Sir:
    I have the honor to submit the following as my second annual report:
    Soon after my last annual report, a treaty was held with the Indians of my agency at Medicine Lodge Creek, for the reason that some of the Indians had been, to a certain degree, engaged in hostilities against the whites, having been driven to that course by the mistakes and imprudences of General W. S. Hancock; that treaty was made in good faith by the Indians as well as by the honorable gentlemen who composed the commission.
    From the date of the treaty, made at Medicine Lodge Creek, the Indians, including the Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Apaches, were in perfect friendly relation with the whites up to last June, when, while making a foray into the Kaw Indian country, in the neighborhood of Council Grove, Kansas, for the purpose of fighting their enemies, the Kaws, there were some slight depredations committed by some of the young men of the Cheyennes, the details of which affair the department is conversant with. At that time the annuity goods, including a large amount of arms and ammunition, were enroute to my agency, when I became the recipient of an order from yourself not to issue the arms and ammunition, in consequence of their conduct with respect to the whites, while making the raid against the Kaws. When the goods arrived, I was obliged to state to the Indians what my instructions were in regard to the arms and ammunition. As I have heretofore stated, they appeared very much disappointed and could not realize that they had deserved such treatment. Sub-

sequently I received permission from the department to issue them their arms and ammunition, which I accordingly did; but, a short time before the issue was made, a war party had started north from the Cheyenne village on the warpath against the Pawnees, they, not knowing of the issue, and smarting under their present unfortunate aspect of affairs. The United States troops (Sully's expedition) are now south of the Arkansas River, in hot pursuit of the Cheyennes, the effect of which, I think, will be to plunge other tribes into the difficulty, and finally culminate in a general Indian war.
    I have the honor to be, with much respect, your obedient servant.
                                       E. W. WYNKOOP,
                                       United States Indian Agent.
Hon. Thomas Murphy,
Superintendent Indian Affairs.

Source:

Brill, Charles J., Conquest of the Southern Plains; Uncensored Narrative of the Battle of the Washita and Custer's Southern Campaign, Oklahoma City, OK, Golden Saga Publishers, 1938, pp. 295-296.