TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1846-1859
184
Executive Office, Austin 8th May 1854.
Gentlemen,
I have received your petition asking that a company of Rangers shall be raised and sent to the frontier for your pro- tection against the depredations of the Indians- I am well aware of the exposed situation of your settlements and deeply sympathise with you in the sufferings you have to encounter. I have heretofore brought this matter to the notice of the Secre- tary of War and earnestly entreated him to have such measures adopted as shall effect the removal of the Indians of this State, entirely beyond the reach of the Settlements and place them under the control of a Military force sufficient to prevent them from ever returning, and I am not without hope that such meas- ures will be adopted at early day. I doubt much the propriety of calling out Rangers, for short periods, after the Indians have retired from committing their depredations, for they cannot be mustered in time to pursue and punish the offenders, and their terms of Service expire before the Indians have acquired sufficient confidence to return to the scene of their former operations. If however I had the authority to call into Service a few companies of Rangers, per- manently, or for several years, I feel very certain, that they would give perfect security to our frontier settlements. But no such authority is vested in the Executive, and the Legisla- ture has failed to place at his disposal any means to pay or sub- sist a force for the protection of the frontier even for a short period. The depredations lately committed east of the Colorado, it is now pretty well ascertained were done by the Tonkawa Tribe, and those near San Antonio by Lipan, as you will see from the letter of Maj R. S. Neighbors, United States Indian Agent, of which I send you a copy with this. These tribes, under the belief that they were entirely friend- ly, have been permitted, for some time past, to reside below the line of Posts, and have been fed by the bounty of the United States government in the neighborhood of Fort Inge. Now that their true character and conduct is known, it is presumed, that they will no longer be permitted to reside in the neighbor- hood of our settlements, where they can so conveniently depre- date upon our citizens, but it is not doubted that they will be
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