Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/29

 and headmen of the Pi-Utes, I discovered that among those Pi-Utes who were scattered among the white population and working for wages the desire to remove to the Malheur Agency did not exist, as had been represented to me; that, on the contrary, they wished to continue in their present condition. A great many of them are employed by white people in chopping wood or doing other jobs of work, for which they are sufficiently paid to make a living; thus they appear to be self-supporting. I met many white men among whom those Indians lived, who declared themselves well satisfied with their presence, and desired that they should stay. Information was also received from Washington Territory, through General Howard, as well as from Agent Wilbur, that the removal of the Pi-Utes—who in consequence of the Bannock war had been taken to the Yakama Reservation—from their present abode to the Malheur Agency would be attended with great danger to the Indians, as well as lead to the breaking up of those beginnings in agricultural work which they had made on the establishment of homes at Yakama. Under such circumstances it was thought best to give up the project of their removal from the Yakama Agency, and the settlement of the other Pi-Utes on the Malheur Reserve as an improper experiment. Arrangements have been begun to establish for the Pi-Utes living in that neighborhood a boarding school at the Pyramid Lake Agency, where their children can receive the benefits of education, which otherwise would not be easily obtainable by them. A special agent was sent to the Malheur Agency for the purpose of ascertaining whether that establishment could not be dispensed with, and its business is now being wound up.

THE CROWS.

With a delegation of the chiefs and headmen of the Crows in Montana, who visited Washington last winter, an agreement was made, providing for the relinquishment of a part of their reservation not used by the Indians, but valuable for its mineral resources; in compensation therefor an annuity was agreed upon to be paid to the Crow Indians. When the chiefs laid this agreement before their people in order to obtain their consent, the latter insisted upon a modification of the agreement, somewhat changing the boundaries of the ceded tract. It is thought that this change will be mutually advantageous, and the bill now before Congress giving to the agreement the force of law should be altered in that respect. While visiting the Crow Reservation, I had conferences with many of the chiefs and headmen of that tribe, who all expressed themselves satisfied with this arrangement, and also desirous of having lands allotted to them in severalty and to receive title therefor. I informed them that their wishes in that respect coincided entirely with the policy of this department, and would be promptly complied with as soon as Congress should have passed a bill submitted to it, giving the department the necessary authority to that end.