RECREA TION. 



175 



animals perpetuated on their native ranges. 

 There are thousands of other lovers of nature 

 who are not sportsmen at all and who are inter- 

 ested in the preservation of the game. Those of 

 us who do hunt big game kill, as a rule, only one 

 or two animals, each, during a season, and we in- 

 variably do our hunting in small parties. The 

 Indians turn out, usually, in parties numbering 

 some hundreds, surround large areas, and drive 

 the game to ambushed hunters, who often shoot 

 down twenty-five or fifty head each, within a few 

 minutes. 



\ I should be glad to know your views of this 

 matter, and whether you consider it possible or 

 expedient to take any steps in the direction 

 indicated. 



From the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 

 The Honorable the Secretary of the Interior. 



Sir : I have the honor to ackncwledge the 

 receipt, by Department reference for report, of a 

 letter from G. O. Shields, Editor of Recrea- 

 tion, New York city, who states that Mr. B. 

 M. Webster, of Omaha, Nebraska, who has 

 lately returned from a hunting trip in the Rocky 

 Mountains, writes him that the Shoshone and 

 Bannock Indians have been hunting all through 

 the country south and east of the National Park, 

 killing thousands of elk, deer and antelope, and 

 taking only their skins, leaving the carcasses to 

 rot. 



In reply I have respectfully to report that dur- 

 ing the early part of 1894, this office received 

 many complaints that the Indians of the Shoshone 

 and neighboring reservations were wantonly 

 slaughtering game that had been driven down 

 from the Rocky Mountains, and that rov- 

 ing parties of Indians were continually killing 

 game in the neighborhood of the Yellowstone 

 National Park. 



In view of the above, the Agent of the Sho- 

 shone Agency was instructed to report the facts 

 to this office and to take such action as would in 

 the future entirely stop the wanton killing of 

 game by the Indians of his agency. 



Subsequently more complaints were received 

 from Idaho, Wyoming and Montana^ that parties 

 of Indians were leaving their reservations con- 

 tinually, with passes from their agents, to make 

 social and friendly visits to other reservations, 

 and that while en route they slaughtered game in 

 large quantities, merely for the sake of killing 

 and for the hides, particularly in the country 

 adjacent to the Yellowstone National Park. 



The office, in view of these additional com- 

 plaints, under date of May 22, 1894, addressed 

 the following letter to the Indian Agents in 

 Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and the 

 Dakotas ; 



"Enclosed herewith you will find copy of 

 office circular of November 1, 1889, relative to 

 Indians leaving their reservations for the purpose 

 of hunting. 



"This office has recently received a great many 

 complaints to the effect that numerous parties of 

 Indians are continually leaving their reservations 

 with passes from their Agents to make social 

 visits to other reservations ; that they slaughter 

 game in large quantities merely for the sake of 

 killing and for the hides ; that their wanton 

 destruction of wild animals is particularly notice- 



able in the country adjacent to the Yellowstone 

 National Park and the Shoshone reservation, 

 Wyoming ; and that if these depredations are 

 allowed to continue during the coming season, it 

 will probably result in a serious conflict between 

 the white settlers and the Indians and end in 

 bloodshed. 



" Upon receipt of this letter you will call a 

 council of your Indians, again inform them as to 

 the purpose of this circular, and tell them that 

 the restrictions as to hunting contained therein 

 must be strictly complied with ; also that should 

 they in the future obtain passes from you for the 

 ostensible purpose of making friendly visits to 

 other reservations and then engage in hunting 

 while en route, such passes will all be recalled 

 and they will not be allowed to leave their reser- 

 vations again. Further, that they will be liable 

 to arrest and punishment by State officers for 

 violating the game laws of the State or Territory 

 in which they may be found hunting. 



" Hereafter no passes should be granted to 

 Indians when you have reason to believe they 

 intend to go on hunting expeditions ; and where 

 permission is given to leave the reservation for 

 other purposes, it should be only upon condition 

 that they will not engage In hunting while 

 absent. 



" In granting such passes in the future to 

 make visits or to leave the reservations for other 

 purposes, which would enable them to hunt while 

 absent, you should be careful to impress upon 

 them the consequences of violating their agree- 

 ment. 



' ' When such pass has been granted, the 

 Indian agent, in charge of the reservations 

 which they intend visiting, should be notified of 

 the time of their departure, their names and the 

 route they intend to travel, so that he may be on 

 the look out for them. 



"Your hearty co-operation in this matter is 

 requested in order that the evils complained of 

 may be corrected, and the threatened danger 

 of trouble between the Indians and whites 

 averted." 



Some of the replies received from agents 

 would seem to indicate that the Indians are not 

 altogether to blame in the matter complained of. 



Captain Ray asserts that hordes of white hunt- 

 ers infest the country (Yellowstone Park region) 

 entirely unmolested, and no doubt such is the 

 case. This office has endeavored, by every 

 means in its power to prevent the Indians from 

 wantonly destroying game in the western coun- 

 try, and will still continue to do so, but it must 

 be said that in most instances where complaints 

 have been made, careful investigation has shown 

 that the charges against them were altogether 

 false or grossly exaggerated, and sometimes wil- 

 fully so. 



It is my intention to write again to the Agents 

 of the Fort Hall (Idaho) and Wind River (Wyom- 

 ing) Agencies, directing them to be watchful, to 

 the end that their Indians gave no cause for com- 

 plaint in this matter, but I think it would be well 

 if some attention were paid to the foreign and 

 native tourists and others, who go into that 

 country to hunt, without let or hindrance. 



It is a well known and admitted fact that the 

 extermination of the buffalo and other large game 

 in the west was the work of the whites, prin- 

 cipally, and not the Indians, and even now the 



