pounds rice, and 4,000 pounds corn, and will have to make as large an issue, and probably larger than that, this week. I am bored to death by the talk of these Indians. More than half of them are the cursed Brules, and they are the meanest Indians in this country. They say that the commission told them that they would leave a half a boat load of provisions here for them, and they want it; and that they were told that they could get anything they wanted this winter. They have good memories. Yours truly, Governor N. EDMUNDS. J. PATTEE, No. 60. FORT SULLY, DAKOTA TERRITORY, May 19, 1865. SIR: Since my arrival at this post, on the 10th instant, several instances of intoxication have come under my personal observation. I have watched closely to ascertain how the spirituous liquor found its way into the Indian country, and I am now satisfied that it is left here, in greater or less quantities, by almost every steamboat passing up this river. This sort of illicit traffic here is not, I think, a new thing, but of several years' standing. The dangerous and blasting influence of intoxicating liquor upon Indian character is too well known to require details from me. I cannot undertake to answer for the good conduct of these Indians while liquor finds its way into their country. Are not such acts on the part of steamboat men in direct violation of our intercourse laws? and if so, are not the parties thus violating subject to arrest, and the steamboat to forfeiture? Severe and radical measures should be taken, and an example made of one or two boats. It is doubtful whether any milder course will effect the desired result. Must the sale, gift, &c., of intoxicating liquor in the Indian country be to an Indian to bring it within the purview of the law? Is not the sale, gift, &c., of liquor to a white person in the Indian country a punishable offence? I have this day issued and posted in the most conspicuous places at this post notices to the effect that, hereafter, any white person not connected with the military service found in a drunken and disorderly state will be immediately ordered out of the Indian country. I most respectfully solicit an early reply to the foregoing questions. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. D. N. COOLEY, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D. C. J. R. HANSON, United States Indian Agent. No. 61. OFFICE INDIAN AFFAIRS, June 14, 1866. SIR: Your communication of 19th ultimo, in reference to the introduction of spirituous liquors into the Indian country by the steamers passing up the river, is received, with a statement of the action taken by you in notifying disorderly persons that they will be ordered out of the country. Your action in this respect is approved, and, while acting strictly within your line of duty and the regulations, you will be sustained by this office. In order to guide you in relation to the proper course to be pursued in the cases referred to by you, I transmit herewith five copies of section 20 of the intercourse law as amended by chapter 33 of the laws of 1864. You will therein find your powers and duties clearly defined. As the law applies as well to military as to civil officers, it is to be expected that the commanders of the military posts will cordially unite with you in enforcing this very necessary law. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. R. HANSON, United States Indian Agent, Fort Sully, D. T. D. N. COOLEY, Commissioner. No. 62. WASHINGTON, D. C., August 29, 1866. SIR Referring to report of United States Indian Agent J. R. Hanson for the month of July last, in relation to contemplated improvements for the Lower Brulé Indians, near the mouth of White river, in accordance with a treaty made with those Indians in the fall of 1865, the undersigned, commissioners to treat with the Indians of the northwest, beg leave respectfully to recommend that, instead of making improvements at White river, efforts be made to induce this tribe, (Lower Brulés,) Two Kettles, and the Lower Yanktonais, to settle at the Crow Creek agency, recently vacated by the Santees, where are now found all the necessary buildings for a first-class agency, a large amount of ground already under cultivation, good soil, and plenty of timber for agency purposes, &c., &c. It is believed that with proper effort on the part of the agent and others connected with these tribes, that there will be no difficulty in confining these tribes, who are entirely friendly with each other, and permanently settling them at this point, where present improvements can be made available and the Indians better cared for and provided in the future, at much less expense to the government, than can be done in giving them separate reservations where no such improvements exist. Very respectfully, your obedient servants, NEWTON EDMUNDS. No. 63. FORT SULLY, May 30, 1866. SIR: My last letters were written to the honorable Secretary because they related to army movements which it was his province to lay before his colleague, the honorable Secretary of War. The Cheyenne Black Hill expedition has been countermanded, so the dangers in that regard seem deferred for a season. There may be some bitter complaints of this interference with the