But it seems to me, we have all minimized one great truth. Having destroyed that which was the very life of these Indians, we should have given them something in its place. The Indian frequently asked for stock, but it was not until years afterwards that stock in any numbers was issued to them. The issue of cattle to the Plains Indians was much curtailed because of reports from Agents and Superintendents, during the eighties, that the Indians killed much of this stock for food. All the Plains tribes were meat-eaters and not vegetarians. We could not expect them to live where there was no meat available, save their own cattle. Agriculture was (and among the Sioux, still is) in its infancy. [Illustration: CREEK CHURCH AND CAMP-MEETING GROUND NEAR SYLVIAN, OKLAHOMA, 1913 ] A gentleman living in northern Nebraska, who has been familiar with the Sioux for forty years, writes me on this point as follows:— “On the spring round-up of the year that Major Clapp left Pine Ridge, (thirty years ago) these Indians branded over 16,000 calves; and horses dotted the hills in herds of from fifty to several hundred head each. At this time there are a few herds of small proportion, and the calves produced by the entire four counties that originally comprised the reservation, is numbered by a paltry few hundred.” What the Government did was to permit the destruction of the buffalo, corral the Indians, expect them to change from the chase to agriculture, or, it utterly destroyed their sustenance and commanded:—“Become as white men,” all within one or two decades. This was, manifestly, impossible. The ration system was a necessity, not a mere gratuity, as so many of the writers have maintained. Without a ration system, these Indians would have starved to death. If large numbers of cattle had been issued them, and they had been compelled to save a certain portion of these for breeding purposes, and thus increased their herds, we should certainly have avoided a great deal of misery.