The commission worked around his opposition by telling him that it already had enough signatures to take the land. This was not true, but Agent James McLaughlin echoed it in a secret meeting with Grass. If his people did not sign, McLaughlin warned, they would lose their land and get nothing for it. The agent also promised that Crook would get Congress to pay for ponies the army had taken from Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Indians in 1876.
