Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1883.djvu/16

Rh A year's experience since making the above suggestion has confirmed my views on that question, and I cannot urge too strongly the necessity of the creation of a fund on which the Department has a discretionary power, not to be used for subsistence, but for aiding exceptional cases for civilizing purposes, such as employing farmers, mechanics, and others to teach by practice the Indians to become farmers, mechanics, stock-raisers, and general laborers.

The salaries allowed to Indian agents are, in most cases, grossly inadequate to the labor performed by them. In several instances agents have found the labor so great and the compensation so small that they have surrendered their positions to accept a larger salary, with less labor and responsibility, in other fields. The work required of an Indian agent is of the highest order, and can only be performed by men of large capacity and business experience. He is charged with the distribution of a large amount of property among the Indians. He submits estimates for the necessary appropriations for his agency, has the general oversight of the affairs of the agency, and directly represents the Government in its efforts to care for, protect, and advance the Indians. Work of this character ought not to be left to men of doubtful financial probity or of questionable morals. Men who can properly perform the work assigned to them as Indian agents can make more money, with less labor and privation, in other pursuits.

I earnestly recommend that the salaries of agents be increased sufficiently to secure good men and retain them in the service.

The tenure by which most of the Indian tribes hold their land is very unsatisfactory. In a few cases the Indians are sufficiently advanced to appreciate the advantages of land in severalty, but the great mass of the Indians are not only not ready for land in severalty, but violently opposed to it, and incapable of taking care of such title if given to them. A title in severalty to or individual ownership of land is unknown in Indian polity, and they cannot understand why one man should have a claim on or title to land that he does not occupy, any more than they can understand how one man can become the owner of more air than he needs. They do not cultivate land in common, but each Indian has a separate patch or piece of ground which he tills year after year if he desires. When he neglects to cultivate it, any other person may do so. While he cannot comprehend individual ownership, he does know what title to his tribe means. He has been accustomed to hear the claim made that his tribe owns a section of the country. The invasion by one tribe of the region claimed by another has been the cause of innumerable wars. The denial of ownership in his tribe he fully understands, and whether that denial comes from a hostile tribe or from one of his