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125 Series I Volume XLI-III Serial 85 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part III

Page 125 Chapter LIII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - UNION.

[Sub-inclosure.]

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE NORTHWEST, No.-. Milwaukee, Wis., --- --, 1864.

The following rules regulating trade with the Indian tribes are published for the information of all concerned, and will be strictly enforced by all military commanders in the Indian country within the limits of this military department:

I. All permits to trade with Indians are hereby revoked, and hereafter any person desiring to carry on trade with Indians must first procure written authority from the War Department.

II. A copy of this authority, properly certified under oath, will be furnished by the party holding it to the commanding officer of the military district in which it is proposed to establish trading posts, accompanied by a bond giving satisfactory security that the trade regulations herein set forth will be strictly complied with.

III. The district commander will designate the points at which trading posts shall be established under these permits, which shall in all cases be located in the immediate vicinity of some military post. While the trader shall have authority to notify by messenger or otherwise all Indians with whom he proposes to trade, yet no traffic of any king with Indians shall be carried on at any points or in an places except the regularly established trading posts.

IV. Every trader shall furnish to the commander of the military district in which his post is located, as also to the commanding officer of the nearest military post, a copy of the invoices of his goods, with original prices attached, certified under oath, which certified invoices will be turned over to the council of administration of the post.

V. The council of administration will thereupon fix a tariff of prices in the same manner required for sutlers' goods, and will cause a written or printed copy of this tariff of prices to be exhibited publicly in some conspicuous place in the office of the adjutant of the post and in the store-house of the trader, who will confine himself strictly to it in his dealings with Indians. A copy of this schedule of prices, with any changes which may be made from time to time, will be forwarded to the inspector-general of the department and of the district.

VI. The council of administration will also, from the best information they can obtain, fix a fair and reasonable price upon all furs or other articles offered by Indians for barter, and the traders shall be bound in their dealings with the Indians to conform carefully to the prices thus established.

VII. The members of the council of administration shall be sworn to have no interest, direct or indirect, in Indian trade or with Indian traders, and to receive from them no consideration and no present of any description.

VIII. No money will be paid to Indians under any circumstances whatever, but traffic shall be confined exclusively to goods, provisions, a limited amount of ammunition, and such other articles as may be necessary or useful to Indians. The sale or the possession of wines or other spirituous liquors of any description by Indian traders is positively prohibited.

IX. With the exception of Indian traders furnished with authority of the War Department, and their properly authorized clerks and employes, subjecting themselves to the provisions of these regulations, no white men will be permitted to come into the Indian country, except


Page 125 Chapter LIII. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. - UNION.