date of October 10, 1877, that officer says: "The vice of gambling, as I gather from records of courts-martial and other authentic information, prevails to a very considerable extent in our army. It is, however, not punishable as such, but only in certain cases, as when committed by a disbursing officer, or under circumstances rendering some peculiar dishonor on the party. This vice, I need not add, is most demoralizing in its effects, and necessarily tends to relax the bonds of military obligation and duty. Both to put a stop to an immoral indulgence prejudicial to good order and military discipline, as well as to protect young officers having small pay, who are too often led into it by their superiors in rank, I would recommend that gambling, or the playing at cards or other games for money or other valuable stake, be absolutely, positively prohibited in the army, by the proper legislation to be sought from Congress."

In the report of the same officer, for the year 1876, it is stated that the number of convictions for crimes and offenses committed in ten months of that year in the army, was eleven thousand nine hundred and forty-one! This occurred in a community numbering 25,000 souls, manned and officered by the picked men of the nation, reared at West Point! Can the worst governed and most disorderly city on the continent equal this? Among these convictions, there were for assault and battery, 214; for assault with intent to kill, 10; for desertion, 347; for disobedience of orders, 705; for disrespect to superior officers, 289; for drunkenness, 1568; for drunkenness on duty, 947; for larceny, 142; for neglect of duty, 526; for offering violence to superior officers, 6; for selling, losing, or wasting government property, 140, etc.

In the annual report of the second auditor of the treasury for the year 1873, there is this exhibit: "Number of charges raised against officers on account of overpayments, 242; number of charges raised against officers on account of double payments, 150." He adds: "Since the last report the accounts of forty-three paymasters have been closed and certificates of non-indebtedness issued. The accounts of thirty-five paymasters have been finally revised, on which there is due the United States $76,541; and the accounts of twelve pay

masters have been prepared for suit, the balance due the United States aggregating $541,447.87."

In the annual report of the second auditor for the year 1874, that officer says that the number of cases in which charges were raised during the year against officers and enlisted men for overpayments were 177; for double payments, 157; credits to officers and enlisted men for overpayments refunded, 204 cases; credits to officers for double payments refunded, 46 cases. He adds that cases then under investigation "involve questions of alleged fraud in the preparation and prosecution of claims, forgery, unlawful withholding of money from claimants, and overpayments to officers and enlisted men."

In a report made by Vincent Colyer, acting as a special Indian commissioner in 1869, referring to matters that occurred in his tour, he had, among other items, the following: "While delayed at Fort Gibson, in the Cherokee country, we were for several nights in succession awakened from our sleep by the noisy shouts and oaths of drunken men. Wondering who could thus disturb the peace of a quiet town like this, and why the police did not arrest them, I was surprised and mortified to find that it was a party of drunken soldiers from the fort. On Sunday morning we were sitting by the window in the house of a Christian friend, soon after service, when our attention was called to the sudden egress of a number of peaceable Cherokees and half-breeds from the door of a small meeting-house. Out they came, tumbling, in the highest degree of alarm, pursued by four drunken United States soldiers. The Cherokees scattered in all directions, when our 'national police' came up reeling, shouting, and swearing, like all possessed. One of them flourished a revolver, another a bludgeon, a third had his hat off, shirt sleeves rolled up, and arms bloody; and all four looked the picture of riot and disorder. . . The explanation of this was that the paymaster had been around a few days before."

Capt. Henry E. Alvord, in a report of an extended visit, in 1872, on a special inspection, referred to the growing evil of the introduction of liquors among the Indians. The intercourse act forbids this, but there is an exception by which

liquors may be carried to military posts, for the use of officers, under regulations prescribed by the secretary of war. In view of this fact, Capt. Alvord suggests that it is a matter of great importance that the habits of post or district commanders, in this particular, should be known as good. He cites the state of things at Fort Sill, when he was there, and states that the officer in command placed no restriction on the traffic in liquor, and it was, in fact, free to all. "As the result," said he, "a practically open bar was kept while we were at the post, with nightly carousals; soldiers, citizens, and employes frequently seen drunk; and the liquor found its way to the Indians. With such a state of affairs at the military posts, it becomes absolutely impossible to enforce the law elsewhere, and liquor reaches the Indian camps, producing much evil.”

