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Show 6 REPORT OK THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. fitructions of the Secretary of the Interior, and necessary orders from the Secretary of War having been obtained, the Secretary of the board visited Arizona and New Mexico. His offers of peace were received by the Apaches with great eagerness, several thousands of them immediately coming in upon the reservations selected for them, and la test ad vices show that the remainder will soon follow, if not deterred from doing so by improper influences. The action of the Secretary has met with your approval, and that of the Secretary of the Interior, and the orders issued from' the Inferior and War Departments, for the purpose of carrying fully into effect the proposed plan, are entirely in accord with the past and present' views of the Board of Indian commissioners. Similar instructions were issued by the Interior and War Departments in 1809, soon after the organization of the board, which defined the policy of the Government in the treatment of the Indians. This policy was set forth in the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1869, viz: " that they ( the Indians) should be secured in their legal rights; located when practicable on reservations ; assisted in agricultural pursuits and the arts of civilized life ; and that Indians who should fail or refuse to come in and locate in permanent abodes provided for them would be subject wholly to the control and supervision of military authorities, to be treated as friendly or hostile as circumstances might justify." The clearly defined allotment of their respective duties to the Indian agents and the military officers in the Indian country, can hardly fail to secure. harmony of action, and it is hoped that capable Christian agents may soon be appointed to represent the Department of the Interior upon the reservation. It is believed that the policy, if faithfully sustained and persisted in by the military and civil officers commanding in Arizona and New Mexico, will be successful, as it has been elsewhere. The attempt to defeat it by the arrest of Indians upon the reservation who have made peace, for acts alleged to have been committed in time of war, should be resisted, otherwise the act of the Government upon whose faith their surrender is made becomes one of mere treachery. From the time of the Gadsden purchase, when we came into possession of their country, until about ten years ago, the Apaches were the friends of the Americans. Much of the time since then, the attempt to exterminate them has been carried on, at a cost of from three to four millions of dollars per annum, with no appreciable progress made in accomplishing their extermination. But the activity of the military has accomplished its only legitimate and proper end, that of compelling in the Indians an earnest desire for peace. To persist in war under such circumstances would be not only barbarous in the extreme, but an inexcusable waste of the funds and re-sources of the Govern men!. It has been asserted that the Apaches are more savage and less to be trusted than other Indians. The agent of the Government who had charge of the Apaches in 1859, when they were at peace, said in his report of the White Mountain Coyoteros, numbering 2,500, and including Cochise's band, that u in all their intercourse with the Government, their deportment toward travelers and traders, they have shown themselves to be the most reliable of all the bands of the" Apaches.' 7 And of all the Apaches in regard to whom the assertion alluded to is now made, he said, " They cultivate the soil extensively, raise wheat, corn, beans, and pumpkins in abundance.' 7 Detailed account will be found in Commissioner Colyer's report on Arizona, A &. |
