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sioner Smith to send the flour on to the Agency ; a sample of it, 

 merely, to be retained by a citizen of Cheyenne, a leading mem- 

 ber there of the Indian Ring, and who, as I am credibly informed, 

 has since been under two indictments for attempting to bribe 

 United States officials. This action on the part of Commissioner 

 Smith would seem to indicate his own affinity with the Indian 

 Ring. 



Early in September, 1874, Major A. K. Long, of the U. S. Com- 

 missary Department, was appointed inspector at Cheyenne. In a 

 recent communication, dated June 19, 1875, he states "that when 

 he began his duties, there remained of the above lot of flour 

 twenty-seven sacks, which he immediately rejected, but it was 

 afterward shipped to Red Cloud Agency by the storekeeper — 

 as the latter said, by mistake." Major Long states, also, " that 

 he rejected a great deal of flour at first ; then the grade became 

 better, and that he rejected some flour that Barclay White, 

 Superintendent of Indian Affairs, had inspected and passed at 

 Omaha." 



In Agent Saville's interview with Bishop Hare, in Washington, 

 June 1st, at which I was present, the agent stated "that subse- 

 quent to the receipt of the above lot of flour, some 200 sacks of 

 dark flour, inspected at Omaha by Barclay White, came to the 

 Red Cloud Agency without being inspected at Cheyenne. This 

 was very poor flour, and was issued about the time of my visit, 

 and he thought the flour I saw there was part of this lot." 



This testimony, from observers whose official duty it was to 

 examine the character of the flour for Red Cloud Agency, effect- 

 ually disposes of the statement which the Indian Commissioner 

 gave to the Associated Press in contradiction of my first presen- 

 tation of the case at Washington. The explanation of the Com- 

 missioner, which was published May 3d, was as follows : 



"It is stated at the Indian Bureau, with reference to the complaints concerning 

 supplies furnished to the Indians at the Red Cloud Agency, that all the flour sent 

 there was inspected at Cheyenne by Major Long, Commissary of Subsistence of 

 the United States Army, and passed by him as equal to the accepted sample. 

 It is therefore claimed that the samples of inferior flour brought here by Professor 

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