The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 29, July 1925 - April, 1926 Page: 35

The Federal Indian Policy in Texas, 1845-1860

service. Their object was to recover animals stolen by hostile In-
dians.82 Ross wrote Neighbors February 24, 1859, saying that
the Caddoes had had eighty head of horses stolen from them, al-
most the last of some five hundred they had had about three months
ago. He had sent word to Captain Ford's camp on the Clear Fork
of the Brazos, asking him to help the Indians punish the thieves,
and recover their horses. Ross said Ford started that morning
for the Comanche country, taking with him a force of about thirty
rangers and thirty Indians.83 Throughout the year 1859, the
friendly Indians of the Brazos aided greatly in the protection of
the frontier." A company of forty-three Indians under command
of Captain Peter F. Ross of the ranger service went with Colonel
M. T. Johnson, also of the state's troops on a scout into the Indian
country in the summer of 1860.8" These Indians, who were faith-
ful to the whites and assisted them, were the agricultural tribes
who had been settled on reservations, and who had to some extent
adopted the manners, customs, and habits of the white people.
8235th Cong., 2nd Sess., House Doc. No. 2, p. 334.
8336th Cong., 1st Sess., Senate Doc. No. 2, pp. 625-626.
84Texas Almanac, 1859, p. 131.
85Johnson to Houston, July 30, 1860, Houston Letters, 1858-1862, Texas
State Library.