successfully accomplished. While Sitting Bull and the other Sioux chiefs with him, in spite of the unusual effort made by this government, refused to place themselves under the control of the United States, the Canadian authorities have not failed to recognize the friendly spirit which prompted, on our part, so extraordinary a step as the opening of communications with a fugitive enemy on foreign soil in order to prevent any interruption of the relations of good neighborhood, and have, with the most commendable promptness, taken such measures as a high sense of their international obligations suggested. Unofficial information has reached us that Sitting Bull and his bands have been removed to a place more distant from the frontier, and it is expected that the Canadian authorities will be entirely successful in preventing hostile incursions upon the territory of the United States, on the part of these Indians.
THE NEZ PERCÉS
The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs contains an elaborate statement of the origin, progress, and termination of the Nez Percys war. There seems to be little reason to doubt that this bloody conflict might have been avoided by a more careful regard for the rights of an Indian tribe, whose former conduct had been uniformly peaceable and friendly. The outbreak of hostilities was marked by a number of murders and barbarous outrages on the part of the Indians; but the subsequent conduct of the struggle has become memorable by the extraordinary skill and energy displayed by Chief Joseph, as well as by an almost entire absence of those acts of savage cruelty which ordinarily render Indian warfare so horrible. If any of the perpetrators of the above-mentioned murders have survived, they ought to receive the punishment due to their crimes. It seems at least doubtful whether Chief Joseph can be charged with any responsibility for those atrocities, all of which are reported to have occurred in his absence. His general conduct certainly entitles him to the fullest benefit of the doubt, and to that consideration which is usually accorded to a prisoner of war after an honorable surrender. The captive Nez Perces were, immediately after the termination of the war, moved eastward by the military authorities, and will be held, as long as may be necessary, at a point within easy reach of supplies. The feeling excited among the settlers by the outrages committed at the outbreak of hostilities renders the return of the captives to their old reservation unadvisable. I recommend their settlement in the Indian Territory as soon as circumstances will permit. The defeat of Chief Joseph has undoubtedly had the effect of greatly discouraging the spirit of restlessness, which, during the summer, appeared among other Indian tribes, and of thus lessening the danger of further disturbance.
THE APACHES AND WARM SPRING INDIANS.
After the removal, in June, 1876, of 325 Chiricahua Apaches to San Carlos, the Chiricahua reserve was abolished, and the military com-
