| OCR Text |
Show XLVI REPORT OF COMMISSIONER .OF INDIAN AFFAES. the War Department which, according to official reports on file in this office, resulted in the supposed clearance of all cattle and intruders from Oklahoma. Subsequently, however, in the early spring of the present year, it was ascertained that there were still largenumbers of cattle on the dklahoma lands, and these also were removed by the military. Upon the reaeipt of a telegram from the commanding officer at, Fort Beno, stating that a number of boomers, horse thieves, &c., were con-gregated in the Chickasaw Nation just over the Oklahoma line, await-ing a chance to enter Oklahoma, and inquiring whether he should arrest - them, I recommended to the Department, on the 17th May last, that the Secretary of War be requested to take immediate action, and on the 3d June the necessaq orders were isslled from the War Depart-ment, resulting in the arrest and expulsion from the Indian Territory of the persons referred to. )( MOKOHO-K O BAND OF SAC AND FOX IN KANSAS. In many instances small bands of Indians leave their reservations and lead wandering, vagabond lives in the neighboring Territories and States. Some of these visit their reservations at the time of annuity payments and receive their annuities, while others remain permanently away, preferring to lose their annuities rather than to return. A notable instance of the latter class is the Mo-ko-ho-ko band of Sac and Fox In-dians. These Indians belong to the tribe known as Sac and Box of the Mississippi, and now number about ninety. In December, 1875, they were removed from Kansas to their reservation in the Indian Terntors, but nearly all of them soon returned to Kansas, and have since lived vagrant lives, intruding on the lands of citizens. They are at present on what was an old Indian reservation, which is now owned and occu-pied by citizens who have complained to this office of the intrnsiou of the Indians and requested their removal. Repeated efforts have been made to induce them to return to their reservation and remain there, whereby they would receive a large amount of accrued annuities as well as be participants in the future annuity payments and other advantages enjoyed by that portion of the tribe hving in the Indian Territory; but they have steadlly refused to do so. It appears from the report of United States Indian Inspector Ban-nister, who recently visited them, and from other eorrespondence in the flles of this office, that these Indians are of the very lowest grade of humanity, and are steeped in superstition. They have no rights in the State of Kansas, either of citizenship or property, and are simply a roving band of trespassers, naked and starving, without any means of support whatever, and in a most deplorable and pitiable eondition. The support, protection, and even the existence of these Indians, and others similarly situated, demand their removal to the reservation to which they belong, where they can be supplied with the necessities of |
