The Indian Dispossessed
U. S. A.; William Stickney, Washington, D. C.; Walter Allen, Newton, Mass.
"It is the purpose of the foregoing request to authorize the commission to take whatever steps may, in their judgment, be necessary to enable them to accomplish the purpose set forth.
"General Crook is authorized to take with him two aides-de-camp to do clerical work.
The champions of the Ponca cause then rested on their guns; the battle seemed half won.
On December 28, ten days later, before the special commissioners could reasonably have reached the Indian Territory on their mission "to determine the question what justice and humanity require should be done by the Government of the United States," the Ponca chiefs in Washington were induced to sign away all their right and title to the old home on the Missouri.
Four weeks later—on January 25, 1881—the special Commission reported to the President, setting forth the wrongs and scattered condition of the Poncas—some being on the old Dakota reserve—and recommended:
"That an allotment of 160 acres of land be made to each man, woman, and child of the Ponca tribe of Indians, said lands to be selected by them on their old reservation in Dakota, or on the land now oc-
198
