762 



UNITED STATES. 



mainly to Indian disturbances. Early in the 

 year a band of white colonists entered the 

 Indian Territory for the purpose of taking 

 possession of lands for settlement in what was 

 known as the Oklahoma country. On the 

 13th of March the President issued a procla- 

 mation warning all persons who had entered 

 the Territory with this purpose, and all who 

 were intending to do so, that they would not 

 be permitted to remain, and declaring that the 

 military power of the United States would be 

 invoked " to abate all such unauthorized pos- 

 session, to prevent such threatened entry, and 

 to remove all such intruders from the said 

 Indian lands." Col. Edward Hatch was sent 

 with a moderate force, and an end was put to 

 the invasion of the " Oklahoma boomers " 

 without bloodshed or serious difficulty. Short- 

 ly afterward trouble was threatened by the 

 Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians, and, at the 



WILLIAM FBEEMAN VILAS, 

 Postmaster-General. 



request of the President, Lieut.-Gen. Sheridan 

 visited the Indian Territory to inquire into the 

 causes of discontent. He reported that the 

 principal occasion of the threatened outbreak 

 was the occupation of the Indian lands by 

 ranchmen and cattle-owners, under leases from 

 the Indians at a merely nominal rental. It was 

 decided at Washington that these leases were 



not legal or valid, and a proclamation was is- 

 sued warning all owners of cattle to remove 

 their herds from the Indian lands within forty 

 days. All efforts to obtain a modification of 

 the order, on the plea of loss and injury, and of 

 the difficulty of moving the herds in the time 

 allowed, were unavailing, and the Indian lands 

 were as speedily as possible cleared of cattle 

 belonging to white ranchmen. Another proc- 

 lamation was issued on the 10th of August, 

 ordering the removal of all fences with which 

 public lands had been inclosed for grazing pur- 

 poses. No force was required to carry out the 

 5>urpose of either of these proclamations. An 

 ndian difficulty which caused much disquie- 

 tude on the borders of Colorado and Kansas, 

 and in New Mexico, was occasioned by dis- 

 content with the short rations supplied to the 

 southern JJtes, near Fort Lewis, and the Mas- 

 calero Apaches near Fort Stan ton. A timely 

 inquiry, and attention to the griev- 

 ances of the Indians, averted any 

 serious outbreak, though small 

 bands of warriors had started out 

 on the war-path. In the south- 

 western part of New Mexico there 

 was a serious disturbance caused 

 by the incursion of a band of Chiri- 

 cahua Apaches from Arizona. The 

 control .which Gen. Crook had for 

 two years exercised over these 

 troublesome savages had been dis- 

 turbed by the interference of the 

 agent at San Carlos, under author- 

 ity of the Interior Department, in 

 the previous winter, and a consider- 

 able number of warriors and squaws 

 had escaped from the reservation to 

 indulge in depredations upon set- 

 tlers. Many were chased into Mexi- 

 co, and a number killed and cap- 

 tured. While these various move- 

 ments caused much alarm, they no- 

 where attained a very serious mag- 

 nitude, and all trouble had ceesed 

 before the end of the year, except 

 that caused by the Chiricahuas still 

 at large under Chief Geronimo. A 

 considerable force was kept in the 

 field near the northern frontier in 

 Dakota and Montana during the 

 summer, to prevent the Indians 

 from crossing the border to take 

 part in the Kiel rebellion in Cana- 

 da, and to prevent the Manitoba 

 Indians from taking refuge in those 

 Territories. Temporary outbreaks 

 of violence against the Chinese at 

 Rock Springs, Wyoming, and at Seattle, Wash- 

 ington Territory, caused troops to be sent to 

 those places, but they had no occasion to act 

 in putting down insurrection. 



The Indians. The Indian population of the 

 United States, exclusive of Alaska, is about 

 260,000, all but 15,000 of whom are west of 

 the Mississippi. Most of the Indians are on 



