Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1875.djvu/8

658 issued by reason of non-payment of the fiual fees; 951 applications for the registration of trade-marks were received, and 993 trade-marks were registered. The number of patents issued during said year exceeded those of the preceding year by 685. The total amount received during the year from fees, &c., was $732,285.87, and the total expenditures were $708,874.35, leaving an unexpended balance of $23,411.52.

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

The report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs presents the details of the transactions of the Indian Bureau for the past year, and furnishes interesting information in regard to the present condition of the various Indian tribes. The Commissioner makes several important and valuable recommendations in regard to the future management of the Indians, to which your attention is respectfully invited.

The general situation of the Indian service may be regarded as encouraging, and progress has been made during the year in perfecting and extending the Indian policy. Wherever all the elements of success have been available, the result has clearly vindicated the propriety and efficiency of that policy in the increased interest taken by both agents and Indians in the acquisition of industrial pursuits, and in the increase of peaceful disposition toward the whites. Schools are increasing in number and interest; farming, wherever the soil is suitable, is being-prosecuted more vigorously and intelligently, and the desire of the Indians to prepare for themselves more comfortable and fixed abodes is becoming more general. At the important agencies of Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, in the Dakota, or Sioux Nation, however, one of the principal elements of success—a productive soil—is wanting, and no progress has been made, and none can be expected, while the present conditions by which they are surrounded shall remain. The problem of how to deal with these Indians seems as far from solution as ever, and, in fact, it has been still further complicated the present year by the discovery of gold in the Black Hills and the emigration of large numbers of miners thither. The suggestions of the Commissioner in regard to this numerous people are practical, and worthy of consideration.

There can be no doubt whatever that so long as the great bulk of the Sioux are encouraged to occupy their present locations near the Red Cloud and Whetstone, or Spotted Tail, agencies, and to roam at will over their vast reservation and west and northwest to the Big Horn Mountains and to Powder River and the Yellowstone, they can make no progress whatever, and must be fed year after year by the Government. The recommendation by the Commissioner that the two agencies above mentioned be removed to the Missouri River meets with my unqualified approval. The soil over which they now roam is totally unfit for cultivation, the location of those agencies is so remote from the railroad and river that the cost of supplying them is greatly enhanced, and their isolated position gives them almost entire immunity from Government