in the course of the year 1868 have gone to the reservations appointed for them by the Government. My adopted brother (and consequently your uncle), Two Bears, head chief of the Yanktonnais at the head of 8oo lodges or about 7,000 souls, invites me to come and is awaiting me impatiently.
I am just back from Omaha whither I have escorted six Sisters of Charity and I feel stronger. Those zealous sisters are on their way to Helena, the capital of Montana. I am glad to have been able to participate in their undertaking and to furnish all the funds for their long journey.
St. Louis University, October q., 1869.
Governor BURBANK, Yankton City, D. T.:
Honorable Sir.- Though personally unknown to you, allow me to address you these few lines. I have been particularly and earnestly requested, by very respectable gentlemen in St. Louis, who take great interest in the welfare and affairs of Mr. F. F. Gerard, a trader among the Indians in the upper Missouri country, who applies for a renewal of his license to trade in that section. I have known Mr. Gerard and have been intimately acquainted with him for upward of twenty years, and with full confidence and assurance, I hesitate not and readily give him the following testimonial.
In my long intercourse and visits to the Indian tribes on the Missouri river I have often had occasion of meeting Mr. Gerard, particularly among the Aricaras, the Grosventres and Mandans at Fort Berthold. I have always considered Mr. Gerard as a true friend to the Indians, assisting them in their need and advising them to keep up peace and quiet toward the whites. I hesitate not in adding that it is particularly due to Mr. Gerard and to his well-timed advice and persuasion that the three united bands of Indians 97