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Daniel Looman, Chairman, for self and other petitioners, submits statement, that, at the commencement of the Rebellion, they with their wives, families and relations were held as Slaves by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, that during the progress of the war the petitioners made their escape, but were not able to bring away their families, who are still held to bondage, that the savage masters have become more cruel in their treatment, in many instances murdering the slaves for slight provocations, that they are not supposed to leave the limits of the Indian Country, nor are the petitioners allowed to go to their relief, that the Indians have passed a law condemning to death those who having escaped and are recaptured, and request that the Military Commander of the Post at Ft. Smith be ordered to demand the release of their people from the Indians.