They are kindred to Winnemucca and his children Natchez and Sarah, who perilled their lives and were indefatigable in doing everything for the whites and the army. I am thus earnest, and may, perhaps, be thought importunate, in arguing this question, because it arose under my command and by officers acting under me, and those people and their families and friends look to me to see their wrongs redressed. I have had visits from Natchez and Sarah, and messages asking me to have these people sent home. They have no representative, no newspaper to speak for them, and, even if they could get their cases before the courts, are ignorant of the way to bring it there. I beg the proper officers may look again into this question, not as a matter of convenience to the service, but one of justice to unfortunate and innocent people.” On page 123 in this Army Report is a letter from James B. Wilbur, United States Indian agent of the Yakima Reservation, to which those 502 Indians had been sent against their will, in which he says: “Their atrocities, committed without the slightest provocation when they took up the hatchet, deserve no favor.” To this Gen. McDowell writes a marginal note, saying: “The Indians whom it wished to send back to their home did not commit atrocities as stated.”
Gen. Miles, commanding at the headquarters of the Columbia, Vancouver Barracks, Washington Territory, writes: “To the Assistant Adjutant-General, Presidio: I am informed that the Piute Indians, who have for the last two years been resident on the Yakima Reservation, have recently moved southward to near the Dalles. They send word they wish to rejoin Winnemucca. This matter has been the subject of correspondence between the interior department and the military authorities for the last two years. I believe a portion of them will attempt to rejoin their friends in the south, even without permission. From
