197 been several depredations committed on our frontier by small parties of Indians-Having had runners travelling through the Indian Country for the last two months, I find that there are several small parties of Comanches, who have detached them- selves from the main bands and are engaged in Horse-stealing- two of those parties stole 30 head of animals from the Delaware Indians, was followed to the head of the Brazos River, but could not be caught. All the Northern Comanches bands, are now north near the Arkansas river with their families-and the few parties who are stealing are parties, who as soon as the families of the Indians went North out of our reach--detached themselves for the pur- poses of horse stealing-and from the best information that I can obtain there is not more than from 30 to 50 in all the parties -but in their depredations-they break off into parties of from 4 to 6-They have on several occasions passed up within a short distance of posts but in no instance has information been sent to an Agent or Military Post, until the Indians are entirely beyond our reach. Now if our Citizens would in place of writing so many articles for newspapers, take a more practical view of these Dep- redations-and send word immediately to the Military posts or to the Agency-I think it very probable, that those parties could long since have been arrested-and punished. In order to try and put a stop to these thefts-I have written to Genl Smith for an escort sufficient to enable me to proceed to the Indian Country and demand of the several Tribes satisfaction and a return of the stolen horses-whether I can get this force or not I am not able to say. You are well aware that the Military force on the frontier has not been adequate for protection. In fact, they have never for the last Year, been in a condition to act efficiently and in no case has a single party of Indian Depredators, been brought to pun- ishment. It would require but a small force to avert these Depredators if properly managed, as in most cases-they are repudiated by the main Tribes, but it requires men who have sufficient energy and capacity to follow the Depredators-home-before they can ever be punished-and there is no class of troops now in service prepared to act. When the Military start in pursuit, the Indians, will travel at least 2 miles to their one-and they are accompa- nied on all their scouts by Waggons.-The situation of our In- dians are such, that all nearly of the Indians for which Lands are granted are or will be in a short time settled down, and out of the way, so that we can have a fair opportunity of operating
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