106 OMAHA AND PONKA LETTERS. 
form of anguangi¢ai), as there was only one agent addressed by the 
Indians. 
103, 19. Wicti ma"zé uati"-da", etc. jenuga-zi’s first plan omitted by 
his request from the translation sent to Mr. Belt. The next paren- 
thetical remark was intended for the author alone. 
104, 2. Panka nikagahi ama ... ¢e¢u atii té. This refers to the 
visit of the delegation to Washington in December, 1880. 
105, 9, ewena-na*-man. Another use of the pl. for the sing. (ena- 
na®-mar). 
TRANSLATION. 
O “Little Grandfather,” you who govern the Indians, I will speak to 
you to-day about two subjects. I have come to this place because my 
friend, Mr. Dorsey, sent for me to come and work with him (or, sent 
for me and promised to employ me). When I was at the railroad 
station at Ponca, Ind. T., just before I started hither, very many of 
the Ponkas followed me that far, and they said that I should have an 
interview with you. Said they, “When you reach Washington you 
shall speak to the President about one matter.” 
The cattle have been trespassing on our reservation from time to 
time, and that is hard for us to endure. We bought our present res- 
ervation for fifty thousand dollars, and it is ours. Wé sold to the rail- 
road company the right of way through our reservation, consisting of 
a tract one hundred feet wide, for one thousand seven hundred dollars. 
Other white people, not railroad officials, when returning with the 
stock cars from Oklahoma, shove out the carcasses of the dead cattle 
upon the Ponka land. (They drag them here and there over a large 
extent of territory, leaving them to decay, and making all the land 
smell and covering it with bones; without giving us any damages. 
Besides this, cattle are brought to the reservation, where they are sold 
to different persons who take them away in various directions, going 
at random over our fields and pastures. Thus are our crops injured, 
and we can not cut hay.) 
We begged the agent to help us about this, but he has done nothing. 
Therefore we Indians consulted together and said, “It is proper to tell 
this to the President and the Commissioner.” So we collected among 
ourselves two hundred dollars to pay the traveling expenses of some 
of our men to and from Washington. But since it is difficult to see you 
without obtaining your consent, they said that I should tell you when 
I came, as I now have done. The money to pay the railroad fare is 
our own. 
I hope that you will help us, and that you will allow at least two to 
come and speak about these matters. 
The cattle are continually trespassing on our land, therefore all of 
our people wish to speak about it. We hope that our affairs may be 
rectified for us. ... If you have something to say in reply, | hope 
