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48TH CONGRESS, 2d Session.} SENATE. {EX. DOC. No. 46.

MESSAGE
FROM THE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
TRANSMITTING

A communication from the Secretary of the Interior, with a draft of proposed legislation relative to claims of Omaha Indians against the Winnebago Indians.

JANUARY 24, 1885.--Read and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a communication of 20th instant from the Secretary of the Interior presenting, with accompanying papers, a draft of proposed legislation providing for the settlement of certain claims of the Omaha Indians in Nebraska, against the Winnebago Indians, on account of horses stolen by members of the latter tribe from the Omahas.
The subject is commended to the favorable consideration and action of the Congress.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 23, 1885.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, January 20, 1885.

The President:

SIR:  I have the honor to submit herewith a communication from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of 2d March, 1882, inclosing extract from a report made by Inspector Howard, under date of October 14, 1881, respecting certain claims presented by the Omaha Indians for the period since 1871, for horses stolen from them by the Winnebago Indians.

These claims, as appear from the statement presented, aggregate the sum of $5,190, being the value of 173 ponies taken at various times since 1871, and valued at an average of $30 per head.

The matter was presented to the Congress under date of March 15, 1882, in a letter addressed to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations of that date, but no action was had in the premises, so far as this Department is advised.

Under the stipulations contained in article 10 of the treaty with the Winnebago Indians, "the aid tribe of Indians jointly and severally obligate and bind themselves not to commit any depredation or wrong