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Show REPORT OF TEE COMMISSIONER. 21 Indian tribes, than any other of the many serious obstacles with which we have had to contend. As a principle, applicable with but occa-sional exceptions so long as an Indlan remaills in expectation of money from the government, it is next to impossible to induce him to take the first step towards civilization, which step is to settle himself in a. fixed habitation and commence the cultivation of the soil. However inade-quate the pittance he may be entitled to receive, he continues to look forward to it in the vague expectation of its wflicieucy; and lives on from year to year an idle and dependent being, and dies miserably as he had lived Whatever may be the extent of consideration allowed for lands hereafter ceded to the government by an undomesticated tribe, it should co~~slcshti efly of goods, subsistence, agicultural implements, and assistance, stock animals, and the means of' urental, moral, and industrial education and training. Let this principle be adopted with all the tribes, wherever located, to whom we have not set the pernicious precedent of payments in money, and thus freed from the injurious effects of money annuities, they will present a more favorable field for the efforts of the philanthropist and Christian. The present license system, by which, under the Intercourse act, trade is regulated among the Indian trihes, is defective ; and, as admin-istered for many gears, it has become an evil of magni~ude. The whole trade of the Indian tribes is throw11 into a few hands-a monop oly is built up, and an interest fostered, which from the very nature of things becomes formidable, and is liable to he wielded against the views and wishes of the government, and the true interest of the Indians. The conversion of the debts due by individual Indians to their traders into what is known or denominated as L(Sational Debts," and the a p propriation of the annuities fbr their pnyment, is unjust to all the Indi-ans who pa>- their obligations, and who are endeavorinz bl- ttheir own application and labor to sustain themselves, nnd is thefruitful source of corruption and fraud, and should meet with no fkvor from the officers of the government. There is no absolute necessity for the employment by Indian trihes of attorneys or agents to attend to their business at the seat of govern-ment. In the dependent condition of the Indians, it is the duty of the government, as their guardian, to cause a11 matters of a business chsr-acter with thetn to be so conducted as to preclude the necessity of the intervention of this class of persons. The act, approved June 30, 1634, <'to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian trihes, and to preserve peace on the frontier," requires important modification to make its provisions app1ic:lble to the existing condition of Indian relations. Nearly twenty :-?::IS Ilave elapsed since its adoption, and the consequent natural chances within this period ren-der it necessary that additional legislation shtiulcl be had to conform to the present and anticipated state of our 111dian :~ffairs. Defects are found to exist in several sections of the act which \vould render them inoperative in cases where the law is violitted. .% new code of regn-lations is greatly needed for this branch of the public service. That now in force was adopted many years since, and, in many particulars, has become obsolete or inapplicable, especially in our new and distant territories. The regulations now existing arc based upon laws in force |