The letter of the Secretary of the Interior above referred to contains
the following statement concerning these Indian occupants:
From death and the hostility of the settlers, who were drawn in that
direction by the fertility of the soil and other advantages, all of the
Indians gradually relinquished their selections, until of the Indians
who had removed thither from the State of New York only thirty-two
remained in 1860.
And the following further statement is made:
The files of the Indian Office show abundant proof that they did not
voluntarily relinquish their occupation.
The proof thus referred to is indeed abundant, and is found in official
reports and affidavits made as late as the year 1859. By these it
appears that during that year, in repeated instances, Indian men and
widows of deceased Indians were driven from their homes by the threats
of armed men; that in one case at least the habitation of an Indian
woman was burned, and that the kind of outrages were resorted to which
too often follow the cupidity of whites and the possession of fertile
lands by defenseless and unprotected Indians.
An agent, in an official letter dated August 9, 1859, after detailing
the cruel treatment of these occupants of the lands which the Government
had given them, writes:
Since these Indians have been placed under my charge, which was, I
think, in 1855, I have endeavored to protect them; but complaint after
complaint has reached me, and I have reported their situation again and
again; and I hope that it will not be long when the Indians who are
entitled to land under the decision of the Indian Office shall have it
set apart to them.
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