keep such Indians to and upon their respective reservations, or to provide such of them as are or may be permitted to depart from the same, for any proper purpose, with a suitable and sufficient military escort to protect the property of our citizens and prevent the depredations above complained of, a greater degree of security would be established in our midst, and particularly among our exposed and defenseless settlers, immigration would receive an added encouragement, and all our industries advanced and promoted, and their fruits increased. We therefore urge such action upon the part of your Excellency as will tend to the attainment of such beneficent ends. And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c. SAMUEL WORD, Speaker of the House of Representatives. President of the Council. House Joint Memorial asking that the treaty between the United States and China be modified. To His Excellency the President of the United States, and the Senate': Your memorialists, the Council and House of Representatives, composing the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana, would respectfully represent: That the presence of the Chinese among us is an evil of great magnitude; they are incapable of assimilation in sentiment or habits of life, except in rare instances; that they are governed by a system of laws peculiar to themselves, and have their own secret tribunals for the administration of justice, and, wherever they are found in considerable numbers, they are absorbing all branches of manual and mechanical labor, and thus driving from most ordinary pursuits the middle and poorer classes of our people. We believe the inevitable result of Chinese immigration will be to create both an aristocratic and a servile class, which would be contrary to the genius of our form of government; that the habits and mode of life of these people, such as the general absence of family ties, of fixed homes, and of decent social life among them, enable them to live and accumulate money upon wages which would starve any other class of laborers, and their savings are very rarely invested in the communities where they live, but are sent to their own country, and by these means they escape taxation, and any considerable share of the burdens of government; and by these means they also drain into their own country the capital of those localities in which they live. It is a matter of common report, well known to all, that with few exceptions, the Chinese women who come, or rather who are brought, to the Pacific coast, and they are many, belong to the lowest and cheapest class of prostitutes, and that many of them are a prey to the most loathsome diseases; and it can readily be imagined that a frightful train of evils must follow the introduction of these women into any community. In addition to this, slavery in its worst form exists, and is a recognized institution, among the Chinese in our midst, for these degraded women are bought and sold like so many dumb brutes, and have no rights whatever that their Chinese lords and masters are bound to respect. In view of the above facts, your memorialists would respectfully urge and request that steps may at once be taken to the end that the treaty, now existing between the United States and the Empire of China, may be so modified as to permit the prevention of further immigration of an undesirable and non-assimilating population. And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. SAMUEL WORD, Speaker of the House of Representatives. House Joint Memorial asking the transfer of the management of Indian affairs to the War Department. To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled: Your memorialists, the Legislative Council and House of Repre sentatives, composing the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana, would most respectfully represent to your honorable bodies: That the Territory of Montana is peculiarly exposed to Indian wars, depredations, and incursions because of the presence within her boundaries of large tribes of semi-hostile Indians, and that similar large and semi-hostile tribes are found on all sides of the Territory, and immediately adjacent thereto; and, that in view of the past experience of our people, we are fully convinced that their safety, welfare and best interests would be greatly promoted by the transfer of the bureau of Indian affairs to the war depart ment. Wherefore, your memorialists earnestly pray that said transfer of the management of Indian affairs to the war department may be made. And, as in duty bound, your memorialists will ever pray, etc. SAMUEL WORD, Speaker of the House of Representatives. House Joint Memorial asking modification of the law imposing a penalty for driving stock over an Indian reservation. To the Honorable Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior: Your memorialists, the Council and House of Representatives, constituting the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana, would respectfully represent: That since the flight of Sitting Bull and his followers into British America, and since the establishment of Forts Keogh and Custer, near the Yellowstone river, the old Powder river route, from Bozeman, in Montana, to the Union Pacific railroad at Pine Bluffs, has been open and safe to travel; that during the past year several large herds of beef cattle have been driven from near Helena, Montana, to Pine Bluffs, and shipped thence east by rail; that the U. S. Indian Agent of the Crow tribe of Indians, acting under authority of the United States Statutes at Large of the 43d Congress, to-wit: "Section 2117. Every person, who drives or otherwise conveys any stock of horses, mules, or cattle, to range and feed on any land belonging to any Indian or Indian tribe, without the consent of such tribe, is liable to a penalty of one dollar for each animal of such stock," did cause one drove of cattle to be stopped last fall, whilst crossing over said Crow Indian reservation, and the owner to be arrested and detained at Fort Custer until he could procure bonds that he would pay said penalty of one dollar per head, subject to the decision of the commissioner of Indian affairs, whose decision was that the said penalty must be paid. The owner was compelled to pay the one dollar for each of the cattle which he was driving to market, the sum collected amounting to about six hundred dollars. This man's stock was not driven upon the reservation for the purpose of ranging or grazing thereon, but because the best and shortest route to a shipping point on the U. P. railroad lay across said reservation. Now, the Crow Indians are friendly to the whites, and are permitted by their treaty to roam and hunt all over the country surrounding their reservation; and, so far as is known, they have not protested against, or objected to, white men passing through or across their reservation with droves of cattle or stock of any kind, or even to their living upon the reservation, as is abundantly evidenced by the fact that on the west end of their reservation is a considerable settlement of white men who have lived there since 1864-5: And furthermore, Fort Custer is built upon the eastern end of said reservation, and hundreds of white men and animals are continually passing on that portion of said reservation without any protest from either agent or Indians, and that the arrest, and being compelled to pay the penalty before mentioned (although supported by law), appears to be an arbitrary proceeding, as other like infractions of the treaty, both before and since said arrest, have not been noticed by said agent The route across said reservation is some four hundred miles shorter than the one we have been compelled to use in reaching an eastern market since the closing of the Powder river route in 1868. It also shortens up railroad transportation about five hundred miles, and enables the people of Montana to save one hundred and twelve dollars on each car load of cattle shipped to Chicago. These explanations will enable you to readily perceive how important it is to the great and rapidly increasing stock interests of Montana, that this, the shortest and cheapest, outlet to the eastern market should not be closed to us: Therefore your memorialists would respectfully ask that you will speedily take such steps as will secure such modifications of existing laws as will result in giving our people the right to drive their flocks and herds across said Crow Indian reservation, and all other Indian reservations within the limits of the Territory, by the shortest and best routes, under such rules and regulations as you may prescribe. And as in duty bound your memorialists will ever pray. SAMUEL WORD, Speaker of the House of Representatives. President of the Council. House Joint Memorial in relation to military telegraph. To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled: Your memorialists, the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Montana, do hereby represent to your honorable bodies: That the military telegraph, lately constructed by the government, from Deadwood, in Dakota Territory, to Fort Ellis, by way of Forts Keogh and Custer, affords a rapid and important communication between these forts and the military commander of the Department, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Army at Washington, a measure which had become indispensable for the better management of the troops and the Indian situation in this Territory; and, believing that the interests of the government would be further subserved, and the business of this Territory promoted, and a feeling of security from sudden attacks from hostile Indians. on our borders strengthened, by a continuation of the military telegraph from Fort Ellis, through the capital of Montana, to Forts Logan, Shaw, Benton, Assinaboine, Wolf Point, Fort Peck Agency, and Fort Buford, at or near the head of navigation on the Missouri river, and along our exposed northern border, we, your memorialists, pray that your honorable bodies will provide for the construction of the military telegraph to the points indicated, which, as computed by the route designated, is distant only two hundred and forty-eight miles from Fort Ellis. And your memorialists would further respectfully represent the |