more humanc methods, and, partly at the instance of the Gov- crnor of Dakota, who knew very well that the Indians desired peace, sent out a commission to treat with them now, altold, some 14,000 Sioux in this region, nearly 2000 being the refugees from Minnesota.

The report of this commission is full of significant state- There were There seems to be no doubt that the great majority of ments. the Indians are anxious for peace; but they are afraid to meet the agents of the Government, lest they be in some way be- trayed. Such bands as are represented, however, gladly assent to a treaty of peace and good-will. The commissioners speak with great feeling of the condition of the loyal Yanktons. "No improvements hare been made on their lands, and the commis- sioners were obliged from starving,* * * No crops met the cyc, nor is there the to issue provisions to them to keep them semblance of a school-house."

Yet by Article four of the treaty with the Yankton Sioux the United States Government had agreed to expend $10,000 in erecting a suitable building or buildings, and to establish and maintain one or more normal labor schools; and it is to bo read in the United States Statutes at Large that in each of the years 1800, 1861, 1862, and 1863, Congress appropriated $65,000, as per treaty, for the benefit of the Yankton Sioux.

With the exception of a few miserable buts, a saw-mill, and a small amount of land enclosed, there are few vestiges of improvement. ** They are reduced to the necessity of hunt ing for a living, and, unless soon reassured and encouraged, they will be driven to despair, amd the great discontent existing among them will culminate in another formidable Indian war"

Nine treaties were concluded by this commission with as many different bands of Sioux, the Indians pledging them selves to abstain from all hostilities with each other and with the whites, and the Government agreeing to pay to the Indians