Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1872.djvu/13

Rh assume the appearance of suggesting or advising any change in their methods. Yet I cannot refrain from quoting an extract from a report by the Assistant Secretary of the Interior, who made a very extensive tour of inspection among the wild tribes of the Upper Missouri River during the past summer:

"I have returned from my three months' tour among the Indians, more than ever convinced of the propriety and the feasibility of the President's policy in the conduct of Indian affairs. If time he given, it must more and more commend itself to the Christian people of the country. It is of so recent origin that it is, as yet, not fairly inaugurated in all its details. It seems to me, however, that some of the church missionary authorities have not yet fully realized the importance of the work which the President, in the establishment of his policy, invited them to perform. They were requested to select agents, and the Department expected them to name men of integrity, business experience, and capacity, sufficient to conduct the affairs of the agency honestly and efficiently This has been done in a highly satisfactory manner. But the new policy contemplates the moral and religious welfare of the Indians, to effect which the agents should be men, not only in favor of the new policy, but who will take an active part in promoting it in all its details. This can only be done properly, as I believe, by men of pronounced religious convictions. * * It is not enough that agents are willing to tolerate missionary work among their people; they should be men who can and will render efficient aid themselves in the work, and cordially acquiesce in all proper missionary appliances There are men now on duty as agents who, although good business men, have no confidence whatever in the capacity or disposition of the Indian for moral or mental improvement, nor any desire, apparently, to see the experiment tried. Such men are obstacles to the missionary branch of the present policy of the Government, whom I am well satisfied the churches which nominated them would promptly remove if their attention were invited to the subject. These same remarks apply to all Government employe's at the agencies.

The success of the present policy is so encouraging that I would gladly see it perfected and carried out to its fullest extent and capacity. The religious bodies have rendered such valuable assistance in the past, and seem so heartily in accord with the Executive and the Department, that they will undoubtedly act upon the suggestion made above, and wherever it may be necessary replace unfit agents by those who will be entirely satisfactory to the Department, while at the same time carrying out, in other particulars, the details of the peace policy."

I concur in the suggestions made by the Assistant Secretary; and the Department has received evidences from a majority of the missionary societies having a part in this work that those suggestions are received in the most cordial Christian spirit, and will be acted upon wherever it may be found to be necessary.

The duty of the nation toward the original occupants of the soil, who have become the wards of the nation by the fortunes of conquest and territorial acquisition, seems to me plainly marked out. The Executive is endeavoring in good faith, and in what is deemed the most proper and efficient manner, to fulfill the nation's duty toward a helpless and benighted race. He has sought to combine influences which may effect their physical and moral elevation and improvement. The missionary authorities have an entire race placed under their control, to treat with in accordance with the teachings of our higher Christian civilization. Their work is immense, and while results may not be