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[[preprinted]] 32 [[/preprinted]]

Winnebago
Neb. Nov. 7    7

Hon. Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Sir:

Permit me to earnestly endorse the recommendation of the Agent in regards to Omaha Indians abandoning their wives and going off to shows.  In the interest of morality something must be done to stop this, and put an obstacle in their way of yielding to the temptation offered by the show men.  The Omahas are very poor, and are in need of money, and the wages offer an inducement that few are able to resist.  The show men require women to go too, and as in, at least two, of the three instances alluded to by the Agent the lawful wife refused to go & the husband went off with another woman.  If these there young men, all of them young men of promise and ability could be brought to justice & punished for bigamy it would do great good.  They are being watched by other men, to see if such acts escape the legal penalty, if they do several wives & children [[?]] fair to be abandoned.  These men are in another state [[and]] their arrest will be quite expensive, I would therefore ask