.MTAwMA.NjUzNDI

The information in regard to this subject which I derived from Frontiersmen, Traders and Indians leave little doubt in my mind that an excellent road can be made with very little labor, from Mt. Scott to Ft. Riley, bearing east to avoid the Salt Plains and cross the Arkansas near the mouth of the Little Arkansas. It might be necessary on account of the length of the route, and to look out for the Indians in the neighborhood of the Salt Plains to have a post in the Territory, near the southern line of Kansas.

   I found that Generals Sheridan and Hazen agreed with me as to the expediency of such a route and proposed soon to open it from Ft. Harker for the transportation of both Army and Indian supplies.  The only protection needed on this route, will be the Post which will have to be established on the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reserve.  My reasons for believing the location described to be the best for a military Post being thus fully given.  I gave them what seemed to me to be equally good reasons for erecting the Agency and locating the Comanches, Kiowas and Apaches to the same vicinity.  I called their attention to the fact that the treaty made with those tribes (every portion of which relating to the obligations of the Government, should be strictly adhered to, if the Indians are held to the same) - expressly provides that the necessary buildings for a permanent agent for them shall be as near as possible to the Geographical centre of the reservation, being convenient to wood and water.   The point I recommended was as near the centre of said reserve, had near it the best wood, water and arable land in that reserve and is in every way adapted to the wants of the agents and of the Indians themselves.   

[following paragraph circled and "Omit" written in margin:] It appeared to me that to locate the agency here, gather the Indians around it, place a force of Cavalry at a military post established near the agency to be used for military purposes alone it would be difficult for a marauding party to reach the boundaries of their reserve without being overtaken by troops, properly handled. On the other hand no point in the Washita valley can be selected which has either good water or grass and which is not at the extreme northern boundary of the reservation. By some it was thought that the Mountain region, would be a locality tending to facilitate raids into Texas, by the Indians placed there, but to me it seemed that the very establishment of their families so far south should prevent the Indians from endangering them by expeditions to Texas. I thought that there would be more ground to fear that trouble would arise through the union of the Indians of the Cheyenne & Arapahoe reserve with those of the Comanche & Kiowa reserve than from any other source and I judge the true policy to be to keep the two well separate, rather than by inviting and encouraging the latter to cross their northern boundary which would practically be done by the establishment of their agency upon the Washita.