The Removal of the Poncas
of the Government. It will be remembered that in 1858 the Poncas had their home guaranteed to them by solemn treaty. In 1868 a treaty was entered into with the Sioux, and, in loosely defining the bounds of their reservation as the Missouri River on the east and Nebraska on the south, the entire Ponca reservation, lying just north of the Nebraska line, was unwittingly included in that allotted to the Sioux. Now nothing is clearer than that this mistake should have been at once rectified by obtaining from the Sioux a relinquishment of the Ponca tract; a Government that could peremptorily demand of the Sioux the cession of the entire Black Hills on pain of starvation could have obtained this small concession by even less strenuous methods. It is equally clear that the vested rights of the Poncas could not equitably be disturbed in this settlement, which was a matter only between the Government and the Sioux.
That such a blunder could have been made, and allowed to stand for eight years, shows with considerable clearness the Government's disregard for the integrity of its Indian treaties; it is still more significant that, after eight years, this "unfortunate blunder" made its official appearance coincident with the plan to remove the Spotted Tail and Red Cloud Sioux to the Missouri; but the saddest service of this miserable excuse was to block the way to the restoration of the Ponca homes. Time and again
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