On the 12th of December, 1874, the agent of the Navajoe Indians, in New Mexico, wrote the commissioner of Indian affairs, that there was demoralization among both the Indians and soldiers, arising from the fact that the Navajoes were allowed to visit, at their pleasure, the military reservation at Fort Wingate, and asked that the orders of June, 1870, be enforced, and the Indians required to leave the post, and return to their reservation. The order was issued on June 20, 1870, and was to govern in the department of New Mexico. It read thus: "Under no circumstances whatever, will any Indians be permitted to enter any military post or station in this department." In 1872, the assistant surgeon stationed at Fort Wingate, had written to the post adjutant, that, in consequence of the number of Navajoe squaws being about the post, venereal diseases had become frequent among the troops, so that at that time more than half the sickness among the men was of that character. The assistant surgeon suggested that the commanding officer order all these Navajoe women to leave the post, or should some of them be allowed to remain working for any one at the post, that such regulations be made as would prevent them and the troops from meeting. The suggestion, or recommendation, of the assistant surgeon was not carried out, but he was relieved from duty. As stated, the Indian agent, in December, 1874, informed the

commissioner of Indian affairs of the demoralization that existed, and asked that the order of 1870 be enforced.

This communication was referred to the secretary of war, and by him to Gen. Sherman, and thence to Gen. Pope, commander of the department of New Mexico, who indorsed on it, among other matter, the following: "I do not consider the statement of Mr. Arney (the agent) to constitute such a state of hostility as would excuse me in the eyes of the Indian bureau for interfering with the business or pleasure of such Indians as the Navajoes." It will be observed that all the agent desired was the revival of the order of June 20, 1870, which prohibited any Indians entering military posts in the department of New Mexico, and thus put an end to the intimacy existing between the Navajoe women and the troops at Fort Wingate; and this Gen. Pope refused to do for the reason above quoted. He did not feel that he would be justified in interfering with the business or pleasure of such Indians as the Navajoes-notwithstanding he knew well that the intercourse between the troops and the Navajoe women was fearfully demoralizing to both.

Such references and extracts as are contained in the closing pages of this chapter, could be multiplied to the extent of a large volume, but this is not deemed necessary. It is believed that sufficient is presented to enable every reader to arrive at a just conclusion as to the absolute necessity of reform in the management of our Indian wards, and as to whether this reform, and the best interests of our Indian population, both material and moral, could be safely intrusted to the custody of the officers of the army. While deliberating on this question-a momentous one, the fate of a race-I would implore every reader to avail himself of an unerring standard which will work out absolute certainty and a righteous judgment. "Do as you would be done by." "Put yourself in his place."

CHAPTER XIX.

THE UTE INDIANS OF COLORADO. THE TREATY OF 1868, AND THE AGREEMENT OF 1873 WITH THEM. AN EXAMINATION OF THE MANNER IN WHICH EACH PARTY HAS PERFORMED ITS OBLIGATIONS.-THE ORIGIN OF THE PRESENT COMPLICATIONS, ETC.

THE Ute nation is composed of the Tabaquache, Muache, Capote, Weeminuche, Yampa, Grand River, and Uintah bands of Ute Indians. Before the United States entered into definite treaty relations with them, these bands roamed over a vast country, occupying, in their excursions, the territory embraced in Western Colorado, Eastern Utah, Northern New Mexico and Arizona, and Southern Wyoming. They also came down through Eastern Colorado, to the buffalo range, on the plains, and made their periodical hunts, at the risk of war with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and the Comanche and Kiowa Indians, who claimed as their country the territory over which the great southern herd of buffalo ranged.

In March, 1868, N. G. Taylor, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Alex. C. Hunt, Governor of Colorado Territory, and ex officio Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Col. Kit Carson, on the part of the United States, concluded a treaty with a few representative men of these bands (among whom were Ouray, Kinache, Ankatosh, José Maria, Nicaagat, Guero, Piah, Suviap, and others), by which it was agreed that a district of country commencing at a point on the south boundary line of the Territory of Colorado, where the meridian of longitude 107° west from Greenwich crosses the same; running thence north with said meridian to a point fifteen miles due north of where the said meridian intersects the fortieth parallel of north latitude; thence due west to the western boundary line of said territory; thence south with said western boundary line to the southern boundary line of said territory; thence east with said boundary line to the place of