No. 312.
Mr. Seward to Sir Edward
Thornton.
Washington, August 9, 1879.
Sir: I have the honor to state for your information that this department has received a communication, dated the 6th instant, from the honorable Secretary of War of the United States, accompanied by a report made to him by Col. Nelson A. Miles, Fifth Infantry, dated July 3, ultimo, relative to depredations committed in the Yellowstone Valley by Northern Indians.
It appears, from the report in question, that daring the past few months a number of depredations have been committed in the Yellowstone Valley by small parties of Indians coming from the north. It was ascertained that those parties were not wholly composed of hostiles from Sitting Bull’s camp, but that some Missouri River Indians, particularly Yanktonnais and Gros Ventres, were implicated in the outrages, and, doubtless, acted as guides for the hostiles.
Some of the particulars of the depredations in question, as given in the report, of Colonel Miles, are, that about the 1st of March, 1879, several head of stock were stolen from McDonald and Dillon, ranchmen near Powder River. On the night of the 4th of March, ultimo, twenty-three head of stock were run off from Countryman’s ranch, near the mouth of Stillwater. The trail of these depredators led toward Studley’s crossing of the Musselshell.
On the afternoon of March 28 two ranchmen were murdered on the Yellowstone, above Ferry’s Landing, and one wounded. About this time horses were run off from Rease’s Bottom, from ranches near the mouth of Buffalo Creek, in the vicinity of Pompey’s Pillar, and sixty-seven ponies were stolen from the Crows at their agency. The chiefs and head men of the Crows, at the time, reported the raiders to be Northern Indians, with perhaps a few Nez Percés. It is said that this party of Nez Percés Indians arrived at Wood Mountains on the 25th of April, having in their possession American horses, and boasted of the murder on the Yellowstone of two white men.
On the evening of the 6th of April, a small party of Indians attacked the ranch of Sebbezze and Peterson, near Powder River, killing the former-named ranchman and wounding the latter, and running off eight [Page 487] or ten head of stock. Mr. Sebbezze, in an ante-mortem statement, identified some of these depredators as Gros Ventres, recognizing them as such from their dress and language, and it was subsequently ascertained that the leader of the band was an Indian named Rushing Thunder, from the Northwest Territory, and that the raiding party crossed the Missouri on the 9th of April, and have since taken their property to the north side of the Canadian boundary.
In view of the foregoing facts this Department deems it proper to express the wish of this government that the Canadian authorities may be instructed to return the Indians who have been guilty of murder to the United States, if possible, for trial and punishment, and also to restore the stolen property to the owners, if it can be found.
I have, &c.,
Acting Secretary.