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Show REPORT OF THE COMXISSL.)NER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles) number about 60,000, and comprise more than one-fifth of our entire Indian population. They are not ouly self-supporting and self-governing, but &re f111ly competent to regulate their o m domestic and international affairs. Each tribe or natiion has its executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government on the plan of the States, and their courts ha.ve exclusive jurisdiction when the parties are citizens of the nation. There isno court, however! where civil cases can be tried where one party only is an Indian, or where both parties are whites, and this renders it necessary in many cases that the agent act as arbitrator. A United States court should.l)e es-tablished with criminal jurisdiction only (as the treaty provides), at some convenient point in the Territory. During the year Tullehasse Mission andasbury school buildings were burned. They were large brickbuildi~lgsb elonging to the Creeks. Im-mediate arrangements were made, however, for the erection of a much 'larger building, in place of Tullehasse Xission, at, a cost of abont $25,000, and thesame will be completed during the present year. Ashury school will also be rebuilt at once. One of the most encouraging features con-nected with the civilized tribes is theincreased andincreasing interest which is taken in all cducatioud matters. These Indians are not retro-grading or going back into barbarism (as it is sonietimes contended they will), but are marching forward steadily and sturdily under the banner of progress into all the avenues of civilization, until now they stand allnost abreast of t.heir white neighbors around them, never considering any outlay too great when required to aid the great cause of edncation. In addition to the enlargement of their schools, agricultural interests are extended and herds increased, and their condition is better and their prospects brighter than that clf any other great number of our Ameri-can Indiana. All this is largely attributable to the fact that the In-dians of the Fivb Nations own and control the land up011 which they live-in fa&, have a title vested in the nations tantamount to a fee-simple- and thus feel an interest in the cultivation of the soil, and the consequent, advance of civilization, khich other Indians not so favor-ably mituated do not and, in the very nature of things, cannot feel. Upon the subject of intmders, Inspector pollock, in a recent report upon the condition of Unior~A gency, says: The greater portion of the ttoubles that ariaa her; 810 occasioned by whita intrud-ers, American oiti~eosw hom the United States by treaty axe obligated t.o,and shaold promptly, rannova from the Territory. . Theee iutrudsrs do not oome here beoause there ere no other unoootlpied lands. Millions of acres better thso this are to be found in our Western States and Territories against the settlement af which there is no inhibi-tion. They aome here from so inharent disposition to tmnsgrena, to evade the pay-ment of taxes, and to escape the restraints of law. To them Iudiao laws do not apply. By regulerly-enacted laws of the Five Natious their members are prohibited from oar-ryiug deadly wespoas, bnt these white intruders-pale-faced cut-throats, the terrors of the onontry-go armed tu the teeth coutinodly. The United States ahauld keel, tbeir own treu8,oresaiog oitisens oat of this Tsrritory, and should saoredly keep and perfortn every other ubligotiou entered into with these people. No excuse oan b g . mode currant for a failure to do this. |
