Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1879.djvu/23

Rh he was an innocent man, an impression confirmed by information received from Washington Territory, especially from military officers, it was agreed that he and his people should occupy a tract of land adjoining the Colville Reservation in Washington Territory, set apart for them by executive order. The delegation then returned to Washington Territory, and it required special precautions on the part of the department commander, General Howard, and the governor of the Territory, to have them safely conveyed to their new place of abode.

The murder case in which Moses had been charged with complicity has since been tried, and, while three Indians were convicted of the crime, Moses was found entirely guiltless.

There never was any trustworthy information in the possession of this department to justify any suspicion as to the conduct or intentions of this Indian chief. On the contrary, he is known to have rendered good service during the Bannock trouble in maintaining peace and good order among the Indians under his influence. But the efforts to take his life or at least his liberty, or to drive him into hostilities, appeared to be so persistent that it required the most watchful and active interposition on the part of the government to prevent a conflict. On several occasions I requested the governor of the Territory to give his personal attention to this matter, and to him, as well as to General Howard, I have to express my acknowledgments for prompt and effective co-operation with this department in the measures taken to effect a peaceable solution of the difficulty.

At present Moses and his people are on their reservation, but this department is informed that new attempts are made to draw them into trouble, which attempts, it is hoped, will result in failure.

That the Poncas were grievously wronged by their removal from their location on the Missouri River to the Indian Territory, their old reservation having, by a mistake in making the Sioux treaty, been transferred to the Sioux, has been at length and repeatedly set forth in my reports as well as those of the Commissioner of Indian Aifairs. All that could be subsequently done by this department in the absence of new legislation to repair that wrong and to indemnify them for their losses, has been done with more than ordinary solicitude. They were permitted to select a new location for themselves in the Indian Territory, the Quapaw Reserve to which they had first been taken, being objectionable to them. They chose a tract of country on the Arkansas River and the Salt Fork northwest of the Pawnee Reserve. I visited their new reservation personally to satisfy myself of their condition. The lands they now occupy are among the very best in the Indian Territory in point of fertility, well watered and well timbered and admirably adapted for agriculture as well as stock-raising. In this respect their new reservation is unquestionably superior to that which they left behind them on the Missouri