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Show I braith, the agent in charge of the Sioux, (by whom the most formidable on& rages were perpetrated,) and can glean but little definite information from the report of Superintendent Thompson. For several years it has been known that rpuch ill feeling existed towards the whites on the part of porvons of' the differeat bands qf Sioux who were parties to the treaty of 1851. They are divided into two classes : the Farmer and the Blanket Indians. The former have heretofore been quiet a d peaceable, di8- posed to acquire the arts of civilization, and, in many instances, have adopted our costume and methods of gaining, a livelihood. The latter are wild aid tur-bulent, pertinacious in adhering to their savage iustws, and have committed many depredations upon the whites in their vicinity. .The payment of claims arising in consequence of these depredations has, under the law, been made from the amnities of the tribe, whieh have thereby been diminished to the same extent. The disaffected could not, or would. not, underatand why the amount of their annuities was diminished, and each annual payment has only served to add to the disaffection, which, during several of the past years, has been so great as to require the presence of troops at the time of payment in order to preserve the peace and prevent an open rupture. 80 vio-lent was the demeanor of the disaffected Indians at the last a n n d payment, and so threatening the attitude they hat3 since assumed, that, upon the earnest representation and solicitation of Superintendnet Thoqpson, it was deemed ab-solutely essential to the preservation of peace that the full amount of their an-nuities, without any deduction on account of depredatiou claims, whioh had been paid therefrom, should be paid them during the past season; and for this purpdse it was necessary to use a portion of the appropriation made for their use during the fiscal year ending June 30,1863, and to ptpone the usual time of payment until that appropriation became available. About the nanal time of the annual payment, tbe Sisseton and Wabpeton bands, and a few lodges of the Yanctonnais, assembled at the agency, without previous notice from the agent of his readiness to make the pyment, (which notice it has been the nniform practice to give,) and in a threatening mabner de-manded their amities. It was with the greatest difficulty, and not until a de-tachment of troops had arrived from the neighboring Fort Ridgely, and the ,agent had given the most positive asasuranees that payment should soon be mde, that they were finally induced to refrain fram violence, and agreed to return to their homes and there remain until notified. by the agent of his readiness to make their payment. , Ua i r s remained in this position until Sunday, the 17th of Angust l a ~ tw, hen five persons were murderea at Acton, in Meeker county, at -leaat thirty miles distant from the agency. This act, according to a report made by Lieutenant Governor Donnelly to Governor Ramsey, (which I have taken the liberty to in-corporate among the accompanying papers,) was probably I'one of those acci-dentill outrages at any time to be anticipated on the remote frontier. It fell, however, like a spark of iire, upon a mass of discontent, long accumulates and |