desire of our frontier men to spread over all parts of the Indian territory, but justice and humanity will be advanced by this change of the military orders. I write to inform you of everything which rumor may magnify into a breach of the treaties made with the Sioux. I have inquired diligently on my way up, and hear of nothing worthy of note. A trader was murdered and his store robbed, near a military post on the Running Water, about three weeks after we concluded the treaties, about the first of November last, but all the Indians say this was done by bands that had not heard of the treaty. A Frenchman, by the name of Joe, found the hide and bones of one of his oxen after the Brulés passed his hut, on American creek, but the snow was very deep and the ox was far out, and the Indians were eating all the dead carcasses in the country. It is not, therefore, certain that starving Indians killed this ox, as charged by Joe. Cattle, horses, everything, have run out at all the posts; and while it is averred that Indians could not hunt because of deep snow, and did eat their ponies by hundreds, and sometimes actually starved, this ox, charged by Joe against the Brulés, is all that I have heard charged against Sioux Indians. Even now, when they have nothing but dry buffalo meat, and not much of that, and when they had reason to expect a feast on our coming, and when the commissary of the army has a very special order not to feed the Indians coming in to make a treaty, they will run like chickens to gather the offal from the slop buckets that are carried from the garrison kitchens, while they pass a pile of corn and hundreds of loose cattle without touching a thing except when told they may gather up the grains of corn from the ground, where the rats in their depredations have let it fall from the sacks, (for corn is plenty for horses, mules, and cattle, where grass is abundant,) but not a pound can be issued to the craving Indians, whose hunting grounds we occupy. This has not formerly been the plan of the military. The officers, during the winter, have, in conformity with the intent and meaning of the 16th section of act of 1834, (Stat. at Large, vol. 4, p. 735,) issued rations to the starving hordes, which makes it the more vexatious to those now waiting the delay of annuities, agricultural implements, and presents due and expected under the treaty. Yet not a single act of trespass has come within my knowledge during the several days that I have been here, or before. If anything had transpired I would have known it. We hear that two boats were fired into by the Crows, far above the Sioux country, but the facts concerning the trouble with the Crows are not well authenticated. It is said the firing was merely by boys throwing their arrows at the wheel-houses in sport. However this may be, the Black Hill expedition is dispensed with, and eight companies are going up to Fort Benton to suppress the hostilities there, whatever they may be. We hope our boat may be along so as to carry us up to that scene of action in time to give you full reports of the matter. A party of about eleven Sioux have gone up the river to fight Arickarees, who, they say, have come down into their territory, but it is not certain that these braves will go beyond the buffalo herds that abound about seventy miles above here. I have cautioned against this, and the chiefs complain that their young men could not be restrained from resisting what they considered an invasion of the Sioux. But this I consider nothing worthy of note. The Sioux and the Arickarees have always been at war, and when we see the Arickarees we will try to stop this strife. I have thus narrated everything of importance. The Brulés complained that notice had been given by the Pimeas of a company crossing the Missouri at Niobrara to go up that. river, referring, I suppose, to Sawyer's movement. But the chiefs did not consider it important, although they thought the Platte and the Missouri routes sufficient, according to our treaty. The Minneconjous chief accuses me of two lies: one that I did not have these soldiers sent out, (which I told them was a mistake of his,) and the other was that I had promised good times, whereas the snows and storms have been worse than ever, so they have lost 300 horses. I told the chief we would talk this over when my colleague arrived, with full copies of our treaties and talks, but in the mean time he must instruct his people in the matter of providing against winter, which no human power can avert. On the whole, he said I had told one truth: I had returned with braves as I had promised, and it he could get a gun and some ammunition as part of the annuity he would be satisfied. But he wished his share set off before the general delivery occurred, and he hoped we would also keep it a secret from the rest of the tribe. I am here in advance, as a kind of vidette, assuring the 3,000 Indians here of the coming of our commission, and the determination of the Great Father to carry out his treaty according to the letter. I have the honor to be your very obedient servant, Hon. D. N. COOLEY, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. S. R. CURTIS, Commissioner. No. 64. Report of the Northwestern