21 



the requirements of this contract, the same shall be rejected by 

 the parties making the inspection." The inspectors were author- 

 ized, in such a case, to require the contractor to replace the 

 rejected cattle within five days by proper beef. If not, the right 

 was reserved to purchase the cattle required, at the expense of 

 the contractor. A bond of $150,000, with two good and suffi- 

 cient sureties, was required to be given, to ensure the faithful 

 fulfillment of the contract. 



There is abundant evidence that this contract was not made in 

 good faith. The contract was not filled by the party to whom it 

 was given, but (like too many Indian contracts) was transferred 

 for " a valuable consideration " a few days after it was signed, to 

 W. A. Paxton, of Omaha. As this assignment could not take place, 

 by the terms of the contract, " without the written consent of the 

 Secretary of the Interior," the full responsibility of this transfer 

 rests with him. This contract was nominally in foi-ce at the time 

 of my visit to Red Cloud Agency. The real beef contractor, 

 however, whom I found supplying this Agency, was the well 

 known Bosler, notorious for frauds in previous contracts, and 

 for this reason excluded by the published regulations from any 

 participation in future contracts. This second virtual trans- 

 fer of the contract to him was well known to every one at the 

 Agency, and in that region, and must have been equally well 

 known to the Interior Department. 



On my arrival at the Agency, Nov. 9th, 1874, I ascertained that 

 there had been no beef issue for some time, and only seven head 

 of cattle were then remaining over from previous issues. These 

 seven cattle had all been receipted for to the contractor, received 

 by the agent, and were in his charge. All, or nearly all, of them, 

 were subsequently issued to the Indians. These facts, which are 

 important, I learned at the Agency, and they were fully admitted 

 by Agent Saville to Rev. S. D. Hinman, the official interpreter of 

 the Interior Department, and myself, in Washington, May 29th. 

 These were the cattle examined, at Red Cloud's request, by 

 General Bradley and his officers, and about which so much has 



