Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1876.djvu/11

Rh The Commissioner's recommendations for the allotments of lands to Indians in severalty—such allotments to be inalienable for a term of years—must ultimately be adopted, and I warmly favor its consideration.

In my annual, report last year I took occasion to quote from the report of the commission appointed during that year to visit the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies, in regard to the urgent necessity of laws for the protection and punishment of Indians. In previous reports of the Department the same subject has been repeatedly alluded to, and the absence of any proper means for the administration of justice over Indian Territory presented. The present law is entirely inadequate to punish an Indian for a crime committed against another, either without the limits of his reservation or upon it. The only punishment which can be inflicted upon a white man for a crime against an Indian is to force him off the reservation. This immunity for crime is most unfortunate, and loudly calls for correction. Were the jurisdiction of the United States courts extended over the reservations, and the Indian taught that he must suffer the same penalty for his crime as a white man, and at the same time be protected in like manner, the labors of the Department would be made much easier.

A few years ago the first thing considered necessary of accomplishment was to gain oversight and control of the Indians by inducing them to give up their roving habits and gather them upon a reservation, where, by feeding them and rendering unnecessary a ceaseless chase for game, an opportunity could be obtained of watching and teaching them.This has practically been accomplished.

The next important thing was to teach them the way to cultivate and produce their own food, and so be able to supply their own wants when restricted to a limited .territory, and educate in them a taste for such pursuits and a relinquishment of the natural desire to roam. This is being accomplished, and we have every reason to be satisfied with the progress attained.

To concentrate them and induce them to cultivate each for himself an individual farm, belonging wholly and completely to himself, is the next great step to be taken; but how can we expect the Indian himself to succeed if we do not surround him with the protection and guarantee of law? If it is so essentially required for the punishment and restraint of the bad, it is still more for the protection of the well-inclined. Though the plan of uniting all the Indians upon a few reservations and allowing them lands in severalty may meet opposition, and must necessarily, if favorably considered, be a work of time, yet the enactment of suitable laws for the government of Indians should be delayed no longer. I beg that you will call this especially to the attention of Congress.

The necessity of devising some simple and satisfactory form of government for the Indian Territory is yearly growing more urgent, and