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Show I OOMMISSIOXER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 17 distribution, took possession of, and appropriated the goods among themselves. Occasions frequently arise in our intercourse with the Indians re-quiring the employment ef-force, ?lthou&. $he whites may be, and often are, the aggressors. The Indlan Bureauaould be relieved from embarrassment, and rendered more efficient, if, in such cases, the d e partment had the direct control of the means newmy ?a execute its own orders. A force better adapted to the Indian semce than sny now employed, could, it is believed, be readily organized. But csre ful attention and kind and humane treatment will, generally, have more influence upon the savage than bayonets and gunpowder. The wonderful growth of our distant possessions, and the rapid ex-pansion of our population in every direction, will render it necessary, at no distant day, to restrict the limits of all the Indlan tribes upon our frontiers, and cause them to he settled in fixed and permanent localities, thereafter not to be disturbed. The policy of removing Indian tribes from time to time, as the settlements approach their habitations and hunting-grounds, must be abandoned. The emigrants and settlers were formerly content to remain in the rear, and thrust the Indianu before them into the wilderness; but now the white popu-lation overleaps the reservations and homes of the Indians, and is beginning to inhabit the valleys and the mountains beyond: hence removal must cease, and the policy abandoned. Injury will not necessarily result to the Indian race from a change. By the opera-tions of the former system, some tribes have become extiyct; and the reduced numbers and enfeebled and demoralized condition of many of those who now rest upon the frontier, furnish unmistakable evidence of the effect of the system upon them. It is believed that by the pro-posed chaage, advantages will also result to the white -population, while the heavy drafts heretofore made on the national treasury for removing Indian tribes will be saved. Experience has proven the liw approved June 30, 1834, "to regu-late trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes. and to preserve on the frontier," to be inadequate to meet and diipose of all the varled questions and difficulties which frequently arise under, and grow out of, the existing state of our Indian relations. It does seem to me es-sential, in order to the proper administration by the government of its Indian affairs, that further and immediate legislation should be had on the subject. In New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Minnesota, the supervision of our Indian affairs is given to the territorial executive, who by law is made the superintendent; and in Oregon, Kansas, and Kebraska, the same is confided to an independent officer, denominated the super-intendent of Indian affairs. I am satisfied that the harmony and efficiency of the Indian service would be promoted by placing our In- &an affairs in the first, on the same footing in this respect that they now occupy in the last-named Territories. Of the various evils which beset our Iudiin population, there ie none more alarming than the traffic in ardent spirits. In spite of the laws of the government, the vigilsnee and exertions of its officers;and the efforts of the truly philanthropic, the evil still exists 2 |