OCR Text |
Show declared abrogated, and of course all annuities stopped. Agent Stone found many things needed, which, with good management, the funds appropriated to their use ought to supply,particularly working cattle and cows. The buildings also were in poor condition, and the tribe ill provided as to shelter. Mw-urea were taken towards an improvement in these matters. The Indians were somewhat afflicted with scurvy, nod, on the recommendation of the supelin-tendent, and at the ena~estiono f Eon. Mr. Hubhard, of the coneressional com-mittee, w 110 bipited th~~kgencgan, ample enpplg of potatoes itadbten pn bided l'lie ~ehoolqn i tht. .a.gen cy. are in ag-u od condition, and the Indian~u-p -p reciute their advantages. The able-bodi~d adult males belonging to the families at this agency are, for the most part, still confined, nnder chargeof themilitary, near Davenport, Iowa. The only offence of which many of them appear to have beec guilty is that of heing Sioux Indians, and of having, when a part of their people committed the . terrible outrages in Minnesota, taken part with them so far as to fly when pur-sued bv the troooa. At all events. as soon as the tmoos came near enon-eh to give then1 proteciion tl~c,.vc ame io, and brought with rhr.m,re~cuedf rom rbe hor-rors of Indiatr captivity, a large ruurnher of \\,l~irew omen and children. 'I'heir reward appears to have been i sorry one, but they have patiently endured their captivity. It is believed that measures are about being taken to release nearly all of them and send them to their people at Crow creek, where the addition of their labor will he an important help in farming operations, In this connexion allusion may properly he made to certain Sioux, mostly Sissetons, it is believed, who were occupants of land in western Minnesota, hut who, heing either captured or having voluntarily surrendered, have been sup-ported mostly by issues of supplies from Fort Wadsworth, in eastern Dakota, but partly by cultivating some crops in that vicinity. A part of them have done faithful service to the government as scouts along the frontier. Congress made special provision for such of these Indiansae wereknown to have exerted them-selves to bring in the captive whites, by setting apart eighty acres of land for each, in their old country. Steps were taken by some of these Indians last spring to avail themselves of tbis provision, though not without strong opposi-tion on the part of whites who had already occupied much of their lands. Returrting to the Jliasonri river, the next agency above Crow meek is that to which the various tribes of Sioux belonz. lvine on both aides of theriver. Gen-eral Sully, l~avin~pgla ced su9ieient gar&& i; thc posts along the river and in the line of posts nrnrrr the Minnesntn frontier, Boa, with hi. movable col~imn, been in rea~.rlto f the hoatile Sioux dnrio"e muet of tile snrinaand eulnrner ~ i t h - out heing able to bring them to action. It wae thonghi, a h h e last session of Congress, upon representations made tn and through tbis office, that nearly all of the hostile Sioux would be glad to make peace, having snffered enough. In-deed, the same opinion was entertained the previous year, and an agent of this office, Rev. Father De Smet, was sent up the Miss~nrtio get access to the t ~ i h e ~ , hut he was not allowed by General Sully to communicate with them. Last winter Congress appropriated $20,000 for the purpose of paying the ex-penses of negotiating a treaty with these Indians, and that amount, in goods and money, wm plnced at the disposal of Goyemor Edmunds, to enable him to proceed in the discharge of tbis duty; but the governor found the militmy offi-cers still disinclined to act in concurrence with him, and determined upon another campaign as necessary to subdue the Indians, and the attempt to make a treaty was. for the time. abandoned. &nerd ~~r l lyfol lowrtdho Indians ns fdr north as the Britiah possensions, nnd thence followt.d the course of the lliesouri river down until, at last advices, be was at Fort Sultg, not rery far above the Crow Cwk avucy. Several in-trrentiog reports of the cencrul'a marchm have been traus~tlitted to tltis office. and it would appear that while at ]:or[ Rice, on his way dowa the Miesouri.a |