OCR Text |
Show these rarious classes of Indians, and of doing justice to all without unnecessarily increasing the burdens of the government. Snch was the condition of affairs when Superintendent Taylor, whose atten-tion, as one of the northwestc~mc ommissioners, had been called to the cdse of the Indians at Orow dreek, and who had been directed to make snecial examination ~ L n.itlt rcfcreuw to a praper locntiun for tli,,se Indians, being pnlaent ill this rity i l l Fc:hn~aryl ost, r~portrdin hvur of x re~rrratidno f'four town311ip3 within hid ?ut,erint?~~dencart. the moorli of thc Siobrarn river in Kchl.aska. Srvernl 0thf.r ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~- loiations were "iroposed and considered, but the &estion of economy in the trarlsportittion of necessary supplies until the people could raise crops sufficient to sustain them, the reasonable certainty that they could succeed in agricultural operations at that point, and the objection of the military authorities to a con-centration of the other dasscs of these Sioux north and west, were sufficient to turn the scale in favor of Niobrara; and, under the date of March 1, four town-ships of land were, by order of the department, net apart for the urpose, it being understood the improvements already made by settlers upon t t ese lands could be purchased for ahont $40,000, and that many of the buildings thus pur-chased would be necdcd and valuable for the purposes of the agency. Measures were immediately taken to notify the agency at Grow creek of the intended irmovd, which it was then thought could, by the co-operation of the War De-partment in furnishing transportation, he accomplished in time for the Indians to put in the spring crops at Niohrara. Delay and final disappointment, how-ever, was the lot of these plans as to transportation, and the removal took place by lend, the Indians arriving at their new reservation June 12, too late to plant a crop. Meantime the military authorities notified this office that they intended to turn over the Indians at Davenport to the civil authorities by the 10th of April, the prisoners having been pardoned by the President. A special ngent was at. once appointed to receive and take them to the Niohrara reserva-tion, with instructions to proceed at once, upon his arrival, to preparing land for cultivation. This agent, Mr. Jedediah Brown, not being heard from immediately, it he-came necessary to take action at once, and, under date of April 5, Mr. E. Eil-patrick was detailed from tile department to proceed to Davenport and receive the Indians and accompany them to their destination, delivering them to Mr. Brown if he sho,uld present himself, or, in default, to proceed to carry out the in-structions furnished him. hlr. Kilpatrick reported subsequently that he had d e livered.the Indians to Mr. Brown, at St. Joseph, on the Missouri,(the transport ' ation having been furnished by the War Department,) and thenceforward they remained under hi charge until June 12, when he turned them over to Agent Stone, who had i a e d with themain body of thetribefrom Growcreek. Mean-time, however&r.Brown had accomplished much valuable work with the In-dians in his charge, in preparing the ground and planting crops, so that with reasonable success a fair supply will be raised towards the support of those people - - this year. About the 1st of April, Major General Sibley was authorized to employ some reliable person, in whom the Indians about Fort Wadsworth reposed confidence, to secure a proper representation of those bands, and, if possible, of those who mere still hostile, atFort Rice, on the Missouri, with a view of enterins into a treaty with the commis.iioners,tl~eu en route up the \lissouri; and that o'ffircr rcL ported April 16, that he had rogagrd Jlr. .J. I(. l{rown for that purpoee. It wna intended to collect that nortiott of the Indinns who were etill npnn tho old rcservu~iona, nd remove themid Siobrara, in time to plant n crop tlttrc, hut various drlays o c c u~~etod p revrut the cons~~rnmutioonf thia part of thr plan. A thorough examiuariou of tile whole lnnttrr rel:itinp to these Sioux rc,sulted in the delibGatc conviction that, as a people, they hhndnot been treated f.iirly or with just discrimination by the government, and the forfeiture of their annuities |