30 



"Washington, D. C, June 5th, 1815. 

 I hereby certify that in the summer of 18 14 the herd of cattle at the Red Cloud 

 Agency, which had been received by the Agent from the contractor, stampeded, 

 and most of them, over a hundred in number, went back to the contractor's herd 

 on the Platte. These same cattle were afterwards driven to the Agency, and 

 were receipted for a second time by the Agent. The contractor's herder offered 

 to sell me those cattle at $10 per head before he drove them back to the Agency. 



LOUIS EESHAW. 



From such stampedes, and the fraudulent results following, both 

 the Indians and the Government have suffered great losses. 



V. Pork issued at the Agency. 



Major A. S. Burt and myself were at the issue of provisions, 

 November 15, 1874, and, among other things, saw and examined 

 the pork that was delivered. The method employed in distributing 

 this article to the Indians was characteristic of the management of 

 affairs at this Agency. The barrels of pork were rolled out of the 

 warehouse by one of the Agency employees, the heads of the bar- 

 rels knocked in with an axe, and the contents turned upon the 

 ground. The pieces of pork were then given to the Indians, who 

 were waiting around, without being weighed or any other means 

 adopted to insure a just distribution. This poi'k I examined, and 

 found it old and strong. Some of it, at least, was rusty and unfit 

 for human food. On this point Major Burt, in a certificate which 

 he has recently sent me, states as follows : " I observed the pork 

 given to the Indians ; it was lean rusty stuff, unfit for anybody's 

 use." The Indians received this pork ration with evident disgust. 

 Most of them merely cut off the outer thin layer of fat, and threw 

 the rest away on the spot. In one of the recent Councils in 

 Washington, Red Cloud earnestly complained of the pork issued 

 to him and his people, and said that he thought some of the chil- 

 dren had died from eating it. After this particular issue, the 

 Indians so strongly objected to the quality of this pork that the 

 fact was reported by the Agent to the Department in Washing- 

 ton. The contract under which this wretched pork was 

 furnished to the Indians was given to J. W; L. Slavens, 



