Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/190

 In considering the Indians' appeal to Washington, the Commissioner says, in the same report:

"A delegation of the tribe recently visited Washington and presented to the President their earnest request to be allowed to return to their old reservation in Dakota or to join the Omahas, a kindred tribe, in Nebraska. The obvious unwisdom and even impossibility of removing Indians from the Indian Territory necessitated a refusal of their request; but they were given permission to select a permanent home upon any unoccupied lands in the territory which the Government still owns. They were urged to take immediate steps to effect a settlement of the matter, and were promised, as soon as the locality should be decided upon and Congress should provide the necessary funds, such assistance in the way of schools, houses, stock, seeds, tools, agricultural implements, etc., as would enable them to more than replace the property and improvements unwillingly relinquished in Dakota; but they were made distinctly to understand that all assistance by the Government would be in the line of teaching them self-helpfulness, and would be conditioned on exertions put forth by themselves in that direction."

The italics are those of the Commissioner. It is difficult to discover any process of reasoning in the words "obvious unwisdom and even impossibility," but that italicised word " from " furnishes the key to the settled policy of removals to the country