The Indian Dispossessed
It was explained to the Indians that, by act of Congress, the first fifty thousand dollars received from the sale of their lands were to be used to establish them on the Jocko; but they contended (and General Garfield records his full agreement with them) that the sum was wholly inadequate remuneration, even if they were disposed to relinquish their homes for any consideration. They were offered the privilege of taking land in severalty in the Bitter Root if they would break up tribal relations, but the proposition to accept a small tract each out of the large valley which they regarded as their own in its entirety did not appeal to their sense of justice.
Charlos and his people steadfastly refused to go to the reservation, and the council ended with the secession of two sub-chiefs, who, with their following of twenty families, consisting of eighty-one people, consented to remove to the Jocko. General Garfield contented himself with the reflection that when Charlos saw these people comfortably housed and specially favored he would surely follow.
Unfortunately for the Indians, the missionary in charge of the Agency Mission was in Helena at the time of the council. On his return he at once forwarded by letter an appeal for the Indians. He objected strenuously to the location on the Jocko selected for them, and asserted that the land "is mostly rocky and gravellous, and altogether unfit for any agricultural purposes." He continues:
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