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Show 14 REPORT OF THE From the report of the agent of the Omahas, I learn that their agricultural labors of the present season have been eminently successfnl. Their crops are large and they have an abundance of every description of produce to meet their wants during the coming winter. They have this season mde a wmmenee-ment in the culture of sorgum, from which it is anticipated they will soon be able to supply themselves with sugar and molasses. Although the tribe num-bers less than a thousand souls, they have, inaddition to a thousand acres fenced for pasture, six hundred and seventy acres of land under cultivation. They have adopted a regular code of laws, established an internal police, composed of their own numbers, and are evidently making rapid advances in the manners and customs of civilization. The recommendation of their agent that a competent person should be em-ployed to teach them the art of making baskets, for which they have materials in abundance, is timely, and if adopted will doubtless be of great practical util-ity. Much of the progress observable in the condition of this tribe, is attribu-table to their intelligent and exemplary chief, La Flesche, and to the excellent school in their midst. I am happy to state that their loyalty is unquestionable. In the last annual report of my predecessor, apprehensions were expressed that the wide-spread drought of fast year over the central and southern super-intendencies would involve many of the Indian tribes in want and suffering, and the intervention of Congress was invoked in their behalf. To the appeal thus made Congress replied by making an appropriation of $50,000 as a gratuity to the suffering and destitute Indians. Two persons were appointed $heif s e ~ i c ebse ing paid for out of the fund appropriated) to make a proper ~s tnbut~oonf this donation. One of them was despatched to the Osage river and Neosho agencies, and the other to tribes in Kansas and Nebraska. :None of the tribes south of the Neosho agency were included amongst the ben-cficiaries of the fund, since it appeared to the department that they were in cir-cumstances competent to provide for the wants o f m r own poor. Relief mas therefore confined exclusively to those Indians whose needs were most pressing, and the horrors of famine were thereby averted from many of the tribes, amongst whom may be mentioned the Osages, the Qnapaws, Senecas and Shaw-nees. The famine pressed most heavily upon the Kickapoos, driving the poor to subsist for a period on the small game they could pick up on the prairies, and those who were better off, to sell their cattle and horses to purchase the means of subsistence. The relief furnished by the government was most opportune in point of time, and was received by the Indians with unfeigned thankfulness. This year they have bountiful crops, which, with their Fall annuities, will amply supply all their neccssities. The agricultural exertions of these people have met with a success highly gratifying, and each year's experience serves to stim-ulate them to yet further enterprise. Their efforts at raising wheat having been satisfactory, the agent has purchased for them one hundred bushels of Fall whcat for seed. The tribe numbers in men, women and children three hundred and fifty souls, and own an aggregate of property worth forty thousand dollars, or an average of four hundred dollars to each male adult. A ffihool has been started amongst them, but it is as yet but poorly attended. Several southern Kickapoos, who have been leading a wandering life in the southern part of the Indian territory, have returned to their brethren in Kansas, and profess a dispo-sition to engage in agricultural pursuits. Of the gross sum appropriated by Congress for the relief of indigent Indians 826,051 66 have been expended, leaving $23,948 34 to the credit of the appro-priation, subject to such application as circumstances may warrant and require. It was not deemed ex~edieit~ot i nvest the whole amount at once, but to expend it as cases of meritorious character should be presented to the depa.mwt. - The northern superintendency comprises a large extent of country, and its |