instructions or funds to permit of their accomplishing their desire."

Two events, important in the history of the Sioux tribe, hap- pened in 1869 and 1870. One was the visit of a delegation of chiefs and headmen from several of the bands, under the leader ship of the chief Red Cloud, to Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. They had thus an opportunity of relating all their grievances, and of receiving the Covernment's declarations of good intentions toward them. Red Cloud, after his return home, became an ardent and determined advocate of peace and loyal ty. The other was the withdrawal of a portion of the Santee Sioux from their band, for the purpose of taking up farms un der the Homestead Act, and becoming independent citizens. The story of this experiment, and the manner in which met by the United States Government, is best told in the words was of Dr. Williamson, a missionary, who had lived thirty-five years among them, and who pleaded thus warmly for them in a letter addressed to the Department in the summer of 1870: "Several considerations have influcnccd the Dakotas in going to the Big Sioux River: Ist. The soil and elimate are more similar to that to which they have been accustomed in Minnesota, their former home, than is that of their reservation on the Missouri; 2d. Feeling that they were men capable of sustaining them selves if a fair opportunity is afforded them, they felt that it degrading to livo as sinecares and pensioners dependent on Governinent for food and clothing; 3d. And chiefly a de- sire to make homes for their familics where they could be sub- was jected to, and protected by, the laws of the United States, the same as all other men are. This they thought could not be the case on their reservation

"These Sioux were parties to the treaties made in 1851, by which they and other bands ceded to the United States all the best settled parts of Minnesota west of the Mississippi for less than one-hundredth part of its present valne, and mnch less