Treaty Commission to the Sioux of the Upper Missouri. WASHINGTON, D. C., August 25, 1866. SIR: In accordance with our appointment by the President of the United States, and the instructions of your department, given orally and otherwise, at sundry times, the undersigned have, during the past two seasons, visited the various tribes of Indians of the northwest, for the purpose of making treaties with such as have never made treaties, and renewing treaty arrangements with those who had been parties to the treaty of Laramie, which has terminated by its limitation of fifteen years. We joined in a report of our proceedings last fall, and now submit our further progress, under your subsequent orders, with some general remarks concerning the character and condition of all the Indians of the northwest. The scope of country occupied by the tribes designated in the executive order is the prairie region and buffalo range of the northwest; bounded by the settlement of Minnesota, Dakota, and Nebraska on the east, the Platte river south, the Rocky mountains west, and the British dominions on the north, covering about six degrees of longitude, by six of latitude. Indeed, many of the tribes extend their movements far beyond these limits. Their domain is the vast rolling prairie country, where a short nutritious grass covers the surface, affording ample food, winter and summer, for the herds of buffalo, antelope, and other game upon which the Indians depend for their subsistence, shelter, and clothing. Central in this domain is an isolated spur of the Rocky mountains, known as the "Black Hills," well defined on the maps of General Warner, from which numerous streams flow in every direction, tributary to the Platte, Missouri, and Yellowstone. This mountain region, and the valleys and hills adjacent to the streams, are the fastnesses to which the tribes resort in winter, or in case of danger of war parties in summer; the taller grasses of the river bottoms and the cottonwood timber that skirts these streams affording protection from storms and subsistence for their ponies. But usually, summer and winter, the Indians follow the buffalo herds, making lodges and clothing of their skins, and food of their flesh. Our duties have brought us in council with the principal or headmen of sixteen or eighteen of these prairie tribes, and some of our commission, well acquainted with the tribes occupying the prairie country south of the Platte, observe, as we do in these, a great uniformity of manners and customs, and a similar dependence on the roaming herds of buffalo. They and the buffalo seem to shun the white settlements and the timber countries, being as closely identified with prairie soil as the peculiar grasses that grow upon it. These tribes of Indians, so different from the tribes of the forests with which we, in former centuries, have had occasion to deal, have never, until recently, been molested by the encroachments of white people. Traders have introduced among them blankets, tobacco, trinkets, sugar and coffee, but such artificial wants are not universally adopted, the great masses adhering to the robes for clothing, kinnikinic for smoking, and buffalo meat, fresh or dry, for their subsistence. They are totally ignorant of agriculture and the arts, with a few exceptions, and seem as averse to any arrangement which seems to localize them as the buffalo themselves. The Dakota or Sioux tribes comprise about half of the northwest tribes, but these Sioux are divided in interest, general location and feeling, so that we have made separate treaties with their tribes, thereby accommodating their desire of convenient receipt of annuities, encouraging separations, so that in the event of future difficulty with some tribes others may avoid combinations, and we may discriminate in favor of the innocent. Some of the other tribes speak a language similar to the Sioux, but generally they differ, and only understand signs, which seem to give a common understanding of general subjects to all the tribes. There are friendly relations among some tribes, but eternal hostility seems to be the normal character of other tribes toward each other. As friends, they visit, feast, intermarry, and make war together; as enemies, they shun each other, resist territorial encroachments, and, in parties of from ten to a hundred, make incursions against foes, taking horses and a few scalps, after which achievements they return to rejoin in dances, which continue several days. This is their understanding of peace and war, never conceiving of a universal peace, or a united general war. The idea of peace between tribes who have always been at war is regarded by them as quite preposterous, and they accepted this clause of our treaties with great misgivings as to its success. They were very willing to try the matter, but say their old enemy cannot exist without war with them, and the idea of natural and eternal hostilities seems reciprocal between such ancient foes. War seems necessary to Indians, as the only occasion for distinctions; their lodges, and blankets, and ornaments presenting everywhere some rude emblem, showing the number of their victims, and their success in stealing horses. Their hostilities