Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/499

 was sent to Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Harbor, where he remained twelve months, the greater part of the time being allowed to see the sights of the city and to become saturated with an idea of the white man's power in numbers, wealth, machinery, and other resources. He became a great friend, and rendered great help, to General Crook later on.

Under date of January 20, 1885, General Crook wrote as follows to his military superiors:

"In the event that the views of the Indian agent are approved, I respectfully request that matters referred to in the agreement be relegated to the control of the Interior Department, and that I be relieved from all the responsibilities therein imposed."

In forwarding the above communication to Washington, General John Pope, commanding the Military Division of the Pacific, indorsed the following views:

"Respectfully forwarded to the adjutant-general of the army. It is needless to reiterate what the authorities in Washington and everybody in this region know perfectly well now. General Crook's management of these Indians has been marked by unusual and surprising success, and if matters are left in his charge a very few years longer all fears of Indian trouble in Arizona may be dismissed.

"One of the difficulties (and the principal one) he has met with is the constant discord between the civilian Indian agents and the military. It is not even hoped that a stop may be put to such controversies so long as there is a joint jurisdiction over the Arizona Indians. It is not human nature that such an anomalous relation should escape such troubles, but in view of General Crook's superior ability and experience, and the great success he has met with, I must emphatically recommend that, instead of relieving him as he suggests, the entire control of the Indians be turned over to him.

"(Signed), Major-General."

For people interested in the question of Indian management and of Indian pacification, no more important document can be presented than General Crook's Annual Report for the year 1885. As this document will not be accessible to every reader, I will take the liberty of making a number of extracts from it, at the same time warning the student that nothing will compensate him for a failure to peruse the complete report.

In answer to the letter forwarded with an indorsement by Major-General Pope, given above, General Crook received a telegram dated Washington, February 14, 1885, which directed