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Show - 22 REPORT OF THE 'COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. I willing to pay forthe goods they had app~opriatedw henever a treaty was made. I am satisfied that the temper of these Indians is such that travel through their country will no longer be safe until a treaty is negotiated, or a line of forts ei-tablished along the Red River of the North, with forces sufficient for the pro-tection of the adjacent country. Superintendent Thompson recommends that their chiefs and head men be summoned to this city for the purpose of making a treaty. In this'recommendation I entirely concur. The condition of the Winnebagoes is peculiar. I am fully satisfied that, while it may be true that a few of their number were engaged in the atrocities bf the Sioux, the tribe, as such, is no more justly responsible for their acts than our government would be for those of a pirate who might happen to have been born upon our territory. Notwithstanding this, from all I can learn, the exas- .peration of the people of Minnesota appears to be nearly as great towards these Indians as towards the Sioux. They demand that the Winnebagoes as well as the Sioux shall be removed from thelimits of the State. The Winnebagoes are unwilling to remove. So exasperated arethe people that they only leave tbeir reserpation at the imminent risk of their lives. The lands which, under their treaty, are to be sold to procure means to supply agricultural implements, have beeu withheld from market on account of the financial difficulties of the couu-try. Hence they have not been supplied with the necessary implements, and have not been able to engage in agricultural pursuits, and to a very great extent must rely upon the chase for food. Came upon their reservation is well nigh exhausted, their arms have been taken from them, and, unless their wants are snpplied, they must suffer for food. The least depredation on the part of any one of their number, it is feared, would expose the whole tribe to an assault from the whites, which would be inevitably'attended with deplorable results. Under these circumstances measures must be taken to provide for their subsistence, until some line of policy can be adopted which will be alike just to them and to the whites. It would have beeu fortunate if some tenitory had been reserved in the northwest, as is t.he case in the southwest, upon which these and all other tribes of that State could be congregated. There is, however,ho unorganized terri-tory remaining, and it is to be feared that the removal of the Indians to any of the organized territories will only serve to postpone a difficulty which must at last hemet, and will entail upon some future State the same tronbles now ex-isting in Minnesota. I trust that, when time shall have elapsedsufficient for fix11 considerationof the subject, some policy will be devised whereby all condieting interests may be reconciled, and shall always be found ready to co-operate in any meazures which promise to secure the peace and prosperity of our fellow-citizens of Min-nesota, and which are just towards tho Indians. I should be derelict in duty if I failed to close this pa$ of my report without urging the immediate and pressing necessity for action in behalf of those per-sons who have suffered in consequence ,of the depredations committed by the |