OCR Text |
Show I REPORT OF THE COJII8lISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIUS. 5 I ons. Such use of money indicates anytlling but a hostile i~~t e lolnt the part of the Red Cloud and SpottedTail Sioux. I t will probably be found necessary to colnpel thenortl~ernn on.treaty Sioux, under tlie leadership of Sitting Bn11, who hare never yet io auy way recog~lized the United States Government except by snatching ra- . tioris occasionally at an agency, and such outlanls from the se~eral agencies as have attached themselves to these same hostiles, to cease marauding and settle domn, as the other Sioux have done, at some desig-nated point. This niay occasion conflict betweeu this band of Indians and the soldiers. There is also a possibility that the Utes in Xorthern< New Mexico, who are without a home, uuset,tled and iusoleut, and I transiently fed at Oimarron and Abiqniu, may before long require coer-cion by force of arms. But neither of these bauds can bring three hundred men into the field. I am led not only to repeatwith increased cou6dence the statement made last year that a general Iudian war is never to occur in the United States, hut also to the opiniorl that conflict with separate tribes mill hereafter be of rare occiirrellce, anil only in the nature of skirmishing. EELIiVQUISE%ENT OF BUNTING-PRITrlLEGE IN NEBRASIiA AND ICANSAS. By the treaty of 18GS the Sioux retained for themselves the right to hunt in Nebraska on any lands north of the Korth Platte and on the Republican Fork of the Smoky Hill River. By act of Congress, March 3, 1874, $25,000 was al~propriatedf or thepurchase from the Sionx of the right to hunt in Nebraska. The negotiations for this purchase, under-taken by a special commission in 1874, having failed to obtain the coa-sent of tbeIndians, were renewed duriug the visit of the Sioux delegation to Washington in May last, and resultecl iu an agreement signed by the chiefs and headmen in the presence of their tribe, a copy of which is herewith. The treaty'of 1808 also stipulat.ed that the country north of the North- Platte &irer, in Nebraska, aud east of the su'mmits of the Big Eoru Mountains, in Wyoming, should be held and considered uuceded Iudian territory, and that no white person or persons should be permitted toset-tlo upon or occupy any portion of the same, nor, withoutthe couseut of the lndiausfirst hart or obtained, should pass through the same." The distinction between the eoul~trya ssigned for a permanent reserve and that desctibed as nelitral territory seerus never to have bee11 clear to the Siollx mind ; and \\.hen thc 11ortlbr11h ullrldilrg. lirle ol'Iirbmskr~w as sl~rveyedw, l~~cbhy their treaty is ma~lrt liu dividingli~icL et\ve?u their ~,er.mxilc.ntI .e&ervo: rud tlie ueulri~lr olultl:!., t11c.v $rere sllrpriscd and .~ ~~ ~~ ~~ .> t r w~hi ch t h q have al\v;ljs rrgarded au;l intelldr;i to retail^ as tht.iro!vi~; aiid t l i q . dr~uaudedth at the surve~or'ss ttrkea shooltl be Pahen ~ r p;1 i1(1 llluved south US tho Siobr;lra liivtr. The uegotiatious fur the cussiou oC thin ilrutrill COUI I~ilOl a. ,tl ditiuu to tllilt of tllc hol~tiug.riylits,s i i d tous fouud to be il~vulredin u~lexpretvdd ~Mclllty. Tne lu~l i . i l l s ~tttache~l large raloo to the rizhts they \Vera surrcutlrl'iux, aud declined to uceeoc thgsum appropriates by Cobgreas, except upo: the condition that the Department would present their claim to Col~gressfo r the additional sum of $25,000. This pledge was given to them by the Secretary of the Interior wben they entered into the agreement above named, reference to which will show that the attempt to procure the relinquishmel~ot f all the neutral oouutry resulted in a comproruise, by which the Sioux stipu-late for themselves t'he right of occnl)atiou of that portion of Xebrrlslia |