P.S. Copies of the reports made by Capt. Turner and Brigade Surgeon Campbell will be furnished to you by tomorrow’s post, in view of the urgency of this case, and the fact that these Indians cannot be supplied any further than have been done from the supplies of the army, I send one copy of this letter to Topeka and the other to Leavenworth City. Fearful suffering must ensue amongst the Indians unless the steps necessary are promptly taken.
This letter was forwarded by Edw. Wolcott, at Dole’s request, to the Indian Office [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, W513].
[554] Coffin to Dole, dated Fort Roe, Verdigris River, Kansas, February 13, 1862 [General Files, Southern Superintendency, 1859-1862, C1526]; Snow to Coffin, February 13, 1862 [General Files, Seminole, 1858-1869].
[555] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 148.
[556] —Ibid.
[557] Dole to Dr. Kile, February 10, 1862. [Indian Office, Letter Book, no. 67, pp. 450-452].
[558] Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report, 1862, p. 148.
[559] Congressional Globe, 37th congress, second session, p. 815.
[560] United States Statutes at Large, vol. xiii, 562.
[561] It was, however, the beginning of a great deal of graft and misuse of government funds. Citizens of Kansas, otherwise reputable, prepared to reap a rich harvest, and government officials were not at all behindhand in the undertaking. Presumably, immediately upon the departure of Hunter’s commissary from Fort Roe, the Indians began to get into the debt of the settlers and the sum of the indebtedness soon mounted up tremendously. Coffin again and again urged payment [Coffin to Dole, May 12, 1862], so did Colonel C. R. Jennison of the Seventh Regiment Kansas Volunteers, and so did General Blunt.