there a country which would answer for their new home. The commissioner advises that they should not be allowed to go there, but to the Indian Territory, of which he says, “The geographical situation is such that its occupation by lawless whites can be more easily prevented than any other portion of the country.” “By common consent, this appears to be recognized as the Indian country, and I have strong hopes that it will eventually prove for them a prosperous and happy home.”
In 1864 their agent writes that the greater part of the personal property owned by the Delawares is in stock, “which is constantly being preyed upon by the whites, until it has become so reduced that it is difficult to obtain a good animal in the nation.” He says he is unable, for the want of proper information, to determine what amount they had at the beginning of the year, but believes, from observation, “that it has undergone a depletion to the extent of twenty thousand dollars in the past year.”
What a picture of a distressed community! The men away at war, old men, women, and children working the farms, and twenty thousand dollars of stock stolen from them in one year!
In 1865 a large proportion of those who had enlisted in the United States Army were mustered out, and returned home. The agent says: “It affords me great pleasure to chronicle the continued loyalty of this tribe during the past four years; and, as events tend westward, they evince every disposition to aid the Government by contributing their knowledge of the country to the officers of the army, and rendering such services thereto as they are qualified to perform.”
They “have distinguished themselves in many instances in the conflicts on the borders;” nevertheless, in this same year, these discharged soldiers were prohibited by the Government from carrying revolvers. When the commissioner instructed the agent to disarm them, the agent very properly replied,
