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Show 32 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. APPENDIX A &. REPORT ON THE APACHE INDIANS OF ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO. BY VESTCEXT COLYER. This report; shows plainly that, according to the records of the Indian Department, the Apache Indians were the friends of the Americans when they first knew them ; that they have always desired peace with them, and when placed upon reservations in 1858 and 1859 were industrious, intelligent, and made rapid progress in the arts of civilization ; that their ill- will and constant war with the Mexicans arose from the fact that the Mexicans denied them any rights to the soil as original occupants, and waged a war of extermination against them ; that the peaceable relations of the Apa-ches with the Americans continued until the latter adopted the Mexican theory of " ex-termination," and by acts of inhuman treachery and cruelty made them our implacable foes : that this policy has resulted in a war which, in the " last ten years, has cost us a thousand lives and over forty millions of dollars, and the country is no quieter nor the Indians any nearer extermination than they were at the time of the Gadsden purchase ; that the present war will* cost the people of the United States between three and four millions of dollars this year ; that these Indians still beg for peace, and all of them can be placed on reservations and fed at an expense of less than half a million of dollars a year, without the loss of a life. On representing these facts to the President, Commissioner Colyer was directed to pro-dceed to New Mexico and Arizona, and there take such measures as he deemed wisest to locate these Apache Indians upon suitable reservations, feed, clothe, and otherwise care for them ; and the President instructed the War Department to co- operate with the commissioner. In obedience to these orders, he went to those. Territories, and in consultation with the officers of the Army, Indian agents, and the Apache chiefs, he selected suitable reservations in four localities, remote from settlements, invited the Indians to come in, and left them in charge of the Indian agents in New Mexico, and officers of the Army under General Crook, in Arizona. The Indians came in gladly in large numbers, and* at last advices over four thousand, being one- half of all the rov-ing Apaches, were living peaceably upon the reservations; that 110 depredations have been committed by any of these Indians since they came in ; and that before spring, if they are unmolested, and have sufficient food, he believes we shall have peace re-stored to these Territories; that Major Generals Sehofield, Stoneman, and other Army officers, reported that the Apaches, who came into the military posts last year paid for a large part of the rations issued to them by supplying hay and wood to the garrisons at much less cost to the Government than that paid to the contractors for the Army. The report further shows that the act of Captain Nelson, the Army officer in command at Camp Grant, in turning back the party of two hundred armed citizens, who imperi-ously demanded to cross the Indian reservation at that post, was necessary, saved the three hundred" Indians collected there from another bloody massacre, and the nation from a disgrace, and thanks Captain Nelson for it. The order countermanding the previous order of General Crook, of employing Apaches to fight Apaches, was made by the general himself, greatly to his honor. The commissioner traveled through the heart of the Apache country with an escort of fifteen men, and though the Indians came around them day and night in scores, frequently outnumbering them five to OHO, not an animal was disturbed or an article stolen. He was received with cordiality by General Granger, General Crook, and all the officers of the Army in New Mexico and Arizona, and that there was at no time any discord of action On his return to Wash-ington, the reservations selected by the commissioner, and the arrangements made by him for the protection and subsistence of the Indians upon them, under the care of the officers of the Army under General Crook, were approved by the President, the Sec-retary of the Interior, and directions given by, General Sherman for their permanency. Of the complaints made by officials and editors in Arizona, of a want of courtesy toward the white people, as well as of the numerous threats against his life, the vitu-peration and abuse of the press of Arizona and California, the commissioner takes but slight notice, as the business for which he was sent was accomplished, and he trusts for his vindication to time and the good results with which he believes God will prosper the work. REPORT. For the last fifteen years the records of the Indian Department show that the Apache Indians of New Mexico and Arizona have desired peace, and the agents of the Govern-ment have asked in vain that means might be supplied them to place these Indians on reservations and feed them. In 1857 M. Steck, the Apache Indian agent; for New Mexico, which then included Arizona, wrote : " In my last annual report I urged the |