Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1885.djvu/26

24 means a great bureau or governmental department, with its system of divisions and clerks and inspectors and special and local agents—a sort of state department, conducting correspondence and adjusting the relations of sixty-seven inferior governments of certain "domestic dependent nations," and at the same time invested with authority to control and protect the individuals living under those governments. The cost of this Indian service in direct annual appropriations it is difficult to ascertain accurately, but, from the most reliable data available, it cannot be less than an average of $3,870,629 from the year 1832 to the present time. It now amounts to more than $6,000,000 per annum, and has at different times reached $7,000,000.

The principal possession of these "domestic dependent nations," with which this Department has to deal, is the land owned by them. But a number of the tribes have funds invested and other moneys belonging to them, and have also annuities secured to them by treaty stipulations. Estimating the total area of their reservations as given at $1 per acre, the value of the estate owned, held, and occupied by the Indians is, in round numbers, $134,000,000. And to this should be added other invested and uninvested funds amounting to seventeen millions, and other lands, on the market, but not yet sold or paid for, making a total of $152,000,000 in round numbers. This does not include the annuities, which, on account of the uncertainty and indefiniteness of some of them, cannot be accurately calculated beyond each year; nor does it embrace the value of other property in ponies, sheep, cattle, industrial implements, &c.

Here, then, is the Indian service, as seen in the workings of the Indian Office. It certainly shows a great expenditure of money, effort, political enterprise, and organization. For whom and for what is required this expensive equipment of a great department of the Government, with the constant vigilance and occasional active assistance of the military establishment?

There is but one answer. It is for the control, protection and management of a population of only 260,000, including men, women, and children—less than the population of the city of Baltimore.

Whatever may be said about the injustice and cruelty with which the Indians have been treated in the past, characterized by some as a "century of dishonor," the Government is now, as all must admit, putting itself to great trouble and expense for a very small and inutile population. The question arises, what is the purpose sought to be accomplished? Is it to protect this country against the Indian as a menace to the security and peace of our people? Nothing could be more absurd.

The Indian race is no longer a source of danger to the peace or security of this great Republic. Most of the reservations are encircled