No. 333.
Mr. Evarts to Sir Edward
Thornton.
Washington, February 27, 1880.
Sir: I have the honor to acquaint you with the purport of a communication which I have just received from my colleague, the Secretary of War, wherein he informs me that, on the 3d instant, a war party of Uncapapa Indians, coming from the north of the Canada line, attacked a camp of two citizens on Powder River; that the marauders were promptly pursued by a small detachment of cavalry, and, after resistance on their part during which a cavalryman and an Indian were killed, the remaining Indians, three in number, were taken prisoners; that it was found that the Indians had left Sitting Bull’s camp for a raiding expedition, and that the prisoners, being deemed to be not only guilty of a felony, but also of murder in resisting the officers who sought to arrest them for that felony, will be held amenable to civil process, and turned over to the civil authorities for trial.
As these predatory incursions are, unhappily, of so frequent occurrence as to give rise to lively solicitude for the safety of the persons and property of peaceful dwellers near the border, it behooves this government to neglect no means, moral as well as material, for their exemplary [Page 508] repression, and to invoke to that end whatever aid may be rendered by its friendly neighbors on the other side of the border. To that end, I have the honor to suggest that the fate encountered by these Indians, and the grave civil charges to which their felonious depredations render them liable, might be made public by the authorities of the Dominion among the Indians within their jurisdiction, in order to discourage similar incursions from that quarter in future.
I have, &c.,