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furnished to the Red Cloud Agency under the contract which was 

 in force during the last half of 1 874, when my visit was made, 

 and during the first half of the present year. This contract was 

 given to J. H. Martin of Denver, and was signed by Commis- 

 sioner Smith, July 11, 1874. The flour was to be delivered in 

 Cheyenne at the rate of $2.50 per hundred pounds, a bond of 

 $10,000 being given to insure a faithful performance of the con- 

 tract. I learn from good authority that this contract could not 

 be honestly filled, according to the accepted sample, at the price 

 paid. 



The contract required " that the flour offered for acceptance 

 under this contract shall be subjected to a thorough inspection, 

 and careful comparison with the sample thereof which has been 

 adopted, and if on such comparison and inspection any of the 

 flour fails to conform to or equal said sample the same shall be 

 rejected by the parties making the inspection." I have recently 

 received a portion of the original sample of the flour on which the 

 contract was based for the last fiscal year, 1874-75. This is a 

 totally different article in appearance from the flour I saw issued 

 to the Indians at the Agency, and in use in the lodges, and no one 

 could mistake the one for the other. This sample of flour is the 

 only sample, of all the supplies purchased last year, that the 

 Department retained, by which to compare the supplies actually 

 delivered to the Indians, and thus prevent fraud. The reason why 

 this natural precaution against frauds has not been taken, remains 

 for the Department of the Interior to explain. 



Some of the first flour delivered under this contract, a lot of 

 2,000 sacks, or 200,000 pounds, reached Cheyenne in August, 1874. 

 This lot of flour, more than one-third of the whole year's supply 

 for Red Cloud Agency, was not inspected, as required. I am in- 

 formed that Dr. Irwin, Agent for the Shoshone Indians, who was 

 then in Cheyenne, detected the bad quality of that flour, and 

 telegraphed the Department that the transaction was a fraud. 

 Agent Saville was at Cheyenne at this time, and he has since in- 

 formed Bishop Hare and myself, that he was ordered by Commis- 



