The Removal of the Poncas
Government, and often say the 'Great Father' has forgotten them; by the time he again remembers them none will be left to receive what he has promised them. The chiefs are very anxious to visit Washington and have a talk with the President for the purpose of having the size and boundaries of their reservation determined and definitely settled by treaty stipulations. I would earnestly recommend that they be allowed to do so some time during the coming winter. I think it would contribute greatly toward a restoration of good feeling, and to remove the spirit of discontent and dissatisfaction which now pervades their minds.
"The Poncas are good Indians. In mental endowment, moral character, physical strength, and cleanliness of person they are superior to any tribe I have ever met. I beg for them the prompt and generous consideration of the Government, whose fast and warm friends they have ever been."
This appeal of the Indians for a second talk with with their "Great Father" in Washington was not granted. Denied the recognition of their treaty right to their old home, and discouraged in the hope of ultimate justice, the Poncas, homesick, heartsick, sick in body, began to escape from their reservation in small parties, in the hope that they might make their way back to die in the land of their fathers. The story of the wanderings of these little bands five hundred miles through a strange
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