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Show 1 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. V r ating $150,000 was passed; but relief had been so long delared that, though the utmost expedition was used, supplies failed to reach the agencies until the Indians were in almost a starving couditiou, and until the apparent purpose of the Government to abandon them to star-vation at their agencies had induced large numbers to go north and join the hostile bands under Sitting Bull. In July last, through the failure of Co~~gretsos p ass the ann~iala p- 1)ropriation bill, supplies at several Sioux agencies again became nearly exhausted, and tt~ougha temporary appropriation of $150,000 was made, many Indians, rendered excited wid suspicio~~bys the war in the north, ;ibandoned their agencies to take part in hostilities. Congress still failing to pass the annual appropriatian bill, a similar emergency existed in August, which was again met by a temporary relief bill, but produced a, like efeot on the Iudians. The abore facts are not recited for the purpose, of criticism or fault-finding, but to vindicate thia bureau Trom the charge made at the time, that the deficiency in supplies was owing to inefficiencr and neglect on the part of the office. - My predecessor submitted, through theSecretaryof theInterior,toCoo-gress in December last, a full tlistorj- of t,he facts relative to the removal of the Pawnees from Nebraska to the I~idiauT erritory, and asked for a11 npprol)riation of $300,000 to defray the expense of said removal, and to establish the tribe in their new home; the same to be rei~abnrsedt o the Treasury from proceeds of the sale of their Nebraslcn reservation. The ' bill, however, rras not passed untii April; not until the attention of Congress had been repeatedly called to it, and not until hundreds of Pawnees had heen compelle(1 to abandon their agency, to live by beg-ging or stealiug in Southern Kansas. In numerous other instances, notrnithsta~~dintign e passage of several relief bills, the funds at the dis-posal of this ofice ha\-e been 80 limited as to make. it a matter of the ut-u~ os td ifficult^ to keep Indians from snfiring with hunger. The failure to pass tlre annual appropriation bill before the 15tl1 oE Angust last, bas made the duty of a arc ha sing sopplies and transl~orting them to theagencies unusually arduous. IGmediately on the passage of the act, ad\.ertisements for proposals for beef, flour, ant1 other sol). plies, and for transportation, Irere issued, to be opened in 8nirrt Louis on the Gth of September; aud for drs gootls, groceries, harclbvare, &c., to be opened in New Tork on tho 14tl1 of Septe~nber. In Saint Louis bids were opened in the presence of a committeeof t l ~ e I Board of Indian Cornu~issionersa nd of Col. L. 1'. Luokey, representing the Secretary of the Iuterior; in New York, in the preseuce of the Assistant Secretarr of the Interior and the f ~ ~Elola rtl of Indian Com- ~aissioners. A large i~umheorf proposals were received, and most of the awards, with the eucel)tiou of transportation and beef, were made oo terns more favorable to the Government than usual. Owing to the lateness of the season, transportation rates over sexr. era1 routes are higher than last Scar. Up the Missouri River, for instance, goods must be transported at a low stage of water, with a liability of the river closing with ice, thus increasing the distallee over \\.hich they must be hauled by wagon over roads impeded with snow. The increase in t l ~ ep rice of beef a t some points is due in part to tho lateness of the season, but more particularly to the greater stringency ill the terms of the coutruct ns to the quality of the beef to be receired. |
