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Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 5 PRESENT CONDITION OF CHEYENNES AND ARAPAHOES. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes are generally contented upon their new reservation. The schools, under care of the Friends, are gain-ing their confidence, and their condition has sufficiently improved during the last year to warrant the expectation of a satisfactory advancement in the future. THE OSAGES. The condition of the Osages is most unsatisfactory. On the representa-tions of the committee of the board, that the Government would pro-tect them in the proposed new reservation in the Indian Territory, they consented last year to remove. Nevertheless, there are many trespass-ers on the land to which they were removed. In addition, to this trouble, a new survey, which assumes to change the ninety- sixth parallel as here-tofore located, if correct, deprives them of the greater part of the tilla-ble land upon which they have settled, and already made valuable im-provements. The continuation of the trespasses on Indian lands, in. spite of the oft- repeated warning of the Government, seems to be the result of past failures to enforce the laws for the protection of the reser-vations. The squatters still believe that there is no real intention to interfere, and nothing but forcible ejection will undeceive them. The justice of your determination to enforce the laws and maintain the honor of the Government, by keeping its pledges to the Indians, can-not fail to be sustained by the people of the country. In the case of the Osages, the lands were bought with their own money, and the obligation to protect them has, if possible, additional force. If it be found that the new location of the ninety- sixth parallel is correct, it seems to us that the Government is bound in honor to compensate the Cherokees for the laud and leave the Osages in possession. THE APACHES OF NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA. The only other Indians who have caused any serious trouble are the Apaches of New Mexico and Arizona. In our last two annual reports we called attention to the situation of this tribe, their eager desire for peace, their starving condition, and the opinion of the Indian agents and Army officers, that, with means to feed and clothe them, they could be kept at peace. Unable to obtain an appropriation from Congress for the purpose, the Indian Department was powerless, and the Apaches were left to obtain food and raiment as they best could usually by stealing from the settlers or travelers on the highway. As many of their valleys, where they previously cultivated corn, were occupied by settlers, and their mountains overrun by gold-prospectors, who hunted their game, and no attempt had ever been made by trie Government, either by treaty or conference, to consider their rights or necessities, this conduct of the Apaches ought not to surprise us. At the urgent solicitation of the board, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, Congress, at its last session, made an appro-priation of seventy thousand dollars for the special purpose of correct-ing this evil, and this money becoming available on the 1st of last July, the Board, at its meeting in May, directed its Secretary to proceed to New Mexico and Arizona, to make arrangements to bring these roving Apache Indians upon suitable reservations, and to feed, clothe, and otherwise care for them. The hearty approval of the President, the in- |