OCR Text |
Show Extract from the report of the Secretary of the Interior in relation to Indian atairs. Our Indian affairs are in a very unsettled and unsatisfactory con-dition. The spirit of rebellion against the authority of the government, mhich has precipitated a large number of States into open revolt, has been instilled into a portion of the Indian tribes by emissaries from the insurrectionary States. The large tribes of Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Ohoctaws, situated in the southern superintendency, have suspended all intercourse with the agents of the United States. The superintendent and agents appointed since the 4th of March *last have been unable to reach their posts or to hold any intercourse with the tribes under their charge. The superintendent and some, if not all, of the agents of the southern superintendeucy, who were in office on the 4th of March, have assumed an attitude of revolt to the United States, and have instigated the Indians to acts of hostility. Some of these, who lately held their offices under the United States, now claim to exercise the same authority by virtue of commissions from the pretended confederate government. Although the Indian Office has not been able to procure definite information of the condition of affairs, and of the extent to which the Indians have assumed a hostile attitude, enough has beex ascer-tained to leave no room for doubt that the influences which have been exerted upon the Indians have been sufficient to induce a portion of them to renounce the authority of the United States and to .acknowl-edge that of the rebel government. It has been currently reported through the press that a portion of them have been organized as a military force, and are in arms with ?the rebels: but the devartment has no official information confirm- these &om. A The hostile attitude assumed by portions of the tribes referred to, as resulted from their fears. vroduced bv violence and threats of * emissaries sent among them,'aid the witharawal from their vicinity of the troops of the United States, whose presence would have afforded a guarantee of protection. It is unfortunate that the War Department has been unable to send to that region such a body of troops as would be adequate to the protection of those tribes, and revive their confidence in the ability as well as the will of the United States to comply with their treaty stipulations. Cut off from all iu-tercourse with loyal citizens ; surrounded by emissaries from the rebels, who represented that the government of the United States was destroyed, and who promised that the rebel government would assume the obligations of the United States and pay their annuities; assailed bp threats of violence, and seeing around them no eviclence |