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[[preprint]] 472 [[/preprint]]

Ft. Lapwai Idaho
Aug. 12       1

Hon Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Sir:

Your letter of July 29, marked "A. 26916-91" would demand no answer from me but that today Agent W. D. Robbins showed me his reply to the Office letter which enclosed to him my letter of July 17, so that reply places me and my letter of July 17 in a false light, it is just that I state a few facts.

My letter of July 17 was not written as a complaint but as I stated in the letter, "for information," as to whether the Department made the rule that no Indian could have his horse shod by the Agency blacksmith, it having been my experience on all the Agencies I have known, that while riding ponies, except under peculiar circumstances, were not allowed shoes, the work horses of the Indians were shod.  I thought the ponies ridden by my workmen might come under the category of work horses and therefore I permitted my chain man to go to the Agency to get his horse shod.