The New York Times, July 6, 1860
Washington, Thursday, July 5
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs received important intelligence this morning from Nebraska Territory. Agent GILLIS, under date of June 22, writes that 200 or more Cheyenne. Arrappahoe and Sioux Indians had just attacked a Pawnee village in sight of the agency and killed several persons. Mr. GILLIS rode in among the attacking party, and with assistance of a half-breed Pawnee interpreter, succeeded in inducing them to draw off. They declared their purpose to return and “wipe out the Pawnee tribe.” An express was immediately sent to Col. CHAS. MAY, commanding at Fort Kearney, for assistance, as, under the treaty of September, 1857, Government is bound to protect the Pawnees on their new reservation.
The hostile expedition was fitted out west of Fort Kearney, for the express purpose of making war on the Pawnees, and Mr. GILLIS says they are well mounted, and a splendid-looking set of warriors. Two days later he writes:
“I have just learned from a reliable source that a large body of hostile Indians are collecting on Wood River, twenty-five miles this side of Fort Kearney, for the purpose of renewing the attack on the Pawnees, and that they avow their purpose to attack the whites if they attempt to interfere. Their forces are composed of Sioux, Cheyennes, Arrappahoes and Brulés.
Unless troops are ordered forthwith to suppress these depredations, the Pawnees will, in the opinion of Agent GILLIS, be soon “wiped out.” He says that if Government will furnish him with thirty Sharpe’s rifles, with ammunition, he will render a good account from these hostile attacks. The matter has been referred to the War Department, and steps will be taken under the nineteenth section of the Intercourse act of 1824, which directs the President to use the army to suppress and prevent depredations by one tribe of Indians on another, and to arrest all offenders retreating into the Indian country. An unfortunate war spirit seems to be rapidly spreading among all the tribes, and Government fears a general outbreak.