OCR Text |
Show Extract from the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior to Con-gress, of D d e r 1,1859. INDIAN APPAIRS. Our relations with the various tribes of Indians within our limits have continued during the past year in a satisfactory condition, and peace has been generally maintained with this dependent people. Occasional outbreaks have occurred, it is true, and crimes and out-rages have been committed; but these have been perpetrated by bands of desperate outlaws, and in no case has a whole nation avowed the purpose of making open and deliberate war upon our settlements. The attacks upon isolated mail and trading stations and emigrant trains have never, even when resulting in murder and pillage, shown signs of premeditation, or appeared to be the working out of a general and preconcerted plan. And when all the circnmstances are taken into consideration ; the immense number of our people who are con-stantly traversin the prairies of the interior; their careless, unguarded, and often provofing bearing; the natural irritation of the Indians, who attribute to their presence the rapid diminution of game, and the consequent hunger and want to which they are subjected ; the impos-sibility of restraining them from violence, under these circumstances, except by the presence of an armed force; and the numerical weak-ness and scattered condition of our army, the wonder is, not that so many, but so few cases of violence have occurred. I regret to be obliged to add to this that reports and other official documents sub-mitted to the department furnish sufficient evidence to justify the belief that the most atrocious cases of murder and rapine, charged to the account of the Indians, have in reality been committed by white men wearing the disguise of Indians. It cannot be doubted that the horrible massacres which have occurred during the past year on the routes leading through Utah Territory have been planned and directed, if not actually executed, by our own citizens. Still, though the offi-cers of the army have at all times shown the most commendable vigi-lance and promptness, the facilities for escape are so great that con-dign punishment seldom overtalres the guilty perpetrators. The average annual expenditure on Indian account, including the interest on stocks held in trust for the several tribes, and on sums which, by treaty provisions, it was stipulated should be invested, but which have remained in the treasury of the United States, is $3,055,270 08. The amount of stock held in trust for Indian tribes by the Deparb meut of the Interior is $3,449,241 82, and the net annual interest thereon is $202,002 89. T6e present liabilities of the United States to Indian tribes, funding at five per cent. the perpetual annuities secured to some of them by treaty, and also the annuities paydble during the pleasme of Congress, |