| OCR Text |
Show 102 except the commissary, in which there was little, except flour, worth keeping from them. All were on short rations....2 As the Indians of the Agency related their woes to the new man, they wept. Critchlow did as well as possible in reassuring Tabby- To-Kwana and his people that he would represent the government well. The next in the long parade of complaints was that the agency had been "retrograding for the last year or two," (accurate) and that the reports of agriculture were falsified, especially the report of I869. He states: The fact is that this amount of tillable land and its vast products never existed on this agency, except on paper and in the fertile imagination of those who penned those reports. I feel compelled, in justice to myself and the men under my charge, to make this statement, inasmuch as my own report will, in comparison with these romances, appear at a great disadvantage-perfectly insipid. About 15 acres of new land have beeji brought under cultivation this year, and the whole amount cultivated by Indians and employes is estimated at 85 acres, a few acres of the old land being left out. I say estimated, for we have no means of accurately ascertaining the precise number of acres.3 The disgruntled Critchlow said that these were but part of the problems he faced. He needed more employees, housing, fences, cheaper freight, better roads, a saw mill, a flour mill, ditches and irrigation systems. He wanted schools and missionaries, a doctor, and money! He built one house and the department bought the saw mill- 2Ibid. , p. 96l. 3lbid. |
