The Indian Dispossessed
losses sustained by them in consequence of their removal to the Indian Territory, to secure to them lands in severalty on either the old or new reservation, in accordance with their wishes, and to settle all matters of difference with these Indians, one hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars, to be immediately available and to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, as follows," etc.
Then the public clamor was stilled. Justice had—in words—been done. But against this seeming intent of the Government to give the Poncas free choice to locate on either their old or new reservation, there is the disturbing knowledge that the Honorable Commissioner had, weeks before, secured a deed of relinquishment from the Poncas in the Indian Territory to their old reservation. Now, what provision was made, in the settlement of the Sioux treaty blunder, for the return of Poncas still in the Indian Territory?
On August 20, of the same year, an agreement was entered into with the Sioux:
"The said tribes of Sioux Indians do hereby cede and relinquish to the United States so much of that portion of the present Sioux reservation as was formerly occupied by the Ponca tribe of Indians, set forth and described by the supplemental treaty between the United States of America and the Ponca tribe of Indians concluded March 10, 1865 (14 Stats.,
200
