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Show REPOR,T OB TEE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. DEPARTJIENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIANAF FAIRS, Washilzgton, October 15, 1884. SIR: I have the honor to subinit herewith my fourth annual report, and believe that a careful perusal of it willshorn that along the pathway of progress in the last twelvemonths some dark spots have been removed and some bright spots made brighter. More Indians are living in houses and fewer iu tepeesthan there were one year ago. More are cultivating the soil and fewer following the chase than when I made my last annual report.. There are more in the carpenter, blacksmith, and other me-chanical shops, trying to earn an honest living, and fewer at the war dance, scalp dance, and sun dance than in October, 1883. There are also several hundred more Indian children iu industrial, agricultural, and mechanical schools, fitting themselves to become nsef~ili,n telligent citizens, than there mere twelve months since. During the same period many Indians have with the proceeds of their own labor purchased im-proved farru machinery and agricultural implements, and are making praiseworthy eflorts'to take their places among the independent agri culturists of the country. Taken altogether, an impartialview of the situation warrants the belief that some time in the near fht,ure it is fair to presume that, with the aid of such iudustrial, agricultural, and me-chanical schools as are now being carried an, the Indian will be able to care for bimself, and be no longer a burden but a help to the Gov-ernment. EXPENSE OF INDIAN SERVICE. I am not aware that any report from this office has ever shown just how much the Government contributes from the United Statex Treas-urx to feed and clothe the 200,000 Indians who are its wards, outside of the five civilized tribes. Thc public at large finds from the proceed-ings of Uongress and the public press that $5,000,000 in round numbers ha\-e been appropriated for the Indiau service, and this gives to each Indian $25, which, if true, would not enable any person, either white or Indian, to live very luxuriously, for it is a fraction less than 7 cents a day. |