar examination there. They returned to Red Cloud agency Friday, March 27, and resumed their investigations, concluding them the following Tuesday, when they resumed their examination at the Whetstone agency. They judged that the best basis for conducting their inquiry into the administration of the agents was the allegations made against them in a report presented to the Board of Indian Commissioners by Mr. Samuel Walker, who visited the agencies last November, which report was referred by the Department to this commission. Copies of this report were placed in the hands of J. J. Saville and E. A. Howard, agents, and they were severally called upon to respond to its statements and the charges against their administration of their offices to be inferred therefrom. Their responses were subjected to a searching examination by the commission, and the truth of their statements ascertained. Wherever witnesses were referred to in proof of their assertions, they all (or a sufficient number of them) were summoned, and their testimony taken under oath. Wherever books or papers were quoted or appealed to, they were examined by the commissioners personally. The responses of the agents are submitted as part of this report. Testimony taken in this connection is filed herewith. It became apparent to the commission, in the course of their inquiries, that some of the affidavits which seemed to reflect most upon the character of the agents were such partial statements, that they amounted to a culpable *suppressio veri*; and that some of the testimony, on which were based the most damaging attacks upon their administration, was the testimony of a well-known deserter and thief.

Facts cited to the discredit of the agents, which were gleaned at the agencies during their absence, and which they then had no opportunity to account for, were, when brought to their notice, satisfactorily explained; practices which were irregular, were shown to have been unavoidable in the peculiar circumstances in which these agents were placed; and transactions which at first sight seemed suspicious, and to which a criminal intent has been imputed, were shown to have been characterized by entire good faith, to have been carried on in broad daylight, and, where not justifiable, to have been not wrong-doing, but the mistakes of men new in an office where, peculiarly, the incumbent can learn only from experience.

In regard to one transaction, which is not, perhaps, sufficiently explained in the reply of Agent Saville, viz, the enrollment and pay of F. D. Appleton, clerk, during a period when he was not actually discharging the duties of his office, the conclusion reached by the commission is was follows:

The appointment of F. D. Appleton was made in good faith, and from the date on which his name appears on the pay-roll. The same was in good faith accepted by him by telegraph. He was to have started immediately for the agency to assume the duties of his office, and was only detained by an accident, (broken leg.) The agent, daily expecting his arrival, retained his name on the pay-roll. The duties of his position were discharged by the agent and employés of the agency, and no other person received compensation as clerk up to the time of his assuming the duties of his office in person. The transaction involved irregularities, but the commission do not find that any fraud was intended by the agent.

The commission indorse the replies of the agents in all their material points, and give as the result of their prolonged investigation into the points touched upon in Mr. Walker's report, and the result also of their intercourse with the agents, and their personal observations of men and things at the agencies, the entire relief of Agents Saville and Howard from the suspicions cast upon their characters and their administrations, and the earnest conviction that these gentlemen have performed their duties during a time of great trial and in the midst of great embarrassments with energy, honesty, and entire fidelity to the interests of the Government and the Indians, and that they deserve the confidence and commendation of the Department.

The commission are of opinion that the service of the Department would be improved if the following instructions were issued, viz:

* That all beef and other provisions shall be issued by orders upon an issue-clerk, and that these orders should pass through the agent's office in order to their appearance upon the books of the agency.

* That agents shall keep all their original orders upon their issue-clerks, in order that they may have at hand the means of satisfying the inquiries of inspectors and other authorized inquirers.

* That the present custom, by which departing agents carry all the papers of the agency away with them, and thus leave their offices without a history, and their successors destitute of any guides in their new duties, shall be henceforth forbidden, and that these papers shall be the property of the Department.

OVERISSUE OF BEEF.

In regard to one matter, which has come before the commission in several papers and which has been the occasion of a good deal of public animadversion, viz, the overissue of beef, the commission reports that it is unquestionable that there has been overissue. It is freely admitted by both the agents; they have reported it to the

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Department from time to time. The commission believes it to have been unavoidable. In the first place, the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies are but forty miles apart, and there is no doubt that the same Indians frequently drew rations at both agencies, an evil which was remediless, as long as registration was impossible. In the second place, it appears that at Red Cloud agency the supply of other provisions was short, and extra beef was consequently issued, as reported in Agent Saville's letter to the Department, of December 29, 1873. In the third place, the testimony is abundant and unanimous to the point that these agencies, always the refuge in winter of northern Indians who have connected themselves with no agency in particular, were last winter the resort of a larger number than usual; that they united with the Indians belonging to the agencies in making the grossest misrepresentations as to their numbers, and basing on them extravagant demands for rations; that they thwarted all attempts of the agents to arrive at a true estimate of the amount of food they were entitled to; that a census could not have been made except at the peril of the agents' lives; and that the agents, failing in their efforts to number the people, always strove to cut down the issue to the lowest amount possible, and that their issues were generally far less than the Indians would have received had their exorbitant demands been fully complied with.

