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Show D XdO, REPORT OF I THE COMIIISSIONER OF INDIA.\' AFFAIRS. I r DEP.<RTQTENOTF THE INTERIOR, Ofice lirdian Afairs, Novemher 27, 1851. I SIR : The limits of a report of this description will admit only of a very general and summary view of the condition of our Indian affairs, and the -operations of this branch of the public service, during the last twelve months. For detailed information reference must be had to the documentsherewith, .consisting of the reports of superintendents,.agents, missionaries, and others, which contain a mass of facts and specnlat~onsc, u~iousi,n Ieresting, and im-portant. In the last annual report from this office, allusion was made to mutual .aggressions on the p t of the Sioux and Chippewas, attended by melan-choly incidents of Indian barbarity and folly. In despite of d l efforts to prevent it, similar occurrences have taken place within the last year, by which both tribes ha\-e suffered, more or less, from depredations upon their property, and in the murder of a nnmber of their men, women, and children. No treaty arrangements amoug themselves appear to be regarded, or are of sufficient force to preTent the deadly enmity which exists between the two tribes, from manifesting itself, as often as opportunity offers, in the most .shocking atrocities. With this exception, a gratifying degree of order has prevailed among all the tribes with whom we have defined and established relat~ons, and who hare felt the controlling influence of the Government in directing their purmits, and in themanagement of theiraffairs. Towards .our own citizens all have been peaceful and friendly. Most of them have readily yielded to the policy and measures of the Department for the im-provement of their condition; and such are the advances many of them have made in civilization, that flattering encourag.enlent is not only afforded for continued effort on the part of the Government, and its agents among them; but on the part, also, of benevolent Christian missionaries, who, with .commendable and self-sacrificing spirit, have been engaged in imparting to the various tribes the divine truths of Christianity. During the past summer treaties have been made with various bands of the Sioux Indians, by \vhich they cede a large and valuable extent of -country west of the M~ssi~sippriv er, in the Territory of Minnesota and State of Iowa. To the treaties themselves, and the report of the commis- .sioners on the part of the Government, by whom they were effected, you .are respectfully referred for detailed information concerning these important - - negotiations. I n view of the rapid spread of the white population in the State and Territory within which the lands acquired by these treaties are .situated; the growing discontent among the warlike Indians from whom they are obtained, embroiled, as the)- often are, in difficulties with the Chippewas, and threatening more and more the peace of the frontier in |