48-1Whole HousePayments for Supplies Furnished to the Sioux. [2253] During 1860-1862 in Minnesota.1884-4

House of Representatives Report No. 209, 48th Congress, 1st Session (1884)

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48'I'll CONC.:Rh ·s ,} HOUSE UF REPHE:SE~TATIVES. { REPOR'r 1st Scsswn. No. 2110. AMOUNTS DUE FOR SUPPLIES FURNISHED TO SiOUX IN-DIANS OF MINNESOTA. February 5, 1834.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to l>e printed. Mr. STEVENS, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany bill H. R. 84~. J The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 842) to a,uthorize the 8eeretary ~~f the Interior to ascertain the amounts due to cit-izens of the United States for supplies furnished the Sioux or Dakota Indians of Minnesota subsequent to August, 1860, and prior to the mtts-sacre of August, 186:!, and _providing for the payment thereof; have con-.'iidered the scr:me, and respec~f'ully report : In the summer of 1862, certain b;mds of the 8ionx Indians assembled at tbe Yellow Medicine and Red Wood Agencies in Minnesota, for · the purpose of receidng their annuities which they had been accustomed to receive about the last of Juue or first of July. The money for the pay-ments did not come at the nsual time. The Indians waited until their supplies were exhausted, and also those belonging to the Go,rernment at that point. They became lmngry, di8satisfietl, and restless. Certain licensed traders, by the advice of the Indian agent, Major Galbraith, furuished supplies as the only measure of preventing au outbreak, until their stores were exhausted, relying upon the money soon to arrive for the annuities, for payment. Before the money arrived the outbreak oc-curred. The Indians, goaded to desperation by hunger, committed atroci-ties for which they were punished in part, by confiscation of moneys dne them from the United States~ amounting to $5,631,900. Pa.yment of tbe annuities was stopped; the means fi·orn which they could have paid for the supplies furnished them on the credit of future annuities was wholly taken from them. The committee do not seek to adjust the proportionate share of blame for these outrage between the civilized nation which failed to make its payments at the proper time and the savages, who lost their self-control, provoked by the failure and desperate from hunger . . It does seem just .and proper that the traders who parted with their property to keep these Indians from starving, while waiting for their annuities, or relying upon these annuities, should receive compensation out of the property .confiscated by the United States for causes for which its own ag·ents were partly to blame. 'l'he bill is carefully gu:uded, only such amounts to be paid as the .Secretary of the [u terior after iu vestigation shall find to be due. Por the full and compleLe st<:ttement of the facts surrounding the sub-2 AMOUNTS DUE FOR SUPPLIES FURNISHED TO SIOUX INDIANS. ject, the committee append extracts from the Senate report made dur-ing the last Congress concerning the same subject-matter involved in this bill, as follows: The Committee on Claims, to whom was 1·efe1·red the bill ( S. 36) to auth01·ize the Secreta1·y of the Interior to ascertain the amounts due to citizens of the United States for suppl·ies furnished to the Sioux 01' Dakota Indians of Minnesota subsequent to August, 1860, and prior to the massacre of August, 1862, and providing for the payment the1·eof, 1'l'P01't: Prior to 186:3, the Sisseton, Wahpaton, Medawa.kanton, and Wahpakoota bands of the Dakota or Sioux Indians occupied extensive reservations in the State of Minne-sota. In August, 1862, said bands of Indians massacred a large number of men, women, and children in the State of Minnesota, and destroyed and damaged a large amount of property. At the time of this outbreak by the Sioux there was, under various treaties thereto-fore made and entered into between the United States and these bands of Sioux In-dians, a large amount of money owing by the United States to said bands of Indians. Congress, by act of Pebruary 16, 11:!63, entitled "An act for the relief of persons for damages sustaint!d by reason of depredations and injuries by certain bands of Sioux Indians" (Stat., vol. 12, pp. 652, &c.), abrogated and annulled all treaties then exist-ing with said bands of Sioux, so far as the same imposed any future obligation on the United States, anc:l all lands and rights of occupancy withiu the State of Minnesota, and all annuities and claims, or any of them, due the Indians were forfeited. At the time of the passage of this act the snm of $5,631,900 was owing by the United ·states to said bands of Sioux Indians; all the treaties pursuant to which this large sum of money was due and owing to said Indians were abrogated and annulled abso-lutely by said act of Congress passed February 16, 1tl63, and said sum was forfeited to the Unitt!d States: All lands and rights of occupancy belonging to said Indians in Minnesota were, by the same act of Congress, also forfeiteu to the United States. Said act, authorized the Pn .. sident, by atJd with the advice and consent of the Senate, t() appoint three commissioners, who should ascertain and determine the value of all property destroyed or damaged by sa.iu Indian~ during f:!uch outbreak, or by tliie t.roops of the United States in suppressing the same. There has been appropriated by Congress, in payment of claims determined pursu-ant to said act, the snm of $1,170,:374. All claims for damage!:!, under saiu act, had t() be presented within two years from its passage. The sum of $671,' 00 has also been a.ppropria.ted by Congress for the removal of said Indians, a.nd for subsisting them in their uew homes. By act of Congress, entitled "An act. to authorize the Secrf'tary of the Interior to discharge certain obligat,iom; of the United StatPS