Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/30

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Of all Indian tribes, the Sioux Nation has for a long time been regarded as the most important, not only on account of their numerical strength and warlike qualities, but also on account of their geographical location and the many conflicts which for years have disturbed our relations with them. One after another the different bands composing that nation have been pacified, until finally only one of their prominent men, Sitting Bull, and with him a number of restless spirits belonging to different bands, appear to be the only nucleus of a hostile organization. When this administration came into office Sitting Bull with his warriors had fled across the line of the British possessions. A commission, with General Terry at its head, was sent there with the offer that the hostiles might return to the United States if they would give up their arms and horses and consent to be distributed among the different Sioux agencies. That offer was rejected, and it was then hoped that Sitting Bull and his followers might be kept on British territory without a further serious interruption of the peace of our northern frontier. But it soon appeared that the British authorities could not, at any rate did not, keep Sitting Bull and his band of hostiles on the northern side of the line, and that the latter, driven by want, would come upon the territory of the United States for the purpose of hunting, on which occasions they caused much annoyance to the white settlers as well as to our friendly and peaceable Indians. In September last I visited Fort Keogh for the purpose of informing myself of the condition of things in that region, and it became clear to me that Sitting Bull and his band, although they had been repeatedly driven back, would remain a cause of disquietude in the Upper Missouri country until the British authorities could be induced to remove them into the interior of the British possessions far from the American line and there subsist them, which hope it seemed useless to entertain any longer, or until on this side of the line their surrender to the authorities of the United States could be effected. As at last the latter seemed to be the only solution of the problem, measures were pushed to effect the disintegration of that hostile band, and to bring them gradually under the control of this government. A large number of them have surrendered to the military posts near the northern frontier, especially at Fort Keogh, and under the direction of General Miles have been successfully set to work there. It is hoped that the small remnant of them still under the control of Sitting Bull will gradually follow that example. When that is accomplished, measures are to be taken so to locate them that they may become permanently settled and cease to be a disturbing element.

The other bands of the Sioux Nation, comprising nearly nine-tenths of its whole numerical strength, located at different agencies in the northern, eastern, and southern part of Dakota, have made very