The Removal of the Poncas
from the young men of the tribe a suitable number for the purpose, and at five o'clock p. m. had the entire tribe with their effects across the river, off the reservation, and in camp in Nebraska."
Twenty-five soldiers had been in service at the Ponca agency while the "consent" of the one hundred and seventy was being secured; they seem to have furnished the necessary showing of force. Confronted with the choice of going either "peaceably or by force," these unarmed people naturally concluded to go peaceably. The soldiers escorted them for the first twelve of their fifty-two days' journey south, to insure their going.
This total disregard of the protests of the Indians, and their removal with a display of force, has been dwelt upon at great length by all writers of Ponca history, under the impression that the action was in direct violation of the provision in the removal act, to first gain their consent. The legislation designed to remedy this annoying feature of the first act seems to have wholly escaped notice. It should be conceded that while the national pledge, humanity, justice, and Christian dealing were put aside, the provision for the Indian consent was not violated; it was legislated out of existence. The Indians were removed under the second act of Congress.
But in the blaze of indignation which swept over the country when the main facts of the Ponca removal became known, every official in Washington
163
