The report continues:
"These Indians, at the suggestion of Governor Evans and Colonel Chivington, repaired to Fort Lyon and placed themselves under the protection of Major Wynkoop, etc."
The connection of my name in this is again wrong. I simply left them in the hands of the military authorities, where I found them, and my action was approved by the Indian Bureau.
The following extracts from the report of the council will prove this conclusively. I stated to the Indians:
"... Another reason that I am not in a condition to make a treaty is, that the war is begun, and the power to make a treaty of peace has passed from me to the great war chief."
I also said: "Again, whatever peace they may make must be with the soldiers and not with me."
And again, in reply to White Antelope's inquiry, "How can we be protected from the soldiers on the plains?" I said: "You must make that arrangement with the military chief."
The morning after this council, I addressed the following letter to the agent of these Indians, which is published in the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1864, page 220:
"Colorado Superintendency Indian Affairs,
Denver, September 29, 1864.