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Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 21 of the right of way through their country, and agreed to observe peace-ful relations with the whites, the United States stipulating to allow them a moderate annuity in goods and provisions, and to protect them from injury and acts of injustice by our people. The Indians, or por-tions of them, have, in several instances, violated their obligations under these treaties, and had to be chastised therefor; but, considering their wild habits, the straits to which they have been subjected by the increasing difficulty of procuring subsistence, and'the provocations given them by lawless persons passing through their country, their occasional bad conduct has not been a matter of much surprise. A crisis has now, however, arrived in our relations with them. Since the discovery of gold in the vicinity of "Pike's Peak," the emigration has immensely increased; the Indians have been driven from their local haunts and hunting grounds, and the game so far killed off or dis-persed, that it is now impossible for the Indians to obtain the necessary subsistence from that source. In fact, we have substantially taken possession of the country and deprived them of their accustomed means of support. These circumstances have been well calcnlated to alarm and exasperate them; but, by good management on the part of their agents, and assurances that the government would not let them suffer, they have thus far been kept quiet. They have also been brought to realize that a stern necessity is impending over them; that they cannot pursue their former mode of life, but must entirely change their habits, and, in fixed localities, look to the cultivation of the soil and the raising of stock for their future support. There is no alternative to providing for them in this manner but to exterminate them, which the dictates of justice and humanity alike forbid. They cannot remain as they are; for, if nothing is done for them, they must be subjected to starvation, or compelled to commence robbing and plundering for a subsistence. This will lead to hostilities and a costly Indian war, involving the loss of many lives, and the expenditure of a much larger amount of money than would be required to colonize them on reserva-tions, and to furnish them with the neoessary facilities and assistance to enable them to change their mode of life; which change of them-selves, and vithout such assistance, it is impossible for them to make. Good policy, as well as justice, requires that we shall thus provide for them; and the exigency of the case forbids any avoidable delay in the adoption of the necessary measures for the purpose. New treaties with them will be required; and I therefore, respectfully, recommend that Congress be requested to appropriate such an amount as may be necessary to defray the expense thereof. The reports of the condition of the Indians in U t ~ phr esent a melan-choly picture. The whites are in possession of most of the little com-paratively good country there is, and the game has become so scarce as no longer to afford the Indians an adequate subsistence. They are often reduced to the greatest straits, p?rticularly in the winter, which is severe in that region; and when it is no uncommon thing for them to perish of cold and hunger. Even at other seasons, numbers of them are compelled to sustain life by using for food reptiles, insects, grass seed, and roots. Several farms have been opened for their benefit in different localities, and many of them have nmnifestecl a disposition to |