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Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. xxxiii test and brief, together with attidavits to sustain the claim, have been laid before the Department. In this connection, I would suggest that action should be taken by Congress to confine the bepefits arising under Indian treaties to those justly entitled thereto, by excluding from participation therein whites hereafter enrolled as Indians by adoption and also the descendants of whites and Indians beyond a certain degree. INDIAN CENSUS. Section 9 of the Indian appropriation act of 1884 is as follows: SEC. 9. That hereafter esoh Indian agent he required, in his annnal report, to sub-mit a, census of the Indiana of his ageuoy, or upon the reservation nnder his charge, the number of male8 above eighteen year# of age, the number of females above four-teen yeam ofage, the nomberofsohool children betreen the ages of six and sixteen years, the number of sohool-hooses at his agency, the number of schoolsinoperation, , and the attendance at each, and the names of teachers employed end salaries paid such teaohem. Under this provision of law the Indian agents make returns of the whole number of Indians on theirrespective reservations, giving also th'e details specified in the law; but it is believed that at almost all the large agencies, except those at which rations are reg~ilarlyis sued, the lists, although they serve to give an idea of the Indian population, are not I accurate. Moreover no statement of the number of Indians living off reservations is required; therefore the agents' reports do not give a state-ment of the entire Indiau population of the United States. But theagents can not be blamed for inaccuracies in their census returns, for the rea-son that no special means have been provided for taking the census. In the last annual report of this Bureau, Commissioner Atkins said: I am of the opinion that Cangreas, when' framing this law, oould not have fully oomprehended the magnitude of the extra labor imposed on the agent and the em-ploy68 at many &genoies. When it is considered that many reservations oover lsrge traots of oountry, that the Indians, es'pecislly those engaged in farming, are often laosted at great diatsnoes, say from 30 to 50 miles in different directions from the agenay, and that thoae who ere not farmiugraam from place to place; that to obtain s oqrrect enumeration, giving ages, family relation+ eto., they muat he seen by aome one intelligent enough to be able to write, and that generally the preeenoe of en in-terpreter is required; that often there is no road to the house or tepee, or one elmost im~asaable.a nd that there is nothin-e to induce the Indian to visit the aeeno-v with tho was nfmakilif a yearly eell8U8 mar be c~njactored, st if maoj ofrllorerurorilru ro a grsar uxterrt uursliable estimatea compiled from such information as csn be pioked up by tlie polioe or other employ& from whatever sonroe msg be available. From this statement it will be observed that no correct Indian census can he taken unless provision shall be made by which the agents will be enabled to employ extra force to do the work. The census returns for the last fiscal year show an increase iu popu-lation of nearly lis per cent. 1'798-IND X 8 i i i |