There is, however, no evidence whatsoever that more beef was issued than was actually used, either by immediate consumption, or by being dried and laid by in store; and rumors to the effect that the issue of beef was so excessive last winter that large quantities were left to rot, the Indians taking only the hides, are, the commissioners believe, entirely without foundation in fact.

## WASTE OF FLOUR.

The commission saw many evidences that there has been more or less waste of flour. This has not arisen, so far as the commission was able to discover, from an issue exceeding that authorized by the Department, but partly from the fact that wild Indians are not fond of flour, and are apt to neglect its use, especially when the supply of beef is as abundant as it has necessarily been at these agencies; partly from the fact that some of the flour issued had been long on hand and had become musty, and partly from the fact that large quantities of flour, which the present agent found on hand when he entered upon his office last June, being utterly unfit for use, were dealt out to the Indians to be fed to their ponies. The substitution of corn for a part of the flour supply is very acceptable to the Indians, and meets with the approval of the commission.

## VISIT OF SPOTTED TAIL TO CHEYENNE.

Such a visit is likely to be suggested and to be made under the influence of designing white men, and is always more or less to be suspected.

As appears from the report of the commission, under the head of "supplies," their quality is not such as to justify the complaints of Spotted Tail. Those familiar with wild Indians know that complaint is always the burden of their talk in an interview with those who are supposed to be in communication with the Great Father.

As to which of the two routes should be used in transporting freight overland to Whetstone agency, whether that from Cheyenne or that from Fort Randall, the commission gained no information which enables it to express a decided preference for one route over the other. If the cost via Fort Randall is less than via Cheyenne, the commission knows of no disadvantages under which the former labors which should give the preference to the other.

They think that the proposition that Spotted Tail's people, or those legally incorporated with them, should have the privilege of doing their own freighting, worthy of attention. If their agent is prepared to superintend it, and to make proper arrangements for the faithful discharge of the service, the plan has manifest advantages, and the commission recommend that it be tried.

## SUPPLIES, THEIR INSPECTION, QUALITY, ETC.

Your commission are of opinion that a due regard to the interests of the Government and the Indians demands that all packages consigned to agents for the Indians in fulfillment of contracts should, without exception, bear the brand which marks them as the property of the Indian Department, and also the brand of the inspector, indicating that they have passed his inspection.

Their examination of flour in an unloaded car at the Cheyenne store-house, and of supplies in that store-house and at the agencies, revealed the fact that this branding is frequently omitted. Many packages bore neither brand.

They noticed that barreled pork is supplied, to a degree, at Whetstone agency instead of bacon. The supply of the latter article at both Red Cloud and Whetstone agencies was exhausted, so that the commission was unable to judge of its quality. They examined the pork, however, and found it sweet and good.

The commission was not furnished with samples, and, therefore, could not determine whether the supplies were up to the standard required by the contract. They exam-

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ined, however, the flour, sugar, coffee, and other supplies on hand at both agencies and in the store-house at Cheyenne. They were all of fair quality. Both the agents agreed that it would be better to provide baking-powders instead of saleratus, as the Indians do not know how to use the latter properly.

The commission took particular pains to inquire into the quality and weight of the beef furnished by the contractor during the current fiscal year. The testimony of many witnesses, and the personal observation of the members of the commission, convinced them that the cattle have been remarkably excellent in quality, size, and condition, and that their average weight has been, on the whole, considerably above that required by the contract. The average weight required by the terms of the contract for the six months beginning July 1, 1873, was eight hundred pounds, while the cattle actually delivered at Red Cloud agency during the time regarding which the incum-bency of the present agent enabled him to testify, weighed on an average as follows:

First six months.

