OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIOSER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. LXIII The question as to t,he final settlement and pe,rmanent location of the Nez PercB Indialills who snrrendered under Chief Joseph to General Miles, in the year 18 7, ha6 been a subject of ~uuchc oncern and annoy ance both to the department and the Indians themselves. The facts in connection with tbeir surrender and subseyneut location in the Indian Territory, are ~nat,terosf public notoriety, and hare been alluded to in former annual re,ports. At the time of the surrender it was stated, and tlle informati011 before this office corroborated the statement, t,hat such cruel and unprovoked murders had been co~nlnitted by Joseph and his band in Idaho as to create an almost insuperable barrier against their return to their old home, and to banish all expectation of peace or safety for Joseph and his followers on that reservation, or iu its vicinitx, at least until the resentment awakened by these oflenses should be some-what modified by the lapse of time. With a desire to solve the problem in such a way as to maintain and enforce a proper and due regard for the laws and authority of the government, and at the same time avoid doing any injustice to a brave but misguided captive, this office and t,he department acquiesced in the variot~s recomlnendations of the distiu-guished military officials who had been actively engaged in accomplish-ing the surrender, and who had also taken a very prominent pazt in endeavoring to secure an amicable sett.lement of the difficulties, and cou-sented to the removal of Joseph and his band to the Indian Territory. By the Indian appropriation act of May 27,1878 (20 Stat., p. 74), an appropriation mas made to enable the Secret.ary of t,he Interior to remove these Nez P e ~ 6 s t,h en beld prisoners of war at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to a suitable location in the Indian Territory, and for their set-tlement thereo;. On the 21st of July, 1878, these Indians were turned over to Inspector McXeil and Agent Jones, andptaced upon the Quapaw R,eservatiou. On the 15th of October, 1878, Commissio~ier H&yt visited t l~e,na~n,d took chiefs Young Joseph and Htisescruyt (Bald-Head)t o the west of the Arlrsnsas River for the purpose of selecting a permanent home for the band. They selected a tract a fern miles west of the Ponca Reserve, where the Sha-kaskia empties into Salt Creek, riz, townships 25 and 26 N., ranges 1 and 2 west, containing 90,710.89 acres. On the 31st of January, 1879, Young Joseph aud YellowBull, Erst and second chiefs, acting for t l ~ eb and, made an agreement whereby they proposed to relinquish all claim to their lands in Idaho or elsewhere and settle permanently in the Iudian Territory npon four townships of land to be selected and purchased by the government for their use and occupancy, which agreement was submitted to the department Febru-ary 1,1879, for ratification by Congress, and was accompanied by a draft of bill for that purpose. The bill did not become a Isw, yet the Indians have been located on the four townships above nmned, and Congress |