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Show Up to the present time nothing has oocnrred to censs doubt 8a to their tmstworthi-no88 end efficienoy. The Indian freighters and smplog4s at this agency are paid in standard ailver dollars to avoid disputesaod trouble in caehing their checks by traders. I t is expressed thmnghfrom the Phildelphia mint in quantities of $10,000 to Fort Robinson, Neb., onr nearest express office, sixty-three miles sway. I t is my atistom to prowed to tbat point with ten of the police 5s an escort, receipt for the money, and tunn it over M thepolioe; they then transport the same to the agency, camping ant ett route. The money rsmairts in wooden boxes in their charge until wanted, and so far this trust has not been violated, and I feel assured will not be. I n fonsle~y ears this agency Was the rendezvons and asylom for the hardest alass of white men in theWest, 8nch ashorse-thieves, road-agents, sod esCaDed convicts. Safely concealed in the camps of the Indians, with whom they aElisted, they suacessfolly defied all efforts toarrest them. Now, with a United States conrt oommissiooer and . dwputg United Ststee marshalstationed st the agency,efficiently beaked by thepolioe, things have changed, and a man-white or Indian-is guaranteed better protection for hi8 life and property on this portion of the Sioux reserve than in any of the bordering Statesor'Territories, =the intervening coontry betwaen the vill~g+sw, hichare iooated at varians distances op to forty miles from the agency,is continually patrolled by the police, ao that no depredation could he committed without soon ooming to their knowledge. In this conneotion the qnestion might be pertinently asked, "Why is it that theOga-lallss, a people onmberiog over 7,000, bsve just passed threeof the quietest sod to the goverument and themselves most gratifying years of tbeir existeoce, sod the first that they have passed without the preseoae of military at tbeir 8g0oCY$" For this condi-tion a9 affair8 muoh is doe to the polioa system. The majority of the Indiana appro-ciste the faot tbat,aooner or later, a regalarly organized armed force has to be introduced and play a. part in agency affairs. Heretofore that force bas been the Army, against whioh it is hut natural there shoold be o feelingof antagonism among the Indians,sod the very presence of which at sn sgenoy is s oonstsnt remiuder thet the white man oannut snd will nottrust the Indian. Recogoieing this faot, these Indians have ohasen the lesser of (to them) two evils, the Indian police in preference to the white sddisr. Here the old adage tbat "aooiidence begets con5denoe" oomes intoplay. Plaoiog, as has been done at thls agency, the entireoootmlof the people, the aareof their supl>lies, and the enforoing of the law in their own hands, has certainly given them aaofidanoe in themselves, and pot tbemon tbeir good behavior. Agent Tufts, at. Union Agency, Indian Territory, says : The poliae agstem is good, sod if well paid and properly managed would bevaloahle to the Indian service, and the mmna of saving much money to the government. I t would be valoahle to the aervioe st this agency, because, while there are tifteen thou-sand persons in this agency not arueosble to the laws of these niltions, there is no offi-cer who can make an arrest without obtaining a warrant from tho United States court at Fort Smith, Ark, except theIndianpo1ioe. Crimein thisTerritory in almost always the result of whisky, and taka ulaoa at Indian zstherings. If a United States otscer the government hss saved much more tban them cosr to the Depavtments of War aid Jostlce. Agent Dyer, of Quapaw Agenoy, Indian Territory, says: W e now have a foroe of reliable &nd effiolent men, and as proof of this I would aim. ply call attention to the faot tbat tba eight men in garrison at Camu Qoaoaw oerform I t& . same dotirs ss did the rontrmng of twopa recnntly nu~uvod. L'poor large n,rerre. t h ~ yar e invuluable a8 messengers. As n n erourt in n # s k i ~a~ngn uity psynlaots m rlna tribes dihtnllt from tlmr agency, tl.air worth eanuut be esrimated except by the alnouot |
