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Show ~ 12 REPORT OF THE ~I efforts of the above-named officers, the policy of restricting them to , , .. small reservations, of dividing their lands among them in severalty, and providing them with comfortable abodes thereon, and of supplying them with stock, implements, and other means and facilities of adopt-ing agricultural pursuits, has been attended with the most gratifying results. They are rapidly putting aside their barbaric costume and ornaments, and adopting the dress, as well as the habits and pursuits, of civilized life. The plan devised by the superintendent and agent of a having them signify their determination 'to do this in an open and formal manner, by being shorn of their scalp-locks-the peculiar and distinctive badge of the savage warrior-and assuming the dress of the white man, is well calculated not only to confirm the transformation in those making the change, but also to have a powerful effect and influence upon their brethren to follow their example. It is stated that among those who have so changed are many of the chiefs and , numbers of the most influential men of the tribe; that two hundred men, with their families, making together seven hundred persons, have done so within the last year; that five hundred more are now preparing for it, and that the confident expectation is that, at the end of three years, the "Blanket Indians" will number less than did those who wore civilized two years since, before the new movement commenced. And it is most gratifying to know that the change is not confined to dress alone, but that it includes also the industrious habits by which civilization is made and maintained; that in aiding to procure the ma- . terial ffo their houses and improvements, and in the construction thereof, the cultivation of the soil, and in the management and care of their stock and implements, they evince a degree of energy, industry, and intelligence, which gives promise of the most hopeful results. It will, indeed, be remarkable if the great and hitherto unsolved problem of the civilization and regeneration of the "Red Man," shall be snc-cessfully worked out in the case of one of the wildest, most warlike, . and, as heretofore believed, most untamable portions of this singular race. These Indians are certainly deserving of every encouragement, and, as they need aid and assistance in their efforts to accomplish the great object of their civilization, their case is one which challenges the greatest liberality on the part of the government. And here it may not be improper to call attention to the questions submitted to the ' Senate for decision by the treaties negotiated with these Indians in June, 1856, and which were ratified on the 31st of March last, but , without any decision having been made upon those questions. By the tveaties of 1851, certain lands on both sides of the Minnesota river were reserved for their future honies. In acting upon those treaties, the Senate, by amendments thereto, rejected theprovisions for those reservations, allowed the Indians ten cents por acre for the lands ' embraced therein, and required such tracts of country as shouldbe sat-isfactory for their future occupancy and homes, to be ghen to them outside of the limits of the cessions made by the trestles, but with yower to the President to vary, with the consent of the Indians, the terms and conditions of said amendments as he might think proper. No location mas found or offered to the Indians outslde of the hmits of I |
