OCR Text |
Show XXIV REPORT OF 'IHE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. head of each separate family," and it stipulates that in lieu of the sup. plies therein named the Comluissioner of Indian Affairs may furnish their equil-aalent. Section 3, page 449, United States Revised Statutes, lxovides : That far the pnrpose of iurlnciug Iudiana to labor aud beoanle aelf-suppori,ing it is provided that hereafter, in distributing the sttpplies and anuuitias to the Indians for whom the sau1e are appmpriated, the agent disbdbutil~gth e same shall require allable-bodied male Indians between the ages of eighteen and forty-five to perform serPioe upon the reaer\%%titiofno r the benefit of themselves, or of the tribe, at a reasonable rate to he fixed by the agent, iu elmrge, anrl to an amouut equal in value to the supplies to be delivered; *nil the allo\rauees provided for suoh Indians shall be diahibuted to them only upon condition of the performance of suoh labor, uuder snoh rules and regulations as the agent may prescribe; provided that the Secretary of the Interior niay, by written order, except any partionlar tribe or portion of tribe from the oper-ation of this proviaion when he deems it proper and expedient. It will be seen by the lam above quoted that it mas the duty of the agent to vithhold supplies at times iu order to compel the Indians to work if it was possible to get them to do so. No blame can attaoh to the age.nt for attempting to enforce this statutory provision br with-holding coffee, sugar, and tobacco, which were the only supplies that were at any time withheld. The agent's st,atement that the Northern Cheyennes had no good ground of complaiut is sustained by the facts herein presented. The truth is that Dull Kuife's baud contained thevilest and most dangerous element of their tribe. They should have been disarmed before leaving the north, and dismounted upon their arrival at the agency, while still iu the hands of the military. To the neglect which permitted them to retain the Springfield carbines captured by them in the Custer fight may be attributed the horrible atrocities perpetrated by the Northern Chey-ennes. The trail of blood which they left behind them in Hausas could not have been made and the outrages could not have been perpetrated but for the possession of these anns, wbich not only enabled them to defend themselves from attack, but to carry carnage and destruction among the settlers of Kansas. m i l e in Kansas they mnrdered more than forty men, women, and children, and outraged some ten or more women. The War Department has been requested to send to Fort Wallaoe, in Kansas, the Che3;enne prisoners ~ h o mth ey now hold, to the end that the civil authorities may select those who can be identified, and have them punished for the murders aud outrages of which they have been guilty. No undue se11timentalit3;s hould stand between them and a just punishment for their crimes. THE XISROURI RIVER. Tho east hank of the Missouri River, for five )mndrecl miles above the Yanktou Ageucy, was mithdraw~f~ro m white sett,lemeut in the year 1Si5; aud siuce that time the better class of settlers, respecting the |