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Show 14 REPORT OF THE COM&IISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. could be made, and transportation obtained up the Missouri liver. They met, at various oints the bands of Sioux treated with last year, and found them still disposed, and many of their people earnestly turning their at-tention to agriculture. The signatiiws of several additional chiefs of the Yanc-tonuais band were obtained to the treaty made last year, and ratified by the President. There was every apparent reason to be gratified with the result of the labors of the commission during the previous year. Proceeding up the Missouri, the commission effected a treaty at Fort Berthold with the Arzeka~ees, Gros Vmtres, and Mandans, by wbich a cession of land of about twenty-five miles by forty was obtained, and a right of way for roads through t,heir lands, iu return for which certain annual payments in goods and for beneficial purposes are to be made. These Indians are friendly, and mauy of them have long been planting corn with success near Fort Berthold. The great amount of travel through the country occupied by these Indians, and those lying above, upon the lMiasonri and Yellowstone rivers, by persons en route to and from the gold regions of Montana, interfering greatly with the game upon which the Indians depend, has made it imperatively necessary that those routes should be rendered secure to travellers; and, at the same time, jns-tice to the Indians required a liberal compensation for the damages necessarily resulting fron~th is invasion of their hunting ranges. The above treaty and the two wbich follow are baaed upon those principles, and look also to the grad-ual improvement of the Indians, by encouraging them to till the soil, and aban-don tbeir precarious mode of living. At Fort Union a treaty was made with the Assiua6oi?zes, by which they cede all their land lying south of the Missouri and uorth of the Yellowstone as far west as aline drawn fr6m the mouth of the Powder river northward to Milk river, and also a smaller tract, inclurling Fort Union, north of the Missouri. Besides this, they yield the right of way and reservations at suitable places for stations, ten miles square at each station. For this, they were to receive con-sideration in goods and in expenditures fur beneficial objects. At the same place the commissioners met and treated with the Crows, secur-ing a right of way and unmolested travel up the valley of the Yellowstone to Helena, in Montana, and station reservations of ten miles sanare. Liberal com-pensation is provided for this powerful tribe of Indians, anhan agency is to be established for them. The other branch of the commission, consisting of Superintendent Taylor, Colonel Maynadier, commanding at Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory, Thomas Wistar, and Colonel McLaren, met at that poat, early in the summer, representa-tives of, and in fact a large part of, the tribed of Ogallalla and western Bruli Sioux, and concluded with them a treaty, on the 7th of June, of the same geu-eral tenor with those made with the niue bands upon the upper Missouri last year, and securing a promise of uninterrupted use of routes of travel established through their countly. This point in the treaty, as in the cases of the other bauds referred to, was very reluctantly conceded, but it is believed that tbose chiefs who signed the treaty, and all tbose under their control, being the largest portion of the bauds, will keep their pledges, though there are wild and uueon-trollable youug men belonging to both bands who have made and will make trouble. With the northern bands of Arapahoes and Cheyennes no treaty was con-sum~ nated;b ut col~snltationw as had with some of their number, and arrange-ments made which will,it was thought, bring about a treaty at an early day.* The work accomplished by the northwestern commissions has been a very important aa well as arduous one, and if the series of treaties made by them shall be ratified and go into full effect, peaceful relations will have been estab- *A treaty with the Chegemes has been received since the date of the report. |