Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1880.djvu/8

6 It may be said that exceptions to this rule are becoming rare, and that if now proper measures are taken to secure them in the individual ownership of land, and to aid them liberally in their agricultural pursuits by furnishing them implements and cattle, they will in a comparatively short space of time result in the permanent settlement of most of those tribes and bands which but a few years ago were roaming through the country as savages.

One of the most fruitful measures of the present administration has been the introduction of freighting and mechanical pursuits among the Indians. In last year's report I had the pleasure to state that the experiment of employing Indians as freighters with their own ponies had been completely successful. This year's experience has been such as to confirm my conviction that this measure has in its effects been one of the most beneficent innovations ever made in Indian management. The Indians so employed have not only continued to prove themselves the most faithful, efficient, trustworthy, and economical freighters the government ever had, but they have become fond of this occupation, and gradually more skilled in carrying it on. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs reports that the Kiowas and Comanches in the Indian Territory, and the Sioux at the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Agencies, have transported during the past year not less than eight million pounds of supplies and annuity goods, over distances of 165, 160, 200, and 92 miles, respectively; and in compensation therefor, they have received the sum of $115,900, which, although appearing large, has been a considerable saving compared with the amounts formerly paid to white transportation contractors. "So popular has this branch of industry become, that the demands of the Indians for freighting are largely in excess of the quantity of government freight to be transported; and the letting of a transportation contract for Indian goods to a white man would be deemed an infringement on their rights and privileges." * * * "Skill and care in the management of their teams, despatch in the handling and forwarding of the freight, and absolute honesty and trustworthiness in the care of the goods in transitu, have characterized the Indian transportation service; not a package has been lost, not a case or bale broken open or tampered with. The success of the enterprise has made it a permanent feature in the policy of Indian civilization."

At the beginning of this administration no freighting was done by Indians. Last year the number of Indian freight wagons running was stated at 1,356. This year it has been nearly 2,000. Indian freighting has been gradually introduced at the Cheyenne and Arapaho, Kiowa and Comanche, Devil's Lake, Sisseton, Fort Hall, Osage, Kaw, Pawnee, Ponca, Oakland, Sac and Fox, Pottawatomie, White Earth, Great Nemaha, Western Shoshone, Grand Ronde, Siletz, Warm Spring, Green Bay, Yakama, Shoshone, Rosebud, and Pine Ridge Agencies, and in