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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. LXI troth of whioll is established by my own observation and by a report of an officer of the United Stites Army who has lately made an extended expedition over the reserve. My Indians are already coming in every day complaining of hunger, but I can feed them very little aa the -,inter will soon be here when they must be fed or they will starve and commit depredatioue. To divide the aupplieu of flour and beef furnished for the par, viz, 100,000 pounds of the former and 180,000 pounds of the latter, into fiftr-two oarta would allow but about one aonnd of flour and two pounds of beef. gross, per week to each person. While there mas plenty of game this could be made to do, but now I am confronted with a problem which it is almost impossible for me to solve; and unlesa some assihtnnee ia rendered in time, I fear the question of whether it is cheaper to feed or to figbt Indians will have another test,. If the Government rapeets ever to make this people self-snstaiuiug, it Innst furnish meaun to ntort them in the right way, vie: by supplyiug their wants for thn present, and assisting them, 1,y irrigntion, &.a,, to live by fammiug in the near future. Eflorts hare been made ro establish agency herds for these Indians, but wit11 very poor success, as they cannot be prevented from killing the cattle when driveu to do so by hnnger. In view of the foregoing, I would recommend that theearly attention of Congress be called to the condition of the Indians at the three agen-cies mentioned, that such steps as may be considered proper and neces-sary towards assistingthem may be t:~kenata searly adayaspracticable. CROW INDIANS OF MONTANA. By the agreement entered into with the United States June 12,1880, ratified by act of Congress April 11, 1882 (Pamph. Stat. at Large, 1881-'83, page 42), theCrow Indians, for certainvaluable considera.tions, ceded to the United States 2,427 square miles, or 1,553,280 acres, of the western portion of the reser~ation set apart for them by t,he treaty of May 7, 1868, leaving the present existing reservation of 7,364 squa,re miles, or 4,713,000 acres, intact for their use and occupation. The act of Congress referred to provided for a survey of the reduced reserva-tion and for the allotment in severalty to the Crow Indians of lands thereon. The population of the Crows is estimated at about 3,500. Prom the best information obtainable much of the land included within the present reservation i~ unfit for farming purposes, and it is believed thi~t a further reduction coulrl be made on the west and nort,h sides thereof with adrantage to the Government an11 without serions detriment to the Indians. I hare not sufficient data before me to suggest any de6- nite boundaries; but if sufficient farming and grazing land uan be obtained to satisfy the purposes of said act within a tract of country, in oompaet form, watered by t,he Big Horn and its tribntaries'belo\r 17'ort Ouster, I should be disposed to recommend the consolidation of the Indians thereon and the opening up of the reuidue to public settlemect, subject, of course, to proper negotiatio~~wsi th the Crows nuder the authority of Congress. Bobses are now being contructed in the valleys of the Big Horn and Little Big Horn for the use of these Indians, with a view of removing the agency and the Indians to these localities. |