OCR Text |
Show I EXTRACT FROZ THE REPORT OF ' carried into effect as soon as the then growing crop could be harvested (I This concession, instead of satisfying these Texans, only stimulated them to further outrages, and they peremptorily demanded the imme-diate removal of tlie Indians. When it became apparent that the reserve Indians lived in daily fear of being murdered, and that under such circumstances no crop could be raised, permission was given, at the urgent request of tlie superintendent, that the removal should be made at once. Threats were then made that the Indians should not depart unmolested, and it became necessary to invoke the aid of the army to protect them in their exodus. Their removal was finally effected; and they are now, to the number of 1,415, colonized in the country leased for the purpose from the Choctaws and Chickasaws. On the return of the superintendent to the State of Texas he was wantonly attacked and murdered. These Indians are now in a comparatively destitute condition, and to maintain them dnrine the current vear will reauire an enlareed I ., L u ap ropriation. &he transfer of the Texas reserve Indians to the southern superin-tendency renders a longer continuance of the Texas superintendency and agencies unnecessary. I therefore recommend that these offices be abolished. Immediately after the expiration of the last Congress several Indian treaties, previously negotiated, were ratified by the Senate at a called executive session. It was, of course, impossible to provide, in the appropriation bills for the ciirrent fiscal year, for the payment to the Indians of the amounts stipulated by the several treat,ies; yet, as the expenditure properly belongs to this year, it could not appropnately be snbmitted with the estimates for the next fiscal year. A special estimate will be prepared and submitted to Congress for an appropria-tion of $539,350 to fulfill the stipulation8 of these treaties; and as the treaties have been ratified, the obligation incnrred, and the faith of .the ' government pledged, it is hoped that early action upon it will be taken - - by Congress. - The management of our Indian affairs in California has been embar-rassed with a great variety of difficulties. Neither the government of the United States nor the State of California reco~nizesin the Indians any right of exclusive occupancy to any specific Lnds. Reservations have been provided by law; a large number of Indians has from time ' to time been collected upon them, and large sums of money have been expended to establish them, with the hope that the Indians would soon learn to support themselves by their own labor, and gradually become civilized. But those expectations have not been realized. Through the mismanagement and neglect of our employ&, the interference of . our citizens, and the apparent impossibility of inducing these Indians to Iabor thereon, the reservation system of California has proved a failure. Yet the government cannot relieve itself from all obligation to make some yovision for this destitytc population. The tribes o California &vide themselves into two general classes by their respective localities. Those living in southern California, having already made some progress in civilization under the Mexican mission system, are scattered in small bands, cnltlvate the soil, and |