OCR Text |
Show 6 REPORT OB THE partial and temporary continuance is necessary in the execution of some of the provisions of the treaty; and they will soon no longer be known as an Indian tribe. The mass of the Shawnees are not as far advanced in improvement as the Wyandotts; and some of the principal men have held, in for-mer years, such relations of intimacy and confidence with unprinci-pled white men, as to render it very difficult now to exercise a salutary control over them. They have very large money annuities, and their lands soon to be assigned them will be valuable. Their position is exposed and their condition critical ; and it is of the first importance that their leading men be of high integrity. It is to be feared from recent indications that some of them are still under the influences re-ferred to. and if so thev are verv unsafe "w ardians of the ri'c, hts and interests bf the ~ndians." The Pottowatomies and Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi, thq.ugh greatly diminished in numbers, are the two most populous of the em-igrated tribes, on the frontier, within the central superintendency. They have for many years been in the receipt of large annuities, and li'oeral provision has been made for their welfare and advancement; hut I regret to say (with the exception of some of the Pottowatomies, and a recent commendable act of the Sac and Fox council to suuuress intemperance) they present no evidences of material improvement. The pernicious and corrupting effects of their money annuities, which have afforded them the means of indulging in profligacy and vice, and enabled them to live the greater portion of their time without exertion, and the frequent removals from one locality to another, have crippled and counteracted the efforts made to domesticate and civilize them. They demonstrate in a striking manner the three gr~a! evils which have atte$ed our Indian policy-large money an-nuities ; excessive quantities of land held in common ; and continued changes of location in advance of our frontier population. We can hope for no material alteration for the better in their condition and prospects, until they shall have been concentrated upon reservations of limited extent, and provision made for the division of the land among them in severalty, as fast as this can be safely and prudently effected. New treaties with them are necessary for the accomplish-ment of these objects. A number of the chiefs and other leading men among the Potto-watomies are, from their long contact and association with corrupt influences, very reckless and dishonest men. They have been wielded and controlled by such influences for many years, to the manifest de-struction of their own morals and integrity, and the great injury of the Indians. To save the Pottowatomies from the injurious and evil effects of these influences, it may be necessary for the government to resort to an extreme measure, and to cause such chiefs as will not sever their association with unprincipled white men to be deposed. Buch steps may also be necessary with the head men of some other tribes in Kansas territory and elsewhere. The moral as well as physical condition of confederated bands of Kaskaskias and Peorias, Weas and Piankeshaws, and the Miamies, constituting the Osage river agency, has improved within the last |