The Indian Dispossessed
of support and, if the contemplated appropriation to remove and support them until they can raise crops is not carried out this year, some means should be adopted to furnish them with provisions, or they will certainly suffer from starvation."
The Indians were in fact not removed until the autumn of the following year. It seems beyond belief that indifference for the welfare of this tribe should have followed so closely upon their giving up the coveted valley, but for some inexplicable reason the money received from the sale of their farms was withheld for three years more, although $14,674.53 were reported on hand in 1892, nearly two years before the first payment was made to them. In 1893 the agent reports:
"These Indians are very anxious in regard to the payment to them of the money already paid to the Government from sale of certain tracts of said lands, claiming that it was promised to be sent without delay for distribution to the owners or heirs of the same, in order to enable them to improve and cultivate their new farms on their reservation."
The record discloses nothing that accounts for this situation. It deals with facts, not explanations. But we find these once independent farmers on a bare reservation, without means to begin life anew, reduced to the condition of ration Indians, living for four years on the bounty of the Government. The voice of Charlos is raised in one continued
70
