A concentration of Indians took place in Southeastern Oregon, and, on June 23, Bernard came upon a camp of them 1,500 strong. He had only 200 men, but he surprised the camp, routed it and chased the band for ten miles. A large number of Indians were killed. Bernard lost four killed and three wounded. The savages retreated to Stein’s Mountain. General Howard arrived on the field after the fight, with Miles and Downey, having marched forty-five miles a day to catch up with Bernard. From Stein’s Mountain the Indians moved northward toward Camp Harney and Canyon City. They attacked neither place, but concentrated on John Day River, where they are in camp, 1,500 strong, according to the dispatches printed above. The other band of hostile Indians is on what is called Camas Prairie, north of the Salmon river, in Central Idaho, the scene of the outbreak by Joseph’s band of Nez Percès last year. The dispatches just received state that this party is composed chiefly of Snakes, and is about 1,000 strong. The Klamaths at the agency in Southwestern Oregon began to commit depredations about June 25. The band then numbered about 800. —Some of those most intelligent in Indian affairs believe that a general Indian war is an impossibility, unless the General Government shall adopt some strangely unwise and hostile policy. Even then the various tribes would not unite, but fight independently, so much stronger are their mutual antipathies and feuds than their hatred of the whites. —The transfer of the Indians to the War Department has not been accomplished. The whole matter has been referred to a joint committee, consisting of three members of the Senate and five members of the House, to investigate and report next January upon the expediency of such a transfer. —The _Advance_ says: “If the report shall be in its favor, the transfer will be because the religious press and the friends of the peace policy neglect their duty. It is stated that a majority of the House branch of the Commission is opposed to the change.” —The _Christian Union_ offers this suggestion: “The various missionary bodies ought now to confer with each other, agree, if possible, on the policy to be pursued toward the Indians, and then send to Washington a delegation of the ablest men of the respective denominations to urge its adoption. The fact that Secretary Schurz is out of favor with Congress, is a poor reason for shifting the Indians from his department, and we have yet to see any better one assigned. The simple question is: How can the Indian tribes be most easily civilized and Christianized, and so brought into assimilation with Americans? And that is a question on which the churches of America ought to have something to say.”