Report to the President by the Indian Peace Commission, October 9, 1868

by Indian Peace Commission

Chicago, Illinois, October 9, 1868,

The PRESIDENT of the United States:

At a meeting of the Indian peace commission held this day the following resolutions, embodying the views of the commission, were adopted, to wit:

Resolved, That this commission recommend to the President of the United States and Congress that full provisions be at once made to feed, clothe, and protect all Indians of the Crow, Blackfeet, Piegan, Gros Ventres, Sioux, Ponca, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Apache, Kiowa, and Comanche nations of Indians, who now have located or may hereafter locate permanently on their respective agricultural reservations.

Resolved, That the treaties of said tribes with United States, whether ratified or not, should be considered to be and remain in full force as to all Indians of such tribes as now have or may hereafter have their homes upon the agricultural reservations described in their respective treaties, and no others.

Resolved, That in the opinion of this commission the time has come when the government should cease to recognize the Indian tribes as “domestic dependent nations,” except so far as it may be required to recognize them as such by existing treaties, and by treaties made but not yet ratified; that hereafter all Indians should be considered and held to be individually subject to the laws of the United States, except where and while it is otherwise provided in said treaties, and that they should be entitled to the same protection from said laws as other persons owning allegiance to the government enjoy.

Resolved, That the recent outrages and depredations committed by the Indians on the plains justify the government in abrogating those clauses of the treaties made in October, 1867, at Medicine Lodge creek, which secure to them the right to roam and hunt outside their reservations; that all said Indians should be requested to remove at once to said reservations and remain within them, except that after peace shall have been restored, hunting parties may be permitted to cross their boundaries with written authority from their agent or superintendent. And

Resolved further, That military force should be used to compel the removal into said reservations of all such Indians as may refuse to go, after due notice has been given to them that provision has been made to feed and protect them within the same.

Resolved, That in the opinion of this commission the Bureau of Indian Affairs should be transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Deparement of War.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,

N. G. TAYLOR, President of the Indian Peace Commission.

Attest: A. S. H. WHITE, Secretary.