<table><thead><tr><th>Date.</th><th>No. of head.</th><th>Average weight.</th><th>Total.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>August 8.</td><td>20</td><td>1,050</td><td>21,000</td></tr><tr><td>August 15.</td><td>383</td><td>1,010</td><td>386,830</td></tr><tr><td>September 1.</td><td>483</td><td>1,040</td><td>502,320</td></tr><tr><td>September 15.</td><td>561</td><td>1,056</td><td>589,050</td></tr><tr><td>October 1.</td><td>647</td><td>1,063</td><td>687,761</td></tr><tr><td>October 15.</td><td>633</td><td>1,043</td><td>660,219</td></tr><tr><td>November 1.</td><td>290</td><td>993</td><td>287,970</td></tr><tr><td>November 15.</td><td>410</td><td>963</td><td>396,470</td></tr><tr><td>December 1.</td><td>507</td><td>975</td><td>494,497</td></tr><tr><td>December 15.</td><td>508</td><td>946</td><td>480,568</td></tr></tbody></table>

The average weight required by contract during the six months beginning January 1, 1874, was one thousand and fifty pounds, while the average weight delivered was as follows, viz:

Second six months, up to date.

<table><thead><tr><th>Date.</th><th>No. of head.</th><th>Average weight.</th><th>Total.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>January 1.</td><td>312</td><td>904</td><td>282,310</td></tr><tr><td>January 11.</td><td>330</td><td>881</td><td>290,856</td></tr><tr><td>January 21.</td><td>340</td><td>1,002</td><td>340,908</td></tr><tr><td>February 2.</td><td>356</td><td>993</td><td>352,508</td></tr><tr><td>February 15.</td><td>300</td><td>1,016</td><td>305,064</td></tr><tr><td>March 7.</td><td>350</td><td>1,063</td><td>372,050</td></tr><tr><td>March 23.</td><td>271</td><td>1,053</td><td>285,425</td></tr></tbody></table>

These latter figures are below those required by the contract, but not as much below as those for the first six months are above. The whole average has been in advance of that which the contract demanded.

The terms of the contract for the Whetstone agency are the same as those for the Red Cloud, viz, an average of eight hundred pounds for the six months beginning July 1, and an average of one thousand and fifty pounds for the succeeding six months. The average weights actually delivered have been as follows:

First six months.

<table><thead><tr><th>Date.</th><th>No. of head.</th><th>Average weight.</th><th>Total.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>July 12.</td><td>322</td><td>942</td><td>303,324</td></tr><tr><td>July 23.</td><td>725</td><td>1,048</td><td>759,600</td></tr><tr><td>August 15.</td><td>444</td><td>1,052</td><td>467,088</td></tr><tr><td>September 1.</td><td>460</td><td>1,050</td><td>483,000</td></tr><tr><td>September 15.</td><td>530</td><td>1,005</td><td>532,650</td></tr><tr><td>October 15.</td><td>1,056</td><td>1,047</td><td>1,105,632</td></tr><tr><td>November 25.</td><td>635</td><td>950</td><td>622,250</td></tr><tr><td>D. cember 12.</td><td>355</td><td>915</td><td>324,825</td></tr></tbody></table>

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<table><tr><td>January 20</td><td>401</td><td>940.38</td><td>377,092</td></tr><tr><td>February 4</td><td>198</td><td>959</td><td>189,878</td></tr><tr><td>February 13</td><td>251</td><td>1,012.80</td><td>254,207</td></tr><tr><td>March 19</td><td>270</td><td>1,028.70</td><td>277,749</td></tr></table>

The letter of the contract has not, as thus appears, been complied with at either agency, and the commission supposes that the contractor is liable for damages for non-compliance.

The mind of the commission, under these circumstances, is expressed in a letter of Agent Howard of March 26, and their indorsement of it given herewith, as follows.

Whether the contractor will accept this compromise, the commission are not informed

"WHETSTONE AGENCY, DAKOTA TERRITORY,

"March 26, 1874.

"SIR: I had the honor in my letter of the 16th instant to refer to the question of the future supply of beef for this agency.

"I desire herein further to state that in consequence of the unsettled state of the country hereabout, it is difficult to get beef cattle here of the proper description to accord with the original terms of the contract for this season.

"Since receiving Department letter of February 13, I have received one lot for issue which does not weigh up to the requirements of that letter.

"The contractor states that they were driven here from a distance of 80 miles with only one night's rest, thereby losing much of their weight, and that his herds having of late been frequently disturbed they have materially fallen off in weight.

"He has delivered at this agency, from July 1, 1873, to February 13, 1874, inclusive, 5,397 head, weighing 5,419,746 pounds, averaging 1,004.21 pounds, and therefore he has exceeded the average weight actually required by the contract.

"I respectfully ask permission to receive and receipt for cattle weighing a less average than 1,050 pounds, which I think he should be allowed to deliver.

"On 19th March, he delivered here 270 head, weighing 277,749 pounds, averaging 1,029 pounds, which I request permission to receipt for at that weight.

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"E. A. HOWARD,

"United States Indian Agent.

"Hon. COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS,

"Washington, D. C."

"March 26, 1874.

