OCR Text |
Show 12 REPORT OF THE The Cheyennes, who reside higher up the Arkansas, have generally been regarded as quiet and peaceable Indians. They are good hunters, and furnish large quantities of robes and peltries. Recently they have been charged with being acceasary to the murders com-mitted on the Platte near Port Kearney, and to which I have referred you in connexion with the report of agent Twiss. It is said that the Comanches, Eioways, and Cheyennes, who annually assemble on the thoroughfares near the borders of New Mexico, hold in bondage many Mexican and some American citizens, and the agent is powerless to free them. Every year these Indians are becoming more insolent, and serious consequences may be apprehended unless some efficient and adequate mode be adopted by the government, to enforce among them, respect to its authority. It is expected that the classification and appraisement of the trust-lands of the confederated bands of Weas, &c., and the Ioways in Kan-sas Territory, will soon be completed, when these, with the balance of the Delaware trust lands, may be offered for sale. Within the bounds of the southern superintendency, the past year has been remarkable for peace among the different tribes. Homicides have decreased, and but few aggravated crimes have been committed. Except the Osages, who have experienced unusual mortality, and some sickness among the Cherokees, good health has prevailed. The tribes bordering on Kansas have been somewhat excited by the trou-bles existing within that Territory, but their fears and apprehensions are rapidly subsiding. The Osages practise polygamy, detest labor, and are decreasing in numbers. Some favorable changes are, nevertheless, seen among these Indians, attributable to the influence of the Osagemanual labor school, which is said to be very well conducted. Early in the summer their corn crop was much injured by an overflow of the lands under culti-vation. The crops of the Senecas, Senecas and Shawnees, and Qua-paws, although not much above a half yield, will produce sufficient to support them through the winter. The Cherokees continue'to improve, especially in agricnltural, which are greatly in advance of mechanical, pursuits among them. They also till manifest a commendable interest in education, but a fund on which they have heretofore relied to aid in supporting their schools is now exhausted, and nothing remains but the interest on an invested fund, which will not be sufficient to support their common schools and seminaries. I t is to be hoped that the council may be able to adopt some mode by which all their educational interests, so creditable to the Cherokees, may be fully and vigorously maintained. The sale of their "neutral land" to the United States, and the appropriation of the whole or a large portion of the proceeds for a school fund, the in-terest from which to be annually appropriated for school purposes, would give to them ample means, not; only to sustain their present schools and seminaries, but to enlarge them as the wants of the peo-ple require. Under the operation of the treaty of June 22, 1856, between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, important changes in the political condition of these tribes have taken place |