The Removal of the Poncas
the position of the Government defending them, and encourage the invasion."
To preserve the public domain from invasion by a few lawless frontiersmen,—a melancholy service for a handful of half-dead Indians who had once "stood as a barrier between the hostile Indian and the white settler upon the frontier"!
And here is another:
"If the Poncas were now taken from those lands and returned to Dakota, this very fact would undoubtedly make other northern Indians, who have been taken to the Indian Territory, restless to follow their example, such as the Northern Cheyennes [fully fifty per cent dead—one hundred and fifty killed by soldiers while escaping to the North], the Nez Perces [thirty per cent dead], and possibly even the Pawnees [over eight hundred dead out of 2376]. Unscrupulous white men, agents of the invaders, would be quickly on hand to foment this tendency."
The Secretary judged the temper of these three tribes with "deadly" accuracy. They really might have been fired with a desire to get out of the Indian Territory.
Did ever a desperately weak case seek strength from equally desperate argument?
This extraordinary letter called forth a prompt reply from the Boston Committee, signed by John D. Long, chairman. Without a trace of personal feeling, and granting the sincerity of the Secretary in his
