OCR Text |
Show them means for encouraging these untutored and hitherto, wild and idle people in their desires and efforts for improvements, and not through parsimony, in a grudging benevolency scareclily meted out, cause them to revert to their former loathsome habits, with an increased stubborness indicisivness (sic) through having made an abortive step towards commendable advancement. The Government policy now briefly suggested is equally applicable to nearly all, if not to all, the tribes within my jurisdiction, in from what I can learn, notwithstanding their ignorant and degraded condition, and the want until within a few years, of the benefits and advantages to be derived from intercourse with an exemplary white population, their conduct has been far more commendable than that of many tribes who have received and are still receiving liberal appropriations. In this connection it may be amiss for me to state that nearly two years have elapsed since Congress appropriated our Fourty thousand dollars for the express purpose of making treaties, etc. with the indians in Utah, that their laws have been traversed by Government surveying parties now almost a year, and still not one dollar of that appropriation has yet been expended within this superintendency, and for aught I know is still fast in the coffers at Washington. Is this just? Has it any precedent in usage towards tribes in any other state or Territory? More especially when the relative conduct, facilities and advantages of the various tribes are taken into account. Dr. Hurt is still absent on his trip to Carson Valley and the neighboring regions, having gone by way of the Humboldt or Marys river. I have received no communication from him since his departure, but |