Charles E. Mix, Acting Commissioner of U. S. Indian Affairs, wrote to J. Thompson, Secretary of the U. S. Department of the Interior, regarding an incident described to him by Andrew Dorn, Indian Agent in Neosho, Kansas Territory. In this incident, J. B. Thompson, president of an unnamed railroad company bought a tract of land from the Osage Indian tribe without the consent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Mix asked Secretary Thompson if it would be appropriate to punish Chapman under the Intercourse Act of 1834.