OCR Text |
Show Indians that there was no longer a United States government to protect them, that its organization was broken up, and that they must join with the new govern-ment, (whichby its location andits slaveholdingbasis would be insympathy with them,) or be ground to powder, they readily acceded. They now see their error. No menwere evermorepenitent; and sincethey learnedat the Fort Smith ~ouncitlh e wishes of the government, their own oouneil has met and taken pyompt action upon the proposition snbmitted to them, and appointed a delega-tlon to visit Washington to sign a final treaty. This appears more fully in the despatch from General Hunt, commanding at Fort Smith, dated October 24, communicating a letter from Governor Colbert, of the Chickasaw nation, which despatch will be foundamonc the accom~anvined ocuments. . " U tjnly 212 pernoud L~1ongi;;g to t h ~ terih cs are known to havtr rtmsinrd loyal to the government. Tbc dialoyal portion nerd pome hrlp to get throu~hrh e winter wilhuut eatTcring, but their coun~ryL nring been held by the rcbc!ls all the 1i111ed unlog 1111: war,and 1101 traversed by the contendingarmirs, and rations having bern i~auedto them till lzst March, they hdvr not suffered as m~~ralar the 11thzr tribes. Two t l~ourn~o~f db ut11 tribes are now rzceirinr covernnleut rations. I have elsewhere referred to the propositions in regard a cession of a portion of the Choctaw and Chickasaw lands. Agent Snow has in charge the Neosho agency, comprising the Osages, and the small bands known as the Quapaws, Senecas, and Senecas and Shawnees. The Osage lands are in Kansas, and comprise about 4,000,0@0 ac.es. In 1859 they had a population of 3,500 ; the agent thinks that their number does not now exceed 2,800. About 1,000 of the tribe joined the rebellion. Some two hundred and forty of their warriors were at one time in the service of the United Statee, hut left from some difficulty with their officers, andcannot under-stand the propriety of the rule by which they have forfeited their pa The report of Superintendent Sells is very full in its information as to the hagits and mode of life of this tribe, which is entirely nomadic in ita character, using the bow and arrow in the chase, and hunting the huffalo in the ranges southwest of their cnnntry. Their special home is near where the Verdigris river crosses the Kansas line. The sad example of the whites, who steal their stock, leads them to retaliate. and freauent collisions and difficulties with the settlers are the con-sequrnce. By thr iccent frrlty with this tribe, their fhrticms have brrntnr re-conciled; aud by thc ccsaiot~t o the i-nitc.d Sti~trso i n Idrgc hody ol' land, if will be onen to setrlcn~ent.R I I ~th ev obtain from its avails the mmns of hecom-ing civilized. In view of their nokadic habits, however, Agent Snow suggests their entire removal from Kansas and the neighborhood of the whites, and set-tlement upon lands in the western part of the Indian country, near the buffalo range ; which snggcstion I approve, and tmst that within a few months their country will be so far at the diapoeal of the government, through the operation of the treaties now in progress, as the result of therecent council, that theseand all of the other Kansas Indians who do not elect to become citizens may be rc-moved into the Indian country. The Qnapaws and other small tribes of this agency, numbering only 670 in all, never showed any sympathy with the rebellion, but camenorth, abandoning their homes, and continued as refugees npon the Ottawa reservation untillast spring, when they were removed to a point eighty miles further south, where they have raised some small supply of vegetables this year. An exploration of their former reservations, jurit below the Kansas line, exhibited the usual deso-lation of war; and everything must he provided anew for them. They badat-tained a fair degree of civilization, and were prosperous and comfortable before the war; and they, like the other loyal Indians, think that the government for ' which they suffered the loss of everything should in some degree compensate them for such loss. .These people all receive rations at present from the United Skates. |