Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1878.djvu/8

VI To keep the Indians on their reservations and to prevent disturbance and conflicts, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs recommends the organization of a mounted body of “Indian auxiliaries,” to be drawn from the young men of the various tribes, and to be under the command of the military authorities. I heartily concur in this recommendation. The young men enlisted in such an organization, paid by the government, will be withdrawn from the fighting element of the Indian tribes and be disciplined in the service of peace and order. It is a matter of general experience that Indians so employed can be depended upon as to loyal fidelity to the duties assigned to them. But the principal end of our Indian policy cannot be promoted by police measures alone. That end consists in gradually introducing among the Indians the habits and occupations of civilized life, by inducing them to work for their own support, by encouraging the pride of the individual ownership of property, and by educating the young generation; and no efforts should be spared to bring to bear upon them proper moral influences in that direction. Such efforts should not be sneered at as mere sentimental fancies, nor should they be discouraged by the assertion that success is impossible. The advance made by some Indian tribes is sufficient proof that a similar advance may be made by others. Whatever may be accomplished by the employment of force, it is certain that only as the Indians progress in the ways of civilization they will cease to be a troublesome and disturbing element.

I beg leave to submit the following remarks concerning several tribes whose conduct and condition is of especial interest:

In accordance with the agreement made at the council held by the President with the Ogalalla and Brulé Sioux chiefs in September, 1877, the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Sioux were permitted to choose locations of their own selection on their great reservation in Dakota. To keep them near the Missouri River would have been convenient for the transportation of supplies and annuities, and, in pursuance of an act of Congress passed at the last session, a commission, consisting of General D. S. Stanley, U. S. A., Mr. J. M. Haworth, and Rev. A. L. Riggs, accompanied by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, was sent to the camps of the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Sioux for the purpose of ascertaining whether their choice could not be so directed as to bring their selection of their permanent abodes into accord with the convenience of the government. The Indians, however, were found to be quite determined to move westward, and the promise of the government in that respect was faithfully kept. The Spotted Tail Sioux are now located 65 miles west of the Missouri River, at the mouth of Rosebud Creek, while the Red Cloud Indians settled down still farther west, on White Clay Creek, at the mouth of Wolf Creek.

It gives me pleasure to say that these Sioux so far have given evidence