old homes, from which they had been unjustly and inhumanly ejccted."

Mr. Tibbles suecceded in visiting the Poneas, although the Government agent interfered with him in many ways, and finally arrested him by authority of an order from Washington to arrest any member of the Omaha Committee who came upon the reser- vation. He was insulted by the agent, taken by force out of the reservation, and threatened with much more severe treatment if he ever returned.

This high-handed outrage on a free citizen of the United States aroused indignation throughout the country. The comments of the Press on the occurrence slowed tlhat people were at last wak ing up to a sense of the tyrannical injustiee of the Indian Depart ment. The Now York Tribune said, editorially:

The Indian Department may as well understand at once tlat the l'onca case has passed out of their control. It is a matter of simple justice which people are determined to see righted No petty Indian ageut has the legal riglit to imprison, mal- treat, and threaten the life of any citizen totally guiltless of offence beyond that of working to give these serfs of the Government the standing of human beings, * It is the Government of this grcat Republic, where all men are free and equal, that holds these Pon cas prisoners on a tract where to remain is death. They are inno cent of any crime execpt that they have bcen robbed of their land, and that they ask to bring suit, as a black man or convict could do, in the courts for its recovery."

Mr. Tibbles reported the condition of the Poncas in Indian Territory as deplorable in the extreme. Tlhey live in constant drcad and fear, and are as much imprisoned as if they were in a penitentiary." They seem "to ave lost all hope, are broken hearted and disconsolate. With one or two exceptions, they are making no effort to help themsclves. Their so-called farms arc miserable little patches, to which they pay very little attention One of then saici to me, If the Governmcnt forces me to stay here, it can feed me. I had a good farm back at our old home, and if I was back there I would farm again: I have no heart to work here. The one hundred and iftecn who are back on the old reservation have a mueh larger amount of land under eulti vation than the whole four hundred who are in Indian Territory They have kept their crops in good condition, and are full of energy and hope."

The Goverment Agency for the Poncas having been transfer