to the creditors of the Upper and Lower Lands of Sioux InuiauR," approved May 16, 1B74 (Stat. 18. p. 47), the sum of $70,000 was appropriated for payment to the creditors of said Indians arising under the treaty of June 19, 1858. · Congress also, by an act for ~he reHef of Hans Q. Peter.son, approved M}trch 3, 1877, (Stat. 19, p. 549), appropriated the sum of $:l,283.92. This was for damages and inju-ries to Peterson's property clone Ly the Indians durin$ the said Sionx:. ont break. It appears by a let.ter from Hon. E. M. MtH'ble, Actmg Commissioner of Indian Af-fairs, acldressed to Hon. Angns Cameron, a member of the Senate Committee on Claims, under date of February 5, 18tH, that no other or further sums have been appropriated for the benefit of said Sioux Indians which are properly chargeable to the said confis-cated funds and annuities. . As already stated, the aggregate amount of the said confiscated funds and annuities was $5,631,900. · The aggregate amount of the sums appropriated by thf' Uniteu States for the btm-efit of said Indians, as hereinbefore shown, is $1,81:3,657.92. The differeoce between these two sums, viz, $3,718,242.08, is the lralauce of said confiscated funds and annui-ties now remaining in the Treasury of the United States. At the time of the said Sioux outbreak, the persons for whom this bill proposes to make provision were in business a" Indian tra•lers on the reservation occupied Ly said Indians. These traders were all duly licensed by tbe Commissioner of Indian Affairs to trade with the Indians. The most of the traders had been engaged in trading with the said Indians for quite a number of years. These Indians for anum ber of years prior to 186:3 had been paid their annual annui-ties about the last of June or the firt!t of July of each year, at t.he Yellow Medicine and Red Wood Agencies. About th~ last of June, 1863, the Upper or Northern bands of Sioux, to the number of about 3,500, assembled at Yellow Medicine Agency, and the Southern or Lower bands, to the number of about 3,000, at Red Wood Agency, for the purpose of receiving ~ AMOUNTS DUE FOR SUPPLIES FURNISHED TO SIOUX INDIANS. 3 their annual :payments, hut the money to make such payments was not received by the agent until after the outbreak, and the payments were never made. The Indians remained at these agencies until the outbreak occurred. They had no means of subsistence, and the provisions and supplies belonging to the Government were soon exhausted. . The Indians while thus waiting for the payment of their annuities, were very ugly. The traders h~sitated to furnish them with any more supplies on credit, but the In-dians threatened to break into the warehouses and to help themselves. They did break into one warehouse and appropriated its contents. The Indian agents at the Yellow Medicine and Reel Wood Agencies were, from day to clay, expecting to receive money to pay the annuiti~s, and they assured the traders that their claims against the Indians would then be pa1cl. The traders subsisted the Indians for about six weeks prior to the outbreak. The Indians had no means of paying for such subsistence, and, consequently, it was fnr-nished on credit, and hence the large sum due the traders at the time of the outbreak. This credit was given with the knowledge and by direction of the Indian agent, and in many instances at his request. Thomas J. Galbraith was the United States Indian ·agent for the Sioux Indians in 1862, and was stationed at the Upper or Yellow Medicine Sioux Agency, prior to and at the time of the outbreak. Mr. Galbraith, in his affidavit :filed with your committee, states as follows, viz: "That to alleviate the sufferings of the Indians, and preserve order and prevent an outbreak and general disturbance on the frontier, and in the belief that the money to pay the annuities wou1d arrive in time to enable him and the Indians to meet all obli-gations incurred thereby, be did recommend and advise all the traders having food and supplies in that country to furnish t.he said InJ].ians all they could spare, withont reference to the accounts of individual Indians, or of particular bands. And that pur-suant to such recommendation and request from him, as United States Indian agent1 many of said traders, if not all, did furnish said Indians flour, meat, sugar, coffee, clothing, and other supplies, the amount and value of which are not accurately known to this deponent, but in large quantities." William H. Shelley, of Saint Paul, Minn., who was a clerk for Indian Agent Gal-braith, at the Yellow Medicine Agency, at t,he time of the outbreak, in his affidavit, states that, to his knowledge, the traders furnished supplies to the Indians by the di-rection of Galbraith, with the understanding that payment therefor would be made as soon as the annuities were paid. The outbreak would probably have taken place sooner than it did if the Indians bad not been supplied by the traders. Under the state of facts herein set forth, the committee are of thA opinion that said) traders ought to be paid out of said confiscated annuities now in the Treasury of the United States, amounting, as already stated, to $3, 718,242.08. This measure was carefully investigated by this committee, and favor-ably reported upon in the Forty- sixth and Forty -seventh Congresses, and was al~o passed by the Senate during the Forty-seventh. All the above statements are abundantly sustained by t,he official records of the [ndian Office, and reliable evidence submitted to your committee and filed in the case. Your committee therefore recommend the passage of the accompany-ing bill (H. R. 842) as amemled. 0 

Amounts due for supplies furnished to Sioux Indians of Minnesota.

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Amounts due for supplies furnished to Sioux Indians of Minnesota.

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