Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1879.djvu/24

22 River. Seventy houses have been built by and for them of far better quality than the miserable huts they formerly occupied in Dakota, and the construction of a larger number is now in progress, so that, as the agent reports, every Ponca family will be comfortably housed before January. A very liberal allowance of agricultural implements and stock cattle has been given them, and if they apply themselves to agricultural work there is no doubt that their condition will soon be far more prosperous than it has ever been before. During the first year after their removal to the Indian Territory they lost a comparatively large number of their people by death in consequence of the change of climate, which is greatly to be deplored; but their sanitary condition is now very much improved. The death rate among them during the present year has been very low and the number of cases of sickness is constantly decreasing. It is thought that they are now sufficiently acclimated to be out of danger.

About the 1st of May last “Standing Bear,” a chief of a band, with some twenty Indians, left the reservation in the Indian Territory to return to the Missouri River. As has always been done in similar cases, they were arrested at the request of this department to be taken back to their reservation. Application was made by citizens of Nebraska in the United States court at Omaha for a writ of habeas corpus, which was granted by the court, and Standing Bear and his followers were set at liberty. Efforts have been made in various places to raise a subscription for the purpose of testing in some way the question whether Indians can, by governmental action, be removed from lands once confirmed to them by treaty, and whether they can be arrested and returned to a reservation on which they have not by treaty bound themselves to remain. It would, perhaps, be well to have the rights of Indians defined and fixed by judicial decisions; but I do not think that, as seems to be believed by many people, such decisions will “solve the Indian question.” The solution of the Indian question depends upon the civilization of the Indians and their ability to take care of themselves, to which “the definition of the Indians' rights” will probably contribute but very little. If judicial proceedings should result in spreading among the Indians the impression that they can leave their places of abode and roam about at pleasure, the effect would only be disastrous to them. If, for instance, the scheme which has been publicly advertised, to induce the Poncas, by emissaries sent among them, to leave their present reservation, with its houses and other improvements, where they are rapidly becoming acclimated, and to return to Dakota, where all this work would have to be done anew, should be carried out, it would probably injure only the Poncas themselves. This department has done all that was in its power to indemnify the Poncas for the wrong done them. No tribe of Indians has been more liberally cared for and provided with everything that can make them comfortable and prosperous. If all this should now be undone, and they be obliged to start afresh, it would be a matter for grave consideration whether the injury to them would not be much greater