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Show 4 EXTRACT. body, surrounded by a well-defined exterior boundary, constituting them a tribal reservation, over which the intercourse laws can be eu-forced, and those in which the individudl reservations are scattered among the white settlements, and subjected to the operation of the laws of the State or Territory in which they are situated. Our intercourse with those tribes with whom we have no treaties, except those in California, Utah, and New Mexico, who are under the control of agents, is limited to impressing upon them the necessity of maintaining.friend1y relations with the whites, and assuring them that acts of violence and rapine will be sure to draw upon them severe chastisement. This intercourse is had mainly through the medium of officers of the Army, stationed on the remote frontier, or engaged in exploring and surveying expeditions. With the exception of the Navajos and Snakes, these Indians have been at peace with us during the past year. Peace has also prevailed among the treaty Indians, with one con-spicuous exception. I refer to the Kioways, whose increasing turbu-lence would seem to render military operations advisable. The same may be said of the Yanctonnais and Cut-head bands of Sioux. Of those Indians, to whom reservations are secured by treaty, it is to be observed that those who hold their lands in common, and those who hold in severalty, but whose reservations are scattered about among the white settlements, have made, and are making little or no progress. There are of course exceptions, but they are few in number, and result from fortuitous circumstances. Experience has satisfied me that two conditions are indispensable to the success of any policy, looking beyond the mere immediate and temporary relief of the In-dians. If it is designed to effect a. radical change in their habit,~a, nd modes of life, and establish for them a permanent oil-ilizatiou, the ideas of separate, or rather private property, and isolation, must form the basis alike of our diplomacy and our legislation. Private property in the soil and its.products stimulates induetry by guarantying the undisturbed enjoyment of its fruits, and isolation is an effectual protection against the competition, the cunning, and the cor-rupting influences of the white man. This is not mere theory, it has the sanction of successful applicatiou in practice ; and notable examples may be cited-those of the Winnebagoes and Sissetou and Wahpeton Sioux, reclaimed in an incredibly short time by this policy, from the idleness, drunkenness, and degradation for which they were conspicuous And it is no valid objection to the force of the illustration to say that the same results have been produced among the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees, who still hold their lands as tenants in common. The tenure in common is but nominal with t,hose tribes; every member of them is protected in the undisturbed possession of the home he has made for himself in the common domain, and his right of property in his fields and the crops he raises on them is as sacredly respected as if he held them in fee and in severalty. Nowhere are the intercourse laws so rigidly enforced as among these tribes ; and it is to this and the practical recognition of the right of private property in the soil and its products that the great prosperity of these tribes is due. I am strengthened, then, in the convict,iou expressed in my last annual report, |