against each other are carried on with the same cruelties evinced toward white victims. We had painful exhibitions of hands, feet, and scalps taken from Indians, which tribes secured in an Indian conflict at Berthold, while we were there; the Indians claiming license to fight each other before treaties were concluded. Indeed, there seems to be less inherent hostility towards whites than their own species, and most of them, in council and in presence of their comrades, boasted of their attachment to the whites, and presented with great pride all letters which they have obtained from whites recommending them. Indeed, they attributed to us superior wisdom, and are only too much inclined to regard us as possessed of supernatural powers. Whence, then, arise the hostilities which so constantly exist? A different language, different customs, and a real conflict of interests in some of their councils. The Indians claim their hunting grounds, and have for ages contended against the encroachments of other tribes. Game is their sole dependence, and its preservation is, to them, a vital question which they fully comprehend. The whites have discovered gold beyond the prairies, and their trains, stages, boats, and cars scatter the game, and, to some extent, help to diminish it. Moreover, the whites who traverse the plains, and navigate our rivers, are quite out of the reach of those laws which we know are necessary to restrain the avarice, licentiousness, and cruelty of our species; besides these causes of conflict, former treaties, and their unfortunate execution, have been real disturbing elements. The treaty of 1851, at Laramie, was made with a very meagre representation of only a portion of the tribes involved in its provisions. Material changes were made by the Senate, reducing the time it was to run from fifty to fifteen years, without notice to the tribes. The apportionment to the tribes, as they were ascertained from year to year, and the increase in prices and probable increase of fraudulent transactions, annually decreased the amounts received by some tribes, till the sum actually delivered was such a frivolous compensation for the time of waiting and distance travelled as to cause great dissatisfaction. Most of the tribes complained to us of this as unjust and unaccountable to them, and your commissioners found it difficult to demonstrate the fidelity of our government, although the Indians appreciated the fact of the limited knowledge of the tribes being occasions of subsequent extended divisions and consequent diminutions. In 1856 General Harney met many of these tribes at Fort Pierre, and made, in the form of a council and mutual pledges, what has been called the Harney Treaty. The Indians promised to keep the peace and General Harney promised to help them by organizing and equipping Indian soldiers for each chief. The plan was a good one, but was only partially carried out. The report of the conference was never published in our statutes, but the manuscript shows, and the Indians say, that in that conference they were told to keep the whites out of their country, and also to arrest soldiers deserting from the army, or if they could not arrest to shoot them. The Indians say that agents and traders have advised them to drive out or destroy intruding whites, and justify their attacks on trains upon the directions, to which they give names of persons so directing. While it would seem right to give Indians power to expel intruders, they cannot expel whites without such hostilities as amount to warfare; and since gold brings so many into their country and through their country, such authority would obviously invoke what has occurred, actual Indian war. The Minnesota outbreak, which involved the massacre of many whites, and the slaughter and expulsion of the Santees from that State, was presented to these prairie tribes, to whom the Santees fled. in the most unjust form as to the white man's side of the question; exciting sympathies and feelings of revenge throughout many of the tribes otherwise friendly. Another great cause of trouble is a want of power in the chiefs to restrain their young men, as the chiefs and most of a tribe desire-an evil often named by the chiefs, and attempted to be remedied by General Harney in his proposed Indian soldiers' organization. As you will perceive by the journal of our proceedings, which will be submitted and made part of this report, your commissioners have diligently and patiently inquired into all these conflicting causes and consequences, desiring as far as possible to conclude and hereafter countervail them by making proper provisions in our new treaties. The great antagonism of interests between the Indian hunter and the white gold hunter seems irreconcilable, and can only be gradually remedied. We have urged the Indians to resort to agriculture, with only partial success, for they have been taught to regard the proposal as a sinister design of the whites to denationalize them. We have, however, made some progress. The Santees had learned agriculture before they were ejected from Minnesota. The Yanktons had for some years attempted cultivation, and this year's success is very encouraging. The Brulés, heretofore a hostile