Doc #4 Commissioner of Indian Affairs Annual Report for 1876

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1 Doc #4 Commissioner of Indian Affairs Annual Report for 1876 The Commissioner of Indian Affairs report for the year encompassing the Greasy Grass/Little Bighorn battle clearly holds desperadoes and malcontents under the influence of Sitting Bull responsible for not only annihilating Custer s command but also for committing depredations against white settlers and destabilizing harassment of friendly Plains tribes. The Cheyenne are not mentioned nor is any culpability in the matter apportioned to non-indian interlopers or to unjust or failed federal Indian policy. Note also that the author finds it perplexing that the Lakota can t discern between a promise made by government negotiators and an agreement ratified by Congress. Excerpt from Smith to Secretary of the Interior, 30 October 1876, in United States, House, Office of Indian Affairs, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1876 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1876), pp. XIV XVI. THE SIOUX WAR. For several years past a camp of Sioux on the Yellowstone River have been known as the northern, or hostile, or non-treaty Sioux, or more commonly as Sitting Bull s band. They are in no sense a recognized band or branch of the great Sioux Nation, but consist of representatives from all the bands, who have rallied around one as their leader who claims never to have been party to any treaty with the United States, and who styles himself chief of the followers whom his personal power and avowed hostility to civilization and the United States Government have attracted around him. This camp at last became a rallying-point for malcontents from the various agencies; a paradise for those who, tired of Government beef and restless under agency restraint,

2 were venturesome enough to resort again to their old life by the chase; a field of glory for the young braves whose reputation for prowess was yet to be made; and an asylum for outlaws among the Indians themselves, who, fleeing thither, might escape retribution for crime. Having their headquarters in the center of the buffalo-country, surrounded by abundance of game, independent of the aid of the Government, scorning its authority, defying its power, and deriding its Army, these desperadoes have skillfully and successfully evaded the frontiergarrisons and roamed at will over the plains of Western Dakota and portions of Montana and Wyoming, not only plundering, robbing, and frequently taking the lives of settlers, but extending their hostilities to every tribe of Indians in their vicinity friendly to the United States. That the Crows, the Shoshones, Bannacks, Arickarees, Mandans, Utes, and the Blackfeet Nation have braved all threats and resisted all inducements offered by these adventurers, and, in spite of repeated losses by depredation, have steadfastly adhered to their friendship to the Government, has sufficiently proved their loyalty; but their pathway to civilization has been seriously obstructed. An Indian cannot be taught to work with hoe in one hand and gun in the other; and repeated examples of unpunished marauding beget restlessness and want of confidence in the Government and increased reluctance to adopt the white man s ways. The number of this so-called band was estimated last winter to be not over 3,000. From this number not more than six or eight hundred warriors could have been mustered. Recognizing not only the irreparable damage to settlements caused by these desperadoes, but also their disastrous influence in retarding civilization among the friendly tribes, and the demoralizing effect of their

3 proximity in promoting an uneasy feeling among the reservation Sioux, and in affording a refuge for criminals, the Department, in December last, decided to make a final attempt to induce these Indians to come into their agencies, and issued an order requiring them to go upon their reservations by the 31st of January last, or be regarded as hostile and turned over to the military. To this order, communicated by couriers from the several agencies, no regard was paid. The General and Lieutenant-General of the Army were of opinion that a movement against the hostiles undertaken in the winter would be entirely practicable for which none but the regular troops stationed in that part of the country would be needed; and on the 1st of February these Indians were accordingly turned over to the War Department for appropriate action by the Army. The increase in the number of Sitting Bull s retainers by accessions from the agency Sioux, already alluded to, and the terrible slaughter of our forces under General Custer, the details of which are familiar to the public, have extended throughout the year what was expected be a campaign of but few weeks duration. It is hoped that the coming winter-campaign, for which extensive preparations are now in progress, will result in the unconditional surrender and entire submission of these Sioux, and that this will be known hereafter as the last Indian war. THE SIOUX COMMISSION. In the last Indian appropriation act, $20,000 was appropriated, to be expended under the direction of the President, for the purpose of securing from the Sioux Indians the relinquishment of all right and claim to any country outside of the boundaries of the permanent reservation established by the treaty of 1868 for said Indians, and also so much of their said permanent

4 reservation as lies west of the one hundred and third meridian of longitude, and to secure a grant of convenient and accessible way over said reservation to the country thus ceded, for wagon and other roads, from points on the Missouri River, in all not more than three in number. The act further provides that the Indians hereafter shall receive their supplies at such places on their said reservation in the vicinity of the Missouri River as the President may designate; and also, that no further appropriation for said Sioux Indians for subsistence shall hereafter be made until some stipulation, agreement or arrangement shall have been entered into by said Indians with the President of the United States which is calculated and designed to enable said Indians to become self-supporting. In pursuance of the provisions referred to, a commission was appointed in August last, consisting of Hon. George W. Manypenny, Bishop B. Whipple, Hon. A. S. Gaylord, Hon. H. C. Bulis, Hon. Newton Edmunds, Col. A. G. Boone, and Dr. J. W. Daniels, who proceeded immediately to the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, for the purpose of securing from the Indians the agreement contemplated in the above-named act. The commission have not yet submitted their report, but it is understood that their mission has been successful. For the purpose of providing some suitable location to enable said Indians to become selfsupporting, the commission were instructed to consider the propriety of securing the assent of the Indians to their removal to the Indian Territory. Having indicated a willingness to consider the question of removal, a delegation of Sioux are now en route to the Indian Territory to examine the country and make report.

5 The report of the commission, as soon as received by this office, will be forwarded to the honorable Secretary, to be submitted to Congress for its action. CLAIMS OF THE SIOUX FOR THE RELINQUISHMENT OF NEUTRAL TERRITORY IN NEBRASKA. It will be remembered that the visit of a delegation of Sioux to Washington, in May, 1875, resulted in an agreement whereby, in consideration of the sum of $25,000 appropriated by Congress, they surrendered their treaty-privilege of hunting in Nebraska. They were also induced to relinquish such claim as they possessed to that portion of Nebraska lying south of the south divide of the Niobrara River, which, by the terms of the treaty of 1868, should be held and considered unceded Indian territory, and no white person or persons should be permitted to settle upon or occupy any portion of the same, or without the consent of the Indians first had and obtained, should pass through the same. The Sioux, never having made a clear distinction between the territory described by the treaty of 1868 as neutral and that designated as their permanent reservation, were very unwilling to accede to the wishes of the Department, and consented to the cession of their rights in the abovedescribed territory only on receiving the pledge, given by the Secretary of the Interior, that their request for an additional $25,000 in consideration of such cession should be presented to Congress. This claim failed to be considered by Congress at its last session. The Indian mind seems incapable of discriminating between a promise to present a claim to Congress and a promise to

6 pay the amount of the claim, and the commission recently charged with obtaining further concessions from the Sioux were met at every agency with complaints of the failure of the Government to fulfill what the Indians consider its solemn pledge. In view of the above, and of the importance of the negotiations now pending, I trust that Congress will give this matter favorable consideration at its next session. The expenditure, at their own request, of the $25,000 already received in the purchase of cows, horses, harness, and wagons for the Sioux is a guarantee that the amount hereafter to be appropriated will be of direct assistance to the Government in carrying out its purposes for their civilization, as indicated by the effort now being made to secure their settlement in the Indian Territory.

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