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Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 13 During the past spring and summer, additional purchases and remittances have been made, with the expectation that the negotia-tions with all the tribes in the two Territories named will be fully completed and closed in time to lay the results before the Senate during the coming session of Congress, should such be the decision of the ~yesidenti n regard to them. - Immediately after the close of the session of 1853-'54, the governors of New Mexico and Utah were called on to report in relation to the characteristics and condition of the several Indian tribes within their respective jurisdictions, to designate the locations of their homes or haunts, and furnish a description of the regions inhabited or claimed bv each tribe. and lists of articles which would be desirable or nLcessary for presents to them. A reply was not received from the governor of Utah until almost a year had elapsed, (July 27, 1855,) when he stated that the report then sent had been twice forwarded before. It bore date October 30, 1854. Owing to these facts, and to the unsettled condition of the govern-mental affairs of that Territory, nothing further has yet been done in regard to negotiations with the Indian tribes there. On consideration of the response received from the governor of New Mexico,. authority was delegated to him early last spring to treat with the tribes of his superintendency. The general instructions transmitted to him were somewhat similar to those given to the officers charged with the like duty in Oregon and Washington Territories. The reports of his progress and prospects, in the execu-tion of this trust, which have reached this office, are flattering, and gi!e rise to the hope that the time is near at hand when difficulties with the tribes in New Mexico, and the outrages and depredations committed by them, will cease. Articles have been received at the department for its consideration and the action of the President and Senate, if approved, which have been entered into by Governor Meriwether, on behalf of the United States, with four several tribes or bands of Indians; and notice haa been received of the conclusion of Conventions with other bands, and the documents, it is underskood; are on their way here. Of the appropriation for presents to the Pueblo Indians, the sum of $5,000 was placed at the dlsposal of the governor last spring for the purchase of implements at his discretion. I The legislative assembly of the Territory of New Mexico has consti-tuted the several pueblos of what is termed the Pueblo Indians into bodies corporate and politic, with power to sue and be sued. The governor represents these Indians as too ignorant to be invested with this power, and states that interested persons stir up litigation between the different pueblos, and between then and the Nexican population. More than twenty lawsuits are now pending between the Pueblos of Acoma and Laguna, in which it is apprehended that the claims of lawyers and officers, for fees, will, by the time the cases are disposed of, be sufficient to cover all that these two pueblos are worth. It is recommended by the governor, for reasons that appear |