25 



"Fort Laramie, "Wyoming Territory. 

 June 12th, 1875." 

 " I certify that I was present last fall, at Red Cloud Agency, when Professor 

 0. C. Marsh was there ; that we together went to the corral to see an issue of 

 cattle to the Indians ; that the cattle we saw at that time were Texas cattle in 

 miserable condition, some of them so weak the Indians could not goad them out 

 of a walk. The cattle were as a rule small in size." 



* * * 



A. S. BURT, 



Captain 9th Infantry. 



In this i - egion, the cattle should be in good condition at this 

 season of the year, if ever, yet the cattle of this herd were so 

 wretchedly poor that even the contractor, Mr. Bosler, deemed it 

 necessary to apologize for them. In explanation of their condi- 

 tion, he informed me that he had been obliged to overdrive them, 

 so as to reach the agency in time for the issue. I subsequently 

 learned that this was a standing excuse, when persons not directly 

 interested in fridian affairs witnessed a cattle delivery. 



Essentially the same excuse for the inferior character of these 

 cattle was made by Agent Saville in Washington, June 1, 1875, 

 when questioned by Bishop W. H. Hare, in my presence, in regard 

 to this particular issue. Agent Saville then stated, "that the 

 poor condition of these cattle was owing to hard driving some 

 forty-eight hours with little grass or sleep, to hurry them through, 

 as the Indians had had no beef for some time, he having kept 

 back rations to induce them to be counted. These cattle arrived 

 in the morning, and he weighed most of them the same fore- 

 noon. Some few that were wild he did not weigh, but estimated. 

 The issue was made on the same afternoon of the receipt. 

 Among the cattle then issued were forty or more small and 

 " scalla wag " cattle. Agent Saville was confident that these cat- 

 tle, thin as they were, would weigh 850 pounds on an average." 

 On my questioning this, he insisted that " those he weighed came 

 up to that average, and that those estimated were fully as large. 

 He, himself, weighed all of the herd that were weighed on the 

 morning they arrived." Memoranda of these statements of Agent 

 Saville were taken down at the time by both Bishop Hare and 

 myself, and at a subsequent conference were found to agree. 



