WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1860
41
The Indians were p1·omised in the agreement as interpreted to them, ·that they should annually receive ($15,000) fifteen thou- sand dollars to be distributed among the different tribes. Colonel Pierce Butler was one of the Commissioners, but was in such feeble health that he was unable to take any part in the business and had to leave it to the other Commissioners, whom I will not name. I understand that the commission cost the enormous sum of sixty thousand dollars, when ten thousand, or twenty, at most, was sufficient to have expended. Then, to give it a pleasant phase for the Government, a treaty was written out to suit the occasion by these other commissioners and the terms appended it stipu- lated that the Indians were to receive only the sum of Fifteen thousand dollars in full payment for all annuities. Thus, the Indians were deceived and cheated, for even that sum was never paid to them; and when they came to receive the annuity as they understood they were to receive, it was utterly neglected by the Government. The Indians came to Messrs. Torrey's trading house on the Brazos, and not finding the annuity as had been promised them, told the Messrs. Torrey that since they were white men, they must pay what white men had promised, or they would take their goods in so many days, if the annuity did not arrive. An express was sent to me at Galveston by the Messrs Torrey. I again sent the ring with a cask to the Indians, and authorized Messrs. Torrey to advance $10,000 worth of goods to the Indians and I would be responsible to them for the amount. It was done. Subsequently the Indians were sent to Washing- ton, and I understood that the goods charged for were 25 per cent cheaper than ever before furnished to the Indians of the frontier. Congress on the last day of the session appropriated the $10,000, and to this day, there is still due those Indians $5,000. The day after the treaty referred to made by the Commissioners of the United States was ratified by the Senate, I received a letter from Colonel Thomas J. Smith,5 a man of truth and high stand- ing, giving me the facts I have detailed, concerning the manner of obtaining the signatures of the Chiefs, as well as the deception practised in relation to the annuities promised. To this treaty and the deception practiced upon the Indians we must attribute many if not all our subsequent troubles and sufferings. The treaty concluded on the Brazos was with Buffalo Hump of whom you spoke in your letter, and who has since been settled
Powered by FlippingBook