Headquarters, Army of the United States
Washington, D.C., August 6, 1870

General: The Secretary of the Interior has given notice that the matter of difficulty between the Osages and the white settlers on their reservation will probably be settled without difficulty, but that it is reported other squatters manifest a purpose to go on south of the Kansas border and take up claims within the Indian Territory next adjoining. He says the boundary line is well known.

The matter was up before the cabinet yesterday, and it was concluded that any trespass or intrusion must be promptly and forcibly met. You had better send a cavalry force down on the line and give notice that you have positive orders to "protect the Indian Territory from unauthorized settlers and squatters," and require the officer in command promptly to remove any such as he may find across the south boundary of Kansas, within the limits of what is known as the Indian Territory.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
W.T. Sherman, General

Headquarters Post Southeastern Kansas
Montgomery County, Kansas, August 26, 1870

The Government has determined to remove all settlers and invaders in the Indian Territory, and to execute the treaty with the Cherokees of 1866. By article 27, "all persons not in the military service of the United States, nor citizens of the Cherokee Nation, are prohibited from coming into the same, or remaining on the same."

All such settlers are hereby summoned to quit the limits of the Indian Territory in the shortest possible time, and all immigrants are forbidden to enter the same on penalty of removal by force.

By order:
J.S. Poland
Captain Sixth Infantry, Commanding Post.

- posted by pioneergirl at 11:58 PM