Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1876.djvu/12

VIII must, ere long, be met. At present the eastern and richest portion, agriculturally, is occupied by the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, numbering something over 55,000 souls, with atotal of 20,784,890 acres, or an average of 375 acres for each man, woman, and child among them. So long as this greatly disproportionate allowance of land to the individual continues, the greater portion of it must lie idle and unproductive and be the object of desire to the white settler. The easiest way to secure that Territory to its present occupants and protect it from the encroachments of white settlement, is to people it by other Indians, and, giving them all in severalty sufficient land for each to cultivate and take care of, prohibit any transfer to a white man, and only from one Indian to another under great restriction. There is no doubt but the portion of the Territory lying between the 98th meridian and its eastern boundary is sufficiently large for the occupation of all the Indians that can be removed there. Were it possible to get them all there there would be an average of 75 acres for each of the 275,000 Indian men, women, and children in the country.

Within those limits is embraced a section of territory about the size of the State of Ohio, unexcelled in fertility of soil, and a climate unsurpassed in the United States. By requiring its present occupants to accept liberal allotments in severalty their further claims may be adjusted by awarding proper compensation for the land they do not need and cannot occupy; and while no injustice to those Indians now there should be permitted, I believe such allotments and purchase of the remaininglands would subserve their best and truest interests.

The sooner the idea of considering and treating the various tribes in the Indian Territory as possessing a sort of independent power and nationality is done away with, the earlier will we reach some practical solution of the embarrassments which now surround the question of their government. The most of these people have made great advancement in civilization, and many are fit to embrace the full advantages of citizenship. They are under the care of the Government as much as any other portion of its people, and it is as responsible and in some respects more responsible for their welfare. There is no reason why the laws and jurisdiction of the courts should not be extended over them and they be treated the same as any other like portion of our population, and some form of territorial government devised which shall secure for them, as guaranteed, the exclusive occupancy of their territory by Indians, and, while protecting them from the encroachments of the whites, provide the necessary means for the protection and government of themselves.

Among the general recommendations of the Commissioner, I beg to call your attention to that for a further appropriation for the removal to, and establishment in the Indian Territory of the Poncas. Congress appropriated $25,000 for this purpose at its last session, which is not sufficient for their removal, and the purchase from other tribes of the land