wandering tribe, have displayed very commendable zeal, planting the seeds we left them as we went up this spring, and bringing the fruits from their well-cultivated cornfields for the use of our table on our return. Some of the Yanktonais and Two Kettles at Crow creek have also entered upon the cultivation of the soil, and other tribes also assure us they would do so if proper means were afforded them in the way of seeds, tools, and instructions. But it is useless to expect immediate success in any change of Indians, when the transformation is so material, as it must be, to change the nomadic life of these children of the prairies to the settled pursuits of civilized life. Their vast domain still affords immense herds of buffalo, and generally accommodates their preferred pursuits; the forests and broken grounds along the streams afford means of escape, with their ever movable effects, from our troops when sent in force against them; and they will not, without some resentments or compensation, yield what they deem their natural right of domain and game, and quietly resort to means of existence they do not understand, and for which they have some aversion. They never congregate in large masses, but are widely diffused and separated by ancient feuds. They cannot, therefore, be struck by a powerful and efficient blow from our armies. And as to collecting and herding them, as some have suggested, in our great Indian country, while they are thus wild, timid, and afraid of each other, that is utterly impossible. You might as well attempt the collection and secure the retention of the wild animals of the same country. In our judgment the work of conciliation must be the growth of industrious, faithful, and patient administration of proper laws and treaties. We have, as our journal of last fall and this summer will attest, travelled long journeys by land and water, endured privations, cold, heat, and every exposure, to see and hear and understand all the discordant and harmonious elements surrounding our Indian administration; and as we made treaties with tribes as they came, we have tried to incorporate the best remedies we could devise as our earnest inquiries, study, and convictions enabled us to judge. Our treaties made last fall, and adopted by the President and Senate, have been fully acknowledged by the tribes, and, as far as we could learn, they have been most faithfully observed by the Indians of the tribes. Our duties this summer brought us in the Indian country higher up the Missouri, where we met all the various tribes that range near that stream, including the Mountain Crows who occupy the eastern slopes of the Rocky mountains. All have been well represented, as our councils and treaties will show, and they seemed more reasonable as they had heard of our arrangements with other tribes. As the Arapahoes and Cheyennes had been notified to meet our colleagues at Laramie, we did not attempt to make treaties with the few we met of these tribes. Their proper location, they stated, was on Powder river and west of the Black Hills, near the Ogallallas, Onepapas, and Upper Brulés. All those tribes have been hostile, and, so far as we know, some of them may not come in, but design further trouble. The hostile Santees, formerly of Minnesota, who are north of the Missouri wintering on the British lines, did not come in, although it is said notice did not reach them in such a way as to satisfy them they could safely appear before us. These Santees, and the Upper Blackfeet who reside above Benton, may be troublesome to trains passing up on the north side of the Missouri near the mountains. The Crows and Gros Ventres who came down to meet us at Union should have been taken back as they came, on a steamboat. We did not feel at liberty, under instructions, to go beyond Union, so we arranged transportation back for these tribes on a light loaded boat in the military service, which was halted near the mouth of Milk river, and turned back; these tribes, with their goods, being landed in the wilderness, where there was no place to store their property and no ponies to transport them; they were, as we are told, incensed at this, and should have some explanation and satisfaction for necessary losses. They have been well disposed tribes, and the disappointment to them is therefore more to be regretted. In the course of our investiga tions, incidental evidence of gross frauds in regard to government goods sent to the Blackfeet and other remote tribes was presented, which drew your special attention. Traders in former years have run the only boats to that region, and had connected with their stores the only safe places for deposits; hence a convenient mixture of government and traders' goods has so amalgamated matters as to have converted government annuities into mercantile supplies. Indians are suspicious, and comprehend frauds better than whites suppose; but they have been so remote from remedies and so ignorant of the means of redress, fraud has been per petrated with such impunity as to be an established system of trade. Such things are not only pernicious as they defraud either the government or the Indian, but they disgust the Indian, who comprehends and condemns them. |
