Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1878.djvu/9

Rh of a loyal spirit, and that the rumors current for some time of a disposition on their part to break out in hostilities, proved entirely unfounded. When some of the Cheyennes who had escaped from the Indian Territory had taken refuge with Red Cloud, he sent word to the officers of this department that he held prisoners belonging to a tribe friendly to him, but hostile to the government, and that he was ready to give them up, which was faithfully done.

Great difficulty was encountered in sending supplies from the Missouri River to the new agencies. In consequence of a combination of transportation contractors to force the government to pay exorbitant prices, their bids were rejected, and the organization of wagon-trains, to be manned by Indians with their ponies, proceeded with, the same experiment having been tried on a large scale at another agency, at an earlier period this year, and having proved successful. The task to be performed by these wagon-trains between the Missouri River and the Sioux Agencies is a much larger and more difficult one, owing to the character of the country, and the circumstance that the grass has been burnt off the plains between the Missouri River and the new agencies, as rumor has it, by evil-disposed persons to bring about the failure of this experiment; but it has so far been successfully accomplished, and it is believed that the new Sioux Agencies will be sufficiently supplied during the winter season in that way.

The peaceful conduct of the Sioux during this year seems to justify the best hopes for the future.

A striking illustration of the perplexities the Indian service has sometimes to deal with is furnished by the present condition of the Pimas and Maricopas, in Arizona Territory. These tribes, numbering over 10,000, were located on a reservation, part of which was irrigated by the river Gila. Making use of the water of that river, these Indians were enabled to raise crops sufficient for their wants, so that the appropriations made by Congress for their support were very light. It may be said that these tribes were really self-supporting by their own labor and industry. Within a few years past mines were discovered on the upper course of the Gila River, and most of the water which formerly served to irrigate the fields of the Pimas and Maricopas was thus diverted for mining purposes, so that the water-supply no longer sufficed for the irrigation of the Indian lands under cultivation. The consequence was a failure of their crops, and, in fact, the impossibility of raising anything. The Indians found themselves compelled to leave their reservation and to seek new fields on the Salt River, where, however, white people set up claims to the land, and now loudly demand their removal. The result is that these Indians will starve on their reservation or be driven away if they attempt to settle down and cultivate the soil elsewhere, unless the government buys supplies to feed them, which would make