Today in History:

599 Series I Volume XXXIV-III Serial 63 - Red River Campaign Part III

Page 599 Chapter XLVI. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.


HDQRS. DIST. OF MINN., DEPT. OF THE NORTHWEST,
Saint Paul, Minn., May 14, 1864.

Colonel CLARK W. THOMPSON,

Superintendent, or

Major T. J. GALBRAITH,

U. S. Siloux Agent, Saint Paul:

SIR: I have been instructed by Major-General Pope, commanding this department, to turn over the Indians who left the reservation on the upper Missouri and returned to this State to the superintendent of Indian affairs. Will you please inform me whether you will receive these Indians, and if so, at what point in this State you desire them to be delivered? They number about 20, of whom 2 are men and the remainder women and children. There are also some 60 or 70 others, principally women and children, who surrendered to the military authorities of this district last winter, and have never been removed to the reservation. Please state whether they will also be received, should I be directed to turn them over to the Indian Department. The above-mentioned Indians all appertain to the Sioux tribe or nation.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. H. SIBLEY,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

We, the chiefs and headmen of Sisseton and Cuthead, bands of Sioux, whose names are hereunto affixed, having committed no depredations against the persons or property of the whites, and having though Father Andre, Catholic priest of Saint Joseph's, Dak. Ter., requested an opportunity of expressing our desire and determination to be at peace with the whites, and in consequence of said request the military authorities of the Department of the Northwest having appointed said Father Andre and Major Brown, of Sibley County, Minn., special military agents to negotiate with us on this important subject, and having had explained to us by one of said special military agents, J. R. Brown, the terms upon which we can be again placed upon our former footing of peace and friendship with the United States, do hereby agree and pledge ourselves and the members of our several bands-

First. That we will commit no depredations of any kind upon the persons or property of the whites at any time nor in any place. Second. That we will not hunt upon nor occupy any portion of the country claimed by us which lies south of a line crossing the Cheyenne River, at the mouth of Bald Hillock Creek, and running east and west from Red River of the North James River. Third. That we will deliver to the officers of the Government or drive from among us all persons who have been guilty of any participation in the massacre of the whites in 1862, and should any person located among us hereafter commit any depredations against the whites we obligate ourselves to deliver him to be authorities of the Government or cause summary punishment to be inflicted promptly by the members of our bands. Fourth. The said J. R. Brown, one of the special military agents before mentioned, promises on behalf of the military authorities of the Department of the Northwest that if the said chiefs and headmen and the members of their several bands


Page 599 Chapter XLVI. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-UNION.