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Show REPORT 01 THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. DEPARTMEoxN TTH E IXTERIOR, O$ce of hdian Affairs, Novem6er 26, 1862. . SIR : I- have the honor to submit my annual report for the current year. The details of the present condition of most of the Indian nations and tribes within our borders, their wants, prospects, and the advancement made by them in civilization, aa also of the operations of the vmious superintendents, agents, and employ6s located among them, may be learned from the accompanying papers. Having in my last annual report treated, adconsid&able length, of the loca-tion, condition, and wants of the various superintendencies, I shall, upon this occasion, confine myself chiefly to those which, in my judgment, demand spe-cial consideration. Another year hau hut served to strengthen my conviction that the policy, re-cently adopted, of confining the Indians to reservations, and, from time to time, as they are gradually taught and become accustomed to the idea of individual property, allotting to them lands to be held in severalty, is the best method yet devised for their reclamation and advancement in. civiliqation. The ssucesafd working of this policy is not, however, unattended with difficulties and embar-rassments, arising chiefly from the contact of the red and white racea. This is especially the ease in relation to Indians whose.reservations me located within , the limits of states. In verj many instances the resewation is entirely surrounded by white set-tlements, and however much the fact is to be regretted, it is, nevertheless, almost ' nvmiahly true that the tracts of land still remaining in tbe possession of the Indians, small and insignificant sn they are +hen compared with the broad do-m e of which they were once the undisputed masters. are the objects of the cupidity of their white neighbors ; they are regarded as intruders, and aremh-ject to wrongs, inaults, and petty annoyances, which, though they may be d i n g in detail, are, in the aggregate, exceedingly onerons and'hard to be borne. They find themselves in the pathway of a race they are wholly unable to stay, and on whose sense of justice they can alone rely for a redress of their real or |