them. All persons duly authorized to trade with them are required to locate their trading houses at one of the military posts and be supervised by military authority in their trading transactions. A wide reach of country is placed between these Indians and the frontier settlements and they are placed in that relation to the military forces which insures them protection both against white and red rascals or enemies. I hope gradually thus to assemble most of the bands of hostile Sioux along this chain of posts, securing them land in the neighborhood to cultivate and the wide prairies beyond for hunting grounds. Thus kept separated from white men and expecting nothing from the General Government as the price of peaceful conduct except king treatment, I hope to keep them in peace both with whites and Indians. I transmit inclosed my orders on this subject, and would also invite your attention to my letter to the Secretary of War concerning the whole subject of our Indian affairs, published in the Army and Navy Gazette of April 26, 1864. * Your own experience on the frontier will, I am sure, fully confirm all that is therein stated. A settlement of the Sioux Indians where it is proposed by the Rev. Mr. Hinman, missionary, again makes a nucleus in the immediate vicinity of the frontier settlements for the reassembling of nearly the entire Sioux tribes and the recommencement of quarrels, bickerings, stealing, and outrage with will surely lead to another Indian outbreak. It is my firm belief that by permitting this settlement to be made at Red Wing we are simply laying the foundation of another Indian massacre, if, needed, the Indians themselves be not massacred in advance of the whites. It is my purpose to keep the two races separated by a line of soldiers and by broad extents of country. In this way I hope to secure peace. The scheme of Rev. Mr. Hinman, if carried out, destroys, in my opinion, all hope of securing the satisfactory result now within our reach. I wrote to General since, informing him that although my objections to Mr. Hinman's project were not in any manner modified, yet if the Governor and people of Minnesota desired or would consent to such a settlement as is suggested I would reconsider the matter. I am sure you will find the strongest opposition to this scheme almost universally manifested by the people of Minnesota, and this opposition of itself would be sufficient to bring it to naught. Both for the sake of the Indian and the white man and for the best interests of the Government, I recommend that no such scheme be put into execution and no orders given requiring me to change or greatly modify a policy with has already led to good results and which depends upon its permanency for any success at all. I send inclosed a printed letter on this subject from Honorable J. R. Brown, of Minnesota. He has lived in that region of country for forty years, most of the time amongst Indians, and is the best authority on the subject that I know of.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN POPE,

Major-General, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,
Saint Louis, Mo., May 9, 1865.

Rear-Admiral S. P. LEE,

Commanding Mississippi Squadron:

ADMIRAL: I have the honor to request that you will send two or three light-draft tin-clads to operate a month or two on the Missouri

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*See Pope to Stanton, Vol. XXXIV, Part II, p. 259.

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