Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1876.djvu/9

Rh Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies and the agencies on the Missouri River will aid most materially in solving the Sioux problem. They have certainly secured the removal of the Sioux in Northern Nebraska to either the Indian Territory or the Missouri River, with full relinquishment of any claims to the Black Hills or rights in Montana, and the establishment of roads across the reduced reservation from the Missouri River to the Black Hills. The northern line of the reservation is to be changed from the forty-sixth parallel, which is a boundary-line unintelligible to the Indian, to the natural boundary of the South Fork of and main Gannon Ball River. The commission will not complete its labor and make a report for some time to come; but when their report is received, it will be transmitted to you, with such further views upon the Sioux question as may be suggested thereby.

I desire to express my warm appreciation of the hearty co-operation of the War Department and its aid and assistance at the various Sioux and other agencies in Dakota, at all of which quiet and order have been maintained.

For the general government of the Indians the Commissioner recommends three principles of policy, which he supports by able and convincing arguments and in which 1 most heartily concur: The concentration of all the Indians upon a few reservations, acceptance by them of lands in severalty, and the extension over them of the United States law and jurisdiction of United States courts, and consequent dissolution of tribal organization.

For several years the number of agencies has been decreased, as it has been found that their occupants could be removed and consolidated with other tribes upon one reserve or could be settled in the Indian Territory. Within the last four years one superintendency and twenty-two agencies have been abolished, with a corresponding reduction of agents and employes, and an annual saving in salaries and wages amounting to over $60,000.

As a matter of economy, the greatest saving could be made by uniting all the Indians upon a few reservations; the fewer the better. A much less number of employes would be required at correspondingly less expense, but a greater saving would result from the reduction of transportation. Many of the agencies are almost inaccessible during certain months of the year for the purpose of reaching them with provisions, and it can only be done at very great expense. To reach some few of them the transportation equals, if not exceeds, the first cost of the provisions.

Were there but five or six large reservations, easy of access, the annual saving in transportation alone would be over $100,000.

The good example of those successfully started in agricultural pursuits stimulates the desire of the more ignorant who may be brought upon the same reserve. Teaching is rendered far easier and more successful. Good results have invariably attended the