r judgment it was advisable, also with that
part of the tribe which remained in Dakota, and "to ascertain the
facts in regard to their removal and present condition so far as was
necessary to determine the question as to what justice and humanity
required should be done by the Government of the United States, and to
report their conclusions and recommendations in the premises."

The commission, in pursuance of these instructions, having visited the
Ponca Indians at their homes in the Indian Territory and in Dakota
and made a careful investigation of the subject referred to them, have
reported their conclusions and recommendations, and I now submit their
report, together with the testimony taken, for the consideration of
Congress. A minority report by Mr. Allen is also herewith submitted.

On the 27th of December, 1880, a delegation of Ponca chiefs from the
Indian Territory presented to the Executive a declaration of their
wishes, in which they stated that it was their desire "to remain on
the lands now occupied by the Poncas in the Indian Territory" and "to
relinquish all their right and interest in the lands formerly owned
and occupied by the Ponca tribe in the State of Nebraska and the
Territory of Dakota;" and the declaration sets forth the compensation
which they will accept for the lands to be surrendered and for the
injuries done to the tribe by their removal to the Indian Territory.
This declaration, agreeably to the request of the chiefs making it, is
herewith transmitted to Congress.

The public attention has frequently been called to the injustice and
wrong which the Ponca tribe of Indians has suffered at the hands of
the Government of the United States. This subject was first brought
before Congress and the country by the Secretary of the Interior in
his annual report for the year 1877, in which he said:

The case of the Poncas seems entitled to especial
consideration at the hands of Congress. They have always been
friendly to the whites. It is said, and, as far as I have been
able to learn, truthfully, that no Ponca ever killed a
white man. The orders of the Government have always met with
obedient compliance at their hands. Their removal from their
old homes on the Missouri River was to them a great hardship.
They had been born and raised there. They had houses there in
which they lived according to their ideas of comfort. Many
of them had engaged in agriculture and possessed cattle