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Show 2s. C OM~ S ~ I OWEOEF INDIAN AFFAIBS. . . bulls, 807 heifers; ~ o q u i1,5 bulls; Navajo, 25 bulls; Pine Ridge, 70 bulls, 250 heifers, 186 cows, 186mares; Pueblo day schools, 10 bulls; Rosebud, 45 bulk, 1,014 heifers, 356 mares; Shoshone, 50 bulls;' Standing Rock, 25 bulls, 530 heifers, 46 cows, 48 mares, 1,000 steers; Tongue River, 25 bulls; Uintah and Ouray, 12 bulls; Walapai, 10 bulls, 150 heifers; Blackfeet, 700 heifers. The purchase of 250 heifers and 25 bulls for Camp McDoweU is now pending, the superintend-ent having been instructed to procure bids: The following interview with, me was published in the cbikgo Herald and-other newspapers throughout the country immediately . ' after the shipment and sale of the Crow cattle mentioned: Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, has recently returned from Ohi-cago, where he supervised the sale of 34 carloads out of a shipment of 51 cars of Indlan cattle from the Crow Reservation, Mont., 17 carloads having been sold at Omaha the day before. The commissioner spent most of a day on horseback, riding among the cattle in the pens of the stockyards, discusding the cattle and prices With his commission man and the buyers. - Oommlssloner Sells is not only a lawyer and banker, but is also a real-thing farmer and stwkman. He knows the business fromevery angle. In a conver-satlon to-day with the newspaper men Commissioner Sells said: . "Two years ago last June, with funds derived from the sale of part of their lands, we purchased for the Crow Indians 7,000 2-year-old heifers, 2,000 yearling steers, and 350 hulls. Since then these cattle have been handled nuder my direc-tion and the immediate snpervision of Reservation Superintendent Estep and Soperintendent of Live Stock Willcutt, assisted by Indian stockmen and line riders. "Two hundred and ilfty-six head have heretofore been sold, but this sale was the flrst hlg shipment, when 51 carloads of Crow Indlan cattle reached the Omaha and Chicago stockyards and sold for $97,993.42. All of these steers were range raised and grass fed, not a pound of corn or feed other Fan grass snd bay ever havlng been fed to any of them., Including the increase of the herd, the profit of the Crow Indians on the original purchase in 27 months, after paying all expenses, has been $350,000. ' The flrst year after the purchase of these cattle, the lndians cut and stacked 5,000 tons of hay to winter their herd. - and last winter cut and stacked nearly 7,000 tons. The wlnter loss ,during each ' - of these two years has been about 2 per cent, which is considerably less than the loss usually sustained. by white cattlemen during the winters of. the Northwest. " Eeretofore'our conduct of the stock busiuess among the .Indians has con-si8ted largely of upbreeding and the development of herds. Everywhere the Indians have taken great interest in thelr stock, both as to tribal herds and those individually owned, and. the ipcrease in number and value has been such as to insure a busides8 man's proflt. We.have sold wool and mutton and some horses. but we are only now commencing b widely and substantially realize on their cattle. "These sales from the Crow Reservation are the beginning of large soles from this and other reservations. It is a demonstration of the wisdom of the polley of ntilizfng the grazing lands of the reservations for the benefit of the Indians and positive fndlcation of the responsive disposition of the Indians when given opportunity with sympathetic encouragement to do things for them- Selves. |
