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For reasons that I do not know, Mr. Potter removed men occupying the positions of Indian police and judges of the Court of Offenses.  I am told at the Dept., that he was not authorized to do this. An end having been put to the Agency machinery so far as it related to the Omahas, the legal question arose as to how far the Indian Dept., could go toward establishing a government within the limits of a state, over persons that Congress had placed under the civil and criminal laws of the State.

That something should be done to bring the people under an orderly government was clear, but what to do and how to do it was a serious question.

Last year,1886, in March, three Omaha men came to Washington.  Their expenses were paid by members of the tribe who desired to have the complex and troublesome affairs of the tribe laid before the Commissioner, and advice and direction given.  These three men told the Indian Commissioner that they represented but one part of the tribe, and they requested that three other men from other parts of the tribe be sent for.  This request was acceeded to and the men summoned. When they arrived they were accompanied by three others who came on their own account.  There were therefore nine Omahas here, all of them more or less independent in their notions and wishes. Mr.