"SIR: By the contract the average weight of cattle, during the first six months of the fiscal year, was to be at least 800 pounds. Evidence is abundant that the average was far in excess of this, say 1,000.

"We think this fact a justification of leniency to the contractor if he is not able to furnish cattle quite up to the average required during the last six months of the fiscal year.

"The evidence is sufficient that during the disturbances the contractor, by advice of General Ord, removed his cattle to the Platte, and in consequence had to drive his cattle, at the time of the last issue, 80 miles without sufficient food and water. Their loss in weight under these circumstances must have been very considerable. We believe that, but for the late disturbance, the cattle furnished March 19 would have averaged 1,050 pounds.

"We indorse the statement of the foregoing letter of Agent Howard, and recommend that the shortness of average weight during January, February, and March be overlooked, provided the contractor will furnish beef required for Whetstone and Red Cloud agencies over and above amount required by contract, at contract prices. We also recommend that the average weight of cattle to be furnished after this date shall be not less than 900 pounds.

"Very respectfully,

"WILLIAM H. HARE.

"FRANCIS H. SMITH.

"J. D. BEVIER.

"SAMUEL D. HINMAN.

"Hon. COMMISSIONER INDIAN AFFAIRS."

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Your commissioners beg respectfully to close their report with the following digest of their recommendations and conclusions:

RECOMMENDATIONS.

That the agents at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, and at any agencies hereafter established among the wilder Sioux, be supported by a military force, which should, however, except under extraordinary circumstances, be at a short distance from the agency and not immediately adjoining. The relation of the agent and the commanding military officer should be definitely determined. (See page 21.) That an agency be provided for the Northern Sioux, and that, to this end, they be refused rations at the existing agencies, and a delegation of them be induced to visit Washington, and that the location of the agency be in the neighborhood of the Black Hills. (See page 22.)

That agents be instructed to carry out the provisions of Article I of the treaty of 1868. (See page 23.)

That the northern line of Nebraska be run this summer. (See page 24.)

That a liberal present of blankets, Indian cloth, ticking, and blue drilling be made the Upper Brulés and Ogallallas for the surrender of their right to hunt on the Republican, and to roam over the neutral ground south of the reservation, and that they be informed that this right is withdrawn. (See page 24.)

That the agent at Whetstone agency be instructed not to issue rations to any band which refuses to be counted, and that your commissioners be requested to find a suitable place for the agency, and that both have military protection. (See page 25.)

That all beef and other provisions be issued by orders on the issue clerk, which orders should pass through the office in order to their appearance on the books; that these orders be filed away for safe-keeping, and the books and papers of the agency be the property of the Government and not of the agent. (See page 28.)

That the Indians of Whetstone agency may be permitted to take the contract for freighting. (See page 28.)

That brands of United States Indian Department and of inspector be placed upon all packages consigned to agents under contract. (See page 28.)

Recommendation as to beef for balance of the current year. (See page 29.)

That, Indians being their own worst enemies, being bent on a mode of life that is fatal to their own good, and, moreover, rarely understanding the meaning of treaties, and more rarely still remembering the obligations therein laid upon them, a *just and generous declaration by the United States Government of what they must do* is a better mode of dealing with them than negotiation or treaty-making, wherever the Government is in a position to pursue the former course. (See page 22.)

That a system should be inaugurated for the removal of the Sioux, as soon as practicable, to a climate and soil less discouraging to the efforts of beginners in husbandry. (See page 25.)

That the Sioux be informed that depredations on other Indians displease the President. (See page 24.)

CONCLUSION.

The late disturbances are not indicative of preparations for war. (See page 21.)

The present policy is accomplishing the results desired. (See page 22.)

Commissioners Brunot and Kemble did not promise these Indians guns. (See page 26.)

Removal of the Upper Brulés to the Missouri is of doubtful wisdom. (See page 26.)

Ammunition has not been hoarded for war. (See page 26.)

Agents Saville and Howard are exonerated, and deserve confidence and commendation. (See page 27.)

Beef has been overissued, but the agents were helpless to avoid it. (See page 28.)

Beef has not been issued in such quantities that it has been left to rot. (See page 28.)

Flour has been wasted; causes given. (See page 28.)

Spotted Tail's complaints at Cheyenne were not justifiable. (See page 28.)

Supplies of all kinds are wholesome and of at least fair quality. (See page 29.)

Submitted on behalf of all the commissioners.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. HARE,
Chairman.

F. H. SMITH,
J. D. BEVIER,

SAMUEL D. HINMAN,
WILLIAM H. HARE,

Commissioners.

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